#Joint Research Centre

[science70]

Joint Research Centre (JRC) solar energy research, European Solar Test Installation, Ispra, Italy, 1978.

[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! ❤️

[snadom]

Dragon Injury Reference

[More like speculation than ‘reference,’ but i did research for this. I always recommend doing your own research, too]

WINGS [Specifically webbed/bat wings] - Wings are FULL of blood vessels, and will probably bleed a surprising amount if cut or punctured. These sorts of injuries heal can without much treatment, even if a large amount of the wing membrane is missing - Fractures of the wing should be splinted, and put into a wing wrap/sling - A dragon missing a wing wouldn’t be able to fly again, except with an extremely advanced prosthetic. Lots of small movements. Also having to get used to the weight difference -An aesthetic prosthetic could still be used to combat lopsided-ness, but would be bigger and more unwieldy than other sorts of prosthetics

MISSING LIMBS - A three-legged dragon would be able to walk and run normally, once they get used to the shifted centre of mass and balancing on only three legs - Arthritis IS more common because of the extra pressure on the remaining joints. Would be worse for heavier dragons - Wings could probably be used to balance/support body, if they’re large enough to touch the ground - Missing just the tip of the tail probably wouldn’t affect much, but larger portions WOULD as that’s a lot of body mass to suddenly lose - Tails also help with balance when running and steering when flying, so a dragon might trouble getting used to the difference

HORNS - Horns are have a core of bone covered with a sheath of keratin, and never shed. They are difference from antlers, which are pure bone and do shed. - The tip of a horn is solid keratin, and will not bleed. Could be sanded or filed down for aesthetic purposes, but otherwise not a big concern - Closer to the base WILL bleed, and should be treated accordingly. - Horns will regrow over several months or a year, but closer to the base they may not regrow at all. Deformation upon regrowing is also common

MISC - Some reptiles can get Metabolic Bone Disease [MBD] from lack of sunlight/uvb.  This causes the bones to weaken, which increases the likelihood of fractures and can make the legs/tail/spine crooked, among other things. In WoF specifically, I head-canon Rainwings, Leafwings, and Sandwings are susceptible to this. - Scales over a healed injury may be smaller and irregular. Also takes a little bit for the scales to grow back in the first place - running out of juice for this but. something something infection of whatever organ produces fire/breath weapon. Think that’d be neat.

[flurrys-creativity]

Night dive

Pairing: Han Jisung (Stray Kids) x Fem!Reader; Genre: Fantasy, kinda mermaid/hybrid, SMUT; Rating: nsfw, 18+, MDNI; Warnings: jet lag, walking off alone, being observed, hybrid/mermaid jisung, night diving, nudity, TENTACLES, this is tentacle porn, unprotected sex, double penetration, anal (f receiving), sucking, kinda oral (m receiving), breast and nipple play, multiple orgasms, sense deprivation, crying, overstimulation, mating and breeding, slight impregnation kink, mentions of blue ringed octopi and them being deadly, uncertainty of returning home, reader blacking out; Wordcount: 3.098; Event: Where the Shoreline meets the Sea by the Cult of Dionysus Network

Summary: Avoiding the heat of the day you leave the vacation house during the evening, searching for a secluded spot. Soon enough you realise that spot wasn’t as secluded as you thought. During a night dive you were about to discover all kinds of things.

A/N: First of all, I google street viewed half of Jeju island and it’s fucking beautiful. Second of all, researching blue ringed octopi mating rituals was a wild ride and turned this into the tentacle porn it is... have fun... and please tell me what you think!

The second you stepped out of the plane you knew the weather would be too hot during the day for you. Of course you wanted to have fun during the holiday trip with your friends but there was no way you would survive this heat.

Your group of friends rented a beautiful house on Jeju island for the time being of your stay. You walked into the spacious centre of the house, seeing a kitchen area to your left and further in a large table for all of you to sit at. To your right you saw a living room area with a couch.

There were doors leading away from the centre but you simply walked to the couch with your stuff and plopped down. You heaved a sigh, feeling the heat and jet lag doing their toll on you already. “I’ll pick whatever bed is left”, you murmured and laid down on the couch, closing your eyes within seconds.

You woke up hours later, groggy and disoriented. Yawning heartily, you looked around and noticed none of your friends were in the main space. You stretched on the couch, hearing a few joints crack, and rubbed over your face. “Curse of the couch”, you murmured and stood up.

You lazily wandered around the house, checking in on your friends, who stayed in their rooms, and searching for the last free bed. Once you found it, you got your bags and basically threw them on the mattress.

For today - the arrival day - you hadn’t planned any group activities. Most of you simply wanted to get to the house and then check out the near surroundings or unpack.

You scratched the back of your head, contemplating whether you should unpack your things now - so you wouldn’t have to do it later on - or if you should ask one of your friends to join you on a short tour around the area. 

Through the open window of your room you heard the ocean waves crashing against the shoreline and you knew immediately the decision was made.

As if the water called for you, you wandered outside - completely forgetting to ask one of your friends to join you. A fresh breeze encompassed your body, filling your senses with the salty air. 

You knew a little further away from the house was an actual sand beach, which was quite rare on Jeju since the volcanic based island had more rocky shores than sandy beaches.

Despite the sun setting already, you assumed quite the traffic down at the beach and somehow you felt like avoiding civilization at the moment. Therefore you walked around the house, searching for a direct path towards the ocean. Between some bushes you discovered an opening and after one last look over your shoulder, you followed the path.

It didn’t take long until you arrived at the rocky shore. You inhaled a deep breath, closing your eyes shortly and taking in your surroundings with your senses. Thanks to the setting sun it wasn’t as hot anymore and with the fresh breeze it even felt slightly cool on your skin. Small droplets of salt water landed on your body and you opened your eyes again.

The last sun rays glistened on the surface of the ocean, hiding the reefs underneath it. You knew that just a few metres into the water was enough for the depth to drop massively. The rocks and carved in holes were perfect conditions for the most colourful reefs and a wonderful home for dozens of sea creatures.

You noticed a large, flat rock close to the border of the water. Using the remaining sunlight you jumped and climbed towards it, making sure you wouldn’t fall down and hurt yourself. With a soft sigh you landed on the rock and turned around your own axis. 

The place appeared to be quite secluded and with a small smile on your lips you sat down on the rock. You leaned back on your hands and closed your eyes again, feeling how your whole body and mind started to relax. 

You never imagined a rock being that comfortable but you were able to stay there for hours on end. 

A splash in the water caught your attention and you sat up straight again. You slowly turned your head and looked around, scanning the surface of the ocean. You could feel the eyes of someone on your form but you struggled locating where it came from. 

You caught a movement from the corner of your eye and your head immediately snapped into that direction. 

A head broke through the ocean surface, droplets of water running down the dark blue hair. Ever so slowly the person turned around and bright blue eyes caught yours. With one hand he brushed his wet hair out of his face and moved closer to the rocky shore, half hiding behind some rocks.

You crossed your legs and tilted your head, curious as to where the young man came from. Hesitantly you raised one hand and waved it gently as a greeting.

He stared at your hand and then looked down at his own, slowly raising it.

You smiled and turned on the rock to face him properly but that sudden movement seemed to scare him. His eyes widened and you thought even the colour of his hair brightened before he dove back down again.

“No”, you called out, raising one hand as if you wanted to pull him back. You bit on your lower lip and dropped your hand again, eyes wandering over the area he vanished at. 

You stayed a moment longer, hoping he would come back but after a while you realised it wouldn’t happen again. With a defeated sigh you pushed yourself up and climbed back over the rocks. Once again you looked over your shoulder, silently praying to see him again, before you walked back through the bushes and towards the house.

You still couldn’t wrap your mind around the meeting you had and laid awake in your bed through half of the night - which might come from your extended nap earlier too. You also weren’t sure if you should bring it up with your friends or keep it to yourself.

The following days - after the activities with your friends - you returned to the rock during the early evening. You stayed in the same position for hours and silently waited. Even though you couldn’t be sure he would actually come back.

You sighed and removed your shoes, scooting to the edge of the rock and dipping your feet into the cool water. It has been three days already and you slowly lost your hope of meeting him again. You leaned back on your hands and closed your eyes.

The cool water caressed your feet and calves while the sea breeze played around your upper form. Your mind drifted into daydreaming as your body started to relax again.

When you heard a splash again you thought it was part of your imagination. Even the soft touches along your leg felt like they were part of your mind games.

“Your skin is… soft”, a gentle voice disrupted your thoughts.

You flinched and opened your eyes again, noticing the same blue mop of hair floating over the water level.

He had some distance between the both of you once more, eyeing you warily. The sudden movement had him on edge, brightening his blue hair.

You blinked several times in fascination, staring at the almost pulsating colour. You’ve never seen something like this before and it dawned on you - something you should have assumed earlier on - that he wasn’t really human.

He slowly came closer again, the iridescent blue toning down once more. He eyed you intently, seeming just as curious as you.

You introduced yourself and hesitantly waved with your hand again, smiling when his eyes landed on your hand like the last time.

“Jisung.”

You repeated his name, liking the way it felt when you said it. “Do you live around here?” You let your gaze wander around the area, struggling to make out any details with the sun having vanished behind the horizon. 

“Sort of.” Jisung swam closer and placed his hands on the rock next to you. “I could show you.” He looked at you almost nervously, his eyes darting towards the open ocean.

You slowly scooted closer to the edge of the rock. The curiosity got the best of you and you let your gaze wander down his body.

Despite the increasing darkness you easily saw his naked upper body but instead of legs you discovered tentacles. The warm yellow-brownish colour was littered with blue rings and dark spots.

Jisung dipped deeper into the water, suddenly feeling conscious about his form. He never approached a human before but his species was incredibly rare, making him lonely. When he noticed you didn’t react negatively to his form but had a spark in your eyes, he became more confident. 

You bit on your lower lip when Jisung caressed your leg with one of his tentacles, letting it slither along your calf and further up towards your bare thigh. The suction cups of his tentacle gently sucked on your skin, teasing you even more.

“I’d like to see your home, yeah”, you breathed out, a shiver running through your whole body. 

“It’s underwater though.” Jisung caught your eyes for a moment before he let his gaze wander over your clothes.

You nodded and started unbuttoning your top as if in trance. Your subconscious questioned you whether you should feel embarrassed about undressing in front of a stranger but something about him made you ignore that fact. 

With a few movements you had undressed completely, placing all your clothes next to your shoes. You pressed your lips together and carefully slid into water, inhaling sharply when the cool liquid surrounded you.

“Take a deep breath”, Jisung instructed you, grabbing your hand and pulling you further out to the open ocean.

Once again you nodded and inhaled deeply, letting yourself be pulled underwater by Jisung. At first you had your eyes pressed shut, the dark engulfing you completely. A small tug from Jisung made you open your eyes. 

Even though you two were under water during the night you could perfectly see Jisung and his broad smile. He brushed over more anemones, which suddenly illuminated the darkness. 

You looked around in wonder, nearly gasping in awe if it weren’t for the fact you were under water and had to hold your breath. Dozens of colours shone brightly around you, showing you the wonderful reef surrounding you two. 

Jisung pulled you further along the reef, brushing over anemones on his way to keep your path lighted. Every now and then he looked over his shoulder to check on you, smiling softly whenever he caught your eyes.

You watched him closely, even forgetting about your surroundings. His tentacles spread and closed over and over again to push himself forward, moving him through the water like it was nothing.

Jisung stopped in front of a carved stone, which was covered with anemones and corals. The shell of an incredibly large clam leaned against the stone wall. Jisung moved it aside and showed you his little home. It wasn’t much but thanks to the shell he had a safe space to live in.

You swam closer to the wall and shell, brushing over the surface with your fingertips. You never imagined it to be that smooth. A smile played over your lips as you turned towards Jisung.

He came closer to you as well, looking at you intently. His tentacle caressed your bare skin, lighting up your desire. Your lungs burned for air, yet you couldn’t bring yourself to tell Jisung to stop. You wanted him to continue, wanted to feel his touch and the suction of his tentacles on your skin.

Thankfully Jisung remembered your need for air and swam back to the surface of the ocean. As you broke through the water, Jisung’s hands on your hips pushing you even further into the air, you inhaled greedily the oxygen. 

You automatically placed your hands on his shoulders when he lowered your form back into the water. Only everything from your shoulders upwards stayed above the surface level.

“You good?”

Even though you still greedily gasped for air you nodded at him. Your hands drew lines on his skin and once your breathing finally calmed down, you were able to focus more on Jisung again. You brushed his dark blue hair out of his face, transfixed with his eyes on you.

Jisung’s hold on your hips tightened and he pulled you closer against himself. His tentacles, those he didn’t need to keep both of you afloat, started caressing your skin again.

With the star- and moonlight you could see his blown out pupils, noticing he was just as aroused as yourself. A moan escaped your lips when you felt one of his tentacles slither closer to your core.

Jisung breathed heavily, wrapping one of his tentacles around your ankle. He had been watching you every night you came to the shore, had been observing your every movement and he realised quickly he wanted to mate with you.

His tentacles slithered along your body, sucking on your skin and teasing you in the process. Two of them moved up to your breasts, wrapping themselves around your tits with the cups sucking to your skin. The tips of his tentacles circled around your nipples, making you squirm in pleasure.

Jisung used another tentacle to wrap it around your hip, having now his hands free to cup your face and pull you in for a kiss.

The tentacle around your ankle moved to your thighs, rubbing itself between them. You instinctively pushed your legs together, crying out in pleasure, but obstructing Jisung’s way to handle you.

He snarled and hurriedly swam towards a stone formation, pressing you against it. Jisung used one hand to hold both of you afloat, having now the ability to use all his tentacles on your body - especially the one to pump you full with his sperm packets. 

Jisung kept his tentacles on your tits and around your waist, using two more now to spread your legs apart. Another tentacle made its way around your throat, poking its tip at the corner of your mouth as well.

You shivered, feeling the suction cups around your throat. Without hesitation you opened your mouth, letting the tip of his tentacle enter your wet cavern. You moaned around the appendage, sucking it and wrapping your tongue around it.

Jisung’s breath became irregular, watching you and your reactions to his tentacles. His desire grew exponentially while he stayed close to you. He pressed his special tentacle against your core, rubbing the side with the suction cups over your folds. As he found your clit and made you squirm even harder under his touch, it took all of his composure to not simply pound into you.

You gasped for air when Jisung placed his free hand over your eyes, obstructing your vision now and heightening all your other senses in the process. Another yelp made its way out of your mouth once you felt his last tentacle play around your asshole. 

Gosh, you wanted him to fill you in every possible way and even though the feeling was foreign, you couldn’t get enough of it. Whimpers and moans fell from your lips while simultaneously saliva dripped out of your mouth. Parts of it even ran along the tentacle Jisung still had in your mouth.

Jisung couldn’t wait any longer. He already pushed most of his tentacles into your holes - except for the one he needed for mating. The tentacle caressed your mound and spread your lower lips, dipping into your core ever so slightly. 

“I’m gonna pump you full of my seed. You’re mine. My mate. And you’re gonna carry my babies!” Jisung growled and finally pushed his last tentacle into you, making you gargle around the one in your mouth. He pumped into you over and over again, pushing the tentacle as far into you as possible. Jisung did the same with the other tentacles inside of you, varying in speed and depth. 

Within seconds he brought you over the edge. You screamed around the tentacle, feeling all your muscles tense and relaxed repeatedly. Even after your high, when sensitivity started to hit you, Jisung didn’t stop thrusting into you.

He groaned and grunted, the hand holding onto the rock cramping up and knuckles turning white. His blue hair started to glow brightly - same with his eyes and the rings on his octopus half. Jisung knew he was close to transferring the first sperm packet into you.

You could feel Jisung tense up and something different than the tentacle being released into you. You squirmed even more in front of him, feeling another orgasm building inside of you. Tears pricked at the corner of your eyes as your whole body spasmed yet again. The tears rolled down your cheeks once you noticed Jisung still wasn’t slowing down at all.

You barely knew anything about blue ringed octopus - even less about the hybrid form. You only knew about their deadly bite but nothing about their mating process. Yet, you had a feeling it would be a long one. 

You gargled around his tentacle, crying from the oversensitivity when yet another orgasm hit you.

Jisung spilled packet after packet into you, becoming addicted to the feeling your body gave him. Your warmth, the softness of your breasts, the tightness of all your holes - everything about you made him want to have more and more of you.

By now it felt as if your insides got rearranged with the ongoing onslaught on both your holes and you could do nothing about it. You felt like a sexdoll in his hold - only there to bring him the most pleasure. It definitely was the case if you went by his aroused grunts but your own pleasure got tenfolded with every passing second. Even up to the point you were sure you’d pass out.

In your lust filled thoughts you momentarily thought back to your friends and your vacation. A small part of you wondered whether you’d ever return to them. Or maybe Jisung would keep you by his side, keep you to have sex with you as often as he could and as long as he could.

Another orgasm washed over you. And with it your consciousness, letting you black out from the overwhelming pleasure you received.

© all rights reserved  

Taglist: @xavi-in-kpopland @sanjoongie​​

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Wildfires sweep Amazon as Brazil suffers worst drought on record

Destruction of forest combined with low rainfall exacerbate effects of climate change

Brazil is fighting wildfires that have cast smoke across swaths of its territory, fuelled by heatwaves and the nation’s worst drought on record.

The area of the Amazon in Brazil, home to about two-thirds of the world’s largest rainforest, suffered its highest number of blazes for 14 years in August, according to the national space research agency Inpe.

Other biomes scorched by flames include the vast tropical savannah called the Cerrado that stretches across the centre of the country and the Pantanal wetlands in its south.

The total area burnt this year in Brazil estimated at 34.5mn hectares — or about the size of Germany — more than double the average for the same period across 2012-2023, according to the Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), a joint Copernicus and Nasa initiative that uses thermal anomalies detected by satellite to assess the burnt area.

Continue reading.

[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.

[beardedmrbean]

A House committee revealed Friday that the Pentagon, other US agencies and the European Union — in addition to the State Department — have funded a for-profit “fact-checking” firm that blacklisted The Post.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) wrote a letter to the firm, NewsGuard, demanding more details about the public-private collaboration that led last year to the State Department being sued by conservative outlets that were labeled more “risky” than their liberal counterparts.

NewsGuard has briefed committee staff on contracts it had with the Defense Department in 2021, including the Cyber National Mission Force within US Cyber Command; the State Department and its Global Engagement Center; and the EU’s Joint Research Centre.

“The Committee writes today to seek additional documents and communications from NewsGuard related to all past and present contracts with or grants administered by federal government agencies or any other government entity, including foreign governments,” Comer informed NewsGuard CEOs Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz.

“The protection of First Amendment rights of American citizens is paramount and attempts by government actors to infringe on those rights is dangerous and misguided,” the chairman warned.

The Oversight panel in June opened its investigation into NewsGuard’s apparent participation in a government-funded “censorship campaign” to allegedly discredit and even demonetize news outlets by sharing its ratings of their reliability with advertisers.

Comer also expressed concern about NewsGuard employees sharing social media posts exhibiting left-wing bias, in violation of the company’s policies, and the firm throttling disfavored outlets��� “misinformation” — which in at least one case included a published academic study on the failure of lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“These wide-ranging connections with various government agencies are taking place as the government is rapidly expanding into the censorship sphere,” the chairman wrote. “For example, one search of government grants and contracts from 2016 through 2023 revealed that there were 538 separate grants and 36 different government contracts specifically to address ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation.’”

The right-leaning websites the Daily Wire and the Federalist filed a civil complaint against the State Department in December 2023 for allegedly using taxpayer dollars to fund firms like NewsGuard and the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), which smeared the outlets as “purveyors of ‘disinformation.’”

Both firms have relationships with social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and TikTok, as well as advertisers like Dell Technologies, ExxonMobil and Nike, prompting concerns about how their “disinformation” ratings would affect business.

In 2022, GDI distributed a “Disinformation Risk Assessment” that rated the “riskiest” sites for factual news as the Federalist, the Daily Wire, Newsmax, the American Conservative, Reason Magazine and the New York Post, among others.

The New York Times and the Washington Post were ranked as among the “least risky.”

In a statement Friday, Crovitz said: “When the Trump administration first asked us for our data and insights about disinformation campaigns from hostile foreign governments in 2020, we contracted with them on the condition that such work be strictly limited to disinformation from hostile governments, not US publishers. We’re proud that NewsGuard’s data and analysis has helped defend Western democracies against Russian, Chinese and Iranian disinformation. NewsGuard was created as a transparent alternative to censorship by governments or big tech companies, and we do not censor any content.”

The 2020 and 2024 elections have brought so-called “anti-misinformation” and “anti-disinformation” efforts to the fore — with The Post’s bombshell scoop on Hunter Biden’s laptop being falsely labeled a Russian plant by then-candidate Joe Biden.

Some Democrats have since been suggesting that the only way to defeat pushback to their policies is by crushing the First Amendment.

President Biden’s ex-climate envoy John Kerry even called the constitutional freedom “a major block” to keeping people from believing the “wrong” kinds of things.

“You know, there’s a lot of discussion now about how you curb those entities in order to guarantee that you’re going to have some accountability on facts,” Kerry told an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“But look, if people only go to one source, and the source they go to is sick, and, you know, has an agenda, and they’re putting out disinformation, our First Amendment stands as a major block to be able to just, you know, hammer it out of existence,” he said.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, Tim Walz, also downplayed free speech protections during a 2022 appearance on MSNBC’s “The Reid Out.”

“I think we need to push back on this. There’s no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech, and especially around our democracy,” the Minnesota governor inaccurately stated.

Comer has asked for NewsGuard to provide by Nov. 8 all records of its contracts, grants or other work with the Pentagon, the State Department and any other federal agencies or departments.

[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.

[femsolid]

[England]

Over the past five years more than 300 officers have been reported for rape and 500 for sexual assault. Only ten of those accused of sexual assault have been convicted. The vast majority – 350 – are still working for the police.

“Holly”, a serving police officer who was raped by a colleague, said there was “simply not a chance that all 350 are innocent of the things they are accused of”. Her attacker was allowed to stay in the force for years until he was exposed by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism. In the meantime Holly and others who had been attacked struggled to get the force to take their allegations seriously.

“If you made a complaint, you were painted as having serious ‘mental health issues’ or ‘attention seeking’,” she said. “It was like you had stepped back into the 1920s before all women even had the right to vote. The police took women's voices and silenced them.”

More than 250 police officers had been reported more than once for sexual offences. A dozen had more than five separate reports against their names.

The true numbers of accused officers are likely even higher. TBIJ’s data was compiled from FOI requests to every police force in the UK, but nine failed to provide full figures.

TBIJ has been tracking forces’ failure to deal with police perpetrated domestic abuse (PPDA) for the past five years. In particular, TBIJ has highlighted how forces let down victims and the public when they fail to properly investigate allegations against their own officers.

The murder of Sarah Everard by Wayne Couzens, a serving Met police officer who had been reported for exposing himself in public, showed how catastrophic the consequences of inaction on sexual offences can be. Two years on, however, there is little sign of wider reform.

In February this year David Carrick was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years in prison after admitting 24 counts of rape and sexual offences against 12 women while serving as a Met officer. He had been repeatedly reported for domestic abuse since joining the police in 2001, but those allegations had not been taken seriously.

In TBIJ’s research, of the 375 officers and staff reported for domestic abuse in the past two years, more than three quarters are still working for the police.

In 2020 TBIJ worked with the Centre for Women’s Justice to submit a supercomplaint to police watchdogs. The Independent Office for Police Conduct, the College of Policing, and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services responded with a joint report last year, admitting there were systemic weaknesses in how forces respond to allegations against their own people.

In particular they were “not always doing enough to ensure all PPDA cases are properly and impartially investigated”. In January the National Police Chiefs Council reported that most forces had agreed to improve procedures for dealing with PPDA. In March the Casey Review found the Met Police was institutionally misogynist, racist and homophobic.

[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.

[aimeedaisies]

The Princess Royal’s Official Engagements in December 2024

03/12 With Sir Tim Attended a state banquet at Buckingham Palace for the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. 🇶🇦🍽️👑

04/12 On behalf of The King, held an Investiture at Windsor Castle. 🎖️

05/12 As Royal Patron of the National Coastwatch Institution, visited Shoreham Station followed by a Reception at Shoreham Sailing Club in Shoreham-by-Sea. 🧭

Visited Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Limited’s manufacturing facility in Westhampnett. 🚗🇬🇧

Opened the Bagging Shed Project at Amberley Museum and Heritage Centre. 🚎

06/12 Visited Crane Process Flow Technologies Limited’s new building in Cwmbran. 🏗️

Opened the new engineering extension at Safran Seats GB, Kestrel House in Cwmbran. 💺

As Patron of the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons, attended the Annual Congress at the International Convention Centre Wales in Newport. 🧑‍⚕️

11/12 As Patron of Shaftesbury, visited Netteswell Rectory in Harlow. 🏡

Visited Brightlingsea Museum. 🏛️

As Colonel-in-Chief of the Intelligence Corps, visited 1 Military Intelligence Battalion at Merville Barracks in Colchester. 🫡

As President of Racing Welfare, attended a Carol Concert at Tattersalls in Newmarket. 🎶🎄

As President of Racing Welfare, attended a Dinner at the Jockey Club Rooms in Newmarket. 🍽️

12/12 Visited the Quadram Institute’s Science, Food and Health Research Facility in Norwich. 🧬🍎🩺

As President of Racing Welfare, attended a Beneficiaries Christmas Luncheon at Newmarket Racecourse. 🎄🥪

The King and Queen Gave a Reception at Windsor Castle for recently retired and appointed Lords Lieutenant alongside the King and Queen, the Duchess of Edinburgh and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester. 🥂

13/12 As Colonel-in-Chief of The Royal Logistic Corps, visited 29 Regiment at the Duke of Gloucester Barracks in South Cerney. 🫡

17/12 As Colonel-in-Chief of the Intelligence Corps, visited the Joint Cyber and Electromagnetic Activities Group Headquarters and Joint Service Signal Unit Digby at RAF Digby in Lincolnshire. ⚡️🫡

18/12 On behalf of The King, held an Investiture at Buckingham Palace. 🎖���

Attended the London International Horse Show at ExCel London. 🐎🏆

18/12 unofficial With Sir Tim Attended the annual Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace 🎄🍽️

25/12 unofficial With Sir Tim Attended the Christmas morning service at St Mary Magdalene Church ⛪️🎄

29/12 unofficial With Sir Tim Attended the Sunday morning service at St Mary Magdalene Church ⛪️

Total official engagements for Anne in December: 23

✨ 2024 total: 437 ✨

Total official engagements accompanied/represented by Tim in December: 1

✨ 2024 total: 95 ✨

FYI - due to certain royal family members being off ill/in recovery I haven't been posting everyone's engagement counts out of respect, I have continued to count them and I have released the totals since it is now end of the year.

[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.

[dailyunsolvedmysteries]

LIVE: Titanic tourist submarine missing

A desperate search mission involving a remotely operated vehicle is under way to rescue a Titanic tourist submersible which has vanished 12,500ft below the Atlantic Ocean with less than 70 hours of air left.

British billionaire Harding is one of the mission specialists on the five-person vessel

UK-based Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Sulaiman Dawood are also on board

OceanGate Expeditions vessel reported overdue on Sunday about 435 miles south of St John's, Newfoundland

Major search and rescue operation involves military aircraft 900 miles east of Cape Cod

Coast Guard to hold press conference at 1pm

The Coast Guard will hold a press conference at 1pm on today (20/06/23) as the search continues for the missing submersible that vanished on Sunday. Canadian research vessel Polar Prince lost contact with their submersible during a dive to see the Titanic wreck, approximately 900 miles east of Cape Cod.

15:17: Titanic diver fears missing OceanGate sub imploded 10,000 feet underwater

An experienced diver who has traveled far into the depths of the ocean to view the Titanic wreckage fears the submersible that vanished on Sunday may have imploded thousands of feet underwater. G. Michael Harris, who said he possibly knows three of the five occupants on board the missing sub. He is not optimistic they will be rescued and believes there is nothing the U.S. Navy can do.

'Worst situation is something happened to the hull and our fear is that it imploded at around 3,200 meters,' (10,000 feet) Harris said.

At those depths, the weight of the water would exert extreme pressure on the missing submersible - around 6,000 pounds on each square inch of its hull.

An implosion would mean any hope is already long gone. If any part of the submersible's carbon-fiber and titanium hull had suffered a small crack or fault, a deadly implosion would have followed after.

'When you're talking 6,000 pounds per square inch, it is a dangerous environment. More people have been to outer-space than to this depth of the ocean. When you're diving in these situations you have to cross your T and dot your Is. You have to do everything absolutely perfect and by the book.'

14:30: The claustrophobic conditions inside missing Titanic sub

The search continues for the sub with five people on board, who are now cut off from the world in claustrophobic conditions. Thanks to previous reports on the Titan's deep-sea missions, we have a clear idea of what it is like for those trapped inside the submarine, where time is running out. In addition to the dwindling 96-hour oxygen supply, the passengers could also be facing increasingly cold conditions, and could suffer from hypothermia.

There are also no seats and only one toilet - a small black box - with a black curtain drawn across for privacy. All passengers are barefoot and must sit on the floor.

Assuming that the vessel is still intact, they currently have no communication to the outside world, and so no knowledge if and when anyone will reach them.

The claustrophobic conditions inside missing Titanic vessel. Thanks to previous reports on the Titan's deep-sea missions, we have a clear idea of what it is like for those possibly trapped in the cramped submarine that has gone missing in the Atlantic Ocean. 

09:31: The deepest undersea rescue mission ever

A desperate search mission involving a remotely operated vehicle is under way to rescue a Titanic tourist submersible which has vanished 12,500ft below the Atlantic Ocean with around 70 hours of air left.

The Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, said the OceanGate Expeditions vessel carrying five passengers, including British billionaire Hamish Harding, went missing at around 9.13pm on Sunday, about 435 miles (700 kilometres) south of St. John's, Newfoundland.

If they can be found, the operation would be 11,000ft deeper than the deepest successful undersea rescue in history - when British engineers Roger Mallinson and Roger Chapman survived after their submersible Pisces III was trapped on the seabed at a depth of 1,575ft off the south-west coast of Ireland in 1973.

Depths 'exceed those at which the NATO submarine rescue system can safely operate'

Sky News is reporting that the Ministry of Defence has released a statement, saying 'they are monitoring the incident but the depths of water greatly exceed those at which the Nato submarine rescue system can safely operate'.

09:11: Final text of British billionaire trapped inside missing Titanic sub to his friend

A friend of the British billionaire trapped inside a submarine missing on a voyage to the Titanic wreck has revealed the last text he was sent one day before heading out.

Retired Nasa astronaut Colonel Terry Virts, a friend of the missing Hamish Harding, said his fellow explorer had messaged him to say: 'Hey, we're headed out tomorrow, it looks good, the weather's been bad so they've been waiting for this.'

As rescue teams continued the search for the submersible vessel with five people aboard, Colonel Virts added that he and Mr Harding 'don't really talk about risks'.

[materialsscienceandengineering]

The best microphone in the world might have an unexpected source: spider silk. Spiders weave webs to trap their insect snacks, but the sticky strands also help spiders hear. Unlike human eardrums and conventional microphones that detect sound pressure waves, spider silk responds to changes in the velocities of air particles as they are thrust about by a sound field. This sound velocity detection method remains largely underexplored compared to pressure sensing, but it holds great potential for high-sensitivity, long-distance sound detection. Researchers from Binghamton University investigated how spiders listen to their environments through webs. They found the webs match the acoustic particle velocity for a wide range of sound frequencies. Ronald Miles will present their work Thursday, May 16, as part of a joint meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and the Canadian Acoustical Association, running May 13-17 at the Shaw Centre located in downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Read more.

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

ESA and NASA satellites deliver first joint picture of Greenland Ice Sheet melting

Academics from Northumbria University are part of an international research team which has used data from satellites to track changes in the thickness of the Greenland Ice Sheet.

Academics from Northumbria University are part of an international research team which has used data from satellites to track changes in the thickness of the Greenland Ice Sheet.

Global warming is causing the Ice Sheet to melt and flow more rapidly, raising sea levels and disturbing weather patterns across our planet.

Because of this, precise measurements of its changing shape are of critical importance for tracking and adapting to the effects of climate warming.

Scientists have now delivered the first measurements of Greenland Ice Sheet thickness change using CryoSat-2 and ICESat-2 – the ESA and NASA ice satellite missions.

Both satellites carry altimeters as their primary sensor, but they make use of different technologies to collect their measurements.

CryoSat-2 carries a radar system to determine the Earth’s surface height, while ICESat-2 has a laser system for the same task.

Although radar signals can pass through clouds, they also penetrate into the ice sheet surface and have to be adjusted for this effect.

Laser signals, on the other hand, reflect from the actual surface, but they cannot operate when clouds are present.

The missions are therefore highly complementary, and combining their measurements has been a holy grail for polar science.

A new study from scientists at the UK Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM), based at Northumbria University, and published in Geophysical Research Letters shows that CryoSat-2 and ICESat-2 measurements of Greenland Ice Sheet elevation change agree to within 3%.

This confirms that the satellites can be combined to produce a more reliable estimate of ice loss than either could achieve alone. It also means that if one mission were to fail, the other could be relied upon to maintain our record of polar ice change.

Between 2010 and 2023, the Greenland Ice Sheet thinned by 1.2 metres on average. However, thinning across the ice sheet’s margin (the ablation zone) was over five times larger, amounting to 6.4 metres on average.

The most extreme thinning occurred at the ice sheets outlet glaciers, many of which are speeding up.

At Sermeq Kujalleq in west central Greenland (also known as Jakobshavn Isbræ), peak thinning was 67 metres, and at Zachariae Isstrøm in the northeast peak thinning was 75 metres.

Altogether, the ice sheet shrank by 2,347 cubic kilometres across the 13-year survey period – enough to fill Africa’s Lake Victoria.

The biggest changes occurred in 2012 and 2019 when summer temperatures were extremely hot and the ice sheet lost more than 400 cubic kilometres of its volume each year.

Greenland’s ice melting also affects global ocean circulation and disturbs weather patterns. These changes have far-reaching impacts on ecosystems and communities worldwide.

The availability of accurate, up-to-date data on ice sheet changes will be critical in helping us to prepare for and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Lead author and CPOM researcher Nitin Ravinder said: “We are very excited to have discovered that CryoSat-2 and ICESat-2 are in such close agreement.

“Their complementary nature provides a strong motivation to combine the data sets to produce improved estimates of ice sheet volume and mass changes.

“As ice sheet mass loss is a key contributor to global sea level rise, this is incredibly useful for the scientific community and policymakers.”

The study made use of four years of measurements from both missions, including those collected during the Cryo2ice campaign, a pioneering ESA-NASA partnership initiated in 2020.

By adjusting CryoSat-2’s orbit to synchronise with ICESat-2, ESA enabled the near-simultaneous collection of radar and laser data over the same regions.

This alignment allows scientists to measure snow depth from space, offering unprecedented accuracy in tracking sea and land ice thickness.

Tommaso Parrinello, CryoSat Mission Manager at ESA, expressed optimism about the campaign’s impact:

“CryoSat has provided an invaluable platform for understanding our planet’s ice coverage over the past 14 years, but by aligning our data with ICESat-2, we’ve opened new avenues for precision and insight.

“This collaboration represents an exciting step forward, not just in terms of technology but in how we can better serve scientists and policymakers who rely on our data to understand and mitigate climate impacts.”

Thorsten Markus, project scientist for the ICESat-2 mission at NASA, said: “It is great to see that the data from ‘sister missions’ are providing a consistent picture of the changes going on in Greenland.

“Understanding the similarities and differences between radar and lidar ice sheet height measurements allows us to fully exploit the complementary nature of those satellite missions.

“Studies like this are critical to put a comprehensive time series of the ICESat, CryoSat-2, ICESat-2, and, in the future, CRISTAL missions together.”

ESA’s CryoSat-2 continues to be instrumental in our understanding of climate related changes in polar ice, working alongside NASA’s ICESat-2 to provide robust, accurate data on ice sheet changes.

Together, these missions represent a significant step forward in monitoring polar ice loss and preparing for its global consequences.

CPOM is a partnership of six universities and the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), based at Northumbria University, primarily funded by the National Environment Research Council (NERC) to provide national capability in observation and modelling of the processes that occur in the Polar regions of the Earth.

CPOM uses satellite observations to monitor change in the Polar regions and numerical models to better predict how their ice and oceans might evolve in the future.

By providing long-term capabilities to the scientific community and leading international assessments, CPOM helps global policymakers plan for the effects of climate change and sea level rise.

IMAGE: Greenland Ice Sheet Credit Prof Andrew Shepherd