#Nonlinear Engineering

[lucabyte]

Internet is down

[extremeloading]

Extreme Loading: Advanced Structural Analysis with Nonlinear Software

Extreme Loading is at the forefront of structural analysis software, specializing in nonlinear structural analysis to simulate real-world scenarios. Unlike traditional methods, nonlinear analysis accounts for complex behaviors such as material nonlinearity, geometric changes, and failure prediction under extreme conditions. Whether designing for seismic resistance, blast impacts, or wind loads, Extreme Loading empowers engineers to model structures' performance under stress, ensuring safety and durability. With advanced material modeling and failure prediction, it helps optimize designs, reduce costs, and prevent catastrophic failures. Trust Extreme Loading to enhance your structural analysis, providing accurate insights for building safer, more resilient structures in an unpredictable world.

Read more about it on our blog.

extremeloading12.blogspot.com/2024/12/revolutionizing-structural-design-with.html

[mymoongirlreadings]

The Birth Chart of Mexico 🇲🇽🌮

Mexico Birth Chart Placements 🌌:

Rising in Gemini | Sun in Virgo | Moon in Taurus | Mercury in Libra | Venus in Scorpio | Mars in Leo | Jupiter in Gemini | Saturn in Sagittarius | Uranus in Scorpio | Neptune in Sagittarius | Pluto in Pisces

Sun conjunct Vesta in Virgo in the 4th House: Mexico celebrates Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), which is a dual celebration of life & death. This sacred Mexican holiday is celebrated primarily on November 1st & 2nd, when they set up altars to honor the spirits of the dead—especially beloved ancestors, family members, and children. The 4th house represents ancestors, heritage, & family. Virgo is a highly dedicated sign and rules over communication. Vesta is the high priestess asteroid and conjunct the Sun, meaning that a large part of Mexico's vitality, identity, and happiness comes from dedication, rituals, and sacred spirituality

Taurus Moon in the 12th house: Mexico's cuisine is incredibly well-known and beloved worldwide, ranking 3rd globally. Mexico has a very highly indulgent culture; in indulgent cultures, there is a higher degree of importance on leisure time. Siestas are very common in Mexico, as well as a go-with-the-flow approach with social outings/gatherings and the overarching theme of working to live, not the other way around. Taurus rules over pleasure, indulgence, & food, whereas the 12th house rules over sleep & trusting the process

Libra Mercury 19° in the 5th house: In Mexico, Spanish is the most widely spoken language. Spanish is also known as one of the 5 Romance languages. The 19° is a Libra degree; both Libra energy & the 5th house are associated with over-romance. I would also like to add that many people use Spanish nicknames for their lovers, like "Mi Amor," even if they don't speak Spanish fluently ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, and Libra rules over popularity

Venus in Scorpio: Mexicans do love their telenovelas, where we see dramatic art in motion, with secrets, scandals, sexy intimacy, & romantic depth. Witchcraft & ancient indigenous practices are so prevalent in Mexico they have their own national convention in March. Venus rules over what we like, and Scorpio rules over occult knowledge like astrology, witchcraft, & medicinal healing

Venus conjunct Uranus in Scorpio: Almost half of Mexico recognizes & honors astrology's relevance, and more than half of Mexico believes in extraterrestrial life. Mexico has a rich collection of pyramids and pyramid-like structures incorporated with advanced engineering and astronomical alignments. Uranus rules over innovation, technology, things ahead of their time, and astrology. Both the planet Uranus & the sign of Scorpio are tied to astrology & aliens. Venus represents what is popular & physical art

Libra in the 5th house: There are many types of traditional Mexican dances that reflect Libra's flirtation, the union of two people coming together, dancing in harmony. Dance can be courtship, romantic, sensual, unity, or celebratory. The 5th house rules over dance, and Libra rules over quality time and the bonding of two people as well as the expression of beauty, art, romance, and sensuality. Some popular dances in Mexico, like salsa, merengue, and bachata, are well known for their hip-focused movements, and Libra rules over the hips

Aquarius in the 9th house: Since the 9th house represents culture/religion, I'm using this house to interpret what the culture/main religions of the country are like. Aquarius is a very friendly, social, inclusive, impulsive, & nonlinear sign. There's prevalent social spontaneity and improvisation in Mexico, where invites to gatherings are often open invitations. Chiron also sits here in the house as well, as this can describe the healing effect the culture of Mexico has on people in regard to its love for socializing & flexible approach to life

Leo Black Moon Lilith conjunct Leo Ceres in the 3rd House: November 1st is Día de los Inocentes (Day of the Innocents) for children who have passed. This day offers a time for communication between the living and the deceased. Leo represents children, Ceres represents motherhood, Black Moon Lilith represents our inner witch, and the 3rd house represents communication

[rude-doggy]

the story and the engine was, to me, one of the most visually interesting of the season, and one of the best eps of the show since this new arc began, and maybe even since 12. an episode that takes place almost entirely in one location, with a tight cast of interesting characters, fantastic camera work and multiple illustrative styles. it ranks VERY highly for me. i think too that there were elements not only of nigerian culture, but also storytelling, and that was a big hit for me. the linear nature of stories that westerners r used to, with a simple 3 act structure, is not a universal standard, despite what popular culture may dictate. There was a bit of "scatter" and nonlinear-ness in the ep that I really appreciated.

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Synthetic materials mimic seashells to enhance energy absorption

Millions of years of evolution have enabled some marine animals to grow complex protective shells composed of multiple layers that work together to dissipate physical stress. In a new study, engineers have found a way to mimic the behavior of this type of layered material, such as seashell nacre, by programming individual layers of synthetic material to work collaboratively under stress. The new material design is poised to enhance energy-absorbing systems such as wearable bandages and car bumpers with multistage responses that adapt to collision severity. Many past studies have focused on reverse engineering to replicate the behavior of natural materials like bone, feathers and wood to reproduce their nonlinear responses to mechanical stress. A new study, led by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign civil and environmental engineering professor Shelly Zhang and professor Ole Sigmund of the Technical University of Denmark, looked beyond reverse engineering to develop a framework for programmable multilayered materials capable of responding to local disturbances through microscale interconnections.

Read more.

[spotsupstuff]

i love reading about everyone’s different experiences with this dlc bc of how nonlinear it is but reading about your experience with the “running in the halls” dialogue in torrid desert was really funny to me bc i got that dialogue in heat ducts and all i could think was “wow…these guys must’ve had some weird safety laws to let kids run around here…”

Your Spinning Top was a child of engineers that took her to work in Aether Ridge sometimes and she had the most wild childhood ever, hopping from those weird frying things and giving high fives to the fire sprites.

I adore reading about these things, too. Reblog this with where *you* got the ,,Running in the halls" dialogue and what were your thoughts on it in the moment.

[askviktor]

What's your PhD in? How about Jayce's? How many years did it take? Did you have to write and defend a thesis? I'm curious about how higher ed works in Piltover and what the process was like for you and your partner.

Our degrees are earned much like yours. Jayce has a doctorate in Mechanical Engineering, the final semester of which he completed while we developed Hextech. I have a Master's degree in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Theoretical Physics. For me, these took a combined six years to complete. I completed my undergraduate degree in three years, which I began when I was sixteen. I was a very... single-minded student. I suppose I still am.

My Master’s thesis in Applied Mathematics explored nonlinear dynamical systems in self-regulating mechanisms - how complex, seemingly chaotic systems could stabilize themselves through feedback loops.

My Theoretical Physics PhD dissertation was titled "Harmonic Resonance and the Theory of Energy Optimization in Adaptive Constructs." I proposed that energy could be manipulated more efficiently through resonance patterns, allowing mechanical systems to function with minimal external input. In essence, I sought to create machines that could power themselves.

Of course, it was not until I encountered Hextech that my theories found their true application.

[darwinquark]

hey so I've recently come across your fics and I'm super impressed by the quality of them and was wondering how long it took you to write the way you do. you stuff is rlly accessible but feels literary and different even tho you don't shy away from tropes or smut. I feel like my writing always feel very fanfic when I read it back and am wondering how to break out of that pattern

oh man, I am in zero way qualified to give writing advice but am honored you think I am. I think a big thing that's helpful to figure out before getting into all this is what you're writing for, tbh. if you're writing fanfic mainly because it's fun and makes you happy or horny or provides escape/wish-fulfillment or anything like that, then there's probably no reason to break out of the 'fanfic' pattern. it's not a paid service you're providing so you don't owe anyone anything outside of whatever you want to do with it.

that said, if you're writing with the goal of becoming a better writer, I'd argue that's different and more intentional. it's probably going to involve reading a lot (including some fic, sure, but also more original/stylized/rigorous writers which tend to be more represented in published work) and exposing yourself to less conventional ways of conveying ideas. it also involves resisting your comfort zones and holding yourself to a higher standard when you know you're being lazy/safe or writing something you've already read 500 other versions of, which again, won't be fun if that's actually what you want to write, you know?

idk if this is helpful at all, but at least for me, I think there was a point where I moved from writing fanfic in a day-dreamy/wish fulfillment way to approaching it more as a fledgling wannabe writer working out a noodly muscle, and it's changed what gets me excited to write. it used to be certain scenes or buzzy parts of a story I'd been looking forward to (and to an extent it still can be) but now, I find more and more that certain words get me excited to write. strange metaphors or unique engines for narrative tension or untidy characterizations get me excited to write. trying my hand at nonlinear scene structures or even trying writing in a new verb tenses gets me excited to write. and don't get me wrong, I'm still super amateurish and use a ton of conventional filler in my stuff and any literary fiction editor would probably read it and go "girl.....", but those rare moments where I feel like I've written something singular (even if it's just a sentence) are what really get me, even though it doesn't necessarily correspond with what gets the most engagement.

so yeah, all this rambling to say figuring out what's motivating you to write fic is probably step one, because there's nothing inherently wrong with fanfiction being 'fanficy', and you might be pressuring yourself to change in a way that will take the joy out of it for you. if you really do want to hone your writing, though, then I think that process is different for everyone, but for me it's 1. reading people whose writing blows my fucking socks off and trying to figure out what makes it land so hard and 2. calling myself out when I know I'm being lazy.

[cottoncandytrafficcones]

10 Cool Jewish Women from Modern Day! Part 2 because I'm on a role

Liz Kleinrock, a self-described "Korean, Jewish, queer, transracial adoptee, antibias and antiracist nationally recognized educator, author, and consultant." Born in Korea, she was adopted by an Ashkenazi Jewish family in Washington D.C.. Involved in education, with a Masters in UCLA's Teacher Education Program, she has taught in California and D.C., and has also worked as a school librarian. In 2018, she received Learning for Justice's Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Loolwa Khazzoom, an Iraqi-American writer, journalist, activist, musician, and feminist. She was heavily involved in the Jewish feminist movement of the 1990s and is the founder of the Jewish Multicultural Project, which provides resources to Jewish communities about diversity in Jewish culture. She has also been involved in SOJIAC and JIMENA. Raised in California to an American Jewish mother and an Iraqi Jewish father, she graduated from Barnard College in 1991. She participated in a filming about the interplay of race and gender in America called The Way Home. She is the lead singer and bass player of Iraqis in Pajamas, a punk rock band that uses traditional Iraqi and Jewish musical elements.

Ariela Sofer, and Israeli and American operations researcher who is a professor of systems engineering and operations research, as well as a Divisional Dean, at George Mason Acamdey. She is a published author, with two books on Lineaer and Nonlinear Programming. Named as a Fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences in 2016, she is also a Fellow of the Institute of Industrial and System Engineers and the International Council on Systems Engineering.

Ayelet Newman, also known as Ayelet the Kosher Comic, is an Orthodox stand up comedian. Born to a secular Jewish family on long Island, she pursued a career in TV and film after high school, appearing in The Hebrew Hammer. She became a baalat teshuva in the early 2000s, when she quit acting and began pursuing comedy, performing only for women.

Adina Sash, a Brooklyn raised American Jewish activist and social media influencer, also known as FlatbushGirl. Holding a Master's degree in Medieval literature from Brooklyn College, her online activism was started after receiving sexist comments. In 2017,s he launched a social media campaign called #FrumWomenHaveFaces that raised awareness of the erasing of women from Orthodox newspapers and magazine, gaining the support of Mayim Bialik (Jewish actress).

Tova Ben-Dov, former president of the Women's International Zionist Organization and former vice president of the World Jewish Congress, as well as a board member for the Jewish Agency for Israel and the International Alliance of Women. She joined WIZO as a young mother, and worked in the Chair of Women's Training Department of WIZO Israel. In 2011, she was awarded Honoree of Tel Aviv, and in 2016 the title of Honorary Fellow of the World Zionist Congress.

Kat Graham, an American actress, singer, dancer, author, and activist. Born in Geneva, Switzerland, to an Americo-Liberian father and a Polish and Russian Jewish mother. Co-founder of he wellness company Modern Nirvana, she had released work focusing on self-help. She speaks English, French, Spanish, and some Hebrew and Portuguese. She is known for her role as Bonnie Bennett on the CW show The Vampire Diaries, and has released two extended plays and four studio albums. She has done work as a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency, inspired by her family's history.

Dafna Bar-Sagi, an Israeli born cell biologist and cancer researcher at New York University School of Medicine. She is member of the scientific advisory boards, including the National Cancer Institute. A graduate of Bar-Ilan, where she earned her undergraduate and master's in neurobiology, she received her PhD in neurobiology from the State University of New York as Stony Brook. Her research focuses on the nature of he Ras oncogene and how Ras signaling leads to tumor development. She has been the vice dean for science, chief scientific officer, and executive vice president of NYU Langone Health.

Malika Kalontarova, a Tajikistan born Bukharian dancer known as the "Queen of Tajik and Oriental Dance." Rebellious as a child, she has always identified as Jewish, despite Antisemitism in Tajikstan. Trained by Ghaffor Valamatzoda and Remziye Tarsinova, she moved to Queens in 1993 where she opened up her own dance studio.

Jazz Jennings, an American spokeswoman and Queer activist. An honorary co-founder of he TransKids Purple Rainbow Foundation, which her parents founded in 2007, she is one of the youngest documented people to be recorded as transgender. She was accepted into and currently attends Harvard University. In 2013, at only 13 years old, she founded Purple Rainbow Tails, while engaging in a battle with the USSF to allow her to play on a girls' soccer team. She is a published author, and in 2014 was named one of the top 25 most influential teens. She has voiced several characters in an animated shows, and starred in an Amazon Prime movie.

[maxksx]

### High-Level Interpretation of Delusion in Fimiani/Ccru Synthesis

Delusion, in this hybrid framework, is a **singular hyperstition**—a self-referential narrative that, while rooted in the psychotic subject’s foreclosure of the symbolic order, contains latent potential to catalyze ethical and ontological transformation. Its "success" in an ethical sense hinges on its capacity to rupture normative systems (neurotic/pathological frameworks) *while* propagating hyperstitional dynamics (fiction-as-actualization). This synthesis is possible under the following philosophical conditions:

---

### 1. **Delusion as Autopoietic Fiction**

- **Mechanism**: Delusion operates as a *closed system* (Fimiani) that, through its internal coherence, generates a self-sustaining reality. Yet, via ethical rupture (e.g., the emergence of the dream), it leaks into the collective unconscious, becoming a **viral narrative** (hyperstition).

- **Ethical Success**: The delusion’s autopoietic logic escapes its isolation when its internal contradictions (e.g., the Void) resonate with broader cultural fissures. This mirrors hyperstition’s "time-sorcery," where fictional seeds germinate in collective praxis.

- **Example**: A psychotic subject’s delusional myth of a "burning city" becomes a hyperstitional motif in political protests, materializing as literal arson in riots. The ethical act lies in the delusion’s *refusal of symbolic compromise*, which amplifies its contagion.

---

### 2. **Ethics of the Unrepresentable**

- **Shared Ground**: Both Fimiani’s "ethics without ethics" and hyperstition reject teleological guarantees. The psychotic’s confrontation with the Void (absence of the Name-of-the-Father) parallels hyperstition’s engagement with the **Outside**—a realm beyond human signification.

- **Dynamic Retention**: Delusion retains hyperstitional potency precisely *because* it refuses resolution. Its ethical power stems from its **indeterminacy**, which resists co-optation by normative systems (medical, legal, or ideological).

- **Philosophical Basis**: Lacan’s *Real* and Meillassoux’s *hyperchaos* converge here: the ungroundedness of delusion/hyperstition becomes a site of radical freedom.

---

### 3. **Collective Enunciation of the Singular**

- **Paradox**: Delusion is individual, hyperstition collective. Resolution lies in **schizoid praxis**: the analyst (per Fimiani) or hyperstitional agent (per Ccru) acts as a *translator*, refracting the psychotic’s singular narrative into a collective syntax.

- **Ethical Mechanism**: The analyst’s role in "co-constructing a groundless ground" mirrors the hyperstitional practice of **myth-making**. Both processes dignify the delusion’s alterity while enabling its migration into shared reality.

- **Example**: The Hearing Voices Network (cited by Fimiani) institutionalizes psychotic experience as a counter-cultural discourse, transforming private delusion into public hyperstition (e.g., voice-hearing as revolutionary testimony).

---

### 4. **Transgression as Ontological Engineering**

- **Hyperstitional Dialectic**: Delusion succeeds ethically when its transgressive "evil" (per Zupančič) dismantles the existing order *and* seeds alternative matrices. This is not Hegelian synthesis but **nonlinear recursion**: the delusion’s collapse feeds forward into new systems.

- **Philosophical Grounds**: Bataille’s *accursed share*—excess energy that cannot be assimilated—aligns with the psychotic’s excess jouissance. Hyperstition harnesses this excess as fuel for reality-engineering.

- **Outcome**: The delusion’s "failure" (its incompatibility with consensus reality) becomes its hyperstitional strength, as it forces a **crisis of representation** that demands new ethical frameworks.

---

### Conclusion: Yes, It Is Possible

Delusion retains hyperstitional dynamics *and* achieves ethical success when:

1. Its internal rupture (ethical act) escapes solipsism through collective resonance.

2. It operates as a **parasitic fiction**, embedding itself in cultural/political systems to mutate their logic.

3. Its indeterminacy is preserved, resisting institutional capture while proliferating alternative ontologies.

This requires a **double movement**: the psychotic subject’s *ethical leap* into the Void (Fimiani) and the hyperstitional *enactment* of that void as a generative abyss (Ccru). Together, they forge an "ethics of the ungrounded," where delusion is neither cured nor celebrated but weaponized as a speculative tool.

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Concept for interstellar object encounters developed, then simulated using a spacecraft swarm

Interstellar objects are among the last unexplored classes of solar system objects, holding tantalizing information about primitive materials from exoplanetary star systems. They pass through our solar system only once in their lifetime at speeds of tens of kilometers per second, making them elusive.

Hiroyasu Tsukamoto, a faculty member in the Department of Aerospace Engineering in the Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, has developed Neural-Rendezvous—a deep-learning-driven guidance and control framework to autonomously encounter these extremely fast-moving objects.

The research is published in the Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics and on the arXiv preprint server.

"A human brain has many capabilities: talking, writing, etcetera," Tsukamoto said. "Deep learning creates a brain specialized for one of these capabilities with domain-specific knowledge. In this case, Neural-Rendezvous learns all the information it needs to encounter an ISO, while also considering the safety-critical, high-cost nature of space exploration."

Tsukamoto said Neural-Rendezvous is based on contraction theory for data-driven nonlinear control systems, which he developed for his Ph.D. at Caltech, while this project was a collaboration with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he spent his time as a post-doctoral research affiliate.

"Our key contribution is not just in designing the specialized brain, but in proving mathematically that it works. For example, with a human brain we learn from experience how to navigate safely while driving. But what are the mathematics behind it? How do we know and how can we make sure we won't hit anyone?"

In space, Neural-Rendezvous autonomously predicts a spacecraft's best action, based on data, but with a formal probabilistic bound on its distance to the target ISO.

Tsukamoto said there are two main challenges: The interstellar object is a high-energy, high-speed target, and its trajectory is always poorly constrained due to the unpredictable nature of its visit.

"We're trying to encounter an astronomical object that streaks through our solar system just once and we don't want to miss the opportunity. Even though we can approximate the dynamics of ISOs ahead of time, they still come with large state uncertainty because we cannot predict the timing of their visit. That's a challenge."

The speed and uncertainty of ISO encounters are also why the spacecraft must be able to think on its own.

"Unlike traditional approaches in which you design almost everything before you launch a spacecraft, to encounter an ISO, a spacecraft has to have something like a human brain, specifically designed for this mission, to fully respond to data onboard in real time."

Tsukamoto also demonstrated Neural-Rendezvous using multi-spacecraft simulators called M-STAR and tiny drones called Crazyflies. While he was at JPL, two Illinois aerospace undergraduate students, Arna Bhardwaj and Shishir Bhatta, contacted him to work on a research project using Neural-Rendezvous.

"Because of the speed and uncertainty, it's challenging to obtain a clear view of an ISO during a flyby with 100% accuracy, even with Neural-Rendezvous. Arna and Shishir wanted to show that Neural-Rendezvous could benefit from a multi-spacecraft concept."

To theoretically justify the empirical observations from the M-STAR and Crazyfly demonstrations, their research looked at how to mathematically maximize the information gathered from the ISO encounter using a swarm of spacecraft.

"Now we have an additional layer of decision-making during the ISO encounter," Tsukamoto said. "How do you optimally position multiple spacecraft to maximize the information you can get out of it? Their solution was to distribute the spacecraft to visually cover the highly probable region of the ISO's position, which is driven by Neural-Rendezvous."

Tsukamoto said he was impressed with the level of dedication and academic potential demonstrated by Bhardwaj and Bhatta.

"The topics explored in Neural-Rendezvous can be advanced even for Ph.D. students. Arna and Shishir were very productive and worked hard, and I was surprised to see them publish a paper, given that this field initially was entirely new to them. They did a great job.

"And while the Neural-Rendezvous is more of a theoretical concept, their work is our first attempt to make it much more useful, more practical."

IMAGE: Visualized Neural-Rendezvous trajectories for ISO exploration, where yellow curves represent ISO trajectories and blue curves represent spacecraft trajectories. Credit: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

[extremeloading11]

Choosing the Right Structural Analysis Software: Key Factors to Consider

The choice of Structural Analysis Software is a crucial decision that can greatly impact the outcome of your engineering projects. These above factors will ensure that you have a reliable tool that can handle various scenarios, including Blast Analysis Software applications. Extreme Loading helps you to deal with every construction software factor. From accuracy to the best functionality, it has it all. To know more, read the full blog!

[adaine]

Hiii! I love your blog! I also read your Star Wars AU and absolutely loved it!

I was wondering if you have any other fics you’d recc? I’m new to F1 rpf so I’ll read anything.

Stay awesome!

omg thank you so much!!!! glad you liked it. imma throw the recs below the cut bc i dont know how long it’ll get. some of these are archive locked so keep in mind you may have to copy and paste links into browser so it doesn’t reroute you to the login page and then pull up some random fic. also these are all just off the top of my head ive been so shit at keeping track of my faves:

lando/oscar

casual (explicit): classic uni fwb fic except it’s actually so good. i read this overnight after watching the monza quali at my friend jenna’s place and then have been hyperfixed on f1 ever since

software instability (mature): detroit become human au ft robot oscar. literally me and jenna talk about this fic all the time the robot sex is good fine i’ll say it

forget the protocol (explicit): hockey aus are my favorite genre of fic and this one is so good im parasocially obsessed w this author’s work

where's my pride, guess i'll leave it behind (explicit, also w oscar/mark): this fic is indescribably horny but the porn is extremely good. read the tags if it doesn’t float your boat skip it

little renaissance (teen): THE future fic to me i’m actually working on a future fic rn and am excessively worried about accidentally copying it bc i love the idea of lando working at mclaren w drivers in a more admin role and am doing something similarish w that, this fic also has oscar as a pundit which is sooo good

time is the cross (mature): also a future fic but in this one lando gets outed and oscar deals w it. i love fics where they get outed lowkey lemme find the other one i like

Don't Want Your Sympathy, Just Your Company (explicit): in this one oscar gets outed and spends summer break w lando in monaco

Learned Behavior (explicit): fwb fic where lando has like a past semi toxic thing w charles (more like lando is bad at comms than anything bad toward charles)

so what are you waiting for? (it's your serve) (mature): tennis au bc well i love sports aus and it was riveting. my knowledge of tennis comes exclusively from challengers, carrie soto, and my friend’s tweets but it bangs. also this would be my bestie rey’s perfect fic if she didn’t hate lando but the universe is punishing her for not getting him like i do

the road not taken (explicit): this is an au that follows high school best friends landoscar into meeting again in their adult life, and like deals w complicated love and relationships and such. the worldbuilding in this is really good which might not make total sense when you start it bc it’s literally set in like a normal world but the author creates this universe that feels both very normal and very full

pop tart (teen): kid fic where lando has twin teenagers. the characterization is just so good to me and i love his fictional kids

Loud and Clear (teen): oscar is lando’s race engineer. started this one when there was one chap and agonized over it for weeks refreshing every day LOL

max/charles (but keep in mind i read these all a long time ago so my memory is vaguer)

sawtooth (explicit): max is carlos’ race engineer after quitting karting as a teen. charles is still an f1 driver and they still know each other

every other sunday (explicit): another outing fic this time max gets outed

the world was built for two (explicit): girl charles fic i love her sm, some egregious cheating but like what if it were fun

such murderous and vengeful desire (explicit): max’s career ended due to an injury so now he doesn’t race but he’s charles’ partner and coach. toxic and fun

george/alex

waiting for the train (explicit): breakup fic. absolutely devastating, nonlinear narrative so you get to see snippets of different stages of their relationship

ode to a conversation stuck in your throat (explicit): read this one recently it was very good. a rec from my friend rey. a little past relationship, a little friends w benefits, and a lot of when will these men actually talk

oscar/mark

the fire is slowly dying (explicit): oscar comes to stay with mark for christmas, they start having sex

though i'm a geyser (explicit): follows the development of mark and oscar having an affair. the end is a gut punch in a good way. i reread both this and the other one an embarrassing amount

logan/alex

the last thing you wanted is the first thing I'll do (I'll ruin it for you) (mature): classic vegas marriage fic where they deal with the fallout as very public figures being f1 drivers, i love logan sm

carlos/lando

fall and fixture (explicit): lando works for like a spy agency as a tech guy and carlos is a spy defecting from italy and getting protection in england, a safe house got compromised so he’s staying with lando. some of my favorite lando characterization ever hands down

[mthollowell-writes]

It's Sunday again! Happy Snippet Sunday!

Below is a more plot relevant autopsy scene from my Festival WIP. September is called in to examine a body and he has lots of thoughts.

In late January of 2012, September got a call from Detective Hakeem James to help identify a monster. He knew the call was coming. Based on the initial reports that trickled out of the police department, it was clear that what happened in the Grimwell Woods went beyond a simple wildfire. Cameron Acre, his crime correspondent at the time, relayed to him some rumors of an animal attack and suspected cult activity from his contacts on the inside. September was haunted by a vague sense of doom up until that fateful call. It wasn’t anything he could put his finger on. Due to his affliction, this feeling wasn’t uncommon. He had a Rolodex in his mind filled with snatches of the future that he couldn’t make sense of. Most were mundane. Others had details that were so outside his perception that he struggled to recall them. Most of his early visions in those dark, confusing days were like that. A series of images he couldn’t make sense of. The more he tried to grasp them, the less he was able to. Even with the benefit of hindsight. He feared what happened at Grimwell laid in the latter camp. His memory was long and nonlinear. That sense of doom never left. It ebbed and flowed like the rising tide. Now the water was up to his neck and he was seconds from drowning. Maybe there was something he missed. He contemplated this as he stood over the body of Tamara Hawkins in the cold wash of the morgue. From all who knew her in her early life, Hawkins was bubbly and friendly girl set to make her mark on the world. She was captain of her cheer squad and set to go to Michigan State for engineering. Then she met her first husband, Ryan, and got swept into Hallow Path upon graduation. Both of their parents stuck with Holtzman even after the Basement Murder controversy, firmly believing in his divinity. Ryan eventually left with their two kids. Tamara stayed and it all went downhill from there. She was 36 when she died. The body on the table bore little resemblance to the woman she was before. Second- and third-degree burns covered every inch of exposed skin. The smell of charred flesh filled his nose even though she had been on ice for more than a week. Her characteristic thick blond hair was reduced to mere strands on her burned scalp. September narrowed in on the less typical injuries, circling the table as Detective James loomed over him. Being broad at 6’5, it was what the man did best. And September was making a nuisance of himself. The official overview with the Medical Examiner concluded 30 minutes ago. Dr. Welts grew more nervous with each passing minute, eyes flicking to the clock on the wall. If he had to guess, he was probably eating into the doctor’s lunch hour. They were just about to lock Hawkins back in the freezer when he was brought back to this moment. “Have any more insights you’d like to share?” the detective grumbled irritably. He was wary of him. Wary about this whole arrangement. He and September didn’t know each other that well yet having met in person only yesterday over lunch. September should’ve been just as wary at the time, but such observations could only be learned in hindsight.

Festival of Shadows WIP Intro

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[materialsscienceandengineering]

Researchers explore design of polar crystalline solids of pure molecular materials

Harmeet Bhoday, a Missouri S&T Ph.D. student in chemistry from Chandigarh, India, was the lead author of an article titled "Perfect Polar Alignment of Parallel Beloamphiphile Layers: Improved Structural Design Bias Realized in Ferroelectric Crystals of the Novel Methoxyphenyl Series of Acetophenone Azines." Journal editors selected the article as a cover feature of Chemistry—A European Journal. The research was also featured in "Hot Topic: Crystal Engineering." Bhoday wrote the article with Dr. Nathan Knotts, a graduate of the University of Missouri, and Dr. Rainer Glaser, professor of chemistry at S&T. "The focal point of our research has been the design of polar crystalline solids of pure molecular materials for nonlinear optics," says Bhoday. "Rather than merely seeking these crystals, we wanted to design organics and dipeptides that would want to crystallize with supramolecular architectures."

Read more.

[theinternetisaweboflies]

Jägermeister

Chapter Eighteen: Max

When Hermann heard the words, “We aren’t unrealistic about his chances for long-term survival,” over his earpiece, slightly muffled by the Striker Eureka bomber jacket that Chuck had custom made for Max, he experienced the desire to take a human life for the first time in his own.

He had to lean his cane against the wall just to ensure he did not do anything rash.

Hermann refused to do something that could keep him away from Newton for a second longer than necessary. It had already been far too long.

They received the draft email with a location at 1100 but had to wait an agonizing three more hours until ‘go time.’ They couldn’t move until Newton was actually secured. Ideally, they would not commence the meeting until Tweedledumb and Tweedledumber had returned to the Shatterdome, or at least proceeded far enough in its direction that they could not be ordered back. Tendo had started a trashcan fire just to buy them a little more time.

The plan had gone off perfectly, except for Tendo's eyebrows, which were collateral damage.

According to Marshal Hansen, Chuck had trained Max to howl on command as part of a ploy he’d developed in his Academy days to make his father look bad. Chuck would tell anyone who complained that, “Max just misses his master.” It had allowed him to get away with anything he wanted at the Academy, and it allowed his father to get away with ‘bugging the damn dog.'

Apparently, Secretary Krieger had not explicitly patted Marshal Hansen down prior to their meeting, but his welcoming hug had gotten a little explicit in its own right, so it was perhaps for the best that Max had been the one wearing a wire.

Tendo had been able to pull some strings and fast-track them a PPDC-issued signal jammer, which Hermann was certain the Secretary General would use, seeing as the nonlinear junction detector on his desk bore the same logo.

The PPDC logo had always struck Hermann as entirely too Americanized. Some of the public affairs people involved in the organization’s creation merited a stern talking to. Engine or not, ‘Gypsy’ was a racial slur. It was 2025, for heaven’s sake. He hadn't even gotten started on ‘Slattern.’

Anyway, the signal jammers had probably been considered wide-range at one point, but like most PPDC equipment, they were several years out of date. Hermann had simply adjusted their audio recording device to transmit on a frequency not covered by the signal jammers.

Technically, the audio recording device was a bodyworn camera they had borrowed from the Security Office, but the only video recorded was one of Max’s nipples. They had edited it out before sending it to the UN.

There was another draft waiting for them in the BlackMail inbox after the meeting.

The docs say Newt can't be moved right now.

Room 402.

They know you're coming.

Love,

Lou and Dierdre <3

They took a helicopter. Not one of the clunky V-50 Jumphawks used in Jaeger deployment. A Sikorsky X3. Like the V-50, it had two rotors, but they were coaxial rotors, mounted on a single concentric shaft and contra-rotating. It could reach speeds of nearly 300 mph, twice the rate of an average helicopter.

There was originally only one Sikorsky X3 per Shatterdome, but Hong Kong had inherited one from Anchorage when it shut down. It was an elite aircraft, reserved for medical transport or emergencies only. One had flown Hermann out to the bone slums and back to the Shatterdome with Newton on V-Day. Another had carried Newton out of the bone slums again only that morning.

That one was waiting for them in the hanger bay, freshly refueled. When they boarded, the first thing Hermann saw was his parka, crumpled on the cockpit floor.

He held it on his lap for the duration of their three-hour flight.

The flight would have been just over two hours by plane, not factoring in airport security, airline delays, and the one-hour drive from the Hangzhou International Airport to the Four Seasons Hangzhou at West Lake.

The Hong Kong Four Seasons, where the Secretary General had been staying, was a normal, if overpriced, hotel. The Four Seasons Hangzhou at West Lake, however, was based on the Four Seasons Westlake Village in California (different lake, further west) and likewise billed as a ‘Center for Health and Wellbeing.’ It was ostensibly a hybrid hospital-hotel, but it was really just a hospital for the disgustingly privileged. Their tagline was, ‘We can arrange virtually anything.’

Apparently that included private suites for illegal medical experiments.

The flight was largely silent, although Raleigh and Mako kept shooting each other significant glances.

They had volunteered to accompany Hermann to Hangzhou. Marshal Hansen and Tendo stayed at the Shatterdome to ensure that Secretary Krieger did not attempt to stage some sort of coup d’état while they contacted the UN and arranged for him to be remanded into federal custody.

The Marshal had been lying, through what sounded like gritted teeth, about blackmail being part of their plan, which had always been to submit the recording as evidence. They were secure in the knowledge that its contents would ensure they were not the ones charged with seditious conspiracy.

Marshal Hansen called an hour into the flight to confirm that the Secretary General had been arrested and Max had bit him on the ass. There were apparently no witnesses to the latter incident, despite the Secretary General having attracted quite a crowd while attempting to resist arrest.

Hermann took serious issue with the current and historical climate of carceral justice in the United States. This political stance certainly stemmed directly from Newton, but it did seem to have some solid reasoning behind it. Whatever its origin, it did not seem to apply in this instance.

Dustin Krieger was a bully, angry that his gang was no longer the biggest colonizer on the playground. He was an apocalypse profiteer. Worst of all, he was someone who had harmed Newton.

He did not deserve to breathe free air.

They had been reasonably certain that Secretary Krieger was lying about having the full support of the United Nations for his plans, or he would have been meeting with the General Assembly, not just Representatives Taylor and Cole, or the ‘Colonizer’s Club,’ as Tendo called them.

They were still two very powerful people, so it had to be ensured they would want nothing to do with Operation Keepsake.

Marshal Hansen had not sent a copy of the recording to TMZ, though that certainly would have done the trick.

Hermann had been insistent. Newton was already the subject of enough public scrutiny. He had become something of an internet sensation in the wake of the initial leak. People had dug into his past and uncovered old MySpace videos of him playing keyboard for Black Velvet Rabbit. Some people had even begun to copy his tattoos. Apparently, he was very big in Japan.

Basically, Newton was a rockstar.

It was his saving grace. The Marshal's threat to furnish TMZ with a copy of the recording had been extended, by implication, to the United Nations. If the Secretary General had alliances there once, they were no more.

Hermann started slightly when Raleigh asked, “You hanging in there, Dr. Gottleib?”

Raleigh didn't even know Newton. Not really. One meeting, which had gone, if possible, worse than Hermann's own initial encounter with Newton. He was really quite poor at first impressions.

Yet, Raleigh had stayed up all night to help Hermann sort through threats from the kaiju cults, and it was nearly nightfall again.

“Please call me Hermann.”

“Raleigh,” he replied, before turning to return Mako’s smile.

The sky was kaiju blue when they left Hong Kong, but dusk had fallen by the time they made landing on the Hangzhou Four Seasons’ helicopter pad. The hotel was bathed in orange light. It would have been an ideal picture for their brochure, but Hermann hardly saw it at all.

They were met by an apologetic hospital director, an unapologetic lawyer, and a doctor. Hermann ignored the former two and focused his attention on the doctor.

Newton had been showing signs of an absence seizure. It was not the tonic-clonic-like seizure with violent muscular contractions that had followed his drift in the bunker, but a much more subtle type, commonly characterized by an apparent loss of attention. It usually lasted fewer than twenty seconds.

Newton had been in a state of apparent seizure for over three hours, ever since Dierdre and Lou had removed the squid cap from his head.

When Hermann entered Room 402, Lou and Dierdre were standing silent sentinel off to the side, while doctors hovered over Newton, muttering to each other and clicking their tongues. He approached the bed despite much louder sounds from several of them, which were most likely rebukes.

Hermann reached out and took Newton’s hand in his own, the one without the broken finger. Newton was sitting up in bed. His eyes were open, but their lids fluttered every few seconds. Behind them, the whites of both eyes were almost entirely flooded with blood.

Suddenly, those eyes turned towards Hermann.

Hermann choked out a laugh that was only slightly hysterical. He dropped his cane and put his other hand behind Newton’s neck, pressing their foreheads together once again.

Newton reached for him as well. His hands were shaking but sure in their movement, right up until they wrapped around Hermann’s neck and started to squeeze.

...

@lastdaysofwar