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magicaltrash · 9 months

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It's time for the 5th annual Magical Trash Year-in-Review, where we take a look at trash cans at the Disney theme parks and resorts worldwide. Yes, it's a weird idea, but you are going to keep reading, right? (View previous Year-in-Reviews) Some may note that it's been a somewhat rocky year for the Mouse, but trash can activity has been strong. As we've seen in previous years, this year's additions were primarily driven by attraction openings, including Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway at Disneyland, the opening of the World of Frozen in Hong Kong, and the arrival of the Zootopia in Shanghai. Unfortunately, we also saw the fastest introduction-to-removal can timeline with the closing of Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser - which had opened just a year earlier at Walt Disney World. Over the past year, MagicalTrash.com celebrated the 1,000 trash can photo milestone (only took 14 years!), while adding over 100 new entries. This was complimented by 1,600+ posts across social media networks, including Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Mastodon, Threads, and Bluesky. Posts were also added to Twitter/X, but frankly it's hard to continue supporting that platform due to its overall decline on many fronts (and I say that as someone who works in corporate social media professionally!). For 2023, Magical Trash tracked 16 substantial trash can design changes, a 14% increase vs. 2022's 14 tracked changes:

Added: 14

Historical Cans Added: 4

Updated: 0

Endangered: 0

Removed: 2

The US-based parks saw the most activity, with Disneyland Resort experiencing 6 changes, while Walt Disney World recorded 4 changes. Hong Kong Disneyland Resort and Disneyland Paris Resort both recorded 2 updates, and Shanghai Disney Resort saw 1 new addition. No notable changes were recorded for Tokyo Disney Resort or Disney Cruise Line.

Here's a detailed breakdown of updates:

ADDED New trash can designs that debuted in Disney theme parks over the past year

Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway (El CapiTOON Theater) - NEW Disneyland, Mickey’s Toontown With a movie theater setting, iconography is anchored by a popcorn bucket image with large “EC” letters.

Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway (M.A.G.I.C.) - NEW Disneyland, Mickey’s Toontown Outside the attraction are cans associated with M.A.G.I.C. - short for the Municipal Agency of Garbage Identification and Collection. Now that's a group we want to join!

World of Frozen (Arendelle Crest) - NEW - NEW Hong Kong Disneyland, World of Frozen The official crest of Arendelle features a crocus - a multi-color flowering bulb that typically blooms in the spring - and seen throughout the Frozen franchise.

World of Frozen (Wandering Oaken’s Sliding Sleighs) - NEW Hong Kong Disneyland, World of Frozen Furthering the rugged forest theme of the family coaster, decorative Scandinavian folk art patterns are found throughout queue, with geometric shapes highlighted in red, green, and orange hues.

Zootopia - NEW Shanghai Disneyland, Zootopia A surprising entry to Shanghai's bland trash can scene, green trash cans with zebra-like stripes on the lower portion combine with a city emblem.

San Fransokyo Square - NEW Disney California Adventure, San Fransokyo Square The shoehorned Big Hero 6 retheme of DCA's Pacific Wharf gave us new cans that looked a lot like the old cans - but with bonus "SFS" branding. Ho hum.

Journey of Water, Inspired by Moana - NEW Walt Disney World, Epcot, World Nature You can tell this is a modern Disney attraction because the name is an IP-laden paragraph. Lots of storytelling to explain "scenery."

Parkside Market - NEW Disneyland Resort, Downtown Disney Probably one of the more visually-stunning additions in 2023, Mickey Mouse + mid-century design. Simple concept, well-executed.

The Villas at Disneyland Hotel - NEW Disneyland Resort, The Villas at Disneyland Hotel New DVC borrows much of its design from Aulani. Not ugly, but also not magical. Were these picked out of a catalog?

Pixar Place Hotel - NEW Disneyland Resort, Pixar Place Hotel The retime of Disneyland's Paradise Pier Hotel features trash cans very similar in design to those implemented at The Villas at Disneyland Hotel. Maybe they got a 2-for-1 deal?

Disneyland Paris Reusable Tableware Cans - NEW Disneyland Paris, Adventureland France's Anti-Waste and Circular Economy Law is focused on phasing out improper disposal of waste. Food service at the French parks has implemented reusable table settings, which has impacted trash can design.

"Fantasyland 2" Backstage - NEW Disneyland Paris, Fantasyland A backstage can makes an appearance onstage as a support trash can from the “Fantasyland 2” zone, parked where everyone can see.

Pym Test Kitchen Food Waste - NEW Disney California Adventure, Avengers Campus After debuting combination food waste trash cans in Tomorrowland around 2021, Disneyland expanded the practice to the Avengers Campus at DCA.

Jollywood Nights Temporary Media Can - NEW Disney's Hollywood Studios, Grand Avenue Throw a sticker on an existing trash can and it's something new! Temporarily rethemed can at Disney's Hollywood Studios during a media event for Jollywood Nights holiday entertainment.

HISTORICAL CANS ADDED Retro trash can designs that were unearthed by new research this year, but are no longer in use

MK Main Street (1974) - HISTORICAL ADDITION Magic Kingdom, Main Street U.S.A. Early years of the Magic Kingdom featured very detailed trash cans on Main Street U.S.A, often in multiple colors. Quite a contrast from the undecorated brown cans used in the 2000s.

Farmer's Market (Late-1980s/Early-1990s) - HISTORICAL ADDITION Epcot, Future World, The Land The famed umbrella tables at The Land found their shapes emulated via the trash cans, which were primarily brown with light tan arches represented on all sides.

River Country (2010) - HISTORICAL ADDITION Walt Disney World, Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground 9 years after the water park closed, remnants of the ‘Ol’ Swimmin’ Hole’ could still be spotted at Fort Wilderness.

Mulholland Madness (2007) - HISTORICAL ADDITION Disney's California Adventure, Paradise Pier Tacky theme was on-point for DCA 1.0. This green can with road sign decal found a home in Paradise Pier.

UPDATED Existing trash can designs that have been modified or revised in the past year

None for 2023

ENDANGERED Trash can designs that still exist, but will most likely disappear in the future

None for 2023

REMOVED Trash can designs that have been eliminated from use at Disney theme parks

Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser (Interior) - REMOVED Walt Disney World, Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser The in-wall trash cans for the 100-cabin Corellian MPO-1400 model Galactic Starcruiser were in use for just 579 days.

Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser (Terminal) - REMOVED Walt Disney World, Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser You won't be needing to dispose of your garbage before boarding the MPO-1400 Star Cruiser Halcyon, as these cans will probably have a longer life than the hotel ever had.

One massive disappointment in 2023 was Walt Disney World's opening of TRON Lightcycle / Run in the Magic Kingdom's Tomorrowland. Generic silver cans, thus reinforcing WDW's continual cheapening out on themed trash can design. Paul Pressler called and even he thinks you can do better.

Here at Magical Trash we celebrated our 14-year anniversary covering the world of Disney trash cans, which included keeping up with various salt shaker merchandise releases that showcase the iconic can shape. 6 new designs were released during festivals: The Dude with the Food (DCA Food & Wine 2023), Amazingly Sweet (DCA Food & Wine 2023), Groovy Garden Orange Bird (Epcot Flower & Garden 2023), Stuck on Imagination Figment (Epcot Flower & Garden 2023), Chef Mickey (Epcot Food & Wine 2023), and Spaceship Earth (Epcot Food & Wine 2023).

If you happened to be at Tokyo Disneyland, you could have picked up a mini figure version of a Tomorrowland trash can or a TDS trash can toy. In the U.S. you could pick up a shirt or water bottle with a recycling can image proclaiming that you "Love Our Disney Parks" -- Disneyland or WDW-specific versions. There was plenty of trash can auction action as well.

Thanks to everyone who contributed photos, visited MagicalTrash.com, and interacted with this weird hobby over the past year. You've put a smile on my face as we all follow this goofy passion. As it's impossible to be omnipresent at 12 theme parks and numerous resorts around the world, let us know what we've missed! Thanks for an interesting year, CanFans! - Steve Tanner, your Magical Trash host

[All photos used by permission.]

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neo-shitty · 1 year

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road runners — l.yb

description. road running was just like any other high-paying job brought about by the new road management system. high risk, high reward. another position had been vacated in your station, you just hoped the newbie would last a little longer than the last one did.

pairings. lee felix x gender-neutral reader

genre. dystopian!au, kind of workmates!au

warnings. graphic imagery, slight discussions on morality, animal death, multiple death by accidents, implied suicide (not of main characters), major character death

word count. 2.6k

notes. posting this after seeing this scene in the 5 star trailer haha kinda morbid thinking how i came up with this in driving school lmao hope everyone’s doing well! it’s been so long (。_。)

On the job, you were but an observer—an additional pair of eyes with the extra skill of executing actions that the cameras could not. There would come a time when the development of technology would give birth to advancements that’ll eventually take over most human labors. But that day was not today, nor do you imagine it to be any time soon. For now, you’re stationed on one of the many towers that lined the Gyeongbu Expressway, roving the highway for something interesting. Just like usual, there’s nothing.

Becoming a road runner had been every child’s dream at some point. Every head turned towards car windows on expressways and busy highways, watching out for the moment the black-suited figures zipped from one tower to another. You were no exception, so when the teachers asked what you wanted to be when you grew older you answered the same thing every year: I want to be a road runner.

It wouldn’t be until high school when you learned the grim reality behind the coolest job you’ve ever known. Road runners never existed until about half a century ago when the government decided on the full enforcement of all traffic laws to eliminate the ever-growing traffic problem. A decade-long transition was put into motion in the year 2068; road and highways were reconstructed, and at the end of the ten years, most of the country’s major networks functioned in the same way train railways had, complete with a centralized system to track all of its users.

Automatic transmission vehicles ATVs took on a new definition, now functioning on auto-pilot and programmed to sync with the central system. While some people resorted to purchasing new cars with the built in systems, the government couldn’t force everyone to make the switch. They could, however, launch the strict implementation of all road and traffic laws through the system.

And so they did.

The decision was marred with controversy when the accidents began to happen. While most citizens brushed it off their shoulders as a good riddance for nuisances, others saw through and began thinking there was a more sinister reason to it. The government never explicitly stated that MTVs were banned from the streets, though driving them grew more and more risky. They were rogues to the system, undetectable. Highways have turned into railroad tracks, cars into bullet trains. ATVs were hot-wired pods meant to get you to your destination via the quickest route possible and on the road, there was no stopping them.

Both traffic and pollution significantly lessened with the transition, but one problem spiked—road-related accidents. Pedestrians were ploughed by high-speed ATVs, MTVs crushed by collisions, and the death toll reached hundreds within months of its implementation. But the government did not waver, nor did it carry the blame for everything that had happened. They wiped their hands clean.

“The system has been programmed with rules that have long been implemented, pre-existing ones we were already meant to follow beforehand,” they said. The ignorance of the law excuses no one, and so the government played court and passed judgment.

Right wings argued that roads were meant for vehicles alone. Why were pedestrians prioritized all the time when there were designated times and places for them like sidewalks, crosswalk lights, their very own safe zones. Pedestrians and other street-users abused their privilege, compromising vehicle drivers and contributing into traffic congestion. Humans were smart but they were slaves to their own egos, susceptible to being easily put back into place when reminded of a higher authority.

Sanctions towards traffic law violators were dropped. No more fines and months in probation and arrests. If you weren’t registered into the system, you were still free to use the roads as you liked. You could cross it whenever you liked, drove an MTV side by side with the ATVs but you could no longer sue other parties for what could happen to you on the road.

Little by little, as every road was remodeled and programmed with the centralized system, traffic law enforcers one by one disappeared—giving way to another job, one that acted as a countermeasure to the growing number of highway traffic accidents, road running.

The government thought response teams took too long to get to the accident area, hence the birth of the organization for road runners. Road running was a high paying profession, right for a job just as risky. Runners were stationed along major highways and roads, functioning as both lookouts and quick response teams for any accident, be it minor or major, that may occur. Minor accidents were meant to be dealt with by a single runner or in groups of three depending on the gravity. Major accidents were reported to the system which then rerouted upcoming road users for an hour until the highway was once again spotless.

You never thought you’d land the job as an act of desperation but you did, filing in your application within days from quitting school and getting it. For a job that was sought for, it was vacated a lot. Runners either chickened out when accidents finally did happen or died in the process of cleaning up one. It wasn’t an easy job, it was gruesome. You felt the same way towards it when you were met with an accident a week into the job. But the fear and the ick passes and you began to look at things differently, observing street users with the detachment of someone who agreed with the government’s ideals.

For the past year, you’ve kept to yourself most of the time—staying on your tower through all the eight hours you’re supposed to be there unlike the others who roved around for anything. Compared to prior years, accidents now happened few and far between and most of the time on purpose. Your shifts were more eventless than not. Until a rally against corrupt ATV manufacturing companies took to the streets to make their point a couple of months ago. No rerouting was called that day, not until each and every one of the protestors lied mangled on the streets. The massacre was quick but the repercussions it left behind went far and wide, giving birth to a generation of new-minded individuals who were curious why the way of things had to be that way.

Felix was one of them and he joined the road runners in the midst of it.

“Chan quit. We’re getting a new guy today.” Changbin doesn’t even bother looking up to greet you, gaze fixated on his phone—making the most out of the few minutes before your shift began.

Beneath your finger, a green light flashes and the machine beeps. “Saw that coming,” you said, looking across the room to where Chan was stationed, a part of the tower office that you’ve seen more often vacated than occupied. “New guy on an expressway? That’s new.”

“Heard he’s one of the fast ones.”

Either that or they needed more people on the expressway. You joined the runners back when the positions were still fought for, the profession respected rather than shun. Starting out as a newbie, they assigned you to small streets and country roads until you were working on bigger roads then national highways. It wasn’t because you were getting any better in your job but because those positions were harder to keep than to earn.

The new guy was a bright-eyed boy with star-studded cheeks and a nervous smile. He blinked at the both of you as he walked in, unsure of what to say when you just stared at him back. The scanner beeps beneath his finger and he walks to the back of the office to where Chan used to sit.

“Lee Felix, right?” He turned to you, wide-eyed and alert.

Road runner contracts only lasted a year and even then only a few stayed in the job long enough to renew it. It took one good look at Felix to know that he’d be one of those who wouldn’t make it past the year—either by quitting or some foolish mistake on the road.

An alarm blared as the clock struck 4 and runners from the last shift burst through the doors of the tower from both sides of the line. It wasn’t the splotches of wetness on their suits nor the expressions on their faces that gave it away, but the metallic stench that followed them as they came in.

“What happened?” Changbin rose from his seat, giving way to the runner who shared his desk.

“Someone tried to cross the street on a green light.”

“How many?”

“Just one,” he answered, before finally looking around. “New guy?” He pointed at Felix who still stood frozen in the middle of the road. The quiet boy nodded. “Good luck then, kid.”

You never liked it when anyone glossed over the truth of the road-running profession. It paid high for the risk of cleaning roadkill carcass all the while preventing yourself from becoming one, but it never compensated for the images wedged into your subconscious of mangled bodies, scattered insides and pools of blood. So you’ve made it a habit to put a fair warning to anyone new to the job, turning to Felix as he followed you out the tower saying, “Do yourself a favor and quit.”

But of course he didn’t, they almost never did until witnessing their first deaths. The only thing that was different with Felix was his unpredictability because he stopped his first accident from happening. It wasn’t that you didn’t see it coming. He was curious and inquisitive, a dead giveaway of his political biases. He always asked why you never stopped the pedestrians or flagged down the MTVs and you always answered the same thing: these people knew the rules and the law and whatever consequences they suffered were beyond you.

Felix never seemed to get it, his humanity completely intact. Of the three of you, he always ended up black out tired by midnight, running up and down the road to warn people to use the overpass instead of the road or entertaining impatient folk and tricking them into waiting until the crosswalk lights turned green.

But just like him, there were hard-headed people who never listened regardless of the measures he took. The first time he saw a person carelessly cross the road in a manic sprint, he jumped right after them. Grappling hooks burst out of his belt, piercing through the wind to hook onto metal bars across the highway and he swung across like a madman, saving the man at the last second before a truck rolled past where they once were.

You met his triumphant smile with disbelief and horror. “Maybe they haven’t oriented you, Felix, but our job is to clean up, not pick up.”

“I know and I don’t get it. Of all people, road runners can save lives and lessen traffic accidents, so why not do it?”

You’ve heard of this subtle leftist movement spreading across the provinces, the new generation of road runners adding saving pedestrians into their list of obligations. It was counterintuitive to what the government wanted to be done, but it was morally aligned with what most people thought. Road runners were being hailed again, looked up to. But the inversely proportional scales tipped, lower accident rates meant higher risks for runners.

It didn’t guarantee a 100% success rate. There was a dog one day, got loose from its leash and sprinted off the highway sidewalk. Felix had been the first one to see it, tunnel vision narrowed to the dog’s path as it leaped onto the highway. But you’ve seen it too, along with the bus barrelling down the highway that maybe he didn’t.

“Felix, stop!” You dashed from your station, reaching him before his grappling hooks shot out. The dog continued running across the street, the bus continued moving at speed limit. Wind blew past you as it passed, leaving you puzzled on the sidewalk with nothing but dust and a carcass in its wake.

“I could’ve saved it,” Felix said, already mourning the pup he’d only met seconds ago. But even he sounded hopeless, half-knowing that there was no way helping that dog out of this one because he couldn’t have made it across without the bus ramming into him in exchange.

You remembered a time when you thought the same way but the years have dulled your hope, whatever righteousness you’ve had in you dissipating with the disbelief that people still refused to listen. And the accidents came often, desensitizing you with every death happening before your eyes. These people didn’t care about themselves no matter how hard you tried to save them.

While you grew to accept it as the months passed, Felix did not, or he wasn’t on the field long enough to know that in the end he couldn’t do anything about it if the same people who were saved never wanted saving.

Felix was never assigned to your part of the highway before, so he never knew about that regular passerby—one who only sat by to observe the timing of things. The man always came by on weekday afternoons rain or shine. The expressway was never made for pedestrians but he still came anyway. It wasn’t hard to predict what was in his mind but you never made a move to approach nor interfere. And he disappeared for quite a while, months, and you thought he finally kicked the bucket. But he comes back one day, with a brighter expression over his once gloomy face and you’ve seen too many suicides to know what another attempt looks like.

Felix, however, did not. You didn’t see the man coming because if you did, you would’ve stopped him the way you did before during close calls. But he sees the man before you do and in the spur of the moment, the man had jumped into the highway, Felix following immediately behind him. And you can still hear Changbin behind you, shouting about upcoming cars but it falls on deaf ears and you watched the accident happen—both the man and Felix run down by a parade of cars coming from a recently greenlit intersection. You saw them launched into the air, landing so far from the point of collision and further ploughed by upcoming vehicles. Pieces of the body landed scattered down the highway, cars coming too often for any of you to get any cleaning done.

You didn’t realize you were holding your breath until you felt your lungs begin to burn. For a moment you stood there, both in shock yet expecting what had happened. It was only a matter of when it would happen. Eventually you snapped out of it when the cars stopped coming, green light finally turning red.

From your pocket you dug out the device meant to access the central system and set the timer. The system closes off the highway and reroutes all upcoming vehicles to other roads. You began the dreadful trek to where the bodies, or most of it, actually were. Changbin called for a highway sweep, the two-man team seeming not enough to clear all parts of the bodies off the street.

“Shame, I thought he’d last longer.” Changbin muttered as he caught up beside you, his mask and gloves already on.

“He didn’t really have it in him, you know? He was too soft.” You answered. “This might’ve been the best way to go and better now than later.”

#felix angst #skz angst #felix fluff #skz fluff #skz scenarios #kwritersworldnet #felix scenarios #felix x reader #skz x reader #felix imagines #skz imagines #felix timestamps #lee felix #skz #stray kids #skz felix #toff.writes

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archduchessofnowhere · 2 years

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I am sorry, did The Empress really make Franz Joseph, the man whose main characteristic as a politician and a person was that he had to be dragged into every kind of progress kicking and screaming, have liberal sympathies?! Now I have to watch it, since it's obviously a comedy of the year! Seriously, there are so many ways to make Franz Joseph as a person sympathetic, but as a thinker and politician he's pretty much unsalvageable. There's a reason why most Sisi media, as far as I can tell, don't touch on this aspect of the man, save for the Hungarian question (which in turns leads to the romanticization of the Compromise, but oh well). It helps that Sisi in general wasn't a very politically involved person.

YES THEY DID IT'S LAUGHABLE, there is a whole side plot of him wanting to modernize the empire building a railway but Sophie tells him that it's a waste of money and that he should go to war against Russia instead (I'm not even sure which conflict is this meant to be, the Crimean War?) Oh and also all the executions post 1848? His mother forced him to do it, he wanted to grant forgiveness to the accused!

This is also probably the reason why they butchered archduke Maximilian's personality. The source of the tension between the brothers were their political disagreements, which is no longer possible in this AU in which FJ is pro-liberal; so their solution was "easy! Max is no longer a liberal, he's now an irresponsible playboy that schemes for the throne because... Envy I guess?"

Sisi media usually only talks about his policies in the context of Elisabeth making him change his mind or helping him improve his reputation. The first example that comes to my mind is strangely from the Sissi Trilogy, were it is explicitly stated that Franz Josef is hated in many parts of the empire because of the repression and executions - only so the movies can later show how Sissi can win Hungary and Italy despite this with her kindness alone.

#the empress (2022)#die kaiserin (2022)#sissi trilogy #asks

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racefortheironthrone · 1 year

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How did Lincoln's economic policy set the GOP on their path towards corporate domination?

To be fair, I do approve of much of Lincoln's economic policy - the first income tax, the use of greenbacks, land grant colleges, etc. - so it's more that there are a couple areas of economic policy where I think Lincoln's administration had that effect, and the extent to which I think it's fair to hold Lincoln accountable for the long-term implications varies:

Procurement: to be fair, Lincoln inherited a Federal government that really didn't have a modernized procurement system. However, between that and the pretty thorough corruption of Secretary of War Simon Cameron and others within the Federal government, a lot of businessmen got rich selling substandard goods to the Union army and navy at a markup in exchange for kickbacks - so much so that the term "shoddy" became generalized and popularized as a result. (Previously, "shoddy" had specifically referred to reprocessed wool.)

Bonds: in order to finance the Union war effort, the Lincoln administration sold an enormous amount of bonds - and Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase basically turned the Union's bond drive over to Jay Cooke, a politically-connected Philadelphia banker. To give him credit, Cooke was very good at selling bonds both to ordinary bankers and the man on the street, but Cooke's personal commission meant that he (and the men he hired as his sub-agents) became staggeringly wealthy and thus a major donor to the Chase presidential campaign in 1868. Cooke ultimately was bankrupted when his Northern Pacific Railway went bust in the Panic of 1873.

Banking: while the National Banking Act of 1863 had many good elements - nationalizing the currency, and establishing Federal charters that allowed the Federal government to regulate banks on capital and reserve requirements - it also had the effect of further concentrating currency and credit in Northeastern banks (which could more easily meet those requirements due to being better-capitalied to begin with), which was a bit of a problem when you realize that the U.S didn't have a central bank to ensure that all regions of the country had decent access to currency and credit.

Railroads: the Pacific Railroad Acts of 1862 and 1864 provided for the Federal subsidization of transcontinental railroads through the granting of Federal land. While this got the railroads built, it didn't come without a healthy side-order of corruption: understanding that they stood to make a fortune if the railroad acts went through, railroad companies gave out a lot of free stock to U.S Congressmen, who in turn made sure the Acts passed and the Federal government was generous with land grants, loans, etc. This wouldn't blow up until the Credit Mobilier scandal of 1872, but the roots go back in the 1860s.

As you might expect, a lot of the bankers and railroad executives who had gotten rich off the Civil War became major donors and activists and party leaders and elected officials of the Republican Party. This had a significant impact on the party's political and policy direction: by 1868, the Republican Party's national platform mixed calls for civil rights and equal suffrage with demands that Civil War debt be redeemed in gold rather than paper money (which contributed to post-war deflation and represented a repudiation of the Greenback Acts), and that progressive taxation be done away with.

#history #u.s history #republican party #gold standard #monetary policy #greenback party

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transsexualunderground · 2 years

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lemme talk about some TTTE OCS!

So this was a long time coming. I tried to post an OC once before but I chickened out and deleted his post. So, here's some lore rundowns for a bunch of my OCs! And by that I mean all of 'em! And my sona, as a bonus! (and details on my personal canon!!!)

(This took me like 3 attempts to write because Tumblr kept eating the part about Wesley when I accidentally hit ctrl+z because I made a typo on Forsythia's basis :sob:)

Putting a break so I don't clog any tags haha

So, for the third time I am trying to write this (dear god), behold, Wesley the Show Engine (and his tender that I admittedly drew in a rush when I drew it)! Wesley is based on Furness No. 20's original batch of 0-4-0 locomotives, generally based on Furness No. 20 in design but less so in backstory. Canonically, he was made after that batch of locos but his build date is undecided still.

He was made for a Collector, Mr. Titus Lancaster. The two attended engine shows for years, and while Wesley enjoyed it, he was rather isolated from other engines and rolling stock for many years. He admired the railway working life from afar and longed to have it.

Eventually his wish would be granted in both his and his Collector's old age when he donated him to the NWR.

Wesley's a rather interesting character to me in his origins. He's an old engine but very inexperienced with the rails.

Personality-wise, he's kindhearted, hardworking, sincere, passionate, and would rather get along with others, but he can be very gullible (early on) due to his lack of experience, and is imbued with the spirit of Sodor's karmic justice itself. (Read: he's really vengeful at times. If you cross him, he wants to ensure you get your just desserts.)

He's humble and quick to admit to his mistakes and apologize when he messes up (an uncommon trait on the railways LOL), and while he's open-minded, he's also willing to admit he's a bit foolish and unworldly. He mainly works on Edward's Branch Line.

He likes snow and snowploughs (he finds them comfortable in the way a weighted blanket or lead x-ray wear is comfortable), karma, being out and about, any work at all, and bugs.

He dislikes being patronized/infantilized/treated as if he's stupid and incapable, geese (there was an incident), most animals, the sound of babies crying, and almost all trucks. He's open to the idea of there being trucks that aren't troublesome but he doesn't know any yet.

I'd like to highlight a central relationship he has in his stories, that of his relationship with Edward. The two were quick friends and once made eye contact at an engine show YEARS before they properly met (though neither recognized the other). Eventually that friendship became a tendency to want to work together more and more often, and the duo became very close indeed... and then they started being gay as all hell. Gay ol' engines. Good for them! (They get married in a plotline of mine. I'm dead serious. Gay train wedding!!!)

EDIT: Something I forgot to note! While he's also vengeful, he's insists on doing nice things for others who have done nice things for him. Everything is a two-way street. One turn deserves another, good or bad.

For reading all that, here's a Checkpoint Human!Wesley I drew.

Moving right along, we have a narrow gauge duo!

I present to you Forsythia the Rambunctious Engine and Nicolas, her coach. Forsythia was based on the 2-4-0T Rheidol/Talybont/Treze de Maio and a fucked up kiddie ride I saw once.

Yeah, it's a really fucked up kiddie ride.

These two are owned by Ms. Tiffany Lancaster, the niece of Wesley's former Collector (who has passed by the time she obtains these two). They are often loaned to the Skarloey to help out there (until a later event we'll touch on with the next OC).

These two got BWBA'd before I even knew what the hell was going on in BWBA. Except it's much more realistic and boring in execution. Just a lot of boring time on cargo ships with shipping mix-ups! They got to Sodor though, don't worry.

They've got the energy of childhood best friends imo. Also, Forsythia and Wesley consider one another cousins, but like, adoptive cousins specifically.

Forsythia is down to clown and is cheeky and mischievous and a prankster but she is an experienced variety. And she knows when to back off. And she will, if you ask her (and you're not on her list of Those She Is Close Enough To Clown Upon Always And Forever or Those I Hate)! I'd say she's... like... young adult or teenager -coded. She's very energetic and a Large Ham if you know about that trope.

Now, look at Nicolas, her coach. Tell me, when you look at him, do you think he's the serious sort? You'd be wrong there. He's also down to clown! And he's here for the shenanigans as well. He's simply the quiet, observant deadpan to Forsythia's rambunctious large ham.

[EDIT: I never noted that sometimes these two's antics involve collaborating with the Troublesome Trucks. Forsythia's always offended when the inevitable betrayal happens.]

Now for that lore thing I mentioned. I have an adaptation of Toby's Discovery in my AU in which TFC does not manage that part of the railway. Instead he does participate in its restoration but it is ran by none other than Tiffany Lancaster! Forsythia is the Ulfstead Heritage Railway's Engine No. 2! (Engine No. 1 is Bertram; Forsythia would've been No. 1 if some contract things with the Skarloey Railway didn't have to be sorted out first.)

[EDIT: Now that Forsythia and Nicolas are consistently on a railway, they do have a cluster of trucks that won't betray them because of how fun things just tend to be with those two.]

And on that railway, eventually there arrived a BR Class 12 Diesel, but refitted to narrow gauge.

I present my final OC, Sycorax. Sycorax's arc is very dear to me because it has origins in both a random thought I had, a quote Awdry said in a video I watched, and my own opinions on locomotives and Sodor.

The video I've linked here made me have a realization about older diesels.

https://youtu.Be/h-xesjpiqgo?T=189

I can see where Awdry was coming from on this - he witnessed dieselization firsthand! But boy, I think diesels (and electrics!) have their charm and I'm really fond of them actually. I know it's very different as a modern reader who barely has any exposure to locomotives in person anyways due to the infrastructure of the United States just… Sucking sometimes, but nevertheless, my point stands.

Sycorax's arc starts with them in a most dire place: about to be scrapped. But fate saves them and they're refitted and brought to Sodor, where they find that, despite being the new thing, they're envious of steam engines, seeing their charm and the fact that they'll always be in fashion somewhere… And they feel generic and replaceable.

But eventually they start to realize that diesels become obsolete too. Now this is particularly regarding a dash of TVS canon but I like to think that the diesels of Sodor are there because Sodor, is too, a safe haven for them as well as steam engines. That's why absolute assholes stay around sometimes, it's because they've nowhere else to go. Sycorax realizes their envy is unwarranted, and that Sodor is a safehaven for all types of engines who need it, it's just that, at the time, steam engines needed it most. And they're not replaceable. And this is home now.

[EDIT: Forgot to add that they're the UHR (ulfstead heritage railway) No. 3!]

Thank you for reading all that. As a finale, let me briefly touch on my sona, The Secondman himself.

The Secondman is literally a self-insert/sona guy who's a human studying on modern day Sodor. He volunteers on the railways of the island often. He intends to immigrate there properly once he's done with his schooling. He's essentially is to me what the Thin Clergyman was to Awdry. In-universe, he writes my fanbooks, my silly little shitposts about various Engine Incidents, and a whole bunch of other things. And he's having a good time.

I haven't drawn him. But nevertheless!

Thank you SO MUCH for reading this loredump. I hope you enjoyed.

#ttte #thomas and friends #thomas the tank engine #ttte ocs #rws #the railway series #wesley the show engine #forsythia the rambunctious engine #nicolas the coach #wesward #ttte oc #secondman says #sycorax the fairground diesel #secondman scribbles #secondman storytelling

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brookstonalmanac · 9 months

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Events 12.29

1170 – Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, is assassinated inside Canterbury Cathedral by followers of King Henry II; he subsequently becomes a saint and martyr in the Anglican Communion and the Catholic Church. 1503 – The Battle of Garigliano was fought between a Spanish army under Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba and a French army commanded by Ludovico II, Marquess of Saluzzo. 1607 – According to John Smith, Pocahontas, daughter of Powhatan leader Wahunsenacawh, successfully pleads for his life after tribal leaders attempt to execute him. 1778 – American Revolutionary War: Three thousand British soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell capture Savannah, Georgia. 1812 – USS Constitution, under the command of Captain William Bainbridge, captures HMS Java off the coast of Brazil after a three-hour battle. 1835 – The Treaty of New Echota is signed, ceding all the lands of the Cherokee east of the Mississippi River to the United States. 1845 – The United States annexes the Republic of Texas and admits it as the 28th state. 1860 – The launch of HMS Warrior, with her combination of screw propeller, iron hull and iron armour, renders all previous warships obsolete. 1874 – The military coup of Gen. Martinez Campos in Sagunto ends the failed First Spanish Republic and the monarchy is restored as Prince Alfonso is proclaimed King of Spain. 1876 – The Ashtabula River railroad disaster occurs, leaving 64 injured and 92 dead at Ashtabula, Ohio. 1890 – On Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, 300 Lakota are killed by the United States 7th Cavalry Regiment. 1911 – Mongolia gains independence from the Qing dynasty, enthroning 8th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu as Khagan of Mongolia. 1913 – Cecil B. DeMille starts filming Hollywood's first feature film, The Squaw Man. 1930 – Sir Muhammad Iqbal's presidential address in Allahabad introduces the two-nation theory and outlines a vision for the creation of Pakistan. 1934 – Japan renounces the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930. 1937 – The Irish Free State is replaced by a new state called Ireland with the adoption of a new constitution. 1940 – In the Second Great Fire of London, the Luftwaffe fire-bombs London, England, killing almost 200 civilians during World War II. 1972 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 (a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar) crashes in the Florida Everglades on approach to Miami International Airport, Florida, killing 101 of the 176 people on board. 1975 – A bomb explodes at LaGuardia Airport in New York City, killing 11 people and injuring more than 75. 1989 – Czech writer, philosopher and dissident Václav Havel is elected the first post-communist President of Czechoslovakia. 1989 – The Nikkei 225 for the Tokyo Stock Exchange hits its all-time intra-day high of 38,957.44 and closing high at 38,915.87, serving as the apex of the Japanese asset price bubble. 1992 – Fernando Collor de Mello, president of Brazil, tries to resign amidst corruption charges, but is then impeached. 1994 – Turkish Airlines Flight 278 (a Boeing 737-400) crashes on approach to Van Ferit Melen Airport in Van, Turkey, killing 57 of the 76 people on board. 1996 – Guatemala and leaders of Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity sign a peace accord ending a 36-year civil war. 1998 – Leaders of the Khmer Rouge apologize for the Cambodian genocide that claimed over one million lives. 2003 – The last known speaker of Akkala Sami dies, rendering the language extinct. 2006 – The UK settles its Anglo-American loan, post-WWII loan debt. 2013 – A suicide bomb attack at the Volgograd-1 railway station in the southern Russian city of Volgograd kills at least 18 people and wounds 40 others. 2013 – Seven-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher suffers a massive head injury while skiing in the French Alps. 2020 – A large explosion at the airport in the southern Yemeni city of Aden kills at least 22 people and wounds 50.

#Events

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imitation-steamroller · 2 years

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*cracks knuckles* Alright, I’ve had a couple days to chill out, and I want to try my hand at rewriting BWBA. Well, certain elements of it. I was going to start a six or seven post long headcanon about Nia’s relationships with the rest of the team, new and old members, but this takes precedent.

Big World Big Adventures is a hell of a concept, one that honestly sounds really interesting on paper, but the execution left a lot to be desired. I like the movie, but it could have been better. Season 22 got off to a rather rough start, but it seemed to find its footing a bit partway through. I can only hope seasons 23 and 24 can pick up the slack.

So, starting with the movie...

The Movie

I said this in another post, but I think it’d be cool if the movie was used to expand on The Great Race a bit. Instead of Thomas suddenly deciding to follow a racecar around the world, he was chosen to participate in some big exchange program that was being held for the competitors in the Great Railway Show. But maybe due to impatience or human error at the docks, Thomas ends up on the wrong ship and goes to Africa instead of India.

From there, the movie would play out about the same, except it’s Thomas going from port to port to find a ship to India, with Nia following along so she can see the world and make sure he doesn’t get himself killed. Eventually, they end up at a dock with two ships: one bound for India, the other for Sodor. Thomas goes to India to start S22, and Nia decides she wants to settle down somewhere small and goes to Sodor.

It’s silly and unrealistic, but so are most Thomas movies if you think about it.

The Show

Okay, here’s where we get into the real meat. I’ve got a lot to say about the Sodor and international episodes, but I think we’ll start with-

The Show in General

There are a lot of aspects of BWBA that bother a lot of people, one of which being the Steam Team. Personally, I’m not as fond of the concept as I used to be. All it does is cause fan favorites to be pushed aside and create in-fighting within the fandom. Honestly, I’m torn between adding Rosie to make the team equal or just breaking them up all together. Adding Rosie would make the team even and give her some more spotlight, but breaking them up could allow more characters to have their chance to shine.

Next up are the opening and ending sequences. Dump them completely. There’s no reason for them to be there aside from regurgitating the episode plot and lesson, and most of the episodes feel rushed or unfinished since they need to make way for these segments. And like, I feel like it talks down to the child audience, too. In the show’s 30+ year run, the audience has always been able to figure out the moral - When there is one - for themselves, so why dumb down the show even further.

Next is the fantasy sequences. Dump them, too. We’ve had them before in episodes like Sticky Toffee Thomas and Other Side of the Mountain, but they weren’t very long and were easy to ignore. The episodes grind to a halt for upwards of a minute whenever these intrusive and oversaturated fever dreams play, so why not cut them out entirely?

Then you’ve got the bouncing. I generally don’t mind it as I feel that it makes the characters just a little more emotive, but the character models are all very clearly not made to do this. There’s a scene in one of the Brazil episodes where the engines are messing with a football and Raul is outright floating off his chassis, and another in an Italy episode where Gina looks like she’s about to break in half. Despite my feelings on it, I think the best thing to do would be to cut it out completely. It’d certainly make things easier for the animators.

And finally, you’ve got Thomas as the narrator. And like everything else I’ve mentioned, you can cut him out too. A Shed for Edward proved that we don’t really need a narrator for Thomas anymore when it was mistakenly aired without the narration. And personally, I was never completely sold on John Hasler or Joseph May. I always preferred Ben Small and Eddie Glen as Thomas.

Now then, let’s get onto-

The International Episodes

I think my biggest issue with these episodes - outside of the fantasy sequences and the lack of weight to the engines - is Thomas himself. The only explanation we’re given for him being in these countries is that he was ‘sent to help out on the x railway,’ and he spends most of these episodes acting clueless and causing trouble. I’ve got two ways of fixing the former, but I want to focus on the latter for a second.

Something I wish we had seen was episodes focused on the international characters. Mattel said they were trying to push for gender equality in the show, only for the girl characters to do absolutely jack shit. And the international guys don’t do much either, do they? More often than not, they’re just tour guides for Thomas.

I know S24 has Yong Bao and the Tiger and S23 has Crowning Around, but I would have loved an episode about Hong Mei being a sore winner, or an episode focused on down to earth Noor Jehan dealing with high and mighty Rajiv’s shit all day. Or hell, maybe give Ashima some time to shine! How has All Engines Go done more with her in an episode and a half than the original series did with three seasons and a whole movie?

And if you absolutely need Thomas in every episode, just make him the the protagonist’s sidekick, or give him some background gags or something. Or better yet, have him at the beginning of an episode, then transition over to Hong Mei, or Raul, or whoever the episode’s protagonist is, like the Small Railway Engines adaptions did.

Now, as for my point about his reasons being in these countries.

1. The episodes take place during the movie

I feel like when BWBA first came out, everybody assumed this was how it would play out, with the international episodes set during Thomas and Nia’s adventure, and the Sodor episodes being set after they come back. And personally, I feel like this is the best way to do it.

Maybe Thomas could be busy trying to finish his work so he can go to the docks and look for a ship to India, while Nia convinces him to stop and at least pay a little attention to where they are. Maybe they could meet the railway show engines and have some kind of conflict with them (Vinnie at the very least) or the engine could show them some region specific thing about their railway.

2. Thomas goes on a second world tour

Essentially what the show did, but this time there’s a reason for it. The way I would do it is have the international episodes set completely in India, when Thomas is doing the exchange I mentioned earlier. Maybe he could swap with Ashima so we could get some episodes of her on Sodor, or Rajiv so we could get him interacting with James.

Anyway, when Thomas comes back to Sodor, he finds out the The Fat Controller wants to send him from another country. Turns out, Thomas gained a lot of attention during his adventure, and FC wants him to go on an official rail tour, leading to the rest of the international episodes in S23 and 24. And if you need to have multiple countries a season, just have him come back part way through so FC can send him on his way again.

And with that out of the way, we can move to-

The Sodor Episodes

Okay, so I actually prefer the Sodor episodes to the international ones, if only because Thomas isn’t the focus of all of them. That being said, they’re still not great. Once again, my biggest issue with them is Thomas, albeit for slightly different reasons. Why is he here if he’s supposed to be going around the world? He outright references Trusty Trunky in Thomas’ Animal Ark. Where’s the continuity?

So starting off, I would remove Thomas completely. If the episode isn’t expressly stated to take place before the BWBA movie (i.e. An Engine of Many Colors), or during a short period where Thomas is between trips, then Thomas has no business being on Sodor. Instead, have the first two or three episodes take place during the movie so we can see how the engines got on without Thomas. Then at the end of one of them, we introduce Nia to Sodor so we can have some eps about her adjusting to her new home.

Aside from introducing Rebecca to the rest of the team, Nia doesn’t really do a lot in S22. She’s mostly a supporting character this season, then gets Counting on Nia towards the end, which is a whole other conversation. If I remember correctly, seasons 23 and 24 aren’t much different. And apparently she becomes the safari engine for the animal park in S24, which just...no. All kinds of no. The general consensus among fans is that she should have been a utility engine, and I 100% agree.

And 100% keep her personality from the movie. In that, she’s sassy, cheeky, and confident, but also mature, calm, and she knows when to leave when she’s not being treated right. I would have loved to see how that Nia would have interacted with the Tidmouth crew.

From there, you introduce Rebecca as the new express engine, as traffic has been increasing since Thomas' big world adventure. I think Rebecca’s episodes are fine so far, but she doesn’t leave much of a lasting impression. Maybe she could have a one-sided rivalry with James. Maybe he thought he was going to be the new express engine, only to be shown up by this eternally happy newbie.

Or maybe she could have an episode with Gordon, who’s stressing out from all the changes happening on Sodor. Have Rebecca - the engine whose life has suddenly been uprooted and has been sent to this tiny island - be the engine who talks to him during Forever and Ever. Not Nia, who had some level of agency over the changes happening in her life.

And maybe you could give her an episode with Nia, who she doesn’t really interact with much if I remember correctly. In her introduction episodes, Rebecca is shown to be a little self conscious, and gets into scrapes because she wants to stand out or be like the other engines. There so easily could have been an episode about Nia helping Rebecca find some confidence and seeing everything great about herself.

Closing Thoughts

As stated at the beginning, Big World Big Adventures is on hell of an idea, one that I honestly think could have been wonderful if it was handled correctly. And while I won’t say that this is 100% the way to do it, I do think it’s at least a little better than what we got.

A few days ago, I made a post that said that BWBA might be the worst part of the original series. And while I haven’t completely changed my stance on that, I’m hoping the next two seasons do something to convince me otherwise. Guess I’ll have to wait and see.

#ttte #roller's ramblings #thomas and friends #ttte thomas #long post #ttte nia #ttte gordon #ttte rebecca #ttte noor jehan #ttte hong mei #ttte yong bao #ttte ashima #ttte rajiv #ttte raul #ttte james #bwba rewrite #tumblr if this fucking deletes itself while i'm posting it like that long ass animorphs/twdg post did i WILL cry

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thepastisalreadywritten · 2 years

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SAINT OF THE DAY (November 19)

Saint Raphael Kalinowski was born on 1 September 1835 as Joseph, son of Andrew and Josepha Kalinowski in present day Lithuania.

Saint Raphael felt a call to the priesthood early in his life but decided to complete his education.

He studied zoology, chemistry, agriculture, and apiculture at the Institute of Agronomy in Hory Horki, Russia, and at the Academy of Military Engineering in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Saint Raphael became a Lieutenant in the Russian Military Engineering Corps in 1857.

During his post, he was responsible for the planning and supervised construction of the railway between Kursk and Odessa. He was promoted to captain in 1862 and stationed in Brest-Litovsk.

In Bret-Litovsk, he started, taught and covered all the costs of a Sunday school, accepting anyone interested. In 1863, he supported the Polish insurrection.

He resigned from the Russian army and became the rebellion's minister of war for the Vilna region. He only took the commission with the understanding that he would never hand out a death sentence nor execute a prisoner.

He was soon arrested by Russian authorities. In June 1864, he was condemned to death for his part in the revolt.

Fearing they would be creating a political martyr, they commuted his sentence to ten years of forced labour in the Siberian salt mines.

Part of his sentence was spent in Irkutsk, where his relics have been moved to sanctify the new cathedral.

Upon his release in 1873, he was exiled from his home region in Lithuania. He moved to Paris and worked there as a tutor for three years.

In 1877, he finally answered the long-heard call to the religious life and joined the Carmelite Order at Graz, Austria, taking the name Raphael.

He studied theology in Hungary and then joined the Carmelite house in Czama, Poland. He was ordained on 15 January 1882.

Saint Raphael worked to restore the Discalced Carmelites. In 1889, he founded a convent at Wadowice, Poland, and worked alongside Blessed Alphonsus Mary Marurek.

He was a noted spiritual director for both Catholics and Orthodox. He was considered an enthusiastic parish priest and spent countless hours with his parishioners in the confessional.

Raphael died of tuberculosis on 15 November 1907.

Pope John Paul II beatified Raphael on 22 June 1983 in Kraków, Poland, and canonized on 17 November 1991 in St. Peter's Basilica.

He was the first man to be so recognized in the Order of Discalced Carmelites since John of the Cross.

#Saint of the Day #Saint Raphael Kalinowski #Order of Discalced Carmelites

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rray-gunn · 1 year

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Friends at the Table: PALISADE NOTES Ep 3: Conflict Turn session 1

EDIT: tumblr’s bullet point formatting is absolute ass, so here’s a link to my cohost where you can view the exact same post but, uh, prettier to read. If anyone has tips for formatting bullet points in tumblr lmk.

SPOILERS UNDER THE READMORE!

*Note: I take these notes as I listen, so they’re kind of a chronological reading guide to help me as I re-listen. I hope I got everything correct, but there will inevitably be mistakes with my spelling and comprehension of events that happen in these episodes. PLEASE feel free to let me know if I missed or misinterpreted anything. These notes are to help me and others make sense of the really dense and lore-heavy conflict turn episodes, so it’s important to me that I’m as accurate as I can be. I’m posting these notes on my tumblr and cohost. If you can think of anything that would be helpful for future notes posts, such as timestamps, links, fanart images, etc, please let me know. -Ray*

Jack’s faction:

Division:

The Curtain (Stel Kesh) as Bilateral Intelligence Services. Formerly called the Curtain, the BIS is a Kesh-operated organization which specializes in espionage, subterfuge, and surveillance. Though it is as secretive as ever, it is no longer the true source of power in Kesh territory. Instead, Cynosure Whitestar-Kesh has modernized its structure and operation, and has ensured that it remains well integrated into the Bilateral Intercession’s greater workings—as to better keep one eye on them.

Major division

Type: Subterfuge (deploying spies or agents to deal with things covertly)

3 pillars:

1) Diadem Grav Train

Kesh has reactivated this railway via an operation center in Carmathen.

It can circumnavigate the planet

Very scary and fast

2) Stargrave Elcessor

Ensures Kesh’s primacy.

Woman from Kesh, collects vintage cameras, went to military school

3) The Paint Shop

Elaborate castle on the tallest peak, taken over & added on to

Anor Londo but if it was a bohemian artist’s commune full of spies

This is the most Cold War-esque shit ever JDQ I love you so much

Imagine Warhol-esque parties where people do performance art by splashing paint on an object and several floors below there’s a guy sitting in a room wearing headphones listening to everyone

After Palisade:

Peaceful Princept reconfigured the curtain into this current form

A modern organization for a new time. It’s the CIA.

Have deployed on Palisade

Seek to control/control the following:

Carleon-Upon-Whisk, Carmathen, Steeple Cateric (headquarters), Tintagel (military base),

Stargrave: a senior kesh military executive such as an admiral

They have the “authority” to destroy the nearest star, akin to US nuclear launch codes.

Leader is the Princept

Stargrave reports up to them

Kesh:

The oldest established power in the galaxy, built around a stuffy (and secretive) aristocracy. They are tied to the Past. History, knowledge, stubbornness.

Art’s faction:

Division:

Stel Nideo as the Divine Crusade. Leads Stel Nideo’s occupation on Palisade along with their Elect, Gentian. Crusade is an enormous, bipedal machine covered (or perhaps made with) beautiful stained glass.

Minor division

Type: Curator (stealing that which doesn’t belong to them whoops all British)

3 pillars:

1) New Asterism

Settler colonial project intent on taking over and replacing the populace culture of Palisade

Fake Gur Sevraq: “cultivate saplings” it’s a very manifest destiny vibe, a very “tame the wild west” vibe, very “these people weren’t doing this right and we are going to cultivate this land

2) Bontive Valley

Blessed by the Divine Bounty, a heartland that provides highly nutritional grain, etc

This is where you’ll find Crusade walking around trying to make people associate them with providing food rather than knives

Also its close to Carleon-Upon-Whisk and therefore close to Kesh and the Fab Duchy

Also very near one of the big conflict fronts

3) The Divine Resonance

Watchful guardian and caregiver/supporter of the Nidean colonial project on Palisade

It’s everywhere. It’s a surveillance system. Everyone knows it’s there and is touted as a parental, protective Alexa

The state protects and attends to its settlers.

It also is monitoring for “terrorists” and Millennium Break.

The Divine Crusade

Giant stained glass figure

Beautiful, terrible, made with Independence tech from TM (Twilight Mirage)

Nideo:

Created the largest faith in the empire, and used that influence to shape (and surveil) mass culture. They are tied to the Present. Faith, coercion, stability.

Control the following:

Temple of the threshold (home of new asterism and its false prophet),

Aram’s Gate

City City

A fever dream. City is a verb. City is a noun. City is an adjective. We are city. We city.

A joint project btwn Nideo and the Frontier Syndicate. The output of something in Baseline (the data town)

Austin’s faction

Division:

The Frontier Syndicate as the March Institute

Minor division

Type: research (developing new Enchantments ™ and Rituals ™ )

3 pillars:

1) Lone Marble Group

Builds BiLat war machinery

Based around one artifact recovered from an advent facility, in southeast Greenfield

AKA THE FUCKING MARBLE FROM TM

2) Divine Arbitrage

The amoral machine turned de facto treasurer

Operates out of Braunton

Runs commerce, everyone’s favorite capitalism algorithm

Currency: Glint

3) Composure’s Colosseum

Operated by a revived Divine that instrumentalizes data from fucked up sports aka gladiator fights babyeeee

How can fucked up bloodthirsty sports give us #bigdata???

Frontier Syndicate:

A powerful conglomerate with a broad purview, including technology, heavy industry, entertainment, telecommunications, and transportation. Led by Exenceaster March (he/him), the Syndicate betrayed the Pact of Free States and joined the Bilats in order to be part of their colonization efforts on Palisade.

Founded/led by Exenceaster March

He’s an entrepreneur that left the Pact of Necessary Venture (aka now the Pact of Free States) to join the Bilateral Intercession

(see Downstairs episodes in Road to Palisade)

Made up of many subsidiaries such as:

The March Institute (the leading subsidiary)

It’s a bunch of different companies that make up one super-company

Think same structure as ancient OriCon from Counter/WEIGHT

It’s a bit of Columnar, a little bit of Orion,

Pioneering new styles of technological military and social exploitation

Kinda concerned with the future. Think AI shit, chatgpt, etc and the kinds of problems from big tech companies. Elon Musk loooooves the Frontier Syndicate.

Comprises: Most of shale belt mineral highlands by Braunton, Baseline (the fucked up data town, like an atomic doom town, where people get to live there for free so long as they sign away their rights to informed consent and they get experimented on for #bigdata)

Misc Divisions (parts of the Cause, AKA MB)

Jade Kill

A military camp.

Based in Joyous Guard, former Fab Duchy city (see Wagon Wheel game)

Leader: August Righteousness, revolutionary chef who executed a crusader king’s plot

captured the ex-leader of the Fab Duchy, who is upset at how the Stargrave runs things now

Military arm of the cause

Operated by Kalar’s Giant Killer unit

and a wing of Swordbreakers

Violet Cove

A strange type of faction dealing with weird and unexplained

A bunch of weirdos and oddballs.

The Dim Liturgy (cult) and the Divine Devotion (cult)

Dim Liturgy: a cult whos sacred text is the battered and corrupted backup of Crystal Palace’s final predictions for the future.

They predicted that they would sign up with Devotion. And so they signed up with Devotion.

Just two bestie cults working together against the BiLats!

Grey Pond

With members of the Oxblood Clan, the Company of the Spade, and the Shale Belt's Concrete Front, these blue collar revolutionaries are experts at getting the Cause the equipment it needs (and maintaining what it has when that's the only available option).

Supplier type

New equipment and supplies

Based in Sinder Karst (like the Sierra Madres- sometimes insurgents go into the hills because hills are good for hiding insurgents.)

They’ve taken the top bit of the Frontier Syndicate’s territory in the Shale Belt.

Carmine Bight

From ramshackle additions to the rocky shores of Rifle Island, Captain Skelton Knaggs (he/him) and his fearsome flotilla launch rusted pirate vessels beneath the waves, guided by a coalition of Hyphan navigators.

Submarine pirates!

Type: adventurers. Bold action and unpredictable actions.

Long descendants of the Lineage Brighton, etc.

Rose River

Though they are undoubtedly committed to the Cause, this unique research unit (combining Veronique (she/her), her Divine Fealty (any pronouns), and their followers with an out-of-time NEH Sleep Detachment squad) hope for a day when they can be something other than soldiers.

(see first ep of Road to Palisade: On their way to the gates of the TM, Fealty and Veronique found an old NEH sleep detachment ship that needed help, and whoops ANOTHER CULT FORMED

Based in New Oath

Oh cool, another Divine kneeling over a town……

Melancholy war story vibe. Touchstone is “thin red line,” a WWII film that, dreamlike, builds and overwhelms into an outbreak of violence.

When we last saw Veronique, her cockpit was filling with the colors of the TM, and all of the sleep detachment people have awoken from a long, long sleep- remember how Morning’s Observation felt? It’s very dreamlike.

The people who were in there were actually in the episode descriptions for some TM episodes: Lani and Tee (frank ocean and tyler the creator as college kids) that were going to school- there’s lecture notes- and got in a pod and got shot through space and woke up thousands of years later and woke up and the war that they didn’t have any strong feelings about- it was just a job, easy money- the war was over, and replaced by a different war that they are immediately caught up in. So yeah that’s the vibe

Wayward factions:

The Crown of Glass

The domain of the Witch in Glass

largest non-BiLat city on the planet

has assets from the principality and palisade itself

type: bandits. Robbery and sabotage.

The Afflictions

Type: despoilers

Ravel

A massive brain neuron traveling the hills and valleys

Refrain

An abandoned theater which appears as if from nowhere, with the projection of a person on the stage

Cleave

The dragon made of knives is this one’s minion

Scary beast

Dust

“what if a mummy could be a mech?”

Oversight

Slowly moving statue whose faces are always fluctuating under a shroud

The Pact of Free States

***********

NOW THE CONFLICT STARTS BAYBEEEE

Note: Grip = HP

Recapping which factions are controlled by which players-

JDQ: Bilateral Intelligence Service, Rose River, Carmine Bight

AMT: Stel Nideo, Violet Cove, Crown of Glass

AW: Frontier Syndicate, Jade Kill, Grey Pond, the Afflictions

Bilateral Intelligence Service’s turn

Passive ability: Every turn, place 1 grip on a faction or pillar of your choice

Divisions want to gain authority on factions/pillars

Places 1 grip on the Violet Cove.

A spy is sent:

Marlon Styx, big eyebrows, pious stern bald man pulls up on a rowboat.

A champagne bottle opens. An artist is painting something gaudy. We travel down the floors of The Paint Shop, past an art party, past a security guard, past an office with people sketching on a wall, deeper into the bowels of the castle where someone’s working on art in a production room, painting stripes on horse armor, further down until we get to a 70’s British conference room with an overhead projector. The presenter is sent to replace the director of this operation.

Interference: Violet Cove interferes (namely the Dim Liturgy, the ones that follow the predictive engine of Crystal Palace)

Someone reads in a book about the spy being sent. They see how the events unfold.

Fool Factotum, a junior agent in the BIS, in a simple grey skirt and jacket, a little hat, pale and short wavy brown hair, cold grey eyes, thin gaunt features, either 27 or 47, you cannot tell. She/her. She’s among a group of 14-15 people.

It’s year 1429 of the Perfect Millennium. The lights go down, and a man stands from the front row. He’s totally unremarkable looking- you wouldn’t be able to describe his features an hour later, totally generic. He looks like George Smiley. He thanks the previous director for their work in setting up this operation in this building. He gestures to the screen and it shows “adagio in G.”

Summary: “My name is Ryar Conidine. I’ve spent most of my career in the BIS. I specialized in psychological operations and folklore. Did service, became a teacher, and now the Princept has ordered me to join the service again. A brief history lesson: For basically ever, Kesh has been a principality of spies. Understatement. 5000 years ago, our predecessors started a psychological operation. Using the future-seeing power of an oracle engine, they generated 100,000s of near perfect predictions. They were made in a loop, and over 2000 years, actors played out these predictions and made sure they would happen. I have been sent to Palisade to bring the planet on the cycle. The machine has been lost, but Kesh understands that we must adapt. Workshops are being constructed. Prop makers are assembling quite the paint shop. We are distributing predictions. A star will fall, and our ships are in position to shoot down the satellite. Our alliance with the Fab Duchy. They pass down their predecessors in liquid inside glass bodies. We are infiltrating them and making one of them into a puppet, so their entire people think it’s all normal. We are making the planet go into a dance. Any questions?”

People are confused and awestruck. One says “sir, what does this have to do with intelligence?” “Control of all kinds is intensely useful.”

Fool Factotum: “we don’t have eyes in a number of places. How will we get those people in costume?” aka pointing out blind spots. Answer: “we know this won’t be easy. I’ve been assured of mutual cooperation with March.”

In the texts back at Violet Cove: The outcome is predicted- It’s arrogance. Being in the war college is not the same as being in the war.

NEVERMIND REROLL IT, SAYS AUSTIN!

Somewhere on the island of the broken key, a devotion cultist, says “the game’s on!” and they turn on their TV, helping Composure’s Coliseum collect data. Welcome to GPT style generated content.

2 major sports on Palisade: basketball and basically bloodbowl but with mechs

This does not reflect in the Dim Liturgy’s book. This is one of the ways that the book is broken. The book itself is weird Nostradamus junk: vague and weird.

So basically they’re going to do this psyop with sports.

There begins to be leaks. “Did you hear that this was predicted?” “no it wasn’t, you buffoon”

There’s a spy both ways: one in steeple cateric, one in Violet Cove. The monks saw there was an opportunity to put someone in. They’ve swapped spies lol

Marlon is the spy working for Violet Cove (doing both sides)

Outcome:

Do they do the plan? Yes.

Who benefits the most? BIS.

Recap as explained by Austin in Ep4: It’s festival season! There’s been a lot of community outreach from…. Somewhere??? (this represents a new plan deployed by Stel Kesh via the Paint Shop: they are putting the planet on cycle. The BIS’s new plan, called Adagio in G. (From TM, the principality of Kesh used to be “on cycle”. Their entire lives were scripted. If you deviated, you were inducted into the rapid evening and shipped off to the edge of the principality where you could defend everybody on the interior remaining on cycle.) Here, on Palisade, Kesh thinks it would be cool to do that again. Except they don’t have the predictive engine Crystal Palace (aka Divine Past) anymore so it’ll be more difficult. But they’re doing this by making people participate in local harvest plays, getting more involved in sports, etc. Dressing up and putting on plays. One such thing: They decided that a woman on a white horse would show up. This is easy to do. They have infiltrated the Fabreal Duchy and got a horse of the right color, and a new long-lost duchess of folklore showed up. Like people claiming to be descendants of the long lost Russian royalty, like the fake Anastasia. This prediction was made by either/both the remains of Crystal Palace, or people in the Paint Shop.

Stel Nideo’s turn

Passive ability: start or advance a 4-part clock titled “take something that’s not yours”

Scene: Discourse.

Gentian (the elect of Crusade) is holding a reception at the foot of Crusade. She is impossibly old. She has four attendants. She is wearing an embroidered robe. The reception has little sandwiches.

Two swordbearers (for a Soul Edge-esque sword that can be split in two: Ramondra sh/sh and Ignadiah h/h)

One who holds a ceremonial big cup cut from one giant emerald (Pereval th/th)

One who holds a big book of crusades. (Clawed, 6’5”, muscular, the book is super heavy for him. h/h)

If Gentian dies, one of these four will be the next elect of Crusade.

In Dark Souls, you would fight them separately except the swordbearers would be one boss fight. They are rivals.

Pereval opens the ceremony, holding the cup in both hands. “welcome to the Bontive Valley. Eat our food and bask in the warm light of crusade.” There are people sitting on blankets, there are columnar, Fab Duchy, etc. Ramondra makes a subtly snide remark at Pereval. Clawed talks flippantly about their duties. “Isn’t there more important work to be doing right now?” Gentian, who is supernatural in her speed, leaves another conversation and interrupts Clawed, who persists and doubles down that this reception is not as important as, say, fighting the Concrete Front. She explains how the project of Crusade is about fighting, sure, but this is equally important: there’s a lot of diplomats and important inventors/sympathists here and this is one of the ways we win the war.

Kenneth Marion Culver, the viceroy of Kesh on Palisade who works underneath the Stargrave (famously quoted: “you can’t colonize your own home!”) comes over to try to pull Gentian away. This is the person who gets sent out to talk to people. “Your excellency, we need to talk about these bread rates.” He is an unctuous person demanding cheaper bread prices. “It’s so important, I agree,” says Gentian, “but I am busy.” Culver remarks that “the Stargrave will take notice” and Gentian, annoyed, makes Pereval discuss the bread. No one at all from Crusade gives two shits about bread taxes. They’re from the place where the bread is free. But this is also about how Culver wants *Bontive* bread. It’s almost a holy thing. Otherwise they would be going to Arbitrage.

A Baroque chamber ensemble plays. Ramondra and Ignadiah flirt: they’re both trying to be the most interesting person at the function. One was invited to hunt quail with the duke. The other was invited to hunt boar. How boar-ish, one remarks. They keep this up.

A new duke arrives on a horse. This was predicted. Perpetual Luster, the Duke of Glass, was kidnapped and is being held at Joyous Guard. But now a new duke arrives. A Fab Duchy duke: Constantina Malady. (So they have a new Duke now??? They replaced the old one?? Oooooo) They arrive with a gift for Gentian, with a train of delegates in tow. She makes a show of announcing that she has returned from travel and welcomes her people “from the stars.” She’s ornate, made of glass, with a cool toga thing. The gift is in a large trunk, and Gentian grins as she sees what’s inside.

Frontier Syndicate’s turn

Passive ability: The director may force a re-roll every scene.

Scene: a chase.

We go back to the events of the previous episode. The Blue Channel crew is getting on the ship with their new comrades, the two Twill and Partial Palisade, in the Fundament Node. We see it from afar, as if from a digital pair of binoculars, zoomed in, with a living watercolor effect on the zoomed in version.

Members of the authority attack on this place from the table siege tower mech that shot out people- those people got out in the weirdly lit green valley in the bottom of the diadem.

This person is trying to get away and they go to their pickup line but it’s the grav train and it isn’t working right now! Thanks blue channel.

There’s a group that is a subsidiary of the Frontier Syndicate called Locke & Cross security services, who are two divorced columnar women too committed to the cause to actually separate the business, and this is Margate Locke, retreating. Her crew didn’t make it, but she has the information, she saw it with her painting goggles. She’s trying to get away to any major BiLat location for a pickup. Who is chasing her?

There’s a fully stocked library from 5000 years ago, deep underground in the Diadem, this fully ready city that no one ever moved into.

Someone is lying on their back in a pile of papers. They pick up the papers and read them over their head, shining a flashlight held in their mouth on the papers. This is Candle’s Penumbra. She has long blond hair that’s getting filled with dust. Her walkie talkie blips up on a shelf and it falls and hits an old tape projector. A video about the Diadem clicks on, volume off, but the clicking and whirring of the tape persists. Gucci Garunteen’s voice comes through. “Rose River agent, this is Watershed. Come in.”

Candle’s puts her hand between the projector and the wall, watching the dust motes catch in the light. “Yes?” There’s a loose end she needs to tie up. Coordinates are given. “Huh. Okay.”

Candle’s leads Locke into a trap. There are parks and homes and shops around. This was a supermall that was supposed to be a place to live in. There was supposed to be a bridal shop here, and it shows three mannequins with decaying dresses. In the back, sheets of white silk and velvet and chiffon hang from the ceiling, in endless rows. Locke is led into this maze of white fabric. Margate Locke is white, like a porcelain figure. Her individual plates are either unpainted or pristine. There, among the white sheets, she is led into a trap. An ancient AI projection of a ghost tailor and a ghost bride turn on, perfect and heteronormative, going from fitting for the dress to kissing the groom at the wedding, and sanding in the background of the wall of the dress fitting is Candle’s Penumbra, projection flitting across her, and as the scene changes to the happy couples faces turning in to profile to kiss, her face is between them staring forward, jarring. She draws a weapon. It’s a flail.

Sparks bounce off Locke’s porcelain body as this blond woman with dusty hair lays into her. One of Locke’s plates on her plated arm shatters like glass. She lifts her other arm and smashes the inner glass as a way to launch the shrapnel into Candle’s face. She makes a run for it.

The camera goes into super slow motion. The frame rate is bad. The projector is still going, catching the shattered glass. Candle’s tackles Locke. They fall from the balcony on back of the bridal shop into the back of another shop, a floor below.

Margate Locke is not unprepared. Candle’s stands up, and they see Locke, 8 times, as 8 Margates begin clone jutsu. Candle’s goes for one of them immediately, caught in the dusty mania of the chase. They go over a bridge.

The bridge breaks. It shatters. Candle’s falls and grabs Locke’s belt. Somehow Locke wins this thing.

You thought you won but you didn’t- Locke’s body breaks the fall and the panels shatter, exposing the standard columnar body. Last minute, Locke gets one bar of signal and sends back the data she has about the little Twill village, in the fundament node, the person/figure that left, the members of the blue channel. In doing that, Locke has her back turned to Candle’s. We see the flail.

A clock is started: Harvest the Fundament Nodes.

Fundament Nodes are tied to something ancient in Palisade (meaning the corpse of the Divine Palisade)

(definition: things deep in the belly of the planet that lets you control huge parts of what the planet is/does)

*****

If you read this far, thanks! Again, please feel free to let me know if I need to correct any mistakes. The Adagio in G plan was particularly dense for me. I had to listen to it a few times to figure out what was happening exactly. These notes are mostly for me, so they’re formatted in my preferred style (bullet points), which I know can be a bit much for some people so bear with me. I’m also going to post the maps with some small annotations I did but I’ll do that in a different post as this one is long enough. Bye! -Ray

#palisade #friends at the table #palisade spoilers #f@tt #partizan #the divine cycle #twilight mirage #counter/weight

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testormblog · 20 days

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At the Railway’s Mercy

Nearly everybody including me, who lived beyond Brisbane’s boundaries, relied on trains for transportation. Trams didn’t run outside the city’s perimeter. Whilst motor vehicles had increased in number since the fifties, regional roads were still built for horse and cart traffic. This reliance made the Railway a powerful organisation. Such monopoly, its’ executives believed would continue forever.

The Railway treated its employees, passengers and freight customers alike with condescension. It transported almost everything everywhere on its own timetable: the living, their animals, the dead and anything these needed for their existence and business. It brought mail from all corners of the state to the General Post Office in Brisbane for sorting and onward travel. People accepted their deliveries would arrive whenever and in whatever condition these eventually did, having passed through multiple pairs of hands.

The Railway’s lines crisscrossed the length and breadth of the state. Even tinpot communities of a few hundred people had stations manned with staff and permanent track maintenance crews. The Railway’s costs to operate as well as to maintain its infrastructure and to build more greatly exceeded the normal person’s comprehension. Notwithstanding its volume of traffic, it didn’t earn a profit with the deficit of thousands of pounds footed by the taxpayers. They didn’t complain. Accordingly, the Railway saw no reason why it should change its antiquated, inefficient practices.

Every week day, I joined the thousands of its passengers. Those days that I began my journey at Bethania Station, I waited for a suburban rattler pulled by a PB15 steam engine to arrive at 6.25 am. Usually, the train came on time as it should have given that the station was its first stop. I stepped up from the low platform on to a carriage’s running board and grabbed the metal handles to climb into one of the train’s six second class carriages.

Inside, I looked for the least dirty seat and brushed the coal dust from it. Some people sat on the advertisement section of their newspapers. I wasn’t sure which was worse on one’s backside, a coal smudge or an advertisement for unmentionables. A few men smoked cigarettes and pipes even though the carriage may have been designated as nonsmoking. Smoke was both outside and inside; there wasn’t any difference. At least the nicotine smell cloaked the unwashed smell of some passengers. The ticket snapper soon came along with the hope I was a fare evader. This was not so and never so! The guard leant out from the rear carriage and waited for the station master’s hand signal. Upon receiving this, he waved his green flag and blew his whistle. The engine driver released the mighty steam engine’s brakes and engaged its drive wheels. The train lurched forward and began its slow thirty-two kilometre journey to South Brisbane Station.

As a child, I loved train rides to Brisbane. As a young man, the opposite applied. The route rarely varied so the daily scenes outside the carriage window didn’t either. After thousands of journeys, I barely glanced at them anymore. The constant clicky clack of the train’s steel wheels numbed my mind into a state of lethargy. I usually battled to stay awake as one never knew what crooked characters were passengers too. Everybody generally was suspicious of everybody else unless they knew them. Consequently, I didn’t engage in conversations with strangers. Whilst some people hid behind their newspapers, I didn’t take out a text book from my bag. The train’s constant noise and movement as well as passenger interruptions made concentration difficult.

The journey was like a trip through history. The train chugged through open country, over the Logan River and across the biggest bridge between Brisbane and Bethania. Supposedly, steam engines faster than the PB15 were too heavy to cross the aging timber bridge. The train stopped for a passenger at Loganlea sometimes. This small farming hamlet existed as it did last century. Onwards, the train steamed into the current century to Kingston, the area’s commercial hub where a prosperous butter factory operated and a once illustrious gold mine had existed. Despite the fixed gold price, the mine hadn’t turned a profit. Rumours lingered from its heyday that the miners themselves had pocketed the gold and become rich. Alas, they left behind an environmental debacle for the politicians to resolve. Next, at Woodridge, the train filled up with workers. The place was posh in name only. The government had encouraged migrants to settle there; yet had failed to plan a town or services for them. This failure would condemn it and its residents to future impoverishment.

I absentmindedly watched more stations flit by. At Runcorn, the foundations of the wartime military warehouses were still visible. Later, the Bradford Kendall heavy machinery foundry would be built on them. During World War Two, the surrounding suburbs had been the military’s manufacturing hub for equipment and armaments. Onwards, the train chugged to Rocklea which perennial floods attempted to wash away. It then picked up speed and ran express to South Brisbane. At Moorooka, I glanced at the interstate goods yards, colloquially called Clapham Junction, where a long line of retired Bayer Garrett steam engines had been parked on a track indefinitely. During the war, troops had erected a tent city close to here. As the train passed Park Road Station, Boggo Road Gaol loomed above with its gloomy Victorian architecture, home to the perpetrators of heinous crimes. At least, they saw the sunlight whilst working in the gardens.

The steam train thundered through the only tunnel on the route. Anyone who forgot to raise the rattly glass windows beforehand ended up covered in soot and coal dust. After nineteen stations, the train screeched to a halt at South Brisbane Station and disgorged hundreds of passengers. A mass of bodies charged down the stairs to the street. People boarded trams to the City or walked instead past the fish board, along the polluted Brisbane River and its docks then across Victoria Bridge. The smell was nauseating.

Unfortunately, the whole return journey awaited me if I wasn’t at college that night. I couldn’t believe that people endured this monotony for the duration of their working lives. I wasn’t yet eighteen and had already decided I didn’t like adult life or the big city very much. I also yearned for some respite from the Railway’s and its schedule’s control over my daily existence. My childhood romance with it was waning.

#At the Railway's Mercy #Queensland Railways #coal dust #Kingston #Woodridge #Clapham Junction #Park Road #South Brisbane Station

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asj-ventures · 1 month

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Market Morning Brief - 12th August

Asian markets trade flat and GIFT Nifty after turmoil on Hindenburg-Adani/Buch allegations.

Gift Nifty trading 9 points down at 8:06 am.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant spoke on Sunday with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and told him Iran's military preparations suggest Iran is getting ready for a large-scale attack on Israel.

Key for the Federal Reserve will be U.S. consumer prices on Wednesday where economists look for rises of 0.2% in both the headline and core, with the annual core slowing a tick to 3.2% hoping upto 0.5% rate cut.

Quarterly results today :

Vodafone Idea, Voltas, Bajaj Hindusthan Sugar, Balrampur Chini Mills, Campus Activewear, Dhanlaxmi Bank, DOMS Industries, Happiest Minds Technologies, Hindustan Copper, Housing & Urban Development Corporation, Indian Railway Finance Corporation, Natco Pharma, National Aluminium Company, NMDC, Olectra Greentech, Senco Gold, SJVN, Sunteck Realty, and Voltas.

Stocks in news today,

🎯Larsen & Toubro

Subsidiary L&T Semiconductor Technologies has completed the acquisition of a 100% stake in SiliConch Systems.

🎯Kotak Mahindra Bank

The bank has acquired 30 lakh equity shares of Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) for Rs 30 crore. With this, the bank’s current shareholding in ONDC is 5.10%.

🎯Oil and Natural Gas Corporation

The company has received approval from the Government of India for the infusion of additional equity capital of up to Rs 10,501 crore in ONGC Petro Additions (OPaL), conversion of backstopped Compulsorily Convertible Debentures (CCDs) amounting to Rs 7,778 crore, and balance payment of Rs 86 crore with respect to share warrants, totaling Rs 18,365 crore. This will change the status of OPaL into a subsidiary of ONGC with a 95.69% equity stake.

🎯Bank of Baroda

The public sector lender has raised lending rates by 5 basis points (bps) on its three-month, six-month, and one-year tenures, effective August 12.

🎯Canara Bank

The bank has raised its lending rate by 5 bps across tenures, effective August 12.

🎯Atul

Subsidiary Atul Bioscience has received the Establishment Inspection Report (EIR) from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its manufacturing facility at Ambernath, Maharashtra. The EIR was issued post the last inspection of the facility conducted from May 6 to May 10, which concluded with zero FDA 483 observations.

🎯Mastek

Hiral Chandrana has resigned as Group CEO of the company. The board has recommended Umang Nahata as the Interim Group CEO of Mastek Group, effective August 10. Umang Nahata is currently one of the non-Executive Directors of the company.

🎯Coffee Day Enterprises

The IDBI Trusteeship Services has admitted Coffee Day Enterprises into the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for the initiation of Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) for Rs 228.45 crore. The company is planning to take the required legal action in this regard.

🎯Amara Raja Energy & Mobility

Subsidiary Amara Raja Advanced Cell Technologies has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Piaggio Vehicles, a 100% Indian subsidiary of the Italian auto giant Piaggio Group. Amara Raja will collaborate with Piaggio India to develop and supply LFP (lithium iron phosphate) Lithium-Ion (Li-ion) cells and chargers for its electric vehicles, along with developing cells and battery packs for their upcoming offerings.

🎯Caplin Point Laboratories

The United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) conducted an unannounced inspection of Caplin Steriles’ injectable and ophthalmic manufacturing facility at Gummidipoondi. The inspection was conducted between August 5 and August 9 and concluded with zero observations.

Positive 👍🏻

Bulk Deals

🎯Hatsun Agro Product

VVV and Sons Edible Oils sold a 0.6% stake in the company at an average price of Rs 1,227.27 per share.

🎯Paramount Communications

Foreign investor Nexpact sold a 0.76% stake in the company at an average price of Rs 80.5 per share.

🎯Updater Services

Foreign company India Business Excellence Fund IIA sold a 0.64% stake in the company at an average price of Rs 326.57 per share.

🎯ACE Software Exports

Ace investor Shankar Sharma has bought a 1.25% equity stake in the company at an average price of Rs 359.5 per share. However, Jamkuben Harilal Dhamsaniya sold a 2.03% stake in the company at the same price.

🎯Nexus Select Trust

Morgan Stanley Asia Singapore Pte ODI, HDFC Trustee Company - HDFC Flexi-Cap Fund, Morgan Stanley Asia Singapore Pte, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, Carmignac Gestion A/C Carmignac Emergents, and Wells Fargo Emerging Markets Equity Fund purchased a 7.76% stake in the trust at an average price of Rs 138 per unit. However, BREP Asia SG Red Fort Holding NQ Pte and BREP Asia II Indian Holding Co IX (NQ) Pte sold 20.82% units at the same price.

For More Detailed Analysis Connect with us at ASJ Ventures

ASJ Ventures

#stock market #stock trading #Market Brief #free stock market classes

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