#Review Journal

[sleepy-bebby]

There’s a scientific journal called “Get me off Your Fucking Mailing List”.

In 2005, computer scientists David Mazières and Eddie Kohler created this highly profane ten-page paper as a joke, to send in replying to unwanted conference invitations. It literally just contains that seven-word phrase over and over, along with a nice flow chart and scatter-plot graph.

An Australian computer scientist named Peter Vamplew sent it to the International Journal of Advanced Computer Technology in response to spam from the journal. Apparently, he thought the editors might simply open and read it.

Instead, they automatically accepted the paper — with an anonymous reviewer rating it as “excellent” — and requested a fee of $150. While this incident is pretty hilarious, it’s a sign of a bigger problem in science publishing. This journal is one of many online-only, for-profit operations that take advantage of inexperienced researchers under pressure to publish their work in any outlet that seems superficially legitimate.

[etawardana]

Renascence

Renascence, a poem of desperate faith, lithe as a faun in its naked search of the soul, the danger has been that life might lure her away from art.

- Harriet Monroe, Comment: Edna St. Vincent Millay

[belovedapollo]

I need more notebooks, more books and more hours in the day 🖊️ reblog is ok, don’t repost/use

[kitkatstu-dies]

Day 50/100 [01/04/2025]

Set up my 2025 notion :)

Reviewing for MCAT/this semester's classes

Read a few chapters of The Dice Man

[4theitgirls]

december book journal

books read:

1. ‘the bell jar’ by sylvia plath

rating: 4.2 ⭐️

2. ‘and then there were none’ by agatha christie

rating: 3.0 ⭐️

3. ‘just like home’ by sarah gailey

rating: 4.75 ⭐️

4. ‘none of this is true’ by lisa jewell

rating: EASY 5 ⭐️

5. ‘the final girl support group’ by grady hendrix

rating: 3.35 ⭐️

6. ‘the whisper man’ by alex north

rating: 4.1 ⭐️

7. ‘fight club’ by chuck palahniuk

rating: 3.3 ⭐️

8. ‘ripe’ by sarah rose etter

rating: 5 ⭐️

9. ‘watching you’ by lisa jewell

rating: 4.45 ⭐️

10. ‘death in her hands’ by ottessa moshfegh

rating: 4 ⭐️

11. ‘my dark vanessa’ by kate elizabeth russell

rating: the most depressing 5 ⭐️ i’ve ever given

12. ‘verity’ by colleen hoover

rating: 4.95 ⭐️ (only .05 off because it’s colleen hoover, the book itself was amazing)

dnf:

‘fruit of the dead’ by rachel lyon

‘leave the world behind’ by rumaan alam

[probablyasocialecologist]

More than 40 leading scientists have resigned en masse from the editorial board of a top science journal in protest at what they describe as the “greed” of publishing giant Elsevier.

The entire academic board of the journal Neuroimage, including professors from Oxford University, King’s College London and Cardiff University resigned after Elsevier refused to reduce publication charges.

Academics around the world have applauded what many hope is the start of a rebellion against the huge profit margins in academic publishing, which outstrip those made by Apple, Google and Amazon.

Neuroimage, the leading publication globally for brain-imaging research, is one of many journals that are now “open access” rather than sitting behind a subscription paywall. But its charges to authors reflect its prestige, and academics now pay over £2,700 for a research paper to be published. The former editors say this is “unethical” and bears no relation to the costs involved.

Professor Chris Chambers, head of brain stimulation at Cardiff University and one of the resigning team, said: “Elsevier preys on the academic community, claiming huge profits while adding little value to science.”

He has urged fellow scientists to turn their backs on the Elsevier journal and submit papers to a nonprofit open-access journal which the team is setting up instead.

He told the Observer: “All Elsevier cares about is money and this will cost them a lot of money. They just got too greedy. The academic community can withdraw our consent to be exploited at any time. That time is now.”

Elsevier, a Dutch company that claims to publish 25% of the world’s scientific papers, reported a 10% increase in its revenue to £2.9bn last year. But it’s the profit margins, nearing 40%, according to its 2019 accounts, which anger academics most. The big scientific publishers keep costs low because academics write up their research – typically funded by charities and the public purse – for free. They “peer review” each other’s work to verify it is worth publishing for free, and academic editors collate it for free or for a small stipend. Academics are then often charged thousands of pounds to have their work published in open-access journals, or universities will pay very high subscription charges.

[runawaydiarys]

Different day different bag, same problem. I want to carry more than I can, but I have to remember to limit myself to what I know I need and can comfortably carry on my shoulder for a few hours

[ecargmura]

The Apothecary Diaries Episode 30 Review - Crystal Pavilion Conspiracy

There’s always something going on in the Crystal Pavilion and it seems that there won’t be any more conspiracies there now. I’ve been told that Shin had appeared in the first episode, so I did go back to watch the first episode and saw that was the case. It seems that everything bad that happened in the Crystal Pavilion all revolved around Shin and that’s pretty crazy when you think about it.

On the topic of episode 1, Shin had shown up when she noticed Maomao’s message but discarded it, which then resulted in the death of Lihua’s newborn son, but it did eventually led to the banning of the white face powder that caused the late infant prince’s death. It makes me wonder: since Shin is revealed to keep banned items, was she the reason why that one servant girl kept the face powder back in episode 4? It would make sense if that were the case since Lihua was weary and wanted to die at the time; Shin would’ve found it a good opportunity to get rid of her if that was the case; since she’s also a high position of power in the Crystal Pavilion, her words are definitely of power to the servant girls.

Shin’s motive in all of this is basically driven by envy. She prepared herself all her life to become a consort and believed she was the best candidate, but her cousin Lihua was chosen over her. She believed that if she gets rid of Lihua, then she could have a chance, but that’s not really the case. I think it’s obvious why she wasn’t chosen other than the lack of…vavoom; Shin is too focused on status and power while Lihua isn’t. A noticeable trait that the consorts have is that they all aren’t too power hungry and that’s possibly the reason why the current Emperor took them in as concubines.

Lihua certainly went through a lot of character development. When she was first seen, she had slapped Gyokuyou and seemed mean and arrogant. Episode 4 had her be very weary due to the loss of her son, but Maomao was able to get her spirits up. Now, in this episode, she’s going all out with firing her own cousin by slapping her and almost punching her. She certainly took a page out of Maomao’s book with the b*tchslap. In fact, it’s crazy to see her go from weary to be the concubine ready to throw hands. She’s gotten so strong! Maybe it’s because Maomao helped her reevaluate the importance of her own life and now that she’s pregnant again, she doesn’t want to repeat the same tragedy—she’s fighting for her unborn child even harder.

This episode shows that even if the concubine is the nicest person around, the corruption is mainly due to the people around them. No one has to worry about the Jade Pavilion’s ladies as she only has a few and they’re all trustworthy people. Shin is probably the main reason for the corruption in the Crystal Pavilion as she’s the one who quarantined the sick servant girl instead of getting her help for her cough to the point that Shenlu, the clinic lady, had to request Maomao to give her medicine. It makes you wonder what the system in the Diamond and Garnet pavilion are like…

Shin is voiced by Sayaka Kinoshita, who you might have heard in Delicious Party Precure as Secretoru and also in Pokemon Sun and Moon as Lusamine. Her voice acting was actually really good towards the end where she started screaming and tried to throw the basket of fragrance at Lihua. It’s a really good voice, so it feels unfortunate that this is probably the last time Shin will be seen. Shenlu is voiced by Masako Katsuki, who is known for voicing Tsunade from Naruto. It’s crazy how stacked the voice cast is for this anime.

I wonder what’s up with the Emperor towards the end. Is he reminiscing the past or something? Maybe there was another similar incident in the past and that’s why the episode ends with him looking back? I honestly can’t wait to see what next week has in store. What are your thoughts on this episode?

[where-is-the-angst]

song of achilles bujo page!!

[middle-earth-press]

A breakdown of Tirion's newspapers & political affiliations btw:

The Tirion Chronicle. Oldest of them all, connected with the library and archives. Tries to be neutral, starts off mildly pro-Fëanorian, switches to mildly pro-Nolofinwëan after Fëanor begins to grow markedly more difficult. Not harsh on the Valar, but allows itself to criticise them. Information from all venues of life, most of it very day-to-day, because Valinor.

Fëanorian Quarter Courier. What it says on the tin, I guess, although it's not as bellicose as one might suspect, just has a Fëanorian slant.

The Eight-pointed Star. If the Courier is Fëanorian... then the Star is far-Fëanorian. Its most involved readers would protest at the paper being described as aggressive, but that word is a pretty mild one for it. Everyone suspects Morgoth submitted something anonymously at least once and it's a bit disconcerting that no one can agree which article of many it could be. (He might have submitted things anywhere else tbh, but the Star was always more belligerent than the others, so it's the one people suspect most. For what it's worth it was also most welcoming of people outside its editorial office writing things for it)

Tirion Review. The name doesn't give it away, but it's markedly pro-Nolofinwëan. Often engages in dramatic back-and-forths with the two above that can last for years.

Journal of the Student Association. A serious publication remarkable for being written and redacted entirely by minors. The Free Journal of Noldorin Youth splits off from it once tensions grow unbearable, and what remains acquires a Nolofinwëan bias.

Independent Monthly. Popularly (and unfairly) known as 'Independent Complaints' because it's main position seems to be "Please stop fighting. Can't we get on with eachother?". Finarfin is rumoured to be a contributor.

Not counting the dozens of scientific journals which probably have a wider readership lol.

[acquired-stardust]

Game Spotlight #17: Telenet Music Box (1989)

Acquired Stardust is back with another spotlight! Need something to read to get your mind of recent world events? Been hunting for some new music to listen to? Do you just like learning about cool obscure stuff? Join Ash for a look at one of the most obscure things as of yet featured on the blog in 1989's Telenet Music Box for the PC88!

When thinking about the history of video games, many people of a certain age conjure to mind a beginning marked by the boom that Nintendo's NES (known in Japan as the Famicom) brought to the world. Fewer people will be overly familiar with Atari's platforms or their competitors, and fewer still will likely have heard about the infamous crash of the American video game industry in 1983 beyond being able to regurgitate myths of Howard Scott Warshaw's adaptation of E.T. the Extraterrestrial (1983) bearing supposed direct responsibility.

This pop history approach becoming so normalized to people is frustrating but understandable because it's all around us. Being inundated with countless YouTubers and streamers professing a love for retro games has inadvertently created a narrative that video game history is a straight line through mainstream smash hit consoles and this couldn't be further from the truth - there is a whole world before and around the NES that has gone largely unexplored, particularly in the west, and odds are if you've spent much time on Tumblr you're probably passingly familiar with the subject of this spotlight.

Japan has finally begun to more widely adopt PC gaming (in part due to the phenomenon that is vtubing), with an absolute explosion in market share in the past decade. What you might not know is that Japan actually has a pretty rich history of PC gaming that really blossomed in the 80s and 90s with several hardware manufacturers such as NEC and ASCII offering options that would give the world some early looks at teams and individuals that would come to define the medium going forward.

One such game changer (no pun intended) is Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear debuting in 1987 with its definitive version on MSX PCs and getting an incredible sequel that puts the NES-exclusive Snake's Revenge to shame, and another Kojima title would go on to define the NEC PC98 in popular consciousness with classic sexy adventure Policenauts easily being the most memorable title which would subsequently be ported and updated several times for home consoles such as the Sega Saturn and Sony Playstation.

You may be familiar with the PC98 as screenshots from its many games are popular around Tumblr, most often featuring gloriously mid-late 90s anime girls rendered in stunning pixel art that feels like it exists somewhere out of time as things isolated from their origin as video game screenshots. Having been on Tumblr for over a decade (and the internet at large for even longer), it's my observation that the rediscovery of and appreciation for this retro anime aesthetic (and its later PC98 permutation) was really born here on Tumblr before spreading to other platforms to the point that you've probably seen at least one shot cross your dashboard before. But for this spotlight we're going even further back to the predecessor of the PC98, the PC88.

NEC's PC88 was released in the early 80s and most models featured a whopping 62 KB of RAM (in comparison to the NES's 2 KB) and many later models featured Yamaha sound chips which resulted in games often being visually and aurally significantly more impressive than you would see in home consoles at the time, in some cases lightyears ahead of the NES particularly in regards to music which is a pretty great thing for the sake of this spotlight. The games themselves were also quite varied in content from everything to the kawaii and comedic to erotic and even plenty of horror, with many standout games more accurately reflecting wider Japanese pop culture of the era than what you'd see on the comparatively sterile NES.

This wild west, edgy punk rock software library that goes part and parcel with Japan's nascent PC gaming scene is one of the coolest elements of going back to explore it. You never really know what you're in for, and you might be surprised (or even disgusted) with some of the unique experiences the platform has to offer. Many of these games (and those on the successor PC98) are completely untranslated and Japanese comprehension helps their enjoyment greatly and while often simple enough to enjoy without it that aspect has certainly contributed to their enigma in the west.

There are a lot of factors that have made PC88 and PC98 fandom and emulation not as glamorous as that of home consoles and some of that is due to limitations of the hardware in how it handles scrolling screens, with a noticeable chug as games scroll. Another factor is the compounding nature of its flaws and obscurity meaning emulators themselves are in Japanese and a bit tricky to figure out how to handle, old PCs infamously lacking a lot of user friendly features we take for granted today.

One such surprise is Telenet Music Box, a collection of then-prominent publisher Telenet Japan's biggest games' music. It's barely even a game and more a piece of software fit for a museum, with minimal activity limited to browsing game albums (a total of 13), choosing songs to listen to and creating custom playlists. Each of the 13 game albums is showcased with beautiful splash art and accompanied by a tracker for the keyboard as well as titles for each song and a timer for the length of songs.

Included in the mix is an impressive slate of Telenet Japan's games that showcase the depth and variety of the PC88's library such as Mugen Senshi Valis and even an early alternate manifestation of Shin Megami Tensei as a top-down dungeon crawler reminiscent of Gauntlet. Each of Telenet Music Box's 13 albums have their standout tracks, with some from Luxor and Final Zone being among our favorites.

Telenet Music Box is not a wholly unique concept and several other similar games were released for the platform (as well as the PC98), but it is an exceptionally clever one who's usefulness is perhaps all the more apparent now almost 40 years removed from its release, serving as a fantastic introductory course to a little understood part of video game history. It's a fantastic time capsule and with plenty to offer listeners of its roughly 3 hour runtime well beyond its value as virtual archaeology worth excavating.

Perhaps its most valuable asset is its ability to highlight the true nature of history. History is not a static thing with a start and an end but rather a living breathing thing that touches our everyday lives. Rare is it that anything begins or ends from nothing, with things instead in a constant state of evolution even when rising from the ashes of something else. One particular example of this is in Wolf Team's Final Zone (which features hilarious commentary in its opening scene that I'm not sure how made it past management - do look it up if you can) and Mugen Senshi Valis, the latter of which having been extremely popular in its time, spawning tons of ports and several sequels, with the team behind it eventually morphing into Namco's Tales Studio, responsible for some of the most beloved JRPGs of all time such as Tales of Symphonia and Tales of Vesperia.

While PC88 emulation can be frustrating to work out or find files for, an unforeseen strength of Telenet Music Box's concept of 'game as an album' is how much easier its discoverability is in recent years compared to the more traditional video games it shares a platform with, being far more easy to interface with and experience than the games it itself chronicles, and it can be found on YouTube in its entirety for your listening pleasure alongside plenty of other PC88 soundtracks. I invite you to dip your toes into this little-known scene and hope you come out of it with appreciation for the wide world of games outside what may be familiar to you, and maybe even some new favorite tracks.

A gem hidden among the stones, Telenet Music Box is undoubtedly stardust.

- Ash

[persephonethewanderer]

seeing some people complaining about the fact that during the sex scenes in queer (2024) the music starts as a melodic motif and then goes into a crescendo of increasingly off-putting almost scary sounds. and like… that’s the point? that type of intimacy is scary and off-putting. it is terrifying and confusing, blending different emotions together— and not all of them are positive lol.

[unadulteratedfunmusic]

If We Were Villains // Bullet Journal Book Review

[panthresss]

first read of march :)

[lovelettersandjournals]

— seh. via lovelettersandjournals.

[4theitgirls]

january 2025 book journal

books read:

1. ‘the house on the lake’ by riley sager

rating: 4.6 ⭐️

2. ‘the family upstairs’ by lisa jewell

rating: 4 ⭐️

3. ‘the family remains’ by lisa jewell

rating: 4.2 ⭐️

4. ‘middle of the night’ by riley sager

rating: 4.3 ⭐️

5. ‘in my dreams i hold a knife’ by ashley winstead

rating: 4.38 ⭐️

6. ‘a stranger in the house’ by shari lapena

rating: 3.95 ⭐️

7. ‘the one’ by john marrs

rating: 5 ⭐️

8. ‘local woman missing’ by mary kubica

rating: 4.79 ⭐️

9. ‘carrie’ by stephen king

rating: 3.58 ⭐️

10. ‘the last one at the wedding’ by jason rekulak

rating: 5 ⭐️

11. ‘the girls in the garden’ by lisa jewell

rating: 3.75 ⭐️