#Taste Atlas 2023

[banmaihong]

Giải thưởng Taste Atlas 2023/24: Bánh mì kẹp thịt của Việt Nam trong top 14 món ăn ngon nhất thế giới

Bánh mì kẹp thịt đứng thứ 14 trong top 100 món ăn ngon nhất thế giới, trong khi ẩm thực Việt Nam xếp thứ 22. Bánh mì kẹp thịt Bánh mì kẹp thịt của Việt Nam là món ngon nổi tiếng và phổ biến trên thế giới. (Nguồn: Báo Nhân dân) Đây là kết quả nghiên cứu gần đây của Giải thưởng Taste Atlas 2023/24, dựa trên 271.819 xếp hạng món ăn và 80.863 sản phẩm thực phẩm xếp hạng. Ở bảng xếp hạng món ăn ngon…

[tokkaweek]

Tokka Week starts in LESS THAN 24 Hours!

If you haven’t already, or just need a refresher, make sure to check out the prompts and the rules by reading this post. Prepare to flood the dashes starting TOMORROW! Whether you are participating or reblogging, it’s time to get hyped, Tokka Fans! Our week is nigh!!

[whoareyoulookingat]

Who is the ATLA/LoK sexywoman and why is she not on the sexywoman bracket? Or did I miss who it was?

[bakubabes-tatakae]

Welcome to that special time of year, Fluffvember 2023. 💞 Your girl is gonna be doing both ends of the spectrum this year. These are going to be closer to drabbles just like last month to make sure I can get them all out. 🥰 If you want to be on the Fluffvember taglist then please let me know. I'd be happy to add anyone to it. 🥺

If you don’t want to see the Fluffvember fun then blacklist the tag: #bakubabes fluffvember

Now take a peek at what’s to come in a couple of weeks. 👇 If the date looks like this then that means that the piece is in the queue and waiting for your viewing pleasure. I’ll link them here as they release as well.

Day 1 - Ichigo Kurosaki || Bleach || "Your hands are warm."

Day 2 - Kai "Overhaul" Chisaki || Boku No Hero Academia || "Pinky promise?"

Day 3 - Kotarou Bokuto || Haikyuu || "You matter. A lot. You matter so much to me. Never think you don't."

Day 4 - Natsu Dragneel || Fairy Tail || "Don't say that. I love every second spent with you."

Day 5 - Asta || Black Clover || "Your heart is beating so fast right now."

Day 6 - Rin Okumura || Blue Exorcist || "Don't doubt yourself, honey."

Day 7 - Gaara || Naruto || "Your hugs are nice."

Day 8 - Luck Voltia || Black Clover || "You feel like home to me."

Day 9 - Shikamaru Nara || Naruto || "You'll be with me, right?"

Day 10 - Toya Todoroki "Dabi" || Boku No Hero Academia || "You're cute when you're jealous."

Day 11 - Yato || Noragami || "This is a good look for you."

Day 12 - Zuko || ATLA || "We'll always have each other."

Day 13 - Kazutora Hanemiya || Tokyo Revengers || "Come taste! Tell me if I need to add anything."

Day 14 - Katsuki Bakugou || Boku No Hero Academia || "I'm just glad you're okay."

Day 15 - Megumi Fushiguro || Jujutsu Kaisen || "I'd accept you any way you are."

Day 16 - Manjiro "Mikey" Sano || Tokyo Revengers || "You have a little ice cream on your nose."

Day 17 - Asuma Sarutobi || Naruto || "Is that my shirt?"

Day 18 - Naofumi Iwatani || Rising Of The Shield Hero || "I came as soon as I heard."

Day 19 - Shoto Todoroki || Boku No Hero Academia || "I'm sad and I demand cuddles."

Day 20 - Levi Ackerman || Attack On Titan || "Thanks for being here with me."

Day 21 - Nozel Silva || Black Clover || "I'll keep you safe."

Day 22 - Renji Abarai || Bleach || "I love you more than I did yesterday."

Day 23 - Satoru Gojo || Jujutsu Kaisen || "You're my family too."

Day 24 - Eren Yeager || Attack On Titan || "I'm not letting something as simple as that separate us."

Day 25 - Magna Swing || Black Clover || "Stay as long as you want."

Day 26 - Sasuke Uchiha || Naruto || "Wow, I really can't speak, huh? Must be because of how pretty you look."

Day 27 - Yuuji Itadori || Jujutsu Kaisen || "You're not obligated to do this you know?"

Day 28 - Zora Ideale || Black Clover || "I'd shout it from the roof if I could."

Day 29 - Tomura Shigaraki || Boku No Hero Academia || "You're welcome to stay if you want."

Day 30 - Ban The Undead || Seven Deadly Sins || "I'm not ever leaving you."

©️2023 bakubabes-tatakae, please do not repost/modify my works without my permission, please do not use my works as ASMR without my permission

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Snippet of Euclid Mission’s Cosmic Atlas Released by ESA

With contributions from NASA, the mission will map a third of the sky in order to study a cosmic mystery called dark energy.

ESA (the European Space Agency) has released a new, 208-gigapixel mosaic of images taken by Euclid, a mission with NASA contributions that launched in 2023 to study why the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate. Astronomers use the term “dark energy” in reference to the unknown cause of this accelerated expansion.

The new images were released at the International Astronautical Congress in Milan on Oct. 15.

The mosaic contains 260 observations in visible and infrared light made between March 25 and April 8 of this year. In just two weeks, Euclid covered 132 square degrees of the southern sky — more than 500 times the area of the sky covered by a full Moon.

The mosaic accounts for 1% of the wide survey Euclid will conduct over six years. During this survey, the telescope observes the shapes, distances, and motions of billions of galaxies out to a distance of more than 10 billion light-years. By doing this, it will create the largest 3D cosmic map ever made.

This first piece of the map already contains around 100 million stars and galaxies. Some 14 million of these galaxies could be used by Euclid to study the hidden influence of dark energy on the universe.

“We have already seen beautiful, high-resolution images of individual objects and groups of objects from Euclid. This new image finally gives us a taste of the enormity of the area of sky Euclid will cover, which will enable us to take detailed measurements of billions of galaxies,” said Jason Rhodes, an observational cosmologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California who is the U.S. science lead for Euclid and principal investigator for NASA’s Euclid dark energy science team.

Galaxies Galore

Even though this patch of space shows only 1% of Euclid’s total survey area, the spacecraft’s sensitive cameras captured an incredible number of objects in great detail. Enlarging the image by a factor of 600 reveals the intricate structure of a spiral galaxy in galaxy cluster Abell 3381, 470 million light-years away.

“What really strikes me about these new images is the tremendous range in physical scale,” said JPL’s Mike Seiffert, project scientist for the NASA contribution to Euclid. “The images capture detail from clusters of stars near an individual galaxy to some of the largest structures in the universe. We are beginning to see the first hints of what the full Euclid data will look like when it reaches the completion of the prime survey.”

Visble as well are clouds of gas and dust located between the stars in our own galaxy. Sometimes called “galactic cirrus” because they look like cirrus clouds at Earth, these clouds can be observed by Euclid’s visible-light camera because they reflect visible light from the Milky Way.

The mosaic released today is taste of what’s to come from Euclid. The mission plans to release 53 square degrees of the Euclid survey, including a preview of the Euclid Deep Field areas, in March 2025 and to release its first year of cosmology data in 2026.

NASA’s forthcoming Nancy Grace Roman mission will also study dark energy — in ways that are complementary to Euclid. Mission planners will use Euclid’s findings to inform Roman’s dark energy work. Scheduled to launch by May 2027, Roman will study a smaller section of sky than Euclid but will provide higher-resolution images of millions of galaxies and peer deeper into the universe’s past, providing complementary information. In addition, Roman will survey nearby galaxies, find and investigate planets throughout our galaxy, study objects on the outskirts of our solar system, and more.

More About Euclid

Euclid is a European mission, built and operated by ESA, with contributions from NASA. The Euclid Consortium — consisting of more than 2,000 scientists from 300 institutes in 15 European countries, the United States, Canada, and Japan — is responsible for providing the scientific instruments and scientific data analysis. ESA selected Thales Alenia Space as prime contractor for the construction of the satellite and its service module, with Airbus Defence and Space chosen to develop the payload module, including the telescope. Euclid is a medium-class mission in ESA’s Cosmic Vision Programme.

Three NASA-supported science teams contribute to the Euclid mission. In addition to designing and fabricating the sensor-chip electronics for Euclid’s Near Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer (NISP) instrument, JPL led the procurement and delivery of the NISP detectors as well. Those detectors, along with the sensor chip electronics, were tested at NASA’s Detector Characterization Lab at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The Euclid NASA Science Center at IPAC (ENSCI), at Caltech in Pasadena, California, will archive the science data and support U.S.-based science investigations. JPL is a division of Caltech.

TOP IMAGE: This mosaic from ESA’s Euclid space telescope contains 260 observations in visible and infrared light. It covers 132 square degrees, or more than 500 times the area of the full Moon, and is 208 gigapixels. This is 1% of the wide survey that Euclid will capture during its six-year mission. Credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, CEA Paris-Saclay, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre, E. Bertin, G. Anselmi. CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

CENTRE IMAGE: This section of the Euclid mosaic is zoomed in 36 times, revealing the core of galaxy cluster Abell 3381, 470 million light-years from Earth. The image, made using both visible and infrared light, shows galaxies of different shapes and sizes, includin… Credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, CEA Paris-Saclay, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre, E. Bertin, G. Anselmi. CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

LOWER IMAGE: This image shows an area of the Euclid mosaic zoomed in 150 times. The combination of visible and infrared light reveals galaxies that are interacting with each other in cluster Abell 3381, 470 million light-years away from Earth. Credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, CEA Paris-Saclay, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre, E. Bertin, G. Anselmi. CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

BOTTOM IMAGE: The location and actual size of the newly released Euclid mosaic is highlighted in yellow on a map of the entire sky captured by ESA’s Planck mission and a star map from ESA’s Gaia mission. Credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA; ESA/Gaia/DPAC; ESA and the Planck Collaboration. CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

This section of the Euclid mosaic is zoomed in 600 times. A single spiral galaxy is visible in great detail within cluster Abell 3381, 470 million light-years away from us. Data from both the visible and infrared light instruments on Euclid are included. Credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, CEA Paris-Saclay, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre, E. Bertin, G. Anselmi. CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

[momo-t-daye]

Here is my art for the story "The Masks We Bear" that @owlswithfins created for the 2023 Snapebang event hosted by @snapebang! The symbolism in this tale is delightful and the details are nicely intricate (and sometimes you go back and say "oh, of course!") and it's a fun read and re-read folks!

Harry's pose, with his glasses falling off, is based off of the concept of "Atlas holding up the world" slowly being crushed by the cracking concept of "The Golden Boy Who Lived", Severus' pose is meant to mirror "Hamlet contemplating Yorrick's skull", and Lily's (+) pose does rather draw a bit on that "Three Fates" or "Triple Godess" idea. Sev's wall of cracked masks ("The Spy" (sub rosa, who knows whether he is bad with a mask of good or good with a mask of bad), "The Professor" with potions on the brain, "The Prince", & "Snivellus") loosely on the Pink Floyd 2000 "The Wall Live" cover too because the story has wonderful homages and nods to Sev's musical tastes.

[amevello-blue]

2023 review writing ask: #2 (I wanna know the number....)

OH GOD HERE WE GO.

54 FICS THIS YEAR.

I'm only counting stuff that I've written actual prose for, because if I wrote notes for it then I'm fucked. Also my notes names are. bad. fhgdkgjhd anyway here's a list. Anything with an asterisk after it means that's the Working Title and not the decided final title.

Mystic Forest

Turtles, Turtles Everywhere

Moon and Stars

The Great Skittle Heist of 2105

Fusions

Ghost in the Shell

Turtle Sign Language

Winter Living

Understand

Same As It Never Was

Home

Ghost on the Server

Ghost in Ronin's DMs

Hey Ghost It's A Server Reference

Reconstitution

Halloween

Nini

Winter Surviving (unpublished)

Little Scraps of Ghost* (unpublished)

Atlas and Leo

Witch Chat* (unpublished)

The Storm Came Roaring (unpublished)

AAAAA* (unpublished)

Broken (unpublished)

Fall of the Dark (unpublished)

Feelin Like A Ghost (unpublished)

SUCKS IN BREATH. And now, everything I've written with Li.

Pastel Goths

A Reptile Dysfunction and Hoppy Endings

Eclipse

After the Curtain Closes

Sugar Crystals

Double Rainbow (Beyond Time and Space)

Purple Squared

Zero Hour (unpublished)

Soul Sword Heist* (unpublished)

Purple Rectangle* (unpublished)

I Know I Say This a Lot, But Demon Possession (unpublished)

Kami House (unpublished)

Turtle Guardian (unpublished)

Different Younger Brothers (unpublished)

Designer Crocs (unpublished)

Hush Turtle (unpublished)

Taste the Rainbow (unpublished)

Dragon in the Woods (unpublished)

How Dad Met Our Father and Other Dad (unpublished)

Home Running (unpublished)

Heracluse Meets Atlas (unpublished)

Every Flower Has its Teeth (unpublished)

Pawn's Gambit (unpublished)

Pawn's Gambit: En Passant (unpublished)

The End of Our World (unpublished)

Baby Snuggles* (unpublished)

Dark Rainbow (unpublished)

Children are the Future (unpublished)

For a total of.... 54.

[yell0wsalt]

Fic Writing Review 2023

Reflection

This was my first year getting more into fandom, specifically fanfic writing and, wow, I learned a lot. About myself, where I'm at, and where I want to be. Each one I'm trying to figure out what may work for me.

In one way or another I've tried different ideas, some I'm happy with, others not so much. I'm learning to be okay with that.

To accept that I have not done much particularly interesting and there is still so much more I can think about and try. It is a learning experience, slowly expanding my bubble and getting exposed to different perspectives and takes.

Words and Fics

128,421 words posted on AO3. Plus several ficlets on tumblr I don't care to keep track of

2 published WIPs I'm currently working on

32 fics published.

7 multi-chapter fics published

2 multi-chapter fics published and in progress

Top 10 Fics by Kudos

10. Gotta Cool Down, I'm Heated (M, Korvira)

9. Blooming (G, Linzin)

8. Cinnamon Spice Bliss (T, Irosami)

7. Say It (M, Linzin)

6. A Closed Discussion (E, Makorra)

5. Loving You throughout the Years (M, Linzin)

4. A Spark in the Dark (T, Linzin)

3. Your Electric Touch (G, EraserMic)

2. A Lazy Winter Morning (E, EraserMic)

1. I'm Bored, Let's Fuck (E, Linzin)

Fandom Events

AU Roulette 2023

Shinishi of the Deep (Cosmic Horror AU)

Blooming (Medieval AU)

More than You Know (Mecha AU)

Lin Beifong's Week

Say It

ATLA Rare Pair May Day

Monsters and Myths

The Taste of Your Care

Fox Cat v. One

March Madness

I'm Bored, Let's Fuck

A Closed Discussion

Promises of Today and Tomorrow

Upcoming Plans for 2024

I have several WIPs I need to to finish. Let's take care of those.

There are several writing prompts I want to tap into as ways to spark other ideas in me I may not have thought of before on my own.

Aside from writing for my OTPs, rare-pairs and other ships are tingling at the mind. There are a few I am eager to try.

Not feel so embarrassed to write something or anything that's dumb or silly. Every now and then, you need a little of that.

"Be a little weirder than what you think is okay" This is the space for it and it makes things interesting.

Again, finish the WIPs.

[abysscronica]

Meet the author & One Piece "meta"

One Piece fanwriter. 30+, Italian. Mainly Kid Pirates, occasionally other fandoms. Here's a collection of all the asks and posts on my personal opinions and style.

On me

user name meaning: link

hobbies: link

my loves: 1 2 3 4

inspirations: link

my travels: 1 2 3 4

music: link

books and literature: 1 2 3

on PhD: link

langues: 1 2

miscellanea: 1 2 3

Writing "tips"

note: I do not offer spontaneous writing tips as I don't deem myself good enough for it, I just reply to asks

on writing: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

on OOC: 1 2 3

tastes: 1 2 3

is everything a self-insert? link

Nerdy tastes

media I'm into: link

top shōnen: 1 2 3

my opinions on Naruto: 1 2 3

Hunter x Hunter: 1 2

Avatar (atla): link

Anime Expo 2022: 1 2

(anti) She-Hulk rant: link

Kirikous and the Sorceress: link

2022 summary: link

2023 summary: link

One Piece specifics

why I love Eustass Kid: 1 2

my OP hotties: 1 2 3 4 5

my fav OP fics: link

Kid Pirates hc: 1 2

Hogwarts AU: 1 2

modern AU: 1 2 3

ATLA AU: link

OP politics: 1 2

personal ranks: crews movies arcs men women moments female characters DFs

KP as animals: dogs cats

movies: link

FMK: 1 2 3

"controversial" hcs: link

writing OP hotties: link

[chottopoco]

Chotto's Masterlist

Fire & Síihikchaac

Estuary (Nashuri)

Bah'te (Attoye)

Estuary || Bah'te - Compendium

One-Shots

Divine Council

Schism

Undertow

Providence

Moonrise

Nashuri

Pinion

Attoye

Resistance Training

Attoye Week 2023

soft is the sea

never let me go (sequel to 'Positive')

growing pains (sequel to 'dame mil besos y te daré mil más')

sweat on my brow, taste on my lips

gently, into the night (sequel to 'Ilunga')

tooth & scale

and death shall have dominion

Attoye Kinktober 2023

in the sweetness of service

salt in my veins

every breath you take

float

meen'tuts

with sweet aroma, your taste lingers

one way or another

with deadly aim

drip

Attoye - Year of the OTP

I Will Wait

Ilunga

Positive (sequel to 'I Will Wait')

dame mil besos y te daré mil más (sequel to 'Resistance Training')

Borealis

show me your teeth

In Your Eyes

Heartbeat

watercolour

Writing Resources

Mayan Dictionaries (Yucatec, Classic Mayan, Mayan Etymological, Ki'che', Chuj)

Mayan Clothing Reference

Hacamasutra (!! - NSFW)

Protectors of Wakanda - A History and Training Manual of the Dora Milaje

Wakanda Atlas

Wakanda Files

Wakanda Forever Movie Special

The Art of Black Panther

The Art of Wakanda Forever

The Official Wakanda Cookbook

Marvel Avengers - War for Wakanda - The Art of the Hidden Kingdom Artbook (from the expansion to the game for the PS4/PS5)

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (25 Jun - 1 Jul 2023)

ᵃᶜᵗᵘᵃˡ ᵖᶦᶜ ᵒᶠ ᵐᵉ ᵃᶠᵗᵉʳ ᵗʰᶦˢ ʷᵉᵉᵏ

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

🥰Cabin Pressure: Series 5 (Zurich) (John Finnemore, author; Stephanie Cole/Roger Allam/Benedict Cumberbatch/John Finnemore, narrator) - the final flight of MJN Air and crew

😍Mr. Eames and the Boy Wonder (saltandbyrne) - 85K, arthur/eames AU - eames is a leather Dom, arthur's a cosplayer who commissions him to make a harness for a costume, massive sparks - great characterizations & character voices, very, very hot

😊i wanna cut to the feeling (hairstevington) - 79K, steddie AU - ' the fic where Hairstylist!Steve fixes Rockstar!Eddie's hair before a show and falls in love immediately' - cute & fun

😍Unpredictable Synchronicity (Zenaidamacrouras1) - 115K, shrunkyclunks - PHENOMENAL fic - bucky's a civil rights lawyer, *very* slow burn, incredible characterizations, so many LOL lines. Plus bonus instructions on how to badger/shame your elected officials over the human rights violations currently being perpetrated

💖💖 +48K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

I Didn't Know What Time It Was (MoreThanSlightly (cadignan)) - MCU: stucky, 19K - great WS recovery fic

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

D20: A Crown of Candy - " There is Strength in Sweetness" (s5,e1)

D20: A Crown of Candy - "Ambush on the Sucrosi Road" (s5,e2)

Mamma Mia!

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

Re: Dracula - June 25: Dead or Asleep

50 MPH - 1 MPH / Getting Up to... Speed

50 MPH - 2 MPH / Is Speed a Masterpiece? (with Justin Chang)

The Soundtrack Show - The Goonies: the Music

⭐The Soundtrack Show - Halloween: the Music

Big Gay Fiction Podcast - Mark Kanemura: From Dancer to Children's Book Author

The Sporkful - The Food-Obsessed Subculture Of The Appalachian Trail

Rachel Maddow Presents: Déjà News - Episode 3: "The Meanest, Dirtiest, Low-Down Stuff"

American Hysteria - Pig Hill | Urban Legends Hotline

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - The Italian War on Pasta

Switched on Pop - What makes a gay anthem?

Simply Reflecting - Welcome to Simply Reflecting!

Into It - My Beyoncé Ticket Cost $4,000: Why the Touring Industry Might Be Broken

Shedunnit - Meet The Coles

Stuff The British Stole - The Head in the Library

Vibe Check - Love, Life, and Liquor

Outward Plus - Despair Is a Rational Response to Anti-Trans Activism

ICYMI Plus - Finding Queer Love Online

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - We Heart Disasters… with John Marr

Endless Thread - 'Going Dark': Reddit's API Changes

Simply Reflecting - The Plane Is Running Out of Fuel?

Re: Dracula - June 29: Tonight is Mine

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - No Taste Like Home

99% Invisible #542 - Player Piano

50 MPH - 3 MPH / An Exercise in Structure

⭐Song Exploder - Natalie Merchant - Sister Tilly

Ologies with Alie Ward - Field Trip: Birds of Prey and Raptor Facts

Our Opinions Are Correct - Silicon Valley vs. Science Fiction: Ayn Rand

Re: Dracula - June 30: Devils of the Pit

Dear Prudence Plus - A Co-Worker I Dated is Spreading Rumors About Our Breakup. Help!

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Indiana Jones And What's Making Us Happy

Endless Thread - Pup Play

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

Speed (Original Motion Picture Score)

John Denver Radio • 1970s

Alternative Radio • 1970s

Donna Summer Radio • Upbeat

Presenting Kelly Clarkson

chemistry [Kelly Clarkson] {2023}

Lady Gaga

my Eagles playlist

my Fleetwood Mac playlist

my The Go-Go's playlist

[neednothavehappenedtobetrue]

Book ask:15 and 24?

I am sorry friend I do not follow awards for shit and could not tell you the answer to #15. If Beneath the Rising did not win something several years ago when it came out, it deserved to have. Did the Wayward Children novellas win a Hugo? They were nominated, I think, and they were exceptional. Per Google they did win last year, but Beneath The Rising was only nominated for a few things, which is a travesty.

As for #24 I DNF’d The Atlas Six because it was so boring and not good. Made it halfway through on the premise alone, but couldn’t keep going bc tedium and really flat sexual tension.

Oh also, the Book of Koli, which my uncle with excellent taste raved about and the worldbuilding was impeccable but it was SO slow, like why am I 25% through your book and almost nothing has happened? So if you have a higher tolerance for gorgeous molasses books, maybe take a stab at that one.

I also bounced hard off of Emily and the Ghost of Mister Mentor even though it could have been a comp because it opened with some Roald Dahl-ass description of a mean woman as ugly and I was like “are we still doing this in 2023?” apparently we are but not in books I will voluntarily read

[ninja-muse]

I completely abandoned any pretense about reaching my yearly reading goal this December, but I did manage to read one TBR book per month and read 50 of the books I wanted to in 2022, so I’m counting the year as a win. And I got close to the goal, anyway, at least if you include the picture books. (I do not like to include the picture books.) This month also included surprise highlights, surprise disappointments, and not one, but two, history books, which I feel like I never do.

December also, obviously, included a book haul. I got a couple books I asked for for Christmas, a couple books that came from the “give everyone an essay about my tastes” wishlists, and The Atlas Six, which arrived at work too damaged to sell but is still perfectly readable and it had been recommended by a friend…. The highlight is Weirdos of the Universe Unite!, however. I read this at least three times as a kid, via the public library, and I’m pretty sure we can credit my love of urban fantasy to it. That one’s actually part of my birthday haul, but the postal system got in the way. Very excited to (hopefully) reread it in 2023!

The Mummy! - Jane C. Webb Louden A plan to resurrect a mummy somehow upends the monarchy and everyone’s love lives. Melodramatic satire on a grand scale. - Egyptian secondary character

Beneath Another Sky - Norman Davies A world tour of countries subsumed by the colonial West and the ways they’re rebuilding after. - diverse nations and peoples covered - warning: colonial mindsets 1491 - Charles C. Mann An examination of what is known about pre-contact life in the Americas, versus what has often been taught and believed. - Indigenous subject matter - warning: racists, genocide

The Great Believers - Rebecca Makkai Yale is trying for a bequest to his gallery while navigating a relationship and watching his friends die of AIDS. Thirty years later, Fiona is searching for her daughter and reckoning with how Yale’s friend-group has affected her life. - largely 🏳️‍🌈 cast, Jewish protagonist, Jewish secondary character, Black secondary character - warning: deaths from AIDS, period-typical homophobia, including apathy and hate crimes

Books and Libraries - Andrew Scrimgeour, ed. A collection of poetry dedicated to the love of books.

The World We Make - N.K. Jemisin The boroughs of New York thought they’d fought their biggest battle, but then a populist politician comes to town. - ensemble cast containing Black, Indigenous, Indian, Latina, and 🏳️‍🌈 protagonists, Black author, #ownvoices for Blackness

Don't Fear the Reaper - Stephen Graham Jones Jade Jennifer Daniels returns to Proofrock the week a serial killer escapes in a blizzard. Out in February. - Blackfoot protagonist, Indigenous secondary characters, Black secondary character, disabled secondary characters, Blackfoot author, #ownvoices for Blackfoot representation - warning: death, gore, animal death

Grumpy New Year - Katrina Moore with Xindi Yan (illustrator) Daisy’s going to China to visit her Yeh-Yeh for Lunar New Year! Daisy should have slept—but she didn’t. - Chinese cast

The Golden Spoon - Jessa Maxwell Six contestants, two hosts, one world-famous baking show. And a body. Out in March. - ensemble cast containing Black, Latina, neurodivergent, and 🏳️‍🌈 characters

Reread:

The Jolly Christmas Postman - Allan Ahlberg with Janet Ahlberg (illustrator) A postman delivers Christmas mail to the fairy tale and nursery rhyme residents of his village.

Currently reading:

A Killing In Costumes - Zac Bissonnette Jay and Cindy just got an offer that might save their movie memorabilia business. Unfortunately, their competitor has turned up dead and that might sink everything. - 🏳️‍🌈 protagonists

The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle Victorian detective stories - major disabled character
 - warning: colonialism, racism


Stats


Monthly total: 9
 Yearly total: 145 + 2
 Queer books: 1
 Authors of colour: 2
 Books by women: 5
 Canadian authors: 0
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[disredspectful]

heya! I was scrolling through the tags on that ask-culture post and saw yours, and just wanted to stop by to say that that's really cool!! I was enamoured with the idea of the large hadron collider when I was a kid-- what was it like working there (if you're allowed to say)? do you have any interesting stories from those days? and were any of you amused at the rumors going around back then, that "when they turn on the LHC the world will totally end!1!!"?

(my own "funny" anecdote: I remember playing Zelda: Twilight Princess and eating a cheese sandwich that day, patiently waiting for the sky to light up or some black hole to appear, even though I knew it was fearmongering newspaper bullshit lmao... just the awe at the thought that we had a construct so powerful to smash atoms like that was rocking my world, I was so excited to see what things we would discover from it!)

Hi anon, thanks for asking!

The experience of working at the LHC will probably change a lot depending on when you are there and what you work on. I've met a few people who work on "beams", which is all about the low energy proton systems that get things started and the focusing magnets and stuff, but most people I know are on one of the four big LHC experiments: ATLAS, LHCb, CMS, and ALICE. So there's always people who do almost purely data analysis, but I think it's fun to talk about the hardware of the detectors themselves and what it feels like to work on them.

People who work on ATLAS probably have the most boring experience. Not that their detector isn't cool (it's very very cool), but ATLAS is located at the main CERN campus, so I don't think there's really much of an "ATLAS control room culture" different from the general CERN campus culture. Noone has to bike between CERN and the control room, or take the shift bus at 6am (all the bus drivers have fantastic music taste btw). They can go to the main cafeteria. Being "on a detector shift" just sort of has less of a vibe for them.

I'm going to talk about the LHCb detector because I'm fairly familiar with it and they just rebuilt the WHOLE thing in 2019-2023. So it's like they're back in 2009 again really. LHCb is about a half hour bike ride from main CERN, tucked in between the back fence of Geneva airport and a McDonald's (I like to joke that the detector is under the McDonald's but it's not). So when you're on site at LHCb, you have to hang out with other people from LHCb! And during the rebuilding period, you also get to meet a lot of the technicians. Not everyone who works on the LHC is a physicist, on the detector side we do also have some awesome people who help us put the damn thing together (electrical engineers and former mechanics). There's a lot of gruntwork to be done to put a detector together, and for me it involved cleaning and plugging in a whole lot of optical fibre connectors (to the sound of the disco radio station). There was this one spot on the stairs to the scaffold we called the "helmet check": there was a pole sticking out and people usually duck enough to miss it with their head, but still hit the helmet. Working on scaffold 3m up in the air to reach the top of the detector parts is cool.

The detector pieces are mostly assembled above ground and then moved downstairs when they're complete. To be clear, "downstairs" here is 100m underground by elevator. There's a big cylindrical hole on site ("the pit") where detector components can be lowered in by crane. I just think that's pretty cool!

Anyway if you're friends with the detector teams, you get to hear a lot of the "real facts" early and without politics. Sometimes you try not to admit the detector is behind schedule on construction until after someone else has already admitted to needing a delay. Sometimes everyone can tell that a deadline is going to be missed but you can't announce that too early just in case your estimate of how much you'll miss the deadline by is too far off. Sometimes you hear that something is broken a few days before it's officially announced. Sometimes you hear that another detector asked for a beam stop and it was to try to get a bird out of their detector cavern (I don't think they ever found the bird). I know in the early years there was a months long repair shutdown caused by a pine marten chewing through an important power cable. LHCb has a local cat that drops by to visit and people put photos of it on twitter.

I wasn't on the project early enough for the first turn on, but I was really glad to be around for this upgrade period. Seeing the detector up close really gives you a sense of the scale (huge), and working on the details really lets you know how much time and care and effort goes into it. And that's without even discussing the software and computing stuff! Huge project for humanity overall, such a privilege to be there myself for a little bit of it and have put my hands on it (while appropriately electrically grounded of course).

The whole thing was a pretty unique life experience. Long and busy days at the detector, but cool, and having lunch (or on site BBQ) with my colleagues was always great. I think I'll always miss it, but I don't regret changing jobs to have a better work life balance.

Don't know if that was what you were hoping to learn, this was kind of a hardware and lifestyle based ramble. Feel free to ask follow up questions or ask more about the science/data analysis side, there's lots of stories there too!

(And if you're in Geneva over winter, try to get yourself on a tour of one of the detectors! You can't go in the other months when the beam is on, winter is guaranteed Tour Time but there is sometimes a week or so in summer.)

[guideofkeys]

Rhysothy Week 2023 Day 3: Sponsored by Atlas/Hyperion

No Skin

Lilith offers Atlas a deal. Who would have thought that this would lead to a tragedy?

(Note: in this AU, Timothy and Rhys meet after the Helios crash and rebuild Atlas together.)

He knew. He knew it wouldn't end well. Now what has happened was lined up in a clear logical chain, but back then, the return of Fiona and Sasha almost did not seem unusual to him - it only left a bitter taste, and such an unfounded suspicion.After that, there was a letter from the Sanctuary, in which the Vaulthunters offered cooperation in exchange for decrypting the Vault key. Who would have thought that the map captured in the artifact was not much different from the data pattern that Gortys used. Rhys believed that perhaps it was a safe way to establish contact with the Sanctuary. Without rare guns given away for cents, without flattery and false admiration, and of course - without mountains of money that would have been needed to appease the famous Vaulthunters.

And everything seemed to be going well, but the closer the day of the appointment was, the more Rhys was tormented by a bad feeling and the sweeter the prospect of refusing seemed.

"Lilith will destroy our base in an hour, is that what you want?" Yvette countered his concerns. "There is no way back. Deal with it."

He dealt. At first - when Brick, who accompanied Lilith, demanded to give the last gun prototype. Then - when the siren hinted that she would not let Atlas leave the planet so easily. Probably because her pride did not allow her to just ask Rhys to let her on board of the ship that he was planning to send to Promethea. And then, after Rhys was stunned by a powerful elemental strike, he found out about the third demand.

Lilith was planning a show execution in order to raise her reputation in the eyes of the Raiders. And she chose Timothy for this.

Rhys found out about it when it was too late. The echo recording was burned on the back of the eyelids - from that, it seemed, the remnants of faith in the good and in the fact that Pandora could be changed died. However, Rhys wasn't planning on letting the Raiders get away just like that. Oh no. For several years of working on the cursed planet, he gained connections, and also found people who had been sharpening their grudge against the Vaulthunters for a long time. There were mercenaries among them, there were priests of the cult of Athenas, and even scientists with a dubious reputation and an army of followers who were willing to do a lot just to get hold of a live siren. With Rhys’ generous sponsorship, they all got a ticket to Pandora.

Now, standing on the ruins of the Sanctuary, Rhys looked skeptically at the bleeding out Lilith. The power of the sirens did not allow her to die, and the collar that squeezed her neck did not allow her to scream.

Ironically, "Sponsored by Atlas" was stamped on it in small print. He grinned at the dark irony of what had happened. Indeed, this sponsorship has brought the Vaulthunters to the grave.

[hrefgopuram]

substack overview

In late 2012 I started a writing project I called 1000 word vomits, with the intent of writing one million words in 1,000 sets of 1,000 words. The idea is that they would be mostly unedited, mostly rambling streams-of-consciousness, and yet be at least somewhat mindful of taste and sense. As of June 2023, I’ve written 825/1000 wordvomits. I’ve learned a lot a long the way, become a much better writer, and one of the things I’ve learned as a result is the importance of doing reviews. The word “review” is unfortunately a bit cluttered conceptually. The etymology of the word means simply “to view again”, but it’s come to additionally mean “with a critical lens”, such that we expect book reviews and movie reviews to tell us “whether it’s any good”. Which isn’t necessarily bad, unless it’s all there is.

Still, words are worth messing around with, and I’d prefer to use the word “overview” – in part because I’d like to avoid the judgemental connotations of “review”, and in part because I’m enamoured with the concept of “the overview effect”.

Back to the importance of reviews or overviews – so one of the things that frustrated me with my wordvomits project is how much I repeated myself, kinda “senselessly”. My view on this is itself evolving – I was most recently struck by a quote from Marshall Mcluhan’s Understanding Media where he talked about how oral traditions tend to have very cyclical ‘texts’, where you could get the point pretty quickly, but the meta-point is to go around and around on the subject so that you really get into it from all angles

Even so, I feel like there are smart ways of doing this and not-so-smart ways of doing this, and I’d prefer to do it the smart way. And the smart way in my current view is to not leave things so much up to chance, but to re-visit, re-explore, re-discover. I was in a rush with my early word vomits to write as much as possible, and as a result I found myself… disoriented?

I might explain this more on second passthrough but for now why not let’s just do an overview of all the posts on this substack so far. It’s still small enough and young enough that it’s possible, so let’s do it while we can. (The sub-bullets are for my own future reference – things that I might want to write new essays about and link to.)

The essays:

1. 🔥 We were voyagers – this essay just leapt out of me in one big burst after I had published my second book Introspect. I might say it’s about Nietzschean historical sense, or about Lincoln and Pericles and their ability to contextualize, to situate their people in the world. And I think that’s a very strong clue for what the essence of Voltaic Verses is going to be about.

2. The Essays I Have Not Published – looking back from the current context I would now describe this as a pre-view, a mapping of possibilities from where I stood. Looking at it now, it’s a pretty good mapping! Almost everything I write about here, is something I still want to write about in some shape or form. What’s interesting, I think, is a sense that the tentative shapes I have used, are probably not the ones I will be using. If they were the right ones, I’d already have used them. (mindpalaces, reconceptualization work, get really unblocked, growing pains, crossing of thresholds)

3. I don’t wanna! – in this essay I honor my resistance. I don’t want to fight the guy inside me that doesn’t want to write. I want to understand him.

4. nothing is edgier than earnestness – this essay meanders, and it opens with the Ted Hughes voltage quote that subsequently birthed the name Voltaic Verses. I talk about Ray Bradbury, Calvin & Hobbes… (digressions, inner critic, grief, X-Men: First Class, ATLA, edgelords, artful incompleteness)

5. dancing with constraints, pt 1 (grammar of tweets / constraint of mediums, multiple entities hot-desking the same meatbag, few hours of mental clarity...)

6. Santa is real – this was a seasonal post for Christmas, but it’s also very much about a lot of the things I care about: ritual, ceremony, meaning, belief, truth, process, social reality. Santa is a great, well-understood entry-point for thinking about all manner of beliefs and narratives. I find myself thinking there has to be a similar post to be written about talismans, and maybe I ought to pick the Oscars or the World Cup as a corresponding event. (KWML, ritual initiations)

7. 🔥 Are you serious? – I think this is currently the piece of writing I might be proudest of. Justo, Dashrath, Hokusai. Takes time to discern who’s serious. Not talking about solemnity. Silliness is sacred. Optimize for survival. The divorce mystery. (Advanced Stupid, LinkedIn World...)

8. resonance over coherence – I think this was inspired in part by the talk that I gave in New York, which reminds me I still haven’t published a post about that. Getting unstuck. Possibility space. People-shaped. Oof/crackle-boom surprisingly true. (indescribable mental motions)

9. yeet thyself – Bradbury again. Crackle-boom. Project management is about enabling collaboration. Workaholism. Living gloriously. (funhouse mirror misunderstandings)

10. branching paths – talking about Robert Frost, nominative determinism, information architecture, forgetting aids remembering, desire paths, ant colonies (narrative logic,

11. Breakthrough! in the DMs – helped someone “figure out what they want”, why I wrote Introspect, my dislike of Ikigai, Beyonce-Apple MVP, Meryl Streep inscrutability, Dinesh, the dynamism problem (asking people about movies, cartoon model of reality...)

12. interestingness on demand – the ayylmao tension of being creative for a living, Christopher Alexander, the psychology of tryhards, smart writing, clever little shortcuts, misframed problems, internally conflicted, Jim Carrey Golden Globes quote, (demonstrate interestingness, specialization and trade, perfect imperfection...)

13. witching hour writer patterns – Chrstopher Alexander, existence stack, William Blake’s Auguries of Innocence, Ted Nelson, old emotional meanings, cultural jank, technical debt, Orwell’s Politics, /my-creative-process/...

14. the tavern and the temple – Bradbury’s “you must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you”, Chappelle’s “the guy onstage is the real me”, contemplation. Twitter is many places all at once. Sorkin’s greater fool. untangling knotted perception. wiggle room, patience, cracks.

15. when the vision isn’t manifesting — channelling divine inspiration is the easiest part of being an artist. all serious projects are projects of grief. I don’t have the luxury of going dark for 4 years without anything to show for it publicly. if I can’t write 20 perfect essays I can at least write 200 good sketches. The universe in a glass of water. Meryl Streep being inscrutable to herself. Dave Chappelle on letting the idea drive. Eilish’s “maybe trust me”.

16. stray clippings #01 —

17. maybe buy more waffle irons —the kkh waffles store bottlenecked by # of irons. the doors in junior college. asking statement customers for tshirt ideas.

18. are you having fun, son? — “to continue to have fun is to participate in a dynamic process, to adapt to the situation”

19. a stupid bravery — feel like i could write an essay in 2-3hrs. borges: artist working even when dreaming. mayer: stupid bravery. fran lebowitz: words are easy, books are not. good writers can struggle with professionalism. fantasy of a competent manager domming them. balancing assertiveness and sensitivity. matthew effect, wretchedness problem. wbw’s cooks vs chefs. jobs’ on risking failure. jeremy mann doc: don’t try to perfectly represent reality, but our experience of reality. wooten: if you can make it feel right, any note can work. christopher alexander: improve patterns by testing them against experience, by recognizing how we feel.

20. a matryoskha of possibilities —“Be slightly wary of the whole endeavor. Describe things. Look for interesting trapdoors. Make matryoshkas of meaning. Enjoy good digressions. Say how you feel, and keep going.”

21. facing reality pt1 —

22. if i’m honest with myself —

23. writing a facebook status in 2024 —

24. 7 mini-essays in a trenchcoat

25. ephemeral plaintext —