#advancements in cement technology

[bestcementcompany]

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[sluttycinderella]

Razorgate: an empirical, peer reviewed study*

*there is nothing genuinely scientific about this, it is merely a result of mental illness and unemployment.

So we all saw this right?

But after this bomb was dropped I began to get curious about the other slittenings. Did they use the same razor for all of them and no one had noticed? Do they actually own more than one razor? And if they don't, if this is truly the only phrazor, then I don't think I have to tell you that raises a lot of questions.

Firstly, I went back to where this all began, Phil's Birthday stream, to identify the razor that carved the very first slit and forever cemented itself as a part of herstory:

Now that is very clearly the Manscaped logo, no question about it. Here’s a high quality photo of the logo for comparison:

(You can also clearly see in the Twitter post that it says "Manscaped" across it but I like to double check my work and I also wanted to prove that they were both Manscaped)

And it's a good thing I did double check because OP made a CRITICAL ERROR in their post! They claim that the razor in question is the Lawn Mower 4.0 when in fact it's the Lawn Mower 5.0 Ultra! Unlike the PUNY, PATHETIC, UNMANLY 4.0, the Lawn Mower 5.0 Ultra comes with an interchangeable foil blade, a USB port, and a more advanced spotlight!

How could OP be so careless? Dan and Phil would never own an outdated razor! They require only the finest in ball shaving technology!

Also fun fact: The first appearance of the Lawn Mower 5.0 Ultra on the Manscaped YouTube channel falls right in between the dapg return announcement and their first video back so make of that what you will...I for one shall be sculpting my own hill out of the very earth itself, "Manscaped Sponsorship Hill", I encourage you all to join me.

So after spending far too long researching the intricacies of razors that shave an organ I don't even have, I now needed to check if it was the same razor being used in every slittening:

Here they are side by side for comparison, left is Phil’s birthday, middle is the We're All Doomed post-premiere, right is Dan’s birthday. Now it appears the WAD one is missing the logo but I'm going to go ahead and chalk that up to the poor quality of the clip I found (if anyone has a better version PLEASE hit me up so I can confirm my hypothesis). And considering the photo taken in the aftermath seems to show Phil holding the 5.0 Ultra:

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it's the same thing.

“But,” I hear you shouting, “so what if Dan and Phil used the same razor for all the streams? They already said they only owned one razor so who cares?” Well this isn’t so much about proving that they’re the same razor as it is establishing a baseline. It’s hard to trust basically anything Dan and Phil say lately, what with piggate and the “pillow” bar and the fake view from the Phouse, knowing that they aren’t lying about only having one razor (to the best of our knowledge) is crucial in figuring out what exactly is going on. Remember, we’re doing science here.

And with that in mind: In my professional opinion, I can say that for all three slittenings, the Manscaped Lawn Mower 5.0 Ultra was the weapon of choice.

Sidenote: I went down a bit of a rabbit hole of Manscaped reviews during all of this and apparently Manscaped razors are kind of just a scam. This razor is $109 and they try to trick their customers into subscribing to their "Peak Hygiene Plan" which you don't actually need by offering a deceptive discount and hiding the terms where people aren't likely to see them. So yeah, fuck Manscaped and I for one think we should cancel Dan and Phil for not ethically consuming under capitalism.

But that's beside the point, we know that they indeed only have one razor and that that razor...is for balls. What does that tell us?

Conclusions

There are a multitude of conclusions one could jump to in the light of such a revelation, I shall display them in a convenient numbered list for your viewing pleasure:

One of them prefers to use straight (lol) razors to shave their...you know...I don't actually know if this is a thing people do or if it's even possible, people with balls please sound off in the comments, thank you

Only one of them actually shaves in which case I support them as an infamous pussy hair enthusiast (iykyk)

They share a razor (Please, God, no, that's actually disgusting)

Either way, this thing was on someone's balls and then it touched both their faces so I really hope they cleaned it properly!

Alright, so that whole exploration may have been a bit useless, it indeed only confirmed what we had already been told, but I spent literal hours comparing photos of ball hair trimmers and I'm not one to admit defeat. Consider yourselves peer reviewed, Dan and Phil, and maybe check out Beardscape instead! Apparently they have better, more comprehensive razors for the same price.

If anyone even more demon than me has any corroborating evidence (maybe of them using straight razors at any point or anything else razor related that they've said in the past) please let me know so I can take it into consideration! Thank you all for your time.

[fatehbaz]

The link between warfare and technological innovation has been well documented [...]. World War II was a particularly intense crucible of technological change, and the repurposing of military technologies and industries in the forging of a new post-war consumer [economy] is crucial [...]. Processes of technological bricolage turned the machines of war onto the natural world as global powers competed to cement their economic and imperial hegemony. In Great Britain’s post-war “groundnut scheme” in its East African territories (1946-51), this collision of nature, military hardware, and technical expertise was part of efforts to both produce more fats for the British diet and to demonstrate to the world (most importantly the United States) that, through a newly energized science-led developmentalism, British colonialism still had a “progressive” role to play in the postwar world.

The aim was to produce millions of tons of peanuts across Tanganyika using the latest methods of advanced scientific agriculture. The environmental conditions in the north, where the scheme was to begin, were known to be especially trying, not least the dry climate [...]. But faith in the power of mechanized agriculture was such that any natural limits were thought to be readily surmountable.

The groundnut scheme was to be, as its Director put it in an interview with the Tanganyika Standard, a “war” with nature, and an “economic Battle of Alamein” waged over some three million acres by an army of colonial technicians - many recruited from military ranks - and local laborers, for many of whom the scheme represented their first entry into the wage labor market.

But it wasn’t just the rhetoric of war that was repurposed.

Lancaster bombers were kitted out to survey and discover “new country” in East Africa for agricultural development. [...] [T]ractors and bulldozers from military surplus stores in Egypt proved unable to tackle the hard ground and tough vegetation, so the planners turned to a novel solution: repurposing surplus Sherman M4A2 tanks. The Vickers-Armstrong factory in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne set about rearranging key elements of the tanks’ construction [...]. The tractors, christened “Shervicks” for their hybrid origins, were [...] thought to be particularly suited to large-scale earth-moving and to the kind of heavy duty “bush clearing” that was required in Tanganyika.

Officials sought to dismiss concerns that large-scale bush clearing would have wider environmental consequences, using the well-worn colonial trope that any observed changes in local climate or erosion patterns were due to the “primitive” agricultural practices of the locals, not to the earth-moving practices of the colonists.  [...] As the plants continued to wilt in the sun, [...] [t]he stakes were high. As [J.R.] of the Colonial Development Corporation put it in a letter: “Our standing as an Imperial power in Africa is to a substantial extent bound up with the future of this scheme. To abandon it would be a humiliating blow to our prestige everywhere.” The only option left was to try and bend the weather itself to the scheme’s will, by seeding the clouds for rain. [...] “Balloon bombs” (photographic film canisters tethered to weather balloons) and a repurposed Royal Navy flare gun were used to target individual clouds [...]. The scheme itself has survived as a cautionary tale of governmental hubris, but it is instructive too as a case study of how technologies of war have been turned against other foes.

---

All text above by: Martin Mahony. “The Enemy is Nature: Military Machines and Technological Bricolage in Britain’s ‘Great Agricultural Experiment.’“ Environment and Society Portal, Arcadia (Spring 2021), no. 11. Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society. doi:10.5282/rcc/9191. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Images and their captions are shown unaltered as they originally appear in Mahony's article. Public Domain Mark 1.0 License for images: creativecommons dot org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/]

[flower-boi16]

Debunking Critisicms of Deku's decision to give up being a hero and become a teacher.

Ah yes chapter 430. The "controversial" OG final chapter of MHA that garnered many negative reactions across the internet due to how to ultimately ended off Deku as a character and cemented him to many as a joke of a protagonist.

It also the most overhated piece of fiction I think I've read. These takes have bothered me for a long while , so, I'm just gonna go through the arguments against Chapter 430, specifically about Deku's character here, because, hooo boy, there are a lot of bad faith takes to cover.

"Deku not choosing to continue being a hero after loosing his quirk makes him look like he has little confidence in himself without it/he never changed since the first chapter"

I literally never got this argument. First off this argument willfully ignores the fact that the series itself has consistantly established and hammered in the fact that you can't be a hero without a quirk, that is a rule that MHA sets up and other characters have followed it, Deku is just doing the same and yet people shit on him for it?

Yes, I know Knuckledaster exists but he's in a spin-off series completely seperate from the main series, and he is seemingly never mentioned once within the main series leading me to believe that none of the main characters really seem to know about his existance, so Deku still has no real reason to believe that he can be a hero without a quirk. Deku also coulden't have gotten the suit earlier either since technology wasn't at a point yet where more suits like this could be developed, and thanks to technology advancing it allows the creation of a far stronger suit that has a higher amount of durability to be able to greater withstand quirks since Iron Might, the first time we were ever shown this technology, was still shown to be fairly fragile and broke down. (Whether that makes sense or not you can debate all you want, but that would end up being more of a world-building issue than a character issue since characters are supposed to work with whatever worldbuilding the series has no matter how broken it may be)

Sure he could've gotten a prototype but we don't really know if it would have been strong enough for basic hero work. But even if Deku could've become a hero without his quirk all this time...the argument that him choosing not to continue living out his dreams of being a hero after loosing his quirk falls flat because he does EXACTLY THAT AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER!!!

All Might gives Deku an Iron Might suit and, without question, he immediantly takes it, choosing to continue living out his dreams of becoming a hero. If Deku not choosing to become a hero after loosing his quirk supposedly meant he had "not confidence in himself" without his quirk, than he woulden't have taken this option. But he does, meaning that he can have confidence in his abilities without his quirk.

(also the fact that this decison does not at all nulify any of Deku's past growth arcs throughout the series lmao)

"Deku becoming a teacher is underwhelming/not set up properly"

A lot of people see Deku becoming a teacher as underwhelming, but, personally, I don't really see it that way. Deku says that he wants to help guide and inspire others, being a teacher allows him to do exactly that, hell it even parralels All Might's mentor dynamic with him.

He's mentoring young students helping them become heroes just like his own mentor did, it fits his character quite well. There's also the fact that, again, Deku is given a suit from All Might, allowing him to continue living out his dreams. People act as if 430 was just "Deku becomes a teacher, the end lol" when he literally was given the option to continue living out his dream with his friends at the end of the chapter.

"Deku was forgotten by his friends and, by extension, the world"

He was not. It was explicitly stated within the chapter 430 that after they became adults it was getting harder for them to get the same day offs to meet up most likely due to having seperate jobs (Deku is a teacher, the others are all heroes) meaning that they do still commuinicate from time to time.

Class A didn't just forget about Deku, they just coulden't hang out with him anymore due to having seperate jobs. The plate kid (I forget his name lmao) also clearly reconizes Deku immediantly from seeing him, implying he's become fairly well known after, ya know, saving the world. I think it's pretty clear at that point that Deku wasn't forgotten by anyone.

"dEKu PeAKeD iN hiGhSChOoL11!"

Holy shit this one annoys me SO much. I don't really know what to say to this one other than that it's just...disengeniouse? Like, he literally saved the entire world on a live stream, was able to live out his dream that he was ridiculed for having for YEARS and then was given the option to continue to able to live out that dream. He became the world's greatest hero or at least a very well known hero, and he was able to achieve all of that at the age of 16.

That's a level of popularity I'm pretty sure most heroes would only achieve in their adult years, and Deku achieved that when he was still in highschool. That's actually something quite impressive his age and him becoming a teacher doesn't invalidate that at all. And, again, he's literally able to indulging his dream by the end of the series, why does everyone ignore that?

Look I'm not gonna say that this ending was perfect or anything, looking back I don't think it's as awful as some people make it out to be but there are a lot of things about The Final Act Saga I would critique, but, of all the critiques the throw towards Final Act, this is just not one of them.

[wheelsgoroundincircles]

Do You Love the Corvette??

The Chevrolet Corvette, often referred to simply as the Corvette, is one of the most iconic and beloved sports cars in automotive history. Here's a brief overview of its story:

**1950s: Birth of an American Icon**

- The Corvette was first introduced by Chevrolet in 1953 as a concept car at the GM Motorama auto show.

- The first-generation Corvette, known as the C1, went into production in 1953, featuring a fiberglass body, sleek design, and a straight-six engine.

- While the early Corvettes were stylish, they lacked the performance to compete with European sports cars of the era.

**1960s: Evolution and Performance**

- The Corvette underwent significant changes in the 1960s, both in terms of design and performance.

- The second-generation Corvette, known as the C2 and introduced in 1963, featured a completely redesigned body and improved handling.

- The introduction of the small-block V8 engine in 1955 marked the beginning of the Corvette's transformation into a true performance car.

- High-performance variants like the Corvette Sting Ray and the legendary Corvette Z06 cemented the Corvette's reputation as a formidable sports car.

**1970s-1980s: Challenges and Reinvention**

- The Corvette faced challenges in the 1970s due to stricter emissions regulations and a shift in consumer preferences.

- Despite these challenges, Chevrolet continued to evolve the Corvette, introducing the third-generation C3 in 1968, which featured bold styling and improved performance.

- The fourth-generation C4 Corvette, introduced in 1984, marked a significant departure from previous models with its sleek, aerodynamic design and advanced technology.

**1990s-Present: Modernization and Performance**

- The Corvette underwent several redesigns and updates in the 1990s and early 2000s, including the introduction of the fifth-generation C5 in 1997 and the sixth-generation C6 in 2005.

- The seventh-generation Corvette, known as the C7 and introduced in 2014, represented a major leap forward in terms of performance, technology, and refinement.

- In 2020, Chevrolet unveiled the eighth-generation Corvette, known as the C8, which features a mid-engine layout for the first time in its history, marking a significant departure from tradition.

- The C8 Corvette, with its groundbreaking design and impressive performance, continues to uphold the legacy of the Corvette as an American automotive icon.

Throughout its history, the Chevrolet Corvette has remained a symbol of American performance and innovation, captivating car enthusiasts around the world with its distinctive styling, powerful engines, and thrilling driving experience.

[stars-and-sugarcubes]

Pluto, the Internet, a Night in the Woods.

I was going to repost thoughts I shared from watching a Night In the Woods video essay, but I have decided to expand on it and re-write it completely.

" During one of Rosa's sleepy reminiscences about her youth, she says, 'Back then there were places that brought us all together, the church and the union.' Both the union and the church were hubs for community building and shared values. You could trust that your fellows in these places would think about the world similarly to you, and if you think about how unions suffered near extinction when manufacturing moved out and the industries that these unions had formed in died, that on top of how with each generation we become more and more agnostic, thereby losing that common gathering place in the church. it kind of explains why young people are so atomized and miserable these days. The only common place that we can gather and delude ourselves in is the internet. "

- Flundering Chipper (minutes 30:44 to 31:27)

1971, Intel released the first microprocessor, and home computers entered the market in 1977, raising in popularity and accessibility through the 80s and 90s. Today, technology is known to have developed exponentially since then.

The video essayist, Flunderingchipper, spoke about the younger generation's lack of religious faith and physical spaces to commune, and it made the cogs turn in my head. GenZ, the Sagittarius Pluto generation (1995-2008), is considered both digitally fluent and dependent due to being the first generation to fully grow up with computers and abundant internet access. GenZ also marks a significant difference between the generations after and before them.

The timeline for micro computer and personal computer usage begins at the bookend of the late Summer sign of Virgo (1959-1971) and the beginning of the Autumn signs with Libra (1971-1983), planting the seeds for the transformation of social and worldly connectedness we see today with Pluto now in Aquarius (2023-2044). Computers and further advancements like smartphones cemented themselves in the US and the world through Pluto's transits in Scorpio (1983-1995) and Sagittarius, the generation of Sag. Pluto is gaining the reputation of being extremely different from older generations and being connected online and less so in person. That is, not to mention the Capricorn (2008-2023) and Aquarius generations. On the internet, the general impression American GenZ seems to be that they are absurd, politically minded, and socially aware, gregarious, zealous, and unwilling to participate in corporate and political struggles of older generations. At least, from what I understand.

Computers came in the autumn of Pluto's treck through the zodiac. A time when previous generations harvested their gifts and their young have less material gains in turn. It started with the Libra Pluto generation, but the Scorpio Pluto generation was likely the first to notice it. Millennials.

All this to say, Pluto, the planet of ordeals, transformations, and death, showed us a time when the internet grew in influence, taking the place of community with friends and colleagues. Less people go outside to have fun. More people turn to gaming, social media, art, and sharing their interests with each other. There are fewer free spaces to commune. The Church loses its grip as people grapple with religious dogma and share in their struggles with it. People learn more about the world and connect with others from further distances. The average person can share themselves with the world and create communities and gain influence on a wider scale, changing the culture around public figures. Mall walkways are emptier, and stores shut down and become desolate. Small shops and average people are threatened by growing corporate power. But that begins to bleed into Capricorn Pluto.

As an older GenZ person reflecting on life as we move forward, I just find this morbidly fascinating. We must endure Pluto's travel through winter.

[regaliasonata]

I've been meaning to make this post for a while

So Power Rangers has 30 years of lore and stuff packed into it and this made me analyze a few things pertaining to the ranger powers.

See every team is different in the sense that their abilities can be labeled into various categories, like some characters using mystical energy or technology but there's a bit more to it. Tokusatsu has a full list of different power sources and it made me think a bit here, btw this is just in a general sense when it comes to ranger powers and not fully the individual ones each of the teams have.

Basically I decided to place them in depending on the themes and overall potential of their powers.

Each team is covered under one of the following five, Technological, Elemental, Spatial/Temporal, Spiritual and Magical

1.)Technlogical powers such as RPM, SPD mainly rely on the usage of advancements and mechanical assets to their abilities. Though however capability wise it's reach stagnates as the tools and powers depend on how advanced the tech is(like if you have futuristic stuff that can access universal energy, can be on par with some top players in the PR multiverse)

2.)Elemental, like in Samurai, Lost Galaxy and Ninja Storm specific rangers in this category can manipulate or even conjure specific aspects of nature at their disposal. In my mind however the capabilities can also be somewhat limitless as the specific way elements are applied factor in( like if fire is associated either creation and light, being able to make life or even spark heat in the universe)

3.) Spatial and Temporal, specifically relating to teams like Time Force. These powers mainly orient around the control of dimensional or time like aspects, from freezing and speeding time, controlling dimensions like the Triassic Dimension with Conner in DT, or just anything you can think of there. This one is definitely up there because there isn't really a limit, I mean Conner controls reality with the triassic shield and time manipulation is already busted. Time Force rangers are a problem in fight match-ups.

4.)Spiritual, my favorite btw. Connects mainly between Wild Force, Jungle Fury and probably Zeo. Spiritual powers such as aura projection like utilizing animal spirits or having abilities attuned to one's soul are a few ways of using this, however depending on the person and overall situations the spirit can do a lot more. Say releasing your inner might and having a strong willpower may result in your abilities being able to transcend beyond most things(think a bit like HXH with Nen or JJK's cursed energy). Like the phoenix with Camille, if she developed it more then the power to revive or even give life would be broken as hell.

5.) Finally we have Magical, hello Mystic Force. Magic in general is just busted, applications all around depends on what type you're using and there are three main sources, Good, Dark and Neutral. In the show the rangers were given magic from the townspeople due to their beliefs within it as well. This basically cements that as long as you believe in magic then you have an endless source of it...which is just overall crazy and places this high on the list as well.

Now I can't really choose which powers would rank over each other as all of them could overpower the other depending on who uses it but this was nice to analyze. I'd love a full on special with the seasons fighting each other or being able to full amplify their capabilites to see what chaos ensues. Wonder what you guys think?

[ntls-24722]

Homo Mousike updated species refs + redesigns!

The Debu didn't get a redesign, more like an updated reference picture but nonetheless, the current Debu lore:

Debu are the most technologically behind out of all 3 sophonts in the homo mousike planet, they are in their stone age and still live in caves. They have recently begun to be sedentary to practice agriculture, and while they don't have metals, they have invented cement, where they will dig/carve out molds to pour it in and create whatever structure they need. They are an immensely successful species that have been sapient for significantly longer than the two Zebrapeople, yet have not moved meaningfully past their stone age, but this technological lag isn't due to a intellectual damper, but a lack of need.

Debu are enourmous, strong, but because their skin is bare and sensitive, if they they can't beat the daylights out of their attackers, they can just scale cliffsides as dubiously as a mountain goat and create massive caves for themselves for shelter. They are HEINOUSLY well adapted and the only reason they got sapient was because tool use got Debu insane amounts of hoes.

Debu used to be solitary, and they would call to one another like birds and at some point down the line, 1 proto-Debu was getting insane play because he was knocking on shit rhythmically while singing. This led to 2 species-wide realizations: Girls like cool sounds, so if you can make cooler sounds (by making instruments) you get more girls, and If MULTIPLE guys play together in a little band, they collectively get way more girls. These 2 combined brought the species to be communal through "concerts" and sapience through the tool use.

Zebrapeople are the most technologically advanced, in terms of humans, they're kind of at their ancient Sumerian point in history - meaning technically their world history just started but that's still miles ahead of the Debu.

Zebraelves came from something that kind of filled the niche of monkeys, crawling along land-coral branches like chameleons but became semi-hexapodal when their ancestor adopted their eusocial nature, in order to carry food across the branches to the rest of their colony. Speaking of, they have a eusocial social structure where most of the population are nonreproductive worker females, nomadic drones that group into a fraternity and migrate circularly around subcolonies to lay pipe to the reproductive female Queens that are thrice their size (around the size of humans)

Their biggest strength, as you might expect, lies in their eusocial nature - much like Argentine ants, the entire species is a part of one massive supercolony, meaning the entire species, fascinatingly, does not have wars with one another. Subcolonies do have tensions and general beef, of course, they're not a hivemind, but they're just extremely passive aggressive about things. Their tool use was actually what facilitated this - the Zebraelves were smart before this, and were not just workers in a colony, having much time to play. Any neighboring colonies would fight tooth and nail against eachother, the only truces being over liquor and their dances, where two colonies would temporarily relieve tensions to play and mess around. The intraspecies violence was actually insane to the point that inventing instruments to make larger dances and merge colonies actually became essential to their survival.

Wars with other species is on the table, as hypocritical as that is. Interestingly, they like to siege war on their "cousins" the most.

The Zebramen evolved from Zebraelves on an island close to the mainland, their eusociality and treedwelling status fading away as they got bigger and bigger. Eventually, like us, they became fully hexapodal to run across flat ground rather than across land coral branches. Interestingly, their civilization didn't start when they stopped being nomads, their civilization started when they got up and began to keep moving across the savannah. Inventing instruments for music helped them communicate as they herded the cattle that their entire livelihoods relied on, without wasting so much precious breath.

Interestingly, even though they're their closest extant relative, zebraelves are kind of hardwired to hate zebramen the most - to most zebraelves, zebramen are recognized as a seperate supercolony and there is some instinctual tension. But peace and union between the two species is not rare nor unheard of, cultural exchange is abundant and the two species are so closely related that hybridization occurs, creating the variably fertile, back problem-prone and human-sized zebragnomes.

Zebramen have 2 main ethnicities at this time, the black-and-white mainland zebramen, and the hot-pink insular zebramen, located exactly as their names suggest. They are big fans of the razzle dazzle, as when they were without queens and fraternity nomads, their evolution began to skew towards sexual selection, leading to an enjoyment of overly detailed, fancy decor and the bright-pink stripes on the insular Zebramen to this day.

[zerogate]

I am sure that many readers can relate if I say that learning about Byzantium feels like discovering the sunken civilization of Atlantis. You can read a thousand books about the “Middle Ages”, even do a Ph.D. in “Medieval Studies” (as I did), and hardly ever hear about Byzantium. And then, one day, when you thought you knew your basics about the turn of the first millennium AD, you read something like this:

At the turn of the first millennium the empire of New Rome was the oldest and most dynamic state in the world and comprised the most civilized portions of the Christian world. Its borders, long defended by native frontier troops, were being expanded by the most disciplined and technologically advanced army of its time. The unity of Byzantine society was grounded in the equality of Roman law and a deep sense of a common and ancient Roman identity; cemented by the efficiency of a complex bureaucracy; nourished and strengthened by the institutions and principles of the Christian Church; sublimated by Greek rhetoric; and confirmed by the passage of ten centuries. At the end of the reign of Basileios II (976-1025), the longest in Roman history, its territory included Asia Minor and Armenia, the Balkan peninsula south of the Danube, and the southern regions of both Italy and the Crimea. Serbia, Croatia, Georgia, and some Arab emirates in Syria and Mesopotamia had accepted a dependent status.

[...]

Byzantine revisionism starts by putting Constantinople back on the map. Throughout the Middle Ages, it was by far the largest city in the Christian world. According to Runciman, its population reached one million in the twelfth century, counting the suburbs. Its wealth deeply impressed all newcomers. In the twelfth-century French roman Partonopeu de Blois, Constantinople is the name of Paradise, a city of gold, ivory and precious stones. Robert de Clari, who was among the crusaders who sacked it in 1204, marveled: “Since the creation of this world, such great wealth had neither been seen nor conquered.” Up to that point, Constantinople was the greatest international trade center, linking China, India, Arabia, Europe and Africa.

Constantinople must also be restored to its proper place in the timeline. Anthony Kaldellis writes:

Byzantine civilization began when there were still some people who could read and write in Egyptian hieroglyphics; the oracle of Delphi and the Olympic games were still in existence; and the main god of worship in the east was Zeus. When Byzantium ended, the world had cannons and printing presses, and some people who witnessed the fall of Constantinople in 1453 lived to hear about Columbus’s journey to the New World. Chronologically, Byzantium spans the entire arc from antiquity to the early modern period, and its story is intertwined with that of all the major players in world history on this side of the Indus river.

-- Laurent Guyénot, Byzantine Revisionism Unlocks World History

[seth-shitposts]

Lasat / Lasan / Lira San headcanons that are canon to me because there's absolutely nothing to prove me otherwise.

-they had/have some of the most advanced technology. It's just mostly based in nature (being that of a plant-based or a cosmic-based, integrating the two with tech).

-their weaponry advancements had been made at a leisure pace and it was all mostly a one-on-one combat based. Fight with honor to your opponent rather than just trying to obliterate entire legions.

^--because of that, they didn't have fighting ships. No large ships, or even single pilot fighters. They didn't need it.

-a lot of disputes were settled with a fight, yes, but a fight with rules, with honor.

-they are largely community based. Lower class citizen isn't really a concept, a ruler is chosen off of who best meets the needs of every citizen. If you fail, you have to fight. But this is very rarely the case.

-lasan & Lira San are very diverse, villages, traditions, customs, they vary from area to area and they work together when one needs help.

-because the lasat were so advanced and independent, they kept to themselves. They had no reason, need, or desire to have to deal with off-planet affairs. What helped cement this was the fact that Lasan is so far off. They rarely got visitors. They were kind to the visitors they did get, most of them simply lost and low on supplies.

[coline7373]

Alright.

I'm on a streak about the anachronism of condom in Amestris.

Hear me out.

Rubber condom date from the 19th century. They came from rubber cast into cement molds.

It wasn't until around 1920 that latex was invented.

Which was possible due to chemical advances and the industrial revolution first, than industrial progresses in assembly lines second.

*But*.

Amestris don't rely on chemistry.

All its technological advancements rely on **al**chemy.

And yeah, there's automails, but it's done by experts in individual workshops. Not in big factories by machines which can churn them by the dozens.

Look at their reaction in CoS when a plane come through the portal. Total bewilderment.

Due to the "ease" of doing alchemy and how impressive it is, centuries ago, the world of FMA turned their research and technological progress in the direction of alchemy.

Which enable them to do things we weren't capable of, at the same period in time, *but* the reverse is also true!!!!!

The technological progress that allowed for the creation of latex condom and its wide distribution is just not there yet.

Latex condom *could* be made, possibly, like automail. By civilian alchemists in their own private workshops and sold at the front of the shop.

But masse assembly lines that allow the production of materials and goods in nation-worth quantity, at a speed to keep up with national wide demands and cheap enough to beat private contruction/creation by individuals, that absolutely require machines of type that don't seem to exists in Amestris/FMA because their technology hasn't evolved in that direction.

Therefore, latex condoms don't exist yet at the time of Edward's story.

Or, if it does, it's "unique pieces". Like pharmaceutical creations, goods made in the back of the shop by experts for one use only.

Must be wayyy more expensive than the ones we currently enjoy.

Also, you must have variations of quality, since you will have variations of quality of raw materials, alchemical arrays and skills.

They won't be one hundred percent safe everywhere so there wouldn't be as much "faith" in their effectiveness than we currently have.

There was a whole part of the population at the start of the century who thought they made sexual intercourse feel not as good as "bare" intercourses do. And since they aren't 100% sure, why bother, you know?

Of course, it wasn't everyone and the condoms themselves got better and better (in feels and safety) overtime but it didn't happened in a day.

Right until the early 2000, you still have big parts of the population who thought they were more problems then they were worth.

Still some do, today.

So, to write that people of Amestris buy, use and view condoms like we do nowadays is just anachronistic.

And now I want a fic where the people in Team Mustang have a discussion in the office about which shop sell the best ones and at which price and who tried what to "test" them.

And Mustang has so many facts and everybody is just??? "We knew you got around but not This Much" But really these are tips he picked up from Madame Christmas and all the sex workers he has ever known since he was four.

So, like, he is infodumping twenty years worth of Usefull Tips to be a helpfull good boss. And his team is like "you want to talk about it?"

[bestcementcompany]

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[britsyankswheels24]

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[slashthrashandcrash]

question! 🤓☝️ about danny and ramona!

let's say Ghostface never got taken by the fog...what would happen between him and ramona? would she ever find out his secret, maybe by accident? would he be around to watch her grow up?

Hmmmmmm...

Well first I think it depends on what happens to Danny in general. If he's caught one way or another, it kind of throws a wrench in the whole plan, because I don't see him going down without a fight. He will live and die in infamy before they can ever throw him in a cell and try to kill him on their terms.

My belief is that by the time he's in his 40s, roughly ten or so years later, is when he would fully retire Ghostface, provided he hasn't been caught at this point. Age is gonna start catching up with him physically and crime solving technologies are getting more and more advanced which creates a bigger risk, not to mention better surveillance and the rise of the internet. By this point, Ghostface would have been stalking the country for nearly two decades -- he's well cemented his place as a deadly legend and his fame will only grow the longer his crimes go unsolved a la Zodiac Killer and Mr. Cruel. Give it another couple years and there will be a massive resurgence in his popularity when true crime shows/podcast/documentaries/movie recreations become all the rage.

So when it comes to adding Ramona in the mix, his retirement would be right when she's about to head off to college, but I think he would become a more permanent part of her life sometime that she's in high school. The older she gets, the more she's going to understand and be upset by his absence and it's going to be harder for him to keep her 10000% fully on his side as daddy's little girl. He needs to show that he's finally willing to put his "job" aside to be there for her as an actual dad. And surprisingly he does, slowly winding down his Ghostface sprees so that he's home more frequently before they stop altogether.

But it's not being done out of the kindness of his heart, obviously. Like I said, age is creeping into his bones (more than usual lmao), trace DNA analysis is getting better, Ramona is at risk of pulling away from him (which links back to how much DNA profiling is improving given that she'd be a 50% match in a system). He's had a good run, he's willing to quit while he's still ahead...for the most part.

Which means it's time to start groveling and sweet talking his baby mama into proving he's a changed man. He's finally matured, he wants to be a provider for his baby girl while he has the chance, he knows he's been stupid but that's why he's just so grateful for his wonderful ex for all the hard work she's done. It takes a long, long time for her to stop telling Danny to fuck off with his bullshit but...eventually, he does wear her down with the point it only has to be a marriage of convenience on a piece of paper. It's not for him, it's for Ramona, and being a (mostly) single mother for like 14 years by now has to have taken its toll. She can't deny having dual incomes and another parent helping out full time wouldn't ease a lot of her burdens...

They're definitely not in love, it's more like a coparenting roommates situation, but it's good enough for them. They've always had a dysfunctional relationship anyways. So, Danny gets hitched, gets a regular 9-5 job working his way up the ranks of the investigative journalism, and watches his little girl finish out high school and go off to college. And maybe he casually thinks of ways his pseudo-wife could get into some kind of fatal accident. And maybe a few of his business trips were for pleasure rather than work. And maybe he still keeps his mementos and memorabilia stowed away to look upon fondly when the girls are away. Y'know, old habits die hard.

One thing that I think would be so funny however is that if Ramona went off to college in 2003, maybe out of state on a scholarship and Danny went with her to help her move into her new dorm/apartment, while he's scoping out the area he ends up running into some punk former druggie named Amanda...

[raccoon-crown]

Nine Travels 1: An explosive Greeting

In the middle of a dark alley, far from the sight of the traffic of the city, a glowing portal opened in the air and through it a small fox with seven metallic tails crossed towards that place, wrinkling his nose at the unpleasant atmosphere when he arrived.

-Ah, nothing better to remember the garbage dump I left than arriving to a new one - taking a look at himself, he realized that his appearance was quite similar to his usual this time - mmm... it seems that the frequency of this place isn't so different from New Yoke.

Extending a hand he closed the portal and before taking a look at his surroundings, deciding to scan the area before moving forward for security reasons he had to learn in his past voyages.

Opening his metallic tails to make way for his own two tails, he rose into flight to reach the top of one of the buildings around the alley. And once he was on the cement terrace, able to take a look into the distance, he finally managed to make out something that brought him a different idea than what he had preconceived from that world.

True, that place had technology ultimately as advanced as what he had seen in New Yoke and many other places, but that one in particular seemed much more alive than the place where he had grown up. With no alarming red symbols anywhere and flying transports at the disposal of other people and not only for a council of eggheads, this was certainly a place where he could perhaps fit in.

-Well, I guess this place has quite potential.

As much as he pretended not to be excited by the prospect of analyzing the technology of that new world, his furry tails moved with clear joy between the steel ones.

-Very good universe number 1723 - he read from the screen projected by the MTC, a habit acquired with the aim of avoiding falling back into a world that he had previously explored - let's see what you have to offer.

KABOOM

As if it were an answer, an explosion in a distant part of the city brought back more memories of his childhood, watching a column of smoke rise upward while the scandal of more explosions and screams moved through the streets, the little nine-tailed fox gave a sigh.

-Well, I this place was too good to be true - he exclaimed as he reloaded the MTC to look for another place to go, the last thing he wanted was to get involved in the war of another universe, again.

But before he had the chance to activate the portal, the roar came dangerously close to his position. His ears perked up alertly while his tails held him firmly to the concrete as the building he stood on shook with an impact.

Hearing the commotion of the local inhabitants, he momentarily suspended the activation process of the device in his hand to take a look around the edge of the building only to see how it was being consumed by flames and enveloped in smoke on one side.

-This must be a joke, I gotta get out of here - returning to his work, he typed on the holographic screen as quickly as possible until a familiar flash at the entrance of the building caught his attention.

Taking another look, he was able to discern how a rapid line of bluish tones entered and left the burning building constantly with people to evacuate them from the area.

He didn't have to be a genius, and he definitely was one, to know who it was. The only blue, fast airhead who would enter a building in pieces to play the hero.

And surely someone right in the middle of all that scandal in what could have been his favorite world.

-Right, I should have know that sooner or later I would meet that dumb hedgehog again - observing the scene he inspected the area in search of any flash or even yellow or orange stain in the area - if he is here then the other 'me' mustn't be far - turning around, he tried to leave the matter aside - that fox can take care of helping him this time.

KABLAMM BOOM

The simultaneous explosions that shook the building where he was once again made him hesitate before returning to his teleporting device.

“He's fine,” he forced himself to think, “like always.”

And before he could rectify the mistake that had crossed his mind, his own memory had the courtesy to remind him how Sonic had once been one bar away from disappearing from existence in order to save the universe he came from.

What wouldn't another stubborn hedgehog like him be willing to do?

Letting out a loud snort, the fox ran a hand through the tufts of fur on his forehead while gritting his teeth.

-What an Idiot... - he shouted through his teeth - When will I learn to ignore that fool?

And before he had time to reconsider, he ran towards the edge of the building, with his tails ready to take flight in the middle of the smoke screen that surrounded the place.

As he began to fall, he managed to distinguish a few peculiar machines that had a certain similarity to some type of insect, flying over the building and shooting into it in the process.

Swallowing, Nine prepared his steel tails and began firing calculatedly at 7 of the peculiar machines, attracting the attention of the rest. The metal insects returned enemy fire more quickly than he had expected, forcing him to take evasive action while continuing to fire.

One by one, the steel bugs fell engulfed in flames until he finally chased what seemed to be the last of them into the damaged building.

-Are you trying to hide? Ha, how pathetic.

Squinting his eyes, he searched for his target as he landed on the unstable ground with his tails prepared either to attack or to flee in case of a collapse. Lifting his ears, he heard a peculiar humming sound and as he followed it he distinguished between the broken glass of the building the same fast line that he had seen before, but now he was able to perceive the peculiar machine that had followed the blue figure.

-Got you.

Following the pair's path across the floor of the building, he aimed two of his laser tails and waited for the right moment before shooting right at the center of the flying insect.

Letting go a smile with satisfaction, he watched the blue flash disappear at full speed over one of the corners, safely away.

-Well, that was fun, I guess that's enough of universe 1723 for one day...

ZUPPP

A sharp irritation on the back of his neck alerted him, he reached it with hand only to feel a strange, delicate cylinder attached to it. Taking it out to see what it was, he felt as if the lighting in the room was dimming and the floor was shaking even more.

-What the hell…? – distinguishing the cylinder in his hands, he soon discovered that one of the ends had a delicate steel tip from which a purple liquid was dripping – this is… a syringe? No... a dart?

Staggering, he was not even able to coordinate his steel tails to support him before falling to the ground barely conscious while a weird silhouette approached him

-Ha…I knew I should…have left when I could.

And just like that, the little nine-tailed fox fell unconscious into a completely unknown world.

Again.

...

Well, that's it for my First contribution for the nine-tailed travel guide through the multiverse event of @donelywell !

This story is like a far away tale from the Carbon Copy AU I made! So if you have read the first two chapter of it previously take into account that from this point the story contains some spoilers from the main story.

That being said, just wait for more tales of Nine in this universe soon!

THIS IS THE FIRST - NEXT (already corrected link!)

[myassbrokethefall]

xf rewatch: pilot

("Man")

This is a photo of my laptop screen. It feels oddly appropriate that Conventional Methods won't allow me to take a fucking screencap of this 30-year-old show to make a stupid tumblr post about it, but those are the times we live in, corporate overreach, erosion of data privacy, technological advances being cynically co-opted by those with selfish interests, etc.

Anyway. It seems insane to me that I have never done a deliberate rewatch of the entirety of XF from start to finish. Ironically one reason I was dragging my feet on this was I'm so sick of the pilot. And yet, I enjoyed the effort to watch it with fresh eyes, imagining I was some regular jabroni just coming across this while flipping channels in 1993. It is interesting to me that it's the procedural-ness that sucks you in, the ordinariness of the world, the deliberate banality of the setting into which extraordinary things are methodically introduced, and you (and Scully) are asked: well? How do you reconcile this? How do you explain it?

Scully starts on this ground level, and Mulder meets her there. She's braced for this legendary basement kook and ready to parry a barrage of propaganda and dig in about how aliens aren't real, but he's got a chemical formula up on a screen and he's like: so what is this? Well, it was found on all the bodies. He lures her in not by telling her a bunch of crazy stories (ok, he does a bit of that too) but by presenting her with facts and asking her to explain them. He shoves her along a few times (if it's not human, what is it?), but it really struck me on this viewing how she's the one trying to get him to tell her what he thinks, whereas he is determined to let her foot her way along the path to get there on her own, without being influenced (or vexed into kneejerk opposition) by his "theories." Scully doesn't get drawn in because she wants to prove Mulder wrong, OR right. It's sort of beautiful that once she's got the scent, it's not about Mulder at all, though he is certainly right there with her, as both a guide and an antagonist. Scully's drawn in by her own investigative instincts and her own determination that, you know, the answers are there. You just have to know where to look.

And then when they're making headway and their motel gets burned down with all the evidence inside it, Mulder doesn't have to rant paranoiacally that someone's working against them; Scully's right there fighting it with him and seeing what he's seeing. And by the time Blevins is scornfully hairsplitting her findings to make Mulder look bad, their alliance is cemented, because they've done it together, she's been in his shoes and in his head with him, on the trail, and the trail led somewhere pretty weird, and she doesn't know all the way what to make of that yet but, one thing is certain: they've got him all wrong, this Spooky Mulder.

I would like to watch a TV show of that. And so, I shall. (Again)