#biggest cave in world

[no-saints-no-scholars]

Wheatley was created, as GLaDOS said, to be "the moron they designed to make her an idiot." He dampens her intelligence and is made to generate infinite terrible, poorly thought out and wild ideas. It shows throughout the whole game. After replaying the game for the millionth time, I noticed something.

... what if the scientists who made him based his intelligence/ideas generation on Cave's?

[kathhey]

i think about spensa and then i remember how much she has been through and then i cry

[rivaiin]

ngl my interest for da kinda died down a bit after the previous games choices got leaked but after that new trailer with the eclipse inspired shots came out..... i might be dying to play it

[bluejaybytes]

I DO actually have non-fandom OCs they've just been on the backburner while both 1. The squid autism rages on and I make 15,000 sploon OCs and 2. I still need to figure out what the hell the main plot is for some of my newer ones. Juno has a pretty good motivation for participating in her plot (She's a robot from a line that were all decommissioned, with her specifically having been murdered for unknown reasons. Her main motivations are to find her old corpse so that she can access the black box left on her so she can learn what happened to her and why she was killed), but Cal... Cal is Just Kinda There. I will figure out why he's Just Kinda There... eventually.

[selunesfavouriteprincess]

i’m convinced that my giant dragonborn Durge is in fact the most adorable character I’ve ever played as in this game

i mean look at her big stupid face she’s so oddly adorable

[smileyg0th]

i just want to rant about how much i adore matt maltese. i’ve always listened to him, especially in my childhood cos i grew up hearing some of his music. recently (28th march), i saw him live in detroit. it was genuinely the most magical thing i’ve ever experienced. i’m so grateful that i was able to have my first concert be him. he was a bit late. he got caught in customs at the airport. i waited SO EAGERLY while others performed in place of him for that time. he arrived around 9pm, i genuinely started screaming like a little girl seeing one direction in 2010. genuinely i don’t think i’ve ever sung along to music more carelessly. i didn’t mind my voice cracking or me being off key. i quite literally just belted out all his fucking symphonies he’s created. i’m very selective with my music choices so i didn’t know every single song. i knew most of them though yeah? my mom’s favorite was called “strange time”. my dad knew “kiss me” because it’s a cover of a different song. my sister eagerly recorded it all to show her friends. she was so happy when the songs i taught her started playing, especially the ones she knows from tiktok (i don’t have tiktok so i don’t remember which ones. probably “as the world caves in”). i was so incredibly happy. i was jumping around and dancing and singing without any care. the bass and drums shook the whole place and i LOVED it. me and my mom belted “mother” together and me and my sister danced around on the balcony when “everyone adores you” played. my sister is so sweet. she yelled “I KNOW THIS ONE!!!!1!1!1!1!” every time a song she knew played 😭😭😭😭 /vvvvpos. during the encore i was really sad cos he didn’t end up playing my favorite song (intolewd). i was in the middle of (jokingly) throwing a fit when he started playing it and i SWEAR it was magical. hearing my favorite song live was absolutely a dream come true. there was a disco ball on the ceiling and it lit up during the chorus. i think it’s getting popular on tiktok and that’s why the disco ball lit up. which honestly kind of irks me cos like THATS MY SONG !!! /j. i went home all giddy from the concert. it felt like a dream. i’ve still got a cup from the bar they had there. had the YUMMIEST most SCRUMPTIOUS pineapple juice there bluh 😭🙏 /pos. we got pizza on the way home. it was like a 45 minute drive so i ate it at home. it was like 11:30 when we got home. everyone went to bed. i sat at the table with my messed hair and some random sweater cos i got cold and i ate pizza. was probably the most peaceful moment in my life so far. recently i had a brain scan, like 2 days ago i think. i’m very medically complex and need hospital a lot so when my schizophrenia symptoms got worse i was immediately ordered an mri. i grew up in the hospital and got them regularly until i was 6, but i was always sedated for them. this was my first one that i went through awake. they asked if i wanted to watch a movie during it or listen to music and i INSISTED music. i had a full blown panic attack in there because it was so fucking loud and overwhelming. but guess what!!!! i was listening to matt maltese through a damn stethoscope and that bitch helped me!!!!!!! i, for some reason, thought i was gonna die in there or something so i was shaking like a leaf but i genuinely stopped immediately hearing “krystal.” i don’t know why his music is so therapeutic to me. i got through it and came out halfway through “jupiter”, from the same album as “krystal.” i can’t explain how much matt and his music has helped me through literally everything. i’m sure he’s saved my life SO many times. god i could go on for HOURS about him. i just remembered his song “philadelphia” and OH MY GOD i’m fighting not to rant more about him and that song. i’m gonna stop here. literally nobody is gonna read this giggles

[lab-gr0wn-lambs]

The absolute tonal WHIPLASH of my youtube queue playlist rn. just slapping songs in there wildly. As The World Caves In, the only song who’s lyrics tap into the existential despair in the deepest part of my bones, followed immediately by Life’s A Happy Song from the muppets, the only song guaranteed to put a grin on my face no matter what-

[just-someone-online]

I was gonna leave Electrified alone but fuck it, this seemed like fun.

So Electrified's third act was uh... we'll say 'not amazing.' Me personally, I didn't care too much, but I've always been told my tastes are questionable at best. In any case, I wanted to try my hand at rewriting this.

We start at the power plant turned salon. The lights are flickering and the Ghoul Squad are trying their best to keep the normies calm. Suddenly, a hand bursts out of the floor, followed by another, and another. In no time at all, Moanica and her zomboys have everybody surrounded. She looks around at the normies, terrified and screaming because of what's happening. Moanica smirks.

"Are you scared, normies? Well, you should be! Because monsters and zombies are real! And tonight, under the cover of perpetual darkness, me and my zomboys are going out into your world to show you what happens when you force us to hide in the shadows!

"It is time that you normies finally learn your place..."

She reaches towards the nearest human and gives them a slow scratch across the cheek. In seconds a new zombie joins Moanica's zomboys.

"Under me."

The zomboys attack, capturing humans so that Moanica can turn them and repeat the cycle. The Ghoul Squad tries to protect the normies, but Moanica opens trap doors under them all and sends them down to her lair.

Down below, Frankie isn't doing too hot. They're (I'm sorry, I know G1 and G2 use she/her but I'm too used to G3 Frankie) glowing like a radioactive Lite Brite and their eyes are shining like high beams. They try to move, but they can barely lift their arms.

"So...much...electricity..."

Znap flies over to its creator, unsure of how to help, when a bolt of electricity shoots out from one of Frankie's... well, bolts and hits Znap. The little electricity being begins absorbing some of Frankie's excess power. Not enough to overload or hurt itself, but enough so that Frankie can at least move. Maybe Twyla gets hit with a little and gets her Electrified design, idk.

Now that Frankie's a little better, the ghouls explain what happen, and they all set out to Normie Town to stop Moanica.

When they get there, it looks like something out of a zombie movie. Zombies new and old shuffle through the cul-de-sac, looking for humans to bring to their leader. None of the ghouls know what to do, but Frankie has an idea. Or at least a part of one.

The zombies are essentially reanimated corpses, right? And Frankie was brough to life with it, so maybe, just maybe they can restart the zombies hearts with a little power.

(Look, it's a stretch and I doubt G2 would have brought up stopped hearts or reanimation, but it's the best I got)

Lagoona, Ari, and Twyla distract Moanica while Frankie, Cleo, Draculaura, and Clawdeen begin rounding up all of the zombies. Once they're sure everybody is there, Frankie warns there friends to hit the dirt, then unleashes enough of their electricity to hit all of the zombies.

When the sparks die down, the ghouls are pleased to see that the humans are all back to normal. Even the zomboys Moanica already had are back to their old selves. Of course, there's a chance they'll all turn back, but that's a problem for another day.

Moanica, alone and defeated, runs for the hills, promising to come back another day. Frankie takes a deep breath and releases the rest of their electricity. With the power restored and the zombies defeated, the Ghoul Squad heads home before the normies begin looking for someone to blame.

A few days later, the ghouls are cleaning the salon and listening to a normie radio reporting what happened. Everybody is worried that this might mean the end of Monster High, or worse, another Great Fright Flight. Draculaura tries to be optimistic, but even she's worried about the future.

Clawdeen laments the loss of her dream, only for Twyla to come bursting in with a group of humans, one smaller than the crowd seen in the actual movie. They saw the Ghoul Squad fighting to rescue them and figured that maybe not every monster is like Moanica. It'll probably be a long time before the normies are okay around monsters, but this is a good start.

From there, it would probably lead into a third movie, likely taking place after Adventures of the Ghoul Squad, though the only thing I can think of is Ghouls Rule without the normies nearly executing somebody. Maybe there would be a different antagonist? Just to give Moanica a break? idk

[dyke420-69]

I think the most interesting thing in the world is how one of the only things we’re told about Regulus is how he was ‘soft’ yet writing him as soft is seen as ooc, but whatever

[daisywords]

One of my biggest nitpicks in fiction concerns the feeding of babies. Mothers dying during/shortly after childbirth or the baby being separated form the mother shortly after birth is pretty common in fiction. It is/was also common enough in real life, which is why I think a lot of writers/readers don't think too hard about this. however. Historically, the only reason the vast majority of babies survived being separated from their mother was because there was at least one other woman around to breastfeed them. Before modern formula, yes, people did use other substitutes, but they were rarely, if ever, nutritionally sufficient.

Newborns can't eat adult food. They can't really survive on animal milk. If your story takes place in a world before/without formula, a baby separated from its mother is going to either be nursed by someone else, or starve.

It doesn't have to be a huge plot point, but idk at least don't explicitly describe the situation as excluding the possibility of a wetnurse. "The father or the great grandmother or the neighbor man or the older sibling took and raised the baby completely alone in a cave for a year." Nope. That baby is dead I'm sorry. "The baby was kidnapped shortly after birth by a wizard and hidden away in a secret tower" um quick question was the wizard lactating? "The mother refused to see or touch her child after birth so the baby was left to the care of the ailing grandfather" the grandfather who made the necessary arrangements with women in the neighborhood, right? right? OR THAT GREAT OFFENDER "A newborn baby was left on the doorstep and they brought it in and took care of it no issues" What Are You Going to Feed That Baby. Hello?

Like. It's not impossible, but arrangements are going to have to be made. There are some logistics.

[mockiatoh]

My biggest frustration with the left has always been the inability/unwillingness to work on making progress inside of the system while advocating for greater change.

I remember the first time I came to this realization.

I was nineteen, pregnant. We couldn’t afford to heat the house because we couldn’t afford the deposit to turn the gas on. It was miserably cold. The duplex we were renting was old and rickety and drafty. The window frames were messed up and there were cracks you could stick your finger through that were open to the elements.

Just, like, to give you an idea where we were financially. And this was better than we’d been doing before!

Anyway, I had recently started going to DSA meetings. And that month, they were talking about how a moderate democrat had successfully gotten a small increase in WIC benefits monthly. It came out to, like, $10 a month.

The members talking—mostly male, almost all doing decent—were scornful. The democrat should have pushed harder and gotten more, refused to accept anything until everyone else caved to their demands. I remember sitting there, quietly drinking the latte in the smallest size they had that I had bought with scrounged quarters, listening. Wishing it wasn’t held in an indie coffee shop because it was a luxury I really couldn’t afford, but it would be rude not to. Enjoying the coffee anyway.

I was one of the lucky ones who was getting that additional $10 a month through WIC. Even more exciting, we were now getting a voucher for the farmers’ market. I casually mentioned that WIC recipients would now be getting farmers’ market vouchers, too.

The guy who organized the meetings was a hard worker, passionate guy. Did something in tech.

He was like, “That’s the thing! These people don’t want farmers market vouchers. They want—” and he went on to describe a bunch of pie in the sky desires. That, yeah, sounded good.

But one. I was one of those people! A lot if the tamiles were super excited about it, myself included.

I had never been to a farmers’ market before. I tried arugula for the first time, a piece pulled from a bunch by the grower as he explained the flavor difference. I hadn’t known before then that different lettuce greens had different flavors, that it was more than just the texture and shape. I tried pesto, which delighted me. Goat cheese. I got three full pounds of strawberries for two dollars, since they were closing soon and the old man selling the berries got a kick out of me.

Anyway. It was like, you have a decent life. Not great but decent! The things that are life changing for me, for us… you already have.

The ten dollars at the grocery store made the difference between a meal of broken-noodles-with-some-half-horrible-pantry-scraps and a meal. It kept me full and healthy! And the additional farmers’ market voucher was world changing for me.

The democrat who worked for those things barely got them through. And it was means tested to hell and back. They weren’t able to get everything they wanted. But what they got made such a huge difference for me, for people like me.

[motherforthefamicom]

played some more mother 1 i died to the magicant dragon like seven times in a row . awesome

[garbage-empress]

Know I am a broken record with this but the widespread use of AI answers in search results along with AI generated SEO spam is one of the biggest threats to a human knowledge repository in history.

"AI" (actually language learning models) are designed to mimick human language so it "looks" correct but they have essentially no ability to fact check or think critically. They don't live in the real world with us they're algorithms hanging out in Plato's Cave.

The hype machine surrounding them paired with the cultural tendency to assume that computers are infallible and neutral has caused everyone to act like they're fact calculators. They are not, they're automated bullshitters trying to spit out their best approximation of what they assume you're expecting as an answer not what the answer actually is. They're less like a fact calculator, and more like a fact daydreaming kid in math class blurting out the first answer they think of.

[cr4zy-cycl0n3]

Hamilton: Surely after all these years you’ve wanted to sleep with someone at some point, right? I mean it’s only natural-

Odysseus: Bitch what. *Starts sharpening his sword*

Hamilton: I mean like, you’ve had to have wanted to sleep with a goddess or something at one point right-Why do I hear boss music 😀

Not saying no to a random ass mortal stranger is different from not saying no to a FUCKING GODDESS. Like omfg, HOW DO SOME PEOPLE NOT GET IT👺

Blaming Odysseus for not resisting Circe(a goddess who Hermes told him to agree to sleep with in order to free his men) or stopping Calypso(the goddess who controlled the island he was trapped on for 7 FUCKING YEARS) is BRAINDEAD. It’s the same as blaming the victims of male gods for their r-pe like HOLY HELL. JUST CUZ HE’S A MAN DOESNT MEAN HE’S CHEATING, THIS DUDE WAS THE SIMPIEST SIMP TO EVER SIMP IN THE WORLD OF SIMPING. There is no choice regarding the divine. Hamilton chose to sleep with Maria, while Odysseus had to “sleep with” Circe and Calypso. I WILL FIGHT ANYONE WHO DARES COMPARE HAMILTON’S BITCHASS TO ODYSSEUS. BRO WOULD BURN DOWN THE WORLD AND KILL EVERYONE BEFORE CHEATING ON HIS PENELOPE(AND VICE VERSA THEY’RE BOTH AS INSANE AND IN LOVE AS EACH OTHER). Odysseus is the fucking GOAT, forever and always, my boy did nothing wrong(in regards to his wife, he did plenty wrong outside of their relationship lololol)

ANYWAYS soz for the rant, Ody over Hamilton all the way any day 🥳

Random, but I REALLY love the fact that the top 2 most iconic musicals in the market right now are:

1- local war veteran cheats on his wife because she was away from home too long

2-local war veteran commits every crime to ever exist in this world EXCEPT cheating on his wife because he was away from home too long

[randomness-is-my-order]

while i’m on the topic, it is very hilarious and also very insightful that mxtx actually plainly tells us how anyone else except wei wuxian would have fared without their golden cores/spiritual powers by putting thousand-plus cultivators in exactly that situation during the second siege. the way they all absolutely lose their shit, fumble around, lose coherence of thought, see-saw between decisions and become, essentially, helpless and useless is eye-opening. hell, jiang cheng ends up so affected that jin ling is able to manhandle him into the cave. the cultivators from the biggest clans aren’t able to come up with anything to save their asses and it takes shizui to point out the array for them to even consider it as an option. if wei wuxian, lan wangji and the juniors weren’t there, sooooo many disciples would have lost their lives–simply because of how incompetent they collectively became once they lost their spiritual powers. if they made a coordinated effort, they could have still held the corpses off, but it’s just that... they weren’t able to, mentally, get past their sudden lack of powers. they were disoriented.

now, i’m not saying that this isn’t a normal reaction to have. it’s totally understandable how these people were huge messes, especially in such a high stakes situation. it is just that it puts into perspective how AWESOME wei wuxian is to have had his golden core cut out of him, voluntarily, then beaten within a micrometre of his life, then thrown straight into the hell on earth aka the burial mounds and then instead of succumbing instantly, he instead overcame these impossible circumstances and somehow, survived and found alternative powers to keep him going. that is nothing short of mind-boggling, awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping. not one person in that siege-laying populace would be able to accomplish that and it held some of the finest cultivators their world has to offer. because no one, other than wei wuxian, had the internal capabilities to build their strengths up from a source that wasn’t their spiritual powers. without their golden cores, they would be toast faster than a human within one kilometre of the sun’s radius. and i love love love how mxtx hits us with this fact in our faces in exactly the scenes that are all about undoing the falsehoods and allegations that wei wuxian, until then, had been levied with in the larger cultivation world’s perspective.

[dandelionsresilience]

Good News - July 22-28

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1. Four new cheetah cubs born in Saudi Arabia after 40 years of extinction

“[T]he discovery of mummified cheetahs in caves […] which ranged in age from 4,000 to as recent as 120 years, proved that the animals […] once called [Saudi Arabia] home. The realisation kick-started the country’s Cheetah Conservation Program to bring back the cats to their historic Arabian range. […] Dr Mohammed Qurban, CEO of the NCW, said: […] “This motivates us to continue our efforts to restore and reintroduce cheetahs, guided by an integrated strategy designed in accordance with best international practices.””

2. In sub-Saharan Africa, ‘forgotten’ foods could boost climate resilience, nutrition

“[A study published in PNAS] examined “forgotten” crops that may help make sub-Saharan food systems more resilient, and more nutritious, as climate change makes it harder to grow [current staple crops.] [… The study identified 138 indigenous] food crops that were “relatively underresearched, underutilized, or underpromoted in an African context,” but which have the nutrient content and growing stability to support healthy diets and local economies in the region. […] In Eswatini, van Zonneveld and the World Vegetable Center are working with schools to introduce hardy, underutilized vegetables to their gardens, which have typically only grown beans and maize.”

3. Here's how $4 billion in government money is being spent to reduce climate pollution

“[New Orleans was awarded] nearly $50 million to help pay for installing solar on low to middle income homes [… and] plans to green up underserved areas with trees and build out its lackluster bike lane system to provide an alternative to cars. […] In Utah, $75 million will fund several measures from expanding electric vehicles to reducing methane emissions from oil and gas production. [… A] coalition of states led by North Carolina will look to store carbon in lands used for agriculture as well as natural places like wetlands, with more than $400 million. [… This funding is] “providing investments in communities, new jobs, cost savings for everyday Americans, improved air quality, … better health outcomes.””

4. From doom scrolling to hope scrolling: this week’s big Democratic vibe shift

“[Democrats] have been on an emotional rollercoaster for the past few weeks: from grim determination as Biden fought to hang on to his push for a second term, to outright exuberance after he stepped aside and Harris launched her campaign. […] In less than a week, the Harris campaign raised record-breaking sums and signed up more than 100,000 new volunteers[….] This honeymoon phase will end, said Democratic strategist Guy Cecil, warning the election will be a close race, despite this newfound exuberance in his party. [… But v]oters are saying they are excited to vote for Harris and not just against Trump. That’s new.”

5. Biodegradable luminescent polymers show promise for reducing electronic waste

“[A team of scientists discovered that a certain] chemical enables the recycling of [luminescent polymers] while maintaining high light-emitting functions. […] At the end of life, this new polymer can be degraded under either mild acidic conditions (near the pH of stomach acid) or relatively low heat treatment (> 410 F). The resulting materials can be isolated and remade into new materials for future applications. […] The researchers predict this new polymer can be applied to existing technologies, such as displays and medical imaging, and enable new applications […] such as cell phones and computer screens with continued testing.”

6. World’s Biggest Dam Removal Project to Open 420 Miles of Salmon Habitat this Fall

“Reconnecting the river will help salmon and steelhead populations survive a warming climate and [natural disasters….] In the long term, dam removal will significantly improve water quality in the Klamath. “Algae problems in the reservoirs behind the dams were so bad that the water was dangerous for contact […] and not drinkable,” says Fluvial Geomorphologist Brian Cluer. [… The project] will begin to reverse decades of habitat degradation, allow threatened salmon species to be resilient in the face of climate change, and restore tribal connections to their traditional food source.”

7. Biden-Harris Administration Awards $45.1 Million to Expand Mental Health and Substance Use Services Across the Lifespan

““Be it fostering wellness in young people, caring for the unhoused, facilitating treatment and more, this funding directly supports the needs of our neighbors,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. [The funding also supports] recovery and reentry services to adults in the criminal justice system who have a substance use disorder[… and clinics which] serve anyone who asks for help for mental health or substance use, regardless of their ability to pay.”

8. The World’s Rarest Crow Will Soon Fly Free on Maui

“[… In] the latest attempt to establish a wild crow population, biologists will investigate if this species can thrive on Maui, an island where it may have never lived before. Translocations outside of a species’ known historical range are rare in conservation work, but for a bird on the brink of extinction, it’s a necessary experiment: Scientists believe the crows will be safer from predators in a new locale—a main reason that past reintroduction attempts failed. […] As the release date approaches, the crows have already undergone extensive preparation for life in the wild. […] “We try to give them the respect that you would give if you were caring for someone’s elder.””

9. An optimist’s guide to the EV battery mining challenge

““Battery minerals have a tremendous benefit over oil, and that’s that you can reuse them.” [… T]he report’s authors found there’s evidence to suggest that [improvements in technology] and recycling have already helped limit demand for battery minerals in spite of this rapid growth — and that further improvements can reduce it even more. [… They] envision a scenario in which new mining for battery materials can basically stop by 2050, as battery recycling meets demand. In this fully realized circular battery economy, the world must extract a total of 125 million tons of battery minerals — a sum that, while hefty, is actually 17 times smaller than the oil currently harvested every year to fuel road transport.”

10. Peekaboo! A baby tree kangaroo debuts at the Bronx Zoo

“The tiny Matschie’s tree kangaroo […] was the third of its kind born at the Bronx Zoo since 2008. [… A] Bronx Zoo spokesperson said that the kangaroo's birth was significant for the network of zoos that aims to preserve genetic diversity among endangered animals. "It's a small population and because of that births are not very common," said Jessica Moody, curator of primates and small mammals at the Bronx Zoo[, …] adding that baby tree kangaroos are “possibly one of the cutest animals to have ever lived. They look like stuffed animals, it's amazing.””

July 15-21 news here | (all credit for images and written material can be found at the source linked; I don’t claim credit for anything but curating.)