#c: merchie

[cozyships]

I s2g if he's tall I'm gonna [Static]

[frostedmagnolias]

Bust of an Actress as a Bacchante

c. 1782

medium: terracotta

by sculptor Gaetano Merchi (Italian, 1747-1823)

The Walters Art Museum

[houseofbrat]

From FOUR MONTHS AGO:

So here's what I got along the lines of Meghan's new PR. As we know, she no longer has Sunshine Sachs. Meghan and Harry have left SS a couple of times and come back, but I heard that this time SS broke up with THEM, making it unlikely that they reunite again. Never say never, especially when it comes to Meghan Markle, but I think they are truly done now. Sunshine Sachs allegedly ditched them for a couple of reasons more than because Meghan put off paying a $2 million PR bill for 6+ months. Once she paid, they were dropped because A) they know she'll end up unable to pay bills again-- it's just a matter of time,  B) she apparently (unsurprisingly) wouldn't listen to advice, C, she insisted on being oversaturated in the media resulting in enough puff pieces to build the giant Stay-Puff marshmellow man of Ghostbusters fame, C) apparently when they tried to limit the amount of bilge being pushed out about her, she went behind their backs and did it herself, D) as a result of B and C, she got dropped because she herself was bad PR for Sunshine Sachs. She made them look incompetent. And finally E) she is rumored to be a controlling nightmare to work with. So that's done.

The thing is, I have been asking around, and I cannot find out who is handling Harry and Meghan's PR now. This makes me think Meghan is doing it. Usually SS will push out positive stuff of no consequence like Meghan's beauty routine, or what she wore to something, or how she makes time for Merchie and Lilibucks while still being a working mom, that kind of shit.

The shit we're hearing now doesn't have the ring of an insurgence of positive puff pieces designed to neutralize her in the people's minds.  Instead the article inundation right now seems to be about how Meghan and Harry and the kids were so hard done by during the funeral. My gut feeling is that if an article is glorifying Meghan by throwing shade at the RF, Meghan is the source of the article. Meghan is the one who routinely villifies the family. So my feeling is that Meghan is handling all her PR right now and she's rallied every asskisser in her arsenal to push out articles claiming she and Harry were treated poorly, etc. If I can find out that she's using a new PR company, I'll be sure to share, but for now, I think it's mostly her.

[AND]

Oh!  That was the other thing that was pretty interesting that I learned today. Basically all Harry knows about the PR they are using is that he doesn't like them and wants new representation. I'm told Harry has often complained about their ineffective PR and how he can't understand why they have so much media presence and why so much of it is negative. This is why they've gone back and forth between PR from Sunshine Sachs and crisis reversal PR agencies but the problem remains, to Harry's consternation. Meghan just tells him this is how popular they are and how racist/misogynistic the media is and there is nothing to be done . And the funny thing is that Harry doesn't know that the reason why their PR is so ubiquitous/negative is because she is always pushing stuff out behind their PR's back through Omid Scobie and one or two other magazine contacts she has on her own. As we know, she's incapable of making a good impression with her press releases and bad press multiplies like hydras heads. One outlet comments off another, comments on another, comments on another....

And so Harry is just always scratching his head over why they never seem to have gold PR. He knows it exists because he had the best of the best when he got remade as hero Harry, but Meghan tells him he doesn't understand anything and on the PR nightmare goes, with Harry still wondering where they went wrong.

[sonyclasica]

ARTEMENDOLINE

THE MANDOLIN IN LONDON

Obras instrumentales poco conocidas para mandolina barroca y conjunto, así como para soprano y mandolina barroca, que exploran la creciente popularidad de la mandolina en la Gran Bretaña del siglo XVIII.

Consíguelo AQUÍ

El Ensemble Artemandoline, dirigido por Juan Carlos Muñoz y Mari Fe Pavón, explora la popularidad de la mandolina en la Gran Bretaña del siglo XVIII. Influenciada por los compositores y músicos italianos que viajaron a las Islas Británicas para actuar y enseñar allí, la mandolina se convirtió en un instrumento importante en óperas, salas de conciertos, así como en casas privadas (reales). La nueva grabación de Artemandoline presenta joyas poco conocidas de esta época, incluyendo obras instrumentales para mandolina solista y conjunto, así como para mandolina barroca y soprano. Se incluyen sonatas de figuras notables como Giovanni Francesco Weber (1724-1751), Francesco Bartolomeo Conti (1681-1732) y Carlo Arrigoni (1697-1744), así como animadas gigas de Girolamo Stabilini (1762-1815) y encantadoras canzonettas de Girolamo Nonnini (c. 1730-c-1790). Estos compositores, célebres por su virtuosismo con la mandolina, contribuyeron significativamente a dar forma al legado musical del instrumento.

Artemandoline, fundada por Juan Carlos Muñoz y Mari Fe Pavón, insiste en utilizar partituras originales para devolver a la mandolina y a su incomparable repertorio su antigua gloria. Músicos apasionados, dedican su tiempo a actualizar obras maestras olvidadas de la música antigua escritas para su instrumento. Desde sus comienzos, el reto constante de Artemandoline ha sido demostrar que la música "antigua" no pertenece al pasado, disfrutada solo por una élite privilegiada. El repertorio seleccionado, a pesar de pertenecer a una época determinada, tiene un valor intemporal y universal perfectamente adaptado al mundo actual. El conjunto aspira constantemente a recrear, dar vida y compartir esta música con espontaneidad, inteligencia y emoción. Artemandoline puede calificarse de innovador y único, pionero y uno de los principales conjuntos de instrumentos de cuerda pulsada de este tipo en el mundo.

CONTENIDO DEL SET

Giovanni Francesco Weber (fl.1724-1751 London)

Sonata IV

1. Andante

2. Larghetto

3. Gavotta

Juan Carlos Muñoz, baroque mandolin      

Robert Valentine (c.1671-1747)

Sonata I

4. Adagio

5. Allegro

6. Andante

7. Allegro

Mari Fe Pavón, baroque mandolin

Giacomo Merchi (1730-1800)

Trio I

8. Andantino

9. Allegro assai

10. Minuetto

Juan Carlos Muñoz & Mari Fe Pavón, neapolitan baroque mandolins

Girolamo Nonnini (c. 1730-c-1790)

Canzonetta III

11. Allegro comodo 

Marina Bartoli, soprano

Carlo Arrigoni (1697-1744)

Sonata a mandolino e basso

12. Grave

13. Allegro

14. Grave

15. (Gigue)

Mari Fe Pavón, baroque mandolin

James Oswald (1711-1769)

Divertimento VI

17. Aria Andante

18. Aria Moderato

19. Giga

Bernard Flemming (??)

20. Air from “The musical companion”, 1762

Air: The tuneful lute 

Marina Bartoli, soprano

Joseph Vernon (c. 1738-1782)

21. Air: What is that to you

A favourite Scotch Song

Marina Bartoli, soprano

Girolamo Stabilini (1762-1815)

22. Jig

James Oswald (1711-1769)

Divertimento XVI

23. Aria Gracioussament

24. Vivace

25. Con Spirito Gia Andante

Giovanni Francesco Weber (fl.1724-1751 London)

Sonata XII

26. Andante

27. Larghetto

28. Gavotta

Juan Carlos Muñoz, baroque mandolin   

Francesco Bartolomeo Conti (1681-1732)

Sonata

29. Arpeggio

30. Allemanda

31. Sarabanda

32. Minuetto

Mari Fe Pavón, baroque mandolin

[chanyoungies]

miwwi is heeeere hiiiiii i'm bringing u a wine glass and alsoooo crabby crabs with numbers . 8, 12, 14 (hehe), 19, 20 !

ewiiiiiiiii hiiiiiiiiiiii i love when we share beverages <3

8. favourite album?

!!!!!!!!!!!! season 2 hideout the new day we step into i love you i miss you you will always and forever be the one. season 2 she's everything to me just overall... i remember playing her literally all the time like i'd be cooking i wld put her on i was on call with my best friend? yeah that's also a perfect time to play season 2 in the background. she's so important to me. i listened to flame an insane amount of times. and i haven't gotten tired of her. she's everything to me. sunrise and realize are SUCH important songs like technically realize is the one that's this album's hideout song (and thus my favourite, as the trend goes with stay and call my name), but sunrise is like. almost one? like the vibe's there, u know... and they're both two of my most favouritestest vity songs (alongside the other hideout songs n vvv). realize is also brina's song so that must mean something right. believer is simply INSANE and also i quote her everyday . ppl might not realize this but every single time that i say that i believe in someone, she's playing in my head. and i believe in you!!!!!! you know. like. im your believer. and all that. breathing is their best ballad it sounds so nice. i admittedly like ohh ahh & hot air balloon the least but they're still very important !! they're fun, i don't dislike them, and they're playing a very important role in keeping the balance of this album So perfect. this album has it ALL .

12. if woobin asked u to marry him would you say yes?

yeah

14. merchy merch?!

I AM A PROUD WOOKKA HAVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thanks to u ewi my bewoved thank u i am forever grateful. my big eared friend . so beloved. so dear . and his ears are so big

i also do own two of their albums (season 2 my everything. the perfect version the version that was made for ME specifically. forest fairy ver idk what its actually called but that & season 3 the orange ver) + the lotu photobook my most treasured possession did u know that lotu is so important to me. a semi-abandoned storyline of a kpop group can be something so personal. a purchase i've never regretted.

also wld u count this as merch i don't think it is but. i Do own one of the blackrouge velvet tints that they've modeled for (the first one) . it smells so good . eri u don't understand this tint smells so good i literally dont even use it i just open it to smell it from time to time

19. favourite choreo

i feel like this deserves a tier list honestly . party rock is probably the most them and the most engaging!! shes so fun and she makes me happy. cloud 9 too!!! but we don't give jumper enough credit i think. also knock knock is up there . also at times u can see that believer has the potential to be a s+++ choreo . shes not but she has the potential nd i thought it was important for me to point that out

20. favourite live performance

200419 jumper. i'm sure there's performances that are better or that i like better, even, but this is the only one that i actually remember at all times... i have been so insane about her ever since she first happened... shes always the one i think of when im asked this question....shes the first result when i type cravity in my navigation bar

also c-delivery bonnie & clyde ............. and call my name

[secretdreampatrol]

C est très plaisant de voir ton corp 🤩

ahah heu merchi 

[coldslutsonfire]

Cum C me THIS SATURDAY in #dtla for the Rock And Roll Flea Market! At The Regent Theater 448 S. Main st. from 10am to 4pm!!! I'll have all my merchy goodness like #novelties #paintings #veryboyfashion #punktshirts #enamelpins #digitalprints DA WORKS! @rnrflea #dragqueenmerch (at The Regent) https://www.instagram.com/p/B7-UTRqB6VH/?igshid=1cfsduwhznh5k

[onlydreamgos]

Hello! Thank you both so much for all the hard work you guys are doing, you’re amazing. Which of course includes stupid questions, one of which I’m going to ask 😭 So I’m really sorry!

I saw that before you guys mentioned joining around 5ish previous GOs in the past (not centered around the Genshin dolls), but I had come to only join two GOs of yours, one of which was from the dolls since that’s how I came to find your account. I recently got into danmei content because of you guys posting about it, but I don’t want to intrude on your guys’ new policy and try joining any of your new group orders! Are there any other danmei focused GOMs you would recommend by any chance?

Thank you for taking the time to answer my question, and so sorry once again for the trouble!

Helloooos! No worries heheheh we’re happy to answer any and all questions (if we have the answers heh) if you shoot us an email C and I will double check and see if any exceptions can be made since we understand not al of the genshin community is like some of the joiners we dealt with ❤️ if not there is only two ppl we can whole heartly recommend based on our experience ^^;; one of which is Merchies HQ (sometimes they buy extras) who lives in the US or Vic (Nephilimdemon) but THEY LIVE IN SG 😭 we can also walk you through on how to order merch directly from Taobao if you would like!

[fapangel]

What's the reason why aircraft carriers have been doing consistently 31±2 knots ever since the Lexington class? Why not faster? Why not a bit slower (and cheaper)?

Simply put - because you want as much speed as possible in a carrier, and hydrodynamics cap that around 31±2 knots. 

Taking off from a carrier is fucking hard - you’re trying to accomplish in 800-1000 feet what’s usually done from a runway at least four times, and more often six times that length. And that’s assuming you’re not the first guy in the deck spot, in which case you’ve got half that room to work with. The key here, is that the carrier’s forward speed is effectively added to the aircraft’s forward speed when it takes off from a carrier. 

The speed at which an aircraft starts generating enough lift that it can take flight is called the “rotation speed;” so named because in a conventional (tail-dragger) gear configuration, when you hit this speed your tailwheel lifts off the runway as the wings begin to “carry” the aircraft’s weight, rather than the wheels. Most lighter aircraft will actually lift off the runway completely at this point without further control input, (depending on how they’re trimmed). Rotation speed is the velocity you need for a safe take-off, basically. It’s not the minimum speed required to actually fly - that’d be the stall speed (specifically, stall speed with your flaps out), and that distinction is quantified and observed.  Now check the v-speeds for the Cessna 182; specifically Vso (stall speed in landing configuration, with flaps out,) versus Vs, (normal “clean” stall speed,) and Vr (rotation speed.) There’s not much difference, is there? But that narrow gap defines the distance between a safe take-off, and riding the razor’s edge of being a fireball tumbling down the runway. Cessna’s might not be fighter jets, but planes are planes and they all obey the same physics - compare the F-4 Phantom, which rotated around 150 knots and stalled around 135 - still a pretty narrow spread. (V-speeds are more complex for military aircraft, since their drag and dry/loaded weight vary far more than light civil craft - I used data for 40,000 pound loading from the Navy Manual; pages 11-13 and 11-36. If anyone has a proper v-speeds chart for the Phantom, please let me know.) 

The margin between “take-off” and “fireworks show” was - and still is - pretty damn narrow. It’s not quite as bad now as it was in WWII, but other factors cropped up to mitigate against lowering carrier speeds any. I’ll explain. 

In WWII the v-speed ranges were a lot closer to the Cessna end of the scale - a few knots speed difference mattered. Plus, you would stack aircraft up in a “deck spot,” lined up behind each other, roughly to the halfway point - thus you were effectively limited to only half your deck (400 feet or so) for acceleration. The Kaga, with her 27 knot speed, posed real problems for her flight crews, especially for the heavily-laden torpedo bombers. This is also why carriers would always (and still do) turn into the wind when launching, to get a few extra knots of effective “free airspeed” over their aircraft’s wings - or at the very least, avoid any subtraction of speed. 

Another example of the narrow margins in play comes from this WWII USN training video on the use of aircraft catapults. As the video shows, they were especially important for the cheaper “jeep” carriers, which were smaller, cheaper, and significantly slower than fleet carriers, at only 20 knots. As the video’s example shows, aircraft are lined up for a traditional “fly-away” launch, until the CAG says “not enough wind, we’ll catapult.” For escort carriers, available wind alone could make the difference between a fly-away launch, or a mandatory cat launch. (Note that it was possible to do a “fly-away” launch from even a stationary fleet carrier if you had the whole deck to accelerate - but if you were launching one at a time anyway, it was far faster to have aircraft on deck rolled forward from a deck spot to be hooked up, rather than bringing them up the aft elevator one at a time. Similarly, combat loads matter here. An early-war USN steam cat could just barely put a Wildcat up from a stationary ship - I checked, for KCQ - but only with a light fuel load and a skinny pilot.) 

As the jet age arrived and aircraft ballooned in size, weight, and power, catapults soon became mandatory for launching at all - and consequently they became much, much more powerful. The few knots speed difference no longer makes as much difference, it is true (though every knot of airspeed is still a welcome margin against disaster.) The reason carriers still maintain that 30ish knot top speed anyways is more an artifact of almost all CATOBAR supercarriers being American. 

Consider: the Charles de Gaulle is a great comparison to late-war USN carriers because she displaces the same (45,000 or so, close to the Midway class,) and is CATOBAR (Catapult Take Off, But Arrested Recovery.) And her top speed is… 27 knots, because in the end, a three knot difference makes a big difference for the ship, in terms of required installed power, but not as much for flight operations, as the speed margins are wide enough now that three knots won’t wreck anything, and the catapults can be made a bit more powerful a lot easier than the ship can be made a bit faster.  Now ship speed is a bit more significant for a ski-ramp carrier (Short-Take-Off, But Arrested Recovery) as their aircraft launch in the old-fashioned way with a ski-jump at the end to assist them a bit. However, even these ships are clocking in, as you say “slightly slower, for a lot cheaper,” like India’s under-construction Vikrant-class, at 28 knots. Ski-ramp carriers pay a price in aircraft payload already by dint of the launch system, so the payload lightening required to gain back that three-knot difference is fairly minuscule compared to what’s already sacrificed. In any case, it’s not worth the hojillions of dollars to install gorillions more horsepower in the ship required for another three knots. 

And then you have the colossal super-carriers America builds - which do clock in at 30+ knots. The main reason for this is because they can. They not only have nuclear power - unlike gas-turbine ships like the Vikrant - but they also displace a staggering one hundred thousand tons, giving them truly obscene volume to work with internally. This is important - nuclear power scales up very well, but scales down rather poorly - what doesn’t make financial sense for the nuclear-powered, 45,000 ton de Gaulle makes plenty of sense for the Nimitz-class. Simply put, that 30+ knot top speed is just a lot more practical to achieve for a nuclear-powered supercarrier. 

There’s also non-aviation related reasons to prefer a few extra knots speed, if you can afford it in your displacement. The most obvious one is anti-submarine warfare. Remember this clip from Behind Enemy Lines? To quote an actual Hornet pilot; “so he escapes,  lands on the carrier, and limps into the ready room to change… and when he closes his locker door, hiding behind the door? The missile again!” This scene is what torpedo attacks are like in real life - instead of a 3,000 knot missile chasing a 900 knot plane, it’s a 46 knot torpedo chasing a 30 knot ship. A difference of a few knots can make a dramatic difference in how long it takes a torpedo to chase down a target and grape’em - which translates directly to effective range, since torpedoes only have so many minutes worth of fuel. (This is precisely why the exact top speeds of many ships are classified and expressed as “at least X knots-” like the Nimitz.) The margin also matters more for the USN because of the aircraft they operate, such as the E2-D Hawkeye, the Grumman C-2 Greyhound, and other turbo-prop support aircraft. And then there’s the issue of landing - the carrier’s forward speed is subtracted from the landing aircraft’s effective velocity as it approaches from behind, and that matters a lot when a carrier landing’s about as gentle as hitting a brick wall. Recall your kinetic energy equation: kinetic energy equals one-half the mass times velocity squared. Velocity is about four times more significant than the mass in determining how much energy the airframe is going to be jolted by when it comes to a very sudden stop; and that translates directly into overall strain on (and thus lifetime of) an airframe. 

And as for faster, well! Everyone would prefer a faster ship - for the above reasons, (torpedo evasion especially) as well as the simple fact that a small increase in speed can mean a significant increase in distance covered over time (effectively, mobility of the ship in a strategic sense - even shipping lines prize a few knots extra speed because of how significantly it can shorten trips and thus make more money per ship, per day,) but ship speeds have capped out around 30 knots since WWII because of physics. The math on this is a complex topic and I don’t pretend to understand it, but suffice to say that above 30 knots or so, the energy input required for every additional knot of speed is increasing exponentially. Consider: the USS South Dakota made 27.8 knots, and displaced 35,000 tons. The USS Iowa was pretty much the same ship - armor and armament - but trucking at 32.5 knots… and displacing 45,000 tons. For 4.7 knots more speed, it took ten thousand more tons worth of installed power (from Dakota’s 97MW to Iowa’s 158MW worth, to be precise - more than half again the power.) The curve gets really steep, which is why 70+ years of technology development still hasn’t made a dent in this. 

This relationship is why making a ship a “bit” slower makes it a lot more than just a “bit” cheaper - and it illustrates just how expensive carriers were in WWII, when that three or four knots were desperately needed for launching aircraft. 70+ years of tech development has impacted these trends, though.

[WARNING: ASK AN ACTUAL MERCHIE SAILOR IF YOU WANT SOLID INFO ON THE FOLLOWING, THESE ARE JUST MY GENERALIZED/VAUGE IMPRESSIONS]

 For starters, the modern gas turbine is impressively light and efficient for the great power outputs they’re capable of, compared to old steam turbines - which, like nuclear reactors, always scaled up much better than down. For the same reason, steam turbines are still the go-to propulsion method for big ships like supercarriers - such as the Shitty Kitty class, conventional-powered USN supercarriers using steam turbines and displacing 80,000 tons. So there’s a “cutoff point” at a certain displacement where the steam plants become more cost/volume efficient, as displacement increases. For a desired power output, that is - remember that ship speed isn’t all you need power for, especially for carriers. This is likely why the Vikrant (40,000~ tons displacement) uses gas turbines, but the de Gaulle (also 40,000ish tons) uses a nuke plant - the de Gaulle has to power its catapults (with steam, from the nuke plant’s steam turbine) but the Vikrant doesn’t. It’s also the likely reason the planned 65,000 ton(ne, fucking metric) INS Vishal is planned to use nuclear power - it’ll need the extra electrical power for radars, electronics, jammers, etc; and most of all for a proposed electromagnetic catapult system. 

And speaking of the de Gaulle again - let’s consider just how well nuclear “scales up.” One of the many things I learned touring the USS North Carolina recently was how the boilers take up much more room than the steam turbines themselves - most of the mass/volume is invested in creating that steam energy, not in harvesting it. One thing I learned really, really quickly trying to design new reactors in Children of a Dead Earth is that nuclear fuel is stupidly energy-dense - the limitation on a nuke plant’s output isn’t the size of the reactor vessel, but in how much equipment you can fit in to harness the heat it puts out (and get rid of the excess, which increases rapidly with total power output.) Thus there’s some really, really  strict “minimums” in reactor design that are damn hard to work around - you need at least this much reactor to contain X amount of fuel without melting on the spot… but you only need that much reactor to produce as much heat energy as your linked systems can utilize (and/or dispose of.) This is why scaling down is hard and scaling up very easy. Compared to Ye Olden boiler fireboxes, a nuke plant is an insanely more compact heat source; to the point that the real engineering problem is getting rid of all the heat you can’t harness! Water has a very high specific heat (ability to absorb heat energy,) which is why most nuclear power plants are sited near water for the open-loop side of the cooling system… which means the entire ocean is basically a massive, free heat-sink for a nuke ship. And since most of the cost is in the reactor itself, this means that the more volume you’ve got available for boilers to harness that energy, the more energy you can generate for your already-fixed investment in the reactor. 

And that’s why the 100,000 ton Nimitz class ships can charge around at 30+ knots, juice eleventy gigaflips of computers, radars, and jammers, and carry ninety planes, a hojillion bombs for them, and tons upon tons of fuel to juice up their own escorts - but for 40-45,000 ton ships like the de Gaulle the trade-offs are more “can you already nuclear?” and “how badly do you need catapults?” 

[cozyships]

Why won't he sit me on his lap and call me precious and cute

[moedez11]

Fabulous video from the C+I merchie community! 😍Stunning Art Deco-inspired design!💎 Perfect for a modern day romance, faceted czech crystal adds an extra dose of razzle dazzle for the bride, her bridesmaids + beyond! Get the look by clicking a link in my bio🐇🐣🐝🌷 ... #chloeandisabel #sparkleon #retailtherapy #artdeco #affordableopulence #chicstyle #MustHave #onlineshopping #fabfind #springbling #somuchsparkle #crystals #rhodiumplated #hypoallergenicjewelry #weddingseason #bridal #pageant #burlesqueaccessories #budgetfashionista #shopwithme #addtocart #fashionjewelry #armcandy #armswag #vintageinspired #eboutique #timelessbeauty #morebeautifulinperson

[cozyships]

[cozyships]

I think. It would be nice. To scavenge things for his shop and when I bring back good things I maybe get a kissie. Thank you

[cozyships]

I miss the merchant

[cozyships]

hi I want him