#credit superb

[sciderman]

Yk, I hate that adaptations keep making Peter a high schooler, and not just because it means he never evolves, but because the adaptations now also include wider Marvel, whitch usually (thanks to the MCU) is at the modern day stage with legacy characters and new age teen heroes, meaning that Peter is taking up Miles' spot and you can really tell when they put him next to someone like Kamala Khan or Sam Alexander who are Miles' pals. Tho Peter taking Miles' stuff is just a modern issue overall, just look at MCU whitch just stole and re-skinned Miles' personality, characters, story-beats, even the costume to an extent and then made it worse.

agree 👏

[petit-papillion]

Poor Alex - finally winning an award, but he doesn't get to keep it. 😄😭

Overtake of the Month Award - June 2024

Source: F1

[battle-of-the-birds]

Remember to read about the contestants before voting!

Harpy Eagle

A big beautiful Queen of the jungle, the harpy Eagle lives in Central and South America, and are the National bird of Panama. They are the top predator, with the largest talons of any living eagle, which they use to prey on sloths, opossums, and monkeys. The females are larger than the males and they mate for life! However, these beautiful birds are near threatened due to logging and poaching. Learn More!

Superb Bird of Paradise!

This little dancing bird should be recognizable to most internet patrons. Their distinctive dance, in which their feathers form an elliptical disc around their face with the vibrant blue popping against the dark black as they hop about the female, is mesmerizing to say the very least. The female to male ratio is considerably different, and with there being less females to woo, this gives the males a better incentive to have an elaborate dance. Learn more!

(Harpy Eagle picture by Simon van der Meulen) (Superb Bird of Paradise by BBC / possibly Doug Allan?)

[ferronickel]

Rewatching Nope (2022). This movie is so fucking good. Easily my favorite movie I've ever worked on.

[anotherfanaccount]

Ram's whole attitude changing when he saves Chandni. Like he's still a simp for her but also a soldier first. Chandni overwhelmed and speechless but getting back her groove soon after.

Their whole dynamic was so fun. So good I don't even notice they didn't get much screen time together.

[ruairy]

.

[homielander]

ohhh antony is carrying the show on his back 😭 https://x.com/screenrant/status/1805265919741989352?s=46

i don't want to discredit the work that writers do, especially in laying the groundwork for a character like homelander and crafting a compelling arc for him with every new season. and i'm sure they were very involved in the making of ep 4 as well, despite kripke generously giving credit where it's due here. however...

it is nice to know that antony starr has not only elevated the character with a superb performance but also made some pretty valuable contributions to the script :) obviously i'm biased but i think he is the standout of every episode. i'm throwing emmys at him

[anistarrose]

[Image description: digital art of the Pokemon Rowlet, looking calmly at the viewer. End description.]

I like Rowlet :)

Me too :)

[mosquego359]

One Kiss and a Quidditch Match — Prologue

Pair: Cedric Diggory x Male Slytherin Reader

Word count: 717 words

Summary of the book: You and Cedric Diggory hate each other. It has always been this way. But everything changes one night when you kiss each other at a party. Now, it seems you can’t escape each other — from being partnered up in Herbology for an important project to having to help Cedric during the Triwizard Tournament.

Summary of the chapter: Before the Quidditch Match of 1990-1991, you and Cedric never talked, never acknowledged each other's presence. But because of that loss, he hated you.

Notes: This is my first Cedric fanfic so please forgive me for any OOC moments. Also, I've changed a few things about Hogwarts like adding a couple extra holidays and new locations such as the all houses lobby on the first floor where everyone can hang out.

Content warning: There is nothing in this chapter but there is violence and cursing in the rest of the book. I may also write a few sexual scenes if people request it.

!PLEASE DO NOT REPOST ANYWHERE WITHOUT PERMISSION OR CREDITS TO ME!

...

Cedric hated you. And thus, you hated him.

It was like an endless circle of hatred; one cannot hate without the other, just as flowers cannot live without bees and vice versa. Every glare from his end was met by a cocky victory smirk from you whenever your team won a quidditch game, and every time he scored a point higher than you during a test, he would flaunt his success while you would grind your teeth in frustration.

It wasn’t always this competitive. In fact, before your 2nd year, he never talked to you and you barely knew he existed. In the past, you were ghosts, walking past one another without glare or snarky remarks.

That all changed when Slytherin was up against Hufflepuff in the 1990-1991 Hogwarts’ Quidditch Tournament. At the time, Cedric had been assigned as a backup whenever the Keeper got hurt, since the team was unaware of his flying talent.

Near three quarters through the game, the current Keeper, a 6th year called Richard Chiswick, was hit by a particularly violent Bludger (no doubt a Slytherin cast a spell on it) and was forced to sit out for the rest of the match, while Cedric replaced him.

He was by no means an excellent Keeper, but he wasn’t necessarily bad either — quick reactions and a keen eye were a superb advantage for him as a Quidditch player — but one Slytherin always managed to slip in a goal even when his concentration was at its highest.

You, the prodigy Slytherin Chaser. The one who had been scoring point after point for your team. You were incredible.

You would zoom in the air, dodging Hufflepuff after Hufflepuff, Quaffle tucked under your arm. Soaring across the field, you were beauty, you were grace, and you would “accidentally” kick players in the face.

Every time you had the Quaffle, ready to make a goal, Cedric would tense up, ready to block any and all of your attacks. You were, however, much too rapid for him, so whenever you would try and score a goal unless your aim was wack, you’d constantly grant your team those 10 glorious points. He was baffled at your capabilities, never expecting someone the same age as him to have so much raw talent. Or was it just that you already knew how to play?

An hour in, Slytherin were 150 points ahead of Hufflepuff, standing at almost 400 points and you had the Quaffle. The Hufflepuff Seeker had spotted the Snitch and was racing against time to snatch it out of the air and deprive you of the 10 points that would mark Slytherin’s victory.

The Seeker was mere inches away from ending the game but you were quicker — swiftly launching the Quaffle, the spherical object curving through the air. 

Cedric desperately raced to stop it, extending his arm to block it but either he was too late or miscalculated the trajectory — the ball whooshed past him and into the goal area. 

Not even a second later, the Hufflepuff Seeker caught the Golden Snitch.

It was over; the game was over. Slytherin won by 10 points and it was Cedric’s fault. All his fault, just because he couldn’t block that stupid Quaffle!

The Chasers on his team scored 230 points total and the seeker had caught the Snitch but despite all that effort, they still lost. Because of him…

The next few moments were a blur of reassurances from his teammates, booing from most of the crowd, and a booming echo of cheers from the winning house’s spectators. Cedric wasn’t focused on any of those distractions, though; all he could see was you.

A big, goofy grin was spread across your sweaty face, gums showing and teeth not touching. You were out of breath and surrounded by a sea of Slytherins — particularly younger students — laughing and hugging you, some jumping with joy and others slinging their arms around your shoulders or patting your back in congratulation.

A cold feeling enveloped Cedric’s typically good-natured heart. He hated you. He hated you for that win, for making him seem incapable, and for looking so happy about it. 

A fire in his soul ignited. He wanted to crush you, squash whatever pride you would ever have and wipe that annoying smile off your face.

...

Thank you for reading, please comment any suggestions you have or any issues I should fix.

Chapter 1

[lunarriviera]

hi hey hello i have started watching a new crime drama and I AM OBSESSED. it's called 雪迷宫 or, for some reason, The First Shot, although it should be more properly Snow Maze. it's a period piece set in 1997 and it's produced by ZHANG YIMOU which must be why the production values are actually good??? anyway i am here to tell you all about it and why you should be watching it okay here we go

first of all there's a big hot dumb cop, zheng bei. yes that's huang jingyu and you might not like him because of his apparently quite sketchy personal life but all i care about in this case is that he's tall, and thoughtful, and a police captain who's protective of his people and a little bit of an idiot. my catnip tbh. (i guess he was in addicted too? somehow breaking the you-can-only-be-in-one-BL rule?)

(ETA that by "dumb" of course he's not dumb at all, only by comparison; cf. my own stupid meta on this fascinating topic)

then there's an effete genius consultant, gu yiran (wang ziqi), who knows everything there is to know about drugs. he comes from the south to help these ignorant northerners form an anti-narcotics unit. he's such a massive nerd, the team doesn't like him until they realize that he runs 10k every morning and can outrun motorcycles and is actually quite useful. then suddenly it's no longer "gu-laoshi" but is all "ran-ge" this and "ran-ge" that. he can't dance for shit. i adore him.

there's a superb seven-samurai style Assembling The Team sequence in which this cop is brought in as the muscle. Her nickname is mad dog yao and she kicks the ass of an entire club at one point. we love her. her only problem is that, not unlike zhang haixing in tibetan sea flower, she will in fact fight a wall. here's gu yiran's face after a drug dealer mistakenly underestimates her and she stomps on him.

one of my favorite things about this drama so far is how poor the police are. it's 1997 in a dinky northern precinct and these cops ain't got shit. no computers. rudimentary cellphones. barely any forenic analysis, and most of that is on pieces of paper. no bullpen. no interrogation rooms. they have to interview suspects at their desks.

captain zheng is so underpaid he can't even afford a real pointer for his situation board, he has to go outside and get a literal stick.

drives his dad's chicken delivery van. has to slam himself against the front door to open it. everything about this is absolutely perfect.

i'm only on episode 7 but this shit is already brotastic. please behold:

yes that is an actual line from the show. yes gu yiran has to live with captain zheng, they can't afford fancy accommodations for him. turns out there's a trundle bed made out of paper clips but that's okay, they still get plenty of cosy domestic time together.

and that's also what i already love about this drama—in spite of being about anti-narcotics, it's also very slice of life, very daily city life, with meals and neighbors and friends and family and did i mention food, there is so much eating in this drama. it's gorgeous. also i'm improving my colloquial chinese by leaps and bounds.

of course you are you stupid service top, now take care of the baby.

and those are just some of the reasons why you should be watching the first shot, which is funny and suspenseful and unexpectedly brainy and well-cast and has beautiful opening credits. there are 19 episodes on youku's youtube channel right now and the subs are shockingly high quality. i'm hooked, and also so mad at my day job because i can't just binge it, pls join me in this handbasket

[aekulina]

sons of horus more like sons of whore. is that anything

Horus never fucked a day in his life. Fulgrim did once, cried and hated it until that damn sword got involved. Dorn fucked repeatedly with the love of his life and has embraced monastic chastity since her passing. Sanguinius does not know what sex is. Mortarion has too much dysphoria to be seen naked. Magnus lost more than an eye bargaining with Tzeentch. Sex with Curze or Angron risks severe bodily harm. Lorgar politely declines sex unless you tell him it’s for ritual purposes. Vulkan knows what sex is and is theoretically very good at it, but doesn’t want to cause conflict by picking who goes first. If you fuck Guilliman he will give you tips afterwards. The Lion knows what sex is but pretends not to. The Khan and Corax fuck every day of their lives with enthusiasm and skill but completely opposite vibes. Leman Russ has never fucked and no one can ever know. Perturabo can look you over and experience intense and accurate hallucinations of what fucking you is like, but you will not get his opinion. Ferrus Manus has too much endurance and not enough patience to fuck mortals. Alpharius is responsible for all of these rumors and is the only one who has ever fucked.

[elodieunderglass]

Absolutely loving your tag "#horrible things with legs" it's utterly superb.

Thank you, I cannot take much credit as it is largely populated by the terrifyingly prescient community who send me these things for curation

[tanoraqui]

Dungeon Meshi Liveblog: Some Much-Needed Downtime TBH

ok I kinda read these species-swap chapters quickly without commenting 2 nights ago bc I REALLY wanted to catch up to the show, and honestly I didn't have much to say? It was a fun showcase of some different species talents, and introduced multiple fun problems for the characters to solve [takes notes in DM]. But it didn't seem to move either plot or characters forward much. Some notes:

Honestly it's surprising that there's only been 1 count of food poisoning so far, when they're trying SO MANY new things. One must credit Senshi's cooking skills!

This might be the single funniest joke so far:

I've seen multiple posts saying Senshi's elfsona reveals him to be feminine by dwarf standards, and I'm genuinely BAFFLED by that take because it is SO obvious that Senshi's elfsona reveals him to be 1. the Hottest Man You Have Ever Met, and 2. HAIRY. We have seen 0 other elves with facial hair. I dug up that showcase of different elves and 0 of them have facial hair. In the Tolkienien lore from which all modern fantasy, or certainly this sort of fantasy, is derived, exactly 2 elves in the history of the world are said to have had facial hair. Elf!Senshi has a tiny little moustache. Elf!Senshi isn't feminine, he is the HOTTEST, HAIRIEST bear in the metaphorical gay club.

...it's possible that he's more of a himbo than we realize, though.

I don't know what's up with Kensuke and I AM worried that it's being directed by the demon. I want it to be Laios's friend so bad...

It occurs to me that "the winged lion is actually the demon at the root of all of this" is probably the biggest spoiler I've gotten, and I didn't even realize how huge a spoiler it was because I DIDN'T get spoilered for the fact that, so far as the characters know, the lion is supposed to be a helpful god. Don't play with spoilers, kids! Even if you want to read the juicy meta!

This initial fight with the gargoyles is probably my new second-favorite "Laios is really quickly analytical and problem-solving in combat" moment (the living armor fight is still #1). He sees how everyone is failing, prevents more problems as he can, realizes they can't win and puts together what pieces they need to get out. In group social dynamics, he's a mediocre leader at best, but he's a superb combat tactician.

Laios is just living in his own little after-school special, and I love him for that.

That first panel is definitely support for the theory that the 50-60yr life expectancy of "short-lived" races like tallmen, orcs, kobolds and halffeet is shorter than it should be, relative to their ages of maturity, because the long-lived races control and hold most of the resources. It's even possible that their ages of maturity SHOULD be even older, but social conditions force them to become "adults" at a younger developmental age than dwarves, gnomes and especially elves!

Panel 3 is Marcille mentally shoving Chilchuck higher on her list of Lives to Extend by Whatever Magic I Can Learn.

I love how the way they figure out that the mushrooms' effects are easily reversible is literally by thinking through the greater social worldbuilding implications of the effects.

^This is the single most Dad we've ever seen Chilchuck...topped only by that 'carry child like a football' a moment later. Actually, he yeets Marcille a LOT while tall - here, over the jump in the travel montage, with Laios to make a loop for the gargoyle...which I'm dead certain is an indication of how he physically treated his daughters. Those kids got casually, affectionately tossed like salad.

.

AND THAT'S WHAT WE CALL FRIENDSHIP.

...okay maybe I did have several thoughts about those 2 chapters.

.

"[Falin] was much tougher than I was. I hear she and our parents still write to each other" is SUCH a line for painting a picture of Laios and Falin's childhoods, and Laios's feelings on it.

.

you can keep your Kabru Wink(TM)s, I am weak only for the Laios Fond Little Smile(TM).

.

I love how Senshi is still musing on this soul = egg metaphor, and I LOVE how both times now that we've seen Laios genuinely lose his temper, it's because someone was saying "why are you just being excited about eating monsters when Falin is in danger?!", and he's snapping because he is fucking NOT dismissing his sister in favor of eating monsters, he is doing EVERYTHING IN HIS POWER to save her and it just so happens that the only plans with a smidgen of success involve leaning into eating monsters. And by trying to stop him from that, you're stopping him from saving Falin.

.

Laios, how tf do you remember the Wink? I'm 99% sure Kabru never once winked in your interactions; I WAS looking for it. Was he just exuding wink energy? (I mean...yes.)

.

The dramatic irony jokes in this chapter are on POINT. Chilchuck: "There's no way this thing still works" [tram door slams shut on his heels, cars immediately starts moving]. "You won't find a military company in the dungeon" [smash cut to Shuro, Namari and Kabru unhappily leading the Canaries into the dungeon]. Impeccable.

Stopping this one here in preparation for going nuts about implied elf-related worldbuilding in the next chapters!

[genericpuff]

SO I just got my stay-flats in for mailing prints which means I'm one step closer to getting my online shop open <3

But what I WASN'T expecting to also show up inside the box of mailers was my pre-order copy of Covenant!

Apologies in advance because my photos aren't the greatest, but I wanna share some pics of it because I'm really impressed with how these books look and feel.

For starters, the actual cover designs. The front cover features stunning art and has a nice gloss cover, whereas the backside actually has a softer matte feel with gloss golden text which compliments the overall aesthetic of the book very nicely.

As for inside the book...

I was so relieved to see how well the formatting was done. Those who follow me here know I spend a lot of time bitching about webtoons-related stuff and one of my biggest gripes is how the webtoon format overall is very unfriendly to long-term publishing, as many creators don't anticipate eventually formatting for print (and Webtoons certainly hasn't helped as for years they've perpetuated the notion that print books are "dead", at least until it came to them making money 🍵) It's not an easy task to convert a vertical webtoon into a page format comic, but I'm happy to say that Lysandra's team here knocked it out of the park. The panel and text flow is smooth and easy to follow, they always take full advantage of the page space given to them, and the overall structure of every page feels very well thought out to work for the story it's trying to tell (as this is an action comic with fight scenes which can be tricky enough to pull off in page format, let alone converting from vertical format!) They've also gone out of their way to properly format the episode divides, so episodes (or as they're called in the story's stylization, "books") flow seamlessly with very little breakage, unlike what you would find in some webtoon-to-print books that often find the flow interrupted by episode title breaks every few pages. According to the credits page in the front of the book, we owe a lot of the formatting to layout designer Miranda Mundt and book designer Carey Soucy! Well done!

The print quality of the pages is also superb, printed on high-quality glossy paper which makes for stunning colors that have translated well from web to print. The darks are very dark which is necessary for a comic like Covenant which has a very earthy color palette; but when there ARE color pop moments of pink, red, and blue, they really shine. Of course, there is a downside to this, which is that the glossy paper WILL show your thumbprints in the darker areas (especially if you have particularly oily hands like I do, ech) but hey, it adds character and it's worth seeing the comic's art come to life on the glossy paper.

Sooo yeah! This is a very competent and well-made book from an awesome creator and if I have ANYTHING to snipe about just for the sake of it, it's that it's no wonder Webtoons tried to keep the creator from promoting their book launch, because it frankly outdoes a lot of WT's own publishing efforts LOL Congrats on your book launch Lysandra, I'm looking forward to getting my hands on Volume 2! <3

[wheelsgoroundincircles]

This Day In History, April 23, 1996 Zora Arkus-Duntov, Belgian-American automotive engineer, known as "the Father of the Corvette", dies at 86

Zora Arkus-Duntov (December 25, 1909 – April 21, 1996) was a Belgian-born American engineer whose work on the Chevrolet Corvette earned him the nickname "Father of the Corvette." He is sometimes erroneously referred to as the inventor of the Corvette; that title belongs to Harley Earl. He was also a professional racing driver, appearing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans four times and taking class wins in 1954 and 1955.

Arkus-Duntov joined General Motors in 1953 after seeing the Motorama Corvette on display in New York City. He found the car visually superb, but was disappointed with what was underneath. He wrote Chevrolet chief engineer Ed Cole that it would be a pleasure to work on such a beautiful car; he also included a technical paper which proposed an analytical method of determining a car's top speed. Chevrolet was so impressed, engineer Maurice Olley invited him to come to Detroit. On May 1, 1953, Arkus-Duntov started at Chevrolet as an assistant staff engineer.

Shortly after going to work for Chevrolet, Arkus-Duntov set the tone for what he was about to accomplish in a memo to his bosses. The document, "Thoughts Pertaining to Youth, Hot Rodders and Chevrolet", laid out Duntov's views on overcoming Ford's lead in use by customizers and racers, and how to increase both the acceptance and the likelihood of success of the Chevrolet V8 in this market. In 1957 Arkus-Duntov became Director of High Performance Vehicles at Chevrolet. After helping to introduce the small-block V8 engine to the Corvette in 1955, providing the car with much-needed power, he set about showcasing the engine by ascending Pike's Peak in 1956 in a pre-production car (a 1956 Bel Air 4-door hardtop), setting a stock car record. He took a Corvette to Daytona Beach the same year and hit a record-setting 150 mph (240 km/h) over the flying mile.[citation needed] He also developed the famous Duntov high-lift camshaft and helped bring fuel injection to the Corvette in 1957. He is credited with introducing the first mass-produced American car with four-wheel disc brakes.

A conflict arose between Duntov and Chevrolet chief designer Bill Mitchell over the design of the new C2 Corvette "Sting Ray" model. Mitchell designed the car with a long hood and a raised windsplit that ran the length of the roof and continued down the back on a pillar that bisected the rear window into right and left halves. Duntov felt that the elongated hood interfered with the driver's view of the road ahead, and the rear pillar obscured the driver's view rearwards. The split rear window was widely criticized, and a one-piece backlite was put in its place the next year.

[seizethenightagain2]

Luke Newton 💜💜

Handsome Bridgerton Star Leading Season Three as Colin Bridgerton 💜💜💜

Seen here in a superb photoshoot for WWD 💜

Photo Credits: Jenna Greene 💜