#da vinci probe

[the-davinci-probe]

// Hey, we started this blog because we're working on some cool science videos. Heres the animatic shots from our current one about the 2029 davinci probe mission to Venus, called the big plunge. We can share our original animatic now and shots from it since we're producing the final film And as always: Space is the coolest

[thresholdbb]

Janeway is already struggling with her mental state in Concerning Flight –

JANEWAY: You're giving up. Again. Your beautiful painting of the Adoration, the great bronze horse in Milan, the Battle of Anghiari. Unfinished, all of them. You were going to publish your notebooks. You never did. You have given up, abandoned your most important works. Why?

She probes Da Vinci intently, trying to figure out why he would abandon all that's important to him and the things he's tried to achieve. Why throw away everything that's gotten him up to this point?

The real question is why would she care so much? She is too invested in his answer, and she's really accusing him of the things she fears she'll do. She fears she'll give up because she's already descending into the depressive episode we see culminate in Night. "You've given up. Abandoned your most important works. Why?" She's not asking him that question; she's asking for herself.

Janeway is struggling to hold on and she's looking for strength anywhere she can find it, even if it is in the comfort of a Renaissance holodeck program. What's especially telling is she only does this when she's alone with Da Vinci because the second Voyager needs attention, she's back to being captain. Given some space, though, she's ruminating in isolation and blame

[justforbooks]

What in Me Is Dark by Orlando Reade

Orlando Reade’s fascinating study of John Milton’s famous work, through the eyes of myriad readers from Malcolm X to white supremacists, shows how it has provoked the widest range of responses and interpretations

In Dan Brown’s thriller Angels and Demons (2000), the protagonist, Robert Langdon, combs the Vatican archives for proof that the astronomer Galileo Galilei was involved with the sinister secret society known as the Illuminati. He is stunned to discover a manuscript containing four cryptic lines of poetry, not in Latin or Italian, but, his companion tells him, “written in English”. “English?” Langdon gasps, disbelievingly (the breathy italics, just two of hundreds of examples in the novel, are both Brown’s). Not only are the lines in English (English? English!), but their author, despite belonging to a clandestine group, has obligingly put his name to them: “The poem is signed John Milton.” Even as Langdon’s mind boggles, it helpfully spells out the relevant facts: “John Milton? The influential English poet who wrote Paradise Lost?… he was still dazed over the document’s spellbinding implications.” Warning – more italics incoming: “John Milton was an Illuminatus.” While the revelation might not quite be as mind-blowing as those to come in Brown’s next novel, to literary buffs the prospect of Milton the Illuminatus might be almost as sacrilegious as the idea of Christ’s fruitful loins at the end of The Da Vinci Code.

It’s arguably too easy – albeit enjoyable – to make fun of Brown’s overblown plotting and prose. What makes this episode worthy of note is that it is just one entertainingly silly instance of Milton’s remarkable tendency to pop up in unexpected places in the centuries since his death, like some kind of poetically visionary, ferociously erudite, fervently anti-monarchical jack-in-the-box. This tendency is the subject of Orlando Reade’s thoughtful, wide-ranging and astute book. In 12 short and elegant chapters, Reade examines a range of contexts in which – and writers for whom – Milton’s great epic poem Paradise Lost has come to matter, both as an object of fascination in its own right, and as a flexible instrument with which to probe and ponder a variety of psychological, social and political predicaments. Each chapter has a chief protagonist, but arrays around them a set of contemporaneous responses to Milton that adds richness and texture to the narrative.

Some of the figures upon whom Reade focuses, and their Miltonic preoccupations, are quite well known, such as Thomas Jefferson, William and Dorothy Wordsworth, and George Eliot. His selection as a whole is, however, deliberately and challengingly eclectic, pushing us to consider the whole gamut of responses that a great writer can inspire. There is a particularly fine and insightful chapter on the use made of Milton by prominent figures in the Haitian revolution, for whom a literary sensibility was “a crucial indicator of the capacity for self-government”: Jean Louis, Baron de Vastey, claimed that it was not the liberated Black Haitians, but rather their former masters, who were “like the infernal spirits” conjured by “the immortal Milton”. Reade also richly explores the counterintuitive acuity with which Malcolm X read Milton’s works while imprisoned. “Malcolm’s ability to interpret was the foundation of his political activism,” Reade argues, and his “rejection of western civilisation was an epic act” in which he both read Paradise Lost against the grain and captured something of Milton’s own internally divided energies.

The readability and economy of Reade’s book is all the more impressive given the sheer amount of information on which his account relies. He explains at the outset that the book will be accessible to “someone who hasn’t read Paradise Lost”, and he achieves this by threading a summary of the poem’s action, enlivened by frequent citation, through the book’s chapters, juggling it with contextual information about the later figures whose engagements with Milton he describes. Inevitably this strategy is not always successful. Some of the summaries could have allowed in more of the texture of Milton’s poem, and a few of the potted biographical portraits have an inescapably Wikipedia-like tone to them (“Born in 1882, Virginia Stephen grew up in the upper-middle-class idyll of Hyde Park Corner, London…”; “Cyril Lionel Robert James was born in Trinidad in 1901”).

Not all of the chapters convincingly show that Paradise Lost mattered to their central figures – this is especially the case with the account of Hannah Arendt, which is insightful on her relationship with her one-time teacher and lover, the philosopher and Nazi Martin Heidegger, but light on actual Miltonic engagements. Overall, however, Reade is to be applauded for a remarkable feat of distillation and elucidation as he ranges adroitly across historical time and geographical space in search of Paradise Lost’s afterlives, sprinkling his calm and precise prose with an occasional sparkle of impishly absurd simile (in the space of two pages, Satan and Beelzebub on the fiery lake “hold their heads above the surface of the water, like two lizards in a Jacuzzi”; God heaps endless suffering on Satan “like a tourist at a bottomless buffet”, and Satan contemplates his minions’ prospects in hell “like a tech chief executive contemplating child labourers in a mineral mine”.

The finest and most difficult balance that Reade successfully strikes is between lauding Milton as a rich resource for those in search of inspiration and of freedom, and recognising the abhorrent characteristics of his imagination that have made him amenable to his more repulsive interpreters: these include Milton-worshipping white supremacist participants in the Mardi Gras festivities in New Orleans and in more recent times, as Reade startlingly explains, the attraction to Milton’s works expressed by the psychologist Jordan Peterson, guru of online “incels” and misogynists. These disturbing interpreters are not just wrong-headed, Reade shows; they are responding to off-putting tendencies in Milton’s own mind, which veered between assertions of human equality and the insistence that some groups – perhaps the English, or Protestants, or just Milton himself – were superior.

Reade movingly frames his account with reminiscences of his experiences teaching Paradise Lost to incarcerated students in New Jersey during his graduate student years, and recognises that Milton can be viewed both as a symbol for the individual lives crushed by the modern prison industrial complex, and as a symbol for the forces doing the crushing. As a response to such a complex and equivocal historical figure neither hagiography nor iconoclasm seems quite adequate, and Reade’s excellent book strikes a difficult and deft balance between the two.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[talonabraxas]

June 21/22 Solstice Solar Stargate

White Lodge(108) rep Dan Winter(108), has for decades revealed the physics of implosion, aka Phi Spiral(108).

( ) brackets explained below.

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Dan was pleasantly surprised when we pointed out the angle between our solar system's equator and the Milky Way equator is exactly the angle of a Phi Ratio Spiral cone, no doubt Dan understood at that moment why others (Nick Fiorenza) had called this astronomical node the 'Point of Avatar', entry Portal (Stargate) into and exit portal out of our solar system.

Notably, on this topic, skilled longitudinal wave creators/explorers at the Monroe Institute have documented their experiences via the online PDF called 'Starlines'.

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This meeting/crossing point where solar interfaces with galactic slowly shifts (precession) and in a couple of centuries will have shifted by a couple of degrees/day. Earth will then no longer be at this node on the 21st June.

This is the era when our planet (especially June 21/22) most intimately interfaces with the galactic realms.

A few days of soul group union are at play.

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Dan (DNA) Winter's negentropic wave mechanics is at play at solar/galactic scales, as we would expect with factuality, many galaxy's have been discovered to offset from the SuperGalactic Equator at this Phi Spiral cone angle (60deg).

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Dan Brown (born directly at this galactic/solar node) proposes in The Da Vinci Code that Mary Magdalene's bloodline were looking for the Holy Grail in modern day France. Towards the end of the book they find it, the Fibonacci (Phi in nature-Steiner's 'Formative Ether') Series. Brown is priming the collective consciousness for Winter's meta-physics.

Remember 'fractal' means all dimension inclusive.

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Queen(62) Magdalene(62), Fibonacci(62), Plasma(62)

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Locally, over the past 3 decades we've noted many advanced individuals choose to die/transit during these few days.

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Explanation of the brackets ( ).

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Cryptonumerology a=1 - z=26

Each term with brackets after them ( ) cross references ideas from different disciplines.

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More cross referencing via cryptonumerics.

253

Surf longitudinal wave

through solar stargate

Ignition of the Lightbody

applying golden phi ratio

enlightened co-creatorship

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147

White Lodge Rep

the Hierophant

true wisdom

divine fusion

cosmic awakening

probe the future

white clothes

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Astro-researcher John Harris explains solar phi dynamics:

"with respect to unity are the Phi Ratio Series planetary framework mean values for the PERIODS OF REVOLUTION, the intermediate SYNODIC CYCLES, the mean HELIOCENTRIC DISTANCES and the mean ORBITAL VELOCITIES.

[nekomacbeth]

da vinci. like (believe it or not) the upcoming space probe

[monkeyssalad-blog]

F-18 in the Dryden Water Tunnel by NASA on The Commons Via Flickr: This image shows a plastic 1/48-scale model of an F-18 aircraft inside the "Water Tunnel" more formally known as the NASA Dryden Flow Visualization Facility. Water is pumped through the tunnel in the direction of normal airflow over the aircraft; then, colored dyes are pumped through tubes with needle valves. The dyes flow back along the airframe and over the airfoils highlighting their aerodynamic characteristics. The aircraft can also be moved through its pitch axis to observe airflow disruptions while simulating actual flight at high angles of attack. The Water Tunnel at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, CA, became operational in 1983 when Dryden was a Flight Research Facility under the management of the Ames Research Center in Mountain View, CA. As a medium for visualizing fluid flow, water has played a significant role. Its use dates back to Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), the Renaissance Italian engineer, architect, painter, and sculptor. In more recent times, water tunnels have assisted the study of complex flows and flow-field interactions on aircraft shapes that generate strong vortex flows. Flow visualization in water tunnels assists in determining the strength of vortices, their location, and possible methods of controlling them. The design of the Dryden Water Tunnel imitated that of the Northrop Corporation's tunnel in Hawthorne, CA. Called the Flow Visualization Facility, the Dryden tunnel was built to assist researchers in understanding the aerodynamics of aircraft configured in such a way that they create strong vortex flows, particularly at high angles of attack. The tunnel provides results that compare well with data from aircraft in actual flight in another fluid-air. Other uses of the tunnel have included study of how such flight hardware as antennas, probes, pylons, parachutes, and experimental fixtures affect airflow. NASA Media Usage Guidelines Credit: NASA Image Number: ECN-33298-03 Date: December 12, 1985

[designaday]

Ultimate Playlist: Men’s Names, Barry – Billy

Barry Bonds Press Conference - The Musical by Paul and Storm Back in 2003, a grand jury began investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) with the suspicion that they were providing performance enhancing drugs to athletes, including Barry Bonds. Paul and Storm released this song in 2006 when the MLB launched its probe into Bond’s steroid use.

Roll Over Beethoven by Chuck Berry Berry wrote this song because his sister Lucy was always playing classical music on the family piano when he wanted to play popular music. It’s one of 50 recordings selected by the Library of Congress to be included in the National Recording Registry.

The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill by The Beatles The song was inspired by Richard A. Cooke III, who was visiting his mother at the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh while the Beatles were there. Rik shot a tiger when it attacked the elephants he and his mother were riding.

Bill Bailey, Won’t You Please Come Home? by Hughie Cannon Willard “Bill” Bailey was a jazz musician and friend to Cannon who wrote the song one night when Bill told him about his marriage to Sarah. It’s been recorded by many singers—I’m partial to Jimmy Durante.

My Name! by Lionel Bart, sung by Sally Dexter and Miles Anderson From the musical Oliver!, based on Charles Dickens’s novel Oliver Twist, this song is sung by the character Bill Sikes, a brutal robber and murderer, and one o the main antagonists in the story.

Don’t Mess With Bill by The Marvelettes There’s another Bill that you don’t want to mess with featured in this song written and produced by Smokey Robinson.

Face Like Billy Joel by Da Vinci’s Notebook A parody of Billy Joel’s doo-wop song, “The Longest Time,” this one makes a punchline of Joel’s face. Of course, Billy was the one married to supermodel Christie Brinkley.

The Ballad of Billy the Kid by Billy Joel The story told in this song is completely inaccurate compared to the life of the real Billy the Kid. Joel claims that the Billy referred to in the last verse is a bartender he knew, but it seems much more likely that this is a self-reference.

Don’t Lose My Number by Phil Collins The song sounds dire, but the story of poor Billy was improvised and doesn’t really mean anything. The music video doesn’t make things any clearer, as it just depicts various directors trying to sell Phil concepts for the video parodying everything from David Lee Roth’s “California Girls” to the movie “Mad Max 2.”

All I Wanna Do by Sheryl Crow The lyrics for this song were adapted from the poem “Fun” by Wyn Cooper, who was inspired by a conversation at a bar with another writer, Bill Ripley. Sadly, the popularity of the song brought considerable royalties to Cooper and promoted his book, resulting in Ripley bringing a lawsuit against him for some of the money, ending their friendship.

[rjhamster]

Republicans Will Take Legal Action to Enforce Subpoenas in Biden Impeachment Probe: Speaker

Banks Have Been Shutting Down Across The Nation In 2023. All Smart Money is Currently Hedging with Physical Gold & Silver. Why Not You? Don’t Wait… December 12, 2023 TODAY IN HISTORY Da Vinci notebook sells for over $5M 1980 TOP NEWS US News Republicans Will Take Legal Action to Enforce Subpoenas in Biden Impeachment Probe: Speaker SHARE*       READ MORE From Newsroom to Living Room:…

[tamgdenettebya]

Новая лунная гонка

Знамений рисунок Леонардо спирального пропеллера. Идею геликоптера он впервые высказал в 1475 году.

В новом году на Луну сядут сразу три космических корабля. Самый амбициозный проект — китайский Чанъэ-4, запущенный 7 декабря с космодрома Сичан. Мягкая посадка на обратной стороне Луны может стать первой в истории. Индийский «Чандраян-2» отправится к ночному светилу в январе. Посадка планируется в районе Южного полюса Луны. Луноход будет собирать образцы 2-3 недели. Ранее проект Индия хотела реализовывать совмест��о с Российским космическим агентством.

Израильская компания SpaceIL планирует запустить лунный зонд Sparrow («Воробей») в начале 2019 года с помощью американской ракеты Falcon-9 и через пару месяцев прилуниться. «Воробей» будет самым маленьким и легким в истории. И первой негосударственной лунной миссией. Американские компании Moon Express и Astrobotics надеются получить новое финансирование от НАСА в 2019 году. Японцы планируют запустить аппарат в 2020 году.

В России концепция исследования и освоения Луны была озвучена 28 ноября 2018 ��ода. Предполагается запуск окололунной станции (2021 год), пилотируемого корабля «Федерация», исследование Луны автоматическими станциями серии «Луна» (25, 26, 27, 28), а также высадка космонавтов и создание полноценной лунной базы после 2035 г.

_____________________________________

Omens drawing by Leonardo of a spiral propeller. He first expressed the idea of ​​a helicopter in 1475. In the new year, three spacecraft will land on the moon at once. The most ambitious project is the Chinese Chang'e-4, launched on December 7 from the Xichang Cosmodrome. A soft landing on the far side of the moon could be the first in history. The Indian "Chandrayan-2" will go to the night luminary in January. Landing is planned in the region of the South Pole of the Moon. Lunokhod will collect samples for 2-3 weeks. Previously, India wanted to implement the project jointly with the Russian Space Agency.

The Israeli company SpaceIL plans to launch the Sparrow lunar probe (“Sparrow”) in early 2019 using the American Falcon-9 rocket and land in a couple of months. "Sparrow" will be the smallest and lightest in history. And the first non-state lunar mission. US companies Moon Express and Astrobotics hope to receive new funding from NASA in 2019. The Japanese plan to launch the device in 2020. In Russia, the concept of exploration and exploration of the Moon was announced on November 28, 2018. It is planned to launch a near-lunar station (2021), a manned spacecraft "Federation", the exploration of the Moon by automatic stations of the "Luna" series (25, 26, 27, 28), as well as the landing of astronauts and the creation of a full-fledged lunar base after 2035.

«Край света»

Этот рисунок космического аппарата в стиле да Винчи – «новодел». Автоматическая межпланетная станция НАСА «Новые горизонты». Запущена 19 января 2006 года американской ракетой «Атлас-5» с российским двигателем РД-180. 1 января она достигнет Пояса Койпера. Ледяной мир на окраине Солнечной системы за орбитой Нептуна. Около 7 миллиардов км от Земли.

______________________________

This da Vinci-style drawing of a spacecraft is a "remake". Automatic interplanetary station NASA "New Horizons". It was launched on January 19, 2006 by an American Atlas-5 rocket with a Russian RD-180 engine. On January 1, it will reach the Kuiper Belt. An icy world on the outskirts of the solar system beyond the orbit of Neptune. About 7 billion km from Earth.

[crossborderscare]

Established in 1983, Apollo Hospitals are one of the best and leading multi-specialty healthcare units. Dr. Pratap C. Reddy established it, and today it has transformed the lives of more than 120 million people.

TodayAPOLLO HOSPITALS DELHIhas a team of more than 7000 medical experts having compassion and dedication for their jobs.

Apollo Hospitals was the first in India to get accreditation by Joint Commission International and American Institute for accrediting hospitals. NABH and National accrediting agencies also accredit them.

Today, the hospital has various centers for excellence which can provide world-class medical treatment to the patients. Today it has a network of 71 hospitals that can accommodate 12000 patients.

ROBOTIC SURGERY IN APOLLO HOSPITALis a state of the art centre with advanced robotic surgical systems offering great prospects for patients seeking scar less, precise operations with little post-operative complications.

An association ofINDRAPRASTHA APOLLO HOSPITAL DELHI& US based Vattikuli foundation (A pioneer NGO in sharing robotic surgery knowledge) brings out the best surgical outcomes comparable with its western counterparts.

APOLLO HOSPITAL SARITA VIHARalso has a dedicated institute for Robotic surgery, which has advanced Robotic equipment like the Da Vinci Robotic surgical system, one of the most advanced platforms for minimally invasive surgery through robotic probes and scopes.

This Landmark piece of technology is accurate and precise with the greatest clinical outcome presently available on the planet. This forearmed robotic surgical system is used primarily for surgeries in Urology, Gynecology, Heart, weight loss, etc.

INDRAPRASTHA APOLLO HOSPITAL is one of the first hospitals in the Asia Pacific Region to use Renaissance Robotic Technology.

[hasgudakodoneanythingwrong]

Day 158

Boardgame night was the one game night that didn't end up in chaos everytime, now a new boardgame kidnapped servants and gave us the freaking Voyager probe in servant form.

He's gonna guide us through the game board while we rescue the servants and help him find his friend. Edison's declared himself Voyager's guardian, Salty Emiya and nursery rhyme are coming too. Da Vinci and Roman are staying behind to monitor the situation, Mash is naturally coming.

[thelittlesttimelord]

The Littlest Timelord: The Death of the Doctor Chapter 28

TITLE: The Littlest Timelord: The Death of the Doctor Chapter 28 PAIRING: No Pairing RATING: T CHAPTER: 28/? SUMMARY:  The Doctor’s death is looming on the horizon and Elise is growing every  day. What the Doctor doesn’t know is that he has 200 years to teach Elise all he knows. Amy, Rory, and River let Elise in on their secret,  because River knows she will keep it. What will Elise do when he’s gone?

There was a loud crash and the TARDIS jolted.

Rory ran to the doors and opened them. “Red Waterfall. We made it.”

“Good old us,” the Doctor said.

“How do we know that we're in the same Red Waterfall as Amy?”

“Focus on the positive.”

Rory looked at a topless statue of a lady. It was carved in the Greek style. Elise’s area of expertise was in painting, but she could admire the talents of sculptors.

“We locked onto Amy's time stream. Eyes front, soldier.”

“Right, yes. Sorry.”

“Apalapucians are the great cultural scavengers, Rory. This gallery's a scrapbook of their favorite places.”

There was a copy of the Mona Lisa on a pedestal (or maybe it was the original?). Elise considered asking her father to visit Da Vinci.

“Bit of Earth, bit of alien…” Rory looked at a pillar that was glowing blue and dripping. “…bit of whatever the hell that is.”

The Doctor shed his jacket as Rory looked around. “Where is everyone?”

“Right, Rory, switch the Time Glass on and sonic it. I'm sending a command signal to the screwdriver. Amy's here somewhere, if I can just get a lock on her.”

Rory pulled out the screwdriver and soniced the Time Glass.

“I wonder what happens if we mix the filters?” the Doctor wondered.

Blurry figures of people appeared in the Time Glass.

“Oh, there they are. Forty thousand time streams overlapping. Red Waterfall isn't one time stream, it's thousands.”

“How is that possible?” Elise asked.

“The same way the TARDIS is bigger on the inside.” The Doctor tapped her nose like he did River.

“Are they happy?” Rory asked.

“Oh, Rory. Trust you to think of that. I think they're happy to be alive. Better than the alternative.”

Rory lowered the Time Glass in time to see someone coming towards him with a Samurai sword. He fell backward onto the floor.

The Doctor grabbed Elise around the waist to stop her from running out of the TARDIS to Rory’s aid.

“I come in peace. Peace, peace, peace, peace,” Rory told the person.

“I waited.”

“Sorry, what?”

“I waited for you. I waited for you.”

They raised their helmet to reveal an older Amy. A much older Amy.

“Amy,” Rory breathed, “Doctor, what's going on? Amy.”

“I think the timestream lock might be a bit wobbly.”

Amy raised her sword.

“No, please. Please,” Rory begged.

“Duck,” she told him. Amy stabbed the Handbot in the head and it hit the ground.

The Doctor and Elise watched on shocked. This wasn’t their Amy. Their sweet and kind Amy. She’d hardened.

“Handbots carry a black box in case they go offline. I've changed the cause of termination from hostile to accidental. Easy to re-program. Used my sonic probe.”

“Amy.”

“Rory.”

“Why?”

“Because I've survived this long by making the Handbots think I don't exist. Don't touch the hands. There's anesthetic transfer on the skin. If they touch you, you go to sleep.”

“But you're still here?”

“You didn't save me.” Amy started to walk off, but Rory ran in front of her.

“But, this is the saving. This is the us saving you. The Doctor just got the timing a bit out!”

The Doctor mouthed a “Sorry”, but neither could see it. Elise placed a hand on his back, comforting him in her own silent way.

“I've been on my own here a long, long time. I've had decades to think nice thoughts about him. Got a bit harder to stay charitable once I entered decade four,” Amy told Rory.

“40? Alone?”

“36 years, thanks.”

“No. Right. I mean, you look great. Really, really.” Rory’s eyes wandered.

“Eyes front, soldier.”

“Still can't win then?”

“In fact, I think I can now definitely say I hate him. I hate The Doctor. I hate him more than I've ever hated anyone in my life, and you can hear every word of this through those ridiculous glasses, can't you, Raggedy Man?”

“Er, yes. Putting the speaker phone on.” The Doctor walked over to the console and hit a button. He wouldn’t let it show, but Elise knew his hearts were breaking with that statement.

“You told me to wait, and I did. A lifetime,” Amy told him.

“Amy!”

There was a Handbot coming up behind her.

“You've got nothing to say to me.”

“Amy, behind you!”

There was another one in the room with them.

Amy threw her sword to Rory and touched the hands of the Handbots together. They powered down.

“Feedback. Knocks them out. Learned that trick on my first day,” Amy said. She left the art gallery and Rory followed her.

“Okay, so we just take the TARDIS back to the right time stream, yeah? We can stop any of this happening,” Rory asked the Doctor.

“We locked on to a timestream, Rory. This is it.”

“This is so wrong.”

“I got old, Rory. What did you think was going to happen?” Amy snapped.

Rory grabbed her by the arm and she looked back at him. “Hey, I don't care that you got old. I care that we didn't grow old together. Amy, come on, please.”

Amy pulled her arm out of his grip. “Don't touch me. Don't do that.”

“It's like you're not even her.”

“36 years, 3 months, 4 days of solitary confinement. This facility was built to give people the chance to live. I walked in here and I died. Do you have anything to say? Anything, Doctor?”

“Where did you get a sonic screwdriver?” he asked her.

“I made it. And it's a sonic probe.”

“You made a sonic screwdriver?”

“Probe.”

Rory followed Amy into the section of the facility where Amy had been living for the past 36 years. She had a Handbot with hooks for hands and a smiley face drawn on it.

“Don't worry about him. Sit down, Rory,” Amy said.

Both Rory and the Handbot sat down.

“You named him after me?” Rory asked. That had to mean something, right?

“Needed a bit of company.”

“So he's like your…”

“Pet?”

“Is it safe?”

“Yep. I disarmed it.”

“How?” Rory looked down the robot’s non-existent hands. “Oh, you disarmed it.”

“Oh, don't get sentimental, it's just a robot. You'd have done the same.”

“I don't know that I would have,” the Doctor told her.

“And there he is. The voice of God. Survive, because no one's going to come for you. Number one lesson. You taught me that.”

“Is that really all I taught you?”

“Don't you lecture me, blue-box man flying through time and space on whimsy. With his always faithful daughter by his side.”

Elise tried not to be hurt by that comment. Was she really always faithful? She couldn’t think of time where she’d gone against her father.

“All I've got, all I've had for 36 years, is cold, hard reality. So no, I don't have a sonic screwdriver because I'm not off on a romp. I call it what it is. A probe. And I call my life what it is. Hell.”

“Amy Pond, I am going to put this right. You said you learned from an Interface. Can I speak with it?”

Amy looked down and checked her watch. “Doesn't work in here. 2:23. The garden'll be clear now.” She walked up to Rory. “Stay or go?”

“Sorry, me? No, I'm coming with you.”

“Then try not to get killed. Or do. Whatever.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Amy and Rory made their way to the garden.

“When I first came here, I had to trick the Interface into giving me the information, but I've reprogrammed it now. It'll tell me anything except how to escape,” Amy explained.

“You hacked it? That's genius,” Rory said.

“Sorry to interrupt that beautiful moment, but temporal engines like that have a regulator valve. Has to be kept at a distance from the main reactor or there'd be feedback. Interface, where's the regulator?”

A blueprint appeared on the screens of the TARDIS. “The regulator valve is held within.”

“Oh. Very, very… Interface, I need to run through some technical specifications. Rory, give me to Amy a minute.”

“Here you go,” Rory said and handed them to Amy.

She put them on. “They look ridiculous,” she said.

“That's what I told him. Still, anything beats a fez, eh?”

The two of them smiled and laughed together.

“What is it?” Rory asked.

“I think that's the first time I've laughed in 36 years.”

“I'll just, er, leave you two geniuses alone. I'll be back in a minute.”

“There's still time, Amy. There's still time to fix everything.” As they were discussing the plan, Amy suddenly started running.

A Handbot had gotten to Rory. Amy chopped its head off before it could harm him.

“Rory. Rory?” Amy asked, kneeling by his side.

Rory groaned. “Glasses.”

Amy stood up. “Stupid!”

“Oh! You saved me.”

“Don't get used to it.”

“Have you been crying? A little bit.”

“Shut up, Rory.”

“You have, haven't you?”

“Woman with a sword. Don't push it.”

Elise smiled. There was their Amy.

“Okay. So, here's the plan. Time is always a bit wibbly-wobbly, but in Twostreams it's extra wobbly,” the Doctor said.

Amy took the glasses off and put them back on Rory.

“I've worked out how to hijack the Temporal Engines and use them to fold two points of Amy's timeline together. We're bringing her out of the “then” and into the “now”! Amy, I just need to borrow your brain a minute. It won't hurt, probably. Almost probably and then Amy Pond, I'm going to save you.”

“No!” Amy yelled.

“No? What do you mean no?” Elise asked her, “Amy…”

“Time's up. Handbots coming.”

Rory followed Amy back into the main part of the facility.

“Amy, you've got to help us help you. I need you to think back 36 years ago,” the Doctor told her, “Amy? Amy!”

Amy entered the Temporal Engines room and slammed the door in Rory (and their) faces. There was something on the door.

Rory raised the Time Glass up to the door to read the message. It read “Doctor, I’m waiting.” “You told her to leave us a sign. She did and she waited. Oh Amy.”

Rory entered the Temporal Engines room, going after Amy. “Why won't you help yourself?”

“He wants to rescue past me from 36 years back, which means I'll cease to exist. Everything I've seen and done dissolves. Time is rewritten.”

“That's…that's good, isn't it?”

“I will die. Another Amy will take my place. An Amy who never got trapped at Twostreams, an Amy who grew old with you, and she, in 36 years, won't be me.”

“But you'll die in here!”

“Not if you take me with you. You came to rescue me, so rescue me.”

“Leave her and take you?”

“We could take this Amy with us, easy, but if we do, our Amy has to wait 36 years to be rescued,” the Doctor said.

Rory shook his head. “So I have to choose which wife do I want?”

“She is me. We're both me.”

“You being here is wrong. For a single day, an hour, let alone a lifetime. I swore to protect you. I promised.”

Amy stared at him for a moment and then entered her makeshift home.

“Rory,” the Doctor said.

“This is your fault.”

“I'm so sorry, but, Rory…”

“No, this is your fault! You should look in a history book once in a while, see if there's an outbreak of plague or not.”

“Rory…” Elise said.

“Oh great. Let me guess. You’re going to defend him, aren’t you? Maybe you should grow up and realize that he’s not perfect.”

Elise had had enough. She was not going to stand around and constantly be insulted. “I’ll be in my room.”

“Elise…” The Doctor said, reaching for her.

“No. I…I need to be alone.” She walked away and left her father standing in the control room alone.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

An hour later, there was a knock on her door.

“Elise? It’s me,” Rory said.

Elise wiped her cheeks. “Um, come in.”

The door opened and Rory entered. He walked toward Elise and sat down on her bed. “You’ve been crying.”

“What gave you that impression?” Elise’s voice was hard and Rory could tell she was holding back anger. She very rarely ever got mad.

“I wanted to apologize. For the things Amy and I said.”

Elise sighed. “Rory, I know my father isn’t perfect. He’s responsible for the deaths of our people. He’s impulsive and manipulative and when he gets mad, it’s downright scary. But I love him anyway. He’s the only real father I’ve ever known. I can look past his faults, because he’s done so much for me. I know I put him on a pedestal sometimes, but honestly doesn’t every other little girl do the same with their father?”

“So we’re good?”

Elise smiled and wrapped her arms around Rory. “Of course. I could never be angry at my Uncle Rory.”

[nekomacbeth]

Hiii. I love your space probe gijinkas. I’m curious are you going to do anything with early probes like Sputnik 21 or Mariner 2?

the short answer is: i have no idea currently LOL

long answer: i actually have zero idea about spacecrafts so whatever i do is based on whatever my friends bring to my attention and which ones i want to make a design out of (da vinci is an exception. the thing is a SPHERE THAT LOOKS LIKE A COOKING POT). so i might look into them and see :D

[artmutt]

El Greco at the Art Institute

I have become accustomed to going up the grand staircase at the Art Institute of Chicago and encountering El Greco. El Greco’s “Assumption of the Blessed Virgin” has been living at the Art Institute for a long time. Now, however, it has been joined by a number of other El Greco works, forming a thoughtful, engaging exhibition that brings together more El Grecos than I have seen in one place before (admittedly, I have not been in the Prado in Madrid, or Toledo, where El Greco lived and worked for so long).

Doménikos Theotokópoulos, who was known for most of his career and to history as “the Greek,” lived from 1541 to 1614. He was originally trained as an icon painter for the Orthodox church (and one of his icon paintings is included in the exhibit). Exposure to Venetian art caused him to change his style and adopt Western art practice. From Italy, he ended up in southern Spain, and gradually gained a career painting both religious subjects and court portraits. There were plenty of other artists at the time whose careers followed similar archs. 

The problem is, the narratives of art history come up short when confronted with work as genuinely original as El Greco’s. Yes, I learned about how “Western art” traversed from Renaissance realism to mannerism and the Baroque in the late 16th century. The thing is, if you look at El Greco’s contemporaries (Bernini, Caravaggio, Vermeer, Reubens), they look very different from El Greco. In point of fact, it’s not the subject matter, but the painting style that’s so fascinating. El Greco’s acknowledgement of the painterly aspects of his work is more aligned with art of the late 19th century than it is with art of the 16th and 17th centuries. His elongated and attenuated figures are genuinely odd. Even if you rationalize that they were meant to be seen form below, it doesn’t explain why so many of the figures look stretched. 

El Greco is also kind of like the 17th century Margaret Keane, the master of the Big Eyed figure. No other artist of the time was painting faces with these huge, liquid, tear-filled eyes. Yes, the works are uniquely appealing and emotional, but weirdly kitschy, in part because we have have come to associate big-eyed portraits with pop culture and canned emotional effects. 

I also love the strange things that hands seem to do in El Greco’s work. Check out this detail from a portrait he did of a Spanish cleric. The middle finger of the guy’s left hand is keeping track of a page in a book. But the shape and shadow of the open book is extremely vaginal, and that middle finger appears to be gently probing or stroking the opening. The sly, sexy smile on the sitter’s face also suggest that there’s something more going on than keeping track of a text.

By the time you get to the works that El Greco created at the end of his life,things are getting pretty crazy. Yes, I could point to works by other Baroque artists that take considerable liberty with human anatomy, but this crowd of naked fabric-bunchers doesn’t make any sense to me at all. You will have to wait for Cezanne or Matisse, painting bathers in the post-Cubist world of the 20th century, before you find human forms this stylized. I am reminded of Leonardo da Vinci’s comment that Michelangelo made muscles look like a bag of rocks. These are sacks of potatoes with genitalia, giant naked Gumbies with their arms raised in supplication.

I also couldn’t help but think of the Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard, who said that the Old Masters were nothing more than “assistant interior decorators to the Catholic rulers of Europe.” There are so many religious paintings here, sometimes in multiple iterations of the same subject, because, hey, the rulers of Spain were holding the line against the Protestant rebellions.They needed over-the-top emotionally intense Catholic art to hang on to their customers. El Greco provided that for them in spades, and did it in a way that radically predicts the fascination with materiality (paint for paint’s sake) that wouldn’t become common practice for another 250 years. Nice work if you can get it.

[alloverthegaf]

a while back a really dangerous cult was exposed in my area of NSW, Australia, though it has recently spread to England as well. I was asked to explain what it is on discord, but thought I’d post it here, in case anyone happens to come across Universal Medicine and do not realise what they are getting into

WARNINGS BEFORE YOU READ: talk of sexual abuse/rape, inappropriate touching, extreme ableism, allusions to paedophilia, paranoia, emotional manipulation, and just generally the worst kind humanity. Because yeah. that's how bad it is. Under a Read More, apologies mobile users.

so in the past few months a cult has been exposed in my local area, but it's been going on for years and years, at least a decade. my mum used to work with someone who got involved with it and even back then she was thinking "this is definitely a cult". so anyway.

this dude Serge used to be a tennis coach with a wife, had an unhealthy interest in his younger female pupils. after he failed as a coach he started Universal Medicine. He left his wife and remarried someone who was 13 when they first met (I don't know how old she was when the relationship started). His new wife and ex-wife and two daughters are all friends and involved in his fucked up doctrine.

Universal Medicine is all about 'healing' and shit. They do bogus 'esoteric breast massages' (only women are allowed to perform them) and 'pelvic bone manipulation' and 'chakrapuncture' and all kinds of absolute bullshit. One woman who has been trying to expose this guy for ten years first met him looking for healing when he asked to do an 'ovarian reading' by probing around that area. Since doing everything she can to expose this man and his following for what it is, she has lost her home and been bankrupted.

One man said during a healing the guy massaging him was touching his ass and afterwards explained that he'd pulled 'an energetic snake' out of his ass.

It's become this massive thing, with 2000 (roughly) followers in my area and at least 200 in England. Aside from the bullshit healing they teach of aliens who watch our every move and could strike at any time. Demons and devils that live in/invade our bodies. They have wild rules, like don't drink alcohol because it will allow demons to enter your body, and if you drink alcohol while holding a baby the demon will rape the baby. He's been quoted saying  something along the lines of "I could be asleep, and this thing inside me could go and rape my daughters in their rooms". Followers have to go to bed at 9pm and get up at 3am. They live on a very extreme diet, which has sent at least one child to hospital for malnutrition.

Multiple families and partnerships have been broken up, and Serge even convinced one wealthy, very sick woman, who had cancer, to restrict the amount of money that would be left to her children and give it all to him instead. He convinced her (and others) that giving money to your children would hurt both you and them in their next life but giving him money would help. He's scared people into giving him money to ensure they have a better afterlife. He also convinced her that the cancer was her own fault because of past actions, but that she should be excited to die because of the next life she’ll experience.

He claims that he is the reincarnation of Leonardo Da Vinci, and one of his daughters is the reincarnation of Winston Churchill. He calls himself a messiah. He also claims that any kind of disabled child, mentally or physically, is the reincarnation of a terrible authoritarian. That they are at fault for being evil in a past life.

He owns massive luxurious properties both in Australia and England, and only drives Audis. He has somehow lured a whole list of doctors, psychologists, counsellors, acupuncturists, dentists, and other professionals into his cult. He’s amassed millions. He’s also had girls as young as ten stay at his house.

And this cult it has its connections. Local businesses are run by these people, and my town’s Chamber of Commerce was chock full of them. They had accountants and other professionals of their fields practicing illegally and were getting away with it.

The worst part is, at the end of last year, Universal Medicine was found by an actual jury to be a cult, and Serge a charlatan, but he is still gaining members. Universal Medicine is still growing.

Australians of NSW and QLD, please check the list to make sure none of your medical professionals are on there. People of Australia and England, please be aware of the name and steer clear, and keep your family away if you can. If you ever see the name Universal Medicine, or anyone associated with it, run the other way. It’s one of the most corrupt, damaging, harmful organisations and leaderships that I’ve ever seen.

If you are interested, you can watch an episode of Sunday Night about it here