#distance education mode

[education100]

Alagappa University Distance Education

Alagappa University was established in 1985 and is located in Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu. The university is accredited by NAAC with A+ grades and its degree programs are recognized by UGC. Alagappa University has 3 core and 51 affiliated colleges. Further, Alagappa is a member of AIU and Commonwealth University. The university is ranked 51st internationally by QS World Southern Asian University 2023. Alagappa University offers UG, PG, Diploma and PhD programs in Arts, Science, Management, Education etc. Alagappa University also offers various UG and PG programs through online and distance learning modes.

[kittenintheden]

*dumps her random characterization and voice notes into your lap* here hope this helps

- Astarion speaks a little bit like a man removed from time and a little bit like an Upper City patriar, but not excessively so and not as a rule. Posh and embellished, but not completely avoidant of slang or casual swearing. Like a person who was once in a certain position in life, was ripped from it, and then spent a very long time in survival mode among people of lesser station/education. His mouth is often ahead of his brain. Many of his pricklier interactions are a direct result of trauma response. He longs to be in control, of his circumstances and of himself. His terms of endearment make subtle shifts from insincere and condescending to genuine and affectionate. When he feels threatened, he becomes distant and detached. He's funny, in both an awkward unintentional way and a very intentional witty way. He walks a razor's edge between a person who relies on his charms and an animal in a cage.

- Wyll is a deeply idealistic noble raised on tales of good knights and mighty heroes. His father was a soldier first, a noble second, and instilled in him a rigid moral code and high expectations for leadership. Those teachings led him to make a life-altering choice at seventeen years old that he was resoundly punished for due to manipulation and misunderstanding. Instead of becoming embittered, he cemented his dedication to his ideals and holds on to a sense of failure. He's eloquent and learned, with an abiding sense of chivalry and propriety. He's young, but not completely naive -- he has a firm personal code, but it's not immutable. Much of his conversation comes from stories he's heard or read that resonated with him. He is charismatic, friendly, and wants to believe in goodness. He's not above a cringe-worthy pun that he likely picked up from being around common folk.

- Lae'zel thinks non-githyanki beneath her, at least at first. Common is her second language and one she doesn't hold a lot of respect for -- she uses it to communicate and that's it. Her words are economic and blunt, but have a rich current of culture underneath. She is a soldier, but she is learned in the lore and ways of her people, and very proud of it. She does not deal in metaphor or hedging her opinions. She trusts her leadership and her queen implicitly. Her word is the truth (to her).

- Shadowheart is deeply mistrustful of people outside her cloister/belief system, which comes off as distance or aloofness. Her specific memories have been altered or removed, but all her core experiences and dedication remain. She's been raised in an environment that is very cult-like and spreads the idea that anyone unlike them is probably an enemy. Nothing is more important than proving herself to her parent-figure. Even so, she wants to connect. She wants to trust. Her communication is guarded and emotionally detached, until it isn't.

- Gale is extremely intelligent, but he's been removed from interacting with everyday people for a long time. His terminology tends to default to his book learning, which can come off as superiority. He has Gifted Kid Syndrome -- literally Chosen for his ability and knowledge, and experiencing a deep sense of, "Who am I if I'm not Chosen? What is my greater calling now?" He's used to his voice mattering, his expertise respected, but also internalized a sense of guilt and shame. He can err toward arrogance, but it comes from a place of wanting to make things better.

- Karlach was an Outer City street kid with what sounded like a reasonably happy home life and she ended up in the employ of a charming young entrepreneur who she completely trusted as hired muscle. That man betrayed her in an incredibly horrific way that she didn't see coming -- not because she's a fool, but because she wants to love people and he tricked her into loving him. She's spent a decade terribly lonely and literally untouchable by anyone but fire-immune fiends. She's cheery and optimistic, but it's largely a front to hide her hurt and sadness. Being a fighter is who she is, not only what she was forced to do. She believes her value is in her physical strength because she has no formal education or skills (she thinks). Her speech is casual, full of slang, blunt, crass, almost childlike (but she is NOT a child -- important distinction). There's a darkness in her she doesn't want to face, so she hides behind humor and affection. Still, when she loves, it is completely in earnest.

[st4rtar0t]

What's next in love?

DM for personal readings

Picture 1

I sense that you may have been through a completion or some kind of ending, either or a relationship or a situation ship. you may have been feeling drained by all that has happened within the last week. You may even feel like you have bad luck in love or love and relationships may not be your strongest suits. You are being guided to work on yourself, the only reason things are not working out is because the universe is saving you for someone special. and you will be overjoyed when you meet them. But before that you will have to grow spiritually and emotionally because I see that you are not ready for a long term connection and yet you keep looking for it in wrong people. Deep down you fear being vulnerable and deep connections, you will have to work on it first.

You will meet them right after a spiritual awakening or when you will be working towards your life purpose. You are constantly in survival mode, be more open and at ease.

You may have to pause on dating somebody for sometime or you may feel like you don't want to date anyone anymore but whatever the case may be I see that you will be working more on yourself and your goals.

Things that might resonate : stars or stargazing, paperwork or court, smiling emoji or stickers, train or bus, butterflies, a gold ring or a bracelet.

Picture 2

okayy so i sense that you may be waiting for someone to contact you or you may have sent an impulsive text to somebody. or you may need to made a decision in some time. I do see that there is somebody that is interested in you and the feelings are mutual, you may already know who i am talking about but there is some kind of external forces that is stopping this person from approaching you, either you have somebody else or they are talking to somebody else. i do see that there is a third party or this person may feel like you have somebody else now. for some of you this may be an ex. I do see that you do want them back for some. but overall i see that you already know the person who is your future partner.

I also see that they may be connected to your family or you may meet them through your family. I see that they may always have earphones plugged in or they may be connected to music.

You may be wishing to be in a relationship with them because they seem to be your ideal type. one of you may have to move on from your past. their or your name may translate to wish/hope/desire etc.

things that might resonate : clock or clock tower, office work, untuned guitar, blood ties, inner circle, yes, 21, 31, 46.

Picture 3

I sense that you guys may be thinking of moving out or changing locations soon. You may meet this person while travelling or they may be your neighbour in the new neighbourhood. I see that some of you may be talking to somebody who lives at a distance or you will be talking soon, whatever the case may be, i see that this is somebody new. This person maybe rich or they belong to a respected family. For some of you this person might be your future spouse. They may have a deep voice or husky voice. You guys may not be considering a romantic relationship at first but the feelings will increase over time. I sense that you are really intuitive yourself and you already be having dreams about them. I see that they may offer some kind of help to you, both financial and physical.

They may be an air or earth sign, especially Aquarius and Taurus. They may have long hair or thick hair. Their is really significant here. They may work in the education sector or medical sector.

I see that they find you really attractive and charming. You may be wearing yellow or yellow may be really significant in the first meeting.

Things that might resonate : Butterflies, crows, black cats, white, river or water body, cloudy day, 10,5, 17, library or books.

[covid-safer-hotties]

What would an adequate COVID response look like? - Sept 05, 2024

By: Julia Doubleday

Ok, COVID is a problem. What can we do about it anyway?

The problem is stark: we have unmitigated transmission of a deadly and disabling virus, in all public spaces, with zero plan to bring it under control.

We’re seeing millions of infections in each wave, and multiple waves a year; an unsustainable health burden on an already strained healthcare system.

We’ve got a student absence crisis, record worker sick days, rapidly rising disability, and the expulsion of high-risk people from public spaces.

And unfortunately, we have a public that is largely uneducated about and unaware of the problem, thanks to the tireless efforts of our political leaders and corporate media outlets who pushed for a “new normal” of forever COVID reinfections.

The first hurdle is making people aware of the problem. But beyond that, a second hurdle; often, once the risks of recurrent COVID infections are conveyed, the next objection is: but what can we do about it anyway? Surely you don’t want a permanent forever lockdown?

Well, I don’t. So what, in my wildest dreams, would competent public health bodies be doing to mitigate transmission of COVID, even years into a botched response with millions of people negatively polarized against collective measures?

Start from the top: acknowledge that COVID is airborne. Loudly.

Educate the public about airborne mitigation measures and model them.

On April 30, 2021, the WHO officially acknowledged that SARS-COV-2 is a fully airborne virus. They did so quietly, without fanfare, on their website, without a well-publicized apology for the year they spent loudly claiming otherwise.

The embarrassment of this early mistake- costly and deadly as it was- has doubtless played a role in the subsequent inadequacy of communications around SARS-COV-2’s actual mode of transmission.

Droplet measures like surgical masks and social distancing were inadequate to prevent the transmission of COVID; both can reduce, but not eliminate, risk. Has the public been made aware of this? Have medical practitioners?

Official communications from representatives of the WHO and CDC tend to avoid mention of high-quality respirator masks entirely, if masks are mentioned at all. The importance of ventilation and filtration have never been properly explained to the public, certainly not by our politicians who continue to do nothing but repeat their treasured talking point, “COVID no longer controls our lives” while a thousand Americans lose those very lives to the virus each week.

In public, operatives from public health bodies do not mask, nor speak about airborne disease mitigation. Politicians certainly do not mask, even elected officials who quite clearly fall into high-risk categories, belying their claim that people are simply adopting the libertarian “personal risk assessment” approach to COVID. This refusal to mask, no matter the case numbers, no matter the risk factors, is a political choice designed to encourage the public to accept a lack of airborne disease mitigation. It pushes people to believe the virus is harmless, even as scientific research fails to support this claim, and while the CDC puts out conflicting guidance that large swathes of the public are high-risk.

Refusal to directly communicate 1) how COVID spreads 2) that it can be avoided 3) how it can be avoided while modeling mitigation, makes pandemic communications much more difficult for vulnerable people, activists and marginalized groups attempting to reduce disease burden in their communities. We should not be swimming against the current of public health officials’ poor pandemic hygiene.

Mandate airborne infection control in all healthcare settings

Of course, COVID is an international problem, and it’s critical that measures like indoor clean air and airborne infection control in healthcare are implemented globally. WHO has no legal authority to issue such a mandate; it can do little more than make recommendations. However, those recommendations have power, and as of now, it has failed to make them. Recommendations from WHO often form the basis of directives from regulatory bodies like the CDC.

The decision to claim that SARS-COV-2 was not airborne was politically motivated. There was no data to support this claim, only decades of bad physics in medicine and very strong financial and legal incentives to assume that COVID was not spreading through the air. It all comes down to the cost of rethinking medical care entirely, with an eye to airborne infection control.

I already wrote about the WHO’s recent attempt to both acknowledge COVID’s airborne nature while walking back their early-pandemic claims that, were COVID airborne, of course they would recommend proper airborne infection control measures.

Specifically, WHO Health Operations, Infection Prevention and Control Technical Team wrote in an April 2020 email to a group advocating for airborne precautions:

"Would there be evidence of significant spread of SARS-CoV-2 as an airborne pathogen outside of the context of AGPs [aerosol generating procedures], WHO would immediately revise its guidance and extend the recommendation of airborne precautions accordingly"

Well, COVID is airborne, and they have not immediately revised their guidance.

This continues to cost the lives of hospitalized vulnerable people every day.

It also contributes to public confusion about how COVID transmits, including among healthcare workers. Doctors and nurses are well aware that there is no airborne infection control in medical settings; their personal justifications tend to be either “because COVID must be mild” or “because COVID can’t spread that way.”

This is an understandable psychological response to watching their employers- hospitals and medical facilities- fail to implement measures to control the spread of airborne disease in a hospital. Either COVID must not be spreading that way, or COVID must be no big deal.

Education and mitigation practices coming from the top will speed the process of normalizing disease control and bringing down cases at an institutional level.

Like seeing public health officials masked, seeing doctors and nurses masked in hospitals with well-fitting respirators will also help educate the public about how SARS-COV-2 spreads, and confirm that indeed, COVID is still with us.

While there is no previous legal framework for patients to rely on, what medical institutions are doing is highly immoral if not explicitly illegal. They are failing to even attempt to provide proper infection control in hospitals.

Public health bodies should properly educate medical professionals about airborne infection control and mandate upgrades to hospital infrastructure that accommodate the existence of SARS-COV-2. Set the expectation that healthcare settings will be held responsible for healthcare acquired infections.

Legal and financial consequences for healthcare acquired infections

Currently in the US, many HAIs have to be reported to the CDC; that COVID does not, is a choice based on the reality that they are allowing it to spread freely.

From the CDC website on Healthcare Acquired Infections and the 2022 HAI Progress Report:

"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is committed to protecting patients and healthcare personnel from adverse healthcare events and promoting safety, quality, and value in healthcare delivery. Preventing healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) is a top priority for CDC and its partners in public health and healthcare….The 2022 National and State HAI Progress Report provides data on central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs), catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs), ventilator-associated events (VAEs), surgical site infections (SSIs), methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bloodstream events, and Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile) events."

The CDC itself states that preventing HAIs is a top priority, and it collects reems of data around other, more easily controlled infections. HICPAC, the CDC advisory body that recommends infection control measures has repeatedly come under fire from activists over the past several years as they attempt to shove through a new set of recommendations that incorrectly equates N-95 respirator protection with surgical masks and otherwise ignores airborne transmission of viruses.

HICPAC’s strategy for dealing with the entirely new paradigm uncovered by engineers and aerosol experts in 2021- because, bear in mind, the work of scientists like Linsey Marr showed that no viruses are spreading via “droplet” alone, the way scientists formerly conceptualized their transmission- is utter denial.

It would be too disruptive to decades of infection control norms to acknowledge that SARS-COV-2 came in like a wrecking ball to previous guidance; thus, HICPAC members are pretending they’ve never even heard of COVID. Watching their public facing meetings is bizarre; hours of academic debates where the pandemic isn’t mentioned, followed by 45 minutes of activists explaining that they are unable to access medical care, or that their loved ones caught COVID in the hospital and died. HICPAC members remain utterly stone-faced throughout these sessions and fail to acknowledge the comments at their next session.

Currently, Medicare has a program that reduces funding to hospitals with higher rates of acquired infections; COVID is not one of those targeted. Change this and watch how quickly hospital management goes from not understanding, to indeed understanding, airborne infection control. This is all a matter of financial incentives to hospital management, and those incentives must change.

Since 2020, incentives have stubbornly pushed healthcare institutions to ignore COVID to save the money it would cost to dramatically reimagine healthcare with top-to-bottom airborne infection control. How do you properly segregate COVID+ patients? When do you test them? How often do you test staff? Do you send COVID+ staff home? (Yes, you should, but currently the hospital saves money by not doing this).

We need to pivot from the early pandemic model of mandating individual behaviors (masks, distancing) to mandating outcomes (lack of viral spread in public spaces). That doesn’t mean a public space can never mandate masks, it means that masks must be part of a coherent strategy to prevent infections; this should also eliminate irrational mask rules (mask only before you sit down) and incentivize mask hygiene, education, and distribution. If a hospital loses money because of hospital acquired COVID, it is not merely incentivized to mandate masks. It is incentivized to mandate proper respirator masks, educate staff as to proper mask wearing, fit test masks, properly ventilate and filtrate, ensure that masks aren’t being worn on chins, test staff and patients, send sick staff home, ensure that meals can be eaten in a COVID-free, low-CO2 area, etc.

Legal and financial consequences for infections acquired in congregate settings, prisons, workplaces and schools

Continuing this theme; there is nothing particularly radical about the idea of legal repercussions for infectious disease via negligence in a workplace, school or congregate setting.

You can sue your workplace for infecting you with a foodborne illness if it was not following proper public health regulations. You can sue a school that doesn’t get your kid his epi pen in a timely manner. You could sue a retirement home with cholera in the water.

Therefore, world governments need to set indoor clear air standards, as well as assign culpability for the containment of outbreaks to employers, schools, prisons, etc., with government money available for infrastructure upgrades and a timeline for their achievement. If disease transmission occurs because indoor CO2 is high, because air filters weren’t turned on, because sick people were forced to work, that should be legally actionable the way dirty water and poorly handled food is.

All institutions- schools, workplaces, retirement homes, prisons- must have not only baseline protections like clean air, but outbreak plans. What happens in the event of a positive case? How is that handled, how is spread prevented? Government money, guidance and resources must be available to ease the development of this process.

Before Biden was elected, he promised to implement a new OSHA standard to protect workers from COVID infections. On January 21, 2021, the day after his Inauguration, he issued an Executive Order asking OSHA for revised guidance to protect workers from COVID-19. What resulted was both grossly inadequate and temporary. In June of 2021, OSHA issued an ETS - Emergency Temporary Standard- for healthcare workers only. It included guidance about social distancing, AGPs, solid barriers, and surface disinfection, though it was issued over a month after the WHO updated its website to affirm that COVID was not droplet spread.

It did, however, contain good guidance including screening for healthcare workers, sending positive workers home, reference to respirator masks, reference to HVAC and MERV-13 filters, but it has since expired. In the years since, OSHA has dragged its feet as workers’ groups like the National Nurses Union (NNU) lobbies for protections and industry groups like the American Hospital Association (AHA) lobby against them. If “COVID is here to stay” and “we have to learn to live with COVID”, why would worker protections from infection be temporary?

On the whole, workers were forced back into COVID-riddled workplaces with no new protections. A new OSHA standard should acknowledge the threat of airborne disease, make use of the many technological solutions for mitigating airborne disease, and outline the responsibilities of employers to both utilize available technologies, promote mitigation, and send sick workers home.

Comprehensive indoor clean air laws with specifications for upgraded ventilation, filtration, and other tools like Far UVC

I’ve already written about this in detail. The CDC has decent guidance, updated in May of 2023, about ventilation and filtration, here. However, none of this is enforceable without new legislation, nor does our current infrastructure meet these standards.

Ventilation norms and requirements must be overhauled. Currently, hotels and schools often have windows sealed shut; this is inappropriate for disease control and leads to dangerous levels of CO2 accumulation. All public buildings must be able to guarantee air changes per hour (ACH) deemed appropriate by aerosol experts, keeping CO2 as low as possible. Only MERV-13 or higher (HEPA filtration) effectively filters airborne virus from the air, so these must be standard.

I have only the basic knowledge of a layman; to learn more, you can check out this roadmap for national IAQ standards written by dozens of experts and published in Science.

Far UVC is another promising tool, and engineers should be consulted as to the appropriateness of implementing it in public spaces, particularly in schools, airports, hospitals, and crowded venues.

Work from home should be encouraged, conferences should be virtual where possible, flights should be tested.

Unwinding WFH in the midst of wave after wave of COVID was anti-science and self-defeating. Increasing the severity of waves and worsening spread in the community creates less productivity and more worker absence. Additionally, lessening the environmental impact of commuting and converting commercial real estate to residential should be priorities.

Governments, instead of pushing people back into the office, should be pushing in the opposite direction, for a sustainable approach to long-term remote work. This lessens community spread, environmental pollution, and local traffic, while creating more accessible jobs. Conferences should always have virtual options if they can’t be fully virtual. The carbon footprint of professional conferences is something I do think about a lot, but I digress.

Relatedly, yes, I believe people should have a negative PCR to fly. You do not have the right to get in a tube with a bunch of other people while positive for COVID, period. People need paperwork to fly. They need an ID to fly. They need a passport to fly internationally. It is expensive to fly. There should be on site, cheap, fast PCR or PCR-accurate testing at the airport, and you should need the negative to fly, like you need your ID and ticket. PlusLife tests are 5 Euros.

I had to PCR test to board flights to Mexico, Chile, Brazil, and Argentina in 2022 and nobody died. As a disabled person, it was the last time I was able to fly internationally, because I wasn’t forced to risk exposure. Testing has the added benefit of encouraging pro-social mitigation behaviors when people know they will have to test before flying.

Free masks, free tests, free vaccines, free Paxlovid, universal paid sick leave, and negative tests to exit quarantine

Expense should never be a barrier to practicing disease control. As usual, our governments continue to be penny-wise and pound-foolish, depriving people of the tools to keep themselves safe and incurring much, much higher expenses to the economy in terms of long-term health loss of workers.

As of now, volunteer-led radical mask blocs are attempting to fill in the gaps by offering free masks and tests to locals in need, but there is only so much that small groups of (often disabled and multiply marginalized) citizens can do.

We need free distribution of proper KN95 and N95 respirator masks, as well as tests; ideally tests that work well. Currently, the government sends out the odd packet of 2-4 rapid tests; RAT tests are 28% accurate on day 1 of symptoms. We need to get more tests and more accurate tests into the hands of the public, for free. Then we need to allow people to stay home until they test negative.

The CDC has unscientifically reduced the COVID quarantine several times until it has become functionally non-existent; this was done not to effectively control disease, but to appease employers. People with COVID-19 should leave quarantine when they have tested negative on two tests, 24 hours apart. Period. Not before. A positive test = viral load = contagion.

OSHA standards that penalize employers for spread between employees would incentivize the provision of proper sick leave. I do understand that the government, after failing to control COVID for so long, cannot shift the burden of disease control overnight to individual business owners. There needs to be a long period of infrastructure upgrade, education, resource distribution, perhaps even tax incentives for proper pandemic management and airborne infection control. But overall, incentives must align to push individual institutions toward infection control and away from infection maximization. The government must continue to provide support, resources, and education, while building a framework for regulation and financial disincentive as well.

Vaccines must be free. Paxlovid must be free. And in an ideal world, in a world that truly wants to end this pandemic, and all pandemics, healthcare must be free.

Education

Education can take many forms; even the implementation of proper airborne infection control in hospitals is a form of education. It educates the public “here is how you halt the spread of COVID” and “yes COVID is still here” and “yes we take it seriously because it can kill”. Currently, hospitals and medical professionals, at the behest of the WHO and CDC, are communicating the opposite.

But in addition to the education provided by modeling airborne infection control, wearing masks, instituting infection control, implementing legal consequences for infections, setting a new OSHA standard for workers, etc., the public needs direct, honest communication about the health risks of COVID.

This means talking about the risk of Long COVID that accompanies each infection without purposely undercutting that messaging by then loudly reassuring people “but it probably won’t happen to you.” It means explaining COVID is a multi-systemic disease, not just a respiratory virus. It means explaining that COVID carries long-term health risks that outlast the acute infection. It means explaining that COVID variants are excellent at evading immunity, meaning they learn to outsmart our body’s protection via vaccine or previous infection; that’s why you must get boosted and layer your precautions.

Of course, the above is only an overview of prevention. We need another coordinated, funded, communications and research campaign to handle the Long COVID crisis.

In the fantasy world where tomorrow, we can build an ideal pandemic response from the ground up, I see several major switches that would need to flip.

The first is that the culture of silence and denial among leadership would have to change to one of education and communication. Right now, state representatives are deliberately avoiding mention of COVID, while propagandizing the safety of infection and/or the end of the pandemic by refusing to mask. It is hard to imagine how successful a pandemic response might be if public officials were actually trying to end the pandemic. We quite literally have public health and political and media figures working to hide three pieces of critical information: public knowledge of the virus, public knowledge of mitigation measures that would reduce viral spread, and public knowledge of the severity of the virus (which would motivate desire to reduce viral spread).

On the one hand, that is a terrible and depressing place to be. On the other hand, it tells us that we might better control COVID through public behavior alone, if the public were given information and tools instead of purposely obstructed from accessing either. We have a lot of room to grow.

The second would be the construction of physical infrastructure to deal with the existence of very contagious, very common, highly disabling airborne virus that is currently circulating in all public spaces. If we have to “learn to live with” COVID, let’s learn to live with an airborne virus by cleaning the air.

The third would be building the legal infrastructure to enforce and hold accountable a failure to implement said physical infrastructure, along with other disease control measures. Patients should not be infected in hospitals. Workers should not be forcibly infected at work. Prisoners should not be forcibly infected in prisons. Kids should not be forcibly infected in schools. Let’s drill down and prevent transmission in congregate settings, with accountability.

COVID control essentially came to an utter halt because our system was not designed to control airborne disease. Our governments did not want to pay to do it. Our governments did not want to explain that they did not want to pay to do it. But this is 2024. We have technology we haven’t even begun to deploy in the fight against COVID, all because we’re too proud to admit we’re still fighting. We have not even scratched the surface of what would a pandemic response that acknowledges the airborne nature of COVID could achieve.

The introduction of the vaccines in early 2021 appeared to our governments like a “get out of jail free” card. They thought they could grab onto it, induce broad herd immunity, and get back to normal without ever acknowledging or paying for clean air. But that isn’t what happened, and now, our lack of mitigations continues to rapidly produce new variants that harm the efficacy of our vaccines.

It would’ve been nice if the vaccines were all that were needed to end the SARS-COV-2 crisis. Since it isn’t, we need our leaders to stop doubling down on their failed strategy, accept reality, and start building a long-term approach to ending this airborne pandemic, as well as avoiding future ones.

The problem underlying all the current failures is that, quite simply, our government is not trying to end this pandemic. It is trying to hide this pandemic. And you’re not going to solve a problem you won’t acknowledge.

[monocle-teacup]

How would the Rescue bots team(extended and humans) react to the Terrans?

I've actually been thinking about this before your ask came in so I'll just post my thoughts now.

Rescue Bots (I'm just sticking to the main 4 cause this is going to be a long post) -Heatwave: He's going to be annoyed with their antics at first and he's definitely going to grumble about having to babysit them if asked. He'll be totally serious about protecting them and he ends up getting attached to Twitch.

-Chase: Will immediately want to fully educate the Terrans about Earth laws and most likely ponder the legal ramifications on whether or not Cybertronian law would extend to them considering they're "made from the Emberstone which is the relic of Quintus Prime" (probably a quote he'd say). He's also going to want to share his noir writing with Nightshade when he finds out they enjoy reading.

-Blades: "Ooohhh! I saw a movie about this once!" He'll get along with all of them, but especially Hashtag. Also, he's going to brag about how his Bumblebee is better than ES Bee. He'll get emotional at the Terrans horrified reaction when they hear about how his alt mode was forced on him. I imagine him saying, "All of them are precious and must be protected." He'll also be hellbent on making sure they like him the most of out of the other Rescue Bots.

-Boulder: He's going to be fascinated with the Terrans from a scientific standpoint and especially since they're part organic since he loves nature. He'll have A LOT of questions just on cave water. I feel like he'd the Rescue Bot the Terrans like the most (cue Blades crying in the distance), but I can see Twitch and Nightshade be the closet to him.

The Burns Family -Chief Burns: He's going to quickly catch on that the Terrans are basically children so he's going to want to make sure they have some guidance from the Rescue Bots. He'll give some peps talks, mostly to Twitch about being a leader as well as the concept of responsibility.

-Cody: "Noble!" He's going to want to help educate the Terrans about Earth. I can see him getting along with Jawbreaker in regards to wanting to be more helpful to his family.

-Kade: He's going to quickly lose interest and interrupt any overly scientific explanation of the Emberstone. "Yeah yeah, so a magic green stone can make more Transformers." Him and Thrash would get along very well. Kaiju movie marathon ensues. He'd also be interested in Hashtag's wifi abilities. And you just know he'd want to try cave water.

-Dani: She's going to be very interested in Twitch and Nightshade's altmodes since they can fly. What she'd be most excited about is the fact that there are now more girls she can interact with aside from Quickshadow.

-Graham: He'd have so many questions about the Emberstone as well as the Terrans themselves. I can picture him staying up all night talking to Nightshade about science.

[yawneneteyam]

gorgeous (3) — i had a boyfriend, he's older than us

— GORGEOUS, an avatar smau ( by yawneneteyam ) masterlist

*dark mode = y/n light mode = neteyam*

— gorgeous, I had a boyfriend he's older than us !

before today, y/n wasn't sure if karma was real. she always considered herself a good person. kind, friendly, rounded up her payments to donate to charities when she shopped. although she was a good person, she had never been 'gifted' or 'blessed' with anything to make her believe in karma.

until, her professor read out her assignment partner.

neteyam.

the two of them smiled at each other, but kept quiet when they heard their names called. neteyam wanted to fist bump the air, he had to restrain from pulling out his phone and texting kiri the news. meanwhile, y/n was trying to not scream. not only was she ecstatic to get to look at neteyam more and more, it meant she actually had to speak to him outside of class now.. and use more than one sentence replies.

"did you want to meet up tomorrow maybe?" his words were slow, he was nervous. y/n didn't pick up on it- she was too busy looking at his freckles. "you could come to my place?" he suggested, "if you're okay with that," neteyam rushed out.

y/n chuckled and then began to nod slowly, "yeah, I'm happy with that". liar, she was elated. "does this mean I get to meet tuk?" she smirked.

"she will be obsessed with you," he laughed, "she loves any older girls to hang out with, think she gets tired of lo'ak and i. clings to kiri most days"

"thats so cute," y/n grinned, "text me your address tomorrow? you can tell me when you want me to come over, I have no plans tomorrow"

"yeah sounds good,"

the pair of them packed up their bags and walked outside of the lecture hall together. neteyam tried to keep his strides short and slow so he could walk with y/n for a little longer.

y/n looked towards the bus stop, "I better get going, my bus will be here soon"

"you catch the bus?" neteyam was surprised.

"uh, yeah" y/n shuffled her feet nervously, "I can't drive. I live on campus though, so its like a two minute drive to the dorms,"

"I'll have to teach you to drive so you can get to my house in ten minutes, instead of sitting on the bus for an hour," neteyam pushed his loose locs behind his ear, the rest tied up in a ponytail.

"I'll take you up on that," y/n smiled, walking backwards to her stop. the bus beginning to arrive in the distance. neteyam smiled, before a thought popped into his head.

"y/n!" he shouted, y/n already at the stop behind two girls waiting to get on. she looked over to neteyam. "I don't have your number!" he laughed.

"get it from tsireya!" she smiled with a yell, before rushing onto the bus. afraid it would leave without her. neteyam smiled and shook his head. he watched y/n pick a seat and sit down. she waved to him as the bus drove away. he waved back.

— gorgeous, I had a boyfriend he's older than us ! part three!! the last one got so much love, I was so shocked!! thank you to all the people in the comments helping me with terminology, etc to use for/with people of colour! if you notice I misuse a word or get something completely wrong, please tell me!!! I am really eager to educate myself and to learn <3 also peep y/n's ex getting tagged in her comments- thats drama.

[maghamoon]

Reading a Birth Chart 101: The Complete Guide,

Part 2: Every House Has its Own Smell

glossary: the planets, planet rulership over the signs, elements (water, fire, earth, air signs), modes (cardinal, fixed, mutable signs), the houses and interpretation basics

last time, we spoke about the sun, moon and rising in all the different signs. through this, we slowly started to build an understanding of the 12 zodiac signs and planets.

today, we will learn about all the planets you can encounter in a chart.

they are:

sun- father, ego, self

moon- mother, internal reactions to external events, emotions, processing

mercury- intellect, communication, verbal expression, outward expression

venus- love, beauty, art, pleasantries, attraction

mars- passion, drive, movement, anger

jupiter- expansion, growth, generosity, the good natured father

saturn- difficulties, perseverance, hard work, the disciplining father

uranus- sudden changes, reform, activism

neptune- collective consciousness, dreams, spirituality

pluto- transformation, rebirth, power

the 12 astrological signs are ruled by these planets:

aries, ruled by mars

tarus, ruled by venus

gemini, ruled by mercury

cancer, ruled by moon

leo, ruled by sun

virgo, ruled by mercury

libra, ruled by venus

scorpio, ruled by pluto/mars

sagittarius, ruled by jupiter

capricorn, ruled by saturn

aquarius, ruled by uranus

pisces, ruled by neptune

aside from being ruled by planets, the signs can be divided into elements and modes

elements of signs:

think of what you imagine when you hear fire, water, earth or air.

fire is warm, it can be a spark or a flame, it can burn houses down or light them up.

water is fluid, it flows or bends to fit in any container, it cleanses you but also rains on you.

earth is solid, you sow seeds into it and with time it gives you results, it gives you ground to walk on.

air is everywhere, sometimes it’s the wind that blows heavily or the slight breeze that cools you down, it comes and goes.

fire signs: aries, leo, sagittarius

earth signs: taurus, virgo, capricorn

air signs: gemini, libra, aquarius

water signs: cancer, scorpio, pisces

modes of signs:

cardinal- leadership, initiative, charge

fixed- routines, stable, stubborn

mutable- adaptive, curious, dual

cardinal signs: aries, cancer, libra, capricorn

fixed signs: taurus, leo, scorpio, aquarius

mutable signs: gemini, virgo, sagittarius, pisces

The Houses: Part 1- Angular Houses:

(a/n- there are different house systems in astrology (whole sign, placidus, etc. we will get into those later). currently we will be talking about the significance of houses and the energies the planets dispose to them)

for these next examples i will be using whole sign:

remember when we talked about the rising sign or the ascendant? in astrology that will be your first house- AC, the sign opposite to it will be your 7th house or your descendant- DC, the 4th house is your imum coeli and the 10th house is your medium coeli/midheaven

imagine that the house system is a story unfolding within yourself, coming into full circle, this is how it starts:

1st house- your disposition, how you are seen, the start of your being, appearance

2nd house- your face, self esteem, your possessions, your hidden talents

3rd house- your siblings, communication, learning styles, short term travel or short distance travel

4th house- the deepest part of your chart, your home life, sensitivities, what is familiar to you, nurture and mother

5th house- your childhood, creativity, inner child, playfulness, ego, self, romance

6th house- your routines, work environment, work ethic, surroundings, cleanliness, health

7th house- shadow self, how you are when you get comfortable with people, what you seek and how you behave with partners/ people.

8th house- deeper levels of intimacy, your secrets and desires, the transformations you go through in life, shared wealth

9th house- seeking higher knowledge, higher education, spirituality, philosophy, government, law, travel

10th house- career, public image, professional environment, fame, the highest point of ur chart

11th house- working together, collective revolution, social organizations, friendships

12th house- subconscious pain, esoteric experiences, spirituality, sleep, dreams, escapism

Putting it All Together:

what happens when you first enter someone’s home? it’s different. not what you are used to. sometimes it can seem familiar.

that’s how the planets work in the different houses.

reader, you have an understand of the 12 zodiac signs, the planets and the 12 houses. now it’s time to put it all together.

here is an exercise for you.

take any planet- for example, mars. think of what it stands for.

now think of all the twelve zodiac signs, imagine how they would act according to the action of the planet. how would the dreamy pisces behave in mars? or the balanced libra? it must be easy for the fiery aries, right?

now, imagine those planets in the houses. the fiery aries mars but it’s in the homely 4th house, the compromising libra mars but she is careful with her public image, since she resides in the 10th house

what about the emotional cancer? how does she love? and if her love is in the 9th house is it emotional bonding through spiritual healing?

congrats, you have learnt the first few steps of intuitively reading a chart. you will get the hang of it!

i suggest reading blogs and posts like “venus in the houses” “pluto in the signs” or even the astro notes/observations here in the community. now that you have a basic understanding, you can further extend your knowledge!

good luck on ur reader journey, see u soon! 🤍

[rhaegang]

What do you think could've saved Oliver and Felix? Or do you think they were doomed from the start?

OOOUGHHHH this one…

I think that, given their exact circumstances, they were doomed from the start.

By that I mean, it is 2007. They are both men. They are both incredibly young and fragile in terms of ego. One of them is the son of an entitled, landed House in one of the few remaining blood-lineage aristocracies in the world. The other is not.

When people say SB isn’t good class commentary, I don’t know if they’re really thinking about what it IS saying about class. Bottom line, Felix’s social class dictates his entire life. His education, his dress, his mannerisms, his mode of speech, his aspirations, his opinions, his politics, his obligations and more — they are all informed by his class, and all of it serves to make him untouchable to someone outside his class.

Add in the homophobia of the era & the fact that same sex marriage wasn’t going to be legalized in the UK for another 7 years, even if Felix had just been Nouveau Riche, there would’ve been almost no chance for them.

If it was set today, in 2024, there are many more prominent and respected out gay men including in elite social positions. There is also more precedent for very high ranking members of English nobility marrying outside their class—a 2024 Felix could point his finger at Harry & Meghan and say, “If a member of the royal family can marry outside class AND race, there’s no reason why I can’t marry a man from Merseyside.”

All of this is really focusing on the circumstances completely outside either of their control which prevent F & O from being able to acknowledge and openly explore a romantic attraction. Changing these things requires author powers, which is why we gotta have fanfic.

Using our author powers, if we address those barriers in some way, only then can we start to think about what it would take to get these two characters to work. For MAD/BOT, I dealt with the circumstances by just keeping them both alive long enough to get them to a more permissive era (2022) and having them mature past the “young and fragile” state of canon setting. They do still have to deal with the fact that they’re both men and they are in a cross-class relationship (which means they’re always going to deal with some bullshit and certainly their social standing would be impacted and Oliver would never truly be accepted by the elite as “one of them”). I think it’s kind of generous to imagine that Felix would willingly damage his family’s reputation, but I also think he’s maybe selfish enough to do it anyway…

I think that there’s no real explanation for all of Felix’s behavior in canon if he doesn’t harbor some repressed feelings for Oliver. I think he recognizes them much sooner than Oliver recognizes what his own feelings are, and Felix actively represses. Maybe if Oliver had understood earlier what it was he wanted, and had been brave enough to come on to Felix the way he does other characters, something could have happened. I don’t think it would have made either of them happy for very long though, because it would have been something they needed to keep secret.

And at the end of university, Felix would be going on to start his life in society doing whatever faff he would do that isn’t working for a living, and there wouldn’t be a place for Oliver in his life then. Maybe they’d keep it up, stay in touch, and Felix surreptitiously leads a dual life that everyone sort of knows about but never mentions because of politeness/civility. Maybe they could even be happy like that, somehow. But they’re both very possessive, and I find it hard to imagine them being okay with something like cover marriages and long distance.

Ultimately, I think that as people — they can work. They can even get past the lies and the hurt. But it’s not only their own mistakes and flaws that work against them to make Saltburn a tragedy. 😔

And that’s why they are truly a fix-it fic writer’s dream.

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

What modes of transport exsists on gallifrey aside from the tardises?

What modes of transport exist on Gallifrey aside from TARDISes?

🚀 Transmats

Gallifreyan Transmats use molecular disassembly and reassembly to transmit matter. Augmented ultra-long-range teleports can reach up to 1 lightyear distance. However, a lot of Gallifreyans seem to prefer alternatives - that might be because ...

transmats leave their fingers tingling for about an hour after use;

the rather large ethical consideration of essentially "killing" yourself every time you use a transmat.

🚇 Sub-Surface Transtube Trains

These underground trains are a popular choice for getting from one city to another. They look a bit like the Earth equivalent, providing a more conventional and less tingly option for travel. Gallifreyans often prefer the Transtube to transmats for longer distances.

🛸 Aircar Skimmers

Although most consider them obsolete, some Gallifreyans still use them. Shaped like Viking longboats with carved dragons at the back, they can fly and have sophisticated forcefields to protect the crew. They can be computer-controlled or piloted organically from below decks, with golden sails deployed to absorb energy for power.

🏫 So…

While TARDISes are the numero uno, Gallifreyans have some other ways of getting about that probably don't seem so alien to humans. Mind the gap.

Related:

Do Gallifreyans have grocery stores?: Food and food technology on Gallifrey.

What sports and games are there on Gallifrey?: The (lack of) physical sports on Gallifrey and other games.

Do Gallifreyans have jobs?: Normal Gallifreyan jobs for their educational level.

Hope that helped! 😃

Any purple text is educated guesswork or theoretical. More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A and factoids →😆Jokes |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired 😴

[nightingale2004]

Sherlock BBC next generation: Johnlock version

Athena Jessica Watson Holmes

Faceclaim: Emily Rudd

Athena is the biological daughter of Irene Adler and Sherlock Holmes and older twin of her brother Hamish Scott Watson Holmes

Is the oldest twin by 10 minutes and 32 seconds

She takes after Sherlock but has a bit of Irene in her

Both Athena and Hamish were left on Sherlock's doorstep shortly after they were born

Similar to Sherlock, her deduction skills are flawless (in her words)

Considers John to be her parental figure and compatible with her father than Irene

She doesn't call Irene her mother, only by her first name

Unlike Sherlock, she actually likes learning astronomy

She has a love for art, fencing, and playing violin

She secretly pickpockets the entire London police, including Greg (it's her source of entertainment every now and then)

She hates socializing and finds "normal people" very, very.......boring (her sister, John, Molly, Mrs. Hudson and Greg are the exception)

She is fiercely protective of her siblings

Mastered the art of shutting off her emotions (in her opinion)

Loves experimenting with body parts or dead bodies with Sherlock

Loves to accompany both her dads to crime scenes

She has no filter

She is an extremely quick learner

Has her own mind palace

Is very skilled in martial arts

She takes ballet and art classes (mostly to avoid boredom)

Goes to the library..........a lot

Is a chemistry and science genius

Makes fun of her uncle Mycroft (Sherlock's idea)

Secretly keeps in contact with her aunt Eurus

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hamish Scott Watson Holmes

Faceclaim: Asa Butterfield

Younger twin of Athena and youngest son of Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler

Unlike his twin, he's more sensitive than her and a little more empathetic to people.

Sherlock and John got an Irish setter for their kids and named him Redbeard

He takes after Sherlock in personality but looks like Irene with a hint of Sherlock

He is also very intelligent, like his father

He plays violin, piano and cello

He prefers to observe the crime scene from a distance

When he is in thinking mode, he becomes exactly like his sister and Sherlock

He is Molly's favorite

He knows how to shoot from a crossbow and a long bow

Hamish and Athena destroy their father at clue

He is a little slow on deductions, but he is still good.

Math genius

Extremely adventurous

He shoots arrows and darts at the wall when bored or frustrated

Hamish and his sister's visit their grandparents when they can

Both Hamish and Athena get Lestrade's name wrong every time

Both the Holmes twins correct their teachers if they something wrong in their lesson (which to them, is all the time)

Both John and Sherlock made the twins promise not to say their deductions out loud to their teachers or anyone involved in their educational journey (to avoid suspension or expulsion)

Prefer to be called high functioning sociopaths

{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}

Rosamund "Rose/Rosie" Mary Watson Holmes

Faceclaim: Meg Donnelly

Rose is the youngest Holmes in her family and considers herself and her father the only normal and sane ones in the family

She is John and Mary's daughter and Sherlock's stepdaughter

Despite not being related by blood, Rose loves her older siblings very much

Both John and Sherlock taught all their children self defense

She inherited her dad's love for creative writing

Rose has her own blog and even makes posts on her social media about her family and their adventures

Loves reading John's stories

She is sometimes jealous of Sherlock and her older siblings and their intellect

Every time she meets a boy, Athena and Hamish make a deduction about him or chase him away

Has a love for the medical field

Hates when bullies or most people make rude comments or remarks about her family

She and John cook

Rose has a picture of her mom

♤☆♤☆♤☆♤☆♤☆♤☆♤☆♤☆♤☆♤☆♤☆♤☆♤☆♤

+ Mrs. Hudson's grand daughter

Allison "Ally" Martha Hudson

Faceclaim: Virginia Gardner

Allison is the granddaughter of the late Mrs. Martha Hudson

After Mrs. Hudson passed away (R.i.p to the legend Una Stubbs 🙏 you will be remembered). Ally's mom inherited the famous 221b Baker Street building, and now both Ally and her mom moved to London permanently and kept the building running

Allison was originally born and raised in America, but both Ally and her mom would visit Mrs. Hudson to spend some time with her

Allison loved her grandmother very much and held her close to her heart

Loved hearing her grandmother's crazy stories

She knows the Holmes family and has babysat the twins and Rosamund whenever she came to visit over the holidays

Sherlock and John see Allison and her mom as part of their family since Mrs. Hudson was family to them and their kids

Ally feels like she's the Holmes kids' mother and big sister most of the time

Hates it when the twins shoot her wall and keep crazy stuff in the fridge

Knows how to handle a gun

She is a divorce child

Weeks after her parents divorced, she never saw her dad again, and Ally spent a month over with Mrs. Hudson

She loves getting involved with the Holmes kids and their adventures

Reminds them constantly that she is NOT THEIR HOUSEKEEPER

[allhopeislost]

Saw a post about Armand not knowing love outside of the vicious cycle of abuse, it was very on point and reminded me a lot about my own musings. Nothing not known, but yet it helps the brainrot to subside, with writing this out---

In the Books (activating pathetic booknerd mode, sorry) i feel like De Romanus bloodline, specifically, thematically is primarily about exploring faults of Patriarchy and to a lesser extent Feudalism through highlighting its affects on different generations and genders.

Huge part of Marius/Armand dynamics is that Amadeo consitently pushes Marius into a role of a Master/Father/God, just as much as Marius essentialy imposes the role of an Heir on him. After all, Marius brought Amadeo to the palazzo with the assumption he will become his fledgling. For Amadeo - Marius is there to provide safety, he is the Patriarch - so he shouldn't express vulnerability, show he is struggling, show his actions are misguided. Shouldn`t extend his responsibility on others. It would endanger the family. As an Heir Amadeo should be above all else - expected to be a caretaker for the young and a role model for them, get an education, give commands to house servants, be free to explore and make his own descisions yet he should be fully subservient only to the Head of House, the Master.

The stupid letter Amadeo leaves, when Marius sends him to brothels and tries to keep Amadeo within human comany, distancing himself and as such straying from original course of their relashionship (Marius gets sad and jealous over shit he caused himself, because he is a dumbass, if you did not know by now) :

"You are the Master. You should know all things. It`s unsupportable to be Mastered by the one who cannot do it. Make clear the way, shepherd, or lay down your staff."

Shows how much Amadeo internalizes their usual dynamic as "right" in his worldview. It also is a clear provocation - if you love me, you should keep me in my place, or else it means that you do not care.

What a way too call out Marius on his bullshit! And also how wrong and sad this is! Safety of the status quo above all else, to show devotion. "unsupportable", gods. Mariuses own actions are, of course, the thing that enables that, as well as the larger context of society they lived in… but it is so bad for both of them, on the personal level. Adhearing and imposing those rules from both sides is nothing more than a coping stategy to deal with circumstances of their respective lives. (very HOTD of them 😌 alicent hightower and viserys targaryen, that you? OMG LESTAT IS RHAENYRA---)

And when Amadeo becomes Armand The Coven Leader he, naturally, tries to play that game too. He has a job to do, he is now the Master. His job is to keep the coven (or his companions) "safe". There could be no show of "weakness" in his position so he resolves to drastic measures to assure his dominance, even when it is not a role he desires for himself.

He does it, because that is what he expected and imposed himself. It is how the world works, after all. And when it is too close to ruin, when he can't, as a person, take playing the role anymore... (to once again, preserve his worldview) he let's the Outsider ruin it. Because if it was the one who refused to participate in the system - that is why it failed! Not because the system is fucked from the beginning and all the suffering was for nothing.

He is stuck in cycles of performing roles to service the system, afraid that as soon as any part of it refuses to cooperate - it falls apart. So he forces it to work, desparetly, over and over again.

Yet, Armand was both given the Blood and taken away from his Master too young. Taken from two lives before he was able to grow up and naturally assume the "adult" role himself. He is stunted by that unfinished cycle, and feels the need to go back to go forward. Once again be the Heir, be submissive to someone to have a chance to grow and find himself in the safety it provides. Or… He needs to learn to abandon that worldview alltogether.

Anyways, that bloodline is generational trauma at its best ✌️💀

(i have the issue with the show, as i still have no idea how they are going to reconcile the idea of Marius "donating" Amadeo. Like? He is an Heir, so pushing him into such low social position... He is a Lord essentialy, just a young one. I have...anxieties about it. So much of De Romanus bloodline is an illustration of how patriarchy fails everyone involved, and if he is not treated like a firstborn son in the show... It would be sad to see a whole thematic layer go to waste)

[thirdity]

All works of art are founded on a certain distance from the lived reality which is represented. [...] It is the degree and manipulating of this distance, the conventions of distance, which constitute the style of the work. In the final analysis, “style” is art. And art is nothing more or less than various modes of stylized, dehumanized representation. [...] But the notion of distance (and of dehumanization, as well) is misleading, unless one adds that the movement is not just away from but toward the world. The overcoming or transcending of the world in art is also a way of encountering the world, and of training or educating the will to be in the world.

Susan Sontag, "On Style"

[official-saul-goodman]

hunger games posts gave me Thoughts i wanted to share so uhhh hiiiii local friend who studies literature and it’s place/function within society here with a comment. stories and writing (even though this p much goes without stating) have always been modes of entertainment and education and much more, we humans love our mediums. i think the biggest issues with the hunger games bullshit is people have begun to treat it like it’s a meme to just make the comment about it and leave it behind without using genuine critical thinking skills. it’s been going on for months and it’s starting to water down focus on what’s happening in favor of talking about fiction. i think the fiction shouldn’t be getting this in the way of the discussion of what’s REALLY happening. if it helps to click in younger minds that what their country is doing is wrong, that can be a positive, but fully grown adults repeating it like it’s a joke feels abysmal. like they’ve missed the point somehow.

i don’t know if this makes sense but summary is: literature as a tool for understanding the world = important especially for kids, but, constantly talking about the literature ONLY and not what it actually reflected of the world you live in/treating the real world thing with the same level of respect as the fiction = missing the point and making real issues into what feels like fandom talking points. i don’t think it should take a book or movie series for the average adult to understand horrors of violence on the scale we are witnessing and i definitely don’t think that they need to use that as the only frame of understanding what’s happening.

anyways hope that made sense and also to others who might be reading this…. the moment something fictional clicks you into something really happening, try to understand the real world through the real world information you can find, not a novel. any novel. go learn real history. as much as possible do not distance yourself from the worlds pain with a wall of fictionalization, engage with the world like you actually live in it and like life matters to you. even i engaged with people pointing out comparisons once or twice, months ago when they started, but i have not sat and made that all i will talk about, and certainly not to the point i’m not even keeping up with what’s //really// happening in rafah right now. especially not in favor of all the soulless “ooogh omg guys the capitol is real???” jokes i keep seeing from ppl talking about the kentucky derby.

this turned into a micro-hate rant about western europeans / US citizens thinking it’s some brain blast enlightenment to point out a dystopian novel about the US is a dystopian novel about the US. from fully grown adults it’s almost embarrassing, there is real life suffering happening and you need to talk about it like it’s real not like it’s a fucking story. it is baffling

Exactly like fiction can be a tool to help initial understanding of subjects especially for young people but when we're talking about current genocides and invasions going on people really need to learn to pull their socks up and behave like adults with sense. It's so insulting and dehumanising to the people of Palestine to be compared to some fictional group of ppl from some district in a book written by a lady whose father was a fucking Veteran.

It's so immature and stupid and so intentionally obtuse and unserious. It's cruel and selfish and totally just being done to be self congratulatory like ' haha look at me i made this connection between fiction and reality I'm so cool and special' like SHUT THE FUCK UP.

[visual-calc]

How tall do you think can I fall before my shell break by impact? Hypothetically in case

VISUAL CALCULUS [Formidable: Success] — It's difficult to pin down an exact number, given the necessary simplifications, but I can certainly come up with an estimate. Let me just...

To summarize, if we approximate your shell as a hemisphere, we can derive the equations for how fast and how far you would fall as a function of time, assuming you were dropped from rest and not thrown. With those equations in hand, we can then derive an expression for time of impact in terms of the height you were dropped from, and plug this in to our previous equation for velocity, to get your velocity at impact as a function of height. So far, so relatively accurate.

The difficult piece is determining the force of impact, and the force necessary to actually break your shell. The physics of how things break is messy, and while I can reconstruct objects the detective finds already broken, pre-constructing potential damage is much harder.

Our model is therefore somewhat simplistic— we take the force transferred to your shell upon impact to be the change in momentum divided by the time the impact takes. Since you go from impact velocity to zero velocity upon hitting the ground, the momentum change is simply your mass multiplied by your impact velocity. The time the impact takes is, admittedly, an educated guess on my part. We know it must be short, as lengthening it would require either padding on the ground your shell to break and slow you down gradually, which is the exact failure mode we're trying to avoid. We'll say it's about 0.005 seconds. We'll also say that it takes around 4500 Newtons of force to break your shell, and that your shell only breaks if the impact force exceeds this number. A more realistic model would take into account the possibility of varying degrees of damage, but again. Simplifying assumptions.

With all of these pieces, we can then plot the time of impact, impact velocity, and impact force as a function of drop height— shown in blue, green, and purple on the plot below.

Impact force increases incredibly quickly with drop height, so much so that it appears like a straight line on this plot. The purple curve crosses the 4500 Newton threshold at a mere 1.75 meters. Given the simplifying assumptions we've made, I'd say err on the side of caution and try not to fall a distance further than 1 meter without some manner of protective gear.

Please tell me you don't have any parachute-less skydiving trips planned...

[sk-lumen]

Hi

Im a 20year old immigrant who moved independently for uni to the Uk at 17. After, I started working and met someone long distance who I felll in love with and after things went bad, I went into a streak of depressive phase and chasing cheap dopamine. We have come back to one another multiple times but he stands on the notion that we are too young and he doesn’t want us to impress the effort meant for our career into a relationship but it was something I was willing to do. It seems like a silly excuse and although I know I want to move on but a voice in my head says what if he’s ready to try again and put in the required effort tomorrow? Also, it’s been more than a year x. Help meee

Hi darling, This is a truth that you're yet young to believe, but experience proves it to be a fact with time: when a person shows you, even better, tells you, that he doesn't want to be with you... believe him! And stop trying to "fix" him! He's literally telling you his priorities and feelings. He's not interested. If he wanted to, he would. It's that simple. It's not your job to psychoanalyze him and create a strategy to "win his heart" back.

As women, we don't chase, and we don't take sloppy seconds, and we're not in beggar or mother theresa energy. We are in receiving energy, knowing that what's meant for us will find us. The right, healthy relationship won't require you to sacrifice yourself, or bend over backwards in order to be chosen. I know it's tempting to do anything to be "chosen", but that's operating on scarcity mindset, and from a survival mode.

I promise you, a real man that cares about you will show and tell you that he wants you and he will actively fight for you and your relationship.

For heaven's sake, don't waste your most precious years fretting and chasing unavailable people! That's one advice I would've loved to receive when I was in your position. Instead, decide what you want, maintain high standards, and in the meanwhile focus on your self improvement (develop hobbies, follow your passions, educate yourself, read books, try new sports, etc). The right one will come along at the right time.

But chasing unavailable people will only keep you in a pattern of your love interest running away from you (energetically, that's the dynamic you're volunteering for - you can't chase unless the other is running), and validating your toxic belief that you're not worthy of love or being chosen. Get off the hamsterwheel altogether. You can either do it in your 20s, or you can waste another 10, 20+ years on toxic dating until you're fed up and decide you deserve better - your choice.

Hope this helps. 🕊

Much love,

-Lumen

[lostonehero]

I don’t know what What Remains After Eternity is so I’m going to just give you my best approximation on what it is

So I came from the mechs tag so I assume it has someone to do with those goobers, and after eternity sounds a lot like dttm

So here’s my vision, after dttm, Drumbot Brian, and Nastya accidentally fall into the same black hole Raphaella sent herself into, turns out black holes transport you into different universes (there’s theoretical stuff for this to be true in reality but I don’t know the specifics of how it works so I’m just going to incorporate it into my world view and sci-fi writing because it’s cool)

They end up in and alternate universe where they all got mechanised as children and are permanently such.

Don’t question how that works but the point is Brian, raph, and Nastya make a daycare to take care of these alternate mechanisms crew children.

Jonny keeps eating crayons (and other children he doesn’t like)

Ashes somehow keeps reinventing different scam schemes and roping the other kids into it

Ivy ignores everyone else in favor of making pillow forts and reading, and only lets the adults and little raph into the pillow fort.

Gunpowder Tim somehow manages to learn how to make dynamite (probably with the help of little raph)

The toy soldier is now child sized but essentially the same otherwise. Enjoys its very imaginative playmates

Marius likes playing both doctor and house, and is very dedicated to finding and creating the best possible props for this.

Little raph spend a lot of time reading through scientific papers. Tv-shows, articles, and documentaries. She has the entire bill nye theme memorised at this point and absolutely loves those little science kits made for kids

Little Nastya likes to disassemble and reassemble things to find out how they work, along with messing around with scratch(the coding site). Shed probably go absolutely feral over roblox studio too

Little Brian is quiet but when he does speak it’s usually to call someone out for something he views wrong which varies on his mode.

Raph likes to observe the children and help educate them while Drumbot Brian will usually settle disputes between them, and Nastya manages the more logistical side of running a daycare business.

All the kids do keep their original sort of parental figures from their backstories for better or for worse.

I can link it if you wanna read it it's a bit more depressing than that

So imagine many many (like a fuck ton of years) after DTTM the mechs are dead and ended up on their homework and well time passes and they continue as if they believe they are the only ones remaining

Lyf is shot forward in this incredibly distance in the future because Yog Sogoth was bored and was fucking around and he stumbles upon Tim first

Jonny is alone in New Texas. Fixed everything became a saint and just waited in a palace of his own, making the general population assigns him companions he buries them all

Marius back on his war torn home planet

Nastya rebuilt Aurora from her black box bigger stronger and ready for eternity

Brian a pet to the gods

Ivy locked in a planet she turned into an archive

Ashes ruler of a galaxy

Carmillia trying to reunited them miscalculated how they would react to true immortality

And others, but you'll have to read since I don't want to spoil things any more than I had.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/57033829/chapters/146390956

It's one of my longer aus that I'm still working on if you're curious