#ds 09

[felinefractious]

BigSensation Wild Fire [Pedigree]

🐱 Maine Coon

📸 BigSensation Maine Coon

🎨 Red Smoke with White

[celestiachan]

incredibly self indulgent au where the kyle hyde duology takes place in the late 2000s and in northern virginia and the fye that jecka and kelly work at are tied to nile in some way instead of. whatever the fuck happened in flipside

[dragon-snoots-a-boopin]

I recently decided that I wanted to put myself through the fun of playing one single match on all the Fifa video games that released on the Nintendo DS and I have some thoughts on my experience.

I want to say first that I did this on an emulator and that I very easily could have used the emulator to map one of my wired Xbox One controllers thumbsticks to act as the Nintendo DS d-pad but, I decided not to. I decided that I wanted to sort of experience these as close as I possibly could to someone who played these in the hay day of the original Nintendo DS family of systems.

Aside from the graphics being ass, which was to be expected, the experience of playing a soccer game and not being able to use a thumbstick is one of the worst gaming experiences I've had. I don't understand how someone would have tolerated moving the player with only a d-pad because it essentially throw precision control out the window. To me, part of playing a Fifa game is being able to precisely weave my play through and around the other team's defenders to get in close and score. With just a d-pad, I found that impossible as my trying to precisely weave just caused me to run into their defenders and end up having the ball stolen right out from under me.

I honestly do not understand how anyone would have tolerated these controls at all. Like, I want to understand that if one only had a Nintendo DS and wanted to play FIfa then that is what they'd have to put up with but like, at that point, you're better off getting a PSP because at least there you have one thumbstick. I feel like back in the hay day of the Nintendo DS and PSP, if you were into any sports games on the go, the PSP is the better way go for that.

[quidfree]

Yeah, gaming

hm. the only video games ive played through multiple times are the original ace attorney trilogy. make of that what you will.

[foxhopfics]

How the Squads, teams and ranks actually work in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

The dissonance in tumblr users versus the actual branches of the military and how they've been written in fics.

Now, I'm very aware that's because no one here is an actual member of the SAS, and TF141 isn't real. So it's... not exactly like we've had the first hand knowledge about it.

However, I have noticed a lack of research having gone into understanding how the military actually works. The worst culprits are the people who've never actually played CoD, but to a degree, I've seen this in like 99% of CoD writing.

So, here's your OFFICIAL easy to understand guide to how the layout of the SAS and the British Military/Her Majesty's Armed Forces will Affect Your CoD:MW Fanfiction.

SAS:

All non-officer soldiers are returned to the rank of Trooper(Private) when joining the SAS, they then have to work themselves up again.

The 22nd Regiment SAS normally has a strength of between 400 and 600 men and is commanded by a Director-Special Forces of Major-General rank. While you may get ~125 candidates for tryouts, you're only going to end up with 10 new recruits who pass. Tryouts are held twice a year, once in summer and once in winter. A soldier must be a junior NCO to attempt, and only gets 2 total tries.

The regiment has four operational squadrons each consisting of 65 men commanded by a Major. Each squadron is divided into four 16 men troops commanded by a Captain and each troop is split into four patrols with each patrol consisting of four men, referred to as Alpha Company, Squad or Team, Beta Squad, Charlie Squad, and Delta Squad. Our boys from the 141 are part of the Beta company, which is why their callsigns are Bravo 6-0 (Price), B7-0 (Ghost), B7-1 (Soap), and B6-2 (Gaz, or B5-0 in '09) respectively. They are part of the normal British army, not the air force, despite their name being special air service. Where they normally are referred to in fanfiction as "tf141" which includes price, ghost, soap, and gaz. This is incorrect. What you're writing here is SAS Bravo Company, not Task Force 141

NCO, CO, DS, Sergeant, and Warrant Officers:

NCO- Non-comissioned Officer, or Enlisted: Ranked up from Private/Seaman/Airman. The "everyman", or basic infantry. Typically learns a skill and sticks with it (i.e radio techs, mechanical techs, vehicle mechanics, foot soldiers, etc). While any officer is a higher rank than a private, an NCO is never in a higher standing than a CO. After several years, they are eligible to become a senior non-commissioned officer (SNCO). This (NCOs) is who you're likely going to have working in the armoury.

CO- Commissioned Officer: "leaders" or "managers" from the beginning. Oftentimes completed a military degree (Royal Military Academy Sandhurst), or if not, was part of UOTC in college/university. Some others finish a degree and then attend officer training. They start as Lieutenants or Ensigns (navy) and often quickly rank up to Captain.

DS- Drill Sergeant: DSs teach Greenies/new recruits the Initial Entry Training (IET). They have their own Sergeant rank system that is separate from Sergeants. They must complete Drill Officer training to become a DS. Staff Sergeant, or a "regular" Sergeant, ranks up as an or NCO, and is in charge of infantry personnel, and doesn't really have contact with recruits (different from privates, you must complete IET to move from Recruit to Private).

WO- Warrant Officer: Higher than Enlisted, but lower than CO. Oftentimes keep their specialty skill, but without as much of the supervisor role. They come in as the "specialists" for things that the NCO's can't do (i.e complicated vehicle maintenance, machine overwatch, etc)

Ranks in the British Military:

NCO ranks:

- Private

- Lance Corporal

- Corporal

- Sergeant (Soap and Gaz)

- Staff or Colour Sergeant

- Warrant Officer class 1

- Warrant Officer class 2

CO ranks:

- Officer Cadet (officer school rank)

- Second Lieutenant

- Lieutenant (Ghost)

- Captain (Price)

- Major

- Lieutenant Colonel

- Colonel

- Brigadier

- Major-General (eligible to run the SAS)

- Lieutenant General

- General

- Field Marshall

So what does this mean for Task Force 141 and JTF Ghost Team?:

Task Force 141 was created by Captain John Price after Roman Barkov's death in MW1, but before MW2 as an international collaborative task force intended to tie up loose ends via Roman Barkov's associates.

It was approved by Laswell in the CIA and General Shepherd of the US Armed Forces.

Oftentimes TF141 is solely referred to with the British team which is where the confusion between Bravo Company happens.

TF141, while also consisting of Price, Ghost, Gaz, and Soap, is still an international task force consisting of Laswell, Shephered, and Alex (American), Nikolai (Russian), Farah (Urizk), and Alejandro and Rodolfo (Mexican) and ultimately existed for only one purpose.

JTF Ghost Team: Formed by Ghost and Alejandro after they were betrayed by Graves and Shadow Company, believing not many could be trusted at that time.

It was made to flush out the corruption of Graves and Shepherd.

Member consist of: Price, Ghost, Alejandro, Gaz, Soap, Rodolfo, "Ghost 2-4 Pilot" who I suspect is Nikolai, Laswell, and a few freed Los Vaqueros.

[misskattylashes]

When you can’t sleep and discover City Life 09 refers to an obscure Nintendo DS game released in August 2009, the same as Humbug. Which is also referenced in Hello You by the inclusion of Rawborough Snooker Club, Rawborough being the fictional town featured in the film Tread Softly Stranger which is referenced in The Jeweller’s Hands on Humbug

[7grandmel]

Rip of the week: 23/09/2024

P-Switch Back

Season 8 Featured on:

Ripped by AdamCrossing

Tentative rip name: Megalo Switch Back

Undertale celebrated its 9th birthday earlier this month, and as you might've guessed I immediately went to thinking if I ought to celebrate that occasion in some way or another. I mean, yeah, the blog has a dire case of Too-Much-Undertale-itus with Locked In The Underground, Determination is Magic, World Out There - hell, Do for LOVE was just three posts ago - but as I've explained many times I find Undertale's impact on SiIvaGunner is plainly too big to be overlooked. Yet I wanted to find some new way to discuss Toby Fox's work, more than just a good Undertale rip: and right as I was pondering that very topic, the SiIvaGunner channel dropped "P-Switch (OST Version) - New Super Mario Bros." into my sub-box. I'm not quite sure what so expect, a pretty standard runtime attached to what's otherwise a pretty one-note jingle from the New Super Mario Bros series - yet mere moments into the rip, I knew P-Switch Back was an instant classic, and EXACTLY what I was looking for.

AdamCrossing is a pretty unique case as a ripper in that my first exposure to him came from seeing his work spread on Twitter, as the guy has a knack for knowing exactly what kind of audio edits and arrangements are able to get a kick out of people. A lot of his work such as his self-produced fusion collab, his arrangement of the New Super Mario Bros. Wii plains theme or the inverse of the same joke hit a lot of similar beats - the main one, of course, being the reoccurring fixation on the New Super Mario Bros. series of games. And maybe this is me speaking as a fellow Wii-generation kid, but I think that fixation matches perfectly with the SiIvaGunner MO, of both catching you off guard and providing something genuniely delightful: And so, as the aforementioned examples show, AdamCrossing's fantastic ear for quality and deep understanding of the New Super Mario Bros series' sound and sample usage leads to rips that know exactly how to strike the funny bone just right due to the sheer contrast in music featured in them: With New Super Mario Bros. as perhaps the most tonally cheerful thing outside of the Kirby series, just about anything from a more grim series mixed together with it is bound to result in something very interesting to listen to. Put succinctly, it's the appeal of If Pazuzu Sneezes Do You Still Say Bless You? applied to the New Super Mario Bros. series.

P-Switch Back is impressive even beyond many of AdamCrossing's other work, however, due to the factor mentioned at the start of this post: P-Switch is less of a "track" in the New Super Mario Bros. soundtrack and more like a glorified jingle, a timer enforcing stress with a tense synthetic melody of noise and a repeating backing of a sound that's best described as "crunchy", rounding itself out through a Shepard tone repeating until the P-Switch timer ends. And so we have a lead and we technically have a backing - but how does one compose an entire rearrangement with just those confines? The solution is, of course, to "cheat": much like Nape Mango did way back on Earth, Wind & Bombs and as dozens of rippers have done since, the trick is to employ usage of other instruments, samples and segments from the same soundtrack as the source track, whilst keeping the source track as the rip's focal point. Through this, every turn that P-Switch Back makes still resoundingly sounds just like the original New Super Mario Bros. on DS, whilst ALSO always sounding exactly the way that the P-Switch theme ought to. The blend was so good that, upon my first listen, I was halfway convinced that they'd changed the P-Switch theme for some of the later New Super Mario Bros. games, due just to how "New Super Mario Bros. DS" P-Switch Back sounds. It approaches Jamangar levels of authenticity in variety within a rip, the kind I gushed oh so much about back on Story of Undertale: yet here, the core P-Switch melody never quite fades away.

Though I talked a lot about contrast betwixt the New Super Mario Bros. series' tone and whatever else may be mashed up with it, the P-Switch theme in particular is able to resonate more closely with the track being arranged through its prominent tension-building - the repeating synthetic notes being a natural fit for the eerie tension-building intro to Megalo Strike Back. For those unaware, a few years before Undertale's release, Toby Fox contributed the aforementioned track to an EarthBound tribute album, the track itself being arranged entirely using EarthBound's soundfont. It's seen, in a sense, as a stepping stone to what would eventually become Undertale's finalized Megalovania theme - an original composition sharing much the same intensity as that of an A-Class final boss theme. Through its rearranging in P-Switch Back, AdamCrossing employs all the tools within New Super Mario Bros.'s toolbox of sounds to preserve that menacing sound: The lead and backing instruments from the game's Castle theme, notably, take center stage and create a suitably dramatic atmosphere through their slight reverb: An atmosphere that's deliciously (and hilariously) enhanced through the NSMB series' iconic "bah-bahs", now feeling almost akin to the chants of a choir of followers.

The entire rip just OOZES the feeling of the original Nintendo DS in a way that's hard to quite put into words, yet immediately recognizable as soon as you hear it. Yet althewhile, as it runs wild with this dramatic boss theme, the crackling backing instrument of the original P-Switch theme lingers throughout, alongside occasional breaks to add the P-Switch theme's main instrument to the mix. Like lots of what Season 8 has presented already in the likes of Barreltr​ü​ckung of Doom and Luna, Mi Amor, P-Switch Back is an incredibly inspired and inventive rip, leveraging a source so seemingly minescule in material in a way that feels completely natural whilst technically not at all adhering to the premise the rip's title would include. As a fellow Wii kid and enjoyer of specifically these kinds of incredibly arrangement rips, AdamCrossing has my deepest regards - and if he continues on this path of quality, he's bound to become an all-time favorite in the future.

[amber-tortoiseshell]

Black blotched tabby with white - d 09 22

Genotype: A_ D_ E_ ii mcmc oo/o- spsp titi wsw

Red silver ticked tabby - ds 25

Genotype: A_ D_ __ I_ __ OO/O- __ Ti_ ww

(What do these letters mean?)

[darishima]

puppy your game collection is beautiful i dont know what most of those are except like the disgaeas (because youve explained them before), disco elysium (the occasional meme crosses my dash), roblox, and undertale maybeeeeee you could give me a tour of the others you like and what theyre about and stuff! whats muse dash ouppy that sounds like a rhythm game ^w^

thank you i know its incredible :3c soo here it is again i will go game by game and yap my ouppy little head off im sorry

starting from the left! desmume is a DS emulator that i got to play puyo puyo fever, a fullmetal alchemist ROM and a lucky star ROM and PPSSPP is a PSP emulator i got for uhh. i cant remember which game i specifically installed it for. i think it was puyo puyo fever 2?

roblox is. you know. roblox

my hero one's justice is a demo i downloaded from steam which i have not actually played LMAO i got the demo to see if i wanted to buy the full game but i guess its pointless because i havent bothered to check out the demo

class of 09 and class of 09 re-up (the sequel) are visual novels, hard to explain what theyre about.. basically its all about toxic evil yuri and drug abuse and self harm. its like if needy streamer overload was about coked up high school lesbians

disgaea pc is the second best game ever made

disgaea 2 pc is the number 1 best game ever made. no further explanation necessary

i have not actually played dont starve yet, it was recommended by a friend so i bought it during the steam summer sale for like 2 bucks. from what ive heard, its a survival game, kinda like minecraft if minecraft was way harder and the game hated you

disco elysium is the same, recommended by a friend, i bought it for super cheap during the summer sale, and have not touched it yet LMAO

muse dash is a rhythm game yes and its FUCKIGN INCREDIBLE. AND IM AMAIZNG AT IT. LOOK AT THESE SCORES BONESY ARENT YOU PROUD OF ME

full combo means i hit every note and didnt miss a single one >:3 im genuinely really good at the game not 2 brag,,, and YES you saw that right, hatsune miku and kagamine rin and len are playable characters!! they come with two respective DLCs which also come with a bunch of vocaloid songs and i bought them both <3 these are their sprites in game!

and if you buy it it gives you a bunch of adorable art on the loading screens :3 this isnt even all of them just a few i screenshotted. if i screenrecorded myself killing it in muse dash would you watch the video teehee...

ok back to game yapping. leaf blower revolution is an idle clicker game i got for free on steam, which i got insanely hyperfixated on for three days and played for like 14 hours straight once and then gave up and never touched it again

yume nikki is a little pixelated adventure game where you explore around a girl's weird dreams. the soundtrack is INCREDIBLE especially this song. its transcendental. listen to it while youre high trust me you have to

DDLC requires no explanation i think. its ddlc. you know what it is theres no way you dont

the song of saya (saya no uta) i will be yapping extra about because i LOVE IT. its a horror eroge visual novel about a guy named fuminori who, after a brain surgery, sees the entire world and other people as a disgusting fleshy abomination, whereas everything looks normal to other people. for example this:

is a completely normal hallway. but it looks like that to him. then he meets a girl name saya, who is the only thing in the world that looks normal to him, and he falls in love with her

and i reeeally really dont wanna spoil it cause its really good and i highly recommend you go watch it (theres a full playthrough on youtube) but lets just say saya is Not as normal as she looks.

celeste is a game ive only played a little of, but i love it so far. its a platformer about a trans woman named madeline climbing celeste mountain, and encountering a personification of her self doubt that she has to overcome to get to the top. i lovee the style of the game its so pretty and way easier than i expected it to be, which is great for me because im garbage at every game in the world that isnt muse dash or disgaea

disgaea 4 and disgaea 5 are self explanatory. i ADORE d4, though im not super far into it, but i havent started d5 yet im waiting until i finish d1 and 4

phantom brave is a game set in the same universe as disgaea which crosses over with it, i havent played more than a few minutes of the game but obviously i love it so far cause its similar to disgaea. im waiting to jump fully into it until i finish d1 and d4 though

OFF is an rpg also recommended to me by a friend, i downloaded it online but havent touched it yet 😭 pro at owning games i dont play

omori is also very self explanatory. i downloaded it off my friends steam account and he and i have been playing it together, im not far in but obviously i like it, i knew i would. aubrey is sooo mecore <3 i really need to keep playing it... i should have gotten into omori sooner. actually no i take that back because i think 14 year old me getting into omori would have been so world-ending that it would have shattered my psyche

spore is spore. idk how to describe it. you make a fucked up little creature and you make the fucked up little creature do shit thats the whole game

undertale is also very self explanatory. and boom thats all my games :3 well i also have animal jam classic which didnt fit in the screenshot but theres not much to say about that. other than the fact that i own a super rare nonmember mantis pet and im proud of it. and my den fucks

okay thats more than enough yapping im sorry .. stop asking me questions because i do not know how to shut up. ily though thank you for asking :3c

[intersexbookclub]

Discussion summary: Trans-Intersex studies

On 2023-09-29 we met to discuss our first foray into academic intersex studies! We read three chapters from Transgender and intersex: Theoretical, practical, and artistic perspectives, edited by Stefan Horlacher (2016).

Overall reactions:

Dimitri: I liked there were perspectives I don't normally think about or see

Elizabeth (@ipso-faculty): I found the Costello chapter really useful because I've wondered why there isn't more trans and intersex connections and this explained it for me

Michelle (@scifimagpie): it tapped into and articulated a larger strain in the queer community “the people who want to have a gender” vs “the people who want to destroy gender, there is a fundamental struggle in that can only be dealt with through tolerance and acceptance

vic: multiple chapters make clear that intersex is made by doctors. This thing happens when you give birth and you don't know what to do and conveniently there’s someone confidently giving you a (usually really bad) answer…  we're foisting off this thing that doctors aren't trained to deal with it properly plus have medical arrogance

Connections to Disability Studies

Though the book was intended to get intersex studies and trans studies in dialogue, we made many connections to disability studies throughout the discussion.

Elizabeth: The book talks about the dynamic that the doctors are the ones who socially construct intersex, which is similar to how doctors contribute to the social construction of disability. 

Elizabeth: And also how in our society, when it comes to who is listened to most on disability/intersex, doctors come first, followed by parents, and it's those of us actually affected who come last (disability/intersex)

Michelle: it was interesting to see the arguments against eugenic abortion… The amount of eugenicist propaganda that's still around in our society, the text addressing the fact that people would abort an intersex foetus didn't surprise me but did alarm me

Elizabeth: Coming from disability studies I felt the question of who is/isn't intersex isn't actually a productive question, in DS we posed those questions for a minute before realizing it's not productive, to instead focus on ableism

Dimitri spoke about the idea of seeing your body as a garden that you tend to, rather than a machine to be fixed, and how it’s been a helpful framing

Michelle: one thing about accepting my intersex identity is that my body isn't broken for having a hormonal imbalance and it's just a way of being

The social and medical models of disability were invoked by Costello in chapter 4, to show contrasting models of intersex (social vs medical) and transness (social vs medical).

-=-=-

Chapter 1: Introduction by Stefan Horlacher, Pages 1-27. 

This chapter gave a brief overview of the state of trans studies and intersex studies, and the motivation for putting these two research areas into dialogue. 

We didn’t talk much about this chapter.

Elizabeth: I personally learnt a new word, repronormativity, from this chapter! Per Wiktionary, it refers to the “assumption that all humans want to have children, especially within the context of a monogamous heterosexual relationship”

vic rather aptly described it as “so GERMAN”

-=-=-

Chapter 4: Intersex and Trans* Communities: Commonalities and Tensions by Cary Gabriel Costello, Pages 83-113

This chapter reports on a sociological study of trans and intersex communities on Second Life, noting commonalities as well as tensions between and within the communities. 

Everybody found this the easiest chapter of the three to read lol 😅

vic: “I really appreciated the breadth of voices that were included. The author clearly has an argument, but still lets people speak. Like with the person who said ‘I'm not intersex’ and the author was like ‘this could come from fragile masculinity’, it was neat.”

Costello’s conceptual framework

To understand both intersex and trans communities, Costello employs a framework which differentiates a:

Medical framework, in which being intersex/trans is framed as “as a biological problem: a physical lack, superfluity, or malfunction” (p98). While Costello doesn’t use the word “truscum”, this is how many of us are used to referring to people who understand transness through this lens.

Identity framework, in which being intersex/trans is “framed as social in nature: social stigma is directed toward those who are in some way physically variant.”

An important insight of this study was that to understand the relationship between the trans and intersex communities, you have to realize there are four communities at play, not two:

Medical framework trans people (truscum)

Identity framework trans people

Medical framework intersex people 

Identity framework intersex people (who are the only ones who use DSD)

And as Dimitri summarized, “the tensions [between the communities] arise in the disorder framework, a lot of the problems lie in the disorder framework, and it's pretty important to make that separation”

In Costello’s study, anti-trans sentiment was linked to the intersex-as-disorder framework 

Costello writes about how the majority of intersex people are trained from birth to employ the disorder framework, which can easily result in anti-trans sentiment. Many intersex people are raised in a way where the slightest gender deviance is punished, and feel threatened by gender deviance. 

Multiple people noted how the intersex participant “Anna” from Costello’s study had misplaced anger at trans people, that it’s unfair to blame trans people for trans fetish porn when trans people have such difficulty getting conventional employment, and that the demand by cis & perisex people is more at issue

Elizabeth: so many intersex people are told they're intersex by a doctor and that they're disordered and the doctor will fix them so they're not given any community because the doctor is like "I'll fix you" and people are just used to the disorder framework because that's what they've only ever seen.

vic: Yeah, being born visibly intersex getting framed as a medical emergency

Elizabeth: really liked the dig that the shame of the parent comes above everything else

Dimitri: many parents don't know what's going on when their intersex baby is born and they're kinda pressured into the surgeries…  the parents might have veered to a more neutral stance on their own, maybe they have some hesitance about having a kid being different, that the surgeries are such a pile-on by everyone around them.... the parents of the kids need their own support, what do the parents need or could have had to make them not make those choices

Similarly, intersexism from trans people was linked to the trans-as-disorder framework

Costello discusses how many disorder-framework trans participants made statements along the lines of wanting to be intersex, or have an “intersex variation of the mind”, mistakenly thinking that this means they may be entitled to free gender affirming therapy (it actually makes it harder to access gender affirming therapy).

Costello explains why this sort of sentiment from trans people is poorly received by intersex people: “It alienates intersex people employing the identity framework by working against their mission to recast physical sex variance as diversity rather than disorder. It alienates intersex people employing the disorder framework by implying that trans-identification [...or] gender-confusion should characterize the intersex person. And the stories told by some trans* people employing the disorder framework about having an impossible intersex history angels intersex people of all camps.” (p107)

Michelle: To be intersex is to have a medicalized gender, and how any gender nonconformity is medicalized… it makes sense why so many trans people would cling onto a misunderstanding of intersex

Michelle: the medicalization of being transgender and you need surgery to fix a flaw in your brain, and the medicalization of intersex, they both need an anti-eugenics approach of let people be a little broken/different

Elizabeth: as a disabled intersex person it's been confusing that trans people would want medicalization like they don't know how terribly medicalized ppl are treated, and the chapter helped me realize they are already medicalized and they're trying to get a more "legitimate" medicalization rather than realizing they’re trying to play a rigged game

vic: transness is medicalized, too–the diagnosis is gender dysphoria and the treatment is transitioning. Also transitioning is only seen as a viable treatment because literally everything else doctors did to “cure” trans people didn’t work (they tried *so* many things). Trans people treating medicalization as something that’s desirable sucks, but I feel so deeply for anyone who was put in a place where that seems like their only option–people who feel like their only way forward is to claim things that don't make any sense. They're like “please, I'll do anything, I'll lie out of my ass, help me”. Those poor people!! And, of course, they also cause harm. It's all so sad. 

Criticisms of Costello’s chapter:

Elizabeth: I felt a weakness was not talking about the hypervisibility of trans people vs the invisibility of intersex people. Like trans people who have huge platforms to talk about gender stuff and should know better than to perpetuate perinormative ideas about sex.

vic: transmascs tend to really minimize our own difficulties. We're not well studied, and when we are, the data consistently shows we have the worst outcomes of any gender (in things like health, mental health, employment…). Disheartening to see Costello buy into it at times.

-=-=-

Chapter 5: Transgender and Intersex: Unavoidable Essentialism and the Normative Struggle for Recognition by Sebastian Jansen, Pages 115-140

High level notes

This chapter makes the argument that it’s impractical, if not impossible, to avoid essentialism of some form when theorizing about sex/gender, and so academic gender studies scholars should spend less time trying to avoid essentialism and focus more on improving the material circumstances for intersex, trans & LGBA+ individuals.

vic: I think they were saying that we can't do it because it can't be done without throwing trans & intersex people under the bus

Elizabeth: ch5 was how I realized that in the social [identity] model of intersex where we see intersex as a natural variation it is essentialism and I'm okay with it thanks to this chapter

We all agreed this was a challenging read. As vic put it: “it was very ‘as you know’ and I didn't know”, and that the author was probably nervous about writing it.

Jansen’s chapter got us talking about the nature of gender

Michelle and vic talked about how finding out truth about gender is building houses on shifting sand

Michelle: I liked the stairwell metaphor [that female is one level of a building, male is another level, and there’s a stairwell in between]... I don't like the idea of female and male in opposition, they are categories, you can be both/neither/change

Elizabeth: I did like how ch5 talked about how gender isn't just a thing in your brain, it's made through interactions of people interpreting your gender in interactions and they didn't talk about euphoria and I think gender euphoria is that feeling of people seeing you for the gender you are

Michelle: [Judith Butler’s]  gender as conversation reminded me of how art and research are forms of conversation... is gender a form of art?? [we then spent some time talking about this]

Elizabeth: I like the idea that gender should be like hair colour - it's there, you can change/experiment with it, it affects how people see you, but we don't organize society around it and I agree that's a good goal

vic: my gender is contextual - it's different depending on whether in an arts context vs. in interacting with landlord, etc

vic: in War & Peace there are four pages spent describing the beauty of a woman with a moustache–Tolstoy waxes quite poetic about how beautiful & beauty-enhancing her moustache is.

Elizabeth: yeah so many cultures see women's mustaches and/or unibrows as beautiful and hate how current Western culture hates hair

Elizabeth: yeah it's SO RECENT the idea that women shave legs, the Gillette company had saturated the men's market and convinced women that their hair is bad

A main critique of Jansen’s chapter was how it only considered Western perspectives

Elizabeth: ch5 was so Western, based on a mind/body dualism and I wanted there to be a discussion of other cultural constructions, like in cultures without mind/body dualism from what I can tell it's often that trans and intersex are not separated. 

We then spent some time talking about different cultural ideas about sex/gender such as Two-Spirit and hijra, and the intense medicalization of transness in Russia

Dimitri described how Russian/Slavic culture is big on repressing any kind of sexuality, and being queer is deeply tied to perversion, which kicked off a discussion of Left Hand of Darkness

Elizabeth: another reason I wanted postcolonial stuff was it'd be useful to have strategic essentialism discussed (Spivak), which seems really relevant to a discussion of essentialism.

Overall we were all glad we got to give our brains some exercise, and we’ll be reading more intersex studies in November! 😅 Join us for a discussion of Holmes’ Critical Intersex on Nov 24.

[felinefractious]

Ovi Origunal Ural Sun

🐱 Maine Coon

📸 Sergey Loubov [Ural Sun]

🎨 Red Silver Classic Tabby

[verynormalsstuff]

Nsfw

[shinigami-striker]

Evolution of Knuckles | Friday, 02.02.24

Here's an evolution of Knuckles the Echidna throughout the Sonic video game franchise (since his debut in 1994 with the North American of Sonic the Hedgehog 3) down below.

1994

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (GENESIS, 02/02/1994)

Sonic & Knuckles/Sonic 3 & Knuckles (GENESIS, 10/18/1994)

Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble (GAME GEAR, 11/15/1994)

1995

Sonic Drift 2 (GAME GEAR, 03/17/1995)

Knuckles' Chaotix (SEGA 32X, 04/20/1995)

1996

Sonic the Fighters (ARCADE, May 1996)

Sonic 3D Blast (GENESIS/SATURN, 11/09/1996)

Sonic Blast (GAME GEAR/MASTER SYSTEM, 12/12/1996)

1997

Sonic R (SATURN, 11/18/1997)

1998

Sonic Adventure (DREAMCAST, 12/23/1998)

1999

Sonic the Hedgehog: Pocket Adventure (NEO GEO POCKET COLOR, 12/20/1999)

2000

Sonic Shuffle (DREAMCAST, 11/13/2000)

2001

Sonic Adventure 2 (Battle) (DREAMCAST/GAMECUBE, 06/19/2001)

Sonic Advance (GBA, 12/20/2001)

2002

Sonic Advance 2 (GBA, 12/19/2002)

2003

Sonic Pinball Party (GBA, 06/01/2003)

Sonic Battle (GBA, 12/04/2003)

Sonic Heroes (MULTI-PLATFORM, 12/30/2003)

2004

Sonic Advance 3 (GBA, 06/07/2004)

2005

Shadow the Hedgehog (MULTI-PLATFORM, 11/15/2005)

Sonic Rush (DS, 11/15/2005)

2006

Sonic Riders (MULTI-PLATFORM, 02/21/2006)

Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) (PS3 & XBOX 360, 11/14/2006)

Sonic Rivals (PSP, 11/16/2006)

2007

Sonic & The Secret Rings (WII, 02/20/2007)

Sonic Rivals 2 (PSP, 11/13/2007)

2008

Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity (PS2/WII, 01/08/2008)

Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood (DS, 09/25/2008)

2009

Sonic & The Black Knight (WII, 03/09/2009)

2010

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing (MULTI-PLATFORM, 02/19/2010)

Sonic Free Riders (XBOX 360, 11/04/2010)

Sonic Colors (Nintendo DS version) (DS, 11/11/2010)

2011

Sonic Generations (MULTI-PLATFORM, 11/01/2011)

2012

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (MULTI-PLATFORM, 2012)

2013

Sonic Dash (MOBILE, 03/07/2013)

Sonic Lost World (10/18/2013)

2014

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric (WII U, 11/11/2014)

Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal (3DS, 11/11/2014)

2015

Sonic Runners (MOBILE, 02/25/2015)

Sonic Dash 2: Sonic Boom (MOBILE, 07/01/2015)

2016

Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice (3DS, 09/27/2016)

2017

Sonic Mania (Plus) (MULTI-PLATFORM, 08/15/2017)

Sonic Forces: Speed Battle (MOBILE, 09/08/2017)

Sonic Forces (MULTI-PLATFORM, 11/07/2017)

Sonic Runners Adventure (MOBILE, 12/20/2017)

2019

Team Sonic Racing (MULTI-PLATFORM, 05/21/2019)

Sonic Racing (APPLE ARCADE, 09/19/2019)

2022

Sonic Frontiers (MULTI-PLATFORM, 11/08/2022)

2023

The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog (PC, 03/31/2023)

Sonic Superstars (MULTI-PLATFORM, 10/20/2023)

Sonic Dream Team (APPLE ARCADE, 12/05/2023)

2024

Sonic X Shadow Generations (MULTI-PLATFORM, Fall 2024)

and many more to come soon...

[usafphantom2]

F-35A fighter officially certified to launch the B61-12 nuclear bomb

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 03/09/2024 - 14:00 in Military

The F-35A Lightning II poacher has been officially certified to carry and launch the B61-12 gravitational thermonuclear bomb.

The certification was achieved on October 12, 2023, surpassing the original date of January 2024. This certification applies exclusively to the F-35A model and does not cover the F-35B and F-35C variants, which are designed for short takeoff and vertical landing and aircraft carrier launch, respectively.

According to a report on the Breaking Defense website, a spokesman for the F-35 Joint Program Office confirmed the milestone, highlighting a significant advance in the aircraft's capabilities. However, the details regarding the deployment of F-35A jets in Europe remain undisclosed, since the U.S. Air Force has not yet answered the questions on the subject.

The B61-12 represents the latest update of the B61 series of nuclear bombs, which was first put into service in 1968. The first updated pump production unit was completed in November 2021. This version is intended to replace three older variants of B61 ammunition, specifically the B61-3, B61-4 and B61-7 models, as part of the modernization efforts.

A USAF spokesman additionally told the Breaking Defense website that “the B61-12 is compatible with any DCA [dual-capacity aircraft] certified F-35” and that the set of fighters upgrades collectively known as Block 4 is not a requirement to use the weapon.

The F-15E was previously the first American fighter compatible with the B61-12. Three other groups of fighters - F-16A/Bs, F-16C/Ds and the PA-200 Tornado used by some NATO countries - are also allowed to carry nuclear weapons.

F-15E equipped with B61-12.

The U.S. Air Force also operates the B-2, a long-range stealth bomber with nuclear capability that began operational use of the B61-12 in December 2023. It is also advancing rapidly with the production of its successor, the B-21 Raider, which first flew last November. In addition, the service previously operated F-117 Nighthawk jets capable of launching B61 nuclear weapons. But the F-117 was never really a fighter, despite the 'F' in its designation, because it could only drop bombs and had no air-to-air capacity.

In addition, although the U.S. Air Force has long operated conventional F-15E and F-16 fighters with the necessary "N wiring" to employ nuclear weapons, the F-35A is the first poacher equipped as such.

Unlike the F-22 Raptor, the oldest U.S. Air Force, oriented to air-to-air combat, the F-35A always intended to assume the tactical nuclear attack capability of the F-16 fighters it was supposed to replace. However, the implementation of this capability - with the wiring and data links needed to use the advanced features of the new B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb - has been associated with an extensive (and highly expensive) upgrade program known as Block 4.

The certification award means that the development and testing of the capacity of the B61-12 are finally completed and considered satisfactory after "more than 10 years of intense effort", according to Goemaere.

Dual-capacity aircraft serve as another deterrent, along with the traditional nuclear triad of bombers, submarines and ICBMs launched on the ground, and are seen by European nations as a key part of preventing Russian aggression. The nuclear capacity of the Joint Strike Fighter arises at a critical moment for NATO, in the middle of the war in Ukraine and the Russian nuclear saber, in particular.

Tags: Nuclear AttackMilitary AviationB61Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning IIUSAF - United States Air Force / U.S. Air Force

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Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has works published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. He uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

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[demonfox38]

Completed - Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (Castlevania Dominus Collection Version)

Oh, fine. I suppose I can post a couple more screenshots. Maybe even provide a drive-by Post Game Evaluation. (Full one from the past: here.)

It's a miracle this game got off the Nintendo DS.

It's nice that you can pick how many screens to display, as well in what order they appear. Very handy!

I might be the only person who's played this game that will be more thrown off by the magic seals now being a button sequence than the past method of just drawing them. It probably doesn't hurt to just write them down for your reference for fights.

You've got a rewind feature, so does that eliminate the whole point of getting the seals put in right in the first place? Eh whatever.

It's weird that the achievements for this game are solely boss defeating and side mode completion. I thought there would be more for item/soul collection.

1.000.000 is a little flickery right now. Emulation seems to be mostly good, otherwise.

Overall, I'm glad to have purchased and played this again. This is solidly my third favorite "Castlevania" game, and it's nice to be able to share it with others once more. Steam's currently got it and its DS siblings packaged together at $24.99 as of 09/28/2024. It even has a "Haunted Castle" remake, if you're into that kind of thing!

Also, here's how my artist symbol came out:

99.2%? Ugh. Gotta fix that...

[archoneddzs15]

Sega Mega CD - Record of Lodoss War

Title: Record of Lodoss War / ロードス島戦記～英雄戦争～

Developer/Publisher: Sega / Kogado Studio

Release date: 20 May 1994

Catalogue No.: G-6024

Genre: RPG

Record of Lodoss War, in case you don't know, is a franchise of fantasy novels by Ryo Mizuno based on the work he originally created for a world called Forcelia as a rules-free setting for role-playing games. The series was created in 1986 by Group SNE as a Dungeons & Dragons "replay" serialized in the Japanese magazine Comptiq from 09/1986 to 07/1988 issues. Actually, I don't really know jack shit about the Record of Lodoss War series as a whole, but I heard good things about this game, so I gave it a go. And allow me to say this. Tears literally flowed down my cheeks as soon as the game booted up on my Mega CD.

The amazing soundtrack is definitely worthy of a Sonic Symphony treatment, with wonderful orchestration, and a beautiful synergy of high-octane action as well as the hardships and struggles of battle. This game is also an RPG, in the same vein that Sonic Chronicles for Nintendo DS is. It's not something that I would have the time to play, but if any of you do, then it's worth a look.

Record of Lodoss War is one of the best RPG's ever made for the Mega CD.