#erosion of structure

[daytura]

YouTube comment from "BlueMorningStar", under video "The Rhizome - A Thousand Plateaus, Deleuze and Guattari", bolded for emphasis:

I had a big garden plot in the back of my house that no one had touched for probably close for a decade until I decided to clean it up. I took the natural, centerless, rhizomatic structure of weeds I had found back there. I chopped down these two huge shrubs in the center of the garden and dug out the root system, and it completely changed the sense of geography. I pulled out thousands of weeds that had established these weird whorls of patterns, growing together. There was an old weed cloth there that had been fully integrated into the plants root systems. I pulled out so many little ant colonies that had become integrated into it. Finally I turned over the entire garden with a pitchfork and lined up my six garden mounds and planted. It was such an incredible act of violence to force an arboreal structure on the garden. I was amazed at how quickly the garden became overgrown again, the new searching roots of green things plugging into the garden structure I created. The part which amazed me is how the old arboreal structure got reincorporated and how the rhizome reestablished itself not by destroying the hierarchical structure, but by creating new pathways and connections through it so that the old structure became meaningless--it was a revolution by way of affirmation, as if the people of Oceania found that the best way to overthrow Big Brother was to get really into exhibitionism and sadomasochism. The thing is you have to fend off those rhizomatic interlopers, the little searching weeds, but a successful garden also has to invite it back in. You need to work together with the wild bees, for example, who come to plug your garden into their own little pollinating world. The bee hive connects to the garden connects to the human gardener connects to the home depot store where I got the plants connects to the whole system of global capital. All of this is to say that I also like Deleuze and gardening :)

erosion of structure

This was a reddit draft that I've since cleaned up into a blogpost.

Using the basic metaphor of: Placement in forest < Specific Tree < Branching structure. You could completely reinvent the specifics to suit whatever knowledge structure you want. Nothing is actually holding us to use Luhman's system... I mean, the sky's the limit when you think about it.

Sure. But that hubris is also the problem with digital Zettelkastens. Once you replace the starting structure with something else, say from an upside-down tree to a temporal sequence, you must be diligent about exploiting that starting structure and eroding it over time. To do this you need a very deep understanding of the structure's strengths and weaknesses, and how to best adapt it to your needs and goals.

The most baffling thing about the digital Zettelkasten when I first heard about it was how the timestamps-as-IDs were used in such a spatial way. If your organizing method uses/encodes with time, it makes so much more sense to treat the entire set of notes like a timeline and "reply" to older notes (to follow up thinking, update information, track the evolution of ideas, etc.). Nonlinearity does not always mean defaulting to a highly spatial web; it could just be as simple as abstracting above the linearity. But they weren't doing that. They kept fighting the temporal IDs without trying to see if they could erode it, naturally, as the needs of their digital slipbox changed.

As I think about it now, if I wanted an inherently spatial structure, I would probably use an RGB-like coordinate system, loosely divide the R, G, and B axis on different topics, and then constrain the max number of notes per axis (like 255, if we're really inspiring from RGB). The main limit would be filling up each individual axis from #1 to #225, which therefore gives us 765 topical notes (255 + 255 + 255). 765 topical notes is actually pretty good.

But if I need more notes, or I wanted to start seeing recording about topics between/intersecting these topics, I can exploit the structure by rising to a higher abstraction and codifying a note in multiple values. A note about Occam's razor would be 2-132-7 rather than just R2, or B132, or G7. And the note capacity suddenly blows up 65025 times for a max encoding of over 16.5 million notes. Suddenly the notes feel less like hard coordinates, less like a tangible space, and more like musical chords where colors can stack and fade against each other.

Admittedly this is a bit of an insane organizational method. And for notes, no less! But that's what you have to do when you build structures, when you start with structure. Are you arranging by space, or time, or both, or something different? How do you exploit it? That's the hard problem of personal knowledge management: how do we best work within and beyond the constraints of structuring out knowledge? Most people just want to be free of constraints without realizing that some constraint is inevitable. Even our nonverbal thoughts are bound by the forward progression of time, and for us to revisit our past thoughts diminishes present (newer) thinking. The tricky part is accepting that these constraints are not automatically bad, and that we can still achieve monumental progress by working within them in novel ways.

[delawaredetroit]

He may hate heroes and quirks (individuality), but Kota isn't able to completely suppress himself either. This panel implies that Kota has been lashing out with his water quirk at his secret base. And considering his inexperience and that his quirk is just producing water, Kota has probably been lashing out like this for a long time to make a gash like that in the rocks

[emberwritesinsight]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/46697002

Blood. Blood on her sheets, blood on her nightgown, blood probably on the mattress too, fuck! This isn’t fair! She’s too young to die! God, what has she done wrong? ---- Nanami trips over a milestone, and her resulting emotional rollercoaster derails everyone's day.

So, months and months ago, I had an idea. See, Nanami’s Egg really reminded me of menarche in some places (especially the bit where Nanami worries that she’ll be made fun of for being “late”), and I know I’m not alone on that, but I thought to myself, “if she had her literal first period it would have gone differently”. I made a post about it and messaged @palms-upturned about it back and forth a bit, and eventually (pretty recently) I had actual ideas for scenes and started writing a fic. It spun wildly out of control and this was the result. Have fun.

[teg-report]

Transhumanism and Control: The NWO Agenda

Introduction Throughout history, those in power have cleverly used entertainment to control and distract the masses. The techniques may have evolved from ancient spectacles to today’s digital distractions, but the game remains the same. The New World Order (NWO) has honed this strategy into an art form. They use entertainment to shape public perception and dismantle societal norms. This keeps us…

[2t2r]

Le mystérieux œil du Sahara

Nouvel article publié sur https://www.2tout2rien.fr/le-mysterieux-oeil-du-sahara/

Le mystérieux œil du Sahara

[ahhvernin]

Look for the cash box. Sometimes at certain locations they got fish pellet machines or the desk receptionist where you can "magically" exchange your coin for some fish food, so which you can throw inti the fountain or pond.

the goddess sulis minerva accepts apple pay these days huh

[nnctales]

Understanding Structural and Non-Structural River Erosion Works: A Comprehensive Overview

Introduction: Rivers play a vital role in shaping the Earth’s landscape, but their dynamic nature can pose challenges, particularly in the form of erosion. Erosion, the process of wearing away the land, can lead to significant changes in river courses, threatening infrastructure, ecosystems, and human settlements. To mitigate these challenges, engineers and environmentalists employ a combination…

[reasonsforhope]

"The coral reefs of south Sulawesi are some of the most diverse, colorful and vibrant in the world. At least, they used to be, until they were decimated by dynamite fishing in the 1990s.

As part of a team of coral reef ecologists based in Indonesia and the UK, we study the reefs around Pulau Bontosua, a small Indonesian island in south Sulawesi...

In many places around the world, damage like this might be described as irreparable. But at Pulau Bontosua, the story is different. Here, efforts by the Mars coral restoration program have brought back the coral and important ecosystem functions, as outlined by our new study, published in Current Biology. We found that within just four years, restored reefs grow at the same rate as nearby healthy reefs.

Speedy recovery

The transplanted corals grow remarkably quickly. Within a year, fragments have developed into proper colonies. After two years, they interlock branches with their neighbors. After just four years, they completely overgrow the reef star structures and restoration sites are barely distinguishable from nearby healthy reefs.

The combined growth of many corals generates a complex limestone (calcium carbonate) framework. This provides a habitat for marine life and protects nearby shorelines from storm damage by absorbing up to 97% of coastal wave energy.

We measured the overall growth of the reef framework by calculating its carbonate budget. That's the balance between limestone production (by calcifying corals and coralline algae) and erosion (by grazing sea urchins and fishes, for example). A healthy reef produces up to 20kg of reef structure per square meter per year, while a degraded reef is shrinking rather than growing as erosion exceeds limestone production. Therefore, overall reef growth gives an indication of reef health.

At Pulau Bontosua, our survey data shows that in the years following restoration, coral cover, coral colony sizes, and carbonate production rates tripled. Within four years, restored reefs were growing at the same speed as healthy reefs, and thereby provided the same important ecosystem functions...

Outcomes of any reef restoration project will depend on environmental conditions, natural coral larvae supply, restoration techniques and the effort invested in maintaining the project. This Indonesian project shows that when conditions are right and efforts are well placed, success is possible. Hopefully, this inspires further global efforts to restore functioning coral reefs and to recreate a climate in which they can thrive."

-via Phys.org, March 11, 2024

[calder]

Released in 2010, Obsidian Entertainment's Fallout: New Vegas actively concerns itself with the realities of gay existence, and is widely recognized as a noteworthy work of queer science fiction. New Vegas extensively examines social attitudes towards homosexuality among the game's major factions, and primarily conveys this lore through gay and bisexual characters describing their own experiences. It also allowed the player to mechanically set the Courier's sexual orientation. By taking both available perks, the player character can be bisexual. By choosing neither, the player can opt out of seeing flirtatious dialogue options.

Uniquely, Fallout: New Vegas explores homosexuality in the context of wasteland societies, and touches upon related issues. The core theme of New Vegas is that the desire to recreate the past is driven by irrational nostalgia, and any endeavor to manifest past glory is dangerous and doomed. The social issue of homophobia is used as a demonstrative example. The resurrection of corporate and military power structures presents new avenues for Old World problems such as institutional homophobia to reemerge. One of the many issues that divide the New California Republic and Caesar's Legion is the latter's open persecution of gay people. The NCR is described as tolerant and even accepting of same-sex relationships, though acceptance tends to fall off the further one moves away from the developed, urbanized core of New California. In recent years, the Republic's rapid economic transformation has led to an unforeseen erosion of the humanitarian ideals which it was founded to serve. In practice, to recreate America was to take on its shortcomings and its sins. As subsistence scavenging has dried up, the people of the NCR increasingly turn to wage labor, entrepreneurial venture, or military enlistment to keep their families fed. Meanwhile, their government enacts morally corrosive imperialism (narrative verbiage), their dominion expanding indefinitely as their infrastructure crumbles from within. This has led to a profit-based imperial monoculture which must conquer, consume, and coerce to perpetuate. As personal politics and service labor grow in importance, people find themselves more inclined to present as "normal" in the interest of financial stability and political expedience. A loading screen visualizes this culture of artificial social normalcy: the portrait of President Aradesh on the NCR 5$ bill neglects to depict his unibrow, earring, and facial scarification, overall portraying the once-chieftain so cleanly-cut as to be unrecognizable at first glance. He also appears to be wearing a collared shirt or suit as opposed to the robe he wore in Fallout.

In the Legion, Caesar has mandated that every legionnaire take a wife and produce children, citing high infant mortality rates and the constant need for soldiers, and going as far as instituting child quotas. He treats human beings as a resource to be exploited for war. Ostensibly in this aim homosexuality has been declared a capital offense punishable by death. Historically, routine demonstrations of violence towards women and gay people are a deliberate feature of fascist societies, the only logical cultural conclusion of a government devoted entirely to war and control. In Forlorn Hope letter 9, an NCR soldier wrote wrote the following to his boyfriend:

Dearest Andrew, Writing this seems pretty morbid, but tomorrow we march into the no man's land between our camp and Nelson, which is crawling with Legion. The Major insisted I write this damn "if you get this, I'm dead" letter so here it is. What a crock. I have the luck of the devil and your love on my side, so I'll be home soon. Keep the porch light on for me. We'll party in New Vegas when I get back. I love you. —Devin

Devin believed he would prevail over the Legion because his love would keep him safe. He was found dying or dead on the battlefield, the letter was found on his body. In a post-release patch, the injured soldiers were removed from the battlefield for performance reasons, and never re-implemented. Driven largely in reaction to the Legion's hyper-masculine posturing and misogyny, rumors persist across the Mojave that gay male relationships are not only common within the Legion, but condoned. These rumors are repeated commonly in NCR society. A closeted NCR Major mentions that the Legion is "a little more... forgiving" about close male "friendships," speaking in a hushed tone to avoid suspicion. At the same outpost, the player can encounter Cass, a bisexual civilian woman. She may flirt with a male Courier, who may imply they are gay, prompting her to imply gay men are more common in the Legion. Even as gay men fight and die in the name of love under his command, NCR General Oliver may remark to Courier Six at the Second Battle of Hoover Dam: "If you think after all that's happened, I'm going to grab my ankles and take it like the Legion..."

This writing pertains to institutionalized homophobia which manifests in practice though power structures and social interactions without being written into law. Simply put, in his derogatory remark, the general expresses to his army that military surrender is gay, much like their gay enemy. From the brevity and bluntness of this remark, it's clear that this sentiment is already well understood among his ranks. Logically, to project strength in the eyes of such a leader, one might also project homophobia by scrutinizing and harassing one's peers and subordinates. In this atmosphere, the expression of homophobia is not only normalized, but materially incentivized. For the ambitious, it becomes a tool, and a way of casting shame upon rivals. For the closeted, homophobia becomes a survival tactic, hoping to throw scrutiny off oneself. This is why Major Knight is immediately frightened when a male Courier flirts with him. He is so profoundly alienated that he romanticizes life as a gay man under the Legion. The Legion punish homosexuality with death, and yet Knight characterizes them as more "forgiving" than the NCR. Through these apparently disparate events, the audience can trace how a distorted perception of gay people emerges among insecure men in a military environment, and subsequently becomes ingrained in the corresponding civilian culture. At the 188 Trading Post, a lesbian from the Brotherhood of Steel named Veronica also wryly remarks that she believes legionaries have gay sex about as often as straight sex. She also notes that this only applies to men, as women have no rights whatsoever in Legion society. In this aside, she conveys a pre-existing frustration with lesbophobic social norms. Veronica also mentions that the people of her bunker would rather she remain on the surface. The Mojave Brotherhood of Steel has no official policy prohibiting homosexuality, but an implicit attitude among its dominant members that their limited numbers require everyone to have children to avoid extinction. Numerically, this may seem logical on the surface, given their reluctance to recruit outsiders. However, given their tiny population, this is an ineffective countermeasure, as they do not have nearly enough members to maintain genetic diversity for more than a few generations. This approach is not universally supported by all family units within the Brotherhood, but every individual is ultimately at the mercy of the elder. Veronica was in a lesbian relationship, but they were quietly separated by Elder Elijah, due to the dominant culture of enforcing heterosexual pairing among their population.

Caesar's law has not ended homosexuality within his domain. Despite the obvious risks, some legionaries have continued to pursue relationships behind closed doors, especially given their access to slaves. So long as members complete their societal obligations and fulfill the child quotas, they are able to pursue romance with other men in secret. Homosexual relationships in the faction are noted as being relatively equal compared to the average Legion husband and wife, in a "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" sort of open secret policy. Gay legionaries must always make sure to keep their activities hidden. A centurion was once almost caught fraternizing with the teenage boy he had chosen to tend his tent. Despite previous "romantic" intentions, he quickly resolved to dispose of the slave to dispel suspicion. Had they been caught together, the centurion would have been charged with homosexuality and sentenced to death. This story is only known because the enslaved young man, Jimmy, managed to escape execution. Further illustrating the cruelty intrinsic to Legion governance, it's stated that homosexuality was the crime, and not the rape of a young slave; in fact, it seems Jimmy was forced to contribute to the child quota despite being a gay teenager, and the experience left him traumatized. He has resolved to never have sex with another woman, as the very notion triggers memories which fill him with disgust, and (in his own words) makes him feel like a slave all over again. The Strip is indifferent to gay people, viewing them as another opportunity to make caps. Both the Gomorrah and the Atomic Wrangler are interested in maximizing profits, and their prostitution services cater to clients regardless of their orientation. The openly gay Jimmy works at nearby Casa Madrid, but there is some tension among his peers due to his co-worker Maude's blatant homophobia. She supposes he's "okay, for one of those," and if propositioned by a female Courier, Maude will direct them to Sweetie for such "perverted" services. Pretty Sarah must regularly intervene to keep the peace among her staff.

The Followers of the Apocalypse, well-read punks who seek to embody healing through anarchistic values, are not concerned with gender. Most are openly and casually sexually active. Upon meeting Courier Six, Arcade Gannon offhandedly makes his gayness known, unprompted. The audience must face the fact that Arcade's apprehension of the Legion is far from abstract; under Legion law, he would be put to death. One possible ending gives further insight into Caesar's hypocrisy: should the player sell Arcade into slavery and leave Caesar alive, he will keep Arcade as a personal physician and philosophical advisor. They intellectually spar at length, and Caesar grows singularly fond of him. Accordingly, Arcade imitates the historic suicide of Cato the Younger by disemboweling himself. The Legion's remaining medics attempted to save his life, but none were Arcade's equal. Caesar understood his doctor's final gesture of contempt, and mourned him for months.

New Vegas ventures further into themes of healing from the trauma of sexual violence, from the perspective of a lesbian character. Corporal Betsy, an NCR sharpshooter, is a rape survivor, and suffers with PTSD from the incident. Her unprocessed trauma has manifested as a maladaptive tendency to aggressively and explicitly proposition the women she encounters, in an effort to reassert a sense of control. This defensive hypersexual impulse has negatively impacted her ability to connect with other women. A male superior officer notes that her behavior is inappropriate for anyone of her stature, but abstains from disciplining her out of sincere concern for her mental health. The Courier can help her begin to recognize these problems, and convince her to seek treatment from Doctor Usanagi at the New Vegas medical clinic, which proves helpful to her as she processes and heals from her trauma.

In Old World Blues, the Think Tank are five floating brains in jars who express themselves by waving robotic arms bearing screens depicting facial features. Before the War, they were federal scientists who committed crimes against humanity in the name of weapons development. Each is stuck in some sort of neuro-bionic feedback loop which prevents them from moving forward with their projects, mentally binding them to their central laboratory. Walking through their homes at Higgs Village, it's clear each was deeply neurotic before they were transformed into floating brains. Now without bodies, they attempt to maintain the illusion that they are exempt from sexuality as purely mental beings, but each displays obvious interest in the human form. They have codified this shaming with the term "formography." Most of the men are obsessively defensive over their complete disinterest in penises, which they talk about constantly. However, the shameless Dr. Dala shows overwhelming interest in observing and recording any and all human functions. Already androgynous in her pre-War life, Dala has taken to self-identifying as a "gender neutral entity" (though she is not known to use they/them pronouns). Regardless of the Courier's gender, they may coquettishly scratch themselves, clear their throat, and stretch in front of Dala until her biomed gel decoagulates. Dr. 8 also responds positively to graphic masturbation advice from Couriers of either gender. The X-8 research facility is ostensibly a massive immersive shrine to Doctor Borous's hatred of Richie "Ball-Lover" Marcus, a long-dead child who bullied Borous centuries ago. He also clings to his resentment of one Betsy Bright, who refused to attend a dance with him, supposedly so she could "go smoke with RICHIE MARCUS." Clearly arrested in development, Borous has literally built a temple to the fantasy of torturing his adolescent romantic rival and feeding him to dogs. His frozen, static characterization of the jock Richie Marcus as a "pinko-commie" who "likes balls" reflects the shallowness, pettiness, and overall misanthropy underlying his patriotic identity. It remains apparent throughout Old World Blues that the Think Tank are all chronically sexually repressed, which is inseparable from the values of the violent and judgmental pre-War culture which created them. With time and isolation, this ingrained repression has manifested as various intense and deranged psychosexual behaviors, including rage-fueled homophobia, voyeurism, and the obsessive performance of puritanical pretense.

____

“Although I’ve been out for a very long time, I made a conscious effort to be out with relation to this project, as I wanted to be visible as a lesbian in the game industry. New Vegas itself is, I think, one of (if not the) best games out there in how we treat homosexuality – and all of that is very intentional.”

“If my work on FNV, if my being out has helped even one gay person, then I have succeeded.” — Tess “Obsidian’s Gay Cowgirl” Treadwell

____

written (with help from other editors) for fallout.fandom.com/wiki/LGBT_representation_in_the_Fallout_series criticism welcome

[mebis-art-dump]

So, I was checking the hallownest.net kingdom's edge map and overlining the chunks of the wyrm carcass (as one does) to see approximately how big it is, because it extends beyond the hornet and discarded shell goes: there's even a chunk right outside the city

Compare the outstanding shell with these

But then I started noticing things

First there's something I've considered before but felt like adding to this post because it's interesting: the wyrm may have had ribs and vertebra

The imagery is the most clear in this section

And there's the massive structures at hornet's arena (hey isn't that another clutter that looks like ribs in the ceiling?)

You could see it as a snake's squeleton

You are probably thinking "bugs don't have bones" but here's the thing: some hallownest bugs do (Mawlek has ribs, gruzmother has a squeleton) (Wyrms are also technically not bugs the same way radiance is technically not a moth)

One could still argue that these could be claws or scales instead, which fair, but I think with eons of erosion, a mostly "barebones" wyrm makes more sense

There's also this asset used in the maw

Although sadly the lower more detailed part is covered by ash ingame (behind the stumpy teeth)

While discussing this, one of the original development sketches was pointed out to me:

While stuff like this, scrapped content (specially this early) should be taken with a bucket of salt, this is a curious choice

To quote mossbag: "it could be a statue or signpost, but it's oddly specific imagery"

Lol I reached image limit before making it to the part I actually wanted to talk about, hold on while I elaborate in a reblog

[shithowdy]

as someone who grew up in an archaeologist household i am almost hard-wired to consider the relationship between time, structures, objects, and culture-- erosion, disaster, decay, oxidization, uv exposure, war, technology; even a decade has the potential to change so much about a location. i knew a former relationship was doomed the moment i asked them if they ever looked at buildings and imagined them as ruins in 500 years and they answered, "what? no, that's weird".

which is all to say i swallow a lot of insufferable nitpicking to allow myself to enjoy Fallout as much as i do, but the one thing i cannot overlook is the fact that people haven't developed incomprehensible regional accents after 200 years of basically being isolated to the 100 mile radius around their city-states. i don't give a fuck that the ruins of LA still has standing skyscrapers despite how many earthquakes they've certainly endured, i DO give a fuck that i can understand every word bostonians are saying.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Some Agrostology Vocabulary

for your next poem/story (pt. 1)

Agrostology—the branch of systematic botany that deals with grasses, especially their identification, classification, and evolution.

Adventive - a plant that is introduced accidentally

Anemophily - wind-mediated pollination

Anthesis - the phase during which a flower is fully opened and pollination occurs

Bisexual - a flower, floret, or spikelet that bears both male and female reproductive structures; the term perfect is also used for this condition

Caducous - falling off early

Chartaceous - having a papery or tissue-like appearance, as in certain leaf and bract margins

Cleistogamous - the condition in which flowers or florets remain closed and are typically self-pollinated

Cordate - heart-shaped, as in the shape of certain leaf bases

Coriaceous - leathery, as in the texture of certain lemmas/glumes

Cosmopolitan - common to all or to most of the world

Deciduous - falling from a plant at the end of a season

Divaricate - spread very far apart

Entomophily - insect-mediated pollination

Erose - a margin that appears to have been gnawed or worn away

Extirpate - to eliminate or destroy; literally, to pull up by the roots

Filiform - thread-like

Flabellate - fan-shaped

Glaucous - having a blue-gray or sea-green color; also used for a whitish waxy covering that can be easily rubbed off

Graminoid - grass-like

Hyaline - having a colorless, thin, translucent/transparent texture

Source ⚜ More: Word Lists

[dailyadventureprompts]

So one of my favourite things to listen to in my off time is debunked conspiracy theories, mainly because it mixes several of my interests: politics, history, and being pedantically right about stuff with objective fact to back it up.

Part of me wishes I could draw more inspiration from this particular well, but doing so risks propagating the same brainworms that create conspiracy theorists in the first place. The grand canyon is a lichtenberg figure carved by a colossal space lightning bolt/energy weapon hitting the earth, which consumed the world in a pyroclasm that caused stone structures melt which we can see across ancient cultures Is a FASCINATING bit of worldbuilding by someone being in denial about the concept of erosion. I don't want to use it however because then my story becomes a transmission point for this bad idea, a psychic parasite that might take root in someone's subconscious and warp their worldview to the point of nonsense.

Take one I heard a few years ago: The word planet comes from the greek word planan, which means wanderer. This is the same word used by the original bible to refer to fallen angels. NASA is lying to us, there are no planets, the non-star lights we see moving in the night sky are fallen angels fixed there by god as punishment for their crimes of coming to earth and beggetting the nephilim, the giants that we can see evidence of in X,Y,Z mythologies.

You can see the narrative potential there right? The questhook about the scholar who invents a better sort of telescope and manages to peer deep enough into space to discover that one of the cosmic bodies is actually a being, only to become possessed by the fallen celestial and driven to free it, just like the extinct linage of giant warlords who rampaged across the region millennia ago. It's such a juicy hook because it plays on the same "aha" moments that the conspiracy theory uses to take root: Oh yeah there IS a linguistic connection between the world planet and the greek word for wandering because they were stars that wandered across the sky oh yeah there ARE a lot of ancient cultures that have myths about giants because it's really easy to imagine people that are big, wonder if there are any internet rabitholes that could teach me more about these thigns?

It's the Dan Brown DaVinci Code problem; It can be entertaining to play around with historical conspirasism as the background for a story but part of your audience are going to be in a vulnerable place and slip all the way down to Qanon levels. It's even worth with the Alex Jones types who can't seperate fiction from reality and take their inability to analyze iconography as a sign on NWO "preprogaming". I don't want to use conspiracy theories/bad archaeology as inspiration only for my work to be pinned up on the red-string board as evidence that everything's connected.

[cappadociab]

BALLOONSCANNER - MEGA+ (2)

Cappadocia hot air balloon rides offer a unique and breathtaking experience that should not be missed. Balloonscanner provides the best deals on Cappadocia hot air balloon rides, allowing you to compare prices and book tickets easily. These balloon rides are often included in one-day tour packages that showcase some of Cappadocia's highlights, giving you the opportunity to add a balloon flight to your itinerary. Balloonscanner offers the cheapest hot air balloon deals in all flight zones, including Cappadocia. These balloon rides are a popular tourist attraction, and there are various options available to choose from.

The adventure and excitement of a hot air balloon ride in Cappadocia is unmatched. Comfort Cappadocia Balloon Rides can rise anywhere from rock formations to several hundred feet, allowing you to drift through the valleys and experience the landscape from a unique perspective. The story of hot air ballooning in Cappadocia dates back to 1984 when the first hot air balloon flight was operated by Raks (Casette) Balloons. A hot air balloon ride in Cappadocia balloon is a surreal experience that will stay with you forever, providing an adventure that is both thrilling and unforgettable.

The beauty and magic of Cappadocia's landscape from above is truly awe-inspiring. The lunar-like landscape, with its fairy chimneys and rock-cut houses, is a sight to behold. Cappadocia is an amazing and spectacular landscape that has been sculpted by erosion over thousands of years, with cave-like structures that have been used as homes and places of worship for centuries. Soaring above this landscape in a hot air balloon provides a unique perspective, allowing you to appreciate the beauty and grandeur of the region in a way that is impossible from the ground. Book your breathtaking hot air balloon ride with Balloonscanner and experience the stunning landscapes of Cappadocia, Pamukkale, and Soganli Valley.

[dyggtheway]

Fashion and the Messaging Machine: Balancing Authenticity🎸

Fashion has always been a dynamic and expressive industry, constantly evolving to reflect cultural shifts and societal trends. However, in recent years, the emphasis on influencing has led to concerns about authenticity. Are these brands prioritizing controversey over substance?

Join Us Down the Rabbit Hole

The fashion industry has undergone significant transformation over the decades. From haute couture to ready-to-wear, and now the dominance of fast fashion, the industry's evolution has been marked by its ability to adapt and innovate. Streetwear culture, with its roots in urban environments, has significantly influenced mainstream fashion, bringing a new level of edginess and relevance.

Streetwear has revolutionized fashion by blending fabrics, labels, and attitude for the daily life. Gaining power from empowering the individual, the antidote to a long history of exploitation that continues to push back.

Messaging in Fashion

In the flurry between the Battle of the Brand crossfire, messaging is vital.Communicating values, social stances, and cultural relevancy. This messaging shapes identity and influences perception. However, with this power comes the responsibility to ensure that messaging is genuine and not just a marketing ploy.

Fashion Marketing Hangovers: Greenwashing-Rainbow Washing-Woke Washing

Greenwashing refers to brands falsely promoting themselves as environmentally friendly.

Rainbow washing occurs when brands use LGBTQ+ symbols during Pride Month to generate revenue without actually supporting the community.

Woke washing involves brands adopting social justice rhetoric, imagery or even labels to seem socially aware and progressive.

Who's To Blame? Brands that feature representation in their ads but lack representation within their corporate structures, leading to the erosion of trust and pain at the bottom line.

Encouraging Authenticity- begins and ends with people. In the People First model we can retrace our roots and regain integrity.

To quote Nemo it's time to break ,"The Code".

Fashion's relationship with messaging is complex and multifaceted. Want in on the conversation? Explore our Free Online Fashion Design Courses and start creating your unique designs today. And when you're ready to bring your creations to life, print them with Unique Boutique Streetwear.

Let's make magic, together!🤘🍑

[antares-the-aasimar]

Day 5: TFC

TFC would be deep in the mines, maybe even excavating some of the lost structures buried by the ocean's erosion! Probably could tell you many stories about the Gods and Sages of old. You might even be able to find him beneath the Tower of the Gods, though who knows how he got there!

Here's a link to the fundraiser!