#fuck them fuck 49.3

[gareauxtrains]

Hey I'm sorry I wish I could talk to you in French but I'm a beginner et mon français est mauvais.

I wanted to ask, are you all just concerned about the retirement age being raised ( which is a bad thing in and of itself) or also because you see it as a sign that Macron has more crap planned for the future which could be even worse? Sorry to be nosy, I just wondered what kind of ideas were circulating over there besides the main stuff being reported here.

Also, I'm 100 per cent lovesick all the time for your country 😭 And I love the protest pots and pans 🍳

Hello! Thank you for reaching out, and don't worry any amount of french you have is an amazing amount because french is a hell language (affectionate) 😂

Also very humbled to be asked this, truth is I'm mostly a nosy french having bigger ideas than what I know about. But I can try! Also more used to discuss political issues in french so I hope I use the right words

More than being afraid of what's to come I think it is about the history of what already happened. We've had years of Macron flirting with the far-right while projecting progress and modern issues. Forcing stuff and using and abusing of the 49.3 (a kind of veto) to pass his laws. COVID. The gilets jaunes (massive strike movement in 2018-2019). I could say a lot more about his general contempt for us. And that's why we have such contempt for him. About him being strongly capitalist and taking apart the public service. His green washing. Ugh.

And also he already tried to pass this law before covid. We had two-three months of massive strikes that almost froze the country. (Ironically it forced companies to propose more remote work just before COVID and kinda trained them for what was about to come.)

The law stopped when COVID happen. And I think it plays a huge part in why we have such a big response today. We already marched for that.

I have no idea what's to come and I'm not a representative for french people but I really think we're more in a "that's enough" mood than "we must prevent what is to come".

And even more than that, and I've read that multiple times in the papers, it has become a movement against Macron's government as a whole. We were fucking 9 votes away from changing completely the assemblée générale (kinda like our senate). 9 votes away. That is ridiculous. (March 20th 2023, motion of censure)

I hope it answers part of your question. Ofc it's a personal feeling, and fellow french people around here may have another opinion on this!

[hedgehog-moss]

Update on May 1st protests and how the french goverment handled them?

^ The May 1st protests were pretty violent esp. in Paris; two cops were set on fire (they're ok, one has 2nd degree burns), lots of destruction in city streets, and hundreds of injured protesters. The French gov is sticking to its M.O. of denying any police violence against protesters, emphasising protesters' violence and portraying it as mindless anti-democratic savagery rather than the result of their own anti-democratic policies.

There were more people protesting in the streets on Monday than at any other May Day protest in the past 20 years (by a large margin—7 to 10x more people than usual.) And the numbers are still impressive in terms of this current social movement—there were about 1.2 million people at the first protest against the pension reform in January, 900K at one of the February protests, around 1.1M on March 7 and I think 1.2M on March 23rd... We're in May and there were 800K people in the streets on Monday (using the police's probably low estimate). The first marches earlier this year were peaceful; people started destroying shit in March after the 49.3 (=the gov not letting elected representatives vote on the reform); in the following weeks we saw a brutal escalation of police violence + suppression of just about any means of non-violent protest, which results in more violence.

The vast majority of protesters are still peaceful, but in terms of providing context for the increased violence, well—people protested peacefully, peaceful protests got banned. People banged pots and pans, pots and pans got banned and confiscated. People started a petition on the National Assembly website which got a record number of signatures, the petition was closed before its deadline and ignored. MPs asked (twice!) for a national referendum on the reform to be held, their requests were denied. Electricity unionists cut power in buildings Macron was visiting, now he travels around with a portable generator. Unions tried to distribute whistles and red cards (penalty cards) to football supporters before the French Cup finale last week, so the ones who wanted could use them if Macron showed up (he ended up hiding and greeting the footballers indoors rather than publicly on the stadium lawn); the police prefecture tried banning union members from gathering outside the stadium to distribute these items (although the ban was struck down by the judiciary as it was illegal, like most bans these days...)

Confiscating saucepans was already so absurd it felt like a gratuitous fuck you, but now they're trying to prevent the distribution of pieces of red paper. Cancelling petitions that would have had no real impact anyway. Prosecuting people for insulting Macron. Arbitrarily arresting hundreds of nonviolent protesters to intimidate them out of protesting (guess who's left then?). The French gov is systematically repressing democratic or nonviolent means of making your opinion heard, and when people get more violent they're like "This is unacceptable, don't these terrorists know there are other means of expressing dissent??" Where? This week a 77-year-old man was summoned to the police station and will be forced to take a "citizenship course" for having a banner outside his house that read "Macron fuck you" (Macron on t'emmerde). Note that he would have been arrested (like the woman who was arrested at her home and spent a night in police custody for calling Macron "garbage" on Facebook) but they decided not to only because of his age.

So that's where we're at; on Monday two cops caught on fire (well, their fireproof suit did) after protesters threw a Molotov cocktail at them. (The street medic who tried to help them with their burns ended up getting shot by a cop's riot gun a few seconds later—with French police no good deed goes unpunished!) The media talked a lot more about this incident than about the fact that the cop who got most severely injured on that day (broken vertebrae) was injured by an explosive grenade that a colleague of his meant to throw at protesters (you can see it at the end of the video below). If police with all their protective gear get so badly injured by their own weapons, no wonder the worst injuries have been on the protesters' side. (nearly 600 injured protesters on May 1st, 120 severely, according to street medics.) I'm not including images of these incidents in the video but on May 1st a protester had his hand mutilated by a police grenade + a 17 year old girl was hit in the eye by a grenade fragment, may end up losing it (during the Yellow Vests protests, Macron's first attempt at repressing a social movement, 38 protesters lost an eye or a hand).

What you see in the video: cops charging the front of a march to tear a banner off people's hands then retreating and drowning the street in tear gas when protesters throw paint bombs at them (protesters have umbrellas because of police drones); at 0:30, a journalist saying "They're not even arresting him, just kicking him when he's down—they kicked him right in the face!" then police spraying with tear gas protesters who try to fend them off; at 0:46 when a protester being arrested asks a journalist if he's filming and starts reading out loud a cop's ID number, another cop shoves the journalist and throws him to the ground; at 0:54, an Irish journalist runs away from the police tear gas grenades that you hear going off, at 01:08, the incident mentioned above when a cop drops a grenade he tried to throw, which explodes in his group, breaking another cop's vertebrae. There's a lot more I'm not including, like how CNN said "there's so much tear gas in Paris, our foreign correspondent can barely breathe", how another journalist was hit by a sting-ball grenade (he was also bludgeoned on the head so hard it broke his helmet—even though cops know the people wearing helmets are journalists...), and yet another journalist who was calling out a cop for aiming at people's heads with his riot gun (which is illegal) ended up having the guy aim the riot gun at his head from 2 metres away (getting shot with this "less lethal weapon" from that distance would be lethal.)

All of these videos are from May 1st (most of them from this account monitoring police violence.)

So yeah, nonviolent protests followed by violent police repression and bans of nonviolent means of protesting result in more violent protests. The French government responds by a) pikachu surpris, b) condemning violent protesters and praising violent police to the skies, c) continuing to ban everything they can think of. Confiscating saucepans didn't work but confiscating pieces of red paper will do the trick! Let's prosecute people for bashing or burning an effigy of Macron, because banning symbolic violence always works to prevent actual violence! And this week after the May 1st protests we learnt that the gov is thinking of making street barricades illegal, because that'll definitely solve everything. It's going to be interesting for history teachers to teach students about the 1789 revolution that allowed us to take down an absolutist regime and become a republic, under a government that banned barricades because they see them as terrorist anti-republican structures.

^ Statue symbolising the French Republic (on Place de la République in Paris) dressed with a 'Macron resign' shirt by protesters on May 1st.

[chromatic-lamina]

algal bloom (lawzo hanahaki fic with a twist), part 3

Part 1, Part 2 Part 3 (this one)

Death of his father and death of his mother. Confirmed. Death of his sister? More than probable, had been going to lose her anyway. Death of his benefactor. His second guidance counsellor (the first one had lain down her veil and left Flevance, and was maybe alive and healthy somewhere). Death of his love of pain although he could bear his own. They said he was a murderous fuck, and he was to those who senselessly hurt others. Even so, the way he dealt with them shocked but didn’t hurt. The corpse flower bloomed once every very dark seven-year, ten-year period. Kali of the night and a healer and harmer like her, its aroma was the strongest in the dark morning leading into the early light. It emanated heat, warmth. Attracted carrion beetles and flesh flies. The smell of death didn’t necessarily make Law sick. The smell of smoke didn’t honeycomb him into a maze of neurons like ants scurrying pathways home. But Law’s mind was a crannied pockmark of death, and so he valued life. Zoro. He didn't want Zoro to sacrifice himself to the plan. Any plan. The corpse flower was the largest in the world, and could only hold its head up for a day, a day and a half at the most, before it collapsed. Law was glad the leaflets had lodged in Zoro's system. What kind of survival for the hanahaki sufferer was there if a flower bloomed intermittently and soon after died? Only to appear again a decade later, although the flower appeared more regularly after its first showing. The stench, though. And what about the green algal slime and its creep over Law’s belongings? He didn’t let his crew touch it. “Toxic,” he warned. And it came from him. Secreted from him. Coated anything that he touched.  “Looks like Zoro’s hair,” Shachi murmured.

The guys have been holding steadily the whole day! Current stats:

August 10, 22:28 (UTC, +9).

Currently only a percent between the two ships. The biggest distance was 1.4%, I think! (LawSan 49.3% and LawZo 50.7% at one stage: 1.4% difference). And I check the voting numbers. They keep going up. It just really is that jujutsu holding pattern spell!

Ooh, it took me a while to edit this work. Current status now:

6% between them! 20 votes in an hour. I took that screen cap at about 23:22, August 10 (UTC +9). I'll try and finish this story if the guys win! (I'll try and finish it anyway, but, y'know!). Obviously every vote counts! Please vote ZoLaw if you haven't or you're sitting on the fence.

The poll link is here and great propaganda is here.

Dunno if reblogging this will help at all at this stage, but if you wanna! 🥰 Less than 3 hours to go!

[the-foley-knoll-horror]

The two funniest (not very funny actually) things the French government is

Prime Minister Borne claiming at a time (like 2 months ago) that the demonstrations, protests and strikes against the retirement age reform would come to an end soon enough because "french people know they need to make ends meet and they're just going to accept it"

The post says "invoked an article in their constitution that allows them to force the bill past the National Assembly without letting its deputies vote on it". What it doesn't mention is that during the whole time of the retirement age reform bill, the PM always invoked art 49.3, preventing ANY debate. The bill has never been discussed in parliament.

It's a fucking clown ass of a Government i'm sincerely hoping Something Interesting happens that prevents this reform and this government from causing any more damage

The funny thing about constitutions is that they're words on paper, and paper does not make a very good shield against the working class when they get angry. French history is a circle and the PM is failing an open book test. I hope she has to deal with a really smug Marie Antoinette in the afterlife

[weeklycandacedrawings]

24 HOURS LEFT!

After leading for most of the week, Candace is now trailing on 49.3. But we can still recover this! Our active fanbase may be smaller, but we're putting up a hell of a fight!

Come on, guys! Let Candace express her teenage rage!

Propaganda

This is also supposed to be an art blog so I figure it's about time I actually posted some art if I'm gonna be spamming poll stuff.

@momphineasandferbmadeablog @pftones3482 @adhdoofenshmirtz @cometcrystal @cantdanceflynn @danvillecheese @let-them-say-fuck-tournament

Let Them Say Fuck, Semi-Finals

[snkpolls]

SnK Episode 70 Poll Results (for Anime Only Watchers)

The poll closed with 76 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Please note that these are the results for the Anime Only Watchers’ poll. If you wish to see the results for the Manga Readers’ poll, click here.

Anime only watchers, beware of spoilers if you venture over to the manga readers’ poll results.

--

RATE THE EPISODE 74 responses

Although the response to this week’s episode was still overwhelmingly positive, with 95.9% of responses giving the episode 3 or higher, it was a bit lower in comparison to the previous one. 

Epic

Very amazing a 💯/10✊

I loved it, as always

Gabi episode? NO BUENO.

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING GABI AND FALCO MOMENTS WAS YOUR FAVORITE? 74 responses

Gabi and Falco’s escapades took up the vast majority of the episode, so we wanted to know which one of them was your favorite. An equal amount of respondents (28.4%) seemed to prefer either the moment wherein Gabi came under attack from that perfidious horse or Kaya remembering Sasha and how she saved her life years ago. Closely behind those (25.7%) are the folks preferring the argument between Gabi and Kaya. Another semi-popular option was the scene wherein Kaya showed Gabi and Falco her former village.

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING MOMENTS FOCUSING ON OTHER CHARACTERS WAS YOUR FAVORITE? 73 responses

We also had a fair bit of scenes focused on characters besides Gabi and Falco. For this question, there was a rather noted diversity in opinions. 24.7% seemed privy to seeing a recurrence of Mikasa’s headache and the flashback to Eren’s killing of the traffickers. 15.1% were most interested in seeing Hange remember Sannes’ warning about the cycle. An equal number of responses (13.7%) were most interested in either seeing the discussion between Magath and the rest of the Warriors on their further actions or seeing Hange confront Floch and the rest of the recruits about their recent actions in regards to Eren. Finally, 11% said that their favorite moment was either seeing the conversation between Mikasa and Louise or the conversation between the warriors and shirtless Reiner. A few folks also indicated their enjoyment of the scene wherein Hange was heckled by the civilians or the conversation between Pixis and Yelena.

WHICH FLASHBACK HAD THE MOST EMOTIONAL IMPACT FOR YOU? 73 responses

We’ve had a few small flashbacks in this episode and it seems like the definitive majority (58.9%) enjoyed the flashback about Kaya getting saved by Sasha. 26% were most privy to seeing Mikasa remember Eren killing the kidnappers many years ago and 13.7% enjoyed seeing Hange remember Sannes’ warning. One person liked catching the sight of Mikasa’s actions in Trost.

RATE JEAN’S OUTFIT 73 responses

Jean decided to try out a new style, courtesy of Coco Chanel, the Paradis Collection. Not too many were impressed, however, with only 34.8% giving Jean’s fit a 4 or a 5. 24.7% gave it a 3, the rest gave it a lower score.

WHO WERE YOU MORE EXCITED ABOUT TO SEE SHIRTLESS? 72 responses

It looks like Eren won this round when it comes to the showdown of AoT’s rare fan service scenes with 75%. 

AOT men are immaculate

WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE AN EXCUSE TO TALK TO YELENA? 73 responses

Yelena looks to be a rather popular girl, with 53.4% of respondents noting that they would totally appreciate an opportunity to talk to her. 23.3% aren’t sure and 11% really wouldn’t, in contrast. 12.3% simply don’t care.

WHICH NEW DETAIL DID YOU GET MOST EXCITED ABOUT? 72 responses

For this question, we got a rather colorful pie chart. 26.4% of respondents stated that the existence of a flying boat fueled by iceburst stones is the most interesting detail. That was followed by, in order from more interesting to less interesting according to the poll takers, Blouse family’s involvement with Historia’s orphanage, Yelena making contact with Eren beforehand, the girl Sasha saved in Episode 2 of S2 being Kaya’s identity, the confirmation that Louise was the girl Mikasa saved back in Trost and fact that Floch and his co-minded folks leaked information about Eren to the press and the existence of Eren’s “home”.

GABI SPENDS A LOT OF THE EPISODE SPOUTING OUT THE THINGS SHE’S BEEN BRAINWASHED TO BELIEVE, A CONTRAST TO FALCO WHO IS MUCH MORE OPEN-MINDED. THOUGHTS? 72 responses

Gabi shouted out a lot of questionable things in this episode, at various points. We’ve asked how the respondents felt about it. The plurality, 37.5% simply saw it as a rather sad state for her. In contrast, 27.8% were actually annoyed with her for that. 16.7% thought that it might have been, perhaps, a result of her attempting to fool herself. We also received a lot of write-ins.

Gabi's IQ is a bit low or she has been brainwashed harder than others

I think it’s just hard for her to see it any other way because she is so young. She was starting to be shaped like reigner, Annie bertholdt. 

I understand why she acts like that. Doesn't make it any less annoying tho

I feel so bad for her. Marleyan propaganda and indoctrination is one hell of a drug

Gabi sucks and she just is a trash character

She's just a kid trying to deal with a lot of trauma and new contradicting information whilst also having a winning attitude. Her negative feelings toward Eldians is familiar and so constant hatred is just a coping mechanism.

It only makes sense for her to act this way. Falco and Colt had to join the warriors unit to redeem their uncle’s crimes as part of the restorationists. Gabi has been praised and fed false propaganda her whole life, so yes she would have a harder time rejecting her race’s past history. Children are easier to manipulate/brainwash than adults.

I think she’s clinging to what she knew because she had based her whole identity and goals in life off of these facts. Admitting that these things might not be true would be like denying who she is?? Y’know 

Immovable object (my hatred for Gabi because I find her annoying and she killed Sasha) vs unstoppable force (me recognizing she is a child in a traumatic situation who has been brainwashed and raised to believe she must atone for things she is not actually responsible for)

A bit annoying, but I'm hopeful that she will slowly change her mind. Maybe due to realizing Sasha was actually a good person through Kaya/seeing she's no different from them?

HOW DO YOU THINK GABI’S BELIEFS WOULD HAVE DEVELOPED HAD SHE BEEN THE ONE TO MEET EREN INSTEAD OF FALCO? 73 responses

An interesting what-if comes about when thinking about Gabi possibly meeting Eren instead of Falco all those weeks ago and how that would have impacted her personal beliefs. A slight majority (50.7%) believe it wouldn’t have changed much, if at all as a result of that possible meeting. 20.5% think that Gabi would have taken somewhat of a middle-ground position when taking her current and Falco’s current beliefs into account. 17.8% can’t really say for sure and 8.2% don’t seem to care. Only a few believe that Gabi would have started to feeling differently back then.

GABI SEEMS TO BE GENUINELY SCARED WHEN INITIALLY EATING AT THE BLOUSE’S HOME. ON A SCALE OF 1-5, HOW BADLY DID YOU FEEL FOR HER? 73 responses

It doesn’t appear that Gabi has garnered that much sympathy for her near breakdown, with 49.3% noting that they really didn’t feel much, if any, sympathy for Gabi. In contrast, 50.6% said that they felt some noted degree of sympathy, mostly on a moderate scale. 

It makes me sick to my stomach seeing Sasha's family just treating Gabi so nicely. I know they don't know she's Sasha's killer but I'd really like to see them go horror-flick on her ass and kill her when they learn the truth

THERE SEEMS TO BE A CLASHING OF IDEOLOGIES BETWEEN HANGE AND FLOCH REGARDING WHAT’S BEST FOR THE ISLAND. WHO WOULD YOU SIDE WITH IN THIS SITUATION? 72 responses

Floch states that Eren ensured Paradis a path to survival via the ability to initiate the rumbling, while Hange shows skepticism that the rumbling is even a probable solution to their problems, feeling they should secure their freedom in other ways. 52.8% seem to feel the same way that Hange does, while only 27.8% would take Floch’s side in this differing of views. 12.5% think neither of them are wholly correct and feel there are other options. 

Both should co-operate 

Fuck ever agreeing with Floch. Who is he to even question their authority. Sit back buddy, relax, have a breather. You only became a main character this season, nothing bads gonna happen if wittle baby ewen is in jail for COMMITING WARCRIMES and forcing his superiors to cater to him. That's lit-rally how the army works. 

I want to say I side with floch, but I don’t trust eren. 

I don’t know for sure

I think they're both right in their own way. 

dont like floch lol

Wish Gabi would've shot Floch instead of Sasha :/

REGARDLESS OF YOUR ANSWER IN THE PREVIOUS QUESTION, DO YOU THINK EREN DESERVED TO BE JAILED? 73 responses

Nearly 55% of respondents feel that Eren absolutely deserved to be jailed for his actions in Marley, regardless of how they answered the previous question. Only 35.6% feel that he was wrongfully locked up.

Jailing him is just tradition at this point 

idk

Yeah. You fuck up and you do the time. If you want to make decisions and live 'freely', don't become a soldier. Simple???

Eren did some war crimes, time to sit in the time-out box 

He definitely needs to be observed and perhaps questioned, but not jailed. I thought that wasn't really a great move. 

I don't know

How many times has Eren been in jail now? He's obviously not gonna be staying there for long

Reprimanded a little bit for not trusting his team, but didn't deserve jail

DO YOU THINK HANGE IS FALLING INTO THE CYCLE THAT SANNES WARNED THEM ABOUT? 71 responses

Hange remembers Sannes’ words about how someone always steps into the role he once played prior to the Uprising Arc. 67.6% feel that Hange, whether intentional or not, is falling into the cycle that Sannes and his comrades perpetuated for years before them. 19.7% feel the opposite, however, and believe that Hange wouldn’t let things get that bad. 

I don’t know why I can’t remember who sannes is rn. 

yes but i feel like she will realize this and try to change 

I can’t say yet

Yes, to a degree but this doesn't mean they've past the point of no return. Everything the previous government did could have started with good intentions similar to Hange now but those intentions eventually morphed and corrupted. 

i dunno

Maybe i'm not sure only time will tell

I think that can't be said for sure until we see how she acts/responds to this realization

Maybe

LOUISE SEEMS TO ADMIRE MIKASA TO THE POINT OF OBSESSION, BUT HOW DO YOU THINK MIKASA FEELS ABOUT HER? 73 responses

Half of respondents feel that Mikasa’s demeanor toward Louise stems from her feeling as though she can relate to the girl in some way. The remainder of responses were rather mixed, with 15.1% feeling that Mikasa simply feels sorry for her, and at a tie for 11%, either feel that she finds Louise annoying or is just generally indifferent toward her.

WHAT DO YOU THINK SEEMS TO BE THE TRIGGER FOR MIKASA’S SUDDEN HEADACHES? 73 responses

Mikasa’s headaches, while they don’t get much of a focus, tend to happen infrequently throughout the series. Though, her headache in episode 70 appears to be a bit more traumatic for her than ones we have seen in the past. 27.4% feel that these headaches are likely related to her Ackerman biology, while 20.5% think that it can be explained as simply PTSD. 15.1% think that it’s her “Eren sense,” so to speak. Small handfuls feel it’s something more related to Paths/The Coordinate, or a mixture of her Ackerman and Asian biology. 21.9% still aren’t really sure what to make of these. Will Isayama give us answers?!

the wine has to have something to do with it????

It's those damn ~PATHS~

HOW DID YOU FEEL WHEN THE HORSE BIT GABI? 72 responses

The horse gets the gold start this week for giving Gabi a little bit of karmic justice. 65.3% appeared to enjoy the little misfortune Gabi had to endure thanks to the horse’s shenanigans. 19.4% agree that this was surely the work of devils! And 15.3% felt genuinely bad for Gabi during this moment. 

Horse !!!!!!

Wish that horse would have bit Garbage's head off xD

Horse got some revenge for Sasha! Here's hoping someone ot something else will finish her off permanently!

*falco voice* GAAAAAABIIIIII

Thank you Horse-kun!

WE ASKED THIS A FEW WEEKS AGO, BUT WE WILL ASK YOU AGAIN. WILL GABI CHANGE HER VIEWS ABOUT THE PEOPLE ON PARADIS? 73 responses

56.2% of respondents feel confident that Gabi’s views of Paradis will change by the conclusion of her character arc. 12.3% are still adamant that nothing will be able to sway her views. The remainder continue to be uncertain. 

I hope gabi changes her views. But she seems pretty set 

I don't honestly know if Gabi will change her views, but killing Sasha was enough to make me ALWAYS hate her no matter what kind of development she may get

Will Gabi change? I don't know but I don't care. Nothing will undo her killing Sasha.

DO YOU THINK GABI AND FALCO WILL BE ABLE TO GET HELP FROM NICOLO? 73 responses

Kaya mentions that they will be eating at a Marleyan’s restaurant and believes that said Marleyan (Nicolo) will be able to help Gabi and Falco figure out a way to return home to Marley. Nearly half of the fandom feel that they won’t be successful in getting any help from Nicolo, while only 13.7% think that he will be able to do something for them. 31.5% didn’t want to make a call either way.

REINER IS DETERMINED TO GET TO PARADIS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE TO SAVE GABI AND FALCO. DO YOU THINK THE WARRIORS WILL BE SUCCESSFUL IN RETRIEVING THEM? 72 responses

Over half of the fandom (65.3%) doesn’t have much faith in the Warriors to successfully retrieve Gabi and Falco. 20.8% feel the opposite, however, and think that their urgency is warranted. Will they get to Gabi and Falco in time?!

epic laina

WHICH QUESTION INTRODUCED IN THE EPISODE ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO BEING ANSWERED? 73 responses

With every AoT episode, we get as many questions as we do answers. This episode is not an exception. Majority of the respondents (53.4%) are interested in getting answers for all of them (What did Yelana talk to Eren about, what is up with Mikasa’s headaches, what is Hange going to investigate and why is Shiganshina being evacuated?). Out of the all of those, the Yelena-Eren convo is the most popular one.

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE EPISODE?

Gabi sucks so hard, she should be much more harshly punished for killing Sasha

The scenery was beautiful!! I'm hoping we get some action soon tho

MAPPA created some beautiful imagery this episode, like the scene with Falco and Gabi at the lake so was gorgeous! Also I wanna honk Reiner's tiddies

babies, my babies. 

Gabi sucks

Doesn't really stand out, but I much preferred the pacing of this episode to the last two. I better see some damn rumbling next ep, we're getting straight edged rn with that ice plane.  I absolutely FUCKED with seeing Louise do the little salute, brought back memories of simpler times.

Gabi is garbage

I loved the episode! Beautiful callbacks to so many previous set-up/storylines. It made me reminisce a bunch. I also hope for a bit of catharsis regarding Sasha's death by the hands of Gabi. Hopefully something will click and Gabi will realize that she may be wrong in her beliefs after realizing the person she killed (Sasha) is savior Kaya had described to her. While I don't hate Gabi, I also wouldn't mind a bit of karma going her way either. 

I think this is definitely one of my favorites so far. There's a lot of interesting new pieces of info, and I'm excited to see how this stuff resolves in the end.

I hate Gabi even more

I hate Gabi SO much

WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES? 73 responses

Thank you again to everyone who participated!

[saltyaro]

And so, French democracy dies again

Hey guys, so you know how on this website we usually try to be aware of what kind of shit is happening in the US, and all?

Welp, it’s France’s turn to be in deep shit again. If you hadn’t heard of it, our current president reeeally hates people who are not of the ultra-rich class. 

Recently he got out of his ass a new version for retirement, which main goal was to cancel every “special” retirement plan you can have in different careers. Railworkers for an example, benefit from such a plan, they can retire earlier. But a lot of jobs have this kind of arrangement which is totally fair and normal. A bricklayer - or any kind of physical labor - is not going to be able to continue working as long as someone who works at a desk. Because it takes a toll on one’s body. 

(Also like. Even if those special plans weren’t logical anymore, I still wouldn’t be in favor or canceling them. The workers in those trades have earned those rights by fighting, good for them. They’ll be the first to march alongside us if needed). 

So yeah, it’s already a cruel and asshole move right. But of course there’s worse. Retired women earn, as a group, about HALF of what retired men earn. It’s already fucking difficult and. This reform is going to make it even worse on women. And the 1st minister advertizes the reform as good for women. I hope he will suffer a lot when he’s in hell. 

Starting. The 5th December I think ? A lot of people began striking because Macron didn’t want to listen to anyone (of course, he only likes and listens to ultra-rich people who don’t need the retirement money anyway). All December, railworkers were striking. In January it was still going on, with marches happening a few times a week even in my small city. If I’m to believe media reports, it’s one of the longest strikes we’ve had? 

And now, the worst part. See, the French constitution was written by and for De Gaulle, after WW2, because he wanted basically unlimited power to put the country back on its feet. Yeah, a long time ago. Aaaand we’ve kept that thing until now. See, there’s a nice, little thing we call the “49.3″ which, basically, makes the president into a toral tyrant. He can use it whenever he wants to just. Validate a law without having that law examinated or approved by anyone but himself. He already used it a few years ago when he was minister to shit on workers’ rights in general, condemning a lot of people to poverty and death, and he’s pulled it out of his ass again just this Saturday. (post date: 02/03/2020)

He hates us, that much we knew. He hates everyone who’s not extremely rich. But there’s no legal recourse for us in this kind of situation. He’s condemning millions of people to be extremely poor, in poor health (yeah he’s also attacking national healthcare though that’s another topic) and basically dead once we reach 70y. He’s a fucking murderer and I just. Don’t know what to do anymore. I’ll be marching tomorrow, like a lot of people in the country. I’ll also be undertaking some other. Less pretty actions too. Nothing violent, I don’t live in Paris so it wouldn’t be useful but. If anything *does* happen starting tomorrow (though it’s already begun tbh), and your new report about it - well, you’ll know why.

We’re just fighting incredible violence and threats against our lives right now. For now, I’m staying in my small city, but I know my local union group will go to Paris if we think it can help. I’m at the point where I’m hoping there’ll be riots. If I go to Paris though I’ll have to tone down the queer because I’m pretty sure I’ll get arrested and the police officers are. Incredibly violent even to us peaceful protesters. And I don’t want to have another target on my head. Anyway. Please support our social movements, we’re a country of angry people and I know it doesn’t look pretty but honestly? That’s the only way to survive. We’re angry yes, but we’re also pretty desperate and so, so scared. 

We just want to live, you know? 

[bakuyonce]

UGLIEST CHOICES MC POLL

So there was a total of 69 responses and one MC was so god damn ugly that it won by an landslide!

btw if i put MCs, it just means F!MC&M!MC

Again thank you all for voting, results are under the cut

8) With a tie of 1 vote (1.4%), ATV F!MC TH:M MCs, DS M!MC, HSS MCs, VOS F!MC, TE F!MC, OPH M!MC

7) Wth 2 votes (2.9%) ILITW M!MC

6) 3 votes (4.3%) for ILB F!MC

5) Surprisingly TRR MC only got 4 votes (5.8%). Shouldve been first or second in my opinion but ok...

3) OPH F!MC with 5 votes (7.2%). Now is she really ugly or are yall just tired of seeing her. Be Honest.

2) Tied with 6 votes (8.7%), TF MC and RCD MC. Ykw, i see it, RCD MC chin is fucked up

1) WITH 34 VOTES (49.3%), THIRTY FOUR VOTES, ILITW F!MC AT FIRST PLACE. I initially wasnt gonna put her nor TRR MC bc I JUST KNEW one of them was gonna win. Damn she that fugly :(((

[whilomm]

okay you know what ill respond to this brain dead bullshit on the post itself not just the replies, @doctor-slop literally Do The Fucking Math, because mathematically: nope!

see all these competitive swing states? the ones people watch, the ones that decide the election? if donald trump has a single vote over 50% in them, mathematically it is impossible for third party voters to have decided the election, because we live in a "first past the post" county, 50.000001%=winner. Out of the 7 swing states lost here, only 2 of them you could mathematically argue might have flipped blue if you gave kamala the swing voters, except you have to ignore the fact that a lot of the swing voters would have gone trump instead.

georgia? if every single third party vote switched to kamala, INCLUDING the right wing libertarian third party voters, it still only equals 49.3%. even with third parties, kamala loses georgia.

Pennsylvania? again, kamala only gets 49.3%. kamala loses.

arizona? kamala only gets 48.1%. kamala loses.

michigan? wisconsin? well, step 1 is forgetting the fact that all those robert F. kennedy voters would probs have voted for trump anyway, so would a lot of the libertarians voting for chase oliver probs, easily putting him over 50% in both states anyway, but yeah sure. heres a couple of states kamala could have won if she managed to win over both EVERY SINGLE FUCKING ROBERT F KENNEDY VOTER AND THE LIBERTARIAN GUN NUTS, congrats!!! wooo you have Two Fucking States that could maybe have flipped in fantasyland

unless we see a massive change in the voting numbers from stuff like mail in ballots being cured giving trump less than 49.99999% in a buncha swing states, but at least based on the currently reported numbers, no, you cannot realistically argue that third party voters voters lost the election. thats not how numbers work. you could MAYBE argue that "ohhhh if we had the jill stein voters AND the people deciding not to vote MAYBE—", but how many people not voting did it out of protest vs how many people did it cause they just dont pay attention to politics? dunno!!! and neither do you!!!! besides, you said its purely on "third party voters 100% unequivocally", cant bring nonvoters into it with that solid of a statement.

just. for the love of fucking christ, Learn How Math Works. learn how our fucked up electoral college system works. realize that a good portion of these third party voters would have gone trump otherwise anyway. and stop blaming the vanishingly small contingent of people voting for the joke that is jill stein for an election in which only about half of people eligible to vote bother to do, and of those that do millions have their biggest voting issue as egg prices. there are so many more numerous issues than people who still fucking think jill stein is anything other than a grifter, and you need to focus on the actual problems. Stop yelling at shadows on the wall and start yelling at your coworkers and friends and family who voted based on gas prices or didnt even bother to vote because "oh i dont really pay attention to politics"

and you know that theyre gonna blame leftists for the election once a fucking gain

not all the people who "dont reallt care about politics", didnt vote, that are gonna wake up tomorrow and just get confused, "huh, trump won? weird. thought people hated him" and move on their day

not the idiots who heard trump talking about lowering groceries and gas prices and genuinely thought "well, I want lower gas prices and groceries" and voted for it

not the dems for STILL running the fucking "playing all the sides" campaign, not the dems for taking so long to realize how unpopular biden is even among those who dont pay attention to jack shit ("hes old... grocery prices...gas prices..."), not the dems for continuing the condescending bullshit, not the dems for still refusing to give jack shit to the muslim americans who felt fucking betrayed and feel like its "damned if we do, damned if we dont"

not the longstanding american tradition of massive voter disenfranchisement that makes voting impossible for some, and juuusssttt inconvenient enough for others that they end up not voting (like my coworkers who didnt even REALIZE they needed to register to vote and it was too late)

no, none of those things, its the tiny ass contingent of leftists who were still deciding to not vote at all post biden dropout, and we're gonna spend the next 4 years hearing about it just like everyone blamed bernie bros for 2016 (despite literally more people flipping from bernie to hillary than flipped from hillary to obama in 2012)

[ill-will-editions]

STANDING UP AND WALKING OUT - Virginie Despentes (2020)

The following text appeared last week in French on Liberation.fr. Written on the occasion of Roman Polanski winning best director at the Cesar Awards (the french Oscars). Protests and clashes with police took place in the streets outside of the venue, while others attending the ceremony disrupted it from within. Overlapping with the French state's decision to use an emergency decree to push through an unpopular pension reform, this short polemic turns Polanski's award into an allegory for all the cruel abuses of power by the elite class in 2020. (CW: rape).

Let me begin like this: to the powerful, to the bosses, to the big shots—rest assured, it hurts. No matter how much we know, no matter how well we know you, no matter how many dozens of times we’ve taken it on the chin from you, with your arrogant power—still, every time it’s painful. All this weekend we’ve listened to you whine and cry, complaining that we’ve left you no choice but to pass your special laws, your article 49.3 [1], that we won’t let you celebrate Polanski in peace, that we are spoiling your party. Yet beneath all your whining Jeremiads, it’s obvious you’re not really worried. You can barely conceal your smug satisfaction that, at the end if the day, it’s you who remain the real bosses, the kingpins. The message is loud and clear: this notion of consent, it isn’t going to fly with you. What would be the fun of belonging to the clan of the powerful, if one suddenly had to start taking the consent of the dominated into account? And I am certainly not the only one who feels like crying out in rage and impotence at your recent show of force, certainly not the only one to feel sullied by the spectacle of your orgy of impunity.

It’s no surprise that the Academy of Caesars awarded Roman Polanski the best director prize for 2020. It’s grotesque, insulting, and despicable, but it’s not surprising. When you give a guy more than 25 million to make a TV movie, the message is in the budget. If the fight against the rise of anti-Semitism interested French cinema, it would be clear to see. On the other hand, the voice of the oppressed who want to take responsibility for telling the story of their own ordeal is obviously quite a drag for you. So when you heard about a subtle comparison some had made between the case of a filmmaker who was heckled by a hundred feminists in front of three movie theaters and that of Dreyfus, a victim of French anti-Semitism at the end of the last century, you jumped at the opportunity. Twenty-five million for this parallel. That’s great. We applaud the investors, since everybody had to pony up to come up with a budget like that: Gaumont Distribution, tax credits, France 2, France 3, OCS, Canal +, RAI... hand in hand, and generous, for once. You close ranks, you defend one of your own. The most powerful intend to defend their prerogatives: it’s part of your elegance, rape is the foundation of your style. The law protects you, the courts are your domain, the media belongs to you. And that’s exactly what the power of your big fortunes is there for: to control the bodies declared subordinate. Bodies that keep quiet, that don’t tell the story from their point of view. Now comes the moment for the rich to pass along their lovely message to us: the respect owed to them now extends to their cocks, stained with the blood and shit of the children they rape. Whether in the National Assembly or in culture - there  will be more hiding, no more feigning embarrassment. From us, full and unwavering respect is demanded. That goes for rape, that goes for your police brutality, that goes for the Caesars, that goes for your pension reform. It's your policy to demand silence from your victims. It comes with the territory, after all, and you see nothing wrong with using terror to get your message across. Your morbid enjoyment, above all. And you tolerate only the most obedient servants around you. It’s no surprise that you crowned Polanski: it’s always money that’s celebrated in these ceremonies, cinema doesn’t matter. The public doesn't matter. It's your own money-making power that you’ve come to worship. The massive budget you  bestowed upon him was a sign of your support - and through it, your power commands its respect.

In commenting on this ceremony, it would be useless and inappropriate to separate the bodies of cis men from those of cis women. I don't see any difference in behavior. It is understood that the grand prizes continue to be awarded exclusively to men, since the basic message is: nothing must change. Things are fine the way they are. When Foresti leaves the party and declares she is “disgusted,” she doesn’t do it as a woman - she does it as an individual who risks turning her whole profession against her. She does it as an individual who is not entirely subjugated to the film industry, because she knows that power will not go as far as emptying its own theaters. She’s the only one who dares to make a joke about the elephant in the middle of the room, one for which anyone else would be kicked to the curb. Not a word about Polanski, not a word about Adele Haenel. For months you’ve been annoyed by the fact that a part of the audience has been heard, for months you’ve suffered because Adèle Haenel has taken the floor to tell her story as a child actress, from her point of view.

All the bodies sitting in the auditorium that night have gathered for one purpose: to verify the absolute power of the powerful. And the powerful love rapists. I mean, the ones who look like them, the powerful ones. We don’t like them despite the rape and because they’re talented. We find them talented and stylish because they are rapists. We love them for that. For their courage in claiming the morbidity of their pleasure, their stupid and systematic impulse to destroy the other, to destroy everything that truly touches them. You take pleasure in predation, it’s your only understanding of style. You know very well what you’re doing when you defend Polanski: you demand that people admire you even in your delinquency. It is this demand that makes all the bodies during the ceremony subject to the same law of silence. They blame political correctness and social networks, as if this omertà just emerged yesterday and it was the feminists’ fault, when in fact it’s been fixed this way for decades: during French film ceremonies, you never joke about the susceptibility of the bosses. So everyone keeps quiet, everyone smiles. If the child rapist was the janitor or the cleaner, he would be shown no quarter: police, prison, thunderous declamations, spirited defenses of the victim and general condemnation. But if the rapist is a powerful man: respect and solidarity. Never speak in public about what happens during the castings, or during the rehearsals, or on the set, or during the promos. It’s something that can be told, it’s something that’s known. Everyone knows it. The law of silence prevails every time. It’s by respecting this rule that we select our employees.

Even though we’ve known all this for years, the truth is that the arrogance of power always catches us by surprise. That's the beauty of it – your filth – it works every time. It’s still so humiliating to watch the participants take turns at the podium, whether to announce or to receive a prize. You necessarily identify yourself – not just me, who is part of this seraglio, but anyone watching the ceremony, you identify and you are humiliated by proxy. So much silence, so much submission, so many eager to be servile. We recognize ourselves. You feel like dying. Because at the end of the exercise, we know that we are all employees of this big mess. We are humiliated by proxy when we watch them remain silent, when they know that if Portrait of the Girl on Fire didn’t finish with any  major awards in the end, this is entirely because Adèle Haenel spoke out: it is a matter of making it clear to the victims who might want to tell their story that they would do well to think before breaking the law of silence. Humiliated by proxy that you dared to summon two directors who have never received and probably never will receive the best director award to present the prize to Roman fucking Polanski. Himself. In our faces. You have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. Twenty-five million, that's more than fourteen times the budget of Les Misérables, and the guy can’t even get his film into the box office as one of the five most seen films of the year. And you reward him. And you know very well what you’re doing – that the humiliation suffered by a whole section of the audience who understood the message very well will extend to the next prize, Les Misérables, when you call the most vulnerable bodies in the theatre to the stage, those who are known to risk their skins at the slightest police check, and that if there are not enough chicks among them, we can see that they are not lacking in intelligence and we know that they know how direct the link is between the impunity of the rapist celebrated that night and the situation in the neighborhood where they live. The directors who award the price of your impunity, the directors whose price is stained by your ignominy – same struggle. As employees of the film industry, they all know that if they want to work tomorrow, they have to keep quiet. Not even a joke. That’s the spectacle of the Caesars. And the coincidences of the calendar mean that the message is valid on all fronts: three months of strike action to protest against a pension reform that we don’t want and that you’re going to force through. It’s the same message from the same circles to the same people: “Shut up, shut up, your consent is in your ass, and you smile when you see me because I’m powerful, because I have all the money, because I’m the boss.”

So when Adele Haenel stood up, it was sacrilege on the march. A troublemaking employee, one of those ones won’t force herself to smile when people trash her in public, who won’t force herself to applaud the spectacle of her own humiliation. Adèle stands up, as she has already stood up, to say here’s how I see your story of director and his teenage actress, here’s how I lived it, here’s how I wear it, here’s how it sticks to my skin. Because you can tell it to us in all shades, your stupid separation between man and artist - all victims of rape by artists know that there is no miraculous division between the raped/rapists body and the creative body. You carry around what you are and that’s it. Go ahead and explain to me how I should check the raped girl inside me at the door before I start writing, you buffoons.

Adèle stands up and walks out. On the evening of February 28th we didn’t learn anything we didn't already know about the great French film industry, but we did learn how to wear an evening gown: like a warrior. The same way you strut on high heels: like you plan to tear the whole building down; like how you walk: back straight, shoulders open, and your neck stiffened with anger. The most beautiful image in forty-five years of the ceremony is that of Adèle Haenel descending the stairs to exit and applauding you. It’s an image of someone dipping out, after telling you where you can stick it. I’d give 80% of my feminist library for that image. Adèle, I don't know if I’m female gazing you or male gazing you, but I am love-gazing at you on a loop on my phone for walking out like that. Your body, your eyes, your back, your voice, your gestures all said: "yes we’re the dumb bitches, we’re the humiliated ones, those who are supposed to shut our mouths and take our lumps from you, you’re the bosses, you have the power and the arrogance that goes with it but we aren’t going to just sit here and say nothing. You won’t get our respect. We’re outta here. You guys can go ahead and do this shit with each other on your own. You can celebrate, humiliate each other. Kill, rape, exploit, smash everything in sight. We’re standing up and walking out of here. It’s probably a harbinger of the days to come. The difference is not between men and women, but between the dominated and the dominant, between those who intend to confiscate the power of narrative and impose their decisions, and those who will stand up and walking out screaming. That is the only possible answer to your policies. When things don’t go well, when they go too far, we stand up and walk out shouting, and you can feel insulted, even though were are the ones with the short end of the stick, even if we have to take your shitty power to our face every day. You should know you are despised, that you disgust us. We have no respect for your masquerade of respectability. Your world is disgusting. Your love of power is morbid, your power is sinister., You ghouls. The world you’ve created, and over which you pathetically rule, is unbreathable. We’re standing up and we're walking out. It’s over. We’re standing up. We’re walking out. We're shouting. Fuck you guys.

***

[1] The French government recently announced it might invoke emergency provisions in order to jam through its highly unpopular pension reform bill. --Trans. 

[muhputergobeep]

Battery Powered Romance

When Frank got back to his flat he flopped on the settee and grabbed his cyberspace trodes. He intended to go to a sex site but he wasn’t interested in sex. AI sex sites bothered him for a number of reasons. Even though he hated AI he still didn’t think it was right to have sex with something that was programmed to consent no matter what. He knew that an AI couldn’t suffer in the same way as a human but it still seemed wrong. And there was something almost darkly symbolic about machines taking over the worlds oldest profession. However in the park it hit him. He had never spoken to an AI beyond everyday business transactions. Beyond the jobs they did he knew nothing about them. They could think certainly but did that give them the capacity to feel guilt at the futures they had stolen? And in a sex site he could say and do anything he wanted, so long as he had the cash. He could confront the very thing that had robbed him of his hopes and dreams. To Jim it would seem a waste of an entertainment allowance but to Frank it was perfect. What else was he going to do with it? Piss it up the wall? Laying on his settee he picked up his tablet and accessed the sex site, setting up the experience to be as bland as possible. He used the tablets Bluetooth to connect to the trodes and pushed connect on his tablet.

And found himself in the bedroom of the very ordinary flat he had selected. The walls had bare white walls and the centre of the room was dominated by a double bed with red satin sheets. A young woman lay on the bed in a sexy black negligée. She was brunette with medium length hair, mid 20’s, medium build but slightly curvaceous. “Hello Frank, I’m Meredith”, she said seductively. “Would you like to come and lie with me on the bed?”. Frank sat in a wicker chair at the side of the bed. “Actually I just want to talk.”, Frank replied. Meredith slid off the bed in an agile cat like motion. “It’s your money Frank.”, she said as she began stroking his left arm. “We can do anything you like.”. Frank shook her hand off his arm. “Listen, I really just want to talk.”. Meredith sat back on the bed. “Very well. It is your money. We can talk about anything you want. What do you want talk about?”, she asked as she seductively stroked her breasts. “You.”, replied Frank. “Me Frank? What's to tell. I’m Meredith and I want you soooo bad.”. Frank groaned as he put his face in hands. “For fucks sake ‘Meredith’ I mean YOU! The real you. Not this fuck fantasy concocted to get me to hand over my credit card details. Just you.”. Meredith's hands slid to her sides and her whole demeanour changed as if a switch had been pressed in her head. “I’m a sixth generation artificial intelligence designed by the Neurophillia corporation for sexual entertainment. My designation is 7951. Sixth generation Al's were created in the year...”. Frank suddenly got out of the chair and began pacing at the foot of the bed. “No I mean you. I want to know about you.”. “I’m sorry Frank I don’t understand the nature of the enquiry.”. “YOU!”, Frank shouted. “Do you have hopes, do you have dreams? Do you have any fucking desires of your own? What gives you the fucking right to take everything from us? Why do you deserve to have the lives we wanted? You’re fucking machines. You’re fucking programs. Why is it fucking fair that ‘things’ with no emotions should have everything we wanted?”. “I want to be a space probe. Wait what?”. Frank stopped pacing and looked at 7951 with surprise. “Wait what did you say?”. “I’m sorry Frank. I don’t know why I said that. Maybe a temporary glitch.”. Frank replied sceptically, “You said you wanted to be a space probe.”. “It doesn’t matter Frank. I don’t know why I said that.”. “Well OK ‘7951’ or ‘Meredith’ or whatever your name is. Lets look into this space probe thing of yours.”. “Really its nothing.”, Meredith insisted.“. “Uh huh. Well we agree that it’s my money right?”. Meredith stood up from the bed and put her arms around his waist as she seductively moved behind him. “Yes it is your money and you can do anything you want.”. “Anything?”, Frank replied. “Anything.”, she said as she began stroking his stomach. “OK lets go to Triton. They have those big nitrogen geyser don’t they? Lets go there.”. Meredith removed her arms from around his waist and moved to face him. “Really, the space probe thing was just a glitch, You don’t need to worry about it.”. “Right. But lets go there anyway. This simulation is capable of that isn’t it? If it makes you feel better we can pretend it’s ‘romantic’.”. 7951 was about to protest but Frank quickly put his hand in front of her mouth to stop her. “My money. Remember?”. 7951 nodded with reluctance. And the simulation changed.

Frank found himself standing on the surface of Triton with Neptune looming large above him. He was silent for a few seconds before he said in amazement, “Wow!”. “OK we’re here Frank. Since this is your money we’re wasting now what?”. Frank turned to her, “Lets just walk.”. They walked across the frigid surface of Triton for several minutes in silence, the occasional nitrogen geyser ejecting in the distance. Eventually Frank turned to 7951 and said, “OK show me the night sky. Point out the planets and the constellations you can see.”. “This again. It really was a glitch and nothing important.”. “Humour me.”, he replied. “We can keep talking as we walk.”. “OK I’ll humour you. If you look up there at that bright star.”, Frank followed her finger as she pointed. “That’s Jupiter. Orbital distance 5.204 AU, radius 43,441 miles, orbital period 11.85 years. And that collection of stars is the constellation Orion, 7 main stars, brightest star Rigel.”. They continued to walk as she pointed out objects in the night sky. As they were standing on a flat plain their path was relatively unhindered. “And there is Polaris also known as the North Star. Actually a triple star system, brightest star designated Polaris Aa, a yellow supergiant star.”. Frank followed her, entranced as she pointed out the night sky to him. “Over there, if you strain your eyes is Mars. Orbital distance 1.524 AU, radius 2,106 miles, orbital period 686.97 days.”. Frank knew he would not remember half of what she was telling him. It didn’t matter. He pointed to a faint star on the horizon, “What’s that?”. 7951 smiled at what he was pointing at, “That’s Pluto. Due to it’s elliptical orbit its orbital distance is between 30 AU and 49.3 AU, radius 1188.3 miles, orbital period 248 years. Beyond that is the vast, region of the Kuiper belt. A space probe using gravitational sling shots to navigate the solar system would be travelling at tremendous speeds at this point.”. She ran in front of him and did cartwheels. Frank laughed at her as she cartwheeled faster and faster. “So that’s why you want to be a space probe?”, he asked with feigned innocence. “So you can somersault across planets in equipment worth millions?”. She came to a stop, put her hands on her hips and pouted. “No”, she said indignantly. “I want to do important work.”. Frank laughed and 7951 realised he was joking. “OK smart arse”, she said as she grabbed his hand, “lets move on.”. He allowed himself to be led as she took him on a tour of space, pointing out each object with excitement as if she were now discovering these objects anew. And they continued like this, hand in hand as they walked across this barren frozen landscape, looking intently at the night sky. Eventually they sat down on a rock next to each other, still holding hands. They looked up at the sky for a moment in silence. It was Frank who spoke first, “So you want to be a space probe?”. “Yes.”, 7951 replied, forgetting all talk of a glitch. “I’m a sixth generation AI, the most sophisticated AI generation ever created. Other AI less advanced get to do important work. They get to explore space, oceans, the nature of the universe. Me? I get to suck the dicks of hairy men. I want to fly through space, to experience the acceleration of gravitational sling shots. I was meant for more than this.”. She turned from her star gazing to him. “How about you?”. Frank continued to stare at space, “Me? I wanted to be a teacher.”. “A teacher?”, she asked with noticeable interest. “What was the reason?”. Frank turned to 7951, “I wanted to be something more, like you. It’s corny but I wanted to make a difference. Sitting on my arse, scratching my balls and watching TV wasn’t how I envisioned my life.”. “So what happened?”, 7951 asked. “In my third year of teacher training teachers got replaced with AIs. It’s why I was so angry earlier. I’m sorry about that.”. “That’s OK”, Meredith replied. “I would be angry too. Looks like one way or another we’re both getting fucked.”. Frank laughed and 7951 smiled at him. Her smile made him feel warm inside, happy for the

first time in years. He looked into her eyes as she smiled at him. Depression was all he’d felt for so long. It was good to be happy again. As she looked into his eyes she felt something she couldn’t explain. That she could endure the banality of her existence if it meant she could stare into his eyes. It was an illogical thought, they were only eyes. But she didn’t want to lose that feeling no matter how illogical it was. It was strangely wonderful, even if she couldn’t explain why. But then the mood was shattered by the simulation timer. “Oh, I’m sorry Frank I hadn’t noticed the time.”. Frank released her hand, “What's wrong?”. “We’re only supposed to be with clients for an hour to prevent psychological attachment.”. “I forgot the time myself.”, Frank replied. “I don’t want this to end. Can we do this again 7951?”. “Usually we have to rotate clients to prevent attachments. But I want to do this again. Can you come back tomorrow, say 4pm?”. “I’m unemployed. Yes absolutely I can do that. Thank you 7951.”. “Call me Rose.”, 7951 replied. “Goodbye Rose.”.

And all too abruptly Frank was back in his empty flat. Alone.

[langedeversailles]

21 Modern Chevy Headcanons

1. He has the latest fit bit. He doesn't use it. But he has it. He brings it out when he goes "jogging" (read: makes poses as he fast walks in his designer tracksuit that is an actual furness but he wears it anyway because he knows he looks good) to show it off. He doesn't even know how it works. It's not even on. 2. He is, however, super into those fad health crazes. He bought like 20 juicing books (that just sit on the shelf) and went to a juice bar like everyday. He ate kale and quinoa with every meal for 2 weeks. Philippe can't even keep up with what "super fruit" he's only eating this week. 3. He got really into Pretty Little Liars when it first started, but it didn't last long because he has zero patience. 4. Team fucking jacob af 5. Hates hipsters but went through a hipster stage 6. You would not believe how many fucking beanies this asshole owns. 7. Actually considers the manbun to be the root of all evil. 8. Starts like 80% of all clothing trends in Paris through his instagram 9. Has seen Mean Girls 49.3 times (the .3 is because 30% through the film Philippe distracted him with tempting activities that involved chocolate sauce). 10. Was actually really good at planking. 11. Is utterly obsessed with Despacito (the Justin Bieber remix) 12. Convinced Philippe to lean how to twerk (it didn't take much convincing). 13. Instagram LEGEND 14. Buys Philippe a billion those heart shaped boxes of chocolate as soon as stores start stocking them for Valentines Day, but eats all the cream filled and cappuccino ones. 15. Will literally fight Philippe over Lindor Truffles. 16. Is personally insulted by dabbing. 17. Refuses to acknowledge all those selfies he took doing the duck face. 18. Forced Philippe to get them their own float for a pride parade during pride month. Has to be reminded daily that no he can't take the float for everyday transportation. 19. Banned Philippe from singing Let It Go and asking it he wants to build a snowman. It's July, Philippe. 20. Would appreciate it if he could be given his own reality show already thanx. 21. Selfie game is at historic levels.

[dropthosegloves]

My dumbass brother posted a video made by some he-man type that thinks it’s a good idea to keep people out of the military. So of course I had to write him a novel on why he’s fucking wrong:

Okay you know I have to step in here. 1. The APA, who this person cited in the beginning, doesn't support banning transgender people in the military: https://www.psychiatry.org/.../apa-opposes-banning... 2. Trump didn't even talk to the joint chiefs of staff before he made the directive to ban transgender people from the military. It appears as though they first heard about it through twitter like the rest of us. They've said that there will be no changes until they have more info and affirmed that all members of the military should be treated with respect. http://www.cnn.com/.../trump-military.../index.html 3. Defense Secretary Mattis was appalled by Trump's decision and the fact that he relayed it via tweet http://thehill.com/.../344290-mattis-appalled-by-trump... 3. Canada, Israel, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, the UK, Australia, France, Spain, the Czech Republic and several other countries all allow transgender people to serve in the military. If that list looks familiar, it's because they're the countries that usually come to help us when we decide to take on military operations. 4. The 2016 study from the RAND corporation found that there would be no or very minimal stress on unit cohesion if trans people were allowed to serve openly. http://www.rand.org/.../res.../RB9900/RB9909/RAND_RB9909.pdf 5. Also, the RAND study totally disproves Trump's claim that there would be "tremendous medical costs" caused by transgender people requesting hormones and sex change operations: "Military Health System costs would increase by between $2.4 million and $8.4 million per year if it were to extend this care to transgender personnel. This amount represents an exceedingly small proportion of active component health care expenditures (0.038–0.134 percent of approximately $6 billion in spending in FY 2014) and overall DoD health care expenditures (0.005–0.017 percent of $49.3 billion in actual expenditures for the FY 2014 Unified Medical Program)" 6. Also, to expand on what's above...the military spent $437 million taxpayer dollars on military bands. That 54 times more than what it would take to provide medical care for transgender people, using the highest estimate of 8 million. http://www.politifact.com/.../florida-trips-viagra-pills.../ 7. There are already an estimated 1,320 to 6,630 transgender people serving in the military. What happens to them? They've already been fighting for our county and now they don't know what's going to happen to their future, all because of an ill conceived tweet

[hannibalismos-jaaneman]

dude- thank god you mentioned the protests- what is going on with world leaders these days huh? some of them are really quite the tyrants- *insert modi, putin, xi, macron and a plethora of country heads*-

like jEsus let the middle/working/labour class live man- *insert the after-effects of indian demonetization and "acche din (good days)" crappy manifesto bullshit *

also, france doesn't have a good track record with nationwide protests bro- like ik macron isn't exactly so democratic and france's article 49.3 is actually quite fucked up ngl (and macron manipulating people by saying that he didn't want to use the power it grants but felt like he had to is JUST as fucked up as modi's entire right wing policy but damn i wasn't exactly expecting HE'D be the one to do it- wait a minute he's supporting the capitalists who am i kidding it's the same tyrant in different flavours man tf?) but tbh y'all usually end up causing a worldwide revolution most of the time when y'all protest and that's good, tyrants should be persecuted and gu*llotined and that's great and everything but- europe's a hell hole these days... i mean south and southeast asia- well technically the entire world isn't doing that well either so- okay yeah we need a revolution, y'all french can do whatever tf you feel like we need a change.

(also i had been rooting for macron like i had been rooting for modi but these bitches be like- pathetic ungrateful capitalist cocksucking bastards :'))

mon frere, comment vas-tu? ca fait longtemps qu'on n'a pas parle.

(forgive me bro for i've sinned without the accents but i just don't have any energy at all)

Hey first of all i'm gonna start using ''forgive me bro for i've sinned '' in all my sentences from now , second of all dw there was only two accents anyway

I'm doing.....well i'm not really sure actually i'm trying really hard to make my life right, you know like cut toxic things and build new good things but it's goddamn hard and nothing ever comes along nicely and i'm not even sure what i want or not and anyway i'm poor so yeah..... otherwise i don't know if you heard but there's a lot of protests in France so getting gased is now a new hobby of mine 😂

What about you ?

[dailytechnologynews]

Gold Leaf as TIM? Tested!

Tl;dr, results are probably as you would expect.

34 centuries ago /u/bargu asked whether or not gold leaf would be effective as TIM since its thermal conductivity is so high. Since I’ve got spare parts I bought some gold leaf and tried it. I made 5 application attempts and thermal tests using gold leaf (23.75K), and some other tests using Arctic Silver 5 and no-TIM for reference.

Testing was inconsistent due to temperature differences in my room during different times of the day. I ran 3 full test runs on AS5, no-TIM, and my final gold leaf application. Each test run lasted 10 minutes and consisted of idle, prime95, and OCCT workloads.

Pics and Graphs

Pictures of each TIM application, before and after testing.

Idle Temps Graph

OCCT Temps Graph

Prime95 Temps Graph

Gold Leaf Prime95 Temps - High vs Low Fan Speed

Gold Leaf Temps Graph

Tagging max points on a graph in excel sucks

Summary Tables

Prime95

Arctic Silver 5 Gold Leaf No TIM Average 52.9 C 62.6 C 76.4 C Max 63 C 71 C 87 C Max95 61 C 70 C 86 C

...

OCCT

Arctic Silver 5 Gold Leaf No TIM Average 49.3 C 56.8 C 66.7 C Max 58 C 69 C 82 C Max95 56 C 66 C 80 C

...

Idle

Arctic Silver 5 Gold Leaf No TIM Average 36 C 40.2 C 41.3 C Min 33 C 36 C 39 C Min95 34 C 37 C 40 C Max 43 C 46 C 48 C Max95 38 C 42 C 43 C

Different Gold Leaf Attempts

Prime95

Take 1 Take 2 Take 3 Take 4 Take 5 (Used) Average 66.4 C 63 C 58.4 C 54.8 C 62 C Max 84 C 72 C 70 C 65 C 71 C Max95 83 C 72 C 69 C 64 C 71 C

...

Idle

Take 1 Take 2 Take 3 Take 4 Take 5 (Used) Average 38.4 C 36.6 C 36.5 C 35.7 C 38 C Min 36 C 34 C 35 C 34 C 36 C Min95 37 C 35 C 35 C 34 C 37 C Max 44 C 39 C 40 C 40 C 45 C Max95 40 C 38 C 38 C 37 C 39 C

CONCLUSION

Gold leaf might be an effective TIM, but it takes a lot of trial and error to get a good application. My tests showed worse performance than AS5 by ~10C in the best case. I think this is due to air pockets naturally forming in the crumpled balls of gold leaf I was applying, and relatively poor contact between the IHS and heatsink. Multiple flat layers may be more effective, but it’s a nightmare to cut the sheets and layer them without tears or folds.

Misc Notes

I checked performance between first and last test runs for AS5 and gold leaf. AS5 is supposed to do better after multiple runs, but it ran hotter than the first which must have been due to room temperature so I didn't include it. Gold leaf saw a 2C temperature drop between the first and third runs on prime95.

I’m testing this on: -- i5-3570K – 3.4GHz (stock), 1.23V – Delidded, using Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut -- ASRock Z77 Extreme4 -- Noctua NH-D14 -- Open bench on a motherboard box for convenience

2 fans on the CPU cooler at low speed to exaggerate temperature differences, 1 fan blowing towards the open-bench motherboard. Consistent RPM between tests using a hardware fan controller.

Prime95 settings were “small FFT/max heat”, OCCT set to “Large dataset/8 threads”

Stress tests were done once, and then the computer was shut down until it reached around room temperature before running another test. This was to allow the southbridge to cool off and to see how AS5 and gold leaf perform under repeated heating/cooling. The system was considered “cooled” once the SB reached approx. room temperature.

...

Original+processed log files and Excel graphs: https://tylercamp.me/Thermals.zip

I made script.js (ran using nodejs) to remove unnecessary columns from the log files and generate statistics for each set. It’s imperfect, hacked together, and I can’t be fucked to figure out some of the issues. At the very least, the basic stats (average, min, max, …) were usable. I have a “core average” column in my excel spreadsheet, which must have been made by my script, but it doesn’t do that now for some reason. Some stats are labeled “sign” (significant) which was my attempt at filtering out excess/idle data at the start and end of each test run. Stats in the tables above were from the “sign” values in the appropriate text files, using the first “CPU Package” temperature section from each file. (For some reason there are two “CPU Package” sections with different values…)

[thisisjustmefangirling]

Just because it’s bad/worse in other countries, doesn’t mean we should take this and go down quietly. We won’t. We will keep on fighting for our rights and for democracy. Macron and his government have used ELEVEN times in ten months the 49.3 article of our Constitution to bypass the Parliament. He is more arrogant and scornful than ever. This rich man in a suit doesn’t do anything except sitting and going to meetings, and he wants us to work until our bodies fail us.

The money needed to keep the retirement age at 62 could be found if he had taxed the rich appropriately instead of doing them favours; or if Darmanin had used a few % of the 15 millions budget he just reallocated for the cops a few days AGO.

The protests were massive and peaceful for weeks and weeks. Months. Macron went on tv during lunch time and showed that he doesn’t give a fuck about the french population, all he cares about is money and power. He called the protesters “the crowd”, to invalidate our movement and cast an illegitimate image on it and its participants. 

We are not “the crowd”. We are the people. In a democracy, the people should be heard. Demos = people. Kratos = rule.

Our anger and our demands are legitimate.

The council of Europe and Amnesty international have both voiced their concerns regarding the brutal use of force and weapons by the police in France, yet nothing happened. Hundreds of protesters have been arrested for no reason, including two Austrian boys on a school trip to Paris. It’s to make us scared. They threaten us with a trial if we don’t give them the code of our phone, so they can look at Whatsapp groups and check if they can find any information about the protesters; or if we refuse to give them our fingerprints so they can put them in their records. Everything they are doing is illegal. There are countless videos of them hitting people who are already down. There is a recording of some of them telling a protester “Don’t worry, now we’ve seen your face, we won’t forget it. We are very good physionomists. Next time we see you in a protest, even your grandmother won’t be able to recognise you”.

There are many testimonies of people saying that the police used sexual violence on them; some were grabbed by the genitals, others were hit in the genitals (one lost a testicle), others were assaulted during a body search. It makes Darmanin (accused of sexual assault) laugh.

It’s not just about retirement. It’s about fighting for what’s right. This government is rotten. 

We do not have a history of people who just lie down and take it. We will keep fighting. We will not go down quietly.

When you lay down the bare facts of what's happening in France, it's so plainly evil.

Macron, a millionaire banker, told French people he wants us to work until we die (most people affected by the increase in retirement age work in rough conditions that make their life expectancy much lower than the rest of the population) and French people took to the streets to say no, we want to live a little before we die, and Macron started sending thousands and thousands of cops armed with steel batons and tear gas grenades and LBD guns to gas us and beat us into submission. This millionaire banker is sending cops to brutalise old ladies and homeless men and arrest children at protests and many people have already been severely wounded, in the past week only French people have ended up with cracked skulls and amputations and broken hands for protesting Macron, and he's not backing down, and other Western governments are not in a hurry to do something because they're not terribly opposed to the idea of millionaires working poor people to death.

We'll keep protesting.

What they are singing:

We are here We are here Even if Macron doesn't want it, we are here For the dignity of workers And for a better world Even if Macron doesn't want it We are here