#i brailsford

[sanguinesky-if]

hello!! i love the story so far and am obsessed with i... could we get some random facts about them maybe?

Hello! I've already replied to the question about the facts regarding I, you can read them here.

Thank you for your message!

P.S. I feel really bad for the I enjoyers because of the scene I prepared for them in Chapter 3 Pt. 2…

[luxe-pauvre]

NOVEMBER 2022

Read:

What It Takes To Put Our Phone Away

How Augustinus Bader Made Us Believe

“am I wasting my 20s?”

Why we should rethink our moral intuitions about deepfakes

New Brain Maps Can Predict Behaviours*

The Power of Testimony

Head Games

Distraction disaster! Notifications are ruining our concentration - here’s how to escape them

Our innate ideas prevent us seeing what is innate in human nature

How to know what you really want

The virtue of honesty requires more than just telling the truth

Careerism

This is what peak culture looks like

The Zen of Joan Didion

Trolls be gone

Food for Life: The New Science of Eating Well by Tim Spector

Everything That Makes Us Human: Case Notes of a Children’s Brain Surgeon by Jay Jayamohan

Sedated: How Modern Capitalism Created Our Mental Health Crisis by James Davies**

Watched:

why smart people write bad

I Emailed My Doctor 133 Times: The Crisis in the British Healthcare System

Nightcrawler: Lou Bloom’s Sociopathic American Dream

Kirsten Dunst: Sofia Coppola’s Greatest Muse

Severance***

The Handmaid’s Tale (S5)

The Crown (S5)

All Quiet on the Western Front

Listened To:

Henry Marsh - Blood

Atul Gawande: The Path to Perpetual Progress

The “Winning Expert”: How To Become The Best You Can Be: Sir David Brailsford****

How To Fix Your Focus & Stop Procrastinating: Johann Hari****

This Town by The Go Go’s

Renaissance by Beyonce (again, again, again)

Went To:

Quantum Mechanics: Stranger Than Fiction? Carlo Rovelli and Jim Al-Khalili in Conversation @ the Science Museum

British Neurosurgical Research Group Meeting

[nat-20s]

bbc three official "can't get along (without you)" tendonna amv btw. if u even care

obsessed with the fuckin. doctordonna amv happening in the season 4 episode 5 doctor who confidential

[txttletale]

how do ml's reconcile with lenin going for a bigbrainhaver hierarchy which just so happened to place him at the tippy top? most of the things he's quoted for writing make a kind of sense in that longwinded academic philosopher way, but, like, russia went from having a revolution against monarchy to having a monarchy, essentially, and what folks do tends to align with their desires, yeah? wouldn't that make everything he said, idk, suspicious?

we reconcile with this because none of this is even remotely true. lenin did not 'happen to be placed at the tippy top' but was in fact elected by the soviets, who worked in a very simple electoral system by which workers and peasants would elect representatives to their local soviet, who as well as administering local services would also elect members to higher bodies. the quote unquote bigbrainhaver hierarchy system in question was as follows:

The sovereign body is in every case the Congress of Soviets. Each county sends its delegates. These are elected indirectly by the town and county Soviets which vote in proportion to population, following the ratio observed throughout, by which the voters in the town have five times the voting strength of the inhabitants of the villages, an advantage which may, as we saw, be in reality three to one. The Congress meets, as a rule, once a year, for about ten days. It is not, in the real sense of the word, the legislative body. It debates policy broadly, and passes resolutions which lay down the general principles to be followed in legislation. The atmosphere of its sittings is that of a great public demonstration. The Union Congress, for example, which has some fifteen hundred members, meets in the Moscow Opera House. The stage is occupied by the leaders and the heads of the administration, and speeches are apt to be big oratorical efforts. The real legislative body is the so-called Central Executive Committee (known as the C. I. K. and pronounced "tseek") . It meets more frequently than the Congress to which it is responsible-in the case of the Union, at least three times in the year-passes the Budget, receives the reports of the Commissars (ministers), and discusses international policy. It, in its turn, elects two standing bodies: (1) The Presidium of twenty-one members, which has the right to legislate in the intervals between the sittings of the superior assemblies, and also transacts some administrative work. (2) The Council of Peoples' Commissars. These correspond roughly to the Ministers or Secretaries of State in democratic countries and are the chiefs of the administration. Meeting as a Council, they have larger powers than any Cabinet, for they may pass emergency legislation and issue decrees which have all the force of legislation. Save in cases of urgency, however, their decrees and drafts of legislation must be ratified by the Executive Committee (C.I.K.). In another respect they differ from the European conception of a Minister. Each Commissar is in reality the chairman of a small board of colleagues, who are his advisers. These advisory boards, or collegia, meet very frequently (it may even be daily) to discuss current business, and any member of a board has the right to appeal to the whole Council of Commissars against a decision of the Commissar.

—H.N. Brailsford, How The Soviets Work (1927)

you might notice that the congresses of soviets were not directly elected -- this is because they were elected by local soviets, who were directly elected, in a process that many people have given first hand accounts of:

I have, while working in the Soviet Union, participated in an election. I, too, had a right to vote, as I was a working member of the community, and nationality and citizenship are no bar to electoral rights. The procedure was extremely simple. A general meeting of all the workers in our organisation was called by the trade union committee, candidates were discussed, and a vote was taken by show of hands. Anybody present had the right to propose a candidate, and the one who was elected was not personally a member of the Party. In considering the claims of the candidates their past activities were discussed, they themselves had to answer questions as to their qualifications, anybody could express an opinion, for or against them, and the basis of all the discussion was: What justification had the candidates to represent their comrades on the local Soviet. As far as the elections in the villages were concerned, these took place at open village meetings, all peasants of voting age, other than those who employed labour, having the right to vote and to stand for election. As in the towns, any organisation or individual could put forward candidates, anyone could ask the candidate questions, and anybody could support or oppose the candidature. It is usual for the Communist Party to put forward a candidate, trade unions and other organisations can also do so, and there is nothing to prevent the Party’s candidate from not being elected, if he has not sufficient prestige among the voters. In the towns the “ electoral district ” has hitherto consisted of a factory, or a group of small factories sufficient to form a constituency. But there was one section of the town population which has always had to vote geographically, since they did not work together in one organisation. This was the housewives. As a result, the housewives met separately in each district, had their own constituencies, and elected their own representatives to the Soviet. Here, too, vital interest has always been shown in the personality of every candidate. Why should this woman be elected ? What right had she to represent her fellow housewives on the local Soviet ? In the district next to my own at the last election the housewife who was elected was well known as an organiser of a communal dining-room in the district. This was the kind of person that the housewives wanted to represent them on the Soviet. Another candidate, a Communist, proposed by the local organisation of the Party, was turned down in her favour.

[...]

The election of delegates to the local Soviet is not the only function of voters in the Soviet Union. It is not a question here of various parties presenting candidates to the electorate, each with his own policy to offer. The Soviet electorate has to select a personality from its midst to represent it, and instruct this person in the policy which is to be followed when elected. At a Soviet election meeting, therefore, as much or more time may be spent on discussion of the instructions to the delegate as is spent on discussing the personality of the candidates. At the last election to the Soviets, in which I personally participated, we must have spent three or four times as much time on the working out of instructions as we did on the selection of our candidate. About three weeks before the election was to take place the trade union secretary in every department of our organisation was told by the committee that it was time to start to prepare our instructions to the delegate. Every worker was asked to make suggestions concerning policy which he felt should be brought to the notice of the new personnel of the Moscow Soviet. As a result, about forty proposals concerning the general government of Moscow were handed in from a group of about twenty people. We then held a meeting in our department at which we discussed the proposals, and adopted some and rejected others. We then handed our list of pro¬ posals to a commission, appointed by the trade union committee, and representing all the workers in our organisation. This Commission co-ordinated the pro¬ posals received, placed them in order according to the various departments of the Soviet, and this co-ordinated list was read at the election meeting itself, again discussed, and adopted in its final form.

—Pat Sloan, Soviet Democracy (1937)

Between the elections of 1931 and 1934, no less than 18 per cent of the city deputies and 37 per cent of village deputies were recalled, of whom only a relatively small number — 4 per cent of the total — were charged with serious abuse of power. The chief reasons for recall were inactivity — 37 per cent — and inefficiency — 21 per cent. If these figures indicate certain lacks in the quality of elected officials, they show considerable activity of the people in improving government. The electorate of the Peasants' Gazette, for example, consisted of some 1,500 employees, entitled to elect one deputy to the Moscow city soviet and two to the ward soviet. For more than a month before the election every department of the newspaper held meetings discussing both candidates and instructions. Forty-three suggested candidates and some 1,400 proposals for the work of the incoming government resulted from these meetings, which also elected committees to boil down and classify the instructions. These committees issued a special four-page newspaper for the 1,500 voters; it contained brief biographies of the forty-three candidates, an analysis of their capacities by the Communist Party organization of the Peasants' Gazette, and the "nakaz," or list of "people's instructions," classified by subject and the branch of government which they concerned. At the final election meeting of the Peasants* Gazette there was literally more than 100 per cent attendance, since some of the staff who for reasons of absence or illness had not been listed as prospective voters returned from sanatoria or from distant assignments to vote. The instructions issued by the electorate in this manner — 1,400 from the Peasants' Gazette and tens of thousands from Moscow citizens — became the first business of the incoming government.

—Anna Louise Strong, The New Soviet Constitution (1937)

does this mean that the soviet project was some utopian perfect system? no. there were flaws in the system like any other. it disenfranchised the rural peasantry (although not, i would like to add, to any extent greater or even equivalent to the extent to which the US electoral system disenfranchises the urban working class) -- the various tiers of indirect selection created a divide between the average worker and the highest tier of the executive -- and various elements of this fledgling system would calcify and bureaucratise over time in ways that obstructed worker's democracy. but saying that it was 'a monarchy' is founded in absolutely nothing except the most hysterical anticommunist propaganda and tedious orwellian liberal truisms.

even brailsford, in an account overall critical of the soviet system, had to admit:

Speaking broadly, the various organs of the system, from the Council of Commissars of the Union down to the sub-committees of a town Soviet, are handling the same problems. Whether one sits in the Kremlin at a meeting of the most august body of the whole Union, the "C.I.K.," or round a table in Vladimir with the working men who constitute its County Executive Committee, one hears exactly the same problems discussed. How, be-fore June arrives, shall we manage to reduce prices by ten percent? What growth can we show in the number of our spindles, or factories, and in the number of workers employed? When and how shall we make our final assault on the last relics of illiteracy? Or when shall we have room in our schools, even in the remotest village, for every child? Was it by good luck or good guidance that the number of typhus cases has dropped in a year by half? And, finally, how can we hasten the raising of clover seed, so that the peasants who, at last, thanks to our propaganda, are clamoring for it, may not be disappointed?

—H.N. Brailsford, How The Soviets Work (1927)

genuinely, i think you should take a moment and think about where you learned about the soviet union. have you read any serious historical work on the topic, even from non-communist or anti-communist sources? because even imperialist propagandists have to make a pretence at engaging with actual facts on the ground, something which you haven't done at all -- and yet you speak with astounding confidence. i recommend you read some serious books instead of animal farm and reflect on why you believe the things you believe and how you know the things you think you know.

[dannyreviews]

Veteran British born/based film/TV actors born before and including 1936 still alive:

With the recent death of Dame Maggie Smith, I thought I'd detail the legendary actors of UK cinema and television that are still living as of the date of this post:

Eileen Bennett (b. 1919)

Arnold Yarrow (b. 1920)

Beulah Garrick (b. 1921)

Elizabeth Kelly (b. 1921)

Elisabeth Kirkby (b. 1921)

Sara Luzita (b. 1922)

Annabel Maule (b. 1922)

Paul Harding (b. 1923)

Vincent Ball (b. 1923)

David Lawton (b. 1923)

Anne Vernon (b. 1924)

Donald Pelmear (b. 1924)

Thelma Ruby (b. 1925)

Pete Murray (b. 1925)

Michael Beint (b. 1925)

Shelia Mitchell (b. 1925)

Kerima (b. 1925)

David Attenborough (b. 1926)

Elizabeth Benson (b. 1926)

Margaret Barton (b. 1926)

Terry Kilburn (b. 1926)

Stanley Baxter (b. 1926)

David Frankham (b. 1926)

William Glover (b. 1926)

Josephine Stuart (b. 1926)

Patricia Davidson (b. 1926)

Barbara Clegg (b. 1926)

Glen Michael (b. 1926)

Araby Lockhart (b. 1926)

Eileen Page (b. 1926)

Rosemary Harris (b. 1927)

Cleo Laine (b. 1927)

Lee Montague (b. 1927)

Genevieve Page (b. 1927)

Neville Phillips (b. 1927)

Jean Lodge (b. 1927)

Barbara Ashcroft (b. 1927)

Jill Freud (b. 1927)

Jean Southern (b. 1927)

Antonia Pemberton (b. 1927)

Peter Cellier (b. 1928)

Jeanette Landis (b. 1928)

Sheila Ballantine (b. 1928)

Dorothea Phillips (b. 1928)

Jeannie Carson (b. 1928)

Hazel Ascot (b. 1928)

Brenda Hogan (b. 1928)

Philip Guard (b. 1928)

Raymond Llewelyn (b. 1928)

Pauline Brailsford (b. 1928)

Leonard Weir (b. 1928)

Kevin Scott (b. 1928)

Tony Hughes (b. 1928)

Joan Plowright (b. 1929)

Patricia Routledge (b. 1929)

Colin Jeavons (b. 1929)

Michael Craig (b. 1929)

Thelma Barlow (b. 1929)

Peter Myers (b. 1929)

Paul Williamson (b. 1929)

Kevin Miles (b. 1929)

John Gale (b. 1929)

Phillip Ross (b. 1929)

Jimmy Fagg (b. 1929)

Hazel Phillips (b. 1929)

Mignon Elkins (b. 1929)

Margaret Stallard (b. 1929)

Maya Koumani (b. 1929)

Clive Revill (b. 1930)

Charles Kay (b. 1930)

Roy Evans (b. 1930)

Una McLean (b. 1930)

Roddy Maude-Roxby (b. 1930)

Ruth Trouncer (b. 1930)

Cyril Appleton (b. 1930)

Vera Frances (b. 1930)

Gary Watson (b. 1930)

Keith Alexander (b. 1930)

Libby Morris (b. 1930)

Pauline Jefferson (b. 1930)

Claire Bloom (b. 1931)

Leslie Caron (b. 1931)

Carroll Baker (b. 1931)

Virginia McKenna (b. 1931)

Vivian Pickles (b. 1931)

Stanley Meadows (b. 1931)

Gerald Harper (b. 1931)

Patricia Greene (b. 1931)

Ellen McIntosh (b. 1931)

Elvi Hale (b. 1931)

Maureen Connell (b. 1931)

June Laverick (b. 1931)

James Martin (b. 1931)

Denyse Alexander (b. 1931)

Arthur Nightingale (b. 1931)

Eileen Derbyshire (b. 1931)

Carl Held (b. 1931)

Shelia Bernette (b. 1931)

George Eugeniou (b. 1931)

Corinne Skinner-Carter (b. 1931)

Tusse Silberg (b. 1931)

Petula Clark (b. 1932)

Prunella Scales (b. 1932)

Phyllida Law (b. 1932)

Ray Cooney (b. 1932)

Brian Murphy (b. 1932)

Edward De Souza (b. 1932)

Alan Dobie (b. 1932)

John Turner (b. 1932)

Roland Curram (b. 1932)

Gabriel Woolf (b. 1932)

Johnnie Wade (b. 1932)

Eileen Moore (b. 1932)

Laurie Leigh (b. 1932)

William Roache (b. 1932)

Athol Fugard (b. 1932)

Carmen Munroe (b. 1932)

Norman Bowler (b. 1932)

Marcia Ashton (b. 1932)

Thelma Holt (b. 1932)

Antony Carrick (b. 1932)

Sally Bazely (b. 1932)

Michael Caine (b. 1933)

Joan Collins (b. 1933)

Sian Phillips (b. 1933)

Sheila Hancock (b. 1933)

Elizabeth Seal (b. 1933)

Shani Willis (b. 1933)

Patrick Godfrey (b. 1933)

Caroline Blakiston (b. 1933)

Donald Douglas (b. 1933)

Ann Firbank (b. 1933)

Vera Day (b. 1933)

Tsai Chin (b. 1933)

Geoffrey Frederick (b. 1933)

Marla Landi (b. 1933)

Monte Landis (b. 1933)

Mary Germaine (b. 1933)

Ruth Posner (b. 1933)

Barbara Archer (b. 1933)

W.B. Brydon (b. 1933)

Robert Gillespie (b. 1933)

Brian Patton (b. 1933)

Arthur White (b. 1933)

Barbara Archer (b. 1933)

Sally Bazley (b. 1933)

Madhur Jaffrey (b. 1933)

Jeanette Sterke (b. 1933)

Ann Rogers (b. 1933)

Barbara Knox (b. 1933)

John Boorman (b. 1933)

Derek Martin (b. 1933)

Michael Aspel (b. 1933)

Bill Edwards (b. 1933)

Judi Dench (b. 1934)

Eileen Atkins (b. 1934)

Tom Baker (b. 1934)

Alan Bennett (b. 1934)

Jean Marsh (b. 1934)

Annette Crosbie (b. 1934)

Wendy Craig (b. 1934)

Richard Chamberlain (b. 1934)

Millicent Martin (b. 1934)

John Standing (b. 1934)

Vernon Dobtcheff (b. 1934)

Nanette Newman (b. 1934)

David Burke (b. 1934)

Christopher Benjamin (b. 1934)

Mary Peach (b. 1934)

Geraldine Newman (b. 1934)

Renny Lister (b. 1934)

Priscilla Morgan (b. 1934)

Audrey Dalton (b. 1934)

Leila Hoffman (b. 1934)

Simone Lovell (b. 1934)

Magda Miller (b. 1934)

Robert Aldous (b. 1934)

Ram John Holder (b. 1934)

Jamila Massey (b. 1934)

Margaretta D’Arcy (b. 1934)

Leslie Saeward (b. 1934)

Maurice Podbrey (b. 1934)

Steve Emerson (b. 1934)

Peter Bland (b. 1934)

Michael Darlow (b. 1934)

Barbara Archer (b. 1934)

Joy Webster (b. 1934)

Jacqueline Ellis (b. 1934)

Jacqueline Jones (b. 1934)

Julie Andrews (b. 1935)

Julian Glover (b. 1935)

Jim Dale (b. 1935)

Anne Reid (b. 1935)

James Bolam (b. 1935)

Christina Pickles (b. 1935) 

Judy Parfitt (b. 1935)

Wanda Ventham (b. 1935)

Amanda Barrie (b. 1935)

Derren Nesbitt (b. 1935)

Nadim Swalha (b. 1935)

Gary Raymond (b. 1935)

Janet Henfrey (b. 1935)

Melvyn Hayes (b. 1935)

Susan Engel (b. 1935)

Amanda Walker (b. 1935)

Delena Kidd (b. 1935)

Derek Partridge (b. 1935)

Allister Bain (b. 1935)

Derry Power (b. 1935)

Phyllis MacMahon (b. 1935)

Rowena Cooper (b. 1935)

Derek Partridge (b. 1935)

Jill Dixon (b. 1935)

Des Keough (b. 1935)

Barbara Angell (b. 1935)

Lucille Soong (b. 1935)

Anita West (b. 1935)

June Watson (b. 1935)

David Daker (b. 1935)

Shirley Cain (b. 1935)

Bobby Pattinson (b. 1935)

George Roubicek (b. 1935)

Brian Blessed (b. 1936)

Richard Wilson (b. 1936)

Tommy Steele (b. 1936)

Edward Petherbridge (b. 1936) 

Ursula Andress (b. 1936)

John Leyton (b. 1936)

Jess Conrad (b. 1936)

Elizabeth Shepherd (b. 1936)

Sandra Voe (b. 1936)

Doug Sheldon (b. 1936)

John Golightly (b. 1936)

Peter Ellis (b. 1936)

Andria Lawrence (b. 1936)

Jon Laurimore (b. 1936)

Tony Scoggo (b. 1936)

Barry MacGregor (b. 1936)

Frank Barrie (b. 1936)

Kenneth Farrington (b. 1936)

Eileen McCallum (b. 1936)

Frederick Pyne (b. 1936)

Philip Lowrie (b. 1936)

Marian Diamond (b. 1936)

Anthony Higginson (b. 1936)

Elsie Kelly (b. 1936)

Ann Taylor (b. 1936)

Heidi Erich (b. 1936)

Keith Faulkner (b. 1936)

Ruth Meyers (b. 1936)

Julia Blake (b. 1936)

[alephskoteinos]

Love this piece by Chloe Brailsford for the unabashed leather aesthetic. I see what I mean by "leathercore" in this illustration, which to be honest is really saying something.

[ukrfeminism]

Women and children were among the worst affected by the Covid pandemic and many youngsters saw their childhood “blighted”, an inquiry has heard.

On day two of the Scottish Covid Inquiry on Wednesday, organisations including Long Covid Kids Scotland and Scottish Women’s Rights Organisations – an umbrella term for a number of bodies – gave opening statements to chairman Lord Brailsford.

Andrew Webster KC, representing Long Covid Kids Scotland, told the panel of the hardships faced by children with long Covid.

He said: “The children of Scotland should be able to thrive and look forward to a positive future.

“Long Covid the long-term illness caused by Covid-19 has blighted that prospect for too many.

“For too many, long Covid presents a seemingly insurmountable obstacle to an engaged, fulfilling and productive life.

“The inquiry is embarked upon its listening project, let’s be heard.

“In an adult world, the voice of children is too often ignored, disregarded or belittled.

“I ask all of us in this room here today to pause and think back – did we hear the voice of children in the decision making on masking, school mitigation, examinations or immunisation?

“Or is our recollection that children were simply told how it was going to be?

“For reasons I find unfathomable, we have been precluded by the inquiry from allowing the voice of a child to be heard in these opening statements.”

Mr Webster then read a statement from an anonymous child suffering from long Covid symptoms.

Quoting the child, he said: “Many months ago, we all became ill with coronavirus, and very soon we became very ill, some of us became seriously ill and had to stay in hospital.

“Our symptoms looked a bit different to the ones that grown-ups seemed to get and our parents didn’t always know what was wrong with us straight away.

“Coronavirus doesn’t only affect children like you, many of our parents got it too, so we had to stay at home and try to look after each other, but many of us got worse and needed extra help from doctors.

“Our parents were often scared. It seems like a long time ago that we felt well, and could do some of the fun things we like to do.

“We’re still at home and we’re still unwell. Many of us are still in bed a lot of the time. It can be boring, annoying, frustrating and tiring and we miss our friends. We miss feeling well.

“Our parents are working together to get us some help and that’s why we’re telling you our story.

“We want to feel better again, and when we asked when we will feel better, nobody can tell us when that might be. It’s making us sad.”

He concluded by asking if the long-term effects of long Covid in children are considered by the Scottish Government.

Deirdre Domingo, of Scottish Women’s Rights Organisations, told the inquiry that the idea that the pandemic affected everyone equally should be “firmly dispelled”.

She said women, particularly from black and minority ethnicities, were far more affected when compared to the wider population.

Ms Domingo said a key area of concern was the rise in domestic violence, sexual abuse and rape.

She said stay at home measures “overlooked that for many people, home was not the safest place to be”.

She added: “One of the consequences of the imposition of lockdown and isolation rules was a rise in domestic abuse and violence.

“As explained by Scottish Women’s Aid in their written submissions to the Equalities and Human Rights Committee of Scottish Parliament, anxiety about coronavirus, frustrations related to quarantine, economic uncertainty due to a loss of jobs, harmful consumption of alcohol or other stresses, do not cause domestic abuse.

“Domestic abuse is a pattern of behaviour that instils fear and is used by abusers to maintain control.

“Measures taken to address the pandemic including lockdowns, early release of prisoners, closure of schools, working from home, reduction in the work of courts, and closure of some services and transition of others to remote provision provide additional tools for abusers to exercise that control and they remove the opportunities for women to seek help.”

She added that women have been “hit the hardest” and said there has been a “recognised rollback on women’s equality and rights” since the pandemic.

Claire Mitchell KC, representing Scottish Covid Bereaved, told the inquiry that the hearing presents an opportunity for “real change and accountability”.

The inquiry continues.

[davidmariottecomics]

Butter Sales

Hello! 

Today's update is kind of a journey, but it's all leading to a super important update, so just stick with me. No real better way to get into it than to get into it, so... let's! 

Butter Base

Okay, so you know my friend, Ricky, right? Ricky? He's like... yay tall? Face like a meerkat? Yeah, him. Rrrrricky. Rickeeee. That's my boy. 

If you somehow don't know my friend Ricky, here's what you need to know. He's always coming up with these crazy schemes. Like, one time, Ricky... put flowers in a pot. Not like he y'know, planted a plant and flowers grew out of some beautifully sculpted terracotta. Nah, my boy Ricky, he bought some flowers for his mom but forgot to give them to her, so they were just like wilting in his house, so he put them in his big pasta pot. It was wild, but maybe you had to be there. 

Oh, that's the other thing you need to know. He has this big pasta pot because his mom, the one he bought flowers for, she's really good at making pasta. So she bought him a big pot so he could be good at making pasta, but I've tasted both of their pastas and Ricky's mom's pasta is where it's at and Ricky's pasta isn't very good at all. I guess there's more to pasta than a big pot. 

Ricky's New Gig

Alright, so one time, Ricky went to the store and they had a lot of butter. Like, how he first told it, it sounded like the store only had butter. But I asked and he said they had other stuff too, so, don't imagine quite as much butter as I did. Anyway, so he's at the store and they've just got all this butter. Ricky said it was like 50 times as much butter as a store should have. Just shelves of the stuff. And Ricky, you know him, he sees something like that and he starts cooking up these wacky ideas. So Ricky bought some butter. 

Now my boy is a butter salesman. He just goes around selling butter. And it seems like he's making bank. I know because he showed me this fat wad of cash he was carrying. He said he had to carry it around because his bank's really lame and wouldn't trade him non-buttery bills for buttery ones. 

He told me a trade secret, that I'm going to pass on to you. The sweet spot is the third house. The first two, the butter's like nice and cool and firm in your pocket, but it means you gotta find a knife to cut a pat off so people can taste test. But some people treat you really weird when you come up to their door and say that you need to borrow their knife so that you can sell them butter. The third house though, the butter's started to soften up, so you can just sort of scoop some out and let them lick it off your finger. People really like that. But for houses four and more, that gets a little tricky because the butter starts picking up like lint or money or whatever else you have in your pocket. 

My New Gig 

Ricky offered to get me a job working as a butter salesman, like him, and I took it. That's my big announcement. I'm leaving comics to go sell butter. Sorry! 

Don't tell Ricky this, but I also think I figured out a way to make even more in butter sales. I'm going to keep my butter pocket, my lint pocket, and my cash pocket separate. Like, duh. 

So next time you see me, tell me where your house is so I can come sell you some butter. 

Much love, David Butter Salesman 

P.S. DON'T READ THIS UNTIL APRIL 2ND April Fool's!

What I enjoyed this week: Blank Check (Podcast), Honkai Impact (Video game), Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo (Anime), The Circle (Trash TV), When Harry Met Sally (Movie), Logan Lucky (Movie), my friend Chloe Brailsford gave me a sneak peek of something they've been working on and it's very good. Keep an eye out for more from her! I haven't played it yet, but I'm very excited for The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog. You may've seen that Min Ho Kim, one of our artists over at IDW, worked on the character art! It's clearly a labor of love by everyone involved and that's really cool. WonderCon was nice. Glad I got to see some folks I haven't seen in a while. I did catch con crud (and tested and came back negative for Covid, it's just a head cold), so if I missed you or we only had a pretty quick, limited interaction, maybe it's for the best! Speaking of both friends giving me comics and WonderCon, Matthew Palacios gave me an ashcan of his book Metal Skin and it was a lot of fun! I've also been playing a bunch of pranks over on my Twitter (2 whole pranks)! So, no, I still haven't seen ALF and I did not expect other people to send me pictures of my cat. Those were goofs. Lastly, yesterday was Transgender Day of Visibility. I posted a couple times about a fundraising effort that was going for Point of Pride and saw they ultimately ended up making twice their initial goal, $2 Million, to help out thousands of trans folks with gender-affirming care. There are also a ton of cool people who were sharing themselves yesterday in a time when that's a very scary thing to do. 

New Releases this week (3/29/2023): Nothing from me, sorry! 

New Releases next week (4/5/2023):  Sonic the Hedgehog #1 5th Anniversary Edition (Editor--A new version of the first IDW Sonic comic, with a bunch of bonus content including a new comic short!)

Final Order Cutoff - Let your shops know to order these books by Monday (4/3/2023):  Sonic the Hedgehog #60 (Editor) Godzilla Rivals: Biollante vs. Destoroyah (Editor)

Announcements:

At the moment, I don't have any new appearances until San Diego Comic-Con! But, that's subject to change! And I may have other announcements coming to this space soon, so keep an eye out! 

Oh, just because, uhh... I know we're all convinced Twitter's just going to collapse any day now. I've tried various other social medias and a lot of them don't really work for me. The best ways to keep up are obviously my website, my Tumblr, my newsletter, or my Instagram. I am still on a few other things, but don't really use them. If you're on Tumblr or Insta, please do follow me there so I can follow you back and make sure we're staying in touch! 

I will plug in my usual Becca corner, their website's up and should all be working. There was a bug with shipping, but that should be fixed! Maybe buy yourself or someone in your life something nice! And I believe they're still on for streaming tonight at 7 PST on Twitch, assuming voices are still holding up as we get over the last of this con crud! 

Pic of the Week: Major shoutout to KEM Cosplay! We met at WaifuExpo at the beginning of last month (you can see a picture of her in a previous blog as Dr. Eggman) and ran into each other again at WonderCon over the weekend where she was wearing her BIG THE CAT COSPLAY! 

[ulkaralakbarova]

When Queen Elizabeth’s reign is threatened by ruthless familial betrayal and Spain’s invading army, she and her shrewd adviser must act to safeguard the lives of her people. Credits: TheMovieDb. Film Cast: Elizabeth I, Queen of England: Cate Blanchett Sir Walter Raleigh: Clive Owen Sir Francis Walsingham: Geoffrey Rush Sir Christopher Hatton: Laurence Fox Amyas Paulet: Tom Hollander Elizabeth Throckmorton: Abbie Cornish Robert Reston: Rhys Ifans King Philip II of Spain: Jordi Mollà Mary, Queen of Scots: Samantha Morton Anthony Babington: Eddie Redmayne Calley: Adrian Scarborough William Walsingham: Adam Godley Archduke Charles: Christian Brassington Count Georg von Helfenstein: Robert Cambrinus Dr. John Dee: David Threlfall Spanish Minister: Vidal Sancho Ursula Walsingham: Kelly Hunter Lord Howard: John Shrapnel Torturer: Sam Spruell Cellarman: David Sterne Admiral Sir William Winter: David Robb Courtier: Jonathan Bailey Walsingham’s Servant: Steve Lately Woman with Baby: Kate Fleetwood Infanta Isabel of Spain: Aimee King Annette: Susan Lynch Mary Walsingham: Kristin Coulter Smith Queen Elizabeth’s Waiting Lady #1: Hayley Burroughs Queen Elizabeth’s Waiting Lady #2: Kirsty McKay Queen Elizabeth’s Waiting Lady #3: Lucia Ruck Keene Queen Elizabeth’s Waiting Lady #4: Lucienne Venisse-Back Laundry Woman: Elise McCave Margaret: Penelope McGhie First Court Lady: Coral Beed Second Court Lady: Rosalind Halstead Manteo: Steven Loton Wanchese: Martin Baron Walsingham’s Agent: David Armand Sir Francis Throckmorton: Steven Robertson Ramsey: Jeremy Barker Burton: George Innes Mary Walsingham: Kirstin Smith Old Throckmorton: Tim Preece Dance Master: Benjamin May Royal Servant: Glenn Doherty Dean of Peterborough: Chris Brailsford Executioner: Dave Legeno Spanish Archbishop: Antony Carrick Marriage Priest: John Atterbury First Spanish Officer: Alex Giannini Second Spanish Officer: Joe Ferrara Courtier: Alexander Barnes Courtier: Charles Bruce Courtier: Jeremy Cracknell Courtier: Benedict Green Courtier: Adam Smith Courtier: Simon Stratton Courtier: Crispin Swayne Mary Stuart’s Lady in Waiting: Kitty Fox Mary Stuart’s Lady in Waiting: Kate Lindesay Mary Stuart’s Lady in Waiting: Katherine Templar Courtier (uncredited): Morne Botes Young Boy (uncredited): Finn Morrell Tyger Salior (uncredited): Shane Nolan Film Crew: Screenplay: William Nicholson Director of Photography: Remi Adefarasin Editor: Jill Bilcock Original Music Composer: A.R. Rahman Original Music Composer: Craig Armstrong Set Decoration: Richard Roberts Stunts: Peter Pedrero Stunt Coordinator: Greg Powell Casting: Fiona Weir Stunts: Rob Inch Stunts: Andy Smart Additional Camera: David Worley Costume Design: Alexandra Byrne Supervising Sound Editor: Mark Auguste Production Design: Guy Hendrix Dyas Supervising Art Director: Frank Walsh Director: Shekhar Kapur Screenplay: Michael Hirst Editor: Andrew Haddock Art Direction: David Allday Set Costumer: Martin Chitty Sound Re-Recording Mixer: Steve Single Scenic Artist: Rohan Harris Stunts: Ray Nicholas Art Direction: Andy Thomson Art Direction: Jason Knox-Johnston Production Manager: Mark Mostyn Stunts: George Cottle Stunts: David Anders Stunts: Peter Miles Visual Effects Supervisor: John Lockwood Stunts: John Kearney Stunts: Paul Kennington Stunts: Nick Chopping Costume Supervisor: Suzi Turnbull Hairstylist: Morag Ross Art Direction: Phil Sims Music Editor: Tony Lewis ADR Recordist: Robert Edwards Stunt Double: Abbi Collins Script Supervisor: Angela Wharton ADR Editor: Tim Hands Art Direction: Christian Huband Visual Effects Supervisor: Richard Stammers Stunts: Rowley Irlam Assistant Art Director: Helen Xenopoulos Foley Artist: Mario Vaccaro Visual Effects Supervisor: Steve Street Property Master: David Balfour Greensman: Ian Whiteford Foley Editor: Andrew Neil Stunts: Gordon Seed Sound Re-Recording Mixer: Tim Cavagin Dialogue Editor: Sam Auguste Scenic Artist: James Gemmill Unit Publicist: Stacy Mann Camera Operator: Ben Wilson Visual Effects Editor: Aled Robinson Stunts: Paul Herbert Hairstylist: Do...

[thewanderingbardplays]

Initium

My name is Sir John Brailsford, an English knight of the realm, serving at the pleasure of King Richard, the Cœur de Lion, of England. Answering King Richard’s call I traveled to the Holy Land in the year of our Lord 1190 to participate in the Third, or King’s, Crusade.  Our goal was righteous – to retake those parts of the Holy Land lost to Saladin in 1187, thanks to the bungling incompetence…

[sanguinesky-if]

I sent an ask about being able to keep the team at a distance, and speculated S is an Angel because Trench Coat™

Please ignore it. Well, not the part about S potentially being an Angel.

I realised I was trying to play this story the same way I first attempted to play another IF I enjoy, where i try to just keep the MC outside the circle as much as possible.

That doesn't make it an enjoyable experience, so I scrapped that MC and made a couple new ones that are actually integrating themselves in different ways and I'm finding I am enjoying this IF a lot more now.

So many things to say and speculate, but aside from S I think I is a Vamprie because their drowsy/sleepiness and headaches are a result of them starving themselves of their needed daily amount of blood.

S is an Angel because Trench Coat™

I chuckled when I read this (in your previous message as well).

Fun fact: thanks to youtube shorts, I'm familiar with the main characters from Supernatural, but I've never actually watched even an episode (though I'm guessing you're referring to Castiel here).

Also, if you tell S that they're an angel, they'll chuckle heartily and say something like, "For you, pet Detective, I can be anyone you want."

I think I is a Vamprie because their drowsy/sleepiness and headaches are a result of them starving themselves of their needed daily amount of blood.

I love seeing how different readers interpret the ROs, especially someone as questionable as I.

All I can say about I is that kindness is definitely not what drives everything they do.

Thank you for your message!

[luxe-pauvre]

Clearly, those with responsibility for making policy in any large organisation should thoroughly examine evidence of this sort. Personally, though, I hesitate to use the phrase 'evidence-based policy’, preferring instead to talk about ‘evidence-informed policy’. This leads to accusations of hair-splitting on my part, but the case is substantive. First, evidence-based policy implies that, if you look hard enough, the evidence will tell you what to do. It rarely, if ever, does. Partly this because, especially in the social sciences, the evidence is often contested and never complete. Also, while the evidence offers valuable insights, it does not indicate the values upon which decisions need to be based. For example, if you could show, on the basis of evidence, that a given tax cut would harm the poor, you would still have a decision to make: should you protect the poor, or is that imperative overridden in this case by macroeconomic considerations? If so, are you willing to pay the price in the short term? I'm not arguing one way or the other, just pointing out that there is a value judgement to be made. The evidence can and should inform the decision, but even when it is compelling, it won't tell you what to do. Dave Brailsford, when referring to tactical and strategic decisions about bike races, makes the point succinctly: The data informs, it doesn't decide.' Hence my preference for the phrase 'evidence-informed’. And the evidence can and should inform, whether it's a purely personal goal or a major strategic intervention at company or government level.

Michael Barber, Accomplishment: How to Achieve Ambitious and Challenging Things

[hardynwa]

PSG manager under fire over alleged comment against blacks, Muslims

Christophe Galtier is in trouble after his alleged racist and Islamophobic remarks were leaked to the media. Former OGC Nice Director of Football, Julien Fournier, in an email, made serious allegations against the Paris Saint-Germain boss, and the very email was disclosed by journalists Romain Molina and Daniel Riolo on Tuesday. The email was sent by Fournier to INEOS (the company that owns Nice) director Dave Brailsford. The email exposes racist and Islamophobic remarks Galtier made during his time as Nice manager, according to Sportskeeda. Fournier, in the email to Brailsford, explained that the manager expressed his discontent at having many black and Muslim players on the team. “He (Christophe Galtier) told me that I had to take into account the ‘reality of the city’ and that we couldn’t have so many blacks and Muslims in the team,” the email said in part. Galtier had further explained in the email that people in the city of Nice were worried that the team was being taken over by black and Muslim players despite being the city of a former mayor, Jacques Medecin, insisting that the team does not reflect what people want, “just as it does not reflect myself’.” Football fans have since taken to social media to condemn the Frenchman’s racist and Islamophobic comments. Read the full article

[milliondollarbaby87]

P!nk: All I Know So Far (2021) Review

P!nk: All I Know So Far (2021) Review

A behind the scenes look at P!nk as she balances family and life on tour in the build up to her first Wembley Stadium performance in 2019 during her Beautiful Trauma world tour! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (more…)

[pinksource]

Gravity? What’s that?

[lolliepopcrusader]

Finding that 1 percent

A short story about finding marginal gains to make life with CFS just that bit better.

One of the biggest drawbacks to my CFS is that I experience significant joint pain. It's not one of the most well-known symptoms, but a lot of us experience it in some form or another. Yesterday I had to make a big financial decision regarding my health – purchasing a different car that will reduce my joint pain while driving, allowing me some form of independence again. 

On the way home from the dealership with my husband, I had a bit of a cry. The situation has been bittersweet. I loved my manual car, but it was no longer suitable for me and was having a negative impact on my health. The new car is automatic and causes no pain to drive. Finally purchasing a new car helped me to realise what I had been trying to deny to myself, that my health isn’t getting better and it's time to start making big adjustments to how I live my life.  

I expressed this to my husband during my little cry, and he responded by telling me about “finding that 1 percent”. My husband Blitz (obviously fake name) studies engineering at university and one of his lecturers relayed a true story about the British cycling team. 

Since 1908, they were the worst cycling team in the world. And over those years, no improvements were made so they remained the worst in the world. Until in 2003 a new coach was assigned to the British cycling team named Dave Brailsford. This is where the “finding that 1 percent” comes in. 

This new coach implemented a “marginal gains” strategy, or “the 1 percent”. To break it down into simple terms, the coach broke down everything that could be put into cycling and searched for a margin of improvement to make everything just that little bit better. He got everyone in the cycling team their own custom pillows and mattresses so that they got the best night's sleep, he hired a surgeon to teach the team the best way to wash their hands to avoid catching colds, redesigned the team’s bicycle seats along with many other minute changes. 

These small changes made an astounding difference to the British cycling team’s game, and they ended up winning 60 percent of the gold medals at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. All thanks to finding that 1 percent to make things better. 

When my husband told me this story, he said “well, we’ve just found another 1 percent and made it better for you. And we’ll keeping finding those 1 percents until we’ve done everything we can to make your life easier and you happier” 

Over the past months I have been implementing small changes around the household. Things such as a shower stool, a mini dishwasher, a laundry trolley and a kitchen stool. Without realising, I had been chasing these 1 percents by myself to slowly improve my quality of life. The 1 percent strategy is working, and I will continue to search my life for more things that I could improve by 1 percent. 

For instance, I want to get one of those ‘grabbers’, the "claw on a pole" for reaching things. This would make picking things up from the floor when I drop them significantly easier with little to no pain accompanying it. This would definitely be a 1 percent gain in my life. Another 1 percent would be little Roomba type vacuum cleaner, as I use up all my energy in one go on days that I need to vacuum. 

I will be sitting down and writing as many 1 percenters as I can think of into a notebook. This will give me something to work towards to make my life better. Cheers to the 1 percents I have found and to all the ones I will find in the future!