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mashkaromanova · 6 years ago

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Alexandra Feodorovna, 1895

“My darling Ernie,

Please forgive my not having written to you since the 27th, but I have been hard at work making jackets & frocks for poor Children (for my sort of Lady’s Working Guild I have arranged). - I enjoy sewing with the machine and like hemming much better than I used to. - Nicky has again gone out shooting to-day - half way to the station he took me & then I went for a walk - now it is 9 o’clock. He returns between 6 & 7. Luckily the weather is magnificent - warm, & the brightest sunshine. It reminds me of when Ducky wrote about yr going out shooting towards the end of her time, last winter.

It does him no end of good, being out all day & enjoying the sport. Some papers he read through at 7. - I work, & read & have Schneiderlein, & then shall drive with the little Obolenski - she is so nice, & I am glad we took her. The fat Wassiltchikoff (a cousin of Masha’s) is on leave. - The old Countess Tolstoi (A. Marie’s) is coming to me a moment at 2, as I only saw her a second after Church on Sunday. - Baby Irina goes out every day, for two or three hours & sleeps & grows beautifully in consequence. - U. Wladimir being the only one of the family, except Children, here - comes often to luncheon. -

I must say Goodbye now, as I want to write to Elisabeth Wernher, whom I am sending a little brooch for the 8th. - Is Ella coming to you before returning to Russia from Paris? - Kissing you all tenderly, Ever yr very loving Sunny.

[P.S.] How sorry Abby must have been to leave. - I am going to send him a little remembrance. -”

- Alexandra to Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse, 23rd September/5th October 1895

“My darling Ernie dear,

Just a few lines whilst I feel a little better. I had one day a slight chill in the stomach, & after that got such pain, especially with strong Wehen - as it has gone down very low [she was pregnant at the time, the baby was born in November]. This is the third day I am lying in bed or on the sopha [sic], as must keep very quiet. Güntz slept here these last nights, - I have seen the Dr too, & all leads to think it may make its appearance any day, & that would not be too early, according to position & feeling, tho’ we all expected end of October, or 4th of November. All is going well, & one need not be anxious, only I may not get up till those pains have stopped, as they have nothing to do with the whole. - I only write this privately to you, so as that you may know how I am. -

Think only how sad, Nicky’s beloved collie Woron has died from inflammation of the lungs, we miss him fearfully, & I cannot think of him without tears; - he was a real true friend. Little Ara was so fond of him. - To-day I hear is the lawn-tennis tournament, & I hope it will be as nice as last year. - We have got beautiful weather & I grieve having to stop indoors. - I wonder when Ella leaves you again, & if she will bring me a tiny letter from my lazy old brother. -

But more I cannot write, it makes me so hot. Goodbye & God bless you. Think of me, deary, & when that news comes send Wilhelmino with a wreath from me to the Rosenhöhe. Many a tender kiss, Darling Ernie dear, fr. yr tenderly loving old Sunny.

[P.S.] Have you seen A. Sanny at Wiesbaden? - Best love to yr sweet little Wife.”

- 28th September/10th October

#alexandra feodorovna #1895 #1890s #romanov #romanovs

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fleurderussie · 6 years ago

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favourite portraits (3/?) - Countess Anastasia Mikhailovna de Torby (aka Lady Zia Wernher) by Philip Alexius de Laszlo

#favourite portraits #women portraits #art #artists on tumblr #anastasia de torby #philip de lászló

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mjalti · 7 years ago

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it’s so crazy how we have NASA bc of the nazis (i dont mean this in a “some good comes from bad” sense bc i literally would happily trade NASA in for even one innocent human life, i mean it is actually crazy to me that we have NASA as developed as it is today bc of hitler’s obsessions) and how Wernher von Braun was offered a new identity and like totally a new life here in the usa to continue his research into the stars & how a french lady was so obsessed with him that she committed treason to sleep with him but he was in love with a german PE teacher who his mom didnt like, so he married his cousin. literally what is going on, ever

#ana says

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journeythrutime · 3 years ago

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Check it out

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friend-clarity · 5 years ago

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How Apple and the Media destroy civilization

April 15 2020, Latest Apple TV series: A historic counterfactual (something that did not happen). What if, in the summer of 1969, the world watched and listened as a Soviet cosmonaut – Alexei Leonov, perhaps – became the first human to set foot on the moon? ...

The event sets off a flurry of activity on Earth, including Ted Kennedy cancelling a trip to Chappaquiddick to head up a congressional investigation into the U.S. failure to be first. (This in turn avoids the car crash that killed Mary Jo Kopechne and scuttled any future presidential hopes for Kennedy.) The plot thickens in episode 3, titled Nixon’s Women, after the Russians’ second lunar landing includes a woman. NASA scrambles to follow suit, recruiting five female candidates that include an astronaut’s wife (Sarah Jones), a black woman (Krys Marshall) and a closeted lesbian (Jodi Balfour). And from here the show’s history starts to diverge substantially from our own, as ice is discovered at the moon’s south pole, and the U.S. and Soviet Union race to establish the first base there.

In the world of the Left, democrat Ted Kennedy is a hero (*) and women, blacks and lesbians (by leftist ideology, ”victims” of old white men oppressors) are the super-heroes. When young people watch these productions in geat numbers, they become indoctrinated and true believers in leftism.

(*) In 1969, Kennedy left a party with one of the women, 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne. Driving a 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88, Kennedy lost control of his vehicle and crashed in the Poucha Pond inlet on Chappaquiddick Island. Kennedy escaped from the overturned vehicle, He swam to shore and left the scene, with Kopechne still trapped inside the vehicle. Kennedy did not report the accident to authorities until the next morning, by which time Kopechne's body had already been discovered.

Actual history: On December 24, 1968, in the most watched television broadcast at the time, the crew of Apollo 8 read from the Book of Genesis as they orbited the Moon. Astronauts Bill Anders, Jim Lovell, and Frank Borman, the first humans to travel to the Moon, recited verses 1 through 10 of the Genesis creation narrative.

William Anders: We are now approaching lunar sunrise, and for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

James Lovell: And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

Frank Borman: And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

For All Mankind imagines a very different era of lunar exploration. Women astronauts feature heavily in the Apple TV+ series, set in an alternate 1969 in which the Russians made moonfall first. Chris Knight April 15, 2020, National Post.

It’s one of history’s great counterfactuals. What if, in the summer of 1969, the world watched and listened as a Soviet cosmonaut – Alexei Leonov, perhaps – became the first human to set foot on the moon?

It wasn’t a far-fetched idea during the Space Race. The Russians had already beaten their American counterparts to the goal of the first artificial satellite, the first man in space, and even the first soft landing on the moon, by a robot probe called Luna 9.

Had the Russian version of the Saturn V rocket, a bulky, balky beast called the N1, not failed four times in as many launch attempts, today’s nutty conspiracy theorists might be arguing that Russians had never landed on the moon. (As it stands, however, they’d be right.)

But for a fictional look at what might have transpired had the Soviets been the first to cross the cislunar channel, look no further than the Apple TV+ original series For All Mankind. And as it happens you can do so for free for a limited time, at apple.co/FreeForEveryone.

I take this step for my country, for my people, and for the Marxist-Leninist way of life

The first of the series’ 10 episodes sets the stage nicely, with Leonov taking that one small step and declaring, somewhat un-poetically: “I take this step for my country, for my people, and for the Marxist-Leninist way of life.”

The plot thickens in episode 3, titled Nixon’s Women, after the Russians’ second lunar landing includes a woman. NASA scrambles to follow suit, recruiting five female candidates that include an astronaut’s wife (Sarah Jones), a black woman (Krys Marshall) and a closeted lesbian (Jodi Balfour). And from here the show’s history starts to diverge substantially from our own, as ice is discovered at the moon’s south pole, and the U.S. and Soviet Union race to establish the first base there.

For All Mankind (not to be confused with the amazing 1989 documentary about the Apollo missions) is more than just an oddity for space fans, though it’s definitely that. The mix of characters both real (Colm Feore as rocket engineer Wernher von Braun) and fictional – the lady astronauts, each with a full-fledged backstory – make for some excellent drama. And it’s fascinating to watch the civil rights and sexual equality movements accelerate, even as gay rights get stuck like a capsule in low-earth orbit, going nowhere fast.

And without spoiling things, let’s just say that the series ends with a scene set several years into its future – circa 1980 – that made me glad it’s been picked up for a second season since its debut last November. No word on the release date, which may have been delayed by the pandemic.

The free period on Apple TV+ also features several other series, including the horror/thriller Servant, and Dickinson, starring Hailee Steinfeld as the American poet. There’s also The Elephant Queen, a nature doc about a pachyderm matriarch, narrated by Chiwetel Ejiofor. And there are several kids’ series such as Helpsters and Ghostwriter.

The Saturn V generated about 160 million horsepower. Snoopy has to make do with six birds. Apple TV And for younger space fans, Apple TV+ offers Snoopy in Space, a 12-episode series of eight-minute shorts that follows the famous beagle as he joins NASA, trains to be an astronaut, and travels to the International Space Station, the moon and beyond.

I admire his determination, but the record of dogs in space is not a good one; Laika, while a national hero in the Soviet Union, was the first life in space but also the first death there, when she expired after several orbits of the Earth. But on a lighter note, the series recalls the long relationship between the space agency and the late cartoonist Charles Schulz. In 1969 the Apollo 10 lunar lander and command module were named Snoopy and Charlie Brown, respectively.

The series provides fun facts about space travel – What’s an orbit? How far away is the moon? – and an introduction to such hardware as the ISS, Orion space capsule and rovers, helpfully pitched at the younger set. Though the cartoon does feature the occasional error, as when astronauts on the moon’s surface watch the Earth rise – in fact, the Earth never moves in the lunar sky.

But it’s a forgivable lapse, especially when set against a lovely no-after-you moment, when Snoopy and his avian friend Woodstock each want the other to take the first step on the moon. It’s an exhibit of grace that could have benefitted Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin – or indeed the former Soviet Union and NASA, erstwhile adversaries whose spacefarers now routinely share rockets and living quarters on the ISS.

As of this writing, the space station is home to three American-born astronauts and three Russian cosmonauts, all of them born in the USSR. Only one member of the crew is female, although the latest NASA astronaut classes have been a 50/50 split. And to think it only took half a century to get there.

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ladysophy · 4 years ago

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A very rare photo of Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich with his eldest daughter Lady Anastasia “Zia” Wernher. Early to Mid 1920s.

#romanovs #romanov #russia #grand duke michael mikhailovich #countess anastasia de torby #lady anastasia wernher #lady zia wernher

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villainousascent-blog · 8 years ago

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Fallout 4, Perspective, and a Better Way to Play

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. It's 2 years down the line, here's my advice on coming to Fallout 4 from previous titles.

Don't go into Fallout 4 expecting New Vegas, Fallout 3, or either of interplay's Fallout Titles. Go into expecting an engineering game. A plumbing game. An electrician game.

And now to talk about the Pitt DLC for Fallout 3*. I know that's confusing, but just. No. Stop. Don't go. Instead, sit and listen. Here. Let me explain. You see, I had a revelation.

After playing Fallout 4, I went back to Fallout 3, to test my mechanical knowledge of it, by never healing my bleeding, broken body, and never dying. A permadeath run. I wasn't allowed to fast travel, and if I died, that was that and the run ended. Mods, on the other hand were allowed, but they had to be appropriate to the run. I had an improvised weapons mod(because it fit the run, and fallout 3's atmosphere of lonesome, solitary desperation), an alternate repair mod the weapon mod kits mod, a smokable cigarettes mod, backpack mod, basic primary needs mod, killable children mod, a binoculars mod, and the classic fallout weapons mod. I also, by necessity had the CALIBR mod, Rh Ironsights, and CRAFT. The cigarettes mod was changed slightly to get rid of the charisma bonus. That was it.

If you want the rules, here they are. Healing the body with stimpaks, or healing crippled limbs, is forbidden. That doesn't however, mean that the body isn't allowed to heal itself. I'm just not allowed to intervene in that process. Same with radiation and addiction. I can, however, take preventative action. As well if say, the game deems it necessary to heal me in some way or another, who am I to say no. As well, using a mod,

I'll have to manage hunger, thirst, and exhaustion. If I can't manage any of those properly, I'm fucked, and the run ends.

A revelation came to me when I was playing through the Pitt DLC. For those of you that don't know, the bulk of that particular DLC takes place in Pittsburgh, New York, famous for its industry. That industry is steel production and processing, hence, Pittsburgh Steelers. The Pitt takes place primarily in a massive, monolithic foundry in the heart of New York industry. And now for more explanation. Spoilers, from here on out.

You begin by answering a distress call from a man named Wernher. When you finally meet him, his request is fairly straight forward, actually quite nice. Help him save his people. Things are rarely that simple, though. You see, his people are slaves, and in order to get in, you must disguise yourself as one. As a side note, to meet with him, you need to go far to the north, into scorpion and deathclaw territory. In order to fit the part, I met Wernher wearing the wasteland settler outfit, (mostly for the agility bonus, which helps with stealth), Three-Dog's Headwrap(Sorry threedog, but I needed the extra charisma and luck. Plus, I enjoy GNR's other, less well known host.) and a pair of biker goggles. I like to travel extremely light when doing stealth builds, which I was, and if I get shot on a build like that, death is certain. No need for armor. As well, I was equipped with a shoddy pipe rifle. Got to look the part, right? In my inventory, a backpack, a silenced mauser, some mines, a dart gun, a shishkebab, food, water, and a massive amount of drugs and alcohol. For the shishkebab, I wound up murdering a caravan. For the dart gun, Tenpenny Tower had to go. As for the drugs, combat drugs, morphine, rad x, psycho, mentats, etc. are allowed under the rules.

After a brief skirmish with the other denizens of the Pitt, which I, being the coward that I am, stayed out of, Wernher greets me. After a brief scolding, introductions are made, and he tells me about the Pitt. In his own words "I come from a place far to the northwest. It's called the Pitt. It's... Well... Lets's be honest... The place is a nightmare... Radiation, mutation, disease. But the worst of it: My people, some of the only survivors, are slaves." He's got one shot at helping his people, at making a difference, and he needs your help to do it. A pretty convincing plee for help, if I do say so myself. So, I agree to help. After all, with that argument, how can I say no?

First things, first, I need a disguise, and I need to do it without a fight. Money, than. I pay for the slaves, and free them. Aren't I a goody two-shoes? After taking the presumably rank smelling outfit from a man who expired from unknown causes, I went to meet up with Wernher at the tunnel.

The north of the map, is beautiful, and desolate, and gray. The Pitt, on the otherhand, is hot and smoky, overbearingly bright, the entire area dyed a brilliant orange from the flames and molten steel of the foundry. A strikingly beautiful shift in tone and atmosphere. After a brief conversation with Wernher, Lydia learn's what I already knew. She'll be stripped of all gear except a slave outfit, and a single 5 shot snubnosed .32 revolver. One of the worst firearms in the game. So, I begin to make my way across the bridge that serves to both defend the Pitt and prevent escape. It funnels witless morons both ways, and the entire thing is a time bomb, filled wuith land mines chemical waste barrels. At the foot of the bridge, I make a quick change of gear, swapping into the dead man's garb. Have to fit the part, remember?

I, or rather, Lydia makes her way, at a slow, barely perceptible crawl in order to not trigger any of the mines. As a result, she arrives, mostly safe and sound, and intact, if having gained a few more rads. I'm then greeted by Mex, who immediately "recognizes" me as a slave. The disguise worked.

I'm then dragged in, and meet with Midea(Get used to greek figures with slightly misspelled names. That will come up again.) And then the Pitt begins in earnest.

You see, Wernher. Was. Not. Kidding. Mutation and disease run rampant. Both master and slave alike, are affected. The people of the Pitt are covered in horrific and disgusting lesions, sorer, bruises and the like. Life in the Pitt, whether master or slave, is brutal, savage and unforgiving. Death is a guarantee. Both the air and water are vectors for the horrific diseases, mutations, and radiation that are a fact of life in the Pitt. Lydia, Desperate for a weapon, or salvation, went off to a man named Marco. He had a welcoming gift, the Auto Axe. The Auto Axe is a wonderfully, ridiculously powerful melee weapon, based off a masonry saw. No really, it is. It's as violent as chainsaw, without the risk of fleshy goop gunking up the works. She then goes to meet Everett and in the process, steals his cigarettes and pre-war money, and enters the Steel Yard, with one, singular purpose. Survive. From here on out, things are going to be incredibly stressful and difficult.

Something I briefly touched upon earlier was the verticality of the Pitt. The Steel Yard itself is massive, but a lot of this done through height rather than area. A single slip up, or tripping and falling, spells almost certain doom. If the injury doesn't kill you, the mutants and the radiation will. And if that doesn't manage to kill you, you're own body will. With a primary needs mod, the Pitt is even more brutal.

In the Steel Yard itself, there is this sort of massive, central tower that constantly belches radiation and smoke. It's a hell of a view, and tactically significant if you manage to fight your way up there.

Into the Steel Yard, and off to arm myself, and collect the ingots which would buy my salvation. The first 10, relatively easy. That gets you the Laborer's outfit, which grants an additional point of agility, strength, and endurance, each. The next 20, harder, but not impossible. The reward: the filtration helmet. A massively useful, rad resistance helmet. Essentially a gas mask. 10 more, and were up to 30. the reward here, not nearly as useful. At 40, the metal master armor. Eh. 50, the Metal blaster, an immensely powerful scatterlaser. 60, bombshell armor. Meh. 70, Leather rebel armor, charisma bonus. Meh. 80. The Mauler, one of two unique Auto Axes. 10 more and were at the most useful weapon in the Pitt. The Perferator. There, we stop. There are 10 more, and the reward is unique power armor, but I'm not interested right now. Along the way, I pick up an assault rifle, combat shotgun, hunting rifle, unique .32 pistol, and the Gamma Shield armor, all well very carefully dodging trogs. Trogs, for those of you that don't know, are the soft squishy, and incredibly lethal and dangerously strong mutants of the Pitt. Humans, affected by the disease and radiation, driven mad and turned into mindless beasts that crawl on all fours. Welcome to the Pitt, Slave. With a bit of damage, but not much, because of Med-X(morphine), I make way, after more than few questionable victories in the Steel Yard, to Midea again. Now, she says, it's time to fight in the hole, and earn both my freedom, and a chance to meet with leader of this horrific cesspool of disease, agony, torture, and slavery. A chance to meet with Ashur. A chance to steal the cure. The cure being the entire reason I'm here. How can I say no? A small note on Everett, by the way. He's my favorite character in the entire franchise, and he's funny and well written to boot. Kudos to Bethesda, by the way, for making one of, in my opinion, the most memorable characters in the series. Not a lot to say, but quite possibly the best written slave master I've seen. He's totally corrupt, and genuinely warm, which makes for a wonderful and eclectic, eccentric personality.

So, I volunteer to fight. A chance to earn a shot for my radiation is immensely valuable, at this point, due to advanced radiation poisoning, soon to be a level worse. You see, the Hole, is a radioactive pit, in which slaves fight for their freedom. The fighting is a brutally fast and completely savage affair, which ends in a matter of seconds, not minutes. It's a no holds barred death match. In the first fight, you're pitted against three other hopefuls. Speak to Faydra, the arena master, and enter. I chose to enter drugged up(Psycho, Buffout, MedX, Mentats, Cigarettes, Alcohol etc) beyond belief in the Laborer's Gear with it's damage resistance of 4 and Filtration mask, armed with the Perferator, the unique assault rifle that's been sawed down and given a scope and suppressor, from Everett, and the man opener, the utterly insane and unique Auto Axe from the massive warehouse in the Steel Yard. The first fight is lightning fast. All three hopefuls gunned down in a matter of seconds from a shrouded position in a corner near the entrance. I exited, and was gifted with most useful thing in the entire run. A radiation scrub. You have no idea how incredibly useful that is in a challenge run like this. Immediately back into the hole, switching to the Metal Blaster. Not my strong suit, but each projectile does a decent amount of damage, and there are 9 projectiles in total. Next up, the Bear Brothers. Dead in seconds. Lightning fast, but not fast enough, and utterly brutal. Last up, Gruber. Quick 5 shots. Dead. Took damage. Freedom. My reward? My equipment returned, and my freedom. After these fights I no longer have the luxury of getting into combat here. Need my health for other more pressing engagements, particularly when fighting tribals. I'm better equipped than I went in, but in worse condition. Survival is my priority. Time To meet with Ashur.

And here's where we start to get into Fallout 4.

So, into Ashur's home, to meet with him and his wife. Ashur is an ex-Brotherhood paladin, from when the Brotherhood of Steel came to the Pitt to solve it's issues, and salvage its technologies. Still in the Laborer's Outfit, but now with a headwrap and biker goggles, an odd combination to be sure. Led up to his home, Lydia proceeds to enter. After the brutality and the violence she's just been through, this is a nice change of pace. Walking up, we overhear a conversation between one of the masters of the Pitt, and THE Master of the Pitt. During this conversation, it's revealed that he doesn't like to call them slaves. He prefers workers. It gives the slaves hope. He wants to cure radiation. An interesting proposition, but how would one do that? The answer? His own child, who has a natural and transferable immunity. I sided with Ashur, because he wasn't willing to risk the health of his daughter in order to create a cure, and I wanted to survive. I also nicked his cigarettes.

Now, how and why would the Pitt give a different perspective on how to play and view Fallout 4. Well, let's let Ashur tell us. In his own words:

Lydia: "What do you mean about the city's future?"

Ashur: "Now that Marie's back, we have a chance at curing the disease that's been ravaging The Pitt since the bombs. Without it killing our kids, we can grow like a real city. No more bringing in slaves. No more forced labor. Things can get better. It's taken me a lot of work rebuild this city. With your help, it's finally going to have a chance."

Lydia: "So, what do I do now?"

Ashur: "That's up to you. We'll keep working on the cure and keep the city running. You're free to come and go as you like. Of course you can help out at the mill by collecting metal from the Steelyard. It'd help lighten the load on the workers. And if you want to work on Sandra's good side, you can always bring her toys for Marie. It's a little thing, but it would make a difference."

Lydia: "Do you ever miss the Brotherhood of Steel?"

Ashur: "Not in the slightest. During the scourge, we looted the Pitt and left the rest of it to rot. I was just a dumb convert who got stuck here afterwards. See, beneath it all, the Brotherhood's just lazy. It's easier to loot a dying city than work to bring it back to life, so that's what they did. They're so obsessed with the technology of the past, they don't care what needs to be done for today and tomorrow. It takes real, hard work to rebuild and run a city. But there isn't a machine to do it for them, so the Brotherhood ain't interested. Good riddance."

That last answer. Fallout 4 is Fallout from Ashur's perspective. It is a love letter to all those who help to keep society running. Engineers and plumbers. Electricians and architects. Doctors and mechanics. Chefs and farmers. Soldiers and search parties. If you go into Fallout 4, expecting it to play from the Brotherhood's perspective, expecting to loot and move on, you're going to have a bad time. However, if you go into it from Ashur's perspective, willing to put in the hard work, the time and effort to revive a dying civilization, you'll have an incredible, and rewarding experience, bursting with jaw droppingly beautiful vistas and incredible works of art.

This has been Villainous, signing off.

* Note that damage isn't perfectly talked about, because I'm actually not sure what my weapon skills were because somewhere in there, there's a level up missing, and the saves between the beginning of the steelyard and the end of the hole have been lost.

#fallout 4 #Fallout 3 #fallout #The Pitt #gaming

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