#last sentinel (2023)

[gebo4482]

Last Sentinel | Official Trailer (HD) | Vertical

Dir: Tanel Toom Star: Kate Bosworth / Thomas Kretschmann / Martin McCann

[bubskino]

Last Sentinel

Suurin osa maapallosta on veden peitossa. Kaks maanosaa enää jäljellä, ja nekin sotii keskenään. Omaa tonttia vartioidaan norsunluutornista keskellä ei mitään. Vahdinvaihto on 3kk myöhässä ja miehistö alkaa olla vittuuntunut. Radioyhteydet ei skulaa. Onko kaikki jo saatana kualleet. Omat alkaa syleksiä omiin muroihin.

Lähitulevaisuuteen sijoittuvaa matalan budun post-apokalyptista meininkiä. Kate Bosworthilla on valkonen toppi, muut tapahtumat ei säväytä.

2/5

[g4zdtechtv]

Cinematech's Trailer Park - Last Sentinel (Multiplatform)

In the way too distant future...

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Judd Legum at Popular Information:

In May 2023, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) signed Florida House Bill 1069, a law that requires sex education classes in the state to conform to right-wing ideology. Specifically, the law requires all sex education classes to teach students that sex is binary, "either male or female," even though that is inaccurate. It also mandates that students are instructed that sex is defined exclusively by "internal and external genitalia present at birth," and these sex roles are "binary, stable, and unchangeable." This requirement erases the existence of trans and nonbinary people. Schools also must "teach abstinence from sexual activity outside of marriage as the expected standard for all school-age students" and "the benefits of monogamous heterosexual marriage."

To enforce these new rules and other aspects of the DeSantis administration's political agenda, HB 1069 also requires "all materials used to teach reproductive health" to be approved in advance by the Florida Department of Education (FDE) or use textbooks pre-approved by the state. Previously, sex education curricula were approved by district school boards. Florida parents can opt-out of sex education lessons on behalf of their children. 

The FDE instructed school districts to submit their materials for sex education by September 30, 2023. The school districts met the deadline, but the FDE never responded. Florida counties were placed in a no-win situation as not teaching sex education, a mandatory course, at all is a violation of state law.  Several Florida school districts — including Hillsborough, Orange and Polk Counties, three of Florida's largest — decided not to teach sex education at all during the 2023-24 school year, the Orlando Sentinel reported. Other counties, including Broward and Seminole Counties, taught sex education classes without getting the legally required approval. 

The FDE has ignored requests for comment and public records requests seeking an explanation for the delay.  Now, a new school year is underway in Florida, and the FDE still has not approved any of the submitted sex education materials — or provided any response at all. Orange County hoped to make up for last school year's missed lessons when school started this August, "but now those plans are on hold."  Schools are reluctant to use the state's pre-approved texts because they are glaringly incomplete. For example, one textbook "preaches abstinence as the only effective way to prevent STDs and pregnancy and does not mention contraception." To avoid issues, the textbook advises students to "go on group dates rather than spend one-on-one time with a partner."

Popular Information takes a deep dive into why Florida students at several school districts aren’t being taught sex ed at all, even though it is a a mandatory course.

[elluia]

Choose Your Legends 8 ended with lots of surprises, and it's time to celebrate!

I've seen concerning amounts of salt and bashing on the games involved or not, so this will be a positive post! I'm tired of the fandom's dumb takes and toxicity so let's praise everyone for the amazing scores and stories that unfolded during this vote!

First let's start with the link to all the official CYL art since Year 1 of FEH, enjoy the trip down memory lane!

https://fire-emblem-heroes.com/fr/sp/illustrations/

(I nabbed that chibi Soren right away, bless Kita Senri)

CYL 8 Male winners:

🥇1: Alfonse | A beautifully deserved win for our well-written OC lord who keeps the story of Heroes entertaining with his crazy one-liners and unhinged plans, with more tender moments with his family and friends to soften him. I hope we get to see him grown-up like Legendary Veronica.

🥈2: Felix | I love seeing non-lord characters emerge from the voting. His voters have shown their supports 4 years in a row and it paid off! Especially nice win because Felix has been shafted by IS with a silly seasonal and an ok god-sword pre-TS unit.

CYL 8 Female winners:

🥇1: Bernadetta | Just like Felix, her voters lost to circumstances (aka the surprise Gullveig sweep), so I'm glad for them! Plus her post-TS personality should force the writers to tone down the moe nervous trait that flanderizes her character.

🥈2: Female Robin | She's finally free to be in the common summoning pool as herself, not Grima! She has too few alts to her name, and she marks the first time both genders of an avatar have won CYL, so good job!

About the Engage non-sweep, don't get disheartened! The votes for Engage were equal to Three Houses, but they were split between A LOT of fan favourites for both genders, while the FE3H fans rallied one last time for 1 male and 1 female representation, without competition from their lords. It's a respectable result, and the bashing on Engage is disingenuous and undeserved.

I've seen the top 5 from each game and I'm happy to see Finn up there for Thracia and Mae for Echoes. I hope to see Linoan soon, and other alts for Berkut and Rinea. People rallied for Athos to get in the game already, for Lloyd to have new art, for Seth and Titania to get the stats they deserve...

Fan favourites like Lyon or the Black Knight still score high. Azura received love. Even Elincia who's already been very lucky in 2023 got in the top for PoR and RD! I love to see people rally for a Sentinel Nephenee too.

We continue to see Leo and Takumi side by side, chilling in the male top 20 like BFFs. It's adorable.

This CYL8 follows in the steps of CYL7 with no main lords, only favourites and avatars.

Next year I hope to see Jugdral and Elyos win, but for now I'm happy with the 4 we have 🥰

[mariacallous]

MADISON, Wis. — A bombshell report this morning from Dan Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel revealed that Banco Azteca, a bank reportedly tied to the Mexican cartel flew $26 million of cash across the U.S.-Mexico Border to Eric Hovde’s bank in California.

As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel detailed, Banco Azteca was cut off by several other U.S. banks over “risk and compliance concerns” after reporting linked it to cartel activity. An executive of the bank was recently implicated in a federal indictment detailing his attempts to bribe a member of the U.S. Congress to get U.S. banks to once again do business with the bank. Despite this, Eric Hovde’s bank flew $26 million of cash from Mexico City to Irvine, California as part of a deal with Banco Azteca last December.

This shocking revelation comes as Hovde has refused to disclose which foreign banks and governments his bank has done millions of dollars of business with. What else is Hovde hiding?

Read more below:

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bice: Democrats question Eric Hovde over his bank’s $26M deal with a troubled Mexican bank

By: Dan Bice

Banco Azteca, the 10th largest financial institution in Mexico, has had its share of problems in recent years.

Accused in past news stories of having links to the Mexican drug cartel.

Dropped as a financial partner by some U.S. banks because of “risk and compliance concerns.” 

And now caught up in a Texas bribery scheme with an American congressman.

But Sunwest Bank, the Utah-based financial institution run by Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde, doesn’t mind doing business with it.

In December, Banco Azteca sent $26.2 million in cash to Sunwest on four airplane flights as part of a massive currency conversion called “repatriation,” records show. Hovde, who is running against Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, is chairman and CEO of Sunwest.

Now Democrats are questioning the deal, saying it gives voters a window into how Hovde runs his businesses by putting personal financial stakes above other issues.

Arik Wolk, spokesman of the Democratic Party, said Sunwest’s transactions with Banco Azteca are “extraordinarily concerning,” especially given the alleged past ties between Azteca and the drug cartel. He added, however, that Democrats were not suggesting Hovde or Sunwest had done anything illegal.

“Hovde is willing to do anything to enrich himself, even flying cash across the border for a bank suspected of working for criminal groups that are pouring deadly fentanyl into our state,” Wolk claimed.

As recently as 2021, Banco Azteca had no correspondent banks in the U.S. with which it could transfer U.S. currency.

Over the past decade, several news accounts, including two by Reuters, have drawn links between Banco Azteca and Mexican gangs, which are the leading suppliers of cocaine, heroin, fentanyl and other illicit narcotics to the U.S.

In 2023, a Reuters reporter wrote that drug cartels are using remittances – money transfers favored by migrant workers – to send illicit earnings back to Mexico. 

The Reuters reporter said he witnessed five individuals on motorcycles collecting cash from people leaving branch offices of three banks, including Banco Azteca. Locals said these were couriers for the Sinaloa Cartel picking up drug money sent as remittances.

In a 2014 story, Reuters quoted a prominent anti-kidnapping activist saying Mexican gangs involved in kidnapping migrants ask for the money to be sent to Banco Azteca. Also, the Yale Journal of International Affairs reported that Banco Azteca was one of four banks that the Mexican cartel was using to process extortion payments.

A little more than a decade ago, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency investigated Banco Azteca’s ties with its then-correspondent bank in the U.S., Lone Star National Bank of Pharr, and turned up money-laundering concerns. Repeatedly cited and fined, Lone Star soon ended its relationship with Banco Azteca.

Other financial institutions, including Fifth Third Cincinnati and CBW Bank, soon followed.

According to a May story in the Wall Street Journal, Banco Azteca has struggled doing business with U.S. banks since regulators began enforcing rules cracking down on money laundering from drug trafficking, kidnapping and extortion. Many U.S. banks have cut ties with Banco Azteca because of “risk and compliance concerns.”

For years, that left Banco Azteca holding onto large sums of U.S. currency with no place to offload it.

[wipbigbang]

Round 4 of art claims are up! This round will last until August 14th, and after that, anything not claimed will be passed off to pinch hitters (basically, if you were considering a piece of fic to make art for and it's still there, claim it now).

Fandoms involved with fics still available:

Babylon 5

Boku no Hero Academia

Boku No Hero Academia/Parahumans/Illuminatus!

Bungou Stray Dogs

Cherry Magic 30 ยังซิง | Cherry Magic (Thailand TV 2023)

Critical Role

Daiya no Ace

Final Fantasy

Good Omens (All Media Types)

Gundam Wing

Haikyuu!!

Harry Potter

Heaven Official's Blessing

Hockey RPF

Lupin III

Mystic Messenger

Naruto

Naruto/Harry Potter

Our Flag Means Death

Persona 5

seaQuest DSV

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)

Star Wars (Sequel Trilogy)

Stranger Things

Strike Back (2011-2015)/The Sentinel fusion

Supernatural RPF

The Eclipse

The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System (Mòxiāng Tóngxiù)

The Witcher: Blood Origin

The X-Men

Top Gun: Maverick

Torchwood/Buffy the Vampire Slayer

แค่เพื่อนครับเพื่อน | Bad Buddy: the Series (TV)

呪術廻戦 | Jujutsu Kaisen (Manga)/呪術廻戦 | Jujutsu Kaisen (Anime)

[acecroft]

LAST SENTINEL (2023) dir. Tanel Toom

[gribok-art]

🌿 Welcome

A pinned post that I'll try to edit with time to keep track of ongoing projects/drawings, fandoms, as well comic parts (and if they're on hiatus etc.)

So, welcome. I draw mostly fanarts, comics, mostly focused on ships or on a story with sprinkles of a ship here and there. Can be wholesome or angst so be ready. Sometimes I post WIPs. I really want in the future to do original stuff too.

I also want to learn to make a video game, so I'm practicing on a short story I wrote and you could see sometimes here and there progress on that.

▸ My Portfolio

Comics

Newest to oldest. Ship included, otherwise it's not ship focused/no ship involved

[ Moomin ] - The gramophone ▸Moomin's parents, then Snufmin ▸Part 1 | ▸4 pages ▸Ongoing

[ Danganronpa ] - School trip ▸Togafuka as kids ▸Part 1 | Part 2 | ▸6 pages ▸Paused

[ Danganronpa ] - Reverse AU ▸Togafuka but no "ship" moments. A reverse AU where Byakuya is obsessed with Toko. It's represented like in the game. ▸Initial idea | Free time events | A peculiar thing | Genocide Jack | First touch | Attention : Byakuya’s Fantasy ▸19 pages

[ Danganronpa ] - Last moments ▸Togafuka ▸7 pages ▸Completed

[ Danganronpa ] - Room makeover ▸Togafuka ▸4 pages ▸Completed

[ Danganronpa ] - A hands-on bet ▸Togafuka ▸Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 ▸18 pages ▸Completed

[ Danganronpa ] - Togafuka week 2023 ▸Although togafuka focused, a big part is friendship, other characters involved, and it's a story of their character development as a duo. It's up to interpretation if you want it to end as a ship or not. ▸Prologue | Fantasy | Gift | Falling | Desire | Silence | Comfort | Pining | Kiss | Travel | Balance | Confession | Together ▸228 pages ▸Completed

[ Danganronpa ] - My adorable bully ▸Not a ship, Toko's childhood ▸Part 1 ▸5 pages ▸Don't know if will continue

[ Danganronpa ] - The reunion ▸Not a ship, Byakuya and Aloysius  ▸3 pages ▸Completed

[ Danganronpa ] - Holding hands ▸Togafuka ▸1 page ▸Completed

[ Danganronpa ] - His first kiss ▸Togafuka ▸1 page ▸Completed

[ Danganronpa ] - On the ship ▸Story focused, DR2 cast, multiple ships appear ▸Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | ▸36 pages ▸Old, don't know if will continue

[ Danganronpa ] - A cup of tea ▸Togafuka ▸3 pages ▸Completed

[ Danganronpa ] - Good night ▸Komahina ▸1 page ▸Completed

[ Danganronpa ] - At the beach ▸Komahina ▸Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 ▸19 pages ▸Completed

[ Danganronpa ] - Orange Juice ▸Komahina ▸1 page ▸Completed

[ Dreamtalia × Coraline ] - I only want what’s best for you ▸Not ship focused ▸1 page ▸Completed

[ Hetalia ] - Italy's confession ▸Gerita ▸1 page ▸Completed

Again, newest first, oldest last.

Fandoms

Currently :

Moomin

Danganronpa

Not obsessions / Not as involved at the moment / Past :

Avatar the last Airbender

AI : The somnium Files

Loki

Good Omens

Pikmin

13 Sentinels : Aegis Rim

BOTW

Undertale, Deltarune

Steven Universe

Hetalia

(I cited relevant ones you can still find drawings of)

[usafphantom2]

Pentagon confirms start of serial production of the B-21 Raider stealth bomber

The U.S. Air Force recently confirmed that the secret plane continued flight tests at Edwards Air Base.

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 01/22/2024 - 21:59in Military

After the first flight of the newest stealth bomber of the U.S. Air Force, the Pentagon formally approved the B-21 Raider program to start production, the main Pentagon acquisition officer confirmed today.

"The production of the B-21 'Raider' stealth bomber is advancing. Last fall, based on the results of the ground and flight tests and the team's mature plans for manufacturing, I gave the green light to start producing B-21 at a low rate," the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Support, William LaPlante said in a statement.

"One of the main attributes of this program has been the conception for production from the beginning - and in scale - to provide a credible impediment to opponents. If you don't produce and put in the field for fighters on a large scale, the capacity doesn't really matter," he added.

First flight of the B-21 Raider.

More details about the value of the contract signature and the delivery dates were not disclosed. The news of the beginning of the bomber's production was first reported by Bloomberg.

Set to replace the B-2 Spirit and the B-1 Lancer, the nuclear-capable Raider is designed for long-range missions with stealth resources that can help you escape enemy air defenses. The U.S. Air Force initially plans to buy at least 100 bombers and put them into service in the mid-2020s.

The Pentagon linked the concession of the program's initial low-rate production contract to the aircraft's first flight, which took place in November and was followed by at least one other test flight at Edwards Air Base. However, the executives of the aircraft manufacturer, Northrop Grumman, have long warned that the first batches of production may not be profitable for the company due to inflationary impacts.

The defense contractor is expected to disclose its year-end profits for 2023 on January 25, where investors will probably also be aware of updates on the LGM-35A Sentinel ICBM, the company's other nuclear modernization program that authorities released last week that suffered a "critical cost violation".

Source: Breaking Defense

Tags: Military AviationB-21 RaiderNorthrop GrummanUSAF - United States Air Force / U.S. Air Force

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Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

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

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[gebo4482]

LAST SENTINEL Official Announce Trailer

Website

[outpost51]

The 51 Post

so. bad week, if the prolonged absence wasn’t enough of a clue. but! i did write a... moderate amount. listen, i've been coping with sims.

Contents:

Things You Might Have Missed

This Week's Jams

WIP Breakdowns

From the Skwad

Around the 'Blr

Things You Might Have Missed

get on my taglists for WIP updates, 51 post, tag games, and ask events!

BRHP: Chapter 17 posted; K A DM O S.

Unlikely Adventures, Ch 2 posted; it’s literally in the blurb but it hurt me to write too

BRHP: Chapter 16 posted; baby's first fight pit, and a family secret is revealed.

Murky Water: the 7th entry into the Lighthouse in the Fog shorts; our new Keeper finds her answers.

This Week's Jams

aliens (porcelain remix) || xylø, porcelain [spotify/youtube]

avoidant attachment || libby larkin [spotify/youtube]

fire fire || flyleaf [spotify/youtube]

no care || daughter [spotify/youtube]

let the flames begin || paramore [spotify/youtube]

devil’s teeth || muddy magnolias [spotify/youtube]

WIP Breakdowns

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

hngggg i am. behind. it’s all outlined but my god i was too tired to write much

Unlikely Adventures of Bitchface and Go F*ck Yourself

[affectionately strangles zadimus]

Blinding Neon, Shades of Grey

[vibrates] hhhhhh i love the orville scene, i forgot how much i love the orville scene, yes i will post the orville scene this week if yall bully me (pls)

Stellar Parallax

elmorise.gif

Lighthouse in the Fog

8th short will be coming out some time tonight or tomorrow, it’s been an uphill battle to write today, anyway things have Developed in a Direction i was not Expecting

In the Works

i have noodled some of those random shuffle prompts. some of you are getting whacked with the emotions stick

From the Skwad

SSSC 006 wrapped up! see the entries here.

@thetrashbagswasteland posted a little too good to be true, a follow up to a little too much like me as their submission for MEBB 2023 and it is rife with snark

speaking of MEBB, @sparatus also published his triumphant return to His Original Bullshit: serpents in the garden and i am living. he also wrote skewed results for FFF208 bc we all need more teia

@uraniumwriting also wrote a submission for FFF208 in which caspian is forced to be a reporter for a day

we have FIVE updates from @teamdilf this week: a sweet piece in which adrien is offered some kittens, ch 20 of in-laws and the grandparents, this drabble that actually ripped my soul out through my eyes, ch 16 of man of many talents, and the first chapter of father, daughter, rocket launchers, and a side of wrex

@bambino1294 dropped the second chapter of upright tower and it was well worth the wait

@equusgirl has given us two more treats for sapphic summer: heaven or hell and if the bird likes it's cage so very much, why is the cage so tightly shut

@commander-krios wrote this squee-worthy despina/theron piece and also this stolen moment between jeff and john

@writernopal wrote a character study with mariel and sartor that i’m still thinking about actually, it’s wild to see how much the characters have developed between the first and third books

@asher-orion-writes posted another installment of fairweather YAY hhhhhh i fucked up and peeked at the last few lines before i read it and now i’m trying to wrap up so i can go eat it

Around the ‘Blr

@tabswrites blessed us with both the second chapter of ascension and chapter 4 of silver sentinels!!!

@vacantgodling’s art comms are open which i will be taking a look at given it does not fall through the holes in my swiss cheese brain, he dropped toph art that i’m OBSESSED with AND a lukewarm rejection sneep bc toph’s bday was the 7th. tell him happy birthday 4 me

bit over a week but i missed it last week — @autumnalwalker announced that the archivist’s journal is COMPLETE, so if you were ever looking for a reason to binge it, now’s the time (the anniversary is july 16th!). find it here @thearchivistsjournal

@captain-kraken dropped a sonhara lore masterpost oh my GOD

screaming crying frothing at the mouth over @liv-is’s fae headshots WOW

@void-botanist gave us the LORE on the revalo tailory & hotel and i will chew off my arm if tumblr doesn’t start giving me gd notifs about this

@artdecosupernova-writing dropped SO MANY shorts this week, so here’s the tag, go nuts; also a post on the planet holeph that i am eating with a spoon

we now have such amazing faces to put with the cast of @elshells’s agent ace (courtesy of @illjustpretend)

︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

Outpost Updates Taglist: @tabswrites @writernopal @freedominique @asher-orion-writes @liv-is @starknstarwars @captain-kraken

Ask to +/- in the tags, replies, DMs, or HERE!

[juststeveandtonythings]

Okay, back to Invincible Iron Man now that I'm fresh off of Hellfire Gala! And good thing I read it, too, because hoo boy it was hella referenced. We start with Tony trying to figure out what to do about Rhodey (who was arrested in the last IM issue) and dealing with the fact that Feilong technically owns the Iron Man tech now. He's about ready to put away the armor when he hears about an incident in DC (see my last post about the Hellfire Gala), which he's about to respond to... when he gets a distress call from Steve instead, and immediately cancels his DC plans. Heh. Steve is fine though, so they do stuff in DC (offscreen; maybe it's in the FCBD issue they were referencing...) and eventually Tony comes back to NYC and sees Stark Sentinels harassing Emma Frost, who's been having a no-good, very bad night. (Per the Hellfire Gala issue, she was one of those who was able to escape, and apparently between the end of that issue and this one, she came to NYC with Wilson Fisk to do... something.)

(Side note: he seems to also mention that Carol asked him to be an Avenger, which is in part why he responded to the DC incident, but I'm not clear if he actively considers himself to be one right now. I think this may reference Avengers Vol 9 #1 or #2, which, based on release dates, appear to have come out right before this IIM issue.)

Tony and Emma try to help each other, but they kind of both get their butts kicked as Feilong gloats in their general direction. Tony gets Emma to leave; she says she's going to try and find the other X-Men. But then he gets hurt very badly, and she senses it.

Instead of continuing her escape, Emma stays. She enters his mind and takes over the Iron Man suit for him so that she can fly him away from immediate danger and also calls him "darling". Aw.

As a result, Emma is cornered too, and she gets an inhibitor collar slapped on her for her troubles. In a very tsundere move, she denies that she was helping Tony out of the goodness of her heart. Meanwhile, Feilong is pleased that he now has them both at his mercy.

...Just kidding! Tony summons one of the armors and flies her out, leaving him alone with Feilong, who he taunts: "Kill an Avenger in the street! You'd be dead by dawn."

- Invincible Iron Man Vol 5 #8 (2023)

[liminal-zone]

why did they keep her alive

fic link: dissolved girl

fandom: the matrix | ship: trinity/neo

rated: M | tagged: body horror, cyborgs, bittersweet

summary: What if Trinity came back wrong? A post-Matrix Resurrections fic about what happens if the body was rebuilt again, and again, and again, and in the remaking, became something new.

Written as a Yuletide 2023 treat for Thene

excerpt:

*

Neo helps her learn this new body of hers. Trying exercise after exercise, incremental ways of understanding the flesh married to metal.

His body is strange too, of course, having been rebuilt in the same tank. But he can eat the same, and he can sleep the same, and he can fuck the same.

They try fucking, of course they do, but she’s different and unsure of herself. Doesn’t want to break the remaining living flesh, and doesn’t want to break him.

“I’m barely human,” she says.

“You’re Trinity,” is his response. His eyes so wide and trusting. “That’s all that matters.”

*

Sex in the Matrix, of course, is spectacular. There, she finds new desires to meet and higher pleasures to reach in his arms, from his tongue and fingers and dick, and in the wilds of their twinned imaginations met by impossible power.

She can make him come just by fussing with his code, and he can spend a year between her legs until there are only fragments of her left to coax back together. She can edge him till his sobs cause earthquakes, and he can bring her to such ecstasy that the entire Matrix blinks out for a nanosecond.

Their passion is strange and dangerous for they are strange and dangerous.

They have a mission, of course, but it’s been decades and she is a woman starved for him.

*

She does not remember dying for him. It’s the added horror that her memory is up to her last visit to the Matrix before they left to end Smith. She does not remember Bane, nor fleeing the sentinel army, nor being the only living human in centuries to see the real sun, nor dying. Pinned to the Logos floor like a precious butterfly, her agony masked to keep Neo focused.

“It was grief beyond imagining,” he tells her. “You died and there was nothing I could do. I had nothing to live for. It was all over.”

She holds him, and listens to him speak, listens to the remaining sobs that have been caught inside him for decades. She wonders at this Trinity she never was, the one who bled out in the machine city. The one who was pried out of there by someone, or someones, to use as future leverage.

She loves her too, that little slice of her that was true and was her. She feels such fond affection for her, the woman who was Trinity in the last few hours that her body was mostly human.

She doesn’t know, for Neo doesn’t think to tell her, that Trinity’s last words were a demand.

“Kiss me,” she had said. “Once more. Kiss me.”

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

New NASA Study Tallies Carbon Emissions From Massive Canadian Fires

Extreme wildfires like these will continue to have a large impact on global climate.

Stoked by Canada’s warmest and driest conditions in decades, extreme forest fires in 2023 released about 640 million metric tons of carbon, NASA scientists have found. That’s comparable in magnitude to the annual fossil fuel emissions of a large industrialized nation. NASA funded the study as part of its ongoing mission to understand our changing planet.

The research team used satellite observations and advanced computing to quantify the carbon emissions of the fires, which burned an area roughly the size of North Dakota from May to September 2023. The new study, published on Aug. 28 in the journal Nature, was led by scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

They found that the Canadian fires released more carbon in five months than Russia or Japan emitted from fossil fuels in all of 2022 (about 480 million and 291 million metric tons, respectively). While the carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted from both wildfires and fossil fuel combustion cause extra warming immediately, there’s an important distinction, the scientists noted. As the forest regrows, the amount of carbon emitted from fires will be reabsorbed by Earth’s ecosystems. The CO2 emitted from the burning of fossil fuels is not readily offset by any natural processes.

An ESA (European Space Agency) instrument designed to measure air pollution observed the fire plumes over Canada. The TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument, or TROPOMI, flies aboard the Sentinel 5P satellite, which has been orbiting Earth since 2017. TROPOMI has four spectrometers that measure and map trace gases and fine particles (aerosols) in the atmosphere.

The scientists started with the end result of the fires: the amount of carbon monoxide (CO) in the atmosphere during the fire season. Then they “back-calculated” how large the emissions must have been to produce that amount of CO. They were able to estimate how much CO2 was released based on ratios between the two gases in the fire plumes.

“What we found was that the fire emissions were bigger than anything in the record for Canada,” said Brendan Byrne, a JPL scientist and lead author of the new study. “We wanted to understand why.”

Warmest Conditions Since at Least 1980

Wildfire is essential to the health of forests, clearing undergrowth and brush and making way for new plant life. In recent decades, however, the number, severity, and overall size of wildfires have increased, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Contributing factors include extended drought, past fire management strategies, invasive species, and the spread of residential communities into formerly less developed areas.

To explain why Canada’s fire season was so intense in 2023, the authors of the new study cited tinderbox conditions across its forests. Climate data revealed the warmest and driest fire season since at least 1980. Temperatures in the northwest part of the country — where 61% of fire emissions occurred — were more than 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit (2.6 degrees Celsius) above average from May through September. Precipitation was also more than 3 inches (8 centimeters) below average for much of the year.

Driven in large part by these conditions, many of the fires grew to enormous sizes. The fires were also unusually widespread, charring some 18 million hectares of forest from British Columbia in the west to Quebec and the Atlantic provinces in the east. The area of land that burned was more than eight times the 40-year average and accounted for 5% of Canadian forests.

“Some climate models project that the temperatures we experienced last year will become the norm by the 2050s,” Byrne said. “The warming, coupled with lack of moisture, is likely to trigger fire activity in the future.”

If events like the 2023 Canadian forest fires become more typical, they could impact global climate. That’s because Canada’s vast forests compose one of the planet’s important carbon sinks, meaning that they absorb more CO2 from the atmosphere than they release. The scientists said that it remains to be seen whether Canadian forests will continue to absorb carbon at a rapid rate or whether increasing fire activity could offset some of the uptake, diminishing the forests’ capacity to forestall climate warming.

IMAGE: An astronaut aboard the International Space Station photographed wildfire smoke from Nova Scotia billowing over the Atlantic Ocean in May 2023. Warm weather and lack of rain fueled blazes across Canada last year, burning 5% of the country’s forests. Credit: NASA