#like the other common models

[protoindoeuropean]

Photos of a bronze armillary sphere with three layers of rotating rings on an equatorial set up. The sphere is supported by three legs in a row, all decorated with detailed ornamentation and dragon figures. The text on the granite base is in Slovene and Mandarin Chinese (translation and originals under read more↓).

The astronomical instrument (an equatorial armillary sphere) that was unveiled on 6 February 2024 in front of the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia in Ljubljana – facing the location of the old Jesuit college, where its conceptor first received his education – is a full-scale replica of the original, finished in 1754, still in place at the Beijing Ancient Observatory in China.

Ferdinand Avguštin Haller von Hallerstein, known also by his Chinese name Liú Sōnglíng (劉松齡; simplified: 刘松龄) was born in 1703, received Jesuit education in Ljubljana, Vienna and Graz and arrived in Beijing in 1739 as a missionary, set to work at the Imperial Astronomical Bureau (which had been run by the Jesuits since 1669). In 1746 he succeeded the office of the head of the bureau and ran it until his death in 1774 – longer than any of his predecessors. He died soon after a stroke he reportedly suffered upon hearing the news that the Pope had disbanded the Jesuit order (in 1773; that suppression was later lifted in 1814).

Beside the astronomical work (published as Observationes astronomicæ), he also worked as a cartographer (creating a map of Macao and its environs, of Manchuria and contributing to the Jesuit Atlas of China) and is noted for making the first exact estimate of the Chinese population (calculated to have been 196,837,977 in 1760 and 198,214,624 in 1761).

Astronomical instruments at the Beijing Ancient Observatory. Hallerstein's armillary sphere is in the foreground. {x} • {x}

The armillary sphere is one of a kind, combining Chinese and European astronomical knowledge as requested by the Qiánlóng Emperor (乾隆帝), who wanted to both honor the tradition of his ancestors and make the instrument as accurate as possible by the standards of the time. The instrument is 3.7 m long, 2.1 m wide and 3.3 m high. It is made of bronze and weighs more than 5 tons. Its replica is made of the same material and is of the same size, built in China using 3D-scanning technology and later transported to Slovenia, and is also fully functional. The design of the original instrument started in 1744 and when it was finished 10 years later, it was considered the pinnacle of Chinese astronomical science as well as artistic craftsmanship.

The Astronomical Instrument was conceived by Augustin Ferdinand Hallerstein (*1703 Ljubljana, †1774 Beijing), a Slovene Jesuit, astronomer, mathematician, cartographer and diplomat, during the time he lived in Qing China. The original stands at the Beijing Ancient Obsevatory. The replica of the instrument is a gift of the Embassy of the People's Republic of China as an incentive for the continuation of cultural exchange between Slovenia and China. Urban Municipality of Ljubljana, 2022

Zvezdni opazovalnik je v času dinastije Qing med svojim življenjem na Kitajskem zasnoval Auguštin Ferdinand Hallerstein (Ljubljana 1703–1774 Peking), slovenski jezuit, astronom, matematik, kartograf in diplomat. Izvirnik stoji na Starem pekinškem astronomskem observatoriju. Repliko opazovalnika je podarilo Veleposlaništvo LR Kitajske kot spodbudo za nadaljevanje kulturnih stikov med Slovenijo in Kitajsko. Mestna občina Ljubljana, 2022

玑衡抚辰仪 值此中华人民共和国同斯洛文尼亚共和国建交30周年，中国驻斯洛文尼亚大使馆和北京天文馆特赠天文观测仪器玑衡抚辰仪同比例复制品，以兹纪念。玑衡抚辰仪由斯洛文尼亚人刘松龄 (1703–1774) 在华担任清朝钦天监监正期间主持制造，原件陈列于北京古观象台。 二〇二二年

(for the latter, thanks go to this anon!!)

[sammygender]

‘sam and john are so similar’ well okay. sure, to an extent. both sam and john are (or at least sam starts off being) stubborn, relentlessly driven personalities. but i would argue dean has just as much capacity to be like that as sam. sometimes more. ‘sam and john clash because they’re similar’ idk, maybe, i’m sure that could be and probably is part of it to an extent, but i would put it More down to the fact that john treats his sons Awfully and sam reacts to this (as he should!) by fighting it & being angry with him. john and sam could be nothing alike and they’d still fight like hell

& anyway just because dean thinks sam and john are similar doesn’t make it true. half the reason he probably thinks they’re similar is because of his relationship w them, which is the same intense dogged devotion, though with john it’s expressed through obedience and with sam it’s expressed through possessiveness. they’re a family they’re all like each other. sam and dean are alike in a hell of a lot of ways!! yeah sam’s paralleled with john sometimes but he’s also paralleled with mary. yeah dean plays/has played the role of mary sometimes but he also 100% is always striving to fill the role of john. people are complex! sam and dean are complex characters because they’re good characters! not everything is black and white!

[spiribia]

i remember being a kid and when httyd came out my friend and i were like That's so stupid that he named the dragon Toothless if I had such a magnificent beast i would name it something suitable like Panther.

[tamaharu]

the shikimori anime was a failure because it didnt convey how transgender that girl truly is

[cathymee]

we're all wasting our time the earth should just explode soon <3

[unrestrainedbalderdash]

NOOO WHY'S THERE BI LESBIAN EXCLUSION IN THE ORIENTED AROACE TAG.

[chickenmcnuggies]

woag. golems

[darkacademiaarchivist]

shout out to star trek for giving me and my dad something to talk about :)

[doomdoomofdoom]

Graph I was shown in 8th grade biology. It's a really simple concept to understand, and anyone who thinks getting rid of local predator animals will be beneficial to wildlife either hasn't thought about it whatsoever or is lying to you.

Prey > Predators: Predators have ample food supply and their population grows until it reaches a tipping point.

Prey < Predators: The diminished prey population can no longer sustain the large predator population. With not enough food to go around, the predator population shrinks, allowing the prey population to recover.

And then it starts all over again. Welcome to the ecosystem.

So one of my tweets kinda blew up. :v

[lilhawkeye3]

A Crash Course to Kendrick's Super Bowl Performance, from a Black Woman

Note: this does NOT go in depth into all of the song's lyrics. I don't have time to recount two decades of his discography. This is just a summary of the performance itself.

Let's start with the first visual we get:

UNCLE SAM - most notably recognized from WWII American wartime propaganda, Uncle Sam is the personification of American patriotism and freedom. The term "uncle" is also evocative of Uncle Tom from Uncle Tom's Cabin, an abolitionist book that aided in inciting the Civil War. Uncle is also a very common term (both endearment and derogatory) towards Black men (eg. "unc"). Samuel L Jackson was fantastic. (Edit: and please look up his history of civil rights activism, he was on the FBI watchlist and even a pallbearer at MLKJr’s funeral.)

Uncle Sam also resembles a circus ringleader, notable for my next point:

THE GREAT AMERICAN GAME - no, not Super Bowl. The GAG is us the people being pitted against each other: through late-stage capitalism, through the culture war, through class warfare, through being built of the backs of slaves. We are all players in the GAG because none of us on this site were the oligarchs seated at the inauguration.

This is also seen as Kendrick's stage was a Play Station controller. Not only did it remind of circus rings visually, but it was a game battle stage. The Great American Game is a battle royale of the commoners for the amusement of the rich whites.

Remember the foods / Them color was tin and brown / But now they 100 and blue - For this I'll just say, look what the last election said about lowering the price of eggs... and look at the prices now.

The revolution about to be televised / You picked the right time / But the wrong guy - Election 2024 once more. *Edit to add, the first part of this lyric is in reference to the Black Liberation Song "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" by Gil Scott-Heron. Thanks to everyone who mentioned that.

THE FLAG DANCERS - yes, the dancers formed the US flag... off of the backs of Black people. Not a single white person in sight, and that's true of the cotton pickers in the fields. Plantations are part of how the US came to economic prominence after being a "backwater" colony. Remember tobacco? Cotton? Our bloodlines do. *Edit to add: they also all piled out of a clown car. The US flag in a clown car? Brilliant.

The red and blue dancers are also notable for representing the Crips and Bloods, two infamous street gangs. The dance in Not Like Us is the Crip Walk. I recommend researching more on your own time about them, but just know they are a large part of the stereotype of Black people being "ghetto."

TOO LOUD, TOO RECKLESS, TOO GHETTO. Do you really know how to play the game? - This is exactly what Black people, especially Black men, get told all the time. It's why we change our names on resumes if they sound "too Black." It's why we codeswitch in non-Black company. This is especially rich considering how non-Black people love our culture and love to make money off of us, as the latter part of the quote points to. And it's even more profound during the Super Bowl-- the NFL is majority Black players.

STREET LIGHT A CAPELLA -- "thug" stereotype dancers to counteract the a capella connotations, with Uncle Sam then saying that Kendrick figured out "bringing other street guys around being a culture cheat code." Yes, this is a direct hit at Drake (listen to "Not Like Us") but also politically. Look up "model minority". Notably I would point to Candace Owens, or the Miami Venezuelan political group that's been in the news recently, especially as this directly led to Kendrick being surrounded by...

DANCERS IN WHITE -- it's white America. That's... that's the allegory.

NOT LIKE US TEASER -- Kendrick says "Not Like Us" is "their favorite song." -> he means white people specifically here. It comes after he's surrounded by all white dancers, the women around him who are his call and response are also in white (my opinion, they represent the industry). He's saying "Not Like Us" is the favorite of yts because it is about BLACK MEN FIGHTING. This again is reflected in the video game stage and ringleader Uncle Sam.

SZA -- instead of giving what they want, we see SZA. She's one of Drake's exes and Kendrick has always supported her.

ALL THE STARS -- This was in the first Black Panther movie, which I recommend you watch. Rest in Power Chadwick. Notably, this movie was incredibly mainstream as a major Marvel movie, and then we have Uncle Sam say...

"THAT'S WHAT AMERICA WANTS: NICE AND CALM. DON'T MESS THIS UP" -- translation: Marvel (the industry, America, etc.) wanted a safe, semi-pop song because white American likes safe pop songs, not Kendrick's usual heavy rap style about his life as a Black man! Don't mess up what you've got going mainstream for having this "Black rap feud" with Drake, who is an R&B model minority to white people because he's safe.

So what does Kendrick say?

IT'S A CULTURAL DIVIDE / IMMA GET IT ON THE FLOOR -- He was warned not to be political or apologetically Black for this Super Bowl performance, but he is using this big stage opportunity to speak out.

40 ACRES AND A MULE / THIS IS BIGGER THAN THE MUSIC -- 40 acres and a mule are what the freed slaves were promised. Instead, this land went to white sharecroppers. Research Jim Crow laws.

THEY TRIED TO RIG THE GAME / BUT YOU CAN'T FAKE INFLUENCE -- rig the election, rig the industry like with model minority Drake, rig the Great American Game with culture war to distract from active class warfare.

NOT LIKE US -- the only thing I'll mention because it made me holler is Serena Williams crip walking on Drake's metaphorical grave. She's another one of his exes (read: Drake harassed the hell out of her). *Edit: she was also fined at the 2012 Olympics for crip walking in celebration at Wimbledon.

TURN THE TV OFF -- exactly like he said! The TV is a distraction, the Super Bowl is a distraction, the mainstream news is often a distraction. Turn it off and get with your people!

GAME OVER — could not see this on my stream but at the end of the performance, the lights in the stadium spelled this out. The world is watching, America…

In conclusion, Kendrick Lamar is a visionary and thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

[inkskinned]

it's extremely critical that you see the photo of the perp walk for luigi mangione as being propaganda. i've seen so many people wave it off and instead fawn over his looks. and trust me, i know it ended up being kind of pathetic and weird - but please don't brush it off as a "modelling opportunity" for him. it's a fucking terrifying message the police are sending.

i want to make a few comparisons here, in case you're not from the US or familiar with why the perp walk thing is something to pay attention to. just to set the groundwork for why this is a purposeful, unusual, and cruel act by the nyc police - for why this is not a common occurrence and for why that matters.

the prosecution alleges the show of force is due to the charge of "terrorism." for comparison, in june 2015, tsarnaev was found guilty for the boston marathon bombing, which killed 3 people and injured hundreds. his actions are considered to be an act of domestic terrorism. i have spent the last hour looking through google for pictures of similar to mangione's perp walk - and so far, i have found zero. i also just do not personally remember a moment like that, despite living in boston at the time.

they allege that luigi is a stone-cold killer who carried out a longterm plan, making him particularly dangerous. again for comparison: in nyc, recently cory martin was found guilty of the killing of brandy odom. the murder was planned and premeditated to steal insurance money. and yet no staged perp walk. why didn't her life matter enough for a "show of force"?

but mangione gets paraded by a veritable army of police officers as if he is a rabid animal. for a single citizen who allegedly killed one other single citizen, the "largest perp walk ever" occurs.

so what is the "strong message" that the mayor and the police were trying to send here? the mayor speaks as if mangione is already convicted of terrorism. there is a very thin number of people who feel threatened by the CEO's death. none of us felt like mangione needs to be under massive armed guard.

the message is that you shouldn't resist. they are trying to "make an example" of him - that if you behave badly and kill a single rich person, you'll be treated as if you killed hundreds of people. you will be treated worse than a man who was found guilty of terrorism. you will be considered guilty without trial. the message is that the rich are a protected class, and you cannot touch them without massive punishment. they are trying to prevent a revolution by showing dominance and force against you.

the message is that the police are a puppet of the wealthy and that the law is not equally applied across class disparity. it is "some are more equal than others." it is "one life is more precious than another."

the show of force wasn't for luigi. it was for us. it was a warning. they are trying to remind us who is really in control.

[29121996]

.

[soyoursoulisgreen]

11, 20, and 29 for the oc asks :> for any of your guys!

Oohh but who to pick! Who's been on my mind lately, who I haven't already talked up too much hmmm... Maybe Minki! :D

11. What was your inspiration for your OC?

Minki was the fallout of one of my Vargas AU brainstorm session actually (how??) where I was trying to come up with a pun for a potion shop owner - she came name first, then the logo of her business, then her full design! I ended up being so happy with her that I fully fleshed her out into her own character and she's taken up residence with a few other OCs that I haven't explored quite as much, but I have thought about a good clip

20. If they fight, what’s their weapon of choice?

Minki is a potions witch! She's not much for fighting herself - she makes a business of selling her potions so other people have the upper hand in their fights - but she keeps some in reserve if she needs to defend herself! A basic set of strength, stoneskin/defense buff - a fire-res in conjunction with a bottled fireball is quite effective on any hopeful intruders hehe

29. Imagine a mood board for your OC! What’s on it? (Make it if you want!)

Just a mini one this time hehe <3 She's a fairly straightforward gal!

[yume-no-miya]

look i love making sae be the one who's so in love and showering hajun with so much love and affection but it's much more fun to think that HE fell harder than her

[cjgladback]

[ID: Short video of two identical 3D rendered eight-inch C-clamps, upright on a taupe background. The body of the clamps is black cast iron while the parts that would move are copper. The clamps and camera are unmoving but overlays wipe transition from right to left, first a gradient over the background then wireframes over the clamps. The closer clamp has a much more detailed mesh, primarily grids of four-sided polygons, very dense on the screw-threaded shaft. The back clamp's shaft is a simple cylinder and it has many triangles visible on the body. The final overlay labels the back clamp with 4.77 thousand tris, the foreground clamp 71.09 thousand tris or 1.14 million tris when subdivided twice. The loop finishes by removing the gradient and then the overlays. End ID]

So about that "maybe I'll make an LOD1 of the clamp, too" thought. I now get to figure out where I should offer this as an asset for purchase and how I should format that deliverable. Ko-fi will be the easy option since they already have my payment information, whereas Sketchfab has some traffic coming in for the freebies already so it would make sense to offer there as long as fees or time overhead isn't obscene. If you have advice as a seller or purchaser of 3D assets, please feel free to share!

[ub-sessed]

How Not to Break Your Sewing Machine

I work in a shop where we repair sewing machines (a LOT of sewing machines), and unsurprisingly we see a lot of the same problems over and over again, so I'm here with some advice on how to keep your machine running longer.

When you break a needle, dig around until you have found the broken piece. If you leave it in there, it can end up in the wrong place at the wrong time and break something vital.

SLOW DOWN. The function of your sewing machine depends on the different moving parts ending up in the right place at the right time. Having to go through a lot of/heavy material slows the needle down, but it doesn't slow down the mechanism underneath the needle plate. If you try to go your usual speed, the needle will arrive too late and collide with something it shouldn't, breaking either the needle or the bobbin case. If the material is especially heavy (say you're sewing several layers of denim, or sewing webbing onto canvas), take your foot off the pedal and turn the machine by hand.

Clean out the bobbin area after each project. Really. Your machine comes with a little brush for this purpose. If it doesn't, a little dollar-store paint brush will work just fine. Remember what I said above about things being in the right place at the right time? Everything needs to be able to move freely for this to work. I know it looks like it's just a little dust and fluff, but it will jam up your machine eventually.

If you can, get your timing adjusted by a professional. I know most people don't have a sewing machine repair shop in their neighbourhood, but if you can do this, it's worth it. If the machine's timing is good, then you're more likely to have a little leeway for heavier fabric or a lintier bobbin case. When the timing is just a bit off, it takes less of an obstacle to put the needle in a place it shouldn't be.

If you can, buy a machine built before 1980. If it's still working 50 years after it was made, it's gonna keep working. Those older machines are made with metal gears and therefore weigh a ton, so they're definitely not a good choice if you don't have a permanent setup for your machine, but it means they basically last forever. Newer machines are made with plastic parts, and no matter what you do, they will break.

Don't buy a Singer Heavy Duty. I'm sure those machines have their benefits, but they are absolutely not heavy duty. We repair more Singer Heavy Dutys than any other single model of sewing machine. If you're already stuck with a Heavy Duty, then follow my advice above even more scrupulously, and start shopping around for a replacement if you can. You can get a used sewing machine of better quality for significantly less than a new Heavy Duty.

To keep things working properly, make sure you're:

threading your machine properly

using the right kind of bobbin

adjusting your tension properly

and using the right kind of needle for the fabric you're sewing!

(These things are unlikely to break your machine, but they will keep it from sewing properly.)

Other than that, get your hands on your machine's manual and read it carefully. If you can, bring your machine in for a cleaning and adjustment now and then. Your machine will need repairs every once in a while: it's a lot of little moving parts! But these are some basic precautions you can take to avoid some common problems.