#my researches

[lucyav13]

Mr. L

He is a major antagonist and eventually becomes the game's final boss, Super Dimentio by fusing with Dimentio and the Chaos Heart. Before turning evil, Luigi tries to stop Count Bleck from using the Chaos Heart; however, after being trapped in Castle Bleck, Luigi gets brainwashed by Nastasia, ultimately turning him into Mr. L.

Mr. L is very cocky and is always praising up himself, a stark contrast to the chicken-hearted, reluctantly brave Luigi. He thinks highly of himself and is not slow to reveal it, often trying to openly annoy other in-game characters. He has a belief in his often-boasted-of abilities, as he is very shocked at his failures as their series begins. He is very daring, and as such reveals an attraction to Princess Peach and jealousy of Mario's jumping ability. (But if he jumps better than Mario)

Mr. L has two catchphrases: "L-ater," which he continuously proclaims when exiting , and "Have at you!", his battle cry.

He also has a knack for nicknaming, referring to Mario as "Mr. Jumpsallthetime," Peach as "Ms. Alwaysgetskidnapped," or Bowser as "Mr. Getsfoiledallthetimebytheredguywiththemoustache" during their first confrontation; this may imply that he still retains some of his memory from when he was Luigi, as he subconsciously recognizes who Mario, Peach, and Bowser are. He also nicknames himself "the Green Thunder".

However, Mr. L has some skills that Luigi does not, or merely has not yet shown, namely his inventiveness. Though Luigi has been known that he used his abilities in previous games, his mechanical skills haven't been consistently shown to match that of Mr. L. Mr. L has the intelligence to build, upgrade, and pilot his own robot, which he calls Brobot, throughout the course of the story pioneering the art he refers to as brobotics.

Mr. L strongly resembles Luigi, though he is dressed in a black jumpsuit that strangely retains his former overalls' large buttons. He also wears a green bandana around his neck. His cap has a black background and reversed "L" instead of the normal white background and normal "L". Over his face is a black mask which seems to effectively hide his identity; this mask makes his eyes and eyebrows appear white. His gloves and shoes are dark gray. Mr. L, unlike standard Luigi, is shown to have a belt.

It is implied several times that Luigi is the "man in green", referenced in both the Light Prognosticus and the Dark Prognosticus. Both of these two books state that this man in green and his affiliations will determine which prophecy is true. As such, it can be taken that, if Luigi were to have stayed Mr. L throughout the course of the game, the Dark Prognosticus would have been fulfilled and all worlds would be destroyed, making the end of Luigi's hypnotizing and evil ways integral to Super Paper Mario. Dimentio additionally states that the Dark Prognosticus mentions Luigi as the ideal host for the Chaos Heart.

In the final battle, with help from Count Bleck and his minions, the heroes are able to summon the to destroy Dimentio and the Chaos Heart, bring back Luigi and finally erasing his hypnosis and brainwashing.

Additional information:

Catch card:

HP Max: 40

Attack: 3

Defense:

Score: 200

Card description: So...who's this mysterious Mr. L character? Is this what the Prognosticus foretold?

Tattle: That's Mr. L. This new hire of Count Bleck's a real mystery man... Max HP is 40. Attack is 3. He uses his high jump as a weapon... And that powered-up super jump is quite...super... He has no other outstanding features of note. And why does he remind me so much of Mario...?

Quotes:

"Oh, me? Just one of Count Bleck's more promising minions. The Green Thunder... MR. L!"

"Just because you're in red doesn't mean you're strong. Have at you!"

"Ooh, the evil king of all charlatans! Do I look scared? Have at you!"

"No one's coming to save you this time, dearest princess! Have at you!"

"Hey, Mr. Jumpsallthetime! NOW we'll see who's the better jumper!"

"Hey, Mr. Getsfoiledallthetimebytheredguywiththemustache! I'll foil your FACE!"

"Hey, Ms. Pink n' Frilly! Try not to get kidnapped before I defeat you! Have at you!"

"Hey, Ms. Alwayskidnapped! I'll kidnap your FACE!"

"I uh... got to go deflavorize the Brobot's uh... Flavorizer."

"Hey there, butterball!"

"Hey, King Incompetent! I'm gonna hatch an evil plan on your FACE! Have at you!"

"I was just scouting him, dear. Next time, he will be mine!"

"But Brobot craves his daily smash! I can't just loiter here! There's no action!"

"L-ater!" - Mr. L

"Looks like your Pure Heart thing got broken. I guess Pure Hearts can't handle the end of the world. Heh. Whatever, I'll swipe it just for kicks."

"Meet my new friend... BROBOT L-TYPE!"

"Not a funny joke, Dimentio... If I wanted to laugh, your face is inspiration enough!"

"Dimentio... No..."

Fun facts about him:

Mr. L's mustache as black whereas Luigi's artwork gives him a brown mustache. In game, however, both forms' mustaches are brown.

Mr. L shares many similarities with Lord Crump from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, in that both of them are arrogant underlings of their games' primary antagonists, both command massive mechanical creations as well as updated versions of them, and both of them don disguises that are fairly easy to see through by the player, so much so that Mario's partners often lampshade it.

Mr. L's self-given nickname could be a reference to Luigi's Thunderhand ability from Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga.

Shadoo's first form (Dark Luigi) looks identical to Mr. L instead of normal Luigi.

(A/N): I don't have any theories about him, although of course I would accept some suggestions =)

[kenapiece-main]

Can you believe I'm having to make this meme even after successfully finishing up taxes and applying to job

[emjaydoubleyou]

this post is fearmongering. the results of this study are concerning and should definitely be a matter of public discussion, but this is certainly not the conclusion the researchers came to.

the point of the study was to assess the risks of exposure to toxic metals- something one of the co-authors notes are “ubiquitous” fwiw- via menstrual products. Their research confirmed that these metals are indeed present in tampons, but no further conclusions are drawn. it is possible the metal entered into the cotton from the soil, which is a well-known phenomenon; cotton is so good at lifting heavy metals that it has actually been suggested as a part of the solution for revitalizing polluted ground.

the authors conclude with an acknowledgement that the study should be repeated- their sample size was 60 tampons- and a suggestion that further testing ought to be done to indicate whether or not these metals can even leech out of the tampon in the first place, let alone whether or not such leeching could occur at levels deleterious to human health.

there is, in fact, a body of research- too small, for sure, but much larger than this single study- indicating that long-term proper tampon use has no observable negative impact on health. i am grateful and thrilled that more research is being done and i hope that this study is the first of many on this line of questioning, but i am really frustrated at this post and the response it got.

obviously, if this study alters your approach to menstrual health, more power to you. consumers should be informed-risk-takers, and menstrual health is double-obviously a very personal choice. but it definitely wasn't the researchers concluding that you ought to “avoid using tampons at all cost," only this tumblr user did. the lead author of the paper, in fact, specifically says that she hopes people do NOT panic about the results.

(the notes of the post were disappointing. people affirming that they knew they were right to be suspicious of tampons all along, or even recommending alternatives that actually have very little to no research regarding the safety of long-term use, etc. it’s a different conversation, but categorical distrust of tampons is old-school misogyny. you certainly shouldn't wear them if you don’t want to, but there is nothing inherently scary or wrong about them, and people who prefer them are not being reckless or crass.)

((if you're really worried about exposure to heavy metals, you may want to turn a critical eye to fast fashion, as an aside))

[mikufanclub]

whenevr i draw a fish maid usually the reference pic is some middle aged white guy. im forcemaiding them

[yeoldenews]

An excerpt from the trial of Elinor Crane, who was arrested in Middlesex in 1693 on suspicion of burglary. A witness claimed one of the burglars was a woman in men's clothing, and Elinor had previously been seen in the area dressed as a man.

"But the Court asking her why she went in Mans Apparel, the Prisoner replyed, She went to Wooe a Widow. Upon the whole Matter the Jury brought her in not Guilty."

(source: Old Bailey Proceedings: Accounts of Criminal Trials, April 26, 1693.)

[charbies]

linktober day 28 - bones

[tearlessrain]

please help me- i used to be pretty smart but i’m having so much trouble grasping the concept of diegetic vs non-diegetic bdsm!

gfkjldghfd okay first of all I'm sorry for the confusion, if you're not finding anything on the phrase it's because I made it up and absolutely nobody but me ever uses it, but I haven't found a better way to express what I'm trying to say so I keep using it. but now you've given me an excuse to ramble on about some shit that is only relevant to me and my deeply inefficient way of talking and by god I'm going to take it.

SO. the way diegetic and non-diegetic are normally used is to talk about music and sound design in movies/tv shows. in case you aren't familiar with that concept, here's a rundown:

diegetic sound is sound that happens within the world of the movie/show and can be acknowledged by the characters, like a song playing on the stereo during a driving scene, or sung on stage in Phantom of the Opera. it's also most other sounds that happen in a movie, like the sounds of traffic in a city scene, or a thunderclap, or a marching band passing by. or one of the three stock horse sounds they use in every movie with a horse in it even though horses don't really vocalize much in real life, but that's beside the point, the horse is supposed to be actually making that noise within the movie's world and the characters can hear it whinnying.

non-diegetic sound is any sound that doesn't exist in the world of the movie/show and can't be perceived by the characters. this includes things like laugh tracks and most soundtrack music. when Duel of Fates plays in Star Wars during the lightsaber fight for dramatic effect, that's non-diegetic. it exists to the audience, but the characters don't know their fight is being backed by sick ass music and, sadly, can't hear it.

the lines can get blurry between the two, you've probably seen the film trope where the clearly non-diegetic music in the title sequence fades out to the same music, now diegetic and playing from the character's car stereo. and then there are things like Phantom of the Opera as mentioned above, where the soundtrack is also part of the plot, but Phantom of the Opera does also have segments of non-diegetic music: the Phantom probably does not have an entire orchestra and some guy with an electric guitar hiding down in his sewer just waiting for someone to break into song, but both of those show up in the songs they sing down there.

now, on to how I apply this to bdsm in fiction.

if I'm referring to diegetic bdsm what I mean is that the bdsm is acknowledged for what it is in-world. the characters themselves are roleplaying whatever scenarios their scenes involve and are operating with knowledge of real life rules/safety practices. if there's cnc depicted, it will be apparent at some point, usually right away, that both characters actually are fully consenting and it's all just a planned scene, and you'll often see on-screen negotiation and aftercare, and elements of the story may involve the kink community wherever the characters are. Love and Leashes is a great example of this, 50 Shades and Bonding are terrible examples of this, but they all feature characters that know they're doing bdsm and are intentional about it.

if I'm talking about non-diegetic bdsm, I'm referring to a story that portrays certain kinks without the direct acknowledgement that the characters are doing bdsm. this would be something like Captive Prince, or Phantom of the Opera again, or the vast majority of bodice ripper type stories where an innocent woman is kidnapped by a pirate king or something and totally doesn't want to be ravished but then it turns out he's so cool and sexy and good at ravishing that she decides she's into it and becomes his pirate consort or whatever it is that happens at the end of those books. the characters don't know they're playing out a cnc or D/s fantasy, and in-universe it's often straight up noncon or dubcon rather than cnc at all. the thing about entirely non-diegetic bdsm is that it's almost always Problematic™ in some way if you're not willing to meet the story where it's at, but as long as you're not judging it by the standards of diegetic bdsm, it's just providing the reader the same thing that a partner in a scene would: the illusion of whatever risk or taboo floats your boat, sometimes to extremes that can't be replicated in real life due to safety, practicality, physics, the law, vampires not being real, etc. it's consensual by default because it's already pretend; the characters are vehicles for the story and not actually people who can be hurt, and the reader chose to pick up the book and is aware that nothing in it is real, so it's all good.

this difference is where people tend to get hung up in the discourse, from what I've observed. which is why I started using this phrasing, because I think it's very crucial to be able to differentiate which one you're talking about if you try to have a conversation with someone about the portrayal of bdsm in media. it would also, frankly, be useful for tagging, because sometimes when you're in the mood for non-diegetic bodice ripper shit you'd call the police over in real life, it can get really annoying to read paragraphs of negotiation and check-ins that break the illusion of the scene and so on, and the opposite can be jarring too.

it's very possible to blur these together the same way Phantom of the Opera blurs its diegetic and non-diegetic music as well. this leaves you even more open to being misunderstood by people reading in bad faith, but it can also be really fun to play with. @not-poignant writes fantastic fanfic, novels, and original serials on ao3 that pull this off really well, if you're okay with some dark shit in your fiction I would highly recommend their work. some of it does get really fucking dark in places though, just like. be advised. read the tags and all that.

but yeah, spontaneous writer plug aside, that's what I mean.

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

average United States contains 1000s of pet tigers in backyards" factoid actualy [sic] just statistical error. average person has 0 tigers on property. Activist Georg, who lives the U.S. Capitol & makes up over 10,000 each day, has purposefully been spreading disinformation adn [sic] should not have been counted

I have a big mad today, folks. It's a really frustrating one, because years worth of work has been validated... but the reason for that fucking sucks.

For almost a decade, I've been trying to fact-check the claim that there "are 10,000 to 20,000 pet tigers/big cats in backyards in the United States." I talked to zoo, sanctuary, and private cat people; I looked at legislation, regulation, attack/death/escape incident rates; I read everything I could get my hands on. None of it made sense. None of it lined up. I couldn't find data supporting anything like the population of pet cats being alleged to exist. Some of you might remember the series I published on those findings from 2018 or so under the hashtag #CrouchingTigerHiddenData. I've continued to work on it in the six years since, including publishing a peer reviewed study that counted all the non-pet big cats in the US (because even though they're regulated, apparently nobody bothered to keep track of those either).

I spent years of my life obsessing over that statistic because it was being used to push for new federal legislation that, while well intentioned, contained language that would, and has, created real problems for ethical facilities that have big cats. I wrote a comprehensive - 35 page! - analysis of the issues with the then-current version of the Big Cat Public Safety Act in 2020. When the bill was first introduced to Congress in 2013, a lot of groups promoted it by fear mongering: there's so many pet tigers! they could be hidden around every corner! they could escape and attack you! they could come out of nowhere and eat your children!! Tiger King exposed the masses to the idea of "thousands of abused backyard big cats": as a result the messaging around the bill shifted to being welfare-focused, and the law passed in 2022.

The Big Cat Public Safety Act created a registry, and anyone who owned a private cat and wanted to keep it had to join. If they did, they could keep the animal until it passed, as long as they followed certain strictures (no getting more, no public contact, etc). Don’t register and get caught? Cat is seized and major punishment for you. Registering is therefore highly incentivized. That registry closed in June of 2023, and you can now get that registration data via a Freedom of Information Act request.

Guess how many pet big cats were registered in the whole country?

97.

Not tens of thousands. Not thousands. Not even triple digits. 97.

And that isn't even the right number! Ten USDA licensed facilities registered erroneously. That accounts for 55 of 97 animals. Which leaves us with 42 pet big cats, of all species, in the entire country.

Now, I know that not everyone may have registered. There's probably someone living deep in the woods somewhere with their illegal pet cougar, and there's been at least one random person in Texas arrested for trying to sell a cub since the law passed. But - and here's the big thing - even if there are ten times as many hidden cats than people who registered them - that's nowhere near ten thousand animals. Obviously, I had some questions.

Guess what? Turns out, this is because it was never real. That huge number never had data behind it, wasn't likely to be accurate, and the advocacy groups using that statistic to fearmonger and drive their agenda knew it... and didn't see a problem with that.

Allow me to introduce you to an article published last week.

This article is good. (Full disclose, I'm quoted in it). It's comprehensive and fairly written, and they did their due diligence reporting and fact-checking the piece. They talked to a lot of people on all sides of the story.

But thing that really gets me?

Multiple representatives from major advocacy organizations who worked on the Big Cat Publix Safety Act told the reporter that they knew the statistics they were quoting weren't real. And that they don't care. The end justifies the means, the good guys won over the bad guys, that's just how lobbying works after all. They're so blase about it, it makes my stomach hurt. Let me pull some excerpts from the quotes.

"Whatever the true number, nearly everyone in the debate acknowledges a disparity between the actual census and the figures cited by lawmakers. “The 20,000 number is not real,” said Bill Nimmo, founder of Tigers in America. (...) For his part, Nimmo at Tigers in America sees the exaggerated figure as part of the political process. Prior to the passage of the bill, he said, businesses that exhibited and bred big cats juiced the numbers, too. (...) “I’m not justifying the hyperbolic 20,000,” Nimmo said. “In the world of comparing hyperbole, the good guys won this one.”

"Michelle Sinnott, director and counsel for captive animal law enforcement at the PETA Foundation, emphasized that the law accomplished what it was set out to do. (...) Specific numbers are not what really matter, she said: “Whether there’s one big cat in a private home or whether there’s 10,000 big cats in a private home, the underlying problem of industry is still there.”"

I have no problem with a law ending the private ownership of big cats, and with ending cub petting practices. What I do have a problem with is that these organizations purposefully spread disinformation for years in order to push for it. By their own admission, they repeatedly and intentionally promoted false statistics within Congress. For a decade.

No wonder it never made sense. No wonder no matter where I looked, I couldn't figure out how any of these groups got those numbers, why there was never any data to back any of the claims up, why everything I learned seemed to actively contradict it. It was never real. These people decided the truth didn't matter. They knew they had no proof, couldn't verify their shocking numbers... and they decided that was fine, if it achieved the end they wanted.

So members of the public - probably like you, reading this - and legislators who care about big cats and want to see legislation exist to protect them? They got played, got fed false information through a TV show designed to tug at heartstrings, and it got a law through Congress that's causing real problems for ethical captive big cat management. The 20,000 pet cat number was too sexy - too much of a crisis - for anyone to want to look past it and check that the language of the law wouldn't mess things up up for good zoos and sanctuaries. Whoops! At least the "bad guys" lost, right? (The problems are covered somewhat in the article linked, and I'll go into more details in a future post. You can also read my analysis from 2020, linked up top.)

Now, I know. Something something something facts don't matter this much in our post-truth era, stop caring so much, that's just how politics work, etc. I’m sorry, but no. Absolutely not.

Laws that will impact the welfare of living animals must be crafted carefully, thoughtfully, and precisely in order to ensure they achieve their goals without accidental negative impacts. We have a duty of care to ensure that. And in this case, the law also impacts reservoir populations for critically endangered species! We can't get those back if we mess them up. So maybe, just maybe, if legislators hadn't been so focused on all those alleged pet cats, the bill could have been written narrowly and precisely.

But the minutiae of regulatory impacts aren't sexy, and tiger abuse and TV shows about terrible people are. We all got misled, and now we're here, and the animals in good facilities are already paying for it.

I don't have a conclusion. I'm just mad. The public deserves to know the truth about animal legislation they're voting for, and I hope we all call on our legislators in the future to be far more critical of the data they get fed.

[fesenmoon]

no fucking way

[bloobydabloob]

I literally could not know less about welding I just wanted to draw him doing that

[psie-smutki]

Goofy tyrannosaurid playing in the snow ☃️

[lucyav13]

The Tribe of Darkness

(Image credits to whom it may concern)

Nolrem and others like him are the descendants of these strange, ancient people. A very, very long time ago, they splintered off from the Tribe of Ancients and lived by themselves. I heard that they were so prideful that they avoided interacting with those outside of their tribe. They lived in secrecy, so we have little idea where they might have lived. Some say that they lived quietly in a castle deep in a forest where no one came. 

1. The tribe definitively separated from the ancients 1500 years ago, before the events of spm. After helping them create Flopside, apparently some members of this tribe remained in this city. 2- Surely, the castle being talked about here is Castle Bleck, (As seen in the part I wrote previously).

The founder of this tribe, as my theory says in the “Timeline” part, could be the son of the creator of the Pixls. Seeing that he brought the Dark Prognosticus with him after the Pixl War, he fled with the prophetic book, creating this infamous tribe. Although, a Japanese translation of one of Carson's stories suggests that before they split up and even before the Pixel War, there was a group with great magical power within the Tribe of Ancients, that is to say, this tribe was establishing itself in a time before we had imagined.

They stole it in order to research new magic and curses based on its contents... While others believe that they stole the book in order to keep it from those who wished to misuse it.

Blumiere's father were one of the main members of the Tribe of Darkness, or so it is theorized. One fact is that, in the Super Mario-Kun manga, you can see his silhouette, this being a corpulent figure, with a big mustache and wearing what looks like a bowler hat.

Count Bleck is the last surviving member of the tribe itself, having destroyed the rest of the tribe after his father seemingly killed his loved one, a human descendent of the tribe of Ancients. In addition, it is hinted that Nastasia was originally a bat that was transformed into a member of the same species as Bleck, whom she had fallen for, which would make her a member of the Tribe of Darkness as well.

Their xenophobia is said to be based on pride at one point by Carson, although they were also concerned that their magic would become diluted if they married outside of the tribe. The japanese translation says: 

 "It seems that they were a tribe within the Tribe of Ancients that possessed exceptionally powerful magic. And it's said that they forbade marriage outside of the tribe out of fear of losing it. It seems that the Tribe of Darkness saw their magic as something to use for a "very important thing". Just what was that "very important thing"? Nowadays, we will never know."

My theory: This is where my theory comes in. After separating, the Tribe of Darkness continued to examine the Dark Prognosticus, finding the prophecy imminent. Blinded by power, they wanted to start it (Dimentio being a fundamental part of this). That's why he knows so much about the DP and the prophecy—things that not even Count Black knew about them. But they saw the great danger that it brought with it—that, instead of creating new worlds to rule, the prophecy was about the destruction of all worlds, all of them would reduce all existence itself until everything was erased as if it had never existed. That's why they prevented any member from opening the infamous book and forbade marriage outside the tribe. Up to the present: The events of Super Paper Mario. Didn't it seem suspicious that Count Bleck had always known about this macabre ending?

[alienssstufff]

style testing

[mycroftrh]

Tim: *draped over Jason’s couch, deeply depressed*

Jason, awkwardly: Would you, uh, like a gun? That always seems to help me…

Tim, wailing: You want to turn me into Gun Batman???

Jason: Gun… what?

Tim: I thought I could trust you!

Jason: In retrospect I’m sure you can see where you went wrong there.

[beemovieerotica]

the cognitive dissonance from people who want the products of modern medicine but get weird about animal research. like im sorry but this is necessary for the survival of the society we currently live in. and the scientists who work on these things are not evil cackling psychopaths. anyone you talk to in animal research has incredibly complex feelings about their work and incredibly complex relationships to the animals in their care. there are regulations and oversight and penalties in place to make the work as humane as possible and scientists are overwhelmingly the ones enforcing and advocating for better care.

[slushy-sash]

very important research