#project info

[great-and-small]

Reached out to a biologist to request some info about an extinct species of freshwater shrimp and the email she sent in response was not only lovely and helpful but also kind of poetry to me? People who study invertebrates are actually the most hopeful and compassionate scientists that we have.

[pikadxtra]

Pokémon Remix: Echoes

Tag: #PokemonEchoes

Status: Active

This game is a hack of Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal, featuring a new region, and a new story using as many vanilla assets as I can.

You play as Lyric, a young aspiring trainer who can't seem to remember portions of their own life. After years of living in a small town named Easthill with a friend, they finally decided to head out on a journey, hoping to find what they're missing.

And so they set off on their journey through the Gemini Isles.

[cringe-towne]

Yarn- ??? Blue and Purple held together. Ribbing: Bernat Maker Home Dec, Steel Blue

Pattern- Aphrodite

[project-spiritverse]

Welcome to the project

Run by @evan-is-screaming

This project used to be called GhostSpirit and started in like 2022. The past years have been full of worldbuilding and story that I want to share to anyone who would listen.

I want to share this world due to how much it means to me and how much fun I have adding onto it. I figure some posts will be dedicated to lore and others to the characters.

Have I mentioned RPG Maker yet? Im working on a third attempt to translate this would into a RPG. It works. The last time failed due to it being unorganized and balancing was .... Not going to be fun. With that said I have a project tracker app thing and im going to save any info I share here as back up.

All in all I just want to share my project with the world

[kh-multi-ani-pro]

The Project Heads

Here are some small tidbits about our project heads, and some things they’ve made of their own.

Guest is an experienced animator having worked on many different animation projects, both indie, and industry. They’ve also made a pilot episode based on the Pokemon Special/Adventures manga. They also have a Patreon if you want to give them your support.

@kudotsurugi​ is a fairly avid Kingdom Hearts fan, especially of the manga adaptations by @amanoshiroh141127​, and is probably best known in the community for their fan animation of… that infamous KH1 scene. You know the one.

If you want to take part in the project, you can check out our post here or our Twitter thread if you have an account.

[inusmasha]

Sometimes it’s hard to read fanfic when you’re studying herbalism.. when they have the character preparing a tincture to use that same DAY!!?

Baby those dried herbs need to sit in that jar with high proof alcohol for at LEAST a month!

That’s why before the use of calendars ppl use to prepare their tinctures either on the new moon or full moon. A a full moon cycle is usually 28 days or so. And they would give the moon names so it’s easier to remember when/what month said tincture was bottled.

This is also why herbal medicine is prepare in small batches. You have to take your time preparing your bottles. Making sure everything is clean so you don’t end up with mold. Diluting your grain alcohol. Heckkk knowing when to pick your herbs for max potency! Drying your herbs! That takes a lot of time too!

I didn’t mean to rant lol

[leroibobo]

in 1972, zeinab shaath released the EP "the urgent call of palestine". inspired by the contemporary counterculture movement, and the protest songs of bob dylan and joan baez in particular, the then-teenage shaath used her life experiences (she was the first member of her family born outside of palestine (specifically, in egypt) in 1954) to write the first english-language songs dedicated to palestinian liberation. in 1973, she'd even shot a four minute music video for the title track in collaboration with the PLO. the original master was siezed by the iof in the 1982 siege of beirut.

you can read the full story about her, the songs, and how both the ep and music video were only recently remastered for international listeners with help from the majazz project and discostan here. you can listen to it (and buy it, both physically and digitally, directly from her) on the bandcamp embed/link provided.

[firestorm09890]

Y'ALL. Y'ALL so for a long time I've believed that "the sun" in Meursault's story is Carmen, and I went to check Hell's Chicken's dialogue to see exactly how he said that he'd dealt with distortions before, and... you know what else he said?

To my knowledge, it is a phenomenon where an individual morphs into a form often unfit to be considered “human”. It has no known causes, and the appearances were all different.

Unfit to be considered human.

Meursault, who, in his book, was judged by the court to be soulless.

Meursault, who has EGO for Cyborgs who have been so mutilated they barely act like people anymore; a murderer who was experimented on until ceasing to be human; a sheep named after Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, a novel about the humanity of androids and the inhumanity of humans; and now a rose that can't help its bloodsucking nature, based on Carmilla, a vampire whose story emphasized the duality between her vampiric traits and her human ones.

Meursault, who answered Heathcliff's ironic question of if he had metal for brains like this:

I'm placing my bets now, that line from Hell's Chicken is foreshadowing for Meursault's canto even more than "I have witnessed a number of [distortion] cases in the past" was

[bookwyrminspiration]

pspsps tlt fans wanna take a survey for my class 👀

it's 11 questions (mostly multiple choice) inquiring broadly into how fans reacts to TLT's religion. it does touch on religious trauma, but only in-depth if you choose to provide in-depth responses, which you absolutely do not have to

you also do not have to be religious to answer! just to have read the series. responses and sharing would be greatly appreciated :)

[fjordfolk]

New Lundehund just dropped! Felix Junior Nilasson B3 made the quality requirement by a good margin and gained full registration today! He's the fourth of the Bs and fifth project dog overall (by my count) to enter the studbook.

The judge noted he has a slightly deep stop, but excellent proportions and volume of body (light and lean) and six sufficiently developed toes on each paw. In terms of health, he's HD B, PL 0, and eye screened clear, no signs of IL.

Nilas' grandmother was a Lundehund-Buhund cross, born in 2016. Lundehunds are being outcrossed to combat issues related to their severely restricted gene pool, such as infertility and a rare genetic disorder that causes 30% of deaths in the breed. The project is a collaboration between the breed club, kennel club, and our leading veterinary and genetic resource centers.

[dangerousflair]

The wall of text strikes again

[pikadxtra]

UltiMelee

Tag: #UltiMelee

Status: Active

This is a hack for Super Smash Bros. Melee that aims to tweak all characters' attributes and movesets to match their Super Smash Bros. Ultimate counterparts, and working from that mix to balance the cast by changing parts of their moveset while keeping true to their character. There are also changes to some mechanics to mix the best of both games, keeping the faster nature of Melee while bringing the better mechanics of later games over, and leaving behind some of Melee's worse ones for a better experience overall.

Mainly, mechanics like Powershield (I think that's the term for the reflecting projectiles with a perfect shield) and Meteor Cancelling have been removed, though others have been changed as well.

Mechanics changed from vanilla include:

Powershield has been removed; projectiles can no longer be reflected by shielding, as this invalidates 99% of projectiles in the game. They can still bounce off your shield like other games, and you can still use digital shield.

Meteor Cancelling has been removed; moves can no longer be jumped out of if they have downwards angled knockback.

Airdodges don't leave you in Freefall; this is experimental for now, ideally airdodges shouldn't cancel your gravity momentum, but this is how it is for now.

Ledge invincibility can no longer be abused; invincibility from ledge now functions like shields, regenerating with time, meaning you can't ledge stall anymore.

Hitbox angle 367° (Autolink) has been added; this allows multihit moves to connect more reliably.

Ledge grabs prioritize closest player instead of being port dependent.

Two players attempting to grab at the same time will cause a tech grab, sending both players back instead of giving priority based on port.

Bury mechanics now behave like Brawl's, where a strong hit will unbury.

Various bug fixes: Throw hitstun bug fix, Freeze glitch, Invisible ceiling, Phantom Hits.

Wobbling disabled after 3 hits.

C Stick works properly in 1 Player Modes.

Other miscellaneous changes:

Names can be longer.

Can play as alternate characters by pressing Z over Zelda (Sheik), Captain Falcon (Male Wireframe), Peach (Female Wireframe), and Bowser (Giga Bowser) on the Character Select Screen to switch between characters. For now, victory screens have been disabled because most of these characters weren't meant to be playable and have no victory animations, causing the game to crash if they win a match.

Neutral spawns on competitive legal stages.

Player can select amount of stocks in All Star Mode.

HUD becomes transparent while players are under it.

Game rules default to 4 stocks, 6 minutes, Friendly Fire on.

Each character will have a post dedicated to them when they are done being worked on, because it's too much to focus on for this post.

Additionally, I should note that this mod doesn't aim to elevate characters to top levels in vanilla, but rather a more healthy balance centered around what you'd expect from a mid tier character like Mario or Samus in vanilla. I will do my best to avoid a spacies situation like Project M and Project +. The goal is to make a fun game that still functions competitively, not kill the fun for both sides. Ultimate was closest in good balance, but it was still far from perfect, so this is an attempt to make something better. No overpowered characters, and no unusable ones either should be the end result if things go right.

Honestly, I have more fun with Melee casually than I do in Ultimate already, but it's a mixed bag competitively for both. If things go right, players should still be able to express themselves through their character instead of being stuck with the same options every time. It's a lot to ask for, but I think it should be doable.

[cringe-towne]

Yarn- Various Baby Yarns

Pattern- Crochet Superstar Star Blanket

star blanket!!

[teddybearty]

So uh…Last Defense Academy, huh? ❤️🖤🤍

[amanitacurses]

"Comin' for you next, Ganon!"

[fatehbaz]

"The most fashionable bathing station in all Europe". British industrialists and American mining investors plotting the colonization of the Congo, while mingling at Ostend's seaside vacation resorts. Extracting African life to build European railways, hotels, palaces, suburbs, and other modern(ist) infrastructure. "Towards infinity!"

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In 1885, King Leopold II achieved an astonishing and improbable goal: he claimed a vast new realm of his own devising, a conjury on a map called [...] the Congo Free State. [...] [A] fictional state owned by the king, ruled by decree, and run from Brussels from 1885 to 1908. [...] This was [...] a private entrepreneurial venture [for the king]. The abundance of ivory, timber, and wild rubber found in this enormous territory brought sudden and spectacular profits to Belgium, the king, and a web of interlocking concession companies. The frenzy to amass these precious resources unleashed a regime of forced labor, violence [millions of deaths], and unchecked atrocities for Congolese people. These same two and a half decades of contact with the Congo Free State remade Belgium [...] into a global powerhouse, vitalized by an economic boom, architectural burst, and imperial surge.

Congo profits supplied King Leopold II with funds for a series of monumental building projects [...]. Indeed, Belgian Art Nouveau exploded after 1895, created from Congolese raw materials and inspired by Congolese motifs. Contemporaries called it “Style Congo,” [...]. The inventory of this royal architecture is astonishing [...]. [H]istorical research [...] recovers Leopold’s formative ideas of architecture as power, his unrelenting efforts to implement them [...]. King Leopold II harbored lifelong ambitions to “embellish” and beautify the nation [...]. [W]ith his personal treasury flush with Congo revenue, [...] Leopold - now the Roi Batisseur ("Builder King") he long aimed to be - planned renovations explicitly designed to outdo Louis XIV's Versailles. Enormous greenhouses contained flora from every corner of the globe, with a dedicated soaring structure completed specifically to house the oversize palms of the Congolese jungles. [...]

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The Tervuren Congo palace [...]. Electric tramways were built and a wide swath of avenue emerged. [...] [In and around Brussels] real estate developers began to break up lots [...] for suburban mansions and gardens. Between 1902 and 1910, new neighborhoods with luxury homes appeared along the Avenue [...]. By 1892, Antwerp was not only the port of call for trade but also the headquarters of the most profitable of an interlinking set of banks and Congo investment companies [...]. As Antwerp in the 1890s became once again the “Queen of the Scheldt,” the city was also the home of what was referred to as the “Queen of Congo companies.” This was the ABIR, or Anglo-Belgian India Rubber Company, founded in 1892 with funds from British businessman “Colonel” John Thomas North [...].

Set on the seaside coast, Belgium’s Ostend was the third imperial cityscape to be remade by King Leopold [...] [in a] transformation [that] was concentrated between 1899 and 1905 [...]. Ostend encompassed a boomtown not of harbor and trade, like Antwerp, but of beachfront and leisure [...] [developed] as a "British-style" seaside resort. [...] Leopold [...] [w]as said to spend "as much time in Ostend as he did in Brussels," [...]. Ostend underwent a dramatic population expansion in a short period, tripling its inhabitants from 1870–1900. [...] Networks of steamers, trams, and railway lines coordinated to bring seasonal visitors in, and hotels and paved walkways were completed. [...] [A]nd Leopold’s favorite spot, the 1883 state-of-the-art racetracks, the Wellington Hippodrome. Referred to with an eye-wink as “the king incognito” (generating an entire genre of photography), visitors to the seaside could often see Leopold in his top hat and summer suit [...], riding his customized three-wheeled bicycle [...]. By 1900, Ostend’s expansion and enhancement made it known as “the Queen of the Belgian seaside resorts” and “the most fashionable bathing station in all Europe.” Opulence, convenience, and spectacle brought the Shah of Persia, American tycoons, European aristocrats, and Belgian elites, among others, to Ostend.

---

Leopold’s interventions and the Congo Free State personnel and proceeds played three pivotal and understudied roles in this transformation, all of which involved ABIR [British industrialists].

First, it was at Ostend that an early and decisive action was taken to structure the “red rubber” regime and set it in motion. In 1892, jurists such as [E.P.] had ruled, contravening [...] trade laws, that the king was entitled to claim the Congo as his domanial property [...]. Leopold [...] devised one part of that royal domain as a zone for private company concessions [...] to extract and export wild rubber.

Soon after, in 1892, King Leopold happened to meet the British “Colonel” John Thomas North at the Ostend Hippodrome. North, a Leeds-born mechanic [...] had made a fortune speculating on Chilean nitrates in the 1880s. He owned monopoly shares in nitrate mines and quickly expanded to acquire monopolies in Chilean freight railways, water supplies, and iron and coal mines. By 1890 North was a high-society socialite worth millions [...]. Leopold approached North at the Ostend racecourse to provide the initial investments to set up the Anglo-Belgian India Rubber Company (ABIR). [...]

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One visible sign of Ostend’s little-known character as Congo boomtown was the Royal Palace Hotel, a lavish property next to the king’s Royal Domain, which opened in 1899. With hundreds of rooms and a broad sweep of acreage along the beachfront, the palace “occupied the largest space of any hotel in Europe.” [...]

King Leopold met American mining magnate Thomas Walsh there, and as with North, the meeting proved beneficial for his Congo enterprise: Leopold enlisted Walsh to provide assessments of some of his own Congo mining prospects. The hotel was part of [...] [a major European association of leisure profiteers] founded in 1894, that began to bundle luxury tourism and dedicated railway travel, and whose major investors were King Leopold, Colonel North [...].

At the height of Congo expansionism, fin-de-siècle Antwerp embodied an exhilarated launch point [...]. Explorers and expeditioners set sail for Matadi after 1887 with the rallying call “Vers l’infini!” (“towards infinity!”) [...].

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Text above by: Debora Silverman. "Empire as Architecture: Monumental Cities the Congo Built in Belgium". e-flux Architecture (Appropriations series). May 2024. At: e-flux.com/architecture/appropriations/608151/empire-as-architecture-monumental-cities-the-congo-built-in-belgium/ [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Italicized first paragraph/heading in this post was added by me. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticism.]