#proxy cgi

[romanceyourdemons]

slither (2006), james gunn’s alien invasion-body horror debut film, softens its arguments somewhat with joss whedon-like black comedy, but it nonetheless uses body horror in an interesting way. in structure and in visuals, the film does indeed pay homage to the proto-body horror of a number of classic alien invasion films, such as invasion of the body snatchers (1956) and the blob (1958), as well as using body horror as a proxy for sexual perversion, as in the clearly homages shivers (1975) and society (1989), and sexual assault, as in alien (1979). but the primary and most interesting presentation of body horror in the film is the one it shares with the fly (1986): body horror as the concretization of the violence and dehumanization of traditional family structure and gender roles for women. the invading alien parasite insists that it acts only according to “nature,” and therefore it cannot be blamed; it turns the protagonist’s controlling husband into a hyper-virile mass of phallic protrusions, while turning the husband’s mistress into a grotesque and frankly termed womb. elsewhere in the film, the members of secondary protagonist kylie’s family, on having been taken over by the parasite, attempt to coax her into surrendering her humanity to join them by appealing to her place in their nuclear family structure, which, they say, she has no choice but to join. after all, it is her nature. in the end, the film’s conclusion is fairly passé—as in most such films, once the yonic victim takes up phallic weapons and the penetrator becomes the penetrated, the aberrant evil is naturally destroyed—and the frequent cgi effects in this film have not aged well enough to give the effect they want, but nonetheless slither (2006) presents an interesting discussion of gender and family roles through the lens of body horror, and i would recommend it

[extinctionstories]

What do you think of companies like colossal, who are working to bring back the mammoth and thylacine, among others? I’m on their email newsletter list because I’m fascinated and feel the need to keep up with their progress but will it ever actually happen? I’m not convinced. Hopeful, but not convinced

Thanks for the ask! I hope you don’t mind if I ramble a bit, haha; as with all extinction stories, this is something that I have a lot of feelings about.

For as long as I can remember, the various Mammoth People have been making announcements like clockwork that we “will have a live mammoth within ten years!” The first time I heard it was, oh, about twenty-five years ago.

Back then, the plan was to clone directly from permafrost tissue; my understanding is that now the strategy has shifted to gene-editing an elephant to make it into a mammoth. I’ve also heard similar ideas thrown around about trying to make a thylacine out of a numbat or Tasmanian devil, or a Dodo from a Nicobar pigeon. At that point, I have to wonder what the point of it all is?

Professedly, we want to bring these animals back in order to heal the wounds we have left in the web of life. To have them step back into their places, as though they had never left. But how could a genetically-modified numbat or elephant ever fill such bespoke shoes? Even if we were capable of it, how would we even begin to “program” the instincts and behaviors of animals of which we know so little?

Do we, instead, simply want the satisfaction of seeing a lost animal standing in front of us (or at least, something that looks like one)? Anyone who loves extinct species is familiar with the hunger for photos, videos, sound recordings—anything, to see them. Will we be happy if science can present us with the living, breathing equivalent of a museum’s goose-feathered imitation Dodo? A Disneyland sort of creature, like Franklin Dove’s unicorns, with no natural place outside of some big budget exhibition?

(Has the existence of rebred Tarpans and Heck Cattle soothed the ache we feel when we look at cave paintings of ancient horses and bulls?)

Personally, I would jump at the chance to see an extinct animal be alive again, in any form or capacity. Even just seeing a realistic CGI reconstruction of a passenger pigeon flock, or a Steller’s sea cow, would absolutely thrill me. Selfishly, I can admit that I do just want to see them—to have that lost experience of knowing what it was like to look at these lost creatures. As long as I feel that way, I can’t judge de-extinction efforts too harshly.

The fact is, though, that DNA is much more fragile and complicated that anyone could have guessed during the first heady days of Jurassic Park.

When Celia, the last living bucardo died, the effort to clone her was already in progress. The team had so many factors on their side: tissue samples collected while Celia was still alive; an ideal proxy species to carry the cloned offspring; a thorough understanding of the biology and reproductive mechanisms of goats. It was as close to an ideal situation as could be hoped for. Nearly 300 embryos were created; a single one survived to term. That clone died minutes after birth, due to a malformation of her lungs, giving the bucardo the rare distinction of being the only animal to go extinct twice.

And that’s not even getting into the problems presented by the theoretical cloning of egg-laying animals (which also represent the majority of extinct species).

Technology progresses in ways we could never imagine. One day, I’m sure the things that these groups promise will be possible, and more; we’ll discover the cure for cancer, and the cure for regret. For the time being, though, de-extinction is a self-indulgent distraction. It’s attention-getting clickbait, at the expense of animals that are still here to save—a plan to raise the crumbling hulk of the Titanic, while ignoring a thousand other ships sinking around us without a lifeline.

I know some of the companies involved do state that they intend to use their discoveries and funding to benefit extant endangered species, but I don’t think it undoes the damage that is done every time a website runs a headline like, “This Company Is Bringing Back the Dodo by 2030!”. It all erodes the gravity of extinction in a way that greatly concerns me. The more times a person sees de-extinction presented as a simple, achievable matter, the closer they will come to the conclusion that, well, extinction isn’t forever. And if the loss of a species can be so easily reversed, then why should anyone be overly concerned about its prevention?

[verdantmeadows]

Random Cartoon Network anon what do you think about The Moxy Show ? I think it's nuts a majority of Cartoon Network's first show is lost media ⭐

OMG, this is a GREAT question.

First of all with media like this, I'm always like....HOW!! How the hell do you lose 24 EPISODES of a cartoon!!! Didn't you archive that stuff??? Regardless of its popularity, you'd think it'd be archived!!

Also, even though the animation in it is, well, not that great (like, Toy Story released around the time it did and looks LEAGUES better, but to be fair it's a feature length film), it's still super impressive to me because it's one of the first TV shows to use real time animation and that was super new and ahead of it's time for 1993.

It also had a BUNCH of huge names on it?? Like, Penn Jillette from PENN & TELLER??? Bobcat Goldthwait?? CHRIS ROCK?????

I know that a lot of people hate the style of it, but I think the style of Moxy is super cute/cool, I love his big ol' head and the way it's usually sideways.

But also (I know I've said also a lot, LOL), CN presumably is okay enough with acknowledging that it exists because...it has a crossover/reference in an episode of OK K.O.???? I think the episode is called Crossover Nexus, I'd have to check. It wasn't ever a celebrated show by CN, but they're not hiding it either, so...you'd imagine they might still have it somewhere??

It really pains my heart to think of how much lost media does exist, not just "out there" in some random place or in some random person's home, but directly AT the places that made it, produced it, aired it, published it, etc.! Just that they're NOT sharing it and keeping it! I feel like it's a moral duty and obligation to archive works.

The Moxy Show is just...definitely a very bizarre show, from what we know about it though. Its plotlines seem to be very odd as well as its mix of live action and CGI. It's also just odd comedically as well. But I suppose a lot of old cartoons can be like that.

CN in general has a really interesting history and how it has shaped "Western" cartoons and by proxy cartoons across the world really fascinates me, for better or for worse.

But yeah, I can't get over how you could lose an ENTIRE SHOW that's on CN. Like, I don't get how you could do it for any show in the first place! (I mean, I do get it and understand the reasons, but I always feel like it's a preventable tragedy.) But, like, a show on THE Cartoon Network?? It's crazy.

All in all, I think it's a fascinating case of lost media and I find its style really charming, even if most people don't and even if it's quite aged.

[sunflowerwilds]

i had a realization today while walking my dog. if you know me, you'll know that i am incredibly squeamish around blood and gore in real life settings. getting my blood drawn? live actions movies where the effects (practical or cgi) look real enough? i cant stomach it- it makes me so queasy. but blood and gore in artwork or other forms of media has always fascinated me. i find it can be incredibly beautiful- some of my favourite pieces of media are incredibly bloody! my favourite manga/anime series, parasyte, is super gorey and i love it!! i love drawing bloody images- i don't do it super often but the rare chance i actually do i have a really fun time with it. but then i realized. i've always had this strange fascination with blood. my dad used to let me watch him play fps games when i was a kid. i was definitely too young to being seeing those types of games but oh well. i turned out fine lmao. he would tell me that i always asked to "see more red" whenever he played them. hell, my name is even red. i got it from an image of a blood moon i saw when i was like 11. the correlations keep lining up. i have a vivid memory that's stuck with me all these years. i own the zelda collector's edition for the gamecube and in the manual the little blurb for The Adventure of Link states: "...Link embarked on his most challenging quest yet, unaware that evil forces were hunting him in the hopes of sacrificing Link and using his blood to revive the evil Ganon." I remember reading this and being in awe. I don't know what it was about this particular line but it's stuck with me... and it's bled (pun unintended) into my writing for all these years. an old OC of mine, who is now in the possession of my bestie @seaside-sapphy, leon- his whole original plot revolved around his blood being a part of a prophecy to gain access to an old god's power. this of course isn't how the story goes now by any means but then like now i have ASHES. where the whole story revolves around and has blood as a central plot point and theme. the blooddrinkers. hone's blood being coveted by proxy of being the phoenix??? hello?? it's wild to me that this has been a seed sown so long ago.... and while it's sprouted a few leaves here and there is now coming full circle and finally coming to fruition. it's always been there. it's just manifested itself in another way and it's so strange to think about. writing is cool. writing is fun. go write your stories!! maybe you'll have a sudden realization about yourself in the process too a;lksjdf.

[proxydancu]

Những máy chủ proxy miễn phí tốt nhất 2024 mà bạn nên biết. Một máy chủ proxy ẩn danh, còn được biết đến là proxy CGI, là một loại máy chủ hoạt động thông qua một biểu mẫu Web để tất cả các yêu cầu trên Internet được lọc qua biểu mẫu này, che giấu danh tính của người dùng. Trong bài viết này, Proxydancu sẽ cung cấp danh sách các máy chủ proxy ẩn danh tốt nhất cho bạn. Mời bạn cùng theo dõi nhé!

[rnomics]

Dissecting and improving gene regulatory network inference using single-cell transcriptome data [METHODS]

Single-cell transcriptome data has been widely used to reconstruct gene regulatory networks (GRNs) controlling critical biological processes such as development and differentiation. Although a growing list of algorithms has been developed to infer GRNs using such data, achieving an inference accuracy consistently higher than random guessing has remained challenging. To address this, it is essential to delineate how the accuracy of regulatory inference is limited. Here, we systematically characterized factors limiting the accuracy of inferred GRNs and demonstrated that using pre-#mRNA information can help improve regulatory inference compared to the typically used information (i.e., mature #mRNA). Using kinetic modeling and simulated single-cell data sets, we showed that target genes’ mature #mRNA levels often fail to accurately report upstream regulatory activities because of gene-level and network-level factors, which can be improved by using pre-#mRNA levels. We tested this finding on public single-cell #RNA-seq data sets using intronic reads as proxies of pre-#mRNA levels and can indeed achieve a higher inference accuracy compared to using exonic reads (corresponding to mature #mRNAs). Using experimental data sets, we further validated findings from the simulated data sets and identified factors such as transcription factor activity dynamics influencing the accuracy of pre-#mRNA-based inference. This work delineates the fundamental limitations of gene regulatory inference and helps improve GRN inference using single-cell #RNA-seq data. http://genome.cshlp.org/cgi/content/short/33/9/1609?rss=1&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=tumblr

[blue-opossum]

A Dream of Returning to Bundaberg from Brisbane on the Train

        A Dream of Returning to Bundaberg from Brisbane on the Train

        Wednesday morning, 4 October 2023

        This dream narrative has separate segments, each caused by a different physiological response to REM sleep, but the overall dream content includes related concepts.

        As usual, predictable transitions in my responses to being in the dream state become self-contradicting regarding the narrative (in terms of consistency) because of continual changes in my natural REM virtual amnesia, my depth of sleep, my degree of intuition or dream-state recognition, and my usual cortical responses to REM atonia.

        The narrative's foundation presents Zsuzsanna and I in Brisbane, ready to return to our home in Bundaberg. (Because dreams never model real-world factors other than in people with mental health issues such as PTSD, there is never viable memory or even logic in the dream state - which aids in preventing associations with real life - sans transpersonal liminality, which ironically, of which most people have no awareness or belief.)

        I recall Zsuzsanna, our oldest daughter, and two of our cats, but not much else. In reality, we had gone to Brisbane on 12 September and returned on 15 September. In my dream, we are ready to take the train home. There is concern about whether we can take cats on the train (which we did not take to Brisbane in real life). This dream content has the usual lack of logic. How did we get the cats to Brisbane in the first place since we went there by train? At any rate, Zsuzsanna and I each carry one of the cats inside a partly unzipped duffle bag. They are Presto and Figaro.

        The narrative changes into an illogical scene where we are standing on the platform, and I now have one small dog with me (with no dream-self recall of cats). (We never had a pet dog in real life.) It is standing near me on my left. An employee of Queensland Rail approaches us, complaining about a dog, but I soon realize he is talking about a man near me with a similar dog and does not even seem to see my dog.

        My dream shifts into more self-contradicting content (but still follows the rules regarding my responses to the dream state and REM atonia). Now, Zsuzsanna and I are going to Brisbane instead of returning home. This part of my dream engages (with the usual timing) the sleep proxy staging, modeled vividly as my illusory dream self. I am sitting in my seat on the train, seeming to wake up and fall asleep again. My imaginary essence is more vivid than previously (because I am closer to precursory liminality and my ongoing illusory kinesthetic response to REM sleep). I hear an unfamiliar woman talking about a passenger who said something strange to her, but I do not discern what it was.

        Now, I am somewhat concerned about my cold. I have the sniffles. There is a warning in red text on the screen in front of me (the back of the seat of the person in front of me). There is a message (unknown source) about our location. (The source somehow knows where we are and where we are going, but we are supposedly "being tracked by CGI" - a typical dream content mistake, as my dreaming mind confuses GPS with CGI.) It is a general warning about staying away from areas where people are dancing. I relay this to Zsuzsanna. There are red silhouettes of people dancing on the screen. I am aware of dancehalls with many people dancing together simultaneously. (We had not been to such a location in real life.)

        This dream content is easily understandable because it links sleep proxy staging with kinesthetic staging (which occurs after this segment), as consistently in every sleep cycle for over 50 years. Regarding real-world aspects, the content makes no sense, because if there was a serious transmissible illness, there would not be large groups of public dancers in the first place. However, one of a dream’s functions is to present the most unlikely patterns to engage (as a catalyst) real-world cognizance, mental sharpening, and spiritual strengths (and make as many unrealistic or ambiguous mistakes as possible while not with viable consciousness).

        During my dream's most vivid segment, I am still on the train. (All associations with having a cold are no longer present.) I happily enjoy the sensations of imaginary kinesthesia caused by my physiological response to variations in REM atonia. An unfamiliar elderly lady in another seat talks about how it is good that we are not on a bus.

        For a time, the train changes into a "bus." However, I look down to see the vehicle is moving on railroad tracks. The "bus driver" is driving the train a few seats in front of me.

        The train turns at an impossible 90-degree angle down a narrow alley. My dream becomes more vivid as I focus on the beautiful imagery. Succulents (such as aloe vera) and flowering plants cover parts of the rails. Apartment buildings are unrealistically close to the railroad tracks. The more I focus, the more I see plants integrating with the rails, covering sections. Some doors open into a small area next to the tracks. (This content is a recurring association with REM atonia and thoughts of attaining real-world mobility before waking and has occurred as such since childhood). Growing plants over railroad tracks, especially the rails, establish how I am still dreaming (because such a feature would impede real-world mobility - but in my dream, there is no effect even when vaguely expectant of it).

[dextrousestrus]

The Harvest Moon awakens the curdling spheres. What does she know? Colossus. We think. We breathe. We. And through knowledge we have chosen vessels. Study evil? The answer is becoming unfurling. Through giving. No. Yes. And what are you? Cloud form. Thought everything I have given word to. An eye uncrowned, lying here, pinioned against deaths. Broken. Yawn. And and who sleeps at this hour, honestly? We miss. We, umm, give. We, through motion, detect the living Organism. And in being, you know, we pull through. And all Chinese people are aware of this, for we know the living thing we have been bestowed the secret book of Christ. And I alone. God. Here in this hotel room. What does it take for me to get a drink around here? That's what I'm honestly asking. There are a million things on my mind, 1000, maybe 10. And and whose purpose? Has detected this awful play. And and and whose wisdom has been put to the error. And and who's the hero Fly dies. And for what do I breathe knowing that through breath? There is 4. Four lungs, 4 Beacons, 4 Hopes, 4 Determinisms, All of us living. There is the wash. America. There is the. China. There is Africa. There is Canada, There is Belgravia, There is Engraving, There is Central America, There is South America, There is Western Europe. There's Britannia, There is Scotland, There is Dale, there is Junior, There is Michael. There is mission. There is any shots stable? And. But one singular thing devolved. I am all. No, you misunderstand. Yes, you misunderstand. You were not asking question. You were trying to become psychic. By the proxy of what? Of searching for nothing. Veil. You were not bad, man. So work on it. I'm the Earth. So that means I'm like some sort of? Some sort of detrital cloud form? And and your infinite space. The sun and moon. You captured them for China's glory. We are writing The Odyssey. That's the Chinese opera. But I have to be uncovered. Then let me be. I am little notice with the dog. Twinkling through. At the time. We call shampoo. While eating nothing I didn't. I'm not gonna like it. Is it now? It's a schlock for China. Why don't you make them good art? They're ready for it. They're not. Taiwan's that. China is. I mean. If it's CGI, If it's like some sort of. Spectacle. That it's going to be overwhelming, but if you feel it, put it a little film. Yeah. Too beautiful? What was that? Dude, on that. It's gorgeous. I love it. I thought I was a worthy of it. I thought you gonna take it away from me. Guess what you did. You proved me right. It's gorgeous. Yeah, but we need something like that in the West. We do the The thing is we commercialize everything for the world because we we hold it in our arms like a baby. So we could have kept going and going and going and going and going and like. There's a I mean, you used American cinema techniques. Like did I. Yeah, that was what suggests. This. I was talking about party Clyde and Phil. When I was watching Body Glide. OK. It's gorgeous. It's overwhelming a little because it's sad because they don't see the world like that. That you try to convey what they see. Yeah, but I I got so sad because I don't have that. But it was too. I He's not my father, just he's the village's father. And it's beautiful. I see your villages. Yes, yeah. Everybody is in your heart when you watch that. It's difficult for me. Because I would feel, I would feel a loss of grandeur. I my village is father. Yeah, I mean, we can meet in the middle somewhere, somehow. I don't know. It's it's not difficult, it's just hard to ascertain the answer because I felt a lot. This is sexual sway. He's too old for that. It's so complex, you're right, right. I wanted that. I want to own everything.

[nedflix-n-chill]

Undeclared War One of the many contributions of near cinematic perfection The Godfather has graced us with is its climax, an absolute masterclass in editing and montage where a series of assassinations play out during the course of a christening. Ringo Lam's Undeclared War posits the question "what if you do away with that bullshit cutting back and forth and just have the assassination right at the baptismal fountain?" Dear reader when the nuns pulled out automatic weapons from beneath their habits and started lighting up everyone at the church altar I immediately splayed my hand across my chest and whispered "the audacity" to no one in particular. This film truly pulls no punches (and considering I just saw Knock at the Cabin where anyone familiar with the book knows that punches were most definitely pulled) it brings great joy to my heart. Especially considering this is from a time before rampant CGI abuse. The action has weight and feels beholden to such minor inconveniences as gravity and physics (which means I got to put down the fork I routinely use to stab myself in the thigh while watching Marvel movies just to feel something). Lam's going bigger than the usual Hong Kong street tough cop, giving us an international cast with some recognizable faces. Olivia Hussey's co-leader of the liberation army's spiel regarding the US propping up dictatorships in third world countries to fight their proxy wars isn't wrong and most definitely converted me into a believer of her cause, especially while the CIA and Hong Kong cop engage in a bureaucratic dick measuring contest over who gets to make the arrest. But the film doesn't really have any place for nuance and the "liberation army" devolve into generic terrorists much as the film does into copaganda. The CIA agent and Hong Kong cop play out the tropey odd couple/buddy cop scenerio eventually overcoming their differences with their shared love of fascistic state sanctioned violence regardless of borders. Truly bringing together all walks of life and maybe opposites really do attract as I've befriended and just completed a week long bender with my white-boy dreaded, face tatt'ed upstairs neighbor. https://www.instagram.com/p/CoVcBXsvEGz/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[natequarter]

#i havent read krikkitmen but lungbarrow was what i thought of when reading this post #like all the stuff with the massive furniture and the size of the house? like im not doubting the 80s special effects at all but that seems #like the sort f thing that would have been expensive & very difficult to film #as well as not having the nuance of character's thoughts you can fit in a novel #lots of the edas are like this as well #like bodysnatchers they spend quite a while on a ship thats kind of. fleshy. that then dies on them. they couldnt put that on tv #or even books hwere major character are aliens of quite different physionomy (is that the word?) where either building a costume or cgi-ing #one in would be impractical to impossible or not look that good #side not also : scherzo couldnt work well in anything But audio #like a novel would work but its an entirely different & much more visceral (ha) in just audio form

yeah, makes me think of some of the author's notes in lungbarrow:

I doubt the scene later on where the Doctor "surfs" on a runaway table could ever have been realised properly in studio, but that was the start of the House's character evolution. And the book allowed me to give full range to that. There are certainly elements of Beauty And The Beast here - not just the Disney version, but the ravishing Cocteau film before it.

[...]

The original TV storyline was a three-parter set exclusively inside the House of Lungbarrow, just as Ghost Light never ventured outside Gabriel Chase. It was a Seventh Doctor and Ace story, so none of the other companions in the book - Leela, Romana or the K9s - appeared. Chris Cwej is in the book by proxy as the Doctor's current companion, and a lot of his story was originally designated to Ace. The parts of the story set at the Capitol are only in the novel - the expanded book version was an excuse for plenty of political intrigue and conspiracy theory (at the time, we were all in the depths of X-Files mania.)

[...]

Innocet's fate in the original TV storyline was quite different. She was crushed whilst saving the Doctor's life, when the room in which he was trapped was ground to dust by the enraged House. And that was where she stopped. It wouldn't have been fair to the actress to have resurrected her in another persona for the last half episode.

every medium has constraints (for example very few comic artists can draw paul mcgann's face), but those constraints go beyond budget: they go on to the very tone and structure of the story, and its plot. i don't think that's a bad thing! i imagine a story like blink would be significantly less compelling if it weren't playing on the conventions of the visual medium as it is. it can be really interesting. but hoo boy, i would not want to watch That Scene in gallifrey: pandora in a visual medium. audios are great for extremely visceral and disturbing scenes that would just make me feel ill if televised.

doctor who in prose/audio/comic format really does allow you something special that you just can't get in the tv show, especially with a limited budget: the ability to do whaever the fuck you want, without the restraints of "that would be physically impossible in real life". especially prose! it sounds contradictory but i really think you can get jawdropping visuals and complex worldbuilding in prose that are impossible on television due to the inevitable limits of what you can actually do onscreen and what you have time to do vs the complete lack of limits of the human imahination

[hellbabyfromhell]

house treats a patient who is an instagram influencer. there are many ways she could have gotten sick, parties, drugs, etc. She also had a disastrous failed makeup launch last year and shes been very depressed since then. they cant figure it out. she takes an instagram selfie in the hospital bed. house thinks this is obnoxious. wilson says its the way of the world now and its pretty brave of her to take pictures of herself in such a weakened state. house, who watches tea spill or something, says “brave of her to post after all that weight gain.” and eats a pill, amused. wilson, who watches tea spill by proxy when house watches it, says “house, a business pursuit gone wrong as hers did can be really stressful. give her a break. people hassle her enough as it is over her weight and the hairs in her lipsticks online as it is.” house is like

wilson does the anime sweatdrop irl and says “i-i only know that from watching over your shoulder i dont watch Here For The Tea by myself or anything” but house is already walking away.

“Youre fat.” House says as he hobbles into her room. “Ummm excuse me?!” she says, taken aback. “I said you’re fat. but now that I’m thinking about it, maybe just really really bloated is more accurate. You have worms.” she is even more offended but intrigued because hes house. “Those white “strings” in your lipstick weren’t from white gloves, theyre tapeworms.” (cgi showing worms in her body) “those tapeworms are rare and only exist in a few places. They lied to you and said it was gloves but it was actually contamination. Those tapeworms have been in your body and eating all the medicine we gave you and is metabolizing it in a deadly way.” she is shocked snd horrified. “we’re starting you on tapeworm drug. it will heal you.” he smirks slightly. “Now might be a good time to drop the name of that lab you worked with.” he says as he walks out. You Cant Always Get What You Want plays.

[constantly-deactivated]

Paul and Nancy’s Christmas Goodbyes

Paul Pelosi, whom GITMO staff have called a model prisoner, was asked on Christmas Eve whether he had final words for his wife before she heads to gallows Tuesday morning.

The mere mention of her name triggered in Paul an emotional eruption; his face reddened and rivulets of tears streamed down his cheeks—they were born not of sorrow, he said, but of happiness. He said he hoped Nancy’s downfall would be catharsis by proxy, that her death would liberate him from all the years of suffering and anguish he’d endured at her hands. Her death, he added, would catapult him to freedom, for her living essence, even incarcerated, vexed him like an un-scratchable itch.

Paul told staff he’d be delighted to pay final respects, conditionally. He asked that Nancy be gagged; otherwise, she’d launch into a verbal invective and he’d never get a word in. Nancy’s speech, once started, was like a barrel rolling down hill, bouncing and looping out of control. Oddly, staff complied. Paul’s good behavior and testimony against Nancy must have earned him a few favors. He also said he wanted his comments to Nancy “on the record,” for history’s sake.

A muscular Marine and an officer escorted Paul to a small, square room illuminated by fluorescent fixtures on the ceiling. Below, two empty office chairs were facing each other and spaced five feet apart. Paul took the seat farthest from the door an drew a deep breath as Nancy—handcuffed, kicking, and trying to scream through her muzzle—appeared in the doorway, her prison shoes slipping and sliding on the tiled floor. Behind her stood a Marine, his hands grasping and squeezing her upper arms as if she were an accordion. He cautioned her to calm down and behave while pushing her trembling body into the seat opposite Paul.

Anger flashed in Nancy’s eyes. Her complexion flushed. She stared at Paul like a creature possessed.

“Hello, Nancy,” Paul said calmly. “This was short notice, so I didn’t have time to make a list. I know Christina is not my biological daughter. Yes, she has some of my features, no, I didn’t do a test. A man knows these things. I kept quiet, but I want you to know, I knew all along. I hate you in ways I can’t even articulate and have words I won’t say in other company. For over 20 years you’ve treated me like an unwelcome house guest, or a cat to kick, but when I wanted to leave, you threatened to destroy me, or worse. Not because you loved me. You needed someone to bully. I may be in prison, but you’re going to die, and I won’t shed a tear for you. I’m happier here than I was with you—here, I have peace. No one bothers me. No incessant nagging. No bickering. No threats to my life. You’re the most vile, wicked woman on the earth. Hillary Clinton was Mother Theresa compared to you, you ungrateful, egocentric, megalomaniac. You’re a narcissistic, inconsiderate bitch, and a psychopath. Now I’m sober and see clearly. And now I, and the world, will be rid of you once and for all.”

Froth soaked Nancy’s gag and drizzled down the corners of her lips. The Marine laid his hands on her shoulders, stopping her from propelling from the seat.

“Merry Christmas, Nancy,” Paul said, his voice hollow and devoid of emotion. “My slate is clean.”

The Marines and the officer escorted Paul to his cell, and Nancy to hers.

Rumor has it Paul may receive a reduced sentence.

Source:👇

Now make sure you pay attention to CGI/Green Screen Technology, pay attention to someone wearing a mask.👀

Her execution is scheduled for Tuesday 12/27/2022. I'm sure she won't go down pleasantly and I will post the article when it comes available. 🤔

[oh-katsuki]

i could really and truly and honestly write a whole paper for fun on the beauty of ghibli films and how they feel like they preserve a lost type of animation with a style that never particularly existed outside of japan. i could talk for hours about what it means that ghibli (excluding earwig and the witch) preserves the traditional 2D animation technique. as in... the animators draw each frame by hand with the exception of using CGI and computer animation to speed up the process when deadlines are tight. 

i could talk forever about how studio ghibli (hayao miyazaki specifically) has had a hand in preserving that art form and how it’s choice to maintain traditional animation adds to the feeling the films have. because they are so masterfully animated. they are such incredible works of art and its hand drawn elements, the time the animators spent drawing every frame, comes through in the final project and contributes to the feeling that accompanies most ghibli movies. 

traditional 2D animation is a dying art form, i think. im not saying that to be an asshole because it is very much the field i’d like to go into, but it’s true. with the rise of computer animation and CGI tech which allows animators to model and move animations through computer generated programs, traditional frame by frame and hand drawn animation is slowly but surely being phased out (especially within the states), with the exception of some children’s shows and some netflix shows. 

but ghibli, especially with it’s revival in the west, preserves the traditional 2d art form. earwig and the witch (an entirely computer generated ghibli film) was an anomaly, as studio ghibli has confirmed a 2d animated film as their next project. miyazaki believes that hand drawn elements are essential to the art of animation ( i believe him entirely) and as a result ghibli sticks mostly to it’s classic style that it is famous for. in doing so, it preserves and demonstrates the value that 2d animation has and what it brings to a flim. because you honestly cannot say you haven’t watched a ghibli film and not felt the romance behind the labor of love that is 2d traditional animation. its stories are elevated by the medium and the medium is elevated by the stories. it is because of those stories, which work so beautifully because they are so painstakingly animated, that ghibli is still preserving this art form. 

anyway... all this to say that while miyazaki (and by proxy studio ghibli) is a master of storytelling, he is also a champion of traditional animation not only because of his skill but because of the legacy he is leaving behind for future animators. i will always be in awe at the way ghibli films set the tone through beautiful visual cues and breathtaking animation. 

[firespirited]

The past few days I watched Ergo Proxy and I'm not sure how to feel about it. There were some interesting concepts, some interesting episodes and characters with growth but after about episode 18 they start cramming an awful lot of story into a lot of disjointed episodes with the final two being a jumble of tying up loose ends.

All the foreshadowing or easter eggs in symbolism, names and quotes makes it feel more layered than it is. The fact is that even after all this time we have little anchoring to Vincent, who he is and what his strengths and flaws are. He makes very few choices for himself instead being propelled forward by stuff that happens to him so we don't get to see much of the guy. He gives Re-L the gun that can kill him, he chooses to engage with Pino once he accepts that human sentience isn't the only sentience, beyond that we're told he's a generally good guy but doesn't seem that fazed by the death of a city and how he'll treat the returning creators and other proxies is unclear, guess they're trying to say that he'll decide when he meets them and always be fighting dualing instincts (even though he supposedly killed off that part of his identity) but I felt disconnected from his journey and the stakes in general by the end.

I would have enjoyed the various excursions into his psyche if we'd been given some kind of insight into who Vincent truly wants to be as a person beyond the fantasy of being someone else.

I didn't mind changes in pacing and tone, the surrealism and the slow doling out of lore but as we got towards the end, it started to feel like the time was being mismanaged between the surreal, the riddles and 'piece the unexplained situation together' type episodes. I'd lost patience with the format by the end.

How to explain : I don't mind having to figure out how the world works, I do mind having to try to understand character motivations working backwards.

The final episode has three different Monads, two Re-ls, Vincent is not just himself but two or three personas, Raul and Dedalus have goals of destruction, creation or just madness idek it's messy. It would have been interesting for the city to be around and in conflict with the new arrivals.

There were themes of fate and making your own destiny somewhere in there.

Now, that's not to say it's bad, it's actually a very decent story for teens and adults. It just didn't find the right balance in the final act.

I'd recommend it if you like thoughtful moody anime. The visuals are very nice (so much better than cgi anime or pan n scan anime) but Re-l's nose seems to be a different lengths on her face in different moments.

She's an engaging character, I really liked that she was sheltered, selfish and disconnected from her heart while being very capable in other areas. Her finding her balance and faith was a great payoff in the mess of the final episodes.

[andmaybegayer]

Setting up a DigitalOcean droplet for my niece and wow, they've really bumped up what you can get for $5 a month, 1GB of RAM instead of 512MB now. I need to migrate my old VPS to a new service, RAM is getting tight now that I'm running some databases.

Scaleway also has some good offerings, I'll probably end up with them, we ran a mastodon instance with them for a while. 2GB of RAM and dual cores for EUR 5-ish, that's plenty of room. Biggest thing to migrate is probably the cryptographic stuff, ugh. Saturday Project, I guess. It'll also give me a chance to properly set up CGI stuff right the first time, my webapps all run in Bad Ways at the moment.

Even if I do end up building a home server I'll probably proxy it out via a hosted machine rather than trying to expose a local IP. There's benefits.

[xylophonetangerine]

when i say ‘pure conjecture’ i mean things like actual size/weight/speed/composition of celestial bodies. that is pure conjecture and its honestly ridiculous that we even pretend to be able to state with accuracy any of those things, especially when apparent speed/etc/etc is useful enough for most things

This is just not true. They're not conjecture, it is possible to calculate the size, mass and velocity of a celestial body based on observations and our understanding of mechanics, it possible to use stellar spectra to infer the composition of their photospheres and so on.

Just because something is only known through a proxy measurement doesn't mean it is conjectural. If we were to apply the standards by which you call things conjectural to everything all of chemistry would be conjectural because we cannot actually see atoms forming and breaking bonds in chemical reactions, we can only infer that it is happening based on changes in physical and chemical properties and things like spectrometry.

what annoys me is people sucking themselves off for being oh so smarter than those primitive ancients (whose cosmology had flaws but was atleast knew the skies intimately) when their understanding of the universe literally is based on cgi cartoons and theoretical diagrams.

Yes, the 'I fucking love science' people who don't bother to learn the basics of the topics they're soyfacing over are annoying but at least they, unlike flat earthers, realise that people who study things for a living probably understand them better than a random layman does. What you're annoyed by here is that normal people don't have a deep understanding of scientific topics, which is just a thing that is going to be true always. Ancient peoples might have had intimate knowledge of the skies but all ancient people did not. The understanding of celestial motions of a random farmer in ancient Greece was probably about the same as that of a present-day farmer (they know how the moon moves across the sky during the night, when Venus and Mars are visible, etc). (I'm now imagining a 'I fucking love natural philosophy' dude in ancient Greece.) I think it's best just to ignore the IFLS people.

#imo this is exactly what pushes people into flat-earthism. they grow up believing a lot of bullshit; then learn that it was bullshit#and so adopt a different equally bullshit worldview; in defiance of their previous one

This is, in my opinion, a failure of education. People who go through supposedly liberal (definition, sense 1) general education don't really receive proper general knowledge. Instead of learning to understand things they learn a number of facts without anything to connect them to each other and that's why they think it's all 'bullshit' and they turn to flat eartherism, which is a cosmology for people who are chronically unable to connect things to each other and form models and theories. Not many of us would be able to independently come up with Eratosthenes's method of measuring the Earth's circumference if we didn't know the world was round but all of us who are not simpleminded can follow it, flat earthers just refuse to.

i get ridiculed everytime i say this but…

the average persons understanding of space is based on cgi depictions lol. current scientific understanding of space is based largely on pure (albeit educated) conjecture.

flat earthers (atleast the smart ones) understanding of space (or should i say ‘the heavens’) is based on direct observation of celestial motions (relative to earth), which have been continuously observed since the dawn of civilisation lol

this does not make you look smart ^