#welcome experts

[the-catboy-minyan]

hey good faith question- do you mind elaborating on judaism’s belief of g-d not being the ‘one true g-d’ and just the ‘g-d of the hebrews?

sure, but keep in mind that I wasn't raised in a religious house, so I'm not an expert and this could be inaccurate, you could wait to see if other people would elaborate in reblogs or replies.

a lot of religions have the belief that they worship the true g-d(s) and everyone else is wrong and are worshipping (a) false g-d(s). I believe Christianity works like that.

in the Tanach, there is no claim that other religions' g-ds don't exist, in fact, there are instances were miracles from other g-ds happen, but the jewish g-d is described as unique and stronger than others.

for example, in the story of The Exodus (is that how יציאת מצרים is called in english), when Moses comes to the Pharaoh for the first time to ask to release the Hebrews, he showcases Hashem's (the Jewish g-d) strength by turning his staff into a snake, the Pharaoh's magicians(?) then proceed to also turn their staffs into snakes, but Moses's snake eats theirs. the story doesn't show their g-ds as non-existent, they gave the magicians the same powers as Hashem, but the power of Hashem was stronger and thus Moses's snake won over the other snakes.

foreign worship is banned in Judaism, not because the foreign g-ds are false, but because they're not Hashem, I don't know how to explain it but that's how it works.

[mayperhapsbe]

“Did you know that the flowers of a fig are inverted? They rely on certain wasps that burrow into them to pollinate them. In the process, however, they lose their wings and end up dying inside the soon-to-be fig after they’ve pollinated and laid their eggs. After a while the eggs hatch and the newly hatched wasps burrow their way out of it. The reason why we don’t get a mouthful of dead wasps when we eat them is due to an enzyme that the pollinated fig produces to digest and absorb the nutrients of said dead wasps. The fig then ripens into what we eat. Oh, and that crunch you hear when eating it is just the seeds btw, so don’t worry.”

[rooksunday]

commander fox as the stakeholder specialist on an interview panel for a new pantoran security official. he thought he was turning up for the usual briefing. he has never sat on an interview panel in his life—he learnt what one was approximately twenty minutes ago.

the panel is him, riyo chuchi, her current head of security, and bail organa (padmé isn’t allowed on interview panels anymore because she intimidates people).

fox manages to get through the day without anyone seeing him sweat (buckets: so useful) and vibrates his way back to the barracks to yell thorn from bed because he’s had an amazing idea.

rex, opening his comms: what’s an ‘annual review panel’ and why is fox sending me an appointment for one? is this a joke?

cody, having read his own messages and still cross about it: why am i interviewing to be his brother. i’m already his brother. do i have to go?

ponds, via holo, serenely: yes 😌 i’m on the panel 😌 and i’m taking notes 😌

[centrally-unplanned]

(Extreme on-brand post incoming) Some translation discourse about Chainsaw Man's latest chapter right now - in English this scene is translated as "slut":

But in the original it is 痴女/Chijo:

Literally "dumb woman" but almost always today used to mean "female molester". So people are complaining that, particularly given that Asa was the initiator of the current sexual encounter in question, that this is an incorrect translation - her anger is more over being a violator than shame over her sex drive or whatever.

I don't think they are right about that - "slut" is the best translation of 痴女. It doesn't not mean 'molester', it is used for someone who actually does that, but that is comparatively rare - its primarily used more metaphorically for a "sexually aggressive woman". Here is a typical dictionary entry for the word, which includes this line:

色情におぼれ迷う女

"to lose oneself in lust". Because the idea of this molester is that it isn't some calculating predator or anything, it is that she is overcome by her emotions, unable to reign herself in, and thus crosses boundaries. Hence the word origin - "dumb woman", right? Sounds like a slut to me, pretty similar to how we use that term - even if it has no connotations of sexual assault in English.

Also this is just the culturally accepted translation of the word, I think that counts for something.

But I want to go deeper - after all, there are other words in Japanese that mean "slut", like パンコ/Panko - yes like-but-not-exactly the breadcrumbs let's not get distracted okay? So why use 痴女? Here, I am going to note that this is a manga, it's part of a specific culture. Maybe you've noticed that in eroge male media - even tame ones like harem shows - compared to western porn the men are pretty passive? They don't make a lot of stories of chads pulling chicks, it is nerds having alien space hotties throw themselves at him.

This definitely comes from wider Japanese culture, don't get me wrong (and I lack expertise there, lets not oversell myself), but it is definitely the case than in animanga a male passivity streak is just sort of embedded as the default. And you can see that in the use of 痴女 in the medium.

So let's run an experiment! Let's go to e-hentai, and find the first relevant result with that word in the title. Here we go:

 カースト上位のあの子は実は淫乱ドスケベ痴女

"The girl in the top caste is actually a lewd, perverted chijo"

And yeah, its about a hot, popular teen girl being paid to fuck some guys who propositioned her. The fourth page literally includes a guy saying "I am so excited, this rules". He isn't being consent violated in the slightest, the fantasy that makes her a chijo is how eager and lustful she is.

Audiences read all this stuff and cross reference each other, like language does. Its a pretty common term in the space. None of the cultural focus is on the violation aspect, all of the cultural focus is on the desire, and it has added punch as a sort of shameful secret ("Popular girl is actually..."). It's just slightly confusing because there are undercurrents of default norms in the sexual language that we in English don't have. The default Japanese slut is 20% more aggressive, as it were.

Slut, therefore, is the correct term for a manga translation. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

[garygoldenbignaturals]

what is the category name for this type of video game man

[wasabi-gumdrop]

dunmeshi modern labru au where Kabru wants to try fromsoft games to understand why they’re so popular.

he gives elden ring a shot and surprise he gets fucking rolled. can’t get past tree sentinel, tries to fight Margit at level 15, put all his stats in intelligence and not enough dex, hasn’t even found a proper staff, picked warrior as his starting class.

he’s ready to uninstall but he paid full price for this game, he’s at least gonna defeat one boss goddammit. so he tries summoning players for aid and just his luck, he summons cooperator WolfChimeraWyvern.

and this cooperator is SO GOOD, he solos Margit without getting hit, and Kabru is just. in awe. so he adds him as a friend.

and that’s how he meets Laios, expert on all things fromsoft (has literally read every item description, knows the most obscure lore by heart, don’t ask him how many hours he’s played, he has all the platinums)

[revenantghost]

can you explain why knives needed vash for his plan? is vash's power giving plants life?

So from what I gather, Vash is unique in his ability to both give and take from the higher dimension, which is the place where all plants get their energy from, and that's what humans use them for. (This is also where Conrad says their souls are instead of their bodies (possible bullshit, given the unreliable narrators we have), and also given Vash's conversation with Rem in episode 12 it's possibly connected to the afterlife???) Or, at the very least, Vash is different from most other plants, as they can only take. His power has been compared to something black hole-like, but I won't bore you with quantum physics since we don't know exactly what they mean by that yet, exactly.

In order to access and enter the higher dimension to rip souls free and shove them into the plants' bodies to birth independent plants, Knives needed to use Vash as a gate, as a tool, to open Vash up and let himself in so he could funnel that power out through Vash.

At least, that's just what I've gathered from watching Tristamp... way too many times and reading meta as I go. I'm probably a bit off in this explanation, so anyone feel free to add on anything I missed! I think we're going to get way more in-depth in the following season/s with the plot threads left hanging after episode twelve. Hopefully this makes sense! :'D

[slythereen]

who is this man on f1tv who has been repping charles and is now like “yeah we need to get the full radio transcripts something fishy there”

[muffinlance]

Crochet Pattern: Rollable Isopuppy (Giant Isopod Dog)

Crochet an isopuppy! As cuddled in Salvage; story and pattern both by me. Whether you’ve read the story or not, treat yourself to a Very Good Dog. You deserve it. <3

>>> Get the pattern here! <<<

[id: Photos of a crocheted isopuppy (giant isopod dog) from various angles. It has the head and tail of a dog, with isopod legs, shell, and antennae. It is a very Good Boi. End id.]

Also that is now my site for patterns, both sewn and crocheted (Dragon Zuko is also up there), so. Subscribe if you're interested in that. If you're interested in my writing, that's at this site. Also I'm on Ravelry now.

>>> Isopuppy Pattern! <<<

[swallowtail-ageha]

"And what about all these orcs? By the end of the war, Sauron is gone but all of the orcs aren’t gone – they’re in the mountains. Did Aragorn pursue a policy of systematic genocide and kill them? Even the little baby orcs, in their little orc cradles? The war that Tolkien wrote about was a war for the fate of civilization and the future of humanity, and that’s become the template. I’m not sure that it’s a good template, though. The Tolkien model led generations of fantasy writers to produce these endless series of dark lords and their evil minions who are all very ugly and wear black clothes. But the vast majority of wars throughout history are not like that."

People often parade the "what was aragorn's tax policy" as a famous grrm quote, but often ignore this one which follows, which is way more interesting and reflects better the priorities of George as a writer. And it's even more interesting how the man himself proceeded to answer to this question with Elden Ring, specifically with Marika's backstory and her subsequent genocide of the Hornsent.

Marika herself seems to be the character that's hero whose journey has long ended, the little girl whose village got razed and came back for vengeance against the evil, demonic looking overlords who killed her family and stuck them in jars. But, this time, we are shown full on her vengeance, she did pursue a policy of genocide, she had pacific churches that had nothing to do with the jarring of shamans, cause old women to be imprisoned and battered t best (and at worse SA'd if you intepret the Grandam's lines in that way), and have baby hornsent in their little hornsent cradles (as the Hornsent dialogue that plays if you don't summon him for Messmer says). We are fully shown the length that the hero's "rightful vengeance" and "reconciliation of the land", and by lord above if it isn't an awful, brutal one

[heythereneighbor]

For those times when you want to explain to someone how a certain blorbo is spinning around in the brain, refer them to this for a visual reference.

(non-audio, looping gif-version under the read-more.)

[mo-ok]

would you like a red boy? hold out your hand i'll give you a red boy 🥰

[relaxxattack]

me trying to understand terezi when she doesn’t even understand herself

[alacants]

the juanki/rafa lore is fascinating omg

ISN'T IT WILD. today felt like. scripted. backstory episode dropped just in time for the narrative climax.

but their relationship is really SO fascinating. there's all these little tidbits the round-up didn't have space for, stuff like--juanki's asked about their relationship at a cincy presser and is like haha it's fine we're meeting for golf today. and then the next day he's back on message like, stop talking about rafa. rafa is speaking up in juanki's defense when he's left out of the madrid main draw, and then they're barely talking next time they're both at davis cup. even nowadays they are so clearly on the same page cheering for carlitos! …as long AS they are cheering for carlitos. i want a timer to know how long they can hold a conversation before one of them says something that breaks the get-along spell.

idk i just keep thinking that--i mean what IF that hideous run of bad luck (chicken pox, broken rib, maybe some poor decision-making) hadn't destroyed juanki at his peak. i would be so curious to know if rafa's approach would have been different if juanki had been more of a threat on the court in those first formative years on tour--more like he felt about moya or roger. instead he just leapfrogged right over him and i think that's what got under juanki's skin so bad, not just that this kid usurped his place but that he didn't even like. notice him there.

(i was just talking with my friend whose take on rafa's side of this is that the obvious bad feeling probably bothered him a lot more coming from a spaniard than it would have otherwise. like if it was… i can't think of a good example. marat safin? a former world no. 1 who was never much of a threat to him on court. --if it was marat safin who got snippy in the media and cold-shouldered him in person then lol whatever. but at home he wanted to be loved. and juan carlos did not love him.)

[ertrunkenerwassergeist]

In 'Welcome Home', I get the feeling that, faced with a lot of fihrie who now want to be *friends*, quite a few Galakhari are asking Libertus how *he* handles it.

Libertus: "Do you think I handle it?"

Galahkari: *stare at him like sad cats*

Libertus: "Okay, fine. I'll go fetch the manual. Don't move and don't promise anything."

[flowerbloom-arts]

Hi, question, and if you can pardon my french; What the FUCK was this bit doing here in Flaming Moe (s22 ep11)?????

Like. Like I don't get it??? I love it to smithereens but I can't. Like. Understand. Why Seymour did this? To Chalmers? And pulled his tie and called him Gary while clearly flirting? At school? And then Chalmers calls him a Casanova? In an episode where he's dating the new female music teacher??????

I feel like I just saw a flash of Cthulu and I'm trying to comprehend him by drawing what I saw but it doesn't goddamn work so I keep rewatching the clip over and over and I'm trying to wrap my head around this sudden homoeroticism when the A plot of this episode is about gay people but the B plot with Seymour is? Very straight?

I dunno I'm just rambling. I can't get enough of these two. The original screenshot is under the cut.