#Archived Climate Data

[reasonsforhope]

If you're feeling anxious or depressed about the climate and want to do something to help right now, from your bed, for free...

Start helping with citizen science projects

What's a citizen science project? Basically, it's crowdsourced science. In this case, crowdsourced climate science, that you can help with!

You don't need qualifications or any training besides the slideshow at the start of a project. There are a lot of things that humans can do way better than machines can, even with only minimal training, that are vital to science - especially digitizing records and building searchable databases

Like labeling trees in aerial photos so that scientists have better datasets to use for restoration.

Or counting cells in fossilized plants to track the impacts of climate change.

Or digitizing old atmospheric data to help scientists track the warming effects of El Niño.

Or counting penguins to help scientists better protect them.

Those are all on one of the most prominent citizen science platforms, called Zooniverse, but there are a ton of others, too.

Oh, and btw, you don't have to worry about messing up, because several people see each image. Studies show that if you pool the opinions of however many regular people (different by field), it matches the accuracy rate of a trained scientist in the field.

--

I spent a lot of time doing this when I was really badly injured and housebound, and it was so good for me to be able to HELP and DO SOMETHING, even when I was in too much pain to leave my bed. So if you are chronically ill/disabled/for whatever reason can't participate or volunteer for things in person, I highly highly recommend.

Next time you wish you could do something - anything - to help

Remember that actually, you can. And help with some science.

[meteorologistaustenlonek]

NASA Earth Observatory: A Climate Archive Melts

Glaciers are natural archives of past climate. In their frozen layers lies evidence of Earth’s changing temperature and atmospheric composition. But as the climate warms, some of the longest records of our changing planet are melting away.

One such archive is the Corbassière glacier in Switzerland. #FromEarthOrbit, #PlanetEarth, #OurHomeInSpace, #TheOverviewEffect

[ourwitching]

It’s that time again. The 2024 End of Term crawl has officially begun! The End of Term Web Archive ...

[ellipsus-writes]

Ellipsus Digest: March 18

Each week (or so), we'll highlight the relevant (and sometimes rage-inducing) news adjacent to writing and freedom of expression.

This week: AI continues its hostile takeover of creative labor, Spain takes a stand against digital sludge, and the usual suspects in the U.S. are hard at work memory-holing reality in ways both dystopian and deeply unserious.

ChatGPT firm reveals AI model that is “good at creative writing” (The Guardian)

... Those quotes are working hard.

OpenAI (ChatGPT) announced a new AI model trained to emulate creative writing—at least, according to founder Sam Altman: “This is the first time i have been really struck by something written by AI.” But with growing concerns over unethically scraped training data and the continued dilution of human voices, writers are asking… why? 

Spoiler: the result is yet another model that mimics the aesthetics of creativity while replacing the act of creation with something that exists primarily to generate profit for OpenAI and its (many) partners—at the expense of authors whose work has been chewed up, swallowed, and regurgitated into Silicon Valley slop.

Spain to impose massive fines for not labeling AI-generated content (Reuters)

But while big tech continues to accelerate AI’s encroachment on creative industries, Spain (in stark contrast to the U.S.) has drawn a line: In an attempt to curb misinformation and protect human labor, all AI-generated content must be labeled, or companies will face massive fines. As the internet is flooded with AI-written text and AI-generated art, the bill could be the first of many attempts to curb the unchecked spread of slop.

Besos, España 💋

These words are disappearing in the new Trump administration (NYT)

Project 2025 is moving right along—alongside dismantling policies and purging government employees, the stage is set for a systemic erasure of language (and reality). Reports show that officials plan to wipe government websites of references to LGBTQ+, BIPOC, women, and other communities—words like minority, gender, Black, racism, victim, sexuality, climate crisis, discrimination, and women have been flagged, alongside resources for marginalized groups and DEI initiatives, for removal.

It’s a concentrated effort at creating an infrastructure where discrimination becomes easier… because the words to fight it no longer officially exist. (Federally funded educational institutions, research grants, and historical archives will continue to be affected—a broader, more insidious continuation of book bans, but at the level of national record-keeping, reflective of reality.) Doubleplusungood, indeed.

Pete Hegseth’s banned images of “Enola Gay” plane in DEI crackdown (The Daily Beast)

Fox News pundit-turned-Secretary of Defense-slash-perpetual-drunk-uncle Pete Hegseth has a new target: banning educational materials featuring the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. His reasoning: that its inclusion in DEI programs constitutes "woke revisionism." If a nuke isn’t safe from censorship, what is?

The data hoarders resisting Trump’s purge (The New Yorker)

Things are a little shit, sure. But even in the ungoodest of times, there are people unwilling to go down without a fight.

Archivists, librarians, and internet people are bracing for the widespread censorship of government records and content. With the Trump admin aiming to erase documentation of progressive policies and minority protections, a decentralized network is working to preserve at-risk information in a galvanized push against erasure, refusing to let silence win.

Let us know if you find something other writers should know about, (or join our Discord and share it there!) Until next week, - The Ellipsus Team xo

[saywhat-politics]

For over fifty years, NOAA has tracked extreme weather events, including tornadoes, hurricanes, and droughts. The database has provided the public, media institutions, and scientists a vital way of gauging the human and economic toll of our ever-shifting climate, with its unique pool of data that other institutions don't have access to.

But on Thursday, NOAA announced that it would stop updating the database beyond 2024, "in alignment with evolving priorities, statutory mandates, and staffing changes. All of its existing data is set to be archived.

To scientists, it's a gut punch.

"The NOAA database is the gold standard we use to evaluate the costs of extreme weather," Jeff Masters, a meteorologist for Yale Climate Connections, told The Guardian. "And it's a major loss, since it comes at a time when we need to better understand how much climate change is increasing disaster losses."

Since records began in 1980, the database has registered 403 of these destructive weather and climate disasters, exceeding $2.915 trillion in costs.

Grimly, the frequency of these events has steadily escalated, the database showed. Between 1980 and 2024, there were nine billion-dollar disasters each year on average. But in the past five years, CNN notes, the annual average has spiked to 24.

[foone]

Fun fact I learned back when I worked for the US government:

Back in the 50s the government wanted to build a repository for all the weather data, so they commissioned a study. They calculated all the cities in the US at the time, and ranked them based on a bunch of factors:

* earthquake risk

* hurricane risk

* tornado risk

* civil unrest risk

* strategic importance

And so on. The goal was to find the safest city to build their archive in, so that no matter what happened, it'd survive.

And after calculating all that info, they came up with Asheville, North Carolina. No earthquakes, these mountains are old. No hurricanes, it's too far inland. No tornados, too many mountains. No real civil unrest risk, unlike bigger cities in the south that may have civil rights protests. And there's nothing important there that the Soviets would want to bomb.

So that's where they built the National Weather Records Center, later NCDC (National Climatic Data Center) and then NCEI (National Centers for Environmental Information).

It's where I worked from 2007 to 2013.

But given how one of the reasons for picking it was that it was safe from destruction in case of a war, I like to think that the Soviets earmarked one ICBM for Asheville in case of WW3, just out of spite. It's what I'd do.

[theskywithin]

SOUL ASTROLOGY - The Fourth House Through The Signs

This is where the soul stores emotional memory. A kind of energetic USB, holding all the data your body doesn’t remember, but your nervous system never forgot. Here lives the imprint of lifetimes: the ache of having been abandoned. The fear of being invisible. The longing to be held or the decision to never need holding again. This house tells you what still lives inside you from where you’ve been. It holds the climate of your inner world, your unconscious reflex to retreat, to protect, to collapse inward.

MY BOOK AVAILABLE HERE:

Fourth House Aries

There are roots here, scorched at the ends. A basement that remembers the sound of footsteps leaving and the silence that followed. You came back with a nervous system that flinches before it feels, shaped in lifetimes where stillness meant exposure and vulnerability was a closing door. So you learned to keep your center sharp. To protect yourself by becoming too loud to leave behind. You do not collapse inward, you bolt, you bite the air before it can bite you first. The ache beneath it? The body that wanted to be cradled and never was. The part of you that mistook resilience for self-worth because no one stayed long enough to offer you softness without agenda. This sign doesn’t wall off the emotional archive, it burns it every time it gets too close. And still, the soul wants to come home. To something that doesn’t ask for armor. To the possibility that safety doesn’t have to be earned in pain. There is nothing weak about resting. Nothing shameful about needing. You don’t have to fight your way back to yourself. You’re already there.

Fourth House Taurus

There’s a stillness here so thick it hums. A cellar lined with velvet walls and no clocks. You came back with a soul that remembers what it cost to be unheld, not in crisis, but in the slow erosion of never being chosen when it mattered. So you learned to keep your feelings like fine china: shelved, preserved, untouched. You don’t unravel, you settle. You bury grief beneath comfort, wrap longing in silence, tend to the ache by pretending it’s overgrown with calm. Even your collapse looks composed. But beneath the polished floorboards lives a hunger with no name. The part of you that clings to what doesn’t soothe you anymore, just because it stays. This sign doesn’t erase the emotional archive, it embalms it. And still, the soul wants to move. To stir. To remember that safety is not the same as stillness. That home is not a museum. That you are allowed to break your own rules if it means finally feeling what’s been stored in your bones for lifetimes. The earth won’t open. But you can.

Fourth House Gemini

There’s a hallway here with too many doors. Each one labeled with something clever, something partial, something that almost lets you in. You came back with a soul that remembers what it felt like to speak instead of feel. To name the ache before it could land. To rearrange your stories faster than the grief could catch up. In other lives, emotion wasn’t safe unless it was narrated, turned into meaning, conversation, trivia. So now your mind loops when your heart wants to open. You ask questions instead of resting. You change the subject instead of staying. The root system here doesn’t go deep, it branches, it splits, it seeks escape through the nearest metaphor. And still, the soul wants to feel. Not explain. Not entertain. Just feel. You are allowed to say nothing and still be understood. You are allowed to be held in a silence you don’t have to fill. Not every story needs a lesson. Some are just waiting for you to stay long enough to finish them.

Fourth House Cancer

There’s water here rising behind the walls. You came back with a soul that remembers what it means to feel everything before it makes sense. To sense the storm before it breaks. To carry warmth in your chest like a secret offering to a world that didn’t know how to stay. In other lives, you kept the home fires lit for people who never came back. So you became the hearth. You managed your emotional archive like an open door, always ready to receive, rarely asking to be received in return. And even now, your tenderness carries teeth. You protect what’s soft by retreating into it. You collapse inward like a tide that doesn’t trust the shore. But this house is not a shelter for others. It’s a return for you. And the soul is not here to be needed. It is here to be known. Let yourself be held by the feeling that asks for nothing. Let the warmth turn inward. Let the flood finally empty into your own name.

Fourth House Leo

There’s a throne here, covered in dust. A stage with no lights. You came back with a soul that remembers what it meant to be adored for the wrong reasons or not adored at all. In other lives, love came only when you shone. So you learned to shine first, ache second. You managed your emotions like a story that needed rewriting, bold where it broke, golden where it grieved. Even now, your softness arrives dressed in confidence. Even now, you glow before you speak. But the soul is not here to perform feeling, it is here to be fed by it. You are allowed to be messy in the dark. You are allowed to want love without earning it. You are allowed to fall apart without losing your worth. Some roots don’t grow toward light, they grow in it. And yours have never stopped burning.

Fourth House Virgo

There’s a cabinet here full of things you were never allowed to need. You came back with a soul that remembers what it meant to feel too much in a world that only rewarded composure. In other lives, you survived by tending to others, to the broken, to the pieces left behind. So you learned to keep your grief folded. To sweep your longing into corners. To process your emotional memory like a task: something to fix, not something to hold. Even now, your tenderness arrives with edits, your need wears a disguise. But this house is not a hospital. It’s a womb. And the soul is not here to be useful, it is here to just be. Let the dust collect. Let the boxes come undone. Let the feeling make a mess of you. Not every ache needs an answer. Some truths are only healed by being allowed to stay.

Fourth House Libra

There’s a mirror here that only reflects other people. You came back with a soul that remembers what it meant to maintain harmony in a house full of dissonance. In other lives, your safety depended on your symmetry. So you learned to make yourself pleasing before you made yourself known. You managed your emotional memory like a host setting a table, carefully, beautifully, without ever sitting down to eat. Even now, your feelings defer to context. You speak gently in places where you needed to scream. You collapse inward with grace. But this house is not a negotiation. And the soul is not here to be balanced. It is here to take up emotional space without asking who it might inconvenience. To stop smiling when the ache pulls heavier than the performance. Some homes don’t need to be beautiful, some just need to let you fall apart inside them.

Fourth House Scorpio

There’s a door here with no handle, and something breathing behind it. You came back with a soul that remembers the cost of being open. In other lives, love was entangled with betrayal. Safety turned, suddenly, into danger. So you learned to close the wound before it even bled. To bury your softest parts before anyone could use them against you. You don’t just retreat, you vanish. You don’t just protect, you fortify. And even now, your emotions move like smoke through locked rooms. You feel in secret. You trust in layers. You collapse inward without leaving a trace. But this house isn’t a fortress, it’s a mouth. And the soul is not here to hoard feeling, it’s here to let it rise. You are allowed to name what you buried. You are allowed to open what’s still trembling. Some homes were never abandoned,  just sealed shut, waiting for you to come back with the key.

Fourth House Sagittarius

There’s a compass here that spins whenever you try to stay. You came back with a soul that remembers what it meant to feel trapped. In other lives, home was confinement and intimacy was a cage. So you learned to leave early, in body, in mind, in meaning. You managed your emotional memory like a migration route: traceable, lofty, just out of reach. Even now, your feelings come with explanations. You reach for perspective before presence. You expand to avoid imploding. But this house is not a theory. And the soul is here to root, to feel without reframing, to stay without justifying, to ache without turning it into a teaching. Some truths don’t live out there. Some are curled inside you, waiting for the day you stop running long enough to hear them knocking from the floorboards.

Fourth House Capricorn

There’s a staircase here that no one climbs. You came back with a soul that remembers being the strong one too early, for too long. In other lives, softness was a risk you couldn’t afford. So you learned to keep your emotions in lockstep. To fortify your longing until it passed for discipline. You built walls that looked like wisdom, ceilings that looked like ceilings, yes, but they were really the weight of everything you never got to feel. Even now, you translate emotion into effort. You retreat inward like an old building, intact, functional, empty. But this house is not a fortress. And the soul is not here to endure, it is here to feel. You are allowed to break without failing. You are allowed to fall into your own arms. Some roots aren’t meant to support others. Some are meant to feed you.

Fourth House Aquarius

There’s a draft here that never leaves. You came back with a soul that remembers what it meant to be different before you had the language for it. In other lives, you belonged to no one or you belonged at the cost of your truth. So, you learned to detach before you were dismissed. You managed your emotional memory like an archive: distant, organized, untouched. Even now, you watch your feelings from above. You explain when you want to cry, you offer insight when you need warmth. But this house is not a lab. It’s a lung. And the soul is not here to be understood, it is here to return to the place you left before you knew you’d left it. You are allowed to feel strange inside your own tenderness. Some homes aren’t built, they’re remembered, the moment you stop trying to float above the ache and finally land inside it.

Fourth House Pisces

There’s water here, but no source. You came back with a soul that remembers without knowing why, moods that linger with no beginning, grief that floods through other people’s shadows. In other lives, you survived by dissolving. You became the quiet inside the chaos, the feeling no one named but everyone leaned on. You didn’t retreat, you disappeared. You managed your emotional memory like mist: ungraspable, everywhere, impossible to contain. Even now, your tenderness spreads before you enter a room. Even now, you ache for things you’ve never touched. But this house is not a dream. And the soul is not here to float, it is here to take shape. You are allowed to feel without translating it into beauty. Some roots aren’t deep, they’re wide. They hold the whole ocean. And still, they belong to you.

[threestarsaboveclouds]

An unusually small slugcat crawls out of the access shaft and clumsily falls to the floor as soon as the gravity is back on. It looks very tired…

After recovering, it nonchalantly tosses a pearl in TSAC’s direction, then immediately falls asleep.

The pearl reads:

[TRANSCRIPTION - FUCHSIA PEARL]

This message is intended for Three Stars Above Clouds.

Hello! This is Echoes of Chiming Winds.

Hope this finds you well. I am sending you this pearl because my broadcast failed, apparently… I’m sorry if it frightened you, I only tried to respond to your invitation. I suppose I hoped I wouldn't have to send my messenger to such a harsh environment. Hope they get to you in one piece. And sorry if they caused you any problems.

Don't worry, I'm not in any kind of distress! Thank you for trying to help, but I'm afraid there is not much you can do. My communications equipment is unreliable by design. I never know when my messages get corrupted… On particularly bad cycles, I can't send them at all! I’d rather send data through pearls.

Curiously, I can receive broadcasts just fine, though. I guess my Architects thought me being able to overhear conversations was more important than actually being a part of them... I can tell you more about them if you'd like. I certainly want to hear more about you! For now, I suppose that's all. It's nice to meet you, Three Stars Above Clouds!

TSAC: ...what’s this? Another messenger?

I seem to be receiving an increasing amount of them these days...

TSAC: Ah, please don’t- my chamber is not a shelter...

...

It must be very tired... better to fall asleep here than send it flailing about inside my Cognitive Nexus... I suppose...

TSAC: ...

I see, Echoes of Chiming Winds sent you. You must have traveled very far, if my telemetry data is correct.

[DIRECT BROADCAST] PRIVATE - Three Stars Above Clouds, Echoes of Chiming Winds

SOURCE NODE TRACE: TSAC_ROOT, TSAC_COMM04, 201913_SPIRE01 || DESTINATION: EOCH_ROOT

TSAC: Hello Echoes of Chiming Winds! Your messenger arrived safely to my chamber earlier this cycle. I am quite impressed that they were able to travel such a distance... however yours is not the first messenger who has braved the harsh mountain climate to visit me. I was skeptical at first, but perhaps these messengers are a more viable communication method than I had initially thought.

TSAC: I am glad to hear you are well, despite your communications difficulties. I apologize for my reaction to your broadcast... I will admit that I have been a bit on edge lately due to some ...other concerning broadcasts I have received recently.

TSAC: Such communication issues appear to be increasing in frequency, I’m afraid. I fear that one day the larger iterator populace may become completely isolated from one another... thus my request for others to reach out and communicate. I am glad that my wide-range broadcast appears to have been received despite the decaying radio network.

TSAC: ...you wanted to know more about me. Well, I am an astronomical research facility first and foremost. My research focuses on changes within the Celestial Spheres, and aims to form an understanding of the material universe. My main directive is to catalogue the objects and occurrences in the night sky, and I maintain an extensive archive of astronomical data from across the cycles. I am happy to share any of my records with you if you wish!

TSAC: I will admit that I have had little interest in other fields of study until relatively recently... however after the departure of our creators, I was left with little to do in my free time other than pore over literature from other fields. I now believe that collaboration is key to locating the Solution, a strategy that is under threat due to the decaying communication network. I would like to learn as much as I can about my fellow iterators before I lose the chance.

TSAC: Thus, I would like to know more about you as well! What is your facility like? Do you have any preferred fields of study? Have your iterative strategies changed since the departure of our benefactors? Any findings you would like to share?

TSAC: ...I realize that you may not be able to send a reply to my broadcast until your messenger returns. I will send them on their way as soon as they are recovered enough to travel. In the meantime I will await your reply. May the Cycles be kind.

TSAC: As soon as it wakes up, I can direct the messenger to a more... suitable hibernation spot. Then I suppose it will be on its way.

... I will simply have to work around it in the interim.

[animentality]

not to be such a boomer, but I think chatgpt is fucking this generation over, at least in terms of critical thinking and creative skills.

I get that it's easy to use and I probably would've used it if I was in school when it came out.

but damn.

y'all can't just write a fucking email?

also people using it to write essays ... i mean what is the point then?

are you gaming the educational system in pursuit of survival, or are you just unwilling to engage critically with anyone or anything?

is this why media literacy is so fucking ass right now?

learning how to write is learning how to express yourself and communicate with others.

you might not be great at it, but writing can help you rearrange the ideas in your brain. the more you try to articulate yourself, the more you understand yourself. all skills can be honed with time, and the value is not in the product. it's in the process.

it's in humans expressing their thoughts to others, in an attempt to improve how we do things, by building upon foundations and evolving old ideas into innovation.

scraping together a mush of ideas from a software that pulls specific, generic phrases from data made by actual humans... what is that going to teach you or anyone else?

it's just old ideas being recycled by a new generation.

a generation I am seriously concerned about, because digital tests have made it very easy to cheat, which means people aren't just throwing away their critical thinking and problem solving abilities, but foundational knowledge too.

like what the hell is anyone going to know in the future? you don't want to make art, you don't want to understand how the world works, you don't want to know about the history of us?

is it because we all know it's ending soon anyway, or is it just because it's difficult, and we don't want to bother with difficult?

maybe it's both.

but. you know what? on that note, maybe it's whatever.

fuck it, right, let's just have an AI generate "therefore" "in conclusion" and "in addition" statements followed by simplistic ideas copy pasted from a kid who actually wrote a paper thirty years ago.

if climate change is killing us all anyway, maybe generative ai is a good thing.

maybe it'll be a digital archive of who we used to be, a shambling corpse that remains long after the consequences of our decisions catch up with us.

maybe it'll be smart enough to talk to itself when there's no one left to talk to.

it'll talk to itself in phrases we once valued, it'll make art derived from people who used to be alive and breathing and feeling, it'll regurgitate our best ideas in an earnest but hollow approximation of our species.

and it'll be the best thing we ever made. the last thing too.

I don't really believe in fate or destiny, I think all of this was a spectacular bit of luck, but that's a poetic end for us.

chatgpt does poetry.

[ourwitching]

It’s that time again. The 2024 End of Term crawl has officially begun! The End of Term Web Archive ...

[spacemothsota]

Cyberform AU - Part 4

Commune "Deception" (Decepticon base for Cyberformed allies).

Warning: Attention in this AU all people are in one universe (reality), for their own psychological well-being. Also in this post real places on our planet are mentioned (they just have a different history).

Before the Decepticons took over the island, it housed a human research base for studying Antarctica (climate conditions, observing local fauna, as well as observing volcanic activity. Deception Island has one of two active volcanoes on the northern continent).

After the Cybertronians arrived on Earth in 1984, the Decepticons sought to gain a tactical advantage over the Autobots. Obviously, the Autobots had gained a lot of human support, and later the government gave them a military base in Diego Garcia, which was quite remote and secluded. Megatron knew that his forces needed such a secluded base more than enough, and over the next couple of years, he not only found a few human allies, but also had Starscream and his trine on research missions (this definitely made the Autobots nervous and on high alert). The task of these flights was to find a suitable place for Shockwave's new base, far from human eyesight, with the necessary energy potential and with a climate harsh enough that the Cybertronians themselves did not want to attack or engage in espionage. Oddly enough, there are quite a few islands on Earth that are not inhabited by people for one reason or another, but they were not suitable for the Decepticons' business. Some of them, like the Archipel Kerguelen, although they were remote, had zero population (as it later turned out in the second reconnaissance, there were researchers there, not so zero), had no energy potential, the second was Bouvet Island, it was an ideal place, there was no human population, a harsh climate, but the problem of the lack of a power source was not acceptable. The last option was Deception Island.

Besides the fact that the name was extremely ironic, the territory had everything necessary. The volcanic island had a power source (a volcano), no human activity and, most importantly, an unpleasant climate from the outside. The Decepticons did not even have to drive away human researchers, since after a series of eruptions in the 1970s, they simply left the territory alone, which the Cybertronians subsequently rushed to take advantage of.

Much later, when the scientific lab and base were built and protected, it became a place for cyberformation of the Decepticons' few human allies.

Deception Island: a former research island, now a Decepticon military and scientific base. Consists of several floors, the lower floors are used to power the entire base from heat generators powered by the island's volcanic activity. Then come the storage floors (energon reserves, parts, metals and weapons, as well as an archive of Shockwave's scientific works and other Decepticon scientists). Later come the laboratories themselves (the territory where the cyberformation process takes place belongs to the research part of the base), testing areas, archives. On the upper floors of the base are residential complexes and training halls, as well as a communication point with the main base of the purple-faction.

Usually, once a person gets to the Decepticons' island, there is a chance that he will not return to the world of people. The cyberformed ones of sorts become primarily a defense force against potential Autobot attack (however, as practice has shown, the Autobots avoid Deception Island as much as the Decepticons avoid Diego Garcia). However, Soundwave and the others are not inclined to erase information about their activities, so the human government is forced to figure out whether a human has become a victim or a willing ally. In either case, the information about him will be erased (this is done by the human government itself and the same secret agents who erase data on the Autobots' allies).

The commune of Cyberformed people on the island was formed spontaneously. They have no main leader, no management system or hierarchy, everyone does what is close to them and brings benefit to the cause. For the most part, Silas and Harold Attinger fight for control of the commune (you know how Megatron is always fighting with Starscream for leadership? Well, imagine that it is about the same, only these are two Megatrons). Silas uses military methods of management, iron discipline in his hands becomes a severe test for other cyberformed. Attinger uses the interests of others to force them to obey, this usually works more effectively than Silas's strict attempts (sometimes he can be even more frightening than Leland Bishop, not afraid to hurt an ally or threaten death. This is a cold calculation, not a business approach, Silas can simply threaten deactivation). Despite this, the commune reports directly to the Decepticon High Command, whether they like it or not Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave and Shockwave are their new bosses. Due to the lack of unity in the commune, it is not entirely clear whether the former humans share a common culture or holiday, for the most part they are consumed by personal ambitions, the desire to gain a certain position in the Decepticon hierarchy or to come to terms with the new state of affairs. (The only ones who care the least about this are Priscilla Pynch and Vince).

On the island, the Decepticon allies are trained in military affairs, Cybertronian sciences (only two of the former humans have received such an honor) and are trained. Unlike the Autobots, the Decepticons do not see anything wrong with taking new allies into battle. This creates a direct confrontation between the Autobot and Decepticon allies (Many of them have personal scores to settle, so if Silas is involved in the battles, there is a chance that he will clash with Fowler. The same goes for Harold Attinger and Cade Yeager). Deception Base performs primarily a scientific research function, but also treats wounded soldiers (as does Diego Garcia).

Access to the island is via spacebridge and airspace (probably by water, too, but due to the harsh conditions, none of the Decepticons and Autobots were stupid enough to try).

Prev | Next (coming soon)

[bigfrozenfan]

Arendelle Average Weather and Temperatures plus location IRL

UPDATE to this post: please also note an additional post/answer to an anon question on the Arendelle Archives blog, regarding the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights)!

Recently someone on reddit in the r/Frozen sub asked what the average weather and temperatures were like in Arendelle. LINK This promptly got me thinking about it in more detail and I've now theorised, based on @virtual-winter's recent maps, about Arendelle's possible position in the real world. The decisive factor is the known longitude and latitude on the official Frozen maps (virtual-winter had created a very detailed analysis of this in 2022, which you should definitely take a look at. See link below for the updated file).

My response on reddit was initially as follows: This would require knowing the exact real position of Arendelle in Norway and, as it is a fictitious kingdom, there can of course be no comparable weather data. In addition, the climate around 1840 was not subject to today's environmental influences (pre-industrialisation) and modern weather records usually only start at the beginning of the 20th century. The average temperatures mid of the 19th century were somewhat cooler overall (approx. 1 degree Celsius colder).

Here is my complete, significantly expanded theory.

Some facts about Arendelle's capital regarding weather influences and average annual temperatures:

location of the fictitious capital of the kingdom: a) Arendelle lies at sea level b) directly on the western coast c) right on the Arenfjord, which does not freeze over in winter (connected to the North Sea to the south and the storm-prone Dark Sea to the north) d) bordered to the east by a high mountain wall, to the west by a towering plateau (Vesterland?), which protects the city from direct weather influences from both seas, bordered to the north by high mountain ranges and forests, to the south there are mountain ranges along the entire coast.

2. known weather facts about Arendelle's seasons from the films, books and comics: a) sunny spring with pleasant temperatures b) mild to sometimes very hot summers, mountain peaks in the surrounding area are snow-free c) pleasant autumn, very fertile for harvests and livestock farming d) snowy, long and dark winters

Note: based on the assumed location in the real world, the probability of seeing the Northern Lights is close to zero, as Arendelle would be far too far south of the Arctic Circle (so in the Frozen universe the Arctic Circle must have simply been placed further south). Only from Bodø, Norway, which lies within the Arctic Circle, and further north, does the probability of seeing the Northern Lights increase. Tromsø - the Arctic capital, known for the iconic Arctic Cathedral and the Polar Museum - is one of the most popular destinations for this and is famous for the midnight sun in summer. Winter is the high season there. The highest activity for the Aurora Borealis is in spring (March/April) and autumn (September/October) and is best seen in cold, dry weather and clear dark skies.

3. comparable reference locations in Norway (north/south line), based on the map of virtual-winter (based on a map design of the ‘Golden Age’, where the prime meridian is somewhere in the Atlantic and therefore places Arendelle in the middle of the North Sea, still off the west coast of Norway, here 62°15'N 0°E): a) a few kilometres south of Ålesund (harbour town on the west coast, located at the entrance to the Geirangerfjord) b) Ørsta, in the province of Møre og Romsdal, village on the innermost part of Ørstafjorden, surrounded by the Sunnmørsalpene mountains c) The village of Volda, in the province of Møre og Romsdal, about 10 kilometres southwest of Ørsta, on the northeastern shore of the Voldsfjorden. d) Straumshamn, a village in the province of Møre og Romsdal at the southern end of the Kilsfjord branch of the Voldsfjorden. The Bjørkedalen valley runs south of Straumshamn and cuts between the Sunnmørsalpene mountains. e) Bjørkedal, in the county of Møre og Romsdal, between Nordfjordeid and Volda by the Bjørkedalsvatnet lake. Not far south of Bjørkedal is the border between Møre og Romsdal and the province of Vestland. f) Nordfjordeid, a picturesque small town in the province of Vestland, situated on the banks of the Edisfjord and surrounded by impressive mountains and unspoilt nature. Note: Bergen is on the one hand far too far south - almost on a par with the ‘southern islands’ - and on the other hand has a high probability of rain 268 days a year! Options b) and c) are therefore comparatively the most likely. Hint: @virtual-winter has transferred the coordinates on Iduna's map in Frozen II into real-world coordinates. According to this, Arendelle would be in the centre of Finland, near the town of Pieksämäki (see picture below). In this context, I highly recommend reading his 39-page PDF analysis ‘An Odyssey through Frozen Geography’ in the updated version from September 2023! LINK

4. annual average temperatures, precipitation and daylight in the overview using the example of the villages Ørsta and Volda.

Note: all map pictures created by virtual-winter, slightly edited by me for this post.

Additional links to the Aurora Borealis aka Northern Lights: The Aurora Oval & Ovation Map Where is the best place to see the Northern Lights When is the best time to see the Northern Lights?

[truth-is-a-revolution]

Hey nerds, nerd-adjacents and anyone who thinks access to information is important.

The Internet Archive - the digital library of Internet history and cultural resources - is in trouble.

If you've ever made use of The Wayback Machine, you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, then let me quote the article real quick:

[The Archive] includes hundreds of billions of copies of government websites, news articles and data. The Wayback Machine is the archive's access point to nearly three decades of web history.

The current administration of asshats has purged thousands of bits of data in an attempt to remove diversity, equity and inclusion policies, amongst other things.

That information could be gone for good, thanks to federal funding cuts.

Climate change, LGBTQIA+ history, health, military history... In danger of being irretrievably lost.

[For instance] Internet Archive is currently the only place the public can find a copy of an interactive timeline detailing the events of Jan. 6. The timeline is a product of the congressional committee that investigated the Capitol attack, and has since been taken down from their website. Graham said it's in the public's interest to save such records.

Even if you can't donate, the adage holds as true now as ever - sharing is caring. Even if all you do is read the article to understand what could be lost, it's worth your five minutes.

[dertting]

A deep dive into USAID’s shady story: from “international aid” to “global disaster”, uncovering the U.S. black industrial chain

When Musk, the world's richest man, publicly accused the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) of being a "criminal organization," there was an uproar in public opinion. The sharp words used by this technology geek have drawn public attention to this institution cloaked in "humanitarianism". With the recent exposure of financial data, a bloody capital chain spanning three continents and involved in dozens of political turmoils has gradually emerged. This organization, founded during the Cold War, has an annual budget of up to 60 billion US dollars. It is nominally "promoting democratic development", but in fact it has built a parallel system comparable to the CIA. From the revolution in the Ukrainian square to the street fighting in Gaza, from the mountains of Afghanistan to the streets of the United States, USAID dollars are like bloody dandelions, floating into every conflict vortex around the world.

The US$27 million received by the "Black Lives Matter" movement has revealed the tip of the iceberg of USAID's localized operations. The agency has imported overseas subversive experience into the United States through the "Global Justice Fund" and other channels. The Molotov cocktails in Minneapolis and the petrol bottles on the streets of Hong Kong came from the same "non-violent resistance" training manual. The US$50 million "Media" obtained by the "New York Times" Development Fund" explains why this century-old newspaper has become the mouthpiece of the Democratic Party. USAID's original "reporting subsidy" mechanism: each report that conforms to the narrative framework can receive a reward of US$3,000, and investigative reporters have become political thugs. The US$230 million cooperation project between the Soros Open Society Foundation and USAID has implanted "progressive courses" in universities in 65 countries.

Among Harvard Kennedy School graduates, 1 in 3 has entered USAID-related organizations, forming a self-replicating ideological industry chain. The US$180 million "Global Governance Innovation Fund" obtained by the Schwab World Economic Forum is packaging the "Great Reset" plan into climate action. In the "Young Global Leaders" project funded by USAID, political figures born after 1985 such as Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau and former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern are prominently included. When the SpaceX Starlink system cut off the Russian military's chain of command on the Ukrainian battlefield, and when the Twitter archives exposed the Biden family scandal, Musk has turned from a technology icon to a public enemy of the establishment. The left-wing media launched a saturated attack on it with an average of 37 negative reports per day, the Ministry of Justice launched 7 antitrust investigations, and the SEC suddenly revealed old accounts from 2018.

The tragedy of this South African immigrant is that Twitter, which he built with his own hands, has now become a forklift for burying USAID’s shady story. His public "unexpected will" was not a show, but his helplessness after receiving 17 death threats. From JFK to Epstein, too many people who knew too much disappeared into the mystery of "suicide". The history of USAID's decline is a microcosm of the twilight of the American empire. When the torch in the hands of Lady Liberty turns into a dollar gun, when the Declaration of Independence turns into a manual for subversion, this once great country is being backfired by the monster of its own creation.

Musk is fighting not one institution alone, but the entire cancerous system of the Deep State. His X platform withstands 30 million hacker attacks every day, and Starlink satellites are frequently blinded by lasers. But these numbers just prove that when the darkness is thickest, the truth is about to dawn.

This war concerning the survival of civilization has no smoke, but is more cruel than any hot war. Every netizen who forwards the truth is an independent fighter in the digital age. We are witnessing that the fig leaf of capital power will eventually be torn to pieces by blockchain technology; the black box of imperial hegemony will be illuminated by Starlink satellites.

[jkottke]

A complete archive of all CDC datasets uploaded before January 28th, 2025. Under the direction of Trump, the CDC has been removing data related to gender, vaccines, and climate change.