#like between 2012 and 2014 for example

[storm-driver]

doing a social experiment poll for KH circles. answer to the best of your ability via the tags/replies

Including the DLC, did you like Kingdom Hearts 3's story, gameplay, both or neither?

Then, what YEAR (or window of time) did you get into Kingdom Hearts as a franchise and genuinely start playing through the games?

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing a "Humble" Character

Humility - The quality of being humble, characterized by a low focus on the self, an accurate (not over- or underestimated) sense of one’s accomplishments and worth, and an acknowledgment of one’s limitations, imperfections, mistakes, gaps in knowledge, and so on.

Deriving from the word humus (earth), it appears to clash with our current valuation of self-worth and self-realization.

But humility has nothing to do with meekness or weakness. And neither does it mean being self-effacing or submissive.

Humility is an attitude of spiritual modesty that comes from understanding our place in the larger order of things.

It entails not taking our desires, successes, or failings too seriously.

Humility is a core value in many ancient ethical and theological frameworks.

The Confucian form of humility, for example, is profoundly other oriented in spirit, consistently valuing the social good over the satisfaction of our individual aspirations. In this ancient Chinese form, humility can significantly enhance social cohesion and our sense of belonging.

The Greek philosopher Socrates held that wisdom is, above all, knowing what we don’t know. He taught an intellectual form of humility that freely acknowledges the gaps in our knowledge and that humbly seeks to address our blind spots.

Aristotle understood humility as a moral virtue, sandwiched between the vices of arrogance and moral weakness. Like Socrates, he believed that humility must include accurate self-knowledge and a generous acknowledgment of the qualities of others that avoids distortion and extremes.

We can understand humility not just as a virtue but also as a psychological trait.

At a basic level, humility relates to the degree to which we value and promote our interests above others.

Capturing our other-orientation, it is closely related to modesty and fairness, but also our interest in wealth and other signs of status and our inclination toward self-promotion.

Crucially, it also involves seeing ourselves accurately – not thinking of ourselves more highly (or, for that matter, lowly) than is appropriate.

Worthington et al. (2017) understand humility as made up of 3 parts:

Accurate self-perception

Modest self-portrayal

Other-oriented relational stance

They note that the recent growth in humility-focused studies coincides with the rise of positive psychology and frustration with the limitations of purely individualistic virtues. Alongside compassion, forgiveness, altruism, gratitude, and empathy, humility belongs to “a cluster of virtues that bind society together” (Worthington et al., 2017).

Worthington et al. (2017) further divide humility into general humility and more specific kinds of humility. These include:

intellectual humility, relating to an openness about our views, beliefs, and opinions; and

cultural humility, an ability to acknowledge and learn from the achievements of other cultures (Hazlett, 2012; Davis et al., 2015).

Other sub-types of humility are political and spiritual humility.

While other-orientedness is a core interpersonal feature of humility, Tangney (2009) has identified 6 intrapersonal aspects of humility:

A willingness to see ourselves truthfully

An accurate perception of our place in the world

An ability to acknowledge our mistakes and limitations

Openness

Low self-focus

An appreciation of the value of all things

Hill and Laney (2016), finally, understand humility as involving a quiet ego (see also Kesebir, 2014).

Sources: 1 2 ⚜ More: Notes & References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

[bestiarium]

The Bakunawa [Filipino mythology]!

Whether it is said to live in the sky, the ocean or deep in the underworld, the Bakunawa (also Baconaua or Bacunawa) is one of the most important spirits in the religion of the indigenous people from the Philippines. A creature of truly unimaginable proportions, the Bakunawa is so large that eclipses were claimed to have been caused by the great serpent devouring the moon.

This monster was also associated with natural disasters: it causes typhoons by blowing air through its cavernous maw, and creates earthquakes by shaking its titanic tail. It was for this reason that Visayan people would make noises (by shouting and beating empty cans) during natural disasters, to scare the snake and make it leave.

Among the Ilonggos people, the Bakunawa resembles a shark with a bright red tongue and whiskers around its mouth. It is equipped with ash-gray wings to soar through the heavens, and a series of smaller wings sprout from its sides. Fitting with its aquatic characteristics, the Bakunawa lives deep in the ocean.

Alternatively, the Visayan people describe the creature as a gargantuan dragon-like snake with a characteristic looped tail. This seems to be the most common depiction today. Belief in the Bakunawa is derived from Hinduism, and the name (which means ‘bent serpent’) is likely derived from Sanskrit.

In a Cebuano story, there were once seven moons in the sky. The Bakunawa, wanting to possess them, started devouring them one by one. After eating six moons, the god Bathala stopped him. Interestingly, an alternate Visayan story portrays the Bakunawa as a playful (but ultimately not malicious) animal enticed by the brightly shining moon. Believing it to be a ball, the gigantic snake played with the moon and swallowed it.

Yet another version, in Karay-a belief, has the Bakunawa be a species of monsters rather than a single individual. Some of them have a thin or transparent stomach – if these creatures eat the moon, a partial eclipse follows. Others have a thick-walled stomach, and they can cause a total eclipse.

Whether it is a shark or a snake differs between versions and regions, but the Bakunawa always retains its main defining trait of devouring the moon.

The Bakunawa is still alive today and its movements still influence our world: the supposed movement of the beast (on a 16-point chart) is the basis for the Visayan calendar. For example, at the start of each year, the creature’s head points to the north with its tail pointing to the south. This indigenous calendar was actually censored because of Christianity for a time.

As recent as the late 20th century, a belief persists that the orientation of a newly built house has to align with the creature. For example, the staircase has to face the Bakunawa’s back, or else the evil aura of the monster will enter the house and kill the homeowner’s family. For this purpose, people would consult a ritualist or ritual manual to determine the snake’s current position during construction.

Sources:

Mojares, R. B., 2012, “Dakbayan”, A Cultural History of Space in a Visayan City, Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society, 40(3/4), pp. 170-186.

McCoy, A. W., 1982, Baylan: Animist religion and Philippine peasant ideology, Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society, 10(3), pp. 141-194.

Gaverza, J. K. M., 2014, The Myths of the Philipines, An Undergraduate Thesis Submitted to the College of Social Science and Philosophy Diliman, Quezon City, as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of B. A. Linguistics, p. 28-29, 108-110, 177 pp.

Ramos, M. D., 1990, The Creatures of Philippine Lower Mythology, Phoenix Publishing House, p. 35-40, 424 pp.

(Image source 1: Eve Berthelette)

(Image source 2: Patricia de Vera)

[emilydorp]

I got some questions about GTOP dmed and thought, "Hey, these are pretty good, Imma make a post to make up for the fact that I don't post as much as I wish to! :)) Alllllll of this is me making educated guesses btw. And is looooong and full of me rambling (all my posts are me rambling tbh). And also, full of my sass, none of which is directed at the absolute SWEETIE that asked me these questions (I'm sorry).

a) So basically, I'd like to know about them from the start, before their debut? Were they dating at the time? Or did they start dating in 2010-11?

-> Since I'm planning to make this post as complete as possible, I'll try and attach almost everything that I can find for now and everything that's CREDIBLE. There's many things I have no receipt for (cuz like I said in my first post ever, I started after watching the Secret Garden Parody, so very un-seriously), I apologize. An anecdotal piece of advice; read Ruinwyn's fics, she spent a while researching GTOP to write her canon fics realistically and also has future telling abilities.

www.tumblr.com/couleursdautomne/37333885043/toptopia-for-062518-host-top-first-top

(omg I lowkey wanna play that agree/disagree game she did here but don't dare to ask y'all.. so I'm asking here XP Do you wanna play this game? Pretty please say yes :"")))))).

Btw Tabi later confirms that he first met GD in 2000.

GD confirmed anecdote 6 himself via an Insta like (but a version where Ji held his hand and walked off instead of him holding his waist.. which just shows that these things can be true but are also over exaggerate a lot, like how 20 is possible because it can be that the fan account is over exaggerating this interaction) and confirmed other anecdotes from a few of the sources within this anecdote list + many of them are from reliable sources BUT! The disclaimer in the beginning is true, there are a few that aren't real yet get spread around (for example, 4... seriously, they'd never (imho).. and also they don't fight like cats and dogs, they themselves made it clear that their friendship was NEVER like that).

Also: YB posting this for the translator (not in relation to this post).. tears in my EYES so sweet (Honestly, if GD wasn't such a fabulous relatable honey bun, YB would've been my bias; the man he is).

But really, pre debut is mysterious for me as well, since I started in 2014~2015 and have been on-and-off since. I do know things since I've tried digging up this stuff even tho a lot of it was deleted (I went to LiveJournal of all places.. I'm too young for that!! TTOTT No legit idk how that site's supposed to work Fam) and I am friends with old VIPs that have been around since 2008-2010-2012 but they very casually and/or didn't shipped GTOP, and were iVIPs, so I can only ask them to confirm receipts, like the fact that GD really DID post the words "Take Me (I'm Yours)" to his Instagram in 2014 and that was a REAL thing he did and therefore a valid receipt that this song is for Seunghyun. So yeah.

I don't think they were dating pre-debut and honestly do believe that 2010 was the year they actually started dating each other. I think so for a few reasons, here's the ones I remember: GD&TOP volume one was written in 2010; GTOP fan service shifted dramatically in 2009 and in that year Ji even (allegedly from the fan accounts and discussion I was able to recover) got pissed at shippers, especially Topnyong, EVEN THO he started Nyongtory (yes, he started it... unfortunately... gosh Ri you f-cking RAT).. honestly GD's fan service is unmatched. He later changed his mind and liked shippers again (obviously) but his sudden and brief shift in opinion is interesting.. especially since GTOP had very nice fan service and real moments (but like.. since Ji had a crush on Tabi.. it was more like GD service lmfao.. check out pre dating GTOP it's GLORIOUS) which changed and later reduced dramatically; Tabi dated a different woman per-debut, he 100% was with her and even spoke about her (while Ji looked like he wanted to jump off a cliff)(honestly she looked like Hyori Lee, Tabi's celebrity crush (he has a GIANT crush on this woman, y'all Tabi is y/n he got to kiss his celeb crush on stage TTOTT)) AND he most likely also dated Shin Min-Ah from 2008~late 2008/2009, so he was taken before 2010. There's other stuff but honestly, Tabi being taken is a big indication that this was all Ji being in love (and maybe Tabi subconsciously).

(I've read fan accounts from iVIPs since they share, and unfortunately most iVIPs I've been able to encounter (more like encounter their posts lol) started after 2010. Omfg I read one talking about how she spent a week stalking BB alongside kVIPs and was "shocked" at how close GTOP were and kVIPs just shrugged and said "They have a special relationship".. and another one from a Dutchie (who threw her morals out the window real quickly when she got the chance) where she exclaimed that they were "CLOSE CLOSE CLOSE" in all caps and that Tabi spent all his time around men and avoided the women completely XP These are fan accounts so mind you, you never know with them.. but goddammit there were so many GTOP fan accounts of them being close, these are the ones that got stuck in my head, it's a lot, and many of them didn't really ship GTOP either.. also bragging about being low key crazy and then lying about what you saw is a low I pray nobody has reached). Anyways, here's video evidence of his crush:

b) I saw some tiktoks that said they had a very on and off relationship, cheated on each other and were abusive? I didn't believe that tt but I think I can trust you and based on your Tumblr posts I can see that you've been here much longer and know a lot.

-> Hun, don't turn into a naive FaceBook grandma that believes everything she sees on the internet. If your ears are hearing one thing but your eyes see another, believe your eyes (I don't mean this literally in the sense of eyes and ears ofc). This is all very false information (and written by SHyuk cuz he wants Ji to himself / big joke). What are they even alleging? Goodness me *rolls eyes*. Send it if you want, always down for rambling :))

c) Do you have blogs translated from older kvips, you said in your post that they withheld a lot of information.

-> I don'ttttt, I don'ttt have old blogs I wish I did anon I really do :"(( Even tho my Korean is good for nothing and if I was dropped of in Seoul I'd do nothing except yell "AIRPORT" in Korean at the top of my lungs and understand what is written on signboards.. and maybe some accent and dialect free Korean (dialects are horrible, they make learning languages so much harder), I'd try to translate for y'all. I translated the entire video of that palm reader that predicted Ji's 2017 crashing and burning (and gave some nice indirect GTOP) for @deliciouskamepi at 3 A.M. lmfao. Weibo is/was also very good, but I'm not going to attempt that. Lmao this part is just a lot of me going all "I don't wannna TTOTT" hihihi am I a bad shipper?

A LOT of GTOP content is gone, it isn't even funny. The last time I went to Kmedia sites and "Korean Reddit", as I (and MissMangoButt) like to call it, I fled the scene and haven't had the guts to return (I just don't like toxicity, I'm sorry, I've been in the kpop fandom for too long to even pretend like I can bear this BS for longer than 10 minutes). Maybe if GTOP have legit rumours of a sighting in S.Korea I'll go back. But right NOW they don't have more information than us since they've stepped away from their toxic ways (there's a LOT of rumours tho, and I don't wanna read them, cuz they're malicious and destroy Ji and Tabi's characters and like I said, I only want to write credible/plausible things in this post). Remember, these are the people that wanted Ji to kill himself over "pLaGiArIsM". But in the same breath, I must say that these are the people that went as far as stalking Ji's elder sister for tea on him, so they 100% know a lot about the past and Ji's life. And guess who kept denying Jiko like their lives depended on it? These very. same. knets. Which brings me to:

d) "In fact the Jiko relationship is FAR from this long term important relationship in GD's life (for which I could write a second speech)." You talked about this as well, I believe the long term relationship you are referring to must be TOP and GD's. Anyways there is enough proof that GD did date Kiko. I'd love to hear your speech about that haha.

-> Jiyong Christ dear! TOT Okay, so Jiko is frustrating ngl. I didn't have a blog or social media account back in 2014 but it was frustrating. Here's stuff you gotta read + I'll add things I haven't seen mentioned.. I was GONNA write a speech but Jiko is tiring, tiring, tiring, I'll just repost this absolute QUEEN's posts instead.

-Doing a second ALS ice bucket challenge is so so extra, especially when the point is to do it publicly.. this dude. Also, why is his friend being STUPID and replying to like TWO snarky comments about how GD didn't nominate her lmfao.

--kwonaventure.tumblr.com/post/110425166539/gds-2nd-als-video-that-mentioned-my-dear

--https://kwonaventure.tumblr.com/post/114187861904/do-u-know-kiko-can-speak-korean-or-not-people#notes

--www.tumblr.com/sabrinete/71955816415/you-know-everytime-jiko-rumours-emerge-i-always?source=share

--kwonaventure.tumblr.com/post/120278220119/mina-isnt-it-logical-that-jiyong-allows-dispatch(read it via copy-pasting cuz Tumblr hates me and wouldn't allow more links :"(()

- If he didn't want to be caught, he can be discrete. We'd only seen YB's current wife after YB decided to reveal it and never saw any of Dae or Ri's girls (unless it became a scandal, like Ri's).

- Both Kiko and GD kept denying their relationship, before the ALS challenge leak and after, even tho the hate was unbelievable. Anyone in such a situation would've just revealed their relationship, especially if even half of the tabloid rumours are true. Also I'm pretty sure Kiko and Ji looked straight at the camera a few times during their photoshoots lmfao.

-These tagssss:

-GD, in the year of our lord 2024 (or 2025 lmfao) liked reels about this second ALS ice bucket challenge, just laughing about how silly he was being, yet hasn't liked post about the legitimate leaks of his PeaceMinusOne account. Idk tbh, maybe it's all about the past being in the past? But he hasn't liked a single post that was a legitimate breach of his privacy to this day (for as far as I can see). So either Ji has made complete peace with the past and he doesn't care about the ALS leak OR the ALS leak was BS anyways (love the Tabi pfp, what a coincidence).

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by 내가 보려고 올리는 빅뱅 (@everbang_vip)

BUT he liked this post that used this image in passing for a split second (there was another one that I THINK (using my memory here) used a clip of Tabi in this situation for like 2 seconds (towards the ending (?) so his alleged ADHD brain could've scrolled) but I can't find it.. so maybe I made that up outta trauma since people really liked making "edits" of Tabi's trauma (yuck, this isn't a kdrama, both GD&TOP are active netizens so they'll SEE these things, you absolute bitches).. but trust me, if you had a folder of Ji's likes (of 2025 ALONE) you'd never find shit again either).. so umm tbh maybe he is going all "that's the past y'all"? (Really idk what to make of this like but since that entire incident is a "breach of privacy" I needed to mention it since I alleged he didn't like any posts that exhibited such behaviour... but it is a split second...).

[eternal-echoes]

“To be fair, critics are correct that it is an oversimplification to speak of a "male brain" versus a "female brain." A close examination reveals extensive overlap in the structures and functions of the brains of men and women. Like their bodies, the brains of males and females have much in common, and much that is distinct.(32) Therefore, rather than speaking of a male or female brain, it is more precise to speak of the brain of a male or female. It is the person who is sexually dimorphic, not one's brain itself.

However, there are also profound sexual differences in the brain.(33) Whereas males have a greater number of white matter connections running from the front to the rear of their brain, women have more connections between the two hemispheres.(34) High levels of fetal testosterone results in a smaller corpus collosum in brains of men, which serves to transmit information from one side of the brain to the other.(35)

When performing identical activities, different regions of the brain are activated, based upon one's sex. For example, a specific region of the left brain is activated during speech for males, whereas women experience activation in different regions on both sides of the brain.(36) This explains why men take longer to recover speech following a stroke.(37) It also explains why a man might become mute after being injured on the left side of his head, whereas a woman struck in the same location is likely to keep on talking!(38)”

-Jason Evert, Male, Female, or Other: A Catholic Guide to Understanding Gender

—

Work cited:

32) Cf. M. Hines, "Sex-Related Variation in Human Behavior and the Brain," Trends in Cognitive Science 14:10 (2010), 448-56; M. Hines, "Gender Development and the Human Brain," Annual Review of Neuroscience 34 (2011), 69-88; McCarthy, Sex and the Developing Brain; Marianne J. Legato, MD, ed., Principles of Gender-Specific Medicine: Gender in the Genomic Era, 3rd ed. (Amsterdam: Academic Press, 2017).

33) Cf. Larry Cahill, "His Brain, Her Brain," Scientific American (October 1, 2012).

34) Cf. M. Ingalhalikar et al., "Sex Differences in the Structural Connectome of the Human Brain," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of The United States of America 11:2 (2003), 823-828; Larry Cahill, "Fundamental Sex Difference in Human Brain Architecture," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 111:2 (2014): 577-578.

35) Cf. Glezerman, Gender Medicine, 64.

36) Cf. B. Shaywitz, et al. "Sex Differences in the Functional Organization of the Brain for Language," Nature 373 (2004), 607-609.

37) Cf. D. Kent et al., "Sex-Based Differences in response to Recombinant Tissue Plasminogen Activator in Acute Ischemic Stroke," Stroke 36 (2005), 62-65.

38) Cf. B. and A. Pease, Why Men Don't Listen & Women Can't Read Maps, 65.

—

For more recommended resources on gender dysphoria, click here.

[foxes-that-run]

Now that we don't talk

When was it written?

The short answer: Before mid-2014.

Long answer: This is the top question about this song, I think it comes from a perception that Haylor dated then hated each other, which the media fed. It's a rare song where she is actually mad at Harry and people want to place it to reconcile a defined dating/not dating/not speaking/friends timeline. I think other when they were actually together all other times were/are/have always been ambiguous. Never quite buried, written mine in their upper thighs.

Taylor said it was toward the end of the process

Taylor told us it was written towards the end of the 1989 process, or at least too late to get the production right. Which is a limitless amount of time. (Lets not forget the drama this song brought in 2023 and would have while 1D was still together and touring).

"‘Now That We Don’t Talk’ is one of my favorite songs that was left behind. It was so hard to leave it behind, but I think we wrote it a little bit toward the end of the process and couldn’t get the production right at the time. This time, we had tons of time to perfect the production and figure out what we wanted the song to sound like. I think it’s the shortest song I’ve ever had, but it packs a punch. It really goes in for the short amount of time we have, and I think it makes its point."

It's copyright 2014

Which means it was not written after 1989 was released. I get it, it works for things we know that happened later. But it would be illegal and fraudulent to copyright a work earlier than it was written. It could have been written anytime before that. All of 1989 is copyright 2014 - including songs like This Love we know was written 17 October 2012. She also could have changed the lyrics after, for example Better than Revenge Taylor's Version with 'matches' is still copyrighted 2010. But the substantial amount that constitutes this work was written no later than 2014, but could be earlier and changed slightly in the re-recording process.

Jack co-wrote it

Jack is a credited co-writer. The songs he co-wrote on 1989 and Sweeter than Fiction were written between 30 August and November 2013. He didn’t work on the songs worked on in the last sessions with Ryan Tedder, Max Martin and Shellback (Style/Blank Space/WTNY etc). He could have been added later and of course their relationship continued, but I’m inclined to think it was with these (sweeter than fiction, wildest dreams, you are in love (he called you were in love) & OOTW) in late 2013.

So timeline wise when do I think it is from?

To me, this song does not fit after the resolution of Clean or getting back together in Style, at least not to be before 1989 was complete or the end of 2014. Personally, I think of this song as from July/August 2013, because, well the song sounds like Fraterry, and:

Taylor was writing with Jack then

Harry got a new tattoo (new icons), the cross, there was also a lot of press about the unveiling of the Never Gonna Dance tattoo (which Taylor would have seen but fans did not) while getting off a yacht

Harry’s hair had grown longer, he first started wearing his hair in a top knot, a precursor of Cliperry, on a $2.4m yacht, 17 June 2013. In America that summer the band partied on Yachts a few times, maybe because they were underage there, maybe to get away from fans. When he got off that one he was wearing a 'The Who' shirt, which isn’t acid rock, but adjacent. Harry is also a well documented fan of Pink Floyd and has a tattoo for them.

Harry was seen with Paige, who has blue eyes in July 2013

Parting the crowd like the Red Sea is such an image, coupled with anxious on the way home I wonder if it is about their today show performance 23 August 2013

Lyrics

You went to a party I heard from everybody You part the crowd like the Red Sea Don't even get me started Did you get anxious though On the way home? I guess I'll never, ever know Now that we don't talk

As above, I think of this line as about the Today Show performance. The moment/feeling this conjurer's for me is similar to the one Taylor describes in New Years Day "You squeeze my hand three times in the back of the taxi I can tell that it's gonna be a long road", set within a mile of where the Today Show is filmed. It is such a familiar line in Now that we Don't talk and perfectly captures the sense of someone once so close and now distant.

You grew your hair long You got new icons And from the outside It looks like you're tryin' lives on I miss the old ways You didn't have to change But I guess I don't have a say Now that we don't talk

Growing his hair long is such an interesting line, when a few months later the long hair is described lovingly in Style. It was different. The bit with Paige aside, in hindsight for this Harry to be described as 'trying lives on' when there are 10 YEARS between these photos:

I call my mom, she said that it was for the best Remind myself the more I gave, you'd want me less I cannot be your friend So I pay the price of what I lost And what it cost Now that we don't talk

Andrea Swift is a saint that walks among us, I imagine this line would have been quite cutting to Harry, who seems very family orientated. I think it would want Andrea to like him. She also refers to paid the price and cost which is a theme between them and the secret message of All You Had to Do Was Stay. This song is definitely from 1989 and about Harry.

What do you tell your friends we Shared dinners, long weekends with Truth is I can't pretend it's Platonic, it's just ended

The wording of this as 'tell your friends' is interesting, not our friends, Taylor is not friends with these people. I hear this as about Snow Patrol, and I wonder this too, did he tell them how it ended when he wrote songs with them? What about the 1D writing team. Insert friend of Harry and not hers here.

The line 'I can't pretend it's platonic, it's just ended' is savage, and perfect, they seem to be on or not. I feel even as they got older with the lines in LOML about I hate your wife because she waters flowers it's telling that it's never over.

I don't have to pretend I like acid rock Or that I'd like to be on a mega yacht With important men who think important thoughts Guess maybe I am better off Now that we don't talk And the only way back to my dignity Was to turn into a shrouded mystery Just like I had been when you were chasing me Guess this is how it has to be Now that we don't talk

Acid rock is well discussed, often because he wore this Pink Floyd shirt while dating Taylor. In August 2013, the period I think this song was written, he also wore this Grateful Dead ring prominently in Fabulous Magazine which was widely talked about and remains an iconic One Direction photoshoot.

For important men who think important thoughts, I hate to say it but it seems like a great burn of Harry who does seem like the type to fanboy at people who consider themselves important. I don't think it is out of the question to think this refers to Richard Branson, but he also hung out with Rod Stewart and a lot of boomer generation 'greats' I assume the Azoffs introduced him to.

Finally, the shrouded mystery, because the meal made out of 2016 for Reputation (As someone who was there, she didn't go more than 2 months without being papped, she did not actually disappear in 2016 or 2017). She was a mystery in 2013-14 though, she very loudly and publicly said she dated no one for 2.5 years after dating Harry... while Haylor incessantly wrote about hooking up secretly.

[llorom4nn1c]

♡ My indirect opinions on different bands! ♡

I've seen people do this kind of thing on sites like Quora where they'll say their opinions on something and you have to guess what person they're talking about, so I thought I'd try it.

🎀 Band #1:

Best pop punk band ever. Not only do they have one of the best vocalists in the genre, but their music is so timeless. I've listened to my favourite song of theirs hundreds of times over the years and I still get excited every time it comes on. There's a reason why their music is still so critically acclaimed to this day.

🎀 Band #2:

I'm sorry but this band has some of the most delusional fans ever. You guys really interpret everything as a sign that they're recording music together. I know most of it is jokes but just because the bassist posts a photo of his bass, that doesn't mean the band is recording together. He could literally just be playing for fun. I mean I'm dying for new music from them too, but come on.

🎀 Band #3:

This is a soloist, but I still wanted to include her. This person's second album is her best one and is way underappreciated. One of her most popular songs is from this album, but I think there are songs on that album that are far better. The opening track is especially great and I wish she had more songs that were that heavy. I love her pop punk stuff, but I still wish she made more post-grunge albums.

🎀 Band #4:

I really wish this band got more attention. I feel like people used to talk about them a lot during like 2012-2014, but now they've been kind of forgotten. It's really a shame because I love their music. It makes me really sad that a lot of the female-fronted emo and scene bands besides Paramore have been almost forgotten.

🎀 Band #5:

I think this band is an example of a side project that's better than the band that it's derivative of. Their vocalist's original band is also good and I have a few songs from them that I really like, but with this band, I just think their music is a lot more enjoyable. Their first album is probably my favourite dance rock album and I'm really glad that they've reunited.

🎀 Band #6:

I wish other songs by this band were as popular as their biggest one. I understand why it's their biggest, because it is very good, but their other songs are great too and they're still making good stuff to this day.

🎀 Band #7:

I honestly think this person's music is really good and really didn't deserve all of the hate it got when it was released. Everyone said that she was ripping off Avril Lavigne, and while there are definite similarities between their music, I think her music is pretty solid. Her first album is especially good. All of the songs are really catchy and I would love to see more music from her.

🎀 Band #8:

This band is so over hated. People hate on their vocalist for things that he did when he was a teenager, which I always thought made no sense. A lot of people also seem to hate this band because their most recent albums have been generic pop albums, which also doesn't make sense to me. There are people doing way worse stuff, plus you could also just listen to something else. Like the way people talk about their music makes it sound like they're being forced to listen to it, when they're not.

🎀 Band #9:

I think I like this band more as people than actual musicians. I do like their music, but I don't think it's anything that special and I can kind of seen why some people call it generic. Their lead singer is one of the most genuine people I've seen in rock and I loved watching the band's Bryan Stars interviews when I was a new fan. I don't agree with people who say their music is bad (their first album is way over hated btw), but I can see why some people might not like their music that much.

🎀 Band #10:

I seriously do not understand how people listen to this band. I know a lot of people stopped listening to them after the allegations, but their lyrics are still so gross and icky. And the fact that there are people who still listen to this band and post stuff about their lead singer like 'They don't make guys like him anymore' is so gross because most of their lyrical content is about literal grooming and paedophilia. Also, there are most definitely still guys like him out there, the only difference is they aren't hiding behind a scene boy façade.

That's it, byeeeee!! ˚｡⋆୨୧˚♡

[notyourprof]

A’s Very Incomplete But Hopefully Easily-Digestible F1 & F1 Fandom 101

Since @powerful-owl's call for F1 Primers, I’ve seen several really nice, detailed, intro-to-race weekend primers, but I wanted to provide a…slightly less intense one for folks who are brand new and aren’t yet interested in learning about the difference between understeer and undercutting. So, just in time for the final race of 2023, in the style of @writesharriet's The Untamed 101, please enjoy A’s Very Incomplete But Hopefully Easily-Digestible F1 & F1 Fandom 101.

1) Okay, fine. What is Formula 1?

Formula 1, aka F1, is an international car racing series that’s been happening annually since 1950*. There is a new racing season each year, and the number of races per year has increased over time. In 2024, there are 24 races scheduled, the most ever, and they will take place in 21 different countries, starting in March and ending in December. Drivers earn points primarily by finishing in the top ten places of a race. (There are other ways to earn points, but that is the main way.) The higher a driver finishes, the more points they get. Each season there are two championships up for grabs: one for the driver who scores the most points, called the World Drivers’ Championship or WDC, and one for the team that scores the most points, called the World Constructors’ Championship.

*Technically, some F1 races happened before 1950, but 1950 was the first year of the championship series.

2) Wait, there are teams? Isn’t racing, like, an individual sport?

Yes, and also yes. There are currently (as of 2023) ten teams in F1, and each team has two cars (and corresponding drivers) in each race. There is a long set of rules that each team must follow when constructing their cars, aka the “formula” of Formula 1. There is, however, flexibility in the rules for team engineers to be creative and innovative, so there are (sometimes drastic) differences between the cars in a given year. The popular names of the ten teams in the 2023 season are: Alfa Romeo, AlphaTauri, Alpine, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Haas, McLaren, Mercedes, Red Bull, and Williams. All ten of those teams will be back for 2024, but a few will have new names.

(Many of the teams have longer names that often include sponsors, e.g. the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team, and some of the current teams have changed names over the years, and/or have upcoming name changes. The intricacies of team/constructor names are a subject for a different post.)

3) Okay but what about the drivers?

Most teams have the same two primary drivers for the duration of a given season, and these days, many drivers will be with the same team for a large part of their career. Most teams also have a third (aka reserve, or backup) driver who can step in at the last minute if a primary driver is injured or ill. It is also possible for teams to replace their primary drivers mid-season. This is especially common among teams that have close partnerships with each other (e.g. Mercedes and Williams) and/or are owned by the same company (e.g. Red Bull and AlphaTauri).

But in general, you can usually assume that the drivers for a given team will be the same for an entire season. This can lead to intense rivalries! (If you like enemies/rivals to lovers, you are in luck in this fandom!) It’s often stated that the only “true” way to compare two drivers against each other is if they are teammates and therefore driving identical cars, because then it’s down to the driving prowess of the driver. (It is, of course, more complicated than that, but those intricacies are again beyond the scope of this post.)

For the past few decades, it has been common for there to be dominant drivers (in dominant cars) who win a number of WDCs in a row. For example, if we look at the WDC winners (and their teams) since 2010, they are:

2010: Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull)

2011: Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull)

2012: Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull)

2013: Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull)

2014: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

2015: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

2016: Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)

2017: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

2018: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

2019: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

2020: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

2021: Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

2022: Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

2023: Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

Unsurprisingly, you will find a lot of fannish content about the recently-dominant drivers.

4) Who are the current drivers? What about next year?

I have a spreadsheet for that! It is incomplete, but I’m working on filling it out, as well as extending it back in time.

You can use the tabs at the bottom to switch between different ways of sorting/viewing the information, i.e. by driver vs by team.

4b) Okay but who are the people I need to know about for fandom?

The drivers you’re most likely to run into in fic, in alphabetical order by last name, are:

Alex Albon

Lewis Hamilton

Charles Leclerc

Lando Norris

Daniel Ricciardo

Nico Rosberg

George Russell

Carlos Sainz

Max Verstappen

Sebastian Vettel 

Some of the team principals (essentially, the leaders of each team) show up often as well, mostly:

Christian Horner (Team Principal for Red Bull, married to Geri Halliwell, aka Ginger Spice)

Toto Wolff (Team Principal for Mercedes, married to Susie Woff, nee Stoddart, who is a former driver herself, currently runs the F1 Academy series for developing young female drivers, and deserves her own post)

Common ships are:

Max Verstappen/Daniel Ricciardo (aka Maxiel)

Lewis Hamilton/Nico Rosberg (aka Brocedes)

George Russel/Alex Albon (aka Galex)

Max Verstappen/Charles Leclerc (aka Lestappen)

Lewis Hamilton/Sebastian Vettel (aka Sewis)

Carlos Sainz/Lando Norris (aka Carlando)

5) Isn’t there a Netflix show too? What’s the deal with that?

Yes, there is! It’s called Drive to Survive (usually abbreviated as DTS) and it’s both a great way to get to know the personalities of the drivers and also not a 100% accurate portrayal of the interpersonal relationships between drivers. For example, one of the drivers was so displeased by the portrayal of the relationship between him and a former teammate that he basically refused to participate for the next few seasons. (The relationship was portrayed as far more acrimonious than it actually was.) That said, you can absolutely participate in F1 fandom having only ever watched DTS and never watched a race or any other content! Your experience will just be enriched if you also do things like follow the drivers & teams on social media and start to watch races as well.

6) So what are the barriers to entry?

Well first, you have to acknowledge that this is a very silly sport in which most participants are tax-dodging millionaires and billionaires yet still somehow likeable. Once you get past that...

You need a Netflix subscription to watch DTS, but otherwise, that part is pretty straightforward. Watching the actual races (and everything else associated with a race weekend) is a bit more complicated…

7) Okay, FINE, if I were going to watch a race how would I do that?

First, a heads-up that the actual race (aka the Grand Prix) is not the only thing that happens, there is an entire race weekend. A typical race weekend involves: two practice sessions on Friday, one practice session and one qualifying session on Saturday, and the race itself on Sunday. The practice sessions (officially called “free practices” and abbreviated as FP1, FP2, and FP3) allow teams and drivers to get used to the track as well as play around with different ways of setting up the car. The qualifying session is used to set the start order (called “the grid”) for Sunday’s race. It’s broken down into three parts, and the start order is determined by the lap times the drivers set–the faster the lap time, the higher up a driver starts on the grid. (For the most part. There can be other factors in play such as grid position penalties. Again, the details of qualifying and grid penalties are beyond the scope of this post.) 

Note that for the past few years, a few weekends per season are “sprint weekends”, which have a different format. Again, the details aren’t really for this post, but I plan to write another post specifically about sprint weekends sometime in the near future. Even on sprint weekends, there is still the actual race on Sunday.

New fans might not find the practices very interesting, so I would generally recommend starting with a race itself and perhaps qualifying (aka “quali”) also. 

(Podium celebrations for the top three at the conclusion of a race involve lots of sparkling wine spraying everywhere.)

7b) Okay, so how would one watch the race itself? 

It is…complicated, and very region-dependent. 

If you’re in the UK, you need to have a subscription to Sky Sports to watch anything from a race weekend live. Note that if you don’t have a Sky Box, there is only a short period of time in which you can watch a race back…after that, you can only watch race highlights on Sky. 

In the US, you need a combination of ESPN cable channels (e.g. ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNU) and ESPN+ access to watch everything, although sometimes the race will also be shown on ABC. Alternatively, you can subscribe to F1 TV Pro, which gives you live streaming of everything from race weekends, plus access to watch all of the past races. 

Frustratingly, F1 TV Pro is not available in all countries (notably, not the UK), and in those countries the only option is F1 TV Access, which is cheaper, but does not include anything from the current season, just the archived seasons. You can check what’s available in your country here: https://www.formula1.com/en/toolbar/content_schedule.html Unfortunately, I am not familiar with other viewing options in other countries, but if anyone adds info in replies or reblogs, I will add it in! 

As you watch the race, you will hear the commentators use a lot of jargon that you can find explained in other, more detailed, primers, but even if you don’t understand a whole lot of what they’re saying, it’s still enjoyable to just watch the racing!

Even if you can’t ever watch a race live, F1 puts a lot of content on their YouTube channel, including race recaps and highlights: https://www.youtube.com/@Formula1 They also have a lot of fun content with the drivers (see the “Grill The Grid” series, especially) in addition to plenty of explainers about the tech and design of the cars. The individual teams also have great YouTube channels with lots of general and race-specific information as well as fun content with their drivers.

Okay, I think this primer has managed to be both too much and not enough, LOL, so it’s time to call it. Happy race-watching, folks! 🏎

(If you spot any factual or grammatical errors in this, please let me know so I can fix them! I wasn’t able to get someone to read this over in advance, so it’s very possible there are some!)

[uboat53]

It's been a while, but I feel the need for some political analysis. Not the specific issue things I've been doing, but a broader look at the 2024 election. LONG RANT (TM) time?

INTRODUCTION

As I imagine you're aware by now if you read anything I write, I'm a bit of a data guy. I've been following the polls for a few decades now and I find it a good way to keep sane in the chaos of an election season. This time, though… this time I'm not so sure.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm still following the polling like a crack addicted muppet, I'm just no longer sure that it's accurate, even within its own margins of error. There are a few reasons for this, the long-standing ones like declining response rates, but also some new ones to do with the changing electorate. A bunch of things are coming together in ways that make me no longer certain that we're getting an accurate picture.

That said, there is still data I'm seeing that I find useful. Focus groups, for example, are still producing interesting nuggets of information that help fill in a few gaps, but more on that later. First, the polling.

HOW POLLING WORKS

So polling, at its heart is fairly simple. You call, text, or otherwise survey a bunch of people, usually on the order of a thousand or so, and ask them for their opinions. Then you figure out the race, age, and other demographic information of the people you got and use some statistical tools to normalize them to the broader population.

For example, if your thousand person sample was 5% black but you think the voting population is going to be 10% black, you'll "weight" the answers your black respondents gave. In other words, you'll give more impact to their answers to try to better represent who you think is actually going to show up on election day. If you get more of a group than you think will actually show up, you'll do the reverse and de-weight them.

If you think about that for a minute, you'll realize that there are two really big places where error can seep into your polling.

POLLING ERRORS

The first is called the response rate. It used to be that you'd have to call about 2,000-3,000 people to get 1,000 responses. Nowadays, you've got to hit closer to 10,000 people. And there's good research showing that the kind of people that respond to polls are meaningfully different than the kind of people who don't respond but still vote.

That said, pollsters have adapted and have gotten reasonably good at adjusting for this kind of error. Well, the good ones have, the bad ones just do low-quality polls and their results are terrible as a result. There was one particularly longitudinal poll during the 2016 election that apparently only had one black Trump supporter, who they weighted heavily, who would just stop answering their questions when he felt Trump was doing badly which led to some wild swings in their results depending on whether he answered that week or not. Generally speaking, though, this kind of error isn't as big of a problem in decent polling as we kind of thought it would be when it started showing up a decade or two ago. The other kind of error, though…

Look, in order to weight your polled population properly, you have to have a reasonable idea of who's actually going to show up to vote. Will 30% of white women between the ages of 18 and 24 show up or will it be 50%? Will the electorate in Georgia be 30% black or 40% black? Answering these questions makes a huge impact on how the final result turns out, and the way we generally answer these questions is we look at the past few elections.

The problem with that is, there's nothing consistent or predictable about the last few elections. 2012 and 2014 were pretty standard elections where the predictable groups showed up in predictable numbers and things went as expected. In 2016, though, Trump turned out a huge amount of people who had never voted before and shifted the result in key states that were not expected to go for him. Those same people, though, didn't show up in 2018 when he wasn't on the ballot and the result was a pretty solid win for Democrats in places that hadn't been expected to for them after 2016. Then, in 2020, those same people showed up to vote for Trump again, but this time they were outnumbered by ANOTHER new group of voters who hadn't showed up before but now showed up to vote against Trump. Finally, in 2022, yet another huge wave of new voters showed up, energized and outraged by the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe vs. Wade, and completely overturned the conventional wisdom of a strong Republican showing.

In other words, there's no way anyone could reasonably say that we can make a strong prediction of what the 2024 electorate is going to look like based on the last decade of elections. Are the voters who were outraged about abortion in 2022 still outraged? Will the new voters who showed up for Trump in 2016 and 2020 show up in the same kind of numbers? Will the anti-Trump voters of 2020? Maybe they have got it right this time, but there's absolutely no way to know that. Even worse, there's no way to know which way the error is running, the polls might be massively overweighted in Trump's favor or Harris's.

I certainly can't say and I'm fairly certain no one else can either.

OTHER DATA

That said, there is other data we can look at. My personal favorite these days are focus groups, particularly those conducted by people who are good at running them like Whit Ayers or Frank Luntz. Rather than look at what percentage of voters are voting for Trump, Harris, or undecided, they simply take a group of undecided voters and ask questions to determine why they're undecided and what could shift them and the results of those conversations are really interesting.

I've seen results from a few of these focus group results so far and they're fairly consistent. There's the standard undecided voters, the low-information voters who simply haven't paid attention enough to know where they stand and there's the so-called "double-haters" who just really dislike both candidates, but, surprisingly, these groups aren't the majority.

The majority of undecided voters apparently are generally moderate conservative voters who know that they don't like Trump but don't feel like they know enough about Harris to vote for her. Specifically, they feel like they don't know enough about her economic policies.

And that's a very interesting result, because it's the kind of result you see when an unpopular incumbent runs for re-election. Unpopular incumbents can and do win re-election; it's not enough that people don't like them, they also have to like the alternative. That's why John Kerry didn't defeat George W. Bush in 2004 and why Bill Clinton did defeat George H. W. Bush in 1992. Clinton persuaded voters that he would be better and Kerry didn't.

When Biden was running against Trump earlier this year, he was the unpopular incumbent and, while people didn't like Trump either, a critical mass of them seem to have liked him better than Biden. With Biden's withdrawal, the race has shifted. Trump may not technically be the incumbent, but people have seen him in office and they didn't like him. Harris has been Vice-President for about three and a half years now, but that's not being President, not even close. She's the unknown in this race.

WHAT IT ALL MEANS

Look, I don't know if there's enough undecided voters in this race to make a difference. Heck, it's possible that either Trump or Harris already have enough voters in the tank to win this thing in the key states and we just don't know it. All that said, there's a clear fight on for what undecided voters currently exist.

Harris needs to convince them that she has a plan to manage the economy. Job growth, wage growth, and consumer spending are strong and inflation is back down to reasonable levels, but the scars of high inflation remain. If she can convince voters that she has a plan to bring down costs and/or raise wages, she'll win. This is going to take more than the broad-strokes style answers she's been giving so far, my take is that she'll need to give a formal economic policy address, preferably more than one, and go into detail and depth about her economic plans.

Trump's only chance, on the other hand, is to smear Harris as well as he can. After four years in office and about a decade of a constant campaign, I'm pretty sure there's nothing left that could convince these voters to like him. Fortunately for him, he doesn't need them to like him, he just needs them to dislike her. That said, the relentless personal attacks he's been lobbing aren't going to do it, he's going to need to actually attack her economic policy, but that runs the risk of highlighting it to voters who may have otherwise not have heard about it.

CONCLUSION

Look, the polling data is iffy to me. It may be accurate or it might not, but we really have no way of knowing given the massive churn in the electorate this last decade. Assuming, though, that this race really is a tight one and will come down to undecided voters, it seems like this really is Harris's election to lose. If she can define herself, particularly her economic policies, in a way that appeals to undecided voters, it's likely that she can win them and, presumably, the election as well and there's not a lot that Trump can do about that without becoming a far different person than he is.

[absolutebl]

Hey! So I'm watching destiny seeker and it's so cute that it makes me want to watch more university bl. The problem is that i think I've already watched most of the known ones. Are there some lesser known uni bl that you'd recommend?

( Off the top of my head, ive atleast checked out sotus, bad buddy, we best love, kiss me again, 2gether, futs (I can't remember if that was high school or uni tbh), semantic error, tharntype, lita, blueming,eighth sense, stay by my side (I don't remember if this was uni or high school either), theory of love, his:2 crossing the line, and be my favorite if that counts. Oh and I've never been able to make it through oxygen)

Exhaustive List of University BLs as of late 2023

This list is by my ranking off the Spreadsheet of Doom. Best (by my standards) first. I treid to pick only those that are set in university and revolved around it as the primary drivers. He's Coming to Me got knocked off, for example, but UWMA stayed on.

Title - Country & Year

MY FAVORITE UNI BLS - WATCH THEM NOW - 10/10

Semantic Error - Korea 2022 Until We Meet Again- Thai 2019 We Best Love - Taiwan 2021

THESE ARE PRETTY GREAT TOO - 9/10

Bad Buddy - Thai 2022 Blueming - Korea 2022 Oxygen the series - Thai 2020 The Eighth Sense - Korea 2023

THESE ARE GOOD BUT TROUBLE ME IN SOME WAY - 8/10

2gether & Still 2gether - Thai 2020 Be My Favorite - Thai 2023 Between Us - Thai 2023 Dark Blue Kiss - Thai 2019 (prequels = Kiss Me Again et al, watch guide here) Destiny Seeker - Thai 2023 Hidden Agenda - Thai 2023 HIStory 2: Right or Wrong - Taiwan 2018 (teacher/student) Love By Chance - Thai 2018 (Mame warning) Love Class - Korea 2022 Love Class Season 2 - Korea 2023 Mr. Unlucky Can Only Kiss AKA Fukou-kun wa Kiss Suru Shikanai! - Japan 2022 SOTUS - Thai 2016 Star in My Mind - Thai 2022 Stay By My Side - Taiwan 2023 TharnType - Thai 2019 Theory of Love - Thai 2019 Why R U? (Korean remake) - Korea 2023 Why R U? - Thai 2020

IT'S FINE 7/10

2 Moons 2 - Thai 2019 2 Moons The Ambassador (2 Moons 3) - Thai 2022 En of Love: Love Mechanics - Thai 2020 Enchanté - Thai 2022 Future the series - Thai 2023 Love in the Air - Thai 2022 (Mame warning) Mr. Heart - Korea 2020 My Engineer - Thai 2020 My Type - Taiwan 2021 Nitiman - Thai 2021 Private Lessons - Korea 2019 (teacher/student) Secret Crush On You - Thai 2022 Silhouette of Your Voice AKA Hidamari ga Kikoeru - Japan 2017 Step For You - Korea 2018

I HAVE CONCERNS OR MEH - 6/10

2 Moons - Thai 2017 Ai Long Nhai - Thai 2022 En of Love: This is Love Story - Thai 2020 En of Love: Tossera - Thai 2020 Friend or Lover - Taiwan 2016 Gen Y - Thai 2021 Love By Chance 2: A Chance at Love - Thai 2020 Love Mechanics - Thai 2022 My Secret Love - Thai 2022 Starstruck- Korea 2023 Together with Me - Thai 2017 Tonhon Chonlatee - Thai 2021 You're My Sky - Thai 2022

WELL IF YOU HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO - 5/10

4 Days - Pinoy 2016 Don’t Say No - Thai 2021 Friend or Lover - Taiwan 2021 Gen Y 2 - Thai 2022 Itsuka no Kimi e - Japan 2007 Like Love 1 AKA I Love You As A Man: Part 1 - China 2014 With Love - Thai 2019

YOU MAY REGRET YOUR LIFE CHOICES

4/10 Fish Upon the Sky - Thai 2021 Nabang Spark - Korea 2011 Our Days - Thai 2022 Pastsenger - Thai 2023

3/10 Coming Out AKA Kamingu Auto - Japan 2014 Melody of Our Love AKA Bokura no Ai no Kanade - Japan 2008 Our Memory - Taiwan 2020 Reminders - Thai 2019 The Cupid Coach - Thai 2021 Together with Me the Next Chapter - Thai 2018

2/10 From Here to There - HK 2012 The Effect - Thai 2019

1/10 A Round Trip to Love - China 2016

Here's an older post I did:

Slightly more recent:

[learnwithmearticles]

Coral Bleaching

In 2017, the documentary Chasing Coral was released on Netflix, a follow up to 2012 documentary Chasing Ice.

The documentary chronicles the journey of a diving team, made up of scientists and photographers, to capture the state of coral reefs around the world. In many cases such as in Lizard Island and New Caledonia on the Great Barrier Reef, they captured major bleaching events that had been leaving the world with fewer of these essential habitats.

Importance of Coral Reefs

A coral reef itself is a network of individual organisms - polyps - connected by calcium carbonate to form the firm, stony ‘skeleton’. But coral reefs are far more than just the individual coral organisms that form the foundation. They are entire ecosystems of millions of marine species. They are considered some of the most diverse ecosystems in the world.

About 25% of ocean species depend on coral reefs for habitat, food, and reproduction. Clownfish, for example, depend on the protection of sea anemones that grow on hard surfaces of coral. In return, the anemones gain food and maintenance from their fish inhabitants.

Many crustaceans also inhabit coral reefs. The Coral Crab (the Trapeziidae family) even specifically adapted to a life within the nooks and crannies of coral. They feed on excretions from the coral while cleaning it of harmful debris and sediment.

Additionally, coral reefs provide income and jobs for local communities. Fishing, diving, and snorkeling at reefs make up billions of dollars in economic benefits in Mesoamerica alone. Economists also predict that maintaining the health of reefs will produce billions of dollars in return on investment.

Current State of Coral Reefs

The sheer number of organisms that depend on coral reefs mean that changes to them have devastating impacts. 

At the time of the Chasing Coral filming, coral reefs were going through the 2014-2017 Global Coral Bleaching Event. Increasing temperatures caused heat stress in ocean ecosystems, leading to the most widespread deaths of coral reefs ever recorded. 65.7% of coral reef area around the world was affected by this event, and 14% of the world’s coral died between 2010 and 2018.

Another heat stress event is occurring in 2024. An increase of even 1°C sustained over several weeks can cause bleaching - a process where coral expel algae living in their tissue, which often means the death of the coral. Throughout the 20th century to 2023, ocean temperatures rose 0.14°F on average each decade, with the past three decades being the warmest in recorded history.

How to Recover Coral

The oceans have cooled before, and can cool again. First, we have to get to a point of not worsening the current global warming.

The Paris Agreement on climate change established the goal of keeping the global temperature increase to 1.5°C. This would improve conditions for coral reef survival. U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump withdrew from the Paris Agreement. In 2021, President Biden had the U.S. rejoin the Agreement, and Presidential candidate Kamala Harris would further keep commitments to that agreement.

How we can recover coral rests primarily in our voting. We are responsible for voting into office people who care about the environment and will commit to implementing policy that saves the earth.

IUCN.org also specifies the need to transfer into economic systems that enforce sustainable consumption and production. Such systems would facilitate the move to greenhouse gas emissions, slowing temperature increases.

Spreading awareness has a large impact, as well. Current economic thinking, according to IUCN.org, does not consider coral reefs as the asset they are, and doesn't acknowledge their many social, medicinal, and environmental benefits. We need to treat the world as the finite, invaluable resource that it is.

Like rainforests on land, coral reefs foster the highest biodiversity in the ocean. They foster a plethora of life that all contributes to the health of the planet, even harboring some medicinal resources, like compounds used in treating leukemia, ulcers, and cardiovascular diseases. Addressing global warming is imperative to reaching the future we want. We have to make sure we work towards green energy goals and keep the oceans and lands from becoming uninhabitable.

Additional Resources

1. The Coral Reef Ecosystem

2. Coral Reef and Economy

3. Coral Crab

4. 2014-2017 Global Coral Bleaching Event

5. Current Bleaching Event

6. Coral Bleaching - IUCN

7. Ocean Warming

[literaryvein-reblogs]

hello, i was wondering if you had any information on mediums (like, able to communicate w ghosts)? thank you

Writing Notes: Medium

Medium - a person who appears to be able to talk to the dead or, more generally, appears to communicate with invisible intelligences or receive “energy” from other dimensions of reality (Barušs, 2003a, 2014a).

They are sometimes sought out by the bereaved as a way of trying to confirm the continuing existence of the deceased, so that mediumship also has relevance for the treatment of grief (Beischel, Mosher, & Boccuzzi, 2014–2015).

Medium - (in occultism) a person reputedly able to make contact with the world of spirits, especially while in a state of trance.

A spiritualist medium is the central figure during a séance and sometimes requires the assistance of an invisible go-between, or control.

During a séance, disembodied voices are said to speak, either directly or through the medium.

Materialization of a disembodied spirit or of a specific part of a human body can allegedly take shape from a mysterious, viscous substance called ectoplasm that exudes from the medium’s body and subsequently disappears by returning to its original source.

At times the medium, or a material object, appears to float in the air (levitation).

Trance - a state that is like being asleep except that you can move and respond to questions and commands like a person who is awake

Séance - French “sitting” (in occultism) meeting centred on a medium, who seeks to communicate with spirits of the dead.

Because strong light is said to hinder communication, a séance usually takes place in darkness or subdued light.

It generally involves 6 or 8 persons, who normally form a circle and hold hands.

Believers assert that communication has been established when a disembodied voice is heard, or a voice speaks through the medium, or a ghostly apparition appears.

Sometimes music of unknown source seems to fill the room, objects appear to move for unnatural reasons, or a hand, a limb, or an entire body may take shape from ectoplasm (a peculiar viscous substance said to issue from the medium’s body).

Other alleged means of communication include automatic writing, trance speaking, or a ouija board or planchette.

Many of the seemingly mysterious phenomena manifested during séances are effected by the medium to validate his or her claim to supernatural powers.

That some spiritualists actually possess the ability to communicate with spirits, however, remains open to debate.

Dissociation, especially derealization or depersonalization, can readily be misconstrued as paranormal.

Example: Dissociation as an alternative hypothesis for the following:

After intense chanting, a medium enters a “trance” and is no longer aware of his surroundings (dissociation). He then communicates with a dead relative.

Good mediums can produce correct information, at least some of the time.

That is consistent with some cases of spontaneous and induced after-death communication.

But is that information coming from dead people? Could mediums, and others experiencing apparent after-death communication, just be good at picking up information from the living or from physical sources wherever the necessary information might be found?

The former explanation has been called the survival hypothesis, whereas the latter explanation has been called the super-psi hypothesis (Braude, 2003; see also P. F. Cunningham, 2012).

History of Spiritualism. Spiritualism is a collection of beliefs based on the claim that spirits or departed souls live in a realm beyond our material universe. In the 19th century, seances, ceremonies in which mediums communicated with the dead, became fashionable winter night parlor entertainment. Popular mediums would roam from city to city and amaze thousands with their astonishing communications with the departed. In the United States, in time spiritualism became a social movement that offered hope of an afterlife for those grieving the slaughter of the civil war and skeptical of a Christianity newly challenged by science, especially Darwin. Spiritualists fought against slavery (in the afterlife all are equal) and the movement provided women with a rare public role not unlike that enjoyed by male priests (mediums were female). This movement set the stage for current widespread interest in channeling, psychics, parapsychology, and faith healing. Organized scholarly research into the paranormal began with serious investigations of spiritualist claims.

Psychic vs. Medium

As an adjective, psychic means “of or relating to the human soul or mind,” or something mental as opposed to physical.

It’s also defined in psychology as “pertaining to or noting mental phenomena,” which describes being in tune to some nonphysical force or agency.

For example, Having heard that colors can provoke a psychic response, I decided to paint the room a calming blue.

Psychic can also mean “sensitive to influences or forces of a nonphysical or supernatural nature.”

So if someone or something is influenced by a mysterious force that’s outside physical science or knowledge, it’s a psychic influence.

For example, it was a psychic feeling that led him to run out of the building right before a fire started.

As an adjective, some synonyms for psychic are:

spiritual,

supernatural,

paranormal,

psychological, and

metaphysical.

As a noun, psychic refers to “a person who is sensitive to psychic influences or forces.”

For example, since she was a little girl, John’s grandmother has sworn she’s a psychic and can tell when something bad will happen.

In addition to medium, other synonyms for psychic as a noun include clairvoyant, fortune-teller, and prophet.

First recorded in 1855–60, psychic originates from the Greek word psȳchikós, meaning “of the soul.”

Types of Mediumship

In modern spiritualism, mediumship can be generally divided into 2 forms:

Physical mediumship generally involves anything happening of a physical nature that can be perceived by the medium and others present.

Mental mediumship involves communication from the spirit world which is interpreted through the mind and consciousness of the medium.

Examples: Famous Mediums

William Stainton Moses: Moses, a medium from the late nineteenth century, would hold séances during which psychic lights would appear. He also had experiences of levitation, and the appearance of scents like musk and freshly mown hay. Musical sounds would often be heard with no musical instruments in the room, as well as the materialization of luminous hands and pillars of light. Moses also produced a great number of automatic writings, including his most well known scripts, Spirit Teachings (1883) and Spirit Identity (1879).

Fransisco (Chico) Xavier: Born in 1910, Xavier was a famous Brazilian medium, often appearing on television. He produced his first automatic writing in grade school, where he claimed that an essay was given to him by a spirit. He went on to amass an enormous number of automatic writing scripts in various scientific and literary disciplines, and is one of the world's most prolific automatic writers.

Daniel Dunglas Home: Home was one of the most well-known mediums of the nineteenth century. Scottish born, he performed a number of séances for royalty and other well-respected people. He was most famous for his levitations, one of which took place outside a third story window. Though many, including Houdini accused Home of trickery, he was never once exposed as a fraud.

Psychologist Terence Hines, in his book Pseudoscience and the Paranormal:

Modern spiritualists and psychics keep detailed files on their victims. As might be expected, these files can be very valuable and are often passed on from one medium or psychic to another when one retires or dies. Even if a psychic doesn't use a private detective or have immediate access to driver's license records and such, there is still a very powerful technique that will allow the psychic to convince people that the psychic knows all about them, their problems, and their deep personal secrets, fears, and desires. The technique is called cold reading and is probably as old as charlatanism itself... If John Edward (or any of the other self-proclaimed speakers with the dead) really could communicate with the dead, it would be a trivial matter to prove it. All that would be necessary would be for him to contact any of the thousands of missing persons who are presumed dead—famous (e.g., Jimmy Hoffa, Judge Crater) or otherwise—and correctly report where the body is. Of course, this is never done. All we get, instead, are platitudes to the effect that Aunt Millie, who liked green plates, is happy on the other side.

Some Related Character Tropes

I See Dead People: Mediums are a special category of psychic; people with a sixth sense that allows them to see, hear and/or touch ghosts for better or for worse.

Magnetic Medium: Psychics tend to attract things only they can perceive. Whether they're unknowingly sending out psychic signals or just bad luck is anyone's guess.

Unhappy Medium: Having psychic powers can suck.

Examples

Dante in Coco can see the spirits of dead relatives and interact with them, because he's an alebrije. Miguel temporarily gains this when he steals Ernesto de la Cruz's guitar, causing him to cross over to the spirit realm.

A big part of the classic Charles Dickens tale A Christmas Carol, wherein Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his old partner, Jacob Marley, heralding the coming of the three spirits of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Future, "yet to come".

Cassandra from Classical Mythology, though not at first. The curse was separate from the prophesy part — she got prophesy as a blessing from Apollo, then pissed him off, so he added on a curse that she'd never be believed.

Everything Everywhere All at Once: Jobu Tabaki can see all possible outcomes of every action because she is present in all her alternate selves simultaneously. This has driven her to total nihilism and a desire to destroy the entire universe just to make it stop.

In The Sixth Sense, Cole Sear is frequently harassed by the spirits of the dead, whom only he can see and hear (and get mauled by, occasionally). Since he's only about ten years old, he is understandably freaked out by this.

The X-Files: Seeing ghosts is the X-file of the episode "Elegy". People report seeing wounded women who seemed silently asking for help in strange places where they had actually never appeared when alive. They always brought the ominous message "s/he is me". It turns out the apparitions happened very close to the moment of their death and only people who were close to death themselves could see them.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ⚜ More: References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

Hope this helps with your writing!

[batsplat]

do you have any tips on how to track down images when reverse image search fails you? esp if they’re older. to estimate the year i usually look at the bikes to try to identify sponsors or helmet designs if i really want the specific race, and if they’re only in their race suits and stuff that gets a bit harder. worse still if it’s just a random candid photo like not even on a magazine… are there specific archives for this stuff? i think michelin has one as well as the motogp website but new sites for example are lousy at crediting photographers (except the guardian, shoutout to them) so it gets a bit tough. thanks in advance and no worries if you cannot answer!!

ooof well it kinda depends on what you're trying to find out. this one's quite tricky to answer without specific examples but I'll do my best... I feel like it's quite rare I can't trace back a photo to a specific race or at least year, but if you're looking for like... context for the specific photo... who the photographer was... might be tough. there's not any exhaustive archives per se - ofc a bunch of different organisations including as you say motogp or even the teams or whatever will have their own collections, plus in general image search databases like getty or alamy or whatever. but nothing where you're going to get definitive answers. and ik you mentioned reverse image search not working, but I would also try out google lens or an equivalent. usually doesn't work but once in a blue moon it throws out a similar photo from the same event to help you pin it down

but yeah in terms of just pinning down year/race... usually it's just about using a bunch of context clues. if it's actual race photos then yeah, there's enough subtle changes between years for the helmet and livery that you should be able to just play a game of compare + contrast to find out what year it's from. for the track, circuit sponsors is also a big one... the colouring of the curbs. a lot of the time tbh it does help to already have knowledge of the races themselves. like if I took this photo for instance --

-- I'd know it has to be from 2008, because casey's riding a ducati with the number one plate and dani's running a number two plate. valentino's helmet also doesn't hurt. I know this will be close to the start of the race - and given the order of riders, it's quite easy to exclude a lot of potential races. it's likely to be one where both casey and valentino qualified close to the front of the grid - more likely than not where they're both on the podium - and one where dani was competitive (excluding a whole bunch of races from laguna onwards). can't be assen because valentino crashed after a poor start, can't be sachsenring because it was raining. though I don't actually need any of that - I recognise the pattern of the background brick thingies and also recognise the track layout + proximity of the marshalls, so I know it's donington (another way of knowing it's 2008 is that I'm pretty sure those curbs were blue in 2007)

or this one --

-- I can just about see valentino's helmet and know it's from 2007, and he's crashed right in front of a kawasaki rider. while it could be a practise crash, his one race crash that season was at sachsenring while attempting to pass a kawasaki (de puniet) so. typically there will be SOMETHING about the bike itself that gives you a good indication of the year. to pick an easy example --

-- I know this isn't from 2008-10 because the absence of the fiat sponsorship. I know it isn't from 2011 because of the lack of the number one plate. it's also missing the movistar sponsorship from 2014 onwards. once you've narrowed it down, it's simple enough to double check that the blue with the silver in the middle of the front of the bike is from 2013, not 2012 - and given the hertz sponsorship, silverstone is a good guess. the honda rider right next to jorge and bradl's high grid position in that race helps confirm that

so that's the on-track stuff.... obviously if there's a photo of a bike with zero other context, the best you can do is figure out the year - but for a lot of photos, there should be something else. rain, sponsors, curb colour, order of riders, special helmets and liveries if you're lucky.... for stuff where they're not on the bike, idk. I feel like by this point I've gotten way too good at just looking at these photos and knowing how old the riders will have been there. obviously having a photo with valentino in it does help quite a lot - hairstyles is a massive help for quickly estimating when a photo is from. another big one: caps. these usually will have at least some change year on year. so say you've got photos from 2008-10 where valentino generally has quite minimal hair but he's still at yamaha

ideally you want to see a bit of both the front and the side of the cap, but either will suffice really. just find a reference photo to play compare-and-contrast with - the 46 on the brim is different from 2008 to 2009, and then in 2010 it moves to the side of the cap. 2008 doesn't have a black patch anywhere and has a little sun and moon instead. kerakoll was gone after 2009. 2009 onwards is monster energy era. and when you want to get more specific than that... well, you have to decide how much you want to find the race lol. the one on the right is obviously quite easy - valentino has special leathers, there's an american flag incorporated into the design, so it's going to be from one of two races. you can either google the two races in question and 'yamaha' to see that laguna was the one with the special livery, or you can check the results and see that only one of them could have featured a parc fermé encounter between valentino and casey after either qualifying or the race. with the other two... press conference backdrops. even if you don't have videopass, you will have a preview to the thumbnails so you can check what sponsors were at any particular circuit (press conference clips were under interviews pre-2010). obviously it helps to already have a sense of where they are, or you might be in for quite a tedious checking process... there's also going to be some circuits that share sponsors, at which point you might get into really silly details like 'valentino wearing a jacket' (more likely in britain than malaysia) and 'casey having sunglasses on his cap' (which you can compare and contrast with the previews). and with a little luck...

this isn't always going to work, and as you say it gets tougher with candids. usually the photos I'm particularly interested in dating are like... rivalry photos, interaction between riders, where obviously it becomes a lot easier since you've got two people usually interacting in a motogp related setting. like,, the easiest possible way of checking whether a photo is pre or post sepang 2015 is (after checking whether valentino is sporting a fair bit of hair) looking at whether the cap is completely yellow. if it's completely yellow, the photo's from 2016

(marc's cap also changed where the side went from red to black, but obviously that can be harder to spot depending on the angle. also the shirts + jackets tend to change year on year, for marc you want to be paying attention to where the orange is in different years)

so yeah. idk if this is remotely helpful. basically no archives, the best I can recommend is a sort of spot the differences game on the basis of 'literally any context clue you can get your hands on'. that's all I've got

[deardiaryofmotiyani]

Blog Post 5 : Realism In Big Hero 6 (2014)

A film directed by Don Hall and Chris WIlliams, which shows us that if film successfully combines the fantasy aspect of the film with the emotional aspect, it makes the viewer feel even the farfetched technology and the human situations feel real and relatable. When the film combines high level robotics with an emotionally enriched character arc, it brings out the realism in the film. Let's analyze how realism is used when depicting Hiro Hamada , the protagonist's real life like problems, character arc and the futuristic technology he makes.

Nuances like blending the real city names like San Francisco and Tokyo to create a city of the future in the movie called San Fransokyo or making insane technological advancements but keeping the principles of it rooted to real life. For example Baymax might look futuristic but is based on real life scientific concepts. Modern animation uses this principle to create more immersive and believable experience (Smith and Lee, 2012)

The realism shown in technology along with how the film tackles grief makes the movie more authentic. The emotional development of Hiro begins after his brother Tadashi dies, which is the sentimental core of the film. Hiro goes through a process after the death which started from shock to denial then anger and in the end acceptance. A process similar to Stages of Grief ( Kübler-Ross, 1969) and basing it on real life theories only made it feel more relatable and real. Exploring grief in depth brings out empathy in the audience and allows them to relate in a more personal way (Rosenblatt, 2001).

The film shows how technology can help a person emotionally and at a personal level. Hiro ends up using his skills to form a team after his brother's death, with his partner being the inflatable Baymax. Having a team that resembled a family and the emotional attachment that Baymax provided helped Hiro to heal emotionally. Engaging in meaningful work helps in getting through difficult situations (Seligman, 2011). Hiro proved this theory right when he used his skills to build Baymax and in bigger picture the societal good.

The Dynamic that Hiro and Baymax share is layered with emotional depth. What appears to be just a robot on the surface, with utility being its only purpose, that changes when Hiro spends time developing it which deepens their bond, where there is trust , emotional support after a traumatic event. This process is similar to how we develop friendships in real life.

Conclusion :

The emotional journey of Hiro, the relationships shared between the characters, the robotic principles derived from real science. These all acts humanize the film no matter how much it dwells in fantasy and allows the audience to connect to it like they would to another human, in fact it does not only mimics but also helps us understand our position in our relationships or environment even better.

Sources :

Kübler-Ross, E. (1969). On Death and Dying. New York: Macmillan. Rosenblatt, P. C. (2001). Grief: The Social Context of Private Emotion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Smith, D., & Lee, J. (2012). Robotic Technologies in Animation: Realism in Science Fiction. Journal of Animation Studies, 4(3), 56-69.

Big Hero 6, 2014. [Film] Directed by Don Hall and Chris Williams. USA: Walt Disney Animation Studios.

[kittykittyhunter]

The Archive

Introduction On 14 June 2020, I accidentally deleted my tumblr, wiping out a blog that I had been maintaining since January 2011.  I was distraught due to losing a lot of fond memories – and crushed at the thought of so much of my writing disappearing.  I hadn’t been very disciplined about keeping offline back-ups of my work, so when my blog disappeared, so did a large collection of poems, short stories, vignettes and fanfics.

Over the last few years, I’ve steadily recovered a decent chunk of my writing (about 300 pieces) thanks to my friends reblogging my posts and being diligent with their tagging systems.  I’ve now been able to archive and remaster my poems and prose pieces – though my fanfiction remains in the ether (which, to be honest, I’m okay with). On that note, I would like to express immense gratitude to the people whose blogs I recovered my works from:

alistersangelsong

@brattyhalfpint

caitsylph

@houkou-nrl

jirohoushi

kara-kitsu-x

kasukasumoe

@kidasbrainspace

@kunimitsuchin

lassinajumper

@lenandbonten

@mono-frog

@mon-qi

seethebattlefield

@s-ephiroth

@tacotits

@ten-thousands-hobbits

thunderdownongreenside-archive

I know a lot of these bloggers either are no longer on tumblr or use these accounts (and tumblr wouldn't allow me to tag everyone?); even so, I want to share my thanks. And thank you to everyone else who read, shared or otherwise enjoyed my writing over the years.  I hope that it inspired deep feelings and I hope that it bought you comfort.  I want you to know that I wouldn’t still be pursuing writing if it wasn’t for all the support you sent my way.  I read and savoured your comments and tags and, I promise you, I am grateful for all the love I received. Methodology While it would have been simpler to reblog the old posts, save for those that were trapped under a Read More (and a fair few pieces fell into this category), for this archiving project, I opted to take the opportunity to edit my works (also, I didn’t particularly want to bombard my friends’ notes by reblogging ancient posts).  This gave me a chance to appropriately re-format some works which had, unfortunately, originally looked quite ugly! The editing process was incredibly interesting – I ended up making changes to almost all my posts, so it’s good to know that I’ve definitely grown as a reader and writer over the last decade.  A very small number of the posts were brand new for the blog, but at this stage, I’m happy to count them as part of my archive.  For me, it’s important to compartmentalise and draw a divide between the writing I shared then and the writing that I will, hopefully, go on to pen in the future. I’m still in the process of proofreading: some of my tags have typos and there are certainly some errant dashes, among other issues, here and there.  Nevertheless, I’m satisfied with the state of things for now. Some posts are titled [‘Circa …’].  If I had been savvier about using tumblr mobile in conjunction with the web version, I could have recovered all of the exact dates of my original posts.  However, what’s done is done and I am satisfied with what I was able to accomplish. Statistics I love numbers – here are some interesting graphs regarding my posts:

Posts by Form - Prose – 37 - Poems – 271 Total – 308

No. of Posts by Year - 2012 – 1 - 2013 – 4 - 2014 – 21 - 2015 – 61 - 2016 – 114 - 2017 – 44 - 2018 – 22 - 2019 – 16 - 2020 – 20 - 2022 – 4 - 2024 – 1 Total – 308 There’s definitely a lot of writing that I wasn’t able to track down: in 2016, for example, I believe that I posted 366 poems.  Still, I’m pleased with the works that I did find – it was great to rediscover works that I’d completely forgotten about. I think that draws this post to a close.  Thanks for reading!

[fettesans]

Top, Anselm Kiefer, The Breaking of the Vessels (Chevi- rat ha-kelim), glass, lead, mixed media, about 280 x 380 cm. This iteration made for the exhibition Falling Stars at Grand Palais, Paris, May 30 – July 8, 2007. Via. Bottom, performance by Murakami Saburo, Passing Through, series of Japanese shōji「障子」paper screens lined up in the form of a passageway during the 2nd Gutai Art exhibition, 1956. Photograph by Kiyoji Otsuji, printed in 2012. Via.

--

The way (SimCity creator Will) Wright sees games, players occupy and explore what he calls “possibility spaces.” Simply put, possibility spaces are all the potential arrangements a system (or game) might find itself in. The whole tree of possible movements of pieces on a chessboard, or the countless ways you might reach a destination in Grand Theft Auto, each are a kind of possibility space.

These spaces often intersect along numerous dimensions — in the Sims, for example, the interplay between social success and professional success created a jointed set of possibility spaces that a player could work to maximize (the game was designed around an ideal, not unlike in real life, that lay in achieving a balance between the two).

The intersecting choices faced by a player of SimCity include the aesthetic priorities, economic models, level of environmental concern, and other more subjective dimensions of the city. Depending on the player, a city might be a green oasis or a Koyaanisqatsi-esque nightmare; some might try to make the most visually pleasing city they can, or simply have fun wreaking havoc. Their decisions in these spaces—which can be measured, by the way—are often a reflection of their own values and sensibilities.

“Players right off the bat were forced to sit down and in fact pick their goals,” Wright says. “They had to first of all decide what their values were, what kind of city would they like to live in. That was part of it, and the other part of it was that at some point, invariably, the people who played it enough would start arguing with the assumptions of the simulation. They would start saying, ‘I don’t think mass transit’s that effective, I don’t think pollution really would drive away that many residents.’ At that point, they’re also having to clarify their internal model of the way a city operates … all of a sudden your assumptions become clear to you.”

Doug Bierend, from SimCity That I Used to Know - On the game’s 25th birthday, a devotee talks with creator Will Wright, for Medium, October 17, 2014.