#of that one technique where you render it black and white first

[avensartt]

Guess who started watching the clone wars

black and white version below

[imconfusedwithallofthis-blog]

Hey! I'm back to talk a bit more about alpha tested image rendering!

This is a continuation to my previous post, so if things are not making any sense you can go back to that one and take a look ;)

Just a little recap about my arbitrary goals, I want to draw a circle on the screen (and maybe generalize for more shapes in the future!) using as base a small texture like 16x16 to a bigger size, lets say 256x256.

the setup we ended last time with was:

generate a 16x16 texture that is: - black if the center of the pixel is inside the circle - white if the center is outside

magnify the texture using bilinear scalling (interpolating the inbetween pixels with the nearest 4 linearly)

alpha testing the resulting image to get sharp corners instead if blurry areas

The astute among you may notice that the final image does not look like a circle at all, I mean, it is less blocky, and less blurry, so an improvment for sure, but we can do better.

The key thing to notice is that by applying those steps to the image to upscale it, basically we redefined how we are describing our shape, instead of a pixel directly describing the color we want to paint, we end up with something more like describing a shape by a math equation, wherever this math equation is bigger then 0.5 we are inside our shape, and wherever it is smaller then 0.5 we are outside our shape

Noticing, this we may do some cool things with the first step, If we know that what we care with the image is the position of the resulting 0.5 (grey) contour, we can paint our initial pixels in a way so that when we scale our image with the bilinear interpolation we get an isoline that better represents a circle

One method that is very common is to paint each pixel in the original image with the distance to the nearest point in the shape.

there is just a few problems that we have two big problems with using this:

The distance defines our shape as the exact point where d = 0, and since we are sampling points and linearly interpolating we end in the border interpolating something between 0.02 and 0.03, so we are never getting a perfect zero, maybe the best we can do is consider as zero anything smaller than some arbitrary epsilon, and end up wiht something like this for the border:

We also cannot easilly differentiate what is the inside and outside of our shape, in our previous technique we could just check if the value in our scalled image was bigger or smaller than 0.5

there is a technique that kinda solves those two problems, and it is so useful in so manu areas that it gets its own name it is Signed Distance Fields (or simply SDF)

the idea is that we do the same thing that we did before, but now, if the point that we are looking at is inside the shape we say that the distance is negative, so now:

Near two points in the border we are interpolating between something like 0.02 and -0.03 so it clearly will always passes trough 0

to check if we are inside or outside our image we can just check the sign!

well, let the result speak for itself (in this case, i draw positive values as shades of purple, and negative as green)

and now, our border, is way better defined as well!

Nice! now our circle is looking way more circular now, and we are still only using our old 16x16 texture!!

Well, actually there are still a few small things that we can improve, the first thing is that our texture color values only go from 0 to 1, so we had to cheat a little using an rgb texture so we use different colors for positive and negative values (we also, also divide the distance by the size of the image so we never actually get smaller than 0 or bigger than 1), this also makes so the bilinear interpolation is a little funky, since it interpolates the channels separetly.

So what actually gets used in games and other media, where this application makes sense is a Pseudo Signed Distance Field, we basically observe that:

we dont care about having precision far from the area where we have borders, so we can clamp our SDF between -2 and 2 pixels from the border for example

we also, dont need the contour to be specifically 0, if we go back to before, and set the border with 0.5 as a value, we can transpose and scale our values from -2 and 2 to to 0 and 1 by dividing by 4 and adding 0.5.

what we get at the end of this is a single image 16x16 image that we can apply the exact same steps that we were doing before, so basically no new "runtime" computation needed and now we get a way smoother circle:

That is a great result, but this is not the end of the road for our technique!

For now all I did was describe techniques that are fairly well known

there are a lot of things to understand yet.

and if we understant better those things maybe we can push the technique forward and make improvements in quality and performance, and maybe get smaller, better looking games ;)

some of the things that I've been trying to understand are:

why specifically did we use the distance field as the underlying way to to encode our shape

what are its limitations

is it the best we can do?

how much can we zoom before we start getting visual glitches?

can we get similar results in a shader with less texture samples?

can we get better results with more?

what are the implications of interpolating with bicubic or biquadratic?

and if we dont use a single value for our isosuface we oculd maybe get lines thinner than a pixel from the original image!

how can we best decide what is the best texture size to encode our original image.

This seems like such a simple sequence of steps, but there is so much more that we can do and so much further that we can push it!

[heatherbmoore]

The Perfect Jewelry Gift Guide for Everyone on Your Holiday List

Every person on your holiday gifting list deserves beautiful, meaningful jewelry gifts that reflect their style or personality. Alluring black chains with monogrammed charms can add a touch of elegance to a simple blouse, while rings and bracelets bring sophistication to any look.

Jewelry gifts are personal, lasting, and almost always well-received. Plus, who doesn’t get excited over a small box? To help you sort out the remarkable from run-of-the-mill, here are some tips for ensuring you pick out the perfect jewelry gifts for everyone on your list.

For the Person Who Has Everything 

We all know that someone who seems to have it all leaves little to spark gift ideas. Before you panic and toss in a gift card, it’s essential to understand that these individuals are not picky and are typically the most receptive to unique gifts—they just love to shop, and who can fault them for that?

For someone with their daily jewelry collection of favorites on rotation, you must get creative to find a unique gift they wouldn’t already have. Consider shopping for personalized round or oval charms they give you the creativity to make a one-of-a-kind jewelry keepsake for someone you love with the ability to hand stamp significant details like initials, dates, names, and more for a valuable, thoughtful gift they will treasure forever.

For the Mother Figures in Your Life 

How do you decide on a gift for someone who means so much to you? The answer lies in a thoughtfully chosen gift that speaks to how significant they are in your life and your deep love for them, whether it’s the woman who raised you or a motherly figure like your mother-in-law, grandmother, or new mom in your life with their first child to celebrate this holiday season, you can never go wrong with a hand crafted mommy charm.

If you’re looking for a special mom gift, a customized charm is something they will cherish forever. Look for a jeweler who uses a freehand technique to customize charms with birth dates, memorable sayings, or even replica baby footprints.

For the Practical or Particular Person 

We all have that one gift recipient on our list who tells everyone not to get them flowers because they become lifeless or, insert any other example here. While they may or may not insist on a gift for the holiday season, finding the right gift for them may make them think twice about telling people “no gifts” because you have finally cracked the code on what to get them.

For the particularly practical person on your list, a timeless jewelry accessory like stone earrings is impossible not to appreciate. Choose their birthstone or favorite color, and just like that, you have rendered them speechless this holiday season.

About Heather B. Moore

For jewelry that serves as an accessory and a keepsake, consider Heather B. Moore—where personalization and heirloom quality come together to create exceptional one-of-a-kind pieces. Each piece is hand crafted to perfection with the highest level of craftsmanship. Shop ready-to-wear oval charms featuring initials, monograms, and sayings, or for something customized, you can incorporate your loved one’s handwriting, your child’s drawing, a beloved pet’s paw print, and more. Immerse yourself in the beauty of these unique creations by choosing from a beautiful collection of personalized charms, earrings, chains, bracelets, and rings made from a variety of fine metals and materials like sterling silver, solid yellow, white, and rose gold, diamonds, and gemstones. Every Heather B. Moore piece uniquely expresses the person who wears it. What story will your Heather B. Moore jewelry tell?

Find the perfect jewelry piece for everyone on your list at https://www.heatherbmoore.com/

Original Source: https://bit.ly/3T1vFTP

[cameronxwhite]

The Mutant Problem. Cameron White. Task 001.

what is your character’s ability?

Technology Manipulation. The power to manipulate technology. Sub-power of Science Manipulation. Variation of Object Manipulation. Opposite of Nature Manipulation.

what is your character’s government-assigned classification level?

Level 3.

what can your character do?

Users can Create/manifest and manipulate technology, the sum of techniques, skills, methods, and processes used in the production of goods or services or in the accomplishment of objectives. However, most users only can exert control over technological constructs, such as computers, robots, hardware, and other devices that can be termed as "technology", in any way. Manifested as a special form of electrical/telekinetic manipulation, a special form of "morphing" which allows physical interaction with machines, or even a psychic ability that allows mental interface with computer data.

Most users can control the flow of intricate machinery, and assemble or disengage their programming at will and operate most technology at distance. A variation of Electricity Manipulation, they control specific electrons and instructs them which items to engage or disengage and may be able to use the electric impulses to gently control smaller metal parts.

what can’t they do?

Cameron is unable to use her powers to create techno-portals, assimilate or take on any physiological form of technology, or any other physical manifestation of technology. She’s only able to work off that which is already present and functioning. Broken technology, or anything too old is also unable to be manipulated by her powers. She needs to restore it to working order in order to be able to manipulate it.

what are their weaknesses?

Cameron must be in close proximity to whatever item she’s working with in order to effect it. She is rendered useless outside of a modern, urban setting where technology is common place, and plentiful. She can also be weakened by anyone with the ability to “crash” (another type of mutation) technological powers.

how did they first come to the realization that they were a mutant?

It was a fight with her Uncle, as it always seemed to be. She doesn’t remember the content of the fight, probably something to do with her skipping school or her grades slipping. But, she ended up frying his laptop that was sitting on his desk on accident. Just a burst of anger, and the thing was popping and going black before she knew what she was doing. 

if given the choice, would you they remain a mutant? why or why not?

Cameron would stay a mutant. Life was hard enough before she became one that she never saw that alone as a hinderance or help to her life. Not until Kappa, but even then, it’s always been who she is. Without her powers, she never would have escaped. She never would have met Tris or Danny or Charlie. She doesn’t know who she’d be without them. Despite all the suffering she’s been though, she’s proud of being a mutant, and wouldn’t have it any other way.

what do they hope to see change in the future, with respect to the current strife over mutant acceptance? short-term? long-term?

She wants to exist without having to worry about being kidnapped again. The disbanding of AMMO is at the top of her list of things to witness. She wants to see anyone who’s been captured by AMMO or fringe groups like it released, and treated right after the fact. It’s the least they all deserve. She also wants to see people try and understand power rather than fear it. She knows there are fringe groups who believe in some strange supremacy, but Cameron wants nothing more than equity.

[katytheinspiredworkaholic]

hey Katy!!! i hope you’re having a good day and your baby is feeling better :) i had a slightly specific prompt that i hoped you could write out for me. Hotch and Reid thinking back to their first kiss but they remember it in completely different ways... do with it what you want, i’m sure i’ll LOVE it :)

Okay I will admit this took me a sec to decide where I wanted to go with it, but here is what I have for you <3 and thank you for thinking of us! He’s doing well, we’re just waiting on insurance to get their ass in gear so we can schedule his surgery. This ask was a wonderful distraction, so thank you for that as well.

This got hella long so it’s under a cut <3 basically a blurb/fic, hope it’s what you had in mind my dear.

Alright here we go.

--

Despite the fact that both Aaron Hotchner and Spencer Reid have completely different skill sets when it comes to memory recall, both near perfection between Hotch’s observational techniques and Spencer’s ability to soak up information like a dry sponge, they both fail to remember the specifics of their first kiss.

Or at least, they fail to accurately remember it.

.

When Hotch thinks back to his first kiss with Spencer, what he remembers is the hotel room door. At the far end of the hall, where he and Spencer were sharing the room -- usually Spencer shares with Morgan, or everyone gets their own rooms, but this case was different. This time budget cuts took precedent and they were covering multiple cases at once. He and Spencer were alone in that city, in that hotel, and it had been a long night with a high speed chase and a shoot out with an unsub they hadn’t profiled as armed and ready to go out in a blaze of glory. If they hadn’t been so well trained, if they hadn’t known each other so well and worked so in sync, it could have ended badly. They could be in a hospital, instead of approaching their room at half past one in the morning. 

When he unlocks the door and looks back to Spencer, holding it open to usher him inside, Hotch remembers the weight of that door -- always thicker, heavier than normal doors, like most hotels are -- because he held it for what felt like an eternity. Spencer stalled right there, when his eyes caught Hotch’s, something passing between them that was charged and spoke volumes of what almost happened. What could have been. What was almost lost. Time slipped away from his awareness, in that moment, and although Spencer stopped right there in his space -- barely a breath away -- he didn’t press forward, or pull away. 

It was up to Hotch to decide.

Hotch remembers making the first move, closing that miniscule amount of distance between them as he shut the hotel room door, his other hand pulling Spencer in and then...

In a fit of madness, he kissed him. There’s no other explanation for it. But Spencer kissed him back, and all second guessing or self-reprimand melted away between one swipe of lips and the next. Everything that followed, dates and dinners and goodnight kisses on apartment doorsteps, he can remember with much more clarity. 

But that first kiss, it’s a little bit of a blur -- the only thing Hotch knows for sure is that he made the first move, and Spencer kissed him back.

.

When Spencer thinks of that first kiss, the thing he remembers most is Aaron’s eyes. They’re always a kaleidoscope of emotion locked behind the dark shades of his irises, but that night the depths of them were fathomless. The number of unspoken words and sentiments astronomical. Spencer kept catching glimpses of them, whenever their eyes would meet for split seconds at a time, and he’d seen the full spectrum over the course of that evening. Categorized them, as best he could.

Pride, connection, fondness, determination; all at the stationhouse, giving the profile, Hotch never failing to be quietly impressed by him and Spencer feeling the same about the older man, in turn. 

Fortitude, strength, trust, apprehension; when they were out in the field. Aaron was always the one that trusted Spencer the most to do his job, be the Agent required of him in such dire circumstances. But he always worried about him, Spencer could see that in his face plain as day even when no one else could. 

Panic and anger when the unsub started firing, relief and rage mixing messily during the shoot out, until that stone-solid, steady handed grounding took over and they handled the situation as smoothly and cleanly as they ever had. Bright, sharp glints of pride and a few other nameless emotions flickering there in the dark depths of his gaze when Spencer held his own. Just like Aaron had taught him to all those years ago. Time honed in the field. Whatever they were, they burned white-hot against something in Spencer’s own chest. Sparked like kindling when they met. 

Stayed burned and singed there, long after, glowing like low embers.

The walk down the hallway of their hotel was long and deathly quiet. After all was said and done, and the case was over, and the unsub dead on a slab in the morgue -- when it could have so easily been either him or Aaron lying there, from where they’d been standing when it all started. It was also charged, and Spencer didn’t know what Aaron was thinking or feeling or if he’d already put it all behind him. Wouldn’t know until he could see his expression, those deep brown eyes that darken to black more often than not. So when he opens the door, Spencer looks up at just the right moment, where he is so close he can see every shade of brown in his eyes and every emotion hidden behind them.

What he sees stops him dead, and they stand there for far longer than necessary. 

But Spencer... Spencer had to be sure, because what he saw? An array all it’s own, of trust and worry and care and passion and

Love.

Aaron moves to close the door, Spencer takes that final step into his space, and kisses him. Full, on the mouth kisses him, and doesn’t even have time to panic that he... really shouldn’t have done that. Because Aaron kisses him back. Presses him against the closed hotel room door, and the rest of that moment melts into a molten mess of Aaron’s body and Aaron’s lips and Aaron’s breath fanning against his face and... Spencer can’t really recall the exact sequence of events after that with much clarity.

But the one thing he knows for damn sure; is he kissed Aaron first, and Aaron kissed him back.

.

This obviously becomes a point of contention for the both of them. They spend years arguing over it, to the point it gets brought up in Morgan’s best man speech at their wedding because he’s had to hear about this damn night so much that he felt everyone at that reception needed to share the burden with him. 

They don’t really care, in the end. It turns into a playful thing, something to pick a fight over when they want to make up in the best of ways. Tease each other about it, endlessly. “I made the first move.” “Like hell you did, you just stood there staring at me.” And so on, and so forth.

.

But what actually happened?

It wasn’t slow, at all. The way they thought time had slowed, condensed, became obsolete, was all in their heads. The only moment of stillness was immediately after Hotch opened the door and Spencer made to step inside, barely a heartbeat passing, contained in the split second where their eyes met. Two men caught up in the threshold, standing far too close, brown on brown in different hues. 

In truth, neither Hotch nor Spencer made the first move, because they collided at the same time. 

Hotch closed the door with one hand, the other snagging Spencer’s waist and pulling him in at the same time Spencer took hold of Aaron’s face and neck and dragged him in close and kissed him. Spencer remembers it being a long, drawn out kiss; Hotch remembers it being sweet and slow. 

It wasn’t.

It was frantic and desperate, and Hotch indeed pressed Spencer to the closed door to kiss him deeper, haul him closer, but Spencer’s hands were already sliding up to bury long fingers in Hotch’s dark hair, guiding angles and kissing with deeper trajectory, and they became more and more entangled with every slide of lips and slip of tongues. Shared breath, deep bass exhales blending into sharp high-pitched gasps, and time did get away from them. They made out against the door until they could barely breathe, until they felt as close as they could get with their clothes still on, until Aaron pressed his forehead to Spencer’s and closed his eyes in search of finding metaphorical solid ground to stand on. While Spencer nudged the man’s nose with his own and breathed deep and attempted to get his head to stop spinning. 

It was messy, and wild, and perfect, and rendered that impeccable memory recall completely useless.

It would be the beginning of everything, and remain the one thing that they could never, ever agree on. For the rest of their lives.

[herinsectreflection]

Buffy vs Dracula is an underrated episode. The standard takes on this episode seem to range from “it’s dumb but fun” to “it’s dumb”. But I think this episode is more than that. It’s an assault on the narrative from another story. It’s main plot isn’t “Dracula comes to Sunnydale to fight Buffy”. It’s “Dracula tries to replace Buffy the Vampire Slayer”.  

Joss Whedon has been quoted saying his original vision of Buffy stems from the image of a blonde girl in an alley with a monster - but instead of getting killed by the monster, she kills it. The base inspiration for the show is this simple subversion. How much this was an actual common trope is up for debate - it’s not uncommon for horror movies to feature a spunky blonde “Final Girl” who defeats the villain at the end, but at the very least it was a subversion of the perceived trope, and iconic for that reason. The very opening scene of the show is an homage to this subversion, with the blonde girl turning out to be the dangerous vampire.

The high school years are basically a story of Buffy accepting her role as the Hero. She takes on the responsibilities of the Slayer in S1, faces the difficult choices that the Slayer must make in S2, and throws off the shackles of authority in S3. By the time we reach Buffy vs Dracula, she has fully claimed her role and incorporated into her identity. So now we see the purest example of that foundational image. Buffy isn’t just subverting the scene by seeming to be a victim only to turn around and kick the monster’s arse. She’s totally flipped the script and stepped into the role of the monster (in a good way, she’s still the Hero). She is no longer a victim who successfully fights back - she is the hunter, chasing down the terrified vampire. She has totally effectuated the show’s original vision.

Dracula threatens that. He enters from a different story - an older, more conventional story, where the vampire threatens the beautiful, innocent, helpless virgin. And he offers Buffy knowledge of her Slayer powers that she does not have. The idea he presents is a dangerous one - what if the narrative that Buffy foundationally rails against is actually right? What if it has some wisdom that Buffy must receive? Buffy has gone up against in-universe symbols of authority before - the Watchers, the Mayor’s office, the military - but this is beyond that. This is authority on a meta level. It’s the tradition of fiction built by and for straight white men, that dictates the acceptable tropes and techniques of future fiction. A self-sustaining patriarchy of the pen. 

Buffy’s immediate reaction is to dismiss Dracula and the narrative tropes he represents as irrelevant - posturing crap, like the fanboys calling themselves Lestat. She sarcastically asks him if he knows what a Slayer is - i.e. if he knows what show he’s in. His simple response - “Do you?” - is effectively disarming. Perhaps they are in one of Dracula’s movies now. Dracula and the Slayer are both held up as icons of vampire fiction, each having heard of the other’s legend. The question posed by the episode is whether the icon of Dracula is more powerful than the icon of Buffy.

This episode is scrapping it out with The Zeppo as possibly the most meta episode of the series. Throughout, the characters are crazy aware of their own narrative roles. Willow refers to the group as the sidekicks in the opening scene. Xander fights back against his assigned role at the Renfield (aka. The Butt Moneky) of this story. Giles seems aware that the necessity of his role as a mentor is rapidly declining. Buffy’s prevents Dracula’s post-climax comeback explicitly thanks to Buffy having seen his movies. (This also doubles as another S1 callback, given how much that season loved the sequel tease ending). There is an intentional unreality to the proceedings; an awareness of the fictional nature of the show that invites us to see Dracula not as a character, but as a narrative cipher; an image reflecting another kind of story. Giles even helpfully tells us that the key to defeating him is separating fact from fiction - i.e. understanding and learning to control the narrative around them.

From the moment he enters the frame, Dracula does not fit. With his black cloak and heavy white makeup, he is absurd pretentiousness next to Xander’s hawaiin shirt and mocha slushie. He comes with a set of powers totally contradictory to this universe. It’s handwaved away as “showy [romani traveller] stuff” by Spike, but the obvious usefulness of these powers makes that handwave insufficient. Rather, it feels like Dracula’s presence is warping the rules of this world. He has stepped in from another fictional universe to bend the logic of this one. Buffy starts to lose control of her own show as Dracula’s power rises. This is a character whose narrative gravity is so strong he can make a “great honking castle” spontaneously appear in Sunnydale. 

The switch of power comes in the scene where Dracula enters Buffy’s bedroom. It is eventually explained that Joyce invited him in earlier, but it doesn’t even feel strange at first that he enters without an invitation - it’s just another way that Dracula has distorted the narrative. This scene is intimate and disturbing, because it’s not a scene from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It’s a scene from Nosferatu. It’s the classic image of the vampire coming in through the window to feed on the young woman. Buffy is unable to fight Dracula because she has lost control over her own story, and it is becoming Dracula’s.

The interesting part is that this isn’t just Buffy being consumed by the Dracula story because he’s just that more powerful an icon than her. There’s an ambiguously voluntary aspect to it. Buffy wants information, to understand her own power better. She lets herself become enthralled to get what she needs from this traditional narrative. But that’s a dangerous slope - in these older narratives, every woman was a victim, so by metaphorically inviting this story in, she lessens her own power.

She never completely relents it though. There is an interestingly gendered dynamic here. Initially, all the girls (sans Tara) are kind of enamoured with Dracula’s intrigue and apparent sex appeal, while the boys are universally unimpressed and dismissive of him. But as the story goes on, it’s only male characters who surrender entirely to the new narrative. Xander’s will is bent and he completely becomes the Renfield of the story. Gile’s is rendered completely useless by the three wives. Perhaps because these stories traditionally center men, it is men who more easily relinquish control to it.

Buffy arrives at Dracula’s Big Honking Castle, and tries to flip the script back on Dracula, but fails at first. She has let him in and so his narrative gravity is stronger. He offers his blood - his life, his knowledge, his valuable wisdom - to her, and tells her to “find her nature”. He wants her to relent totally to his narrative. What Dracula doesn’t realise is that these are contradictory. He thinks that Buffy is a character in a Dracula story, where she can only be a victim seduced into darkness. But Buffy’s nature, her fundamental essence, means the fundamental essence of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And so we go back to that foundational image - that trope subversion on which Buffy is built. The flashes Buffy sees - the first Slayer, the vampire running through the graveyard - these all appear in the opening titles. It’s as if Buffy, when asked to see her nature, sees the opening titles of her own show. 

She quips - “That was gross” - and suddenly the script is flipped. Buffy has reclaimed the fundamental nature of the show, and now Dracula is a character in a Buffy story again. She literally uses the iconography of Dracula - the flaming torches on the castle wall - against him. He tries to use his Dracula powers again, but Buffy has reclaimed the narrative, so they don’t work. She demonstrates that she understands his story better than he understood hers, and so can use that power to defeat him. Buffy beats Dracula because Buffy the Vampire Slayer beats Dracula.

[texanredrose]

The Princess’ Bride? Love the title

Would you believe I've been working on that one for around 4 years? Where does the time go...

It seemed like perhaps a dumb question, but she’d always been a stickler for details. ���Are you the bladesmith of Patch?”

The blonde turned her head while lowering the hot metal into the water, sending steam billowing up behind her as vibrant lilac eyes landed on the princess. Sweat dripped from her brow and across the defined muscles of her exposed arms, collecting in the hollow below her throat and streaking into the valley created by her generous bosom, barely visible over top the leather apron she wore. The simple white tunic underneath was already soaked, nearly see through, drawn tight across the skin of her back and sides, smudged with black in some places, and stuffed into plain brown breeches that were in turn tucked into worn leather boots. A length of cloth, bright orange and tied around her right bicep, brought a little more color to her appearance but was easily outshone by her untamed blonde hair, catching the sunlight filtering in through the steam and giving her a halo of golden light as she spoke.

“Who wants to know?”

Weiss was, quite frankly, rendered speechless. General Ironwood hadn’t mentioned the woman would be so unerringly beautiful, that the rougher part of her appearance wouldn’t diminish the lingering softness in her cheeks and would instead enhance it, or that she would look at the princess like one might regard a fly- a minor annoyance that may be somewhat worthy of her attention if only to be rid of it sooner. Many things Weiss had encountered in her lifetime and disrespect was one of them, but never in this form. It was always tied to something- her height, the scar marring her left eye, her status as the second born- but, as she became dimly aware of Winter joining her, the blonde’s expression didn’t change. If anything, she looked even less impressed with her visitors than before. It wasn’t disrespect; merely indifference towards them, as if they were common folk off the street.

The change of pace was… refreshing, quite honestly. But it did make her completely forget what it was she was supposed to be doing until her sister oh-so-helpfully and subtly smacked the back of her head.

Right.

“Uh… yes, well, I am Princess Weiss of Atlas-” Why did she use her formal title? Was that entirely necessary, given the circumstances? “-and this is my sister, Princess Winter. I was told you make swords.”

There was enough of a lilt at the end of her words to imply a question, which was pretty stupid, actually, especially as the blonde withdrew the sword she’d just quenched in the barrel and held it out.

“Yup. You got me. I make swords.” The bladesmith turned her attention to the blade, turning it over slowly and inspecting it. “That all you wanted?”

“Er, no, not quite.” Snapping herself out of her embarrassing stupor, Weiss regained her composure, pointedly ignoring the smirk tugging at her sister’s lips or the blush adorning her own face. “I would like to enlist your services, Miss…?”

“Yang. No ‘Miss’, though. Not my thing.” She muttered, still apparently absorbed in her work. “What kind of sword do you want?”

It might be the fact that she didn’t have the woman’s undivided attention, which was such a rare event that it threw her off balance. It could’ve been that she’d never paid as much attention to their martial lessons as Winter had, rendering the question a tad redundant. Possibly, it was the heat after being seated in the saddle for so long that morning that was having an effect on her ability to speak properly. Whatever the cause, her response was nothing short of brilliant.

“The pointy kind.”

There was a moment of silence in which she could distinctly hear her sister’s barely concealed snort. Were she younger, she would’ve immediately snapped at the older woman for it, because sometimes it was easier to get mad at someone else for reacting to her mistakes than admitting she’d made one in the first place, but as it was, the princess merely stood there, frozen, while the bladesmith slowly turned to look at her.

Another moment passed before the blonde laughed, seemingly surprised by her own reaction as she set her work aside entirely and she raised a hand to rub her forehead. “Did- did you- oh, wow, that was an awful joke!”

“But it made you laugh,” Weiss replied, more than willing to pass her response off as mere jest than a complete lack of just about everything on her part. Even Winter seemed willing to let the excuse slide, though she would no doubt be teased the moment they were heading back to the castle.

“Yeah…” Yang started to regain control of herself, turning to face her guests fully. “Yeah, it did. It’s been awhile since I’ve laughed like that.” Gone was the gruff, serious expression from before, replaced by a brightness to her smile that threatened to obscure the sun. Well, to the princess, anyway. “But, seriously, what kind of blade are we talkin’ about?” Apparently taking note of the heiress for the first time, lilac eyes fell to the sword hanging on her belt. “And what’s wrong with the one you’ve got?”

“Are you familiar with rapiers?” She tried to frame the words as a honest question, having been chastised in the past for making such things seem demeaning when it wasn’t her intention. Okay, it wasn’t her intention every time. Regardless, she awkwardly drew the weapon in question, frowning slightly as the strange weight of it settled in her hand. “This one has been passed down by the royal family for ages but it… doesn’t feel right.”

“Huh.” The blonde moved closer, easily sidestepping her equipment to stand before the princess, peering down at the weapon. Suddenly, Weiss became acutely aware that she was eye level with Yang’s chin which, with just a little bit of looking down, would provide her with a view that wasn’t entirely appropriate so she was just going to look up and focus on that for the moment. “Swing it a few times. Let me see how you handle it.”

That was an… odd request- certainly not one she’d received from any bladesmith before- but she obliged, stepping away slightly to ensure she had room to manipulate the blade. With a few careful slashes, a thrust, and a flourish for good measure, she concluded her little demonstration with a small smile. “Was that sufficient?”

The blonde nodded, holding out her hand to inspect the weapon herself. Weiss offered it grip first, watching as Yang attempted to replicate the moves, lacking the same refined technique but seemingly unbothered by that. With another nod, she turned her attention to the princess, walking around her, and suddenly Weiss felt like she was being weighed and judged. This was nothing new, especially given her station, but she’d never felt quite this nervous. When she stood before the royal court, she was at least assured that anyone speaking ill of her would be quickly silenced by a harsh glare; she had no idea if she possessed what it was the bladesmith was looking for or what she might do if she didn’t.

“Alright,” Yang said, offering the family heirloom back with the same care the princess had offered it to her. “Give me… a fortnight, I think, and I’ll have something for you.”

“And the price?” Weiss raised a brow. “I expect you’d want something upfront for your valued services.”

“Nah.” The blonde waved her off, returning to her abandoned work. “If you like what I make, we can talk about price then. I don’t take people’s coin for a promise.” She hesitated in picking up the tongs which held the blade, shoulders sagging slightly. “They break too easy.”

[annerly-san]

Progression - [Chapter 1: Differential]

Primary Character Pairing: Choso x Reader/Female OC Story Summary: Life is never stagnant. It progresses and changes as does the people who live through it. Like a complex differential equation, it twists and curves with its ups and downs with each person having their own unique curve. But for her, the rate at which she progressed in life was zero as she moved linearly despairingly with no end in sight. That was until she met a cursed spirit who set her life back in progression. Chapter Navigation: Next Chapter

The concept of family leaves a foul taste in the mouth.

Obligations to owe and expectations to fulfill are but a few of the countless other burdens that come in conjunction with what a family entails.

And within this world of magic and curses, family is but a burden.

She continued to uphold her well-rehearsed, demure smile despite being worn and absolutely exhausted. Her opponent in front of her casually stood there with a hand on the hip and his head tilted to the side— unfazed and unbothered by her persistent barrage of attacks earlier. The fluff of white hair pulled up and back by the blindfold stood as a testament to remind her that she wasn’t even an opponent to be considered seriously.

He didn’t need to pretend to be tired at all.

“How much longer do you think you can keep pretending to smile like that, Gojo-chan?”

The words were spoken in snide mockery as her opponent bore the same familial name.

“You jest, Gojo-sensei.” The retort was short and spoken without the intent to play along with any insinuations.

Satoru Gojo had not changed one bit since she had first met him.

“She doesn’t look like me at all, does she, Suguru?”

He towered over her at the time. She remembered seeing those strikingly clear, blue eyes— sharp and piercing as they bore into her with a scrutiny unwarranted for a child at the time.

Two hands had reached out and grabbed her at the sides as she was hoisted several feet in the air to be turned back and forth, handled and examined like she was just some doll.

“You should put her down, she’s clearly uncomfortable.” Suguru, as he was referred to, placed a hand on Satoru’s shoulder whilst giving a firm glance of disapproval. He shot her a sympathetic smile as she was put down by the pouting teenager.

“How can she be uncomfortable when she’s smiling like that?” He begrudgingly asked his companion before putting two hands up in the air as to showcase his resignation. “But still to think that this little distant cousin of mine is supposed to bring in a new line of techniques for the clan is making me feel already less special~,” Satoru whined in jest as Suguru gave him a playful whack on the back. The white-haired sorcerer had wandered off, leaving her with an upset feeling of unsettled unpleasantness broiling in the pit of her stomach.

Those feelings were temporarily put on the side when his companion crouched down to meet her at eye level.

“Don’t worry about any of that, ok? If you’re ever sick of this guy, you can always come to find me.” Suguru reached down to pet her head in a strangely reassuring way. Comfort and ease had taken over her and her smile had unknowingly slipped off as the soft timbre of his voice lulled her in a sense of warm solace that she had never felt before. “My name is Geto Suguru. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Her head felt warm from where he had placed it before, and she had watched him catch up to her cousin’s side with a lopsided smile on her face.

The rate of those thrown punches coming at her were slow; she made them as such. Her innate ability, “Differential”, functioned on the rate of change principles from calculus and mechanics. Mathematicians, engineers, and scientists have long seen and quantified the inner workings of the world through equations. “Differential” allowed her to perceive the differential equation which models the behavior or qualities of an object and apply a “derivative” to it in order to adjust its rate of change. Simple equations such as the rate at which light refracts from the cornea of the eye to see are constant; taking the derivative of it amounts it to zero and thereby allows for someone’s vision to stop working. In this case, her perception of the logarithmic speed (ln(x)) of those punches have been derived to the equation of 1/x and will increasingly become slower and slower as more time passes.

It was a mutated trait from the original Gojo family’s “Limitless” technique. While the original skill operated under the fundamental principle of a limit with techniques operating under the mathematical principles of convergence and divergence in summations and series, hers was more focused upon the rate of change at a “fixed point” existing on a specific plane. From its proofing from calculus her technique took the limit as it approaches zero between two points allowed for the rate of change to be solved for and adjusted.

And so for things that move through time and space, she can easily avoid and counter them.

She dodged the first three punches with ease before countering with a sweep kick to the knees; however, the activation of Infinity didn’t allow for the attack to land as intended.

An upwards kick was evaded as she jumped backwards several steps to place sufficient distance between herself and Satoru.

“Hmmm~. We’re at around twenty minutes now. How are you holding up? Still smiling as always, I see.” She watched intently as Satoru leaned back and stretched out an arm lazily. “Should we call it quits now? You’re lasting longer than our last spar by around five minutes. That’s impressive growth, but you haven’t reached your fullest potential yet.”

She wondered if things would have been less tense or awkward between herself and Satoru had they not hailed from the same lineage. Resigning now to rest would only prove as a setback and insult to what was expected of her in addition to her own self-worth. There would be no resignation. No matter needed to be put forth on her end.

“I-I can continue, Gojo-sensei.” Her smile did not fall from her face despite how tired she was.

She stood up straighter and calmed her breaths.

Her still outer demeanor did not match the thoughts that were racing within her mind.

His Infinity was an issue. She would not be able to do anything about that nor about his convergence and divergence techniques of red and blue simply due to the nature of it resulting in something either undefined or unusable when taking the derivative of an abstract such as infinity, sums, and series.

But perhaps this would work.

The distance between the two of them was approximately fifteen. She needed five to try out her new method.

A breath in.

A breath out.

She dashed in to close the distance.

~~~

“Wow, I can’t believe that you were actually able to do that, Gojo-chan!”

She awakened and opened her eyes to see up to the ceiling of the infirmary. Gojo-sensei was sitting at her bedside with a tilted head, quirky smile, and a book that he must have been reading in the meantime while she was asleep. “Was that a new application of your “Differential”? I can’t believe that you actually rendered my Six Eyes blind for a good minute there.”

Her head hurt as she tried to recall the events of the sparring session before she had blacked out.

Upon closing the gap between them, at the five meter mark, she had Gojo-sensei in range.

Activating Differential, she was able to see the six constants that were governing the rate of perception for Gojo-sensei’s Six Eyes. She drew a shaky breath as she applied “Derivative” six times for each ‘eye’ and watched with elation as her teacher’s face became overcome with a sense of shock and surprise.

She quickly threw a punch aimed at his face in the hopes that the deactivation of his Six Eyes would affect the automatic response of Infinity somewhat.

That hope was dashed as her fist was stuck hovering in front of his nose, unable to proceed further to tangible result.

Leaping back, she stumbled as an sickening nausea overcame her and imbalance struck at her legs. Her vision was blurring and a strange ringing sound overcame her ears as she heard what was vaguely her name.

For some reason, she was kneeling on the ground with both hands in front propping her up. She bent her head up to see a white blur of what may have been Gojo-sensei running towards her, but her head was heavy and her vision was strangely red. Letting her head drop back down, she blinked and saw what seemed to be drops of blood dripping to the ground.

It was the last thing she saw.

“-Anyways, I was SO shocked that you started crying blood or something. You almost looked like a curse, ahahaha!”

Her thoughts were drawn back to reality as she tuned back into listening to what Gojo-sensei was saying.

“Man, if I didn’t manually activate Infinity, you might actually have hit me and gave me a bloody nose!”

She smiled and let out a breathy laugh. “Is that so?”

Gojo-sensei leaned in closer to the bed railing and placed a hand on her head.

“Yes. You did good.”

There was a warm elation in her chest from being praised. It didn’t happen often, though it left a strange feeling in her from being praised by Gojo of all people. It filled the cavity in her chest, but those words didn’t seem to be the ones that she was waiting for. Whatever it was she was feeling, it disappeared as quickly as it came for her teacher said his next words.

“Ah, but it seems that taking the differential six times is your current limit. Man, I don’t know how I’m going to deal with you and your younger siblings when they enroll next. I heard a lot of stuff about them~.”

Ah.

Her younger siblings.

The mention brought a bitter taste to her mouth and the lurking of a foul emotion within her heart. But she smiled as though it wasn’t the case.

“Hm, yes, my younger siblings. My sister definitely has more talent with the technique than I do, and my brother is well on his way. They might be the ones that’ll give you the most trouble, Gojo-sensei.”

She watched her teacher laugh.

Behind that coy smile and blindfold, she wondered if he could see through her facade and see her true feelings beneath.

But even if he could, he didn’t make a comment on it.

“I told Hakari, and he’s worried about you, you know!” Gojo-sensei continued. “We both keep telling you that you’re being too hard on yourself! Shouko keeps complaining to me about caring for my students more, you know!” He pouted. “I care about my students.” He rubbed her head as to prove a point.

There was a simmering frustration that was building in her abdomen.

“I know that, sensei. I’ll be more aware about that. Is Hakari alright?”

Her fellow classmate in the college, Kinji Hakari, was a third-year student like her. Due to the incident last year, he was on suspension.

“Oh he’s alright. He keeps saying that he’s bored to death being suspended and all and that he’s worried about you killing yourself when he’s not there with you.”

Perhaps it was said with good intentions. But it seemed patronizing. Maybe it was because it was spoken by those who were born with naturally strong talents compared to her who had worked to the point of injury in order to be a contender as their equal. That emotion in her stomach grew and started to burn and corrode away at her insides.

She laughed softly. “Please tell him that I appreciate the concern. I’m waiting for him to get back as well.”

Gojo-sensei had stood up muttering something about being a messenger boy and was readying himself to leave. As though he forgot something, he suddenly exclaimed aloud.

“Aha! I almost forgot to tell you too.” He whirled back around to face her. “There’s a whole queue of missions for you. All grade 2 or lower. It shouldn’t be much trouble for you, but be careful since you know-“ he gestured to the infirmary bed that she laid in as to drive home the point. “You get the idea.”

He left the room.

And she let out a sigh before slumping back down in the bed and closing her eyes.

It felt as though there was a crushing weight against her chest.

Taking care of the assigned curses was a simple task.

Despite her teacher’s reluctance at sending her out to the initial mission when she had gotten so adversely injured during a simple sparring match, everything turned out alright.

It had been a good while since that had passed on the order of months, but with the shortage of jujitsu sorcerers and Hakari still on suspension, it was only natural for her to handle things like this.

She stared down at her hands, which have unconsciously and naturally formed firm fists sitting in her lap.

With being tasked with an onslaught of more and more missions, she quickly rose to the rank of semi-grade 1. She was grateful for the opportunity as she needed this as a chance to raise her rank and further her worth.

She wasn’t talented, after all.

From the moment she was born, she remembered the crushing weight of anxiety bearing down on her at each step and misstep she took. The looks of disappointment, the yelling and screaming, the endless lectures, and the unbearable weight of it all.

Maybe it would have been better to have been born a disappointment to begin with. So that no one would make her carry these expectations on her weary back.

Her grandmother was actually the one to first develop the “Differential” ability. But the woman was originally an outcast of the Gojo clan and took her technique personally as a means to spite the ones that had looked down on her before. It carried the unbelievably petty burden of one day being able to surpass the main line of Limitless techniques.

So when her father, uncles, and aunts failed to inherit any of the “Differential” traits, they were marked as failures and the family was laughed at for daring to think that they could surpass the main line of inherited techniques.

That was until she awakened.

Up until the age of five, she was treated as a worthless and filthy object. Her mother was someone able to see cursed spirits, but had no innate techniques to deal with them, and despite having spite for the main Gojo family, her grandmother viewed her mother-- and by extension, her-- as a taint on the family line of sorcerers. Her first-cousins, unable to see curses much less use techniques though borne to two sorcerer parents, were treated with delicate care and spoiled by her grandparents beyond belief. And she was treated and called as the vermin of the bunch. Her father did nothing to refute that claim while her mother took out the insults of inferiority and stain on her as the byproduct and embodiment of that she hated. A living burden that tied her down to a family clan that did nothing else but mock her.

But that changed.

Suddenly one day, while her mother was hysterically screaming and cursing the old hag within the confines of their home, a stray curse wandered in.

She remembered what it looked like.

At the time she was patting her sister’s back, trying to turn invisible in the midst of her mother’s rage as she did her utmost to not earn her ire. Her younger sister, a toddler barely learning how to walk, cried incessantly at the loud banging and clashing of pots and pans as they were flung about the house.

The clanging stopped briefly as the air chilled and silenced; a grotesque hand of oozing purple goop clutched at the hallway corner.

A cry broke out. Her sister.

Loud gurgling sounds rang out as her mother desperately avoided looking at the monster as to not warrant its attention as one that can perceive it.

But she didn’t know better.

The curse had several green eyes embedded in the goop of mess that constituted its body and it let out a warbling bellow as all those eyes narrowed in to meet hers in a chilling stare.

It took a step forth.

She held her breath as she continued to stare at it with an intense fear.

It began to approach her rapidly.

And she remembered begging in her mind for it to stop. She didn’t want it to approach her anymore.

It stopped.

Not much was remembered after that as adults came and well-qualified sorcerers took care of the curse that was just frozen in place.

She had passed out by then and woke up to a new world that was unbelievably scary and confusing. A new world of just so many expectations.

This sudden twisting change from being viewed as less than trash to invaluable gold crushed and suffocated her.

From cultivating this new skill, surpassing some “Gojo Satoru”, shoving it in her grandmother’s face, and so, so, much more. It was dizzying. Nauseating.

One misstep signaled Armageddon. One pause meant weakness. One tear was failure.

As she sat on the bus bench in the lonely countryside, her breaths felt labored like she had to push a stone brick weighing several tons off her chest a few millimeters so that she didn’t suffocate under its weight.

Her promotion isn’t too far away. She was a semi-grade 1 at the moment and was handling missions smoothly and effectively. It’s only a matter of time before it will all be over.

The road was dull and illuminated with the yellowed lights of the street lamp.

Her thoughts traversed back to the events of present day back at the school.

There was buzz on things happening back at the school, but she had not had the chance to listen in on the details of the news. The Sister Exchange event would have happened around now. She’s missed it now unfortunately, but she thought that she had heard something about the first years being roped in to fill in the third year’s vacancy and they did well enough. What was interesting that she had regrettably missed out on hearing more about was the first year student, Itadori Yuuji, who was apparently the vessel for Sukuna, the King of Curses.

She wondered if he was feeling as burdened as she was. He probably had heavy expectations too.

Footsteps were heard and a strange presence of cursed energy lurked nearby on the road.

Senses were heightened as she pulled away from her mind’s musing to hone in on the present at hand.

There was one curse. No. Three.

Her eyes followed the curved line of the road to where it bent behind some trees, and she saw three shadows walking along it without much caution or care.

A chill went down her spine. The combined auras was overwhelming. They were at least a grade higher than hers— at least Grade 1, but it would seem that all three could very well be Special Grade curses.

There shouldn’t be a cluster of special grade curses like this.

While there shouldn’t be, she did recall hearing about the strange events and appearances of strong, special grade curses with a sentience recently.

She hoped that this wouldn’t be the case.

The first one out of the shadows was a man. He looked extremely tired with prominent purple rings around his eyes and an odd rectangular stripe across his nose. He wore baggy pants and a loose, long sleeved shirt paired with a series of black sashes wrapping around his waist, shoulders, and neck. As he walked, his wild, messy, black hair tied into two prominent bunches on his head flounced around.

He took up physical space and appeared human if it were not for the immensely crushing amount of cursed energy that shrouded around him like a dense fog.

His other two companions slowly came into view. The other two were definitively curses. One was turquoise with a hunched back. It had a prominent mouth on its middle that dripped blood and a humanoid husk of a face where its head would have been.

The other held similar form but significantly more humanoid. In the center of the abdomen was a pair of red eyes and a smaller mouth. This curse was flesh colored with a more defined human form and a similar deformed humanoid head on the top.

“Nii-san, is she the one we were supposed to be looking for?” The turquoise one spoke seemingly to the most human of the group.

“That’s right.” His voice was low in timbre with a strange sense of calm and echo to it. “That amount of cursed energy and presence... It’s most definitely the relative of Satoru Gojo that we were supposed to find.”

Her breath was caught in her chest.

They were most definitely Special-grade curses. Beyond their appearances in taking physical form through some sort of manifestation, they were sentient and individually held a tremendous amount of cursed energy.

What was worse was that their target was her.

If it was simply one, then she may have handled alright against a special grade with some collateral damage, but against three her odds of victory were slim.

There wasn’t a chance to escape with the three of them having locked onto her like this, and even if she did manage to, she would most definitely return as a failure sorcerer who flaked when faced with what her purpose in life should be.

There wasn’t a choice.

She breathed out.

The wind blowing calmly around her as the three curses continued their approach lulled her into an odd sense of tranquility to brace her for what was to come.

The fight was here.

[jerseydeanne]

Joy Behar: Columbus policeman who shot Ma'Khia Bryant could have just shot 'the gun in the air' —— Holy fuck! You cannot make this shit up.

How absolutely ignorant of her! 

How many times do we have to tell people to comply with the officer. Are you really that dumb? 

You try and stab a cop or someone else in front of a cop you deserve everything you get in my opinion! I don’t give a flying rat’s behind what color you are! 

More dumb white people are killed by cops than black. You know what we say? they probably deserved it for not obeying the officer. 

Did you guys listen to the 911 call? The person is hysterical on the phone asking for help saying the girl was trying to stab them.  You watch that video and the girl was out of control. 

https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/crime/2021/04/22/columbus-police-shooting-makhia-bryant-appears-lawful/7318300002/

'No opportunity to de-escalate: use-of-force experts say Columbus officer obeyed training in shooting Ma'Khia BryantJohn FuttyThe Columbus Dispatch

An Ohio criminal-justice professor who studies the fatal use of force by law-enforcement officers didn't hesitate to render an opinion after watching body-camera video of a Columbus police officer fatally shooting a 16-year-old girl Tuesday afternoon on the city's Southeast Side.

"My first impression is that the officer was legally justified in using deadly force," said Philip Stinson, a Bowling Green State University professor who has compiled nationwide statistics on fatal shootings that have led to criminal charges against officers.

Ma'Khia Bryant shooting: Columbus police release 911 calls, ID of officer involved

"It's a terribly tragic situation, and my heart goes out to the girl and her family and friends," he told The Dispatch Wednesday. "But from looking at the video, it appears to me that a reasonable police officer would have had a reasonable apprehension of an imminent threat of serious bodily injury or death being imposed against an officer or someone else. That's the legal standard."

Bodycam video shows an attempted stabbing before shooting

The body-camera video, which the city first showed during a news conference late Tuesday night, captured the perspective of Officer Nicholas Reardon, who shot Ma’Khia Bryant seconds after he arrived outside a home on the 3100 block of Legion Lane on a report of an attempted stabbing.

The video shows Bryant, who is holding a knife, push a female who is falling down backwards at the officer's feet, then turn and charge at another female dressed in a pink outfit. The female in pink is pinned against a car in the driveway while Bryant appears to swing the knife at her, prompting Reardon to fire what sounds like four shots.

'She was a child.':White House comments on Ma'Khia Bryant shooting

Witnesses:'I figured it was just a girl fight.' Neighborhood witnesses saw argument before police shot Ma'Khia Bryant

Police shootings:Here are the names of people killed in police shootings in Columbus

James Scanlon, a retired Columbus Division of Police SWAT officer who spent 33 years with the division, has since trained officers, and served as an expert witness at trials in use-of-force cases, agreed with Stinson's assessment of the video.

"An officer is justified in using deadly force if his life or the life of someone else is at risk," Scanlon said Wednesday. "Few would argue that there weren't at least two lives there that were at serious risk."

In this case, Scanlon said, Reardon wasn't trying to protect himself, "but to save the life of someone he doesn't even know. ... It's a shame that no one has recognized that that officer, in all likelihood, saved one or more lives."

The legal standard by which an officer's use of force must be measured was established by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Graham vs. Connor decision.

The ruling, issued in 1989, gives police officers significant leeway in the use of deadly force when they perceive that a person poses an imminent threat to officers or others, and limits the second-guessing of that decision.

The ruling requires that an officer's actions be "judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, rather than with the 20/20 vision of hindsight."

Any evaluation of an officer's actions must include "allowance for the fact that police officers are often forced to make split-second judgments – in circumstances that are tense, uncertain and rapidly evolving," the court found.

Stinson said Tuesday's shooting is "a good reminder that officers sometimes have to make split-second, life-or-death decisions in violent street encounters. ... These situations can escalate in a matter of milliseconds, as we saw here."

Taser, other options not available before Ma'Khia Bryant shooting

Although such shootings inevitably generate questions from the public about why an officer didn't use de-escalation techniques, or deploy a Taser or shoot the person in the leg, none of those options appeared to be available to the officer, both experts agreed.

"I don't know what the officer could have done differently," Stinson said. "Based on what I saw, there was no opportunity for the officer to de-escalate."

Scanlon said use of a Taser isn't an appropriate response "to a lethal-force situation," and police are trained to target only one thing when they shoot to protect themselves or others — "center mass" of the person they're trying to stop.

Use-of-force:Police training cited as defense in many use-of-force cases, but experts say it's outdated.

Officers are trained "to shoot until the threat is neutralized," he said.

Scanlon said the body-camera footage "is a textbook scenario that an officer would see in a film during a 'shoot/don't shoot' training exercise. That's exactly the kind of film you'd see in training rooms where you have to react to a deadly situation."

Stinson said officers "are trained and they're re-trained in use-of-force situations. One problem we see is officers who react in ways that are inconsistent with their training. I did not see that in this video.

"In this situation, inaction by the officer, I believe, would likely have resulted in serious bodily injury or death to one or more persons."

There was some confusion Wednesday about whether Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin was suggesting that the officer had options other than deadly force.

In a written statement issued that morning, Hardin responded to the shooting by advocating change in "the city's training and hiring process. We must push for a new culture in Columbus where guns are not the final answer to every threat, and we must implement a new vision of safety in Columbus."

Based on that remark, Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther was asked at an afternoon news conference if the officer should have handled Tuesday's confrontation differently.

"A lot of the other reforms and efforts that should be involved will help," the mayor said. "I don’t know if any of those things would have resulted in a different outcome based on what we’ve seen in this footage, but we won't know until this investigation is finished."

The council's chief of staff, Michael S. Brown, said late Wednesday afternoon that Hardin's statement had been misinterpreted.

Hardin was referring to a culture of gun violence "in our society as a whole," not about police officers using guns as an answer to every threat, Brown said.

"It's not about this one case."

jfutty@dispatch.com

@johnfutty

Thank you, Anon 

[abysslarchiving]

since i run kaeya on a physical dps build and do equip him with two pieces of bloodstained chivalry, i’m going to headcanon that the bloodstained knight was someone that he did idolise and base his fighting technique off. although, becoming more similar to the bloodstained knight as he got older made kaeya realise the story wasn’t all it was chalked up to be. becoming similar to the bloodstained knight meant having a price to pay.

kaeya’s multiplier is, objectively, one of the best in the game out of the sword users ( no, i will not be taking constructive criticism ). physical dps builds are recommended if you’d like some lovely numbers, and i thought wouldn’t it be fun to make use of how powerful kaeya’s attacks are when paid attention to. on top of that ! kaeya’s fighting style is not entirely from mondstadt. he is the only knight whose fighting style is named “ ceremonial bladework ” and not “ favonius bladework. “

when left in mondstadt, it was not only his father and diluc that compelled kaeya to become a knight of favonius, but the story of the bloodstained knight, which is a khaenri’ahn fairytale.

most likely rooted in truth, kaeya came to idolise this story and the knight the myth was most likely based of. 

this is the lore found on “ bloodstained final hour. ”

a timepiece once used by a knight. the liquid inside has dried up, rendering it useless.

deep in the abyss, where celestial bodies cast no light,

the bloodstained knight kept this timepiece, though time had lost all meaning.

at an end was the bloodstained knight's story, for he realised there was no place for him on this earth. he ventured into the fallen ancient kingdom, and died in battle in the monsters' lair. at the bottom of the world, he learned the origin of the monsters that destroyed the ancient kingdom.

" the ancient kingdom was wrongfully cursed, "

" turning its inhabitants into monsters. "

" the code of chivalry tolerates not such injustice. "

" if abyss be thy name, i pledge to you my loyalty. "

similarities to kaeya made me want to look into the other aspects of the bloodstained chivalry set.

a dried flower stained black with blood and now as hard as steel. probably some sort of a memento for its former master.

a common white flower given to the knight by a rescued damsel.

it is dried and hardened by the blood from all his bloodshed.

thanking him for his valour, the damsel offered a reward.

he turned down all she gave, save for a pure white flower.

" for a knight, chivalry is its own reward. "

"this flower shall be my medal. that is all I need."

he wore the flower upon his heart.

like his armour, it was stained as black as a winter's night.

like his heart, it was hardened like a tempered blade.

i thought that it was interesting how they compared this blood stained flower to a tempered blade, a winter’s knight, when kaeya is known as the frostblade, how he is known to use both words and weapons, to be warm and cold at the same time, how his innocence as a child was quite literally stained with blood as and ! his name means flower, so this would draw comparisons to a flower that was once innocent stained with blood, stained with war. i just think that a younger kaeya would be able to identify with the bloodstained knight because of such similar motifs.

a raven feather pinned to a knight's cape. countless bloodstains have dyed it pitch black.

One of the countless raven feathers stuck to the Bloodstained Knight.

For where there is blood, ravens shall follow.

In the end the bloodstained knight could no longer tell whether the blood that stained him was his own or that of his enemies.

eventually, on his long journey filled with bloodshed, he came to a realisation:

his path of so-called chivalry had turned him from the white knight he used to be into the monster he had now become.

his only followers were the ravens drawn to the bloodshed he left in his wake.

kaeya canonically sees himself as an antihero. he keeps others at bay, even those that he treasures. on top of that, his stance as someone who was planted in mondstadt, someone who has a role in a more ancient plot, has rendered him unable to make meaningful connections and i think that might also be because of the fear they might become hurt. add onto that that kaeya is khaenri’ahn, a so called “ sinner ” and someone who is still under the effects of the khaenri’ahn curse. he is a knight has ever reason to become a villain, why wouldn’t he understand the bloodstained knight’s story ?

the dark metallic vessel owned by the bloodstained knight. it’s exterior has been stained as black as the night by smoke and coagulated blood.

originally an exquisite silver goblet with gold engravings depicting the feats of a chivalrous knight.

but blood and smoke have stained the cup beyond recognition.

covered in blood, the knight who slayed demons returned from the scourged battlefield, only to find that those awaiting his rescue were nowhere to be found among the collapsed houses.

defeated, the bloodstained knight took the smoke-blackened goblet, and vowed to rid the world of monsters, of poverty, and of evil.

i couldn’t twist this into kaeya’s perspective at first but !! if you look at the “world” in the perspective of “khaenri’ah” then it does make a little more sense coming from that. kaeya, sacrificing the person who he’s become in order to rid khaenri’ah of monsters ? i can see it. i can see it so clearly.

the iron mask the knight used to conceal their identity. many have speculated about the face behind the mask.

a luxurious platinum mask that once belonged to a knight of noble birth.

the dark stains of dry blood are now a permanent part of its appearance.

as the bloodstained knight reached out to help a person in need after slaying the monster. the way she cowered in fear made the knight realise: He was now a monster himself. Tainted by the blood and cruelty of his drawn-out war.

"Shield me from the eyes."

"Of those I vowed to protect."

"And shield them the horrors I am bound to effect."

listen, i mean, c’mon, that knight of noble birth line ??? “ prince kaeya ? ” of course i’m going to latch onto that bit. also, the idea of a monstrous knight is one i love completely. kaeya, and the blood of those from khaenri’ah turning into monsters is already canon. but, kaeya’s shifty morality when it comes to sacrificing ideals for goals ? kaeya dealing with those he will hurt if he chooses khaenri’ah over mond ? kaeya who is already nonchalant about appearing like a bad guy in order to achieve results ? kaeya already has the makings of a monster with only common sense and compassion for those that he cares about holding him back, if you wanted to see it that way. i feel as if kaeya has a capacity for choosing either side, and reasons to protect both of them, so maybe he also sees the bloodstained knight as someone he doesn’t want to be like, even though he once idolised the story of a knight who would go so far to protect what he deemed was important.

[leverage-ot3]

notable moments from The Juror #6 Job

leverage 1.11

it took them three (3) years to get the vargas case on trial ??? that’s so long, the court system is fucked up

- - - - -

Hardison: You are Alice White. It's one of the aliases I made for you, vegetarian, bookkeeper. She had a pretty wild time at her sister's wedding in Phoenix. You should check out her facebook page.

eliot smiling at that rb if u agree

- - - - -

Nate: No. No. Jury duty - A place where you have to follow instructions.

Sophie: Where you have to consider other people's point of view.

Eliot: There's gonna be normal people there, Nate.

eliot emphasizing that there would be NORMAL people there lmfao

- - - - -

the fam sitting together eating pizza we love to see it

- - - - -

Sophie: you know, she's never done that before.

Nate: What, stormed out? Come on.

Sophie: No, asked for our help. (walks out)

(Nate looks toward Parker, then back at Hardison)

Nate: What? Listen, there is a reason we put her in a jury trial.

(Hardison mutes game)

Hardison: You know, man, when I was a, when I was a kid, I was like 8 years old, I had a foster mom who was Jehovah’s witness. She used to dress me up in a suit and a bow tie and take me door-to-door to spread the word. Black neighborhoods, white neighborhoods, didn't matter. I would kick, I’d scream, or whatever, but she would say "Alec, you need to learn how to talk to people." See, everything I learned about people, I learned ringing doorbells and-and-and being in a bow tie. Parker never had that. I mean, jumping from a skyscraper, she's cool. But making small talk? It’s-it's like pure terror. Just cut her some slack.

(Eliot hurries in with a six pack of beer)

Eliot: How about them Cowboys? What'd I miss? (flips his beer)

Nate: Nothing.

(Nate looks at Parker, who is dialing her phone)

like I love learning about their backstories but I can’t believe someone made hardison be a jehovah’s witness

- - - - -

parker is wearing flannel again

- - - - -

Nate: Not if we steal it first. Who plays chess?

Eliot: I play.

Nate: Yeah, of course you do. A chess game has three stages, right? I mean, you got your opening, middle, and end game. In the opening, you want to take control of the board, and you want to line up your attack and you want to protect the king, which, ironically, is the weakest piece you have

nate isn’t even surprised that eliot plays chess. he’s just like yeah, that adds up.

- - - - -

(Eliot is in a dumpster while Hardison is on the ground looking through garbage bags)

Eliot: It's your turn to be in the dumpster.

Hardison: No, man, no. I-I have-I have peanut allergies. What if somebody threw in some extra crunchy Skippy? Then, you know, it's just a (wheezing) all up in my vocal area, man. Do you want to give me mouth-to-mouth? No, none of us want that. Hell no.

(Eliot throws a trash bag at Hardison’s head. Hardison looks up, angry)

Eliot: Heads up (laughs)

they’re idiots

+ ALSO hardison is always in danger of triggering fake allergies,,, this, the rashomon job,,,

- - - - -

Hardison: Quint's on the hook. He went to Mumbai international limited's website to check out Sophie.

Nate: It's a real company?

Hardison: Cover story's better that way. Just, uh, changed this... (hits button on remote, which changes a picture on a website) to this.

- - - - -

Sophie: Okay, today did not go well, but that's all right. You know, we learn when we fail. We're gonna-we're gonna go back to basics, and we're gonna do a little role-playing. Gonna start with-with persuasion techniques. So, Eliot (tosses him an apple) has an apple. Alice (tosses her an orange) has an orange.

Eliot: I love apples. Apples are my favorite fruit.

Parker: Good for you, sparky.

Eliot (to Sophie): I-I don't have to sit here and take this crap.

Sophie: Go on. Just do it for me.

Eliot (to Parker): You have an orange, all right? Now, convince me that I want the orange, not the apple. I'm gonna take a bite. (slowly brings the apple to his mouth and takes a bite)

Parker: I put a razor blade in that apple.

Eliot (spits out the apple): Are you serious?

Parker: Maybe. But do you know what doesn’t have a razor blade in it? This orange. (smells the orange) Don't you want it? (tosses the orange at Eliot and leaves)

Sophie: You fell for that? (exits room)

CHAOTIC OT3

- - - - -

Hardison: O- Okay. Um... you know, I have photos (places a file on the bench) that I would like to introduce from a vacation, the opposing counsel water-skiing. It's all from his website - very public.

Louis: I object.

Hardison: As well you should. You shouldn't be doing that. Seriously? I mean, he doesn't have the body.

r o a s t e d

- - - - -

Parker: Wait! Wait a second. That was a secret. You just told me a secret, right? That's something friends do.

Peggy: Well, I guess so. You're the nicest one here.

Parker: Really? I mean, thanks.

her S M I L E your honor

- - - - -

Earnshaw: Lunch is almost over. Get back to the trial. (opens folder) Joseph Miller, Georgetown pre-Law, Harvard law with honors! This can't be right. This guy's hourly rate has to be more than what our grieving widow makes in a month.

Assistant: Ma'am, it all checks out. Unless Gloria Vargas found some guy who created a CIA Level cover story and fake identity

hardison is just that good and we love to see it

- - - - -

Earnshaw: Wait. Who's that?

Assistant: The guy talking to the Vargas lawyer?

Earnshaw: No. Her. Raid Quint’s computer, his calendar, his e-mails. Pull out the call logs and the GPS records from his phone. I want to know who that is.

- - - - -

Quint: Earnshaw says if we settle, we open ourselves up to other lawsuits.

Sophie: We don't care about more lawsuits. With a billion people in the work force, a few deaths won't raise an eyebrow.

Quint: Government won't crack down?

Sophie: Mr. Quint, it takes five years to get a parking permit

that’s fucked

- - - - -

(Donnie is standing in front of a green screen)

Nate: Good. He's good.

Eliot (turns off camera): What I tell you? (hugs Donnie) Thank you for coming in on such short notice, Donnie.

Donnie: Ah, dinna fash yersel, laddie. What are friends for?

Eliot: Exactly. Beer's on me soon.

Donnie: Oh, you remember tha. (exits)

Nate: He's very good.

Eliot: What I tell you

we love getting more insight on eliot’s past and who his friends are/used to be

- - - - -

hardison, parker and eliot walking to the door and nate and sophie seeing them off like parents (even parker with her packed lunch!!!)

- - - - -

Hardison: Oh, incident. Okay. (referring to file) Would that happen to be the incident on flight 732 out of St. Louis, where you-you fondled a flight attendant's buttocks? Or would that happen to be the incident on flight 1433 out of Chicago, where you drank 17 tiny margaritas, you took your pants off, you stood up on the drink cart, and you sang, quote, "I'm a sexy monkey"?

Patemkin: I have no recollection of that.

Hardison: I'm not surprised, because it was not one, it wasn't two, but it was 22 incidents of drunk and belligerent, grab-assy behavior that landed you on that list.

Judge: Mr. Miller.

Louis: Objection!

Hardison: No, you know what, your honor? The US Government has determined that this man is not qualified to ride on an airplane, like Osama bin Laden. How is this jury supposed to rely on him to render a sound medical opinion

IM SCREAMING

+

parker looks so proud of him

- - - - -

Parker: Oh, sweet mercy, cooked flesh. (takes a bite of burger) Can we have fast food every time we make the bad guys go away

let parker eat as much meat as she wants 2k20

also, eliot is sitting right next to her and finally got to watch his football 😌 we love to see them sitting together

- - - - -

Nate: Did you realize what you just did? What you did? You won a jury trial without cheating.

Hardison: Without chea--I hacked a government no-fly list and used it to humiliate a witness.

Nate: Excessively. "Cheating excessively" is what I meant. But, I mean, think about it, I mean, if you applied yourself, Hardison, you could be anything you want.

Hardison: You know what? I could. I could. You know, next week, I think I’m gonna be an astronaut.

Nate: Well, that's not really what I meant. I meant if you studied, you’d--

Hardison: Yeah, if I--Who needs to study? You know, I’m gonna be a surgeon. A surgeon – ER. Surgeon.

HARDISON IS A GENIUS AND CAN DO ANYTHING HE WANTS SEND TWEET

- - - - -

(Parker gets a text and checks her phone)

Parker: Hey, it's Peggy from the trial! She wants to have coffee next week. Alice made a friend.

Eliot: I'm gonna tell you one more time. You made a friend, not Alice.

Parker: Oh, cool. Well, think she'd want to steal a painting with me?

Sophie: Start small, Parker. Try coffee.

that’s so cute and means so much that she made a friend that even went as far as REACHING OUT to HER !!!

and she doesn’t reject the idea!!!

okay but also if a girl as pretty as parker asked me to steal a painting with her with that smile on her face, bitch you bet I would,,, I am but a simple bisexual with a weakness for pretty ladies

[three-course-fillorian-feast]

i love your pinned edit - how did you do that effect its so pretty!

srry not pinned - This world is flawed… Turn off the TV and be with them.

Sorry for the delay, I wanted to wait until the weekend when I had time to answer this question right, because you have asked about one of my *ding ding ding* favorite gif sets!

The whole set uses the same technique, so I’ll just break down the first one. Technically it’s just layering on lot of Layer Styles repeatedly until it looks good or you get fed up. But the final effect is wooorth it:

So we’re putting these three pieces of footage together:

(I have some links for where to get that kind of wet ink stock footage here in this post)

Step 1: Invert the ink colors so that the cool ink is white and the background is black. Bump up the levels or contrast to make sure the black is 100% pure black.

Step 2: Put the footage we want the ink to “reveal” on top of the ink layer and set it to “Multiply.”

This way everything on top of white is revealed, everything on top of black is completely masked off.

You’ll notice that I have a ton of color and brightness effects added to the hug layer. A couple are just to give it the cool blue I was going for. The actual takeaway here is to make your lights very light and your darks very dark. The final effect will come through more clearly this way.

Step 3: Hit “Render Video” on just this effect to save it as a video, then drag your new video into the file. You can hide or delete the layers you’ve been working with up until now.

Step 4: Place the new video layer on top of the base footage and set to “Screen”

And voila!

The black parts of the video let the base footage bleed through, while everything in the video that’s lighter covers it up. Meanwhile, the dark parts of the base footage are where you can most clearly see the revealed footage. (i.e. notice how the back of Margo’s head is almost invisible because it’s screened on top of the light ceiling.)

Like I said, nothing technically crazy. Just ever so tedious. Expect a lot of trial and error before you land on a layout and effect you’re happy with. A couple tips in that regard:

Use bits of footage that have both light and dark areas. If your base footage is completely light, nothing will really "reveal” on top of it. If it’s completely dark, the reveal will splat on top without really interacting with the base footage.

Use different scales and angles. Unless you’re very deliberately going for something like, say, Eliot’s head being replaced by Margo’s head, be mindful to mix it up. Big-head-directly-on-top-of-big-head will usually end up looking weird. So try combining a big close up with a mid-distance shot, straight-on with a profile, etc.

Think about how your colors are interacting. I played it pretty safe here, with the same tone applied on both. But you could get some very cool effects by having, like, warm tinted base footage with cool tinted footage revealed on top.

Go forth and make cool ink-y gifs and then show ‘em to me because I totally wanna see :D

[wisdomrays]

TAFAKKUR: Part 404

SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES: A NOVEL PERSPECTIVE: Part 2

TEFLON

From non-stick frying pans to space suits to artificial heart valves, Teflon has found several areas of application. Its discovery resulted from an apparently ‘accidental’ observation by a young chemist, R. Plunket, working in Du Pont laboratories. On April 6, 1938, Plunket opened a tank of gaseous tetrafluoerothylene in the hope of preparing a non-toxic refrigerant from it, but no gas came out, to the surprise of Plunkett and his assistant. Plunkett could not understand this because the weight of the tank indicated that it should be full of the gaseous fluorocarbon.

Instead of discarding the tank and getting another in order to get on with his refrigerant research, Plunkett decided to satisfy his curiosity about the ‘empty tank’. Having determined that the valve was not faulty by running a wire through its opening, he sawed the tank open and looked inside. There he found a waxy white powder and, being a chemist, he realized what it must mean.

The molecules of the gaseous tetrafluoroethylene had combined with one another ‘polymerized’ to such an extent that they now formed a solid material. The waxy white powder did indeed have remarkable properties: it was more inert than sand - not affected by strong acids, bases or heat and no solvent could dissolve it - but, in contrast to sand, it was extremely slippery.

X (ROENTGEN) RAYS

Physicist W. Roentgen discovered the rays which were later to be named after him, in an unexpected and unplanned manner. Roentgen was repeating experiments by other physicists in which electricity at high voltage was discharged through air or other gases in a partially evacuated glass tube. We now know that cathode rays are actually streams of electrons being emitted from the cathode, and the impact of these electrons on the walls of the glass tubes produces the phosphorescence.

In 1892, it was demonstrated that cathode rays could penetrate thin metallic foils. Discharge tubes having thin aluminium windows allowed the cathode rays to pass out of the tube where they could be detected by the light they produced on a screen of phosphorescent material (such screens were also used to detect ultraviolet light), but they were found to travel only two or three centimetres in the air at ordinary pressure outside the evacuated tube.

Roentgen repeated some of these experiments to familiarize himself with the techniques. He then decided to see whether he could detect cathode rays issuing from an evacuated all-glass tube, that is, one with no thin aliminium window. Na one had observed cathode rays under these conditions. Roentgen thought the reason for the failure might be that strong phosphorescence of the cathode tube obscured the weak fluorescence of the detecting screen. To test this theory, he devised a black cardboard cover for the cathode tube. To determine the effectiveness of the shield, he then darkened the room and turned on the high voltage coil to energize the tube. Satisfied that his black shield did indeed cover the tube and allowed no phosphorescent light to escape, he was about to shut off the coil and turn on the room lights so that he could position the phosphorescent screen at varying short distances from the vacuum tube:

Just at that moment, he noticed a weak light shimmering from a point in the dark room more than a yard from the vacuum tube. At first, he thought there must be, after all, a light leak from the black mask around the tube, which was being reflected from a mirror in the room. However, there was no mirror. When he passed another series of charges through the cathode tube, he saw the light appear in the same location again, looking like faint green clouds moving in synchronism with the fluctuating discharges of the cathode tube. Hurriedly lighting a match, Roentgen found to his amazement that the source of the mysterious light was the little fluorescent screen that he had planned to use as a detector near the blinded cathode tube, but it was lying on the bench more than a yard from the tube.

Roentgen realized immediately that he had encountered an entirely new phenomenon. These were not cathode rays that lit up the fluorescent screen more than a yard from the tube! With feverish activity, he devoted himself single-mindedly in the next several weeks to exploring this new form of radiation. He reported his findings in a paper published in Wunburg, dated December 28, 1895, and entitled ‘A New Kind of Ray, a Preliminary Communication’. Although he described accurately most of the basic qualitative properties of the new rays in this paper, his acknowledgement that he did not yet fully understand them was indicated by the name he chose for them, X-rays. (They have also often been called Roentgen rays.)

He reported that the new rays were not affected by a magnet, as cathode rays were known to be. Not only would they penetrate more than a yard of air, in contrast to the two or three inch limit of cathode rays, but also (to quote his paper):

‘All bodies are transparent to this agent, though in very different degrees. Paper is very transparent; behind a bound book of about one thousand pages I saw the fluorescent screen light up brightly. In the same way the fluorescence appeared behind a double pack of cards. Thick blocks of wood are also transparent, pine boards two or three centimetres thick absorbing only slightly. A plate of aluminium about fifteen millimetres thick, though it enfeebled the action seriously, did not cause the fluorescence to disappear entirely. If the hand be held between the discharge tube and the screen, the darker shadow of the bones is seen within the slightly dark shadow image of the hand itself.’

He found that he could even record such skeletal images on photographic film. This property of X-rays captured the attention of the medical world immediately. In an incredibly short time X-rays were used routinely for diagnosis in hospitals throughout the world.

INSULIN

If a relative or a friend of yours has diabetes, you will probably know how important insulin is for them. As a partial remedy for most diabetics today, insulin was discovered as an answer to the prayers of hundreds of thousands of diabetics by the Most Merciful One. Perhaps, even better relief and remedy are awaiting discovery in some unexpected time or place.

In 1889, while studying the function of the pancreas in digestion, two researchers removed the pancreas from a dog. The very next day a laboratory assistant called their attention to a swarm of flies around the urine from this dog. Curious about why the flies were attracted to the urine, they analysed it and found it was loaded with sugar. Sugar in urine is a common sign of diabetes.

The researchers realized that they were seeing for the first time evidence of the experimental production of diabetes in an animal. The fact that this animal had no pancreas suggested a relationship between that organ and diabetes. The researchers subsequently proved that the pancreas produces a secretion that controls the use of sugar, and that lack of this secretion causes defects in sugar metabolism then exhibited as symptoms of diabetes.

Many attempts were made to isolate the secretion, with little success until 1921. A young Canadian medical student extracted the secretion from the pancreas of dogs. When they injected the extracts into dogs rendered diabetic by removal of their pancreases, the blood sugar levels of these dogs returned to normal or below, and the urine became sugar-free. The general condition of the dogs also improved.

Until recently, all insulin used for the treatment of human diabetes came from the pancreases of some animals. As a result of genetic engineering, based on knowing how DNA controls protein synthesis, a major pharmaceutical firm has begun to produce human insulin by using bacteria. The fact that a microscopic creature, like the bacterium can be made to work for the wellbeing of human beings is a subject worthy of study on its own.

Of course, these are by no means the only examples worth mentioning of ‘happy, chance discoveries’. Here are some more to add to the list: the discovery of molecular structure of organic compounds, saccharin and nutra-sweet (sugar substitutes, again for diabetics), ‘safety glass used in automobiles and planes, oxygen and several other chemical elements, radioactivity, astronomical discoveries like pulsars and background Big Bang radiation, many mathematical theorems, high temperature superconductors, synthetic dyes, etc., etc.

Can one really call all of these marvellous discoveries simply ‘happy, chance accidents’? I believe human conscience and reason must resist such a misconception. Surely, any person of common sense would say: ‘I am thankful to the Merciful One, who has bestowed upon us the favour of these discoveries, enabled us to benefit from them, among His innumerable other bounties’.

[knifeonmars]

Capsule Reviews, February 2021

Here's some things I've been reading.

The Curse of Brimstone 

DC's New Age of Heroes books, emerging from the beginning of Scott Snyder's creative-flameout-as-crossover-event Metal, mostly constituted riffs on Marvel heroes like the Fantastic Four (in The Terrifics) or the Hulk (in Damage). The Curse of Brimstone is a riff on Ghost Rider. It's... uneven. The first volume is generally pretty good, and when Phillip Tan is drawing it, as he does the first three and a half issues, it's gorgeous and unique, when he departs though, the quality takes a nose dive. None of the replacement artists, including the great Denis Cowan, can quite fill his shoes, and the story gets old fast. Guy makes a deal with the devil (or rather, a devil-like inhabitant of the "Dark Multiverse" as a not horribly handled tie-in to the conceits of Metal), realizes it's a raw deal, and rebels. The characters are flat, lots of time is spent with the main character's sister haranguing him to not use his powers (it is, in my humble opinion, something of a cardinal sin to have a character whose primary role is telling other characters to stop doing interesting things), too many potboiler "I know you're still in there!/I can feel this power consuming me!" exchanges, a couple of underwhelming guest spots (including a genuinely pointless appearance by the old, white, boring Doctor Fate) too many flashbacks, and not enough of the action. There's potential in the classic demonic hero rebelling plotline and its link to the liminal spaces of the DC universe, forgotten towns and economic depression, but the wheels come off this series pretty much as soon as Tan leaves. The really disappointing this is that the series is clearly built as an artistic showcase, so after Tan's shockingly early departure, the main appeal of the series is gone and there's nothing left but the playing out of an obviously threadbare story.

Star Wars - Boba Fett: Death, Lies, and Treachery

I don't care much about Star Wars these days, and I think that most of the old Expanded Universe was, as evidenced by Crimson Empire, pretty bad. Death, Lies, and Treachery, is that rare Star Wars EU comic which is actually good. John Wagner writes and he's in full-on 2000 AD mode, writing Boba Fett as a slightly more unpleasant Johnny Alpha (who is like a mercenary Judge Dredd, for those unfamiliar) right on down to the appearance of a funny alien sidekick for one of the characters. The main attraction is Cam Kennedy's art though, along with his inimitable colors: this might be the best looking Star Wars comic ever. The designs are all weird and chunky, with an almost kitbashed feeling that captures the lived in aesthetic of classic Star Wars, and the colors are one of a kind. Natural, neutral white light does not exist in this comic, everything is always bathed at all times in lurid greens or yellows, occasionally reds, and it looks incredible. In terms of "Expanded Universe" material for Star Wars, this hits the sweet spot of looking and feeling of a piece, but exploring the edges of the concept with a unique voice. It's great. I read this digitally, but I'd consider it a must-buy in print if I ever get the chance at a deal.

Zaroff

Zaroff is a French comic (novel? novella?). It's like 90 pages and it delivers exactly on its premise of "Die Hard starring the bad guy from The Most Dangerous Game." It's pretty good. Count Zaroff, he of the habitual hunting of humans, turns out to have killed a mafia don at some point, and after miraculously escaping his own seeming death at the end of the original story, finds himself hunted by the irate associates of this gangster, who have brought along Zaroff's sister and her kids to spice things up. Zaroff not only finds himself the hunt, but he also has to protect his estranged family as they struggle to survive. Nothing about this book or its twists and turns is likely to surprise you, but I don't think being surprised is always necessary for quality. Zaroff delivers on pulpy, early-20th century jungle action, is gorgeously rendered, and the fact that Zaroff himself is an unrepentant villain adds just enough of an unexpected element to the proceedings and character dynamics that it doesn't feel rote. There's a couple of points, ones typical of Eurocomics, which spark a slight sour note, such as some "period appropriate" racism and flashes of the male gaze, but for the most part these are relatively contained. It's good.

Batman: Gothic

Long before Grant Morrison did their Bat-epic, they wrote Batman: Gothic, an entirely different, but then again maybe not so different, kind of thing. It starts off with what must be called a riff on Fritz Lang's film, M, only where that story ends with a crew of gangsters deciding they cannot pass moral judgment on a deranged child-murderer, in Morrison's story they go ahead and kill him, only for the killer to return years later to rather horribly murder all of them as a warmup for a grandiose scheme involving unleashing a weaponized form of the bubonic plague on Gotham City as an offering to Satan. Along the way it turns out that said villain, one Mr. Whisper, is a former schoolmaster of Bruce Wayne's, who terrified the young Batman in the days before his parent's deaths. It's an earlier Morrison story and it shows. Certain elements presage their later Batman work; Mr. Whisper as a satanic enemy recalls the later Doctor Hurt, and the cathedral Mr. Whisper built to harvest souls recalls what writers like Morrison, Milligan, and Snyder would do concerning Gotham as a whole years later.The art, by Klaus Janson, is spectacular. If you're familiar at all with his work collaborating with Frank Miller you'll see him continuing in a similar vein and it's all quite good, even when he stretches beyond the street milieu which most readers might know him from. There's one particular sequence where Janson renders a needlessly complicated Rube Goldberg machine in motion that manages to work despite being static images. The writing by Morrison though, is not their finest. The M riff doesn't last as long as it could, and Mr. Whisper's turn in the latter half of the story from delicious creepy wraith to a cackling mass murderer who puts Batman in an easily escaped death trap feels like something of a letdown from the promise of the first half of the book. Gothic is good, but not, in my opinion, great. It's certainly worth checking out for Morrison fans however, and I imagine that someone well-versed in his latter Batman stuff might be able to find some real resonance between the two.

Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters

For a long, long time, Longbow Hunters was THE Green Arrow story. It is to Green Arrow as TDKR is to Batman, deliberately so. Mike Grell wrote and drew the reinvention of the character from his role as the Justice League's resident limousine liberal to a gritty urban vigilante operating in Seattle over the course of these three issues, which he'd follow up with a subsequent ongoing. Going back to it, it certainly merits its reputation, but its far from timeless. Grell's art is unimpeachable absolutely incredible, with great splashes and spreads, subtle colors, and really great figure work. The narrative is almost so 80's it hurts though, revolving around West Coast serial killers, cocaine, the CIA and the Iran-Contra scandal, and the Yakuza, and it's hard to look back at some of this stuff without smirking. The story begins with a teenager strung out on tainted coke sprinting through a window in a scene that's right out of Reefer Madness. In the cold light of a day 30+ years later, parts of it look more than a little silly. The 80's-ness of it all doesn't stop with that stuff though, even the superhero elements smack of it. Green Arrow realizes that he's lost a step and has be to be shown a way forward by an Asian woman skilled in the martial arts (recalling Vic Sage's reinvention in the pages of The Question), and Black Canary gets captured and torture off-panel for the sake of showing that this is real crime now, not the superhero silliness they've dealt with before. The treatment of Black Canary here is pretty markedly heinous, it's a classic fridging and Grell's claims that he didn't intentionally imply sexual assault in his depiction of her torture is probably true, but still feels more than a little weak considering how he chose to render it.The final analysis is that this book is good, but it exists strictly in the frame of the 1980's. If you're a fan of Green Arrow, there are worse books to pick up, or if you're interested in that era of DC Comics it's more than worth it, but as a matter of general interest I wouldn't recommend it very highly.

SHIELD by Steranko

Jim Steranko is sort of the prodigy of the early Marvel years, a young guy who came up through the system, blossomed into an incredible talent, and then left the company, and by and large the industry, behind. He would go on to dabble in publishing, work in other mediums, and generally kick around as the prodigal son of Marvel Comics. This collection, of both his Nick Fury shorts in the pages of Strange Tales and the four issues he drew of the original Nick Fury solo series, charts Steranko's growth as an artist. The book starts off with Steranko working from Jack Kirby's layouts with Stan Lee's dialogue and writing, and Steranko might be the one guy in history for whom working off of Kirby's blueprints is clearly holding him back. The first third or so of this collection really isn't much to write home about, as Steranko is obviously constrained by someone else's style, and at the end of the day those early stories still read as somewhat uninspired pulp compared to the highlights of early Marvel. There are flashes though, of techniques and ideas, which foreshadow what Steranko is capable of, and when he finally takes over as solo writer/artist it's like he's been unleashed. He immediately has Nick Fury tear off his shirt and start throwing guys around over psychedelic effects. He writes out most of Kirby and Lee's frankly uninspired boys' club supporting cast, he makes Fury visibly older, wearier, but also so much cooler. It's the birth of Nick Fury as a distinctly comic book super spy.By the time he finishes wrapping up the previous writers' plotline with Hydra and Baron von Strucker, Steranko is firing on all cylinders. By the time it gets to Steranko's Fury solo series, he's somehow surpassed himself, turning in effects, panel structures, and weird stories which make the earlier installment about a suit-wearing Man from UNCLE knockoff and its strict six-panel layouts look absolutely fossilized.I can't recommend this collection highly enough for any fan of the artform, even if the stories themselves might not be everyone's cup of tear. It's truly incredible to watch Steranko emerge as an artist over the course of this single collection. The book itself has a few problems, it's not the most elegantly designed in its supporting materials and index, but the content of it more than outweighs that. It's great stuff.

[firelord-frowny]

because i’m a useless person who hates theirself, i’m already shutting myself down and telling myself i’m not going to get anywhere even remotely significant with this, BUT, in an effort to help myself feel productive and ambitious, i’m going to list a bunch of tips/facts i plan to include in some sort of short video/tik-tok video series that’s tentatively called “Things Your Violin Teacher Probably Never Told You.”

1. You’ve probably been told that in order to play at a softer volume, you must play closer to the fingerboard, and to play louder, you must play closer to the bridge. But you probably HAVEN’T been told that when you play closer to the fingerboard, you must ALSO increase your bow speed and lighten your bow pressure in order to achieve a smooth tone. Likewise, when you play closer to the bridge, you must increase bow pressure and decrease bow speed. Using the wrong combination of speed/pressure can cause the tone to be scratchy and coarse, or thin and metallic, neither of which are appropriate for most styles of playing. 

2. You’ve probably been told that before you begin playing, you should take a lil audible inhalation to “cue” yourself and/or the other musicians you’re playing with. You probably HAVEN’T been told that after you inhale... you need to exhale!! It sounds like common sense, but the tendency after taking that first initial breath is, for some reason, to hold it for a moment before exhaling. This can cause unnecessary tension, which in turn can cause you to rush the tempo, or cause your tone quality to become a bit strangled. Taking care to exhale in tandem with playing the first note helps you maintain control over your tone, tempo, and phrasing. 

3. You’ve probably been told that you need to practice scales to the point of knowing them inside-out, backwards, and upside down. You probably HAVEN’T been told that you don’t actually have to start off with trying to learn scales at a brisk tempo. You can actually start off as slowly as you need to. You can hold each note for several long, slow beats. You can use a metronome to help increase the tempo over time. You should feel free to take AS MUCH TIME AS NECESSARY to increase tempo. Days. Weeks. Months. 

4. You’ve probably been told to never ever ever ever lift your pinky on your bow arm. But almost everyone does exactly that. It’s true that in general, you usually have more control over your bow when your pinky is down. But it’s ALSO true that there are a number of instances where a player can best achieve the kind of phrasing they want by lifting the pinky. A good rule of thumb is: If your bowing/articulation is accurate, you can leave your pinky wherever it is. If your bowing/articulation is NOT accurate, adjusting the pinky may correct the problem. 

5. You’ve probably been told to always, always, ALWAYS start playing “from the string,” meaning you don’t “drop” the bow onto the string before playing. Instead, you “set” the bow by placing it, unmoving, onto the string, and then beginning to play. Setting the bow is a good habit to have. But it is NOT always necessary or appropriate. There are HELLA techniques where the bow may need to be dropped or bounced onto the string. 

6. You probably probably haven’t been told that intonation is NOT a totally black-and-white, either-or science. You’ve probably been told that “enharmonic equivalents” are... well, equivalent! And they are, for most instruments and in most contexts. But an intermediate-level string player needs to understand that enharmonic equivalents are, in fact, NOT equivalent, and that G-flat is actually flatter than F-sharp, for example. The exact pitch of a note is dependent upon: which notes come immediately before and after it, and which notes are occuring simultaneously. There are even instances where you might have to play two different “versions” of the same note one after another, simply because the chord changed, and now the note has to become sharper or flatter in order to match the new chord. Failure to make these adjustments results in a dull tone quality, as well as just... sounding bad lmao. 

7. You’ve probably been told to use “flat hair” on your bow, meaning that the hair lies totally flat against the strings. You probably HAVEN’T been told that there are a lot of instances where it’s appropriate or even ideal to tilt the bow toward the scroll of the instrument so that there’s less contact between the bow hair, and the strings. In particular, super soft dynamics can be more easily achieved by having less contact between the hair and the strings. 

8. You’ve probably been told to rosin your bow before you play, every single time you play. LMAO please don’t. You should rosin your bow as-needed. If you start playing and you find that your tone is a bit thin or wispy, then yeah, rosin your bow. But if your tone is fine, then there’s no need to rosin! Particularly for players who aren’t playing for several hours a day, every day, you can go several days without using rosin before you’ll need to use it again. Having too much rosin can cause your tone quality to sound harsh and scratchy. 

9. You may have been told to scratch your rosin with something sharp to “help” it form a powder which will adhere more easily to your bow. This is SUCH a waste. Don’t do it. Just keep rubbing the rosin onto the bow hair. It’ll work. You don’t need to do anything fancy. Just rub! Scratching it will waste rosin, and make it more prone to cracking/shattering, rendering it pretty much useless. One cake of rosin, properly taken care of, can easily last YEARS. Like, literally, I CANNOT remember the last time I bought rosin. The rosin I bought in like 2012 is the same rosin I’m using today. (this is also a good reason to go ahead and splurge on a high-quality rosin.) 

[studioserra]

A Brief History of Photography: The Beginning

Photography. An art form invented in 1830s, becoming publicly recognised ten years later.

Today, photography is the largest growing hobby in the world, with the hardware alone creating a multi-billion dollar industry. Not everyone knows what camera obscura or even shutter speed is, nor have many heard of Henri Cartier-Bresson or even Annie Leibovitz.

In this article, we take a step back and take a look at how this fascinating technique was created and developed.

Before Photography: Camera Obscura

Before photography was created, people had figured out the basic principles of lenses and the camera. They could project the image on the wall or piece of paper, however no printing was possible at the time: recording light turned out to be a lot harder than projecting it. The instrument that people used for processing pictures was called the Camera Obscura (which is Latin for the dark room) and it was around for a few centuries before photography came along.

It is believed that Camera Obscura was invented around 13-14th centuries, however there is a manuscript by an Arabian scholar Hassan ibn Hassan dated 10th century that describes the principles on which camera obscura works and on which analogue photography is based today.

Camera Obscura is essentially a dark, closed space in the shape of a box with a hole on one side of it. The hole has to be small enough in proportion to the box to make the camera obscura work properly. Light coming in through a tiny hole transforms and creates an image on the surface that it meets, like the wall of the box. The image is flipped and upside down, however, which is why modern analogue cameras have made use of mirrors.

In the mid 16th century, Giovanni Battista della Porta, an Italian scholar, wrote an essay on how to use camera obscura to make the drawing process easier. He projected the image of people outside the camera obscura on the canvas inside of it (camera obscura was a rather big room in this case) and then drew over the image or tried to copy it.

The process of using camera obscura looked very strange and frightening for the people at those times. Giovanni Battista had to drop the idea after he was arrested and prosecuted on a charge of sorcery.

Even though only few of the Renaissance artists admitted they used camera obscura as an aid in drawing, it is believed most of them did. The reason for not openly admitting it was the fear of being charged of association with occultism or simply not wanting to admit something many artists called cheating.

Today we can state that camera obscura was a prototype of the modern photo camera. Many people still find it amusing and use it for artistic reasons or simply for fun.

The First Photograph

Installing film and permanently capturing an image was a logical progression.

The first photo picture—as we know it—was taken in 1825 by a French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. It records a view from the window at Le Gras.

The exposure had to last for eight hours, so the sun in the picture had time to move from east to west appearing to shine on both sides of the building in the picture.

Niepce came up with the idea of using a petroleum derivative called "Bitumen of Judea" to record the camera's projection. Bitumen hardens with exposure to light, and the unhardened material could then be washed away. The metal plate, which was used by Niepce, was then polished, rendering a negative image that could be coated with ink to produce a print. One of the problems with this method was that the metal plate was heavy, expensive to produce, and took a lot of time to polish.

Photography Takes Off

In 1839, Sir John Herschel came up with a way of making the first glass negative. The same year he coined the term photography, deriving from the Greek "fos" meaning light and "grafo"—to write. Even though the process became easier and the result was better, it was still a long time until photography was publicly recognized.

At first, photography was either used as an aid in the work of an painter or followed the same principles the painters followed. The first publicly recognized portraits were usually portraits of one person, or family portraits. Finally, after decades of refinements and improvements, the mass use of cameras began in earnest with Eastman's Kodak's simple-but-relatively-reliable cameras. Kodak's camera went on to the market in 1888 with the slogan "You press the button, we do the rest".

In 1900 the Kodak Brownie was introduced, becoming the first commercial camera in the market available for middle-class buyers. The camera only took black and white shots, but still was very popular due to its efficiency and ease of use.

Color Photography

Color photography was explored throughout the 19th century, but didn't become truly commercially viable until the middle of the 20th century. Prior to this, color could not preserved for long; the images quickly degraded. Several methods of color photography were patented from 1862 by two French inventors: Louis Ducos du Hauron and Charlec Cros, working independently.

The first practical color plate reached the market in 1907. The method it used was based on a screen of filters. The screen let filtered red, green and/or blue light through and then developed to a negative, later reversed to a positive. Applying the same screen later on in the process of the print resulted in a color photo that would be preserved. The technology, even though slightly altered, is the one that is still used in the processing. Red, green and blue are the primary colors for television and computer screens, hence the RGB modes in numerous imaging applications.

The first color photo, an image of a tartan ribbon (above), was taken in 1861 by the famous Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell, who was famous for his work with electromagnetism. Despite the great influence his photograph had on the photo industry, Maxwell is rarely remembered for this as his inventions in the field of physics simply overshadowed this accomplishment.

The First Photograph With People

The first ever picture to have a human in it was Boulevard du Temple by Louis Daguerre, taken in 1838. The exposure lasted for about 10 minutes at the time, so it was barely possible for the camera to capture a person on the busy street, however it did capture a man who had his shoes polished for long enough to appear in the photo.

Notables in Photography

At one time, photography was an unusual and perhaps even controversial practice. If not for the enthusiasts who persevered and indeed, pioneered, many techniques, we might not have the photographic styles, artists, and practitioners we have today. Here are just a few of the most influential people we can thank for many of the advances in photography.

Alfred Stieglitz

Photography became a part of day-to-day life and an art movement. One of the people behind photography as art was Alfred Stieglitz, an American photographer and a promoter of modern art.

Stieglitz said that photographers are artists. He, along with F. Holland Day, led the Photo-Secession, the first photography art movement whose primary task was to show that photography was not only about the subject of the picture but also the manipulation by the photographer that led to the subject being portrayed.

Stieglitz set up various exhibitions where photos were judged by photographers. Stieglitz also promoted photography through newly established journals such "Camera Notes" and "Camera Work".

Example of Stieglitz's Work

Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (Felix Nadar)

Felix Nadar (a pseudonym of Gaspard-Félix Tournachon) was a French caricaturist, journalist and—once photography emerged—a photographer. He is most famous for pioneering the use of artificial lightning in photography. Nadar was a good friend of Jules Verne and is said to have inspired Five Weeks in a Balloon after creating a 60 metre high balloon named Le Géant (The Giant). Nadar was credited for having published the first ever photo interview in 1886.

Nadar's portraits followed the same principles of a fine art portrait. He was known for depicting many famous people including Jules Verne, Alexander Dumas, Peter Kropotkin and George Sand.

Example of Nadar's Work

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French photographer who is most famous for creating the "street photography" style of photojournalism, using the new compact 35mm format (which we still use today). Around the age of 23, he became very interested in photography and abandoned painting for it. "I suddenly understood that a photograph could fix eternity in an instant," he would later explain. Strangely enough, he would take his first pictures all around the world but avoided his native France. His first exhibition took place in New York's Julien Levy Gallery in 1932. Cartier-Bresson's first journalistic photos were taken at the George VI coronation in London however none of those portrayed the King himself.

The Frenchman's works have influenced generations of photo artists and journalists around the world. Despite being narrative in style, his works can also be seen as iconic artworks. Despite all the fame and impact, there are very few pictures of the man. He hated being photographed, as he was embarrassed of his fame.

Example of Cartier-Bresson's Work

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