#(the photo was from wikipedia--link provided)

[sgiandubh]

Just so stories: Mommy and Daddy

In the (questionably) blessed White Picket Fenced America of 1955, things were deceptively simple:

Mommy stayed home, while Daddy was earning enough cash to buy that new Frigidaire.

Uhm. No, not really: see what happens to Mad Men's Betty Draper, the pearl-stringed suburbia matron. Not exactly a cheerful look, but perhaps a true, albeit neurotic, one.

For some unfathomable reason, one of the main dismissive arguments used against shippers reads along some very similar lines. I paraphrase, as this is a collective POV (probably stemmed from CO's laboratory and snowballed to great success across their dashboards):

'Oh, aren't they stupid! How can they expect C to follow him around the world, children in tow, at his beck and call? Or to wait for him, military wife style, as he traipses from Vegas to London to Paris to Belgium? What are these, The Fifties?'

To this Dorothy Dixon, along comes one of the Tumblrette Pundits, with a ready-made answer, always the same:

'Of course they are stupid! Of course she doesn't! Every time she is working somewhere, she brings McSideburns and The Blonde Bambino around! And McSideburns takes care of Blonde Bambino, as he should! Reality, not fantasy!'

Let alone they have absolutely no clue about the real state of play, given the almost complete, paranoid opacity reigning since at least a Certain Sad Event. Let alone that no other logical/common sense argument provided is accepted (cults seldom deal in both acceptance and common sense);

Nannies? Pah, so 1992! Family safety net? Pah, so suburban! Working parents? Pah, these people are stars, their life is a cornucopia of perks and freebies and glam!

So, in a nutshell, according to them:

Mommy is busy working and Daddy follows all along/ stays at home with Blonde Bambino, hoping that Mommy will bring enough cashola to finish that double glazing people usually install in December.

In other words, we immediately picture C as a 'starke, titanische Weib' / the strong, titanic woman German poets were so fond of back in the 1800's. Dragging along a diminutive, shy, understanding and private McSideburns, trousered Vestal extraordinaire. The rest is taboo (or should be, in my book), at any rate.

Something wrong with this vision? Yes. It's exactly the 1950's one they accuse us of espousing (we don't), but this time the male/female symbolic roles are reversed. As a result, a shrink would have many thoughts and probably a handful of questions about that need to completely castrate the Goddess's Consort to perfect oblivion. Obliterating his life, his story and even his name, for Christ's sake!

Not a good look for either C and The Prop and, to be honest, quite a weird, borderline insulting one, especially when coming from 'respectful, realistic' fans. The real utility seems to be concealing the emptiness of a Tale Forever Untold. It will be effectively replaced by the chorus with the perfect fantasy of a modern dad, a successful producer/manager and so on and so forth.

Reality is a bit different, if you just take a look on The Fratellis' Wikipedia page and follow the links:

But, but, but... 'additional personnel' (😱😱😱) - how could that be?

And yes, remember (LOL) David Eustace and the FMN shooting photo of the Happy Dynamic Duo? Happy to oblige to a friend who provided a work project (that album was postponed two or three times, then released in 2021) during COVID, probably.

The mere thought of a young, urban, sophisticated, committed and trusting couple, living and loving their best life, traveling separately or together, allowing 'spaces in their togetherness' (wasn't that The Prophet quote she liked and shared?) is something that gives them the shingles. Anything but this. Anything - even that sad The Empress and Her Additional Personnel narrative.

You see, they don't like The Obvious. At all.

[kedreeva]

Friends at The Sepentry are doing a Pride month giveaway to raise money for The Trevor Project this month. I said I'd let y'all here know it was going on over on Instagram!

If you don't know, The Trevor Project is a nonprofit organization which provides help and support to the queer community through crisis services, peer support/community, research, public outreach, advocacy, and more, with a major focus on suicide prevention in LGBTQ+ youth.

From Wikipedia: "The Trevor Lifeline is a nationwide, around-the-clock crisis and suicide prevention helpline for LGBTQ youth in the United States. The lifeline is a free and confidential service from counselors trained to listen without judgement and can refer callers to supportive local organizations and groups. The number for the line in the United States is 1-866-488-7386."

The Serpentry is doing a little giveaway in an attempt to raise $1,000 for this organization. The actual giveaway post, with full rules (please read them all!), is located here on instagram. You can enter via donating $5 through their fundraiser link. Every $5 is a ticket, and there are extra ways to get tickets in the rules on their instagram- reblogging this post is NOT a way to enter, so you can safely share and spread the word without being entered. Prizes are winner's choice from the photos above!

Even if you don't want to participate in the giveaway, The Trevor Project is a great organization to support this Pride season. Stay safe out there!

[chiskz]

[ 💿💽 ] CHICHI 2nd Birthday Album (Physical) "moirai"

╭── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╮

♡ teaser/concept photos

⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅

♡ tracklist

⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅

♡ meaning

In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Moirai (often known in English as the Fates) were the personifications of destiny (via Wikipedia).

⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅

moirai by CHICHI (Stray Kids)

Studio: JYPE (Seoul), Channie's Room (Seoul)

Length: ~ 33 minutes

Released: 12 January 2024

Language: Korean, English, Japanese

Previous solo album (1st Birthday Album [Digital]): Member Branding

Tracklist:

spotify & youtube links are provided. you can also listen whole album here .

1. TITLE Crazy Fate (feat. Park Junhee of A.C.E.)

2. The Footsteps of My Dear Love

3. LAW (feat. Jurin of XG)

4. Loner

5. Villain

6. Devil by the Window

7. Run Away (feat. Seungmin & I.N)

8. YAMAZAKI (feat. SUGA of BTS)

9. IDOL

10. I Don't Wanna Know

⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅

♡ trivia

➥ IDOL was presented during a performance with Avantgardey at MAMA 2023

➥ YAMAZAKI was previously released as a single and won "The Best Collaboration Award" at MAMA 2023

➥ Run Away with Seungmin and I.N was originally intended to be released as SKZ-PLAYER - the song was written in Paris during Stray Kids' visit to Music Bank Paris

➥ I Don't Wanna Know was created by HAN with lyrics by CHICHI - it debuted as SKZ-PLAYER

➥ with Crazy Fate and Loner CHICHI becomes:

* the fastest rapping idol considering each generation

* the fastest rapping idol whose first language is not Korean

* the fastest rapping artist in general using Korean

➥ Junhee's part for Crazy Fate was recorded right after he got out of the army (he got out of the army on 6th August 2023, and recording was already done in September 2023)

➥ The Footsteps of My Dear Love was written by CHICHI as early as two years ago - however, she did not feel vocally ready to perform it earlier

➥ critics assess the album as "an emotional rollercoaster leading to the discovery of one's own identity by a person lost in their own self"

➥ with the album's release, Twitter is trending #CHICHIselfmaderapper , a hashtag under which STAY and CHICHI solo stans express their pride and admiration caused by CHICHI becoming the fastest rapping k-pop rapper, when until recently she was not comfortable with the Korean language (because of which she was a victim of derision)

➥ CHICHI describes moirai as the most important musical release of her life

⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅

♡ quotes from moirai songs describing the whole album

" No matter how pretty the memories are, everyone will forget it. "

" Let's dream a happy dream, just like long ago. "

" It's love and war. "

" I fight with another me, hiding inside of myself. "

" The villain you failed to notice breathes within you. "

" No, I can't tell what is fake in my reality. "

" When the night is nearly ending rewind the clock, rewind now. "

" If you fall back, you're dead. "

" I cannot accept any version of you other than the one stronger than everyone else. "

" Don't stop me now. "

⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅

coming soon: Crazy Fate M/V & Behind The Scenes

⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅

moirai album cover by my amazing fiancee @moondust-kitten ♡

♡𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭: @amyysfics , @smh-anon , @neohyxn , @stealanity , @alixnsuperstxr , @juliawritingblog , @rizzshimura , @elizalabs3

╰── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╯

[sreegs]

Would you be willing to share your sources relating to the submarine/submersible technology? I believe you, but I’d love to a. read more on the subject and b. Share something that isn’t a tumblr post with a family member

i linked wikipedia articles in my reblog which, themselves, have sources in their references, but i'm not sure what specifically you're asking for a source on.

i presume you're asking why i asserted a sphere is safer than a cylinder which is more or less just physics and not strictly related to subs. a cylinder has more surface area than a sphere of the same diameter therefore it has more surface for pressure to act on. moreover the nature of material manufacture means that a cylinder has more seams (2) than a sphere (1).

spherical pressure hulls are usually made of two halves of forged titanium or steel then fused together along one seam. the titan was two halves of a titanium sphere attached to the ends of a carbon-fiber tube. where the tube was joined to the spheres it made two seams. this is really oversimplifying it but the point is to highlight that seams can provide a point of failure because they're not part of the same continuous material. the more seams the more potential points of failure

if you're asking about the DSVs themselves, when it comes to functional deep-sea capable vessels i guess it's important to point out the difference between a "submarine" (the long tube shape you see used in the military) and a deep-sea vessel like a bathysphere (which is not a submarine because of its lack of mobility).

submarines, especially modern ones, can handle some pretty impressive depths but they don't go anywhere near as deep as vessels designed to travel to the deep sea. military sub max operational depths are probably classified but their reported depths are in the hundreds of meters

modern dsv's dive past ten thousand meters. which is way, way more pressure.

so to understand modern DSVs, here's the description of the batysphere concept and some of the original designs, which which were the first deep-sea capable vessels just much more primitive. they were lowered on cables and didn't travel on their own power. so they weren't really vehicles

here's the next logical step, the bathyscaphe, which allowed it to move up and down under its own power, however the crew cabin is still a sphere. you can see them protruding from the bottom of the vessel in some photos

"deep-submergence vehicles" (which i linked in that reblog) are a bit more closer to submarines in terms of design and mobility, but their crew cabin designs are still spherical, with few exceptions. the deepest-traveling ones are spherical

crew cabins are pressure vessels. meaning they're built to withstand the force of the pressure of the water outside the vehicle. DSV's may have multiple components in compartments that don't look spherical at all from the outside but it makes sense when you realize some of these compartments aren't pressure vessels. some are solid foam. some even flood with sea water by design

take a look at this diagram of the Alvin with crew inside:

the largest pressure vessel is the crew cabin. there's a few other smaller pressure vessels to provide variable ballast (flooded with sea water or pumped with air) and some mercury vessels to provide leveling trims (to tell which way is up)

the rest of the vehicle is either pressure-resistant foam or empty space in which water can get in because the components inside are small enough and engineered to withstand the pressure. remember, because water pressure acts in all directions, the less surface area you have, the less pressure you need to worry about to maintain whatever function you need to perform. since the crew compartment is so big and so important, it's the thickest titanium and probably engineered to more exacting safety standards than some of the other parts

a couple people have already commented more on what i posted with good insight into things i can't explain as well. here's someone going into detail about the sphere vs cylinder issue:

and here someone linked a very informative youtube about the manufacture of the DSV Limiting Factor including footage of the crew compartment being forged from titanium

[bizarrequazar]

GJ and ZZH Updates — February 18-24

previous week || all posts || following week

This is part of a weekly series collecting updates from and relating to Gong Jun and Zhang Zhehan.

This post is not wholly comprehensive and is intended as an overview, links provided lead to further details. Dates are in accordance with China Standard Time, the organization is chronological. My own biases on some things are reflected here. Anything I include that is not concretely known is indicated as such, and you’re welcome to do your own research and draw your own conclusions as you see fit. Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, concerns, or additions. :)

[Glossary of names and terms] [Masterlist of my posts about the situation with Zhang Zhehan]

02-18 → Nothing of note.

02-19 → The Instagram posted a photo of "Zhang Zhehan" at the scam concert with an overlay of "Zhang Mama's" face.

02-20 → Nothing of note.

02-21 → The Instagram posted another London vlog.

02-22 → Third anniversary of Word of Honor's premiere.

→ The Instagram posted a video of "Zhang Zhehan" that I did not subject myself to watching.

→ Danny, the professional basketball player involved in the the 2021 girlfriend smears against Zhang Zhehan (see [here] [here] and the Shenzhen Gang section of [this post]) and the Zhang Sanjian scam ([here]), has lost a social media partnership and will potentially be blacklisted by the Chinese Basketball Association after slandering other players on his podcast. Sources: [1] [2]

02-23 → Addition 03-04: The cram school that included slander against Zhang Zhehan in their test prep books after 813 are facing scam claims and resulting refund requests of 40 million RMB.

02-24 → Gong Jun posted six photos of himself in a restaurant. Caption: "Happy Lantern Festival!!!" His studio reposted this with the added caption, "The Lantern Festival, winter is over @ Gong Jun Simon wishes everyone a happy Lantern Festival~ Come and have a bowl of tangyuan, and be happy!" Fan Observations: Some fans managed to sleuth out what restaurant he was at, and discovered that the photos were taken in their Wenzhou (温州) room.

→ The Instagram posted a video of the scam concert.

Additional Reading: → A late addition to last week: Tumblr user @moniquill posted an article about a group of anti-Indigenous extremist Wikipedia editors. Among the editors listed is OnCamera, the editor who has also been maintaining the misinformation on Zhang Zhehan's Wikipedia page since 2021. (previously discussed under 2023-02-07, original exposé by Flora [here].)

previous week || all posts || following week

This post was last edited 2024-03-04.

[crevicedwelling]

noted bug knower crevicedwelling,

how do I learn to identify bugs? I know a few from general knowledge and I’ve learned a bunch of isopod and centipede species from you, but I’ve been trying to identify caterpillars from the garden and google is useless, and inaturalist seems tricky unless i already have a name. Should I be looking for books? Any advice appreciated

I’m not too familiar with caterpillars but if you live in Eastern North America, the books and links here might be useful! The Caterpillar Lab has an instagram as well, and post some lovely photos of lepidopterans which might be useful for ID, depending on where you live.

in general, learning the common invertebrate classes, orders, and some of the families is a good place to start. Wikipedia is actually a pretty decent resource for general ID but if you really want to consult literature for taxonomic characters I can try to find some resources; BugGuide may be helpful as well (though is limited to Canada + US arthropods). then you can combine these higher level classifications with localized searches on iNaturalist (like “Orthoptera” or “Scarabeidae” and see if any matches come up near you. combined with a decent field guide, online or book, you should be able to get decently close to a species ID, and if not, it’s fine to just keep it as family or order level until you get more information about it. this is pretty much what I do whenever I am asked to identify a bug I’m not immediately familiar with.

[saintmeghanmarkle]

⚠️ [RECAP] Meghan at Uvalde, Texas on 26th May 2022 after the Robb Elementary school mass shooting. A Master Post including Thomas Markle's stroke

A Sinner asked for some references for why Meghan's pap walk in the immediate aftermath of the Uvalde school shooting and why it is still considered unforgivable by so many Sinners.

I went to look for a source post but its is scattered all over this sub, twitter (X) and the internet. So I thought I would create a master post for future reference. Please note that I wasn't on the ground that day and don't know have first hand knowledge. We had two Sinners (Feisty_Nurse and BubbleGum_Yum_Yum) who were on the ground and I have included their relevant comments. Both Sinners are considered to be credible to me. I will share their comments of their experience here.

There are follow on posts from Sinners which I will share. You will need to read them for full context.

... means that a portion of text is used and click on the link for full context

Those who can and want to support the Children in Texas, this is org is recommended by BGYY Texans Care for Children website link.

______________________________________________________________

The Uvalde school shooting occurred on the 24th of May 2022 at an elementary school. The gunman, Salvador Ramos, killed 19 children, 2 teachers and injured 18 others. Robb Elementary School would have had children who are primarily from the ages of 4 to 10 years of age. [Wikipedia source for school shooting].

Photo 1: Regular people paying their respects at the school

On the same day (24th May), it was reported that Thomas Markle Sr suffered a major stroke days before he was about to fly to London for the Queen's Jubilee. [Dailymail archive link]. The trip to London was meant to be a big deal. He was going to be on GBNews and hang out with Lady C.

Photo 2: Thomas Markle Sr rushed in hospital after stroke. Photo taken by Backgrid

Meghan flew to Uvalde on a private jet, Texas 2 days after the shooting on the 26th of May. Here are the highlights of the photographs released and an attempt to hitch her PR to a national tragedy.

The photos below went viral globally in the immediate aftermath of the Uvalde shooting.

Photo 3: Taken by Chandan Khanna (AFP)

This photo of the visit to the community centre was provided directly to Buzzfeed by Meghan [Buzzfeed article] | [Archive link]

Photo 4: Meghan attends a community centre with vending machine sandwiches and Dorito chips / crisps

The Sussex Squad promoted World Central Kitchen (WCK) and they were the top donor to WCK to celebrate Archie and Lili's birthday. https://donate.wck.org/team/425216. credit: Aware-Impression8527. There were tweets about $100k raised to celebrate Lili's birthday. There was a mixup that Meghan also funded WCK at Uvalde from the Sussex Squad. This is because the Squad's $100k Lili donation was confused with the Uvalde attendance of Meghan. eg. this Scobie tweet on the 6th of June 2022.

I remember the squad saying that THIS stall was set up by Meghan to provide food to Uvalde. But in reality it was pre-made sandwiches and Doritos.

Photo 5: WCK kitchen in Uvalde not funded by Archewell

Archewell Partners was released and confirmed that WCK was a partner and that that money was donated to WCK for meals in Haiti. credit BuildTheHerd [Source Post]

Photo 6: From BuildTheHerd post

CONTEXT MATTERS

What many people didn't realise is that Meghan was living her Pretty Woman fantasy during the Santa Barbara Polo match just a few days before this crass PR tactic. Remember that young polo player refusing to share his award with her? It was just us Sinners and the sugars who were watching these events unfold more closely. What's worse is that she went back to grifting at the Polo club immediately after the Uvalde stunt and didn't rush to Mexico to see her father. Here's the colour swatches of Meghan before and after Uvalde. It shows that she body glazed specifically for Uvalde like it was a red carpet event. [Source Post]

Photo 7: Her shade of bronzer is particularly striking as her skin is darker in the sun than in the shade.

Thomas Markle Sr, aged 77, suffered a stroke and was a mere 54 miles from Uvalde and a 4 hour drive from Montecito. She was happy to fly on a private jet to publicly show sympathy for dead kids but didn't show the same level of concern towards her dying father. [Full context, this Leilani of Barbados opinion post.]

______________________________________________________________

Soon after social media was divided about the incident and a lot of the focus was diverted to Meghan's stunt instead of the victims. Many pointed to the similarities between this incident and Catherine paying tribute to Sarah Everard. I dont think these incidents are the same thing as Kate was not captured by the media and was only recognised by those who saw her up close in the crowd [source post video] credit RoohsMama

Photo 8: Meghan turning around to watch the photographing capturing her flowers on the cross

When you search for "Meghan Markle at Uvalde". You are most likely to see this video. Post source video by -ellen-degenerate-. In this version, the posing for photographers and the her photographers following after she leaves is not visible. There were photographers in the area, but Meghan brought her own photography team. This was confirmed after the pic from the community centre was exclusive to Buzzfeed and Sinners on the ground.

This VIDEO shows raw footage of 3 photographers capturing Meghan at the scene (source: NBC News: Meghan Markle Pays Respects At Scene Of Texas School Shooting YouTube).

Pay close attention to this NBC video as you can see the photographers snapping pics of her and how she poses. The photographs from these 3 photographers is what ends up getting circulated amongst the press. Note that this was 2 days after the tragedy. Bigger celebs like Matthew McConaughey turned up much later and the visit was not publicised.

Video 1 - NBC video, photographers following her

Here you can see the female photographer with the mask goes into the photograph the Meghan's flowers and Meghan cannot resist turning back to watch her taking the photo. You can also see Chandan Khanna capturing her laying the flowers at the beginning of the clip.

Video 2: close up of photographers capturing her

Carolyn Durand, Finding Freedom co-author tweets about Meghan's visit to Uvalde with the high res pics from the photographers

Photo 9: Look at the names of the photographers credited in the tweet

Shutterstock also tweets about Meghan's visit a few hours later and tags Kensington Royal

Photo 10: Shutterstock photo

These are the photographs from the 3 photographers from different agencies: Jae C Hong / Yasin Ozturk / Chandan Khanna. Credit Yahoo News | archive Even this article is disgusting because it talks about the couples impending travel to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee rather than discussions around the tragedy.

Photo 11: Jae C Hong photo (AP)

Photo 12: Yasin Ozturk photo (Anadolu Agency)

Photo 13: Chandan Khanna photo (AFP)

So by this point even casual on lookers were disgusted by her behaviour, especially in the context that her father was in hospital after a stroke.

Then came the leaks from the Sinners who were Boots on the Ground...

Brief highlights from from Feisty_Nurse post [Read About that Uvalde visit... Full post here]. Posted on 28th September, 2 days after Meghan's visit. So the crisps / chips weren't even from her.

I was visiting recently with one of the other nurses who also went to Uvalde, Texas following the school shootings. ..... I was busy staffing a shift at Uvalde Memorial Hospital on May 27th when I heard the narcissist of Montecito👸came in with her bodyguard, photographer, and the Netflix crew. ..... The Texas Highway Patrol providing security at the hospital escorted Meangan and her troupe out, with the suggestion that if she wanted to help? Go donate blood with directions to the senior center. Onward, the circus went to Robb Elementary so photos could be taken of Meangan in mourning.😢 Uvalde is a small community with a strong sense of family. So here she was, in the midst of the most horrific thing that could ever happen. An ego profiteer.😁 .... When in reality? There were no trays of sandwiches from H-E-B (grocery store). Just three small vending machine sandwiches that were tossed out. The drinks and chips were all courtesy of South Texas Blood❣️ for their donors. I know, I get the Doritos nacho cheese.

Highlighted comments from Bubblegum_yum_yum can be found in "The backlash is growing, so the BuzzFeed article about Meghan’s visit to Uvalde was edited" [RoohsMama post]

As a member of the media, I must say: SHE DID NOT AVOID THE MEDIA. THE MEDIA AVOIDED HER BECAUSE WE ARE NOT HERE TO TAKE PHOTOGRAPHS OF HER AND WRITE ARTICLES ABOUT HOW SHE BROUGHT CHIPS TO A COMMUNITY CENTER AND FLOWERS TO ONLY ONE OF THE CROSSES. She laid flowers at the “youngest victim” for clout She could have - and should have - laid flowers at every single cross. She can afford it. The role of the media is not to document unaffiliated people flying in for photo ops. Our role here is to tell the stories of the children whose stories will never be complete because they were tragically and disgustingly killed at 8, 9, 10 years old. ....

more comments from BGYY "She just kind of walked in with her crew ...." [HillyBeans post]

Yes. She did. I’m here as part of a press team and this entitled brat shows up with a team of several people and is trying to make it a godd*** spectacle! A Texas Ranger told her team to fuck off because it’s the site of a literal massacre, not a celebrity photo op I’m going to be very frank because this situation is extremely real and raw and beyond what words can describe: It’s time for HER to ask EVERYONE HERE if they’re okay! Don’t bring them chips and shitty sandwiches and show up with an entire media crew here for YOU and not for actual media coverage of what is happening! She’s also fucking it up for us actual reporters on the scene. There are such strict protocols and the relationship between the media and officials is predicated on such a fine line that having a fucking unauthorized media crew show up sets every other journalist back! ....

After the pap walk it was revealed that Meghan wrote a letter to Moms Demand Action and it was shared on social media by Shannon Watts

Photo 14: Meghan's letter to Moms Demand Action

The Archewell Foundation also funded a new KABOOM! playground in Uvalde in October 2022.

“It has been an honor to support the children and families in Uvalde design and build this amazing space where the community can come together,” said James Holt, Executive Director of Archewell Foundation, in a statement. “Our hope is that this special project can help the community heal, and be home to imagination, games and play for many years to come.”

Kaboom still organises fundraisers giving shoutouts to the Sussex Squad like on 4th May 2023 https://x.com/kaboom/status/1654206812587974656

Photo 15: Archewell funded Kaboom playground see their logo

Master Post link

author: Negative_Difference4

submitted: September 10, 2024 at 07:34AM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit

[supersuperdupersecretnerd]

Hell to Pay & Latin Analysis (From a user who doesn't study other languages or Latin, so apologies for any inaccuracies) (Brainrot is oh so real)

If you haven't watched the pilot or checked out the website for this page, this entire post won't make much sense; so here's a link to both!

The Pilot:

The Website: https://helltopaywebcomic.squarespace.com

Ok now the actual analysis is beneath the readmore since it's a bit long.

Beginning with Profundus' summoning papers!

[IMAGE ID START A screenshot from the Hell to Pay Pilot Episode. Two uncolored hands with black claws hold onto a yellow piece of paper with red borders. The paper has a colored image of the bee demon Profundus on it surrounded by bees. In the top right corner is a small bee symbol and in the top left corner is the name Profundus written in red and black. Some text is written beneath the name, with some letters covered by a claw. IMAGE ID END]

So I had a hard time reading the handwriting, so I zoomed into the screenshot and wrote over the letters to try and see what matched. The words in dark brown are repeat words and the last section is in orange as the claw covers up most of the letters needed.

[IMAGE ID START A zoomed in image of the text from the previous screenshot, with letters written over the original text for easier understanding. There are translation notes as well. IMAGE ID END]

The legible text is as follows 'Vita avaritiae et vita gloriae providebit soporem mellis et ornatum et omnia desiderabillia'

From my research (aka googling various Latin dictionaries and using Wikipedia for 31 minutes) the words mean the following:

Vita = Life

Et = And

Avaritiae = Greed

Gloriae = Fame or Glory

Providebit = Provide or Foresee

Soporem = Deep Sleep or to Figuratively mean Death

Mellis = Honey

Ornatum = To Decorate or to mean Jewelry

Omnia = In all respects or to mean all things

Desiderabilia [I only found Desiderabilis] = Desirable

So, if we wanted to translate this to English, you could say 'Life of greed and life of fame will provide sleep of honey and jewelry and everything desirable'

There is also more text beneath, but most of the letters are covered up by Profundus' claw. The only Latin word I can make out is rex, which means king.

I'm curious to see how his powers as a tormentor demon of bees will relate to this passage! We already know he can create (or sneeze) honey, but I'm curious if he can do anything else in regards to material goods-

(Also Infortunii totally fucked Profundus outta a better demon position, I could totally see him being a sin demon of greed; plus I think it's a little suspicious that the main cast on the page have the rest of the seven deadly sins represented but not a demon representing greed)

[IMAGE ID START A black image divider. IMAGE ID END]

Now let's go over the demon's names and see what they mean! (I separated the images by four as I'm running tight on Tumblr's image limit :( ). Photos are taken from the official character pages on the website linked before (seriously please check it out, the pages have additional details that are super interesting; such as the fact that Infortunii is the only demon born that has a list of sins committed)

[IMAGE ID START An image of four characters lined up. The first character is a yellow humanoid bee with a crown and four arms. The second character is blue skinned and blue haired humanoid; she has a grey animal wrapped around her neck and a black body. The third character is a typical red demon, who is completely nude and is only covered by his long ponytail. The fourth character is a short, pink and blue goat plushie with pins and cotton coming out of her. IMAGE ID STOP]

From left to right are the characters Profundus, Infortunii, Cupido, and Mollis.

Profundus in Latin can mean deep, dense, or mysterious. Could be intentional but I would also like to add how the name makes me first think of 'profit' or 'fund'. (Or maybe it's cause he had to get his name randomly generated that it doesn't fully match) (Or maybe his levels of greed is deep I don't know-)

Infortunii is Latin for misfortune and punishment. She is a tormentor demon of misfortune and has to be a guide demon as punishment for something she did.

Cupido is Latin for desire, longing or for lust, passion, and greed. He is a sin demon of lust who longs for a genuine romantic relationship with another.

(Also can I just say how fucking funny it is Cupido fell for Profundus, the literal only straight man in the entire cast who is still VERY MUCH in love with his wife. True disaster bisexual rep.)

Mollis is Latin for soft, calm, or mild. Mollis is an old plushie-like demon that is a tormentor of plush. I don't know how mild or calm in personality she is, as on the website she's described as having a god complex and impulsivity, but she seems to be able to give some good advice still with the pilot's events in mind.

[IMAGE ID START An image of five characters lined up. The first two characters are fused together, with one side being a smiling sun and the other side being a frowning moon. The third character is a smiling jester with red locs coming out of his big hat and a ruff around his neck. The fourth character is a purple skin humanoid in a green outfit shaped like an umbrella and a green hat with floating horns. The fifth character is a thin plague doctor holding a stick with a lamp attached; the character is emerging from a pool of black with some small ghost-shaped creatures popping out of it. IMAGE ID END]

From left to right are the characters Serenum & Lunares, Fastus, Nolite Flere, and Aegritudo.

Serenum is Latin for bright, cheerful, or fair weather. Serenum is described to be a very joyful and optimistic character, and is also a sun (the sun is very bright, very painful to look at)

Lunares in Latin means to make a crescent shape or relating to the moon. Lunares is shaped like the moon (she is also the tormentor demon of moons).

Fastus is Latin for pride, arrogance, and destain. Fastus is the sin demon of pride.

Nolite is Latin for 'Do Not' and Flere is Latin for cry or weep. So their name means 'Don't cry' and they seem to have crying makeup stains under their eyes. (I don't associate crying with envy, but their page also mentions feeling negatively nihilistic and poor at being a symbol of envy in death so perhaps the crying is related to that?)

Aegritudo is Latin for sickness and disease. Aegritudo is a tormentor demon of illness and works as a surgeon, doctor, and pharmacist (and botanist). (Also conducted experiments on ill patients during the bubonic plague)

[IMAGE ID START An image of five characters lined up. The first two characters are together, with the smaller red one standing on the shoulder of the taller blue one; the blue one has an eye covered by an accessory with a cookie and whipped cream like hair with a straw poking out. The red one looks like a small doll holding a phone and has very long red pony tails. The third character is a green humanoid gumball machine. The fourth character is a pink humanoid with visible lungs, heart, and guts in her torso; only has a visible mouth on her face. The fifth character is drawn like a child's messy crayon drawing; she is an orange demon with red horns and a red dress with black hair. IMAGE ID END]

From left to right are the characters Lac & Pupa, Bullatio, Mendacina, and Furor.

Lac is Latin for milk. Considering her blue and white color scheme, cookie jewelry, and her straw hair-accessory this makes sense (as milk does go with cookies).

Pupa is Latin for both doll and for little girl. Pupa is a character that looks like a puppet (and is very small in size).

Bullatio is Latin for either bubbling or for a blub-like formation. This name is a bit harder to relate to the character, but perhaps bubbling could relate to bubbling gum? Or maybe certain bubbling sounds involved with cooking candy? It could be a reference to his face shape (glass circle or blub shape).

Mendacina is a bit mixed in the meaning? Google Translate claims it means lies in Latin, but I can't find any other source confirming this. Google thinks I'm trying to find Mendocino, which is a county in California, US. Supposedly in Spanish 'Mendocino' means 'a man from Mendoza', a city from Argentina. I cannot relate any of these definitions to the character.

Huzzah an easy name to translate! Furor in English means 'an angry or maniacal fit; or to rage' or 'an outburst of public excitement or indignation' (in context of rage). In Latin Furor means madness or rage. Furor is a little demon of wrath, of these definitions makes sense!

[IMAGE ID START A black image divider. IMAGE ID END]

So yep, that's all I had to ramble about! If you actually read this far, thank you and I hope you enjoyed it! All character art is found on the linked website and is by @ misseligon (not @ing to be polite!), I just used it here so y'all could have a face to associate with the names being defined!

Also feel free to correct me if I got anything wrong!

Uh bye now!

[IMAGE ID START A screenshot of a black and white drawing of Infortunii giving the thumbs up. The background is orange. IMAGE ID END]

[mise-n-abyme]

OK I’m asking. Do you have any idea of the name of the painting on the blog cover the one where the guys looking through to another reality/ dimension?

I'm glad you asked! The cover photo on my blog is called 'The Flammarion Engraving.' Though, there is an interesting backstory to it if you'd like to know more about it.

The only thing known about the artwork is that it is from Camille Flammarion’s (1842–1925) book titled: 'L’atmosphère: météorologie populaire', (1888) which in English translates to: 'The Atmosphere: Popular Meteorology'.

The artwork is actually not a painting, but a woodwork carving used with a Burin tool as shown in the diagram below:

|Mid–17th century French Burin 'Cold Chisel' later to be called an 'engraver' in English. Source: Wikipedia

What is most interesting about the Artwork is that the origin of the Artist is still unknown and yet to be determined. It is speculated that Flammarion himself did the carving, however– the image depicts different image characteristics from different historical periods; some art Historians, such as Erwin Panofsky, date the engraving to the 16th century; while others, specifically Ernst Gombrich, date it to the late 19th century era.

According to historyofinformation.com:

"In Flammarion's L'atmosphère: météorologie populaire, the image refers to the text on the facing page (p. 163), which also clarifies the author's intent in using it as an illustration:"

"Whether the sky be clear or cloudy, it always seems to us to have the shape of an elliptic arch; far from having the form of a circular arch, it always seems flattened and depressed above our heads, and gradually to become farther removed toward the horizon.

Our ancestors imagined that this blue vault was really what the eye would lead them to believe it to be; but, as Voltaire remarks, this is about as reasonable as if a silk-worm took his web for the limits of the universe. The Greek astronomers represented it as formed of a solid crystal substance; and so recently as Copernicus, a large number of astronomers thought it was as solid as plate-glass. The Latin poets placed the divinities of Olympus and the stately mythological court upon this vault, above the planets and the fixed stars.

Previous to the knowledge that the earth was moving in space, and that space is everywhere, theologians had installed the Trinity in the empyrean, the glorified body of Jesus, that of the Virgin Mary, the angelic hierarchy, the saints, and all the heavenly host.... A naïve missionary of the Middle Ages even tells us that, in one of his voyages in search of the terrestrial paradise, he reached the horizon where the earth and the heavens met, and that he discovered a certain point where they were not joined together, and where, by stooping his shoulders, he passed under the roof of the heavens..."

"The same paragraph had already appeared, without the accompanying engraving, in an earlier edition of the text published under the title of L'atmosphère: description des grands phénomènes de la Nature ("The Atmosphere: Description of the Great Phenomena of Nature," 1872). The correspondence between the text and the illustration is so close that one would appear to be based on the other. Had Flammarion known of the engraving in 1872, it seems unlikely that he would have left it out of that year's edition, which was already heavily illustrated. The more probable conclusion therefore is that Flammarion commissioned the engraving specifically to illustrate this particular text, though this has not been ascertained conclusively." —historyofinformation.com

I provided the links and sources below if you'd like to read more about it!

|Sources:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flammarion_engraving#:~:text=Although%20sometimes%20referred%20to%20as,occur%20until%20after%20Flammarion's%20death.

https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/eswg/event/stefano-gattei-original-fak1e-solving-mystery-flammarions-engraving

https://galileo.ou.edu/exhibits/atmosphere-popular-meteorology

https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/flammarion-engraving/

[centrally-unplanned]

Alright some idea space stuff for the Arnell Group Pepsi Conspiracy: the Arnell Group closed in 2013, and this site, abrands.net - a wikipedia for advertising companies with THIS web design on its archives god I love the internet

- has a post mortem summary of the company and it claims:

Arnell also had a longstanding relationship with PepsiCo, and was responsible for the global introduction of a striking new set of can designs for the company in 2006. More recently, he oversaw another lavish reinvention of that company's brands and packaging in late 2008 and early 2009. This project was less well received, especially after Arnell's own extensive and undeniably pretentious brand strategy document was leaked online. 

That CEO and founder Peter Arnell wrote the document himself. Which is not that unbelievable, because he was that kind of guy:

For years, Peter Arnell enjoyed a reputation as one of the industry's most highly regarded strategists, although his no-holds-barred self-confidence could take some getting used to. The Wall Street Journal once compared him to Darth Vader. An eccentric and larger than life figure, he was renowned for regularly reducing assistants to tears. Punishments ranged from excessive verbal abuse to being forced to do push-ups in front of the whole office. One employee was forced to sit under a desk for the duration of a staff meeting. Numerous other rumours spread through the industry earning him the title of "New York's worst boss". Yet Arnell was also an obsessive perfectionist and creative whirlwind, personally managing every aspect of any creative project he took on. He designed logos, shot photos, filmed ads, art directed buildings, all with the same boundless energy and uniform skill. Sometimes described as Omnicom's "secret weapon", he was often drafted in behind the scenes to provide strategic assistance on brands handled elsewhere within the group. With an encyclopaedic knowledge of art and culture, and an opinion on just about everything, Arnell was certainly one of the major characters in the modern day industry.

Definitely the type to start believing his own bullshit. But its not like adbrands has a source for this claim, and when you google other articles they tend to link back to this. Its also just A: not the kind of thing a CEO normally does? Like be involved sure, but not actually composing docs like this; and B: he was in fact normally pretty good at his job while being a huge ass, while this document is clearly insane.

It is absolutely believable that he had a too-high-on-his-own-supply day and told the design team to connect the Pepsi logo the Arc of the Universe and they obeyed, clearly the leading hypothesis. But still I think its likely some other factor - something on Pepsi's side, or maybe an employee being a little vengeful or mocking? something - is at play on this one. I think a piece is still missing.

And since the Arnell Group been dissolved for over a decade, who would care about keeping it a secret? Peter himself ofc, he would be embarrassed by it, but his staff, I would hope someone talked at some point.

[ljsmiths-thenightworld]

I’ve seen this tidbit on the Wikipedia page for The Night World in the past, but my 2008 edition doesn’t seem to reflect this. I checked an online edition as well and also couldn’t find this. I do feel like I’ve seen this issue in the books in the past, but I also may just read this same information above and imagined it or it’s also featured in another one of the novels.

Can anyone provide confirmation of this? The sourced link is just the book itself so it didn’t exactly help.

Photo from said page in the 2008 omnibus edition!

[crystalninjaphoenix]

Investigation

A JSE Fanfic

Septics Inverted AU

First IRIS Chapter | Previous

(Jackie and Frederick talk more about their investigation into IRIS. At the same time, in a different city, Anti returns to meet up with Jack again. And then, I’ll be honest: it ends with a cliffhanger for the next part. I want to keep these chapters short for once, okay?! XD)

Three days passed, and Jackie found almost no online information about IRIS. Something that was both frustrating and baffling. IRIS was supposed to be this big American company. There should be millions of people talking about it, journalists doing pieces on their practices and everyday citizens praising or complaining about their products. Yet there was almost nothing. No media coverage, save for a few stray articles on tech websites, and barely anyone mentioning it even in passing.

Most information was fairly neutral. People liked their products, but clearly not enough to rave about them. Any IRIS-related photos were of their buildings taken from a distance by people passing by. As far as he could tell, no one took pictures of the interior. Which was just... so hard to believe. If Jackie knew anything about people, it’s that someone would eventually be brave or stupid enough to try taking photos of restricted areas.

“It’s just not possible that there’d be so little about a corporation like this,” Jackie said to Frederick one evening over dinner. “If it was, like, a little start-up of some kind, it would be expected. But it’s not. It’s been around for ages.”

“If we’re to believe their website,” Frederick pointed out.

“Well, we don’t really have a choice but to believe their website. It’s one of three good sources we have. And the other two are Wikipedia and Twitter. Not exactly reliable.”

“Actually, Wikipedia is more reliable than most people think.” Frederick drummed his fingers on the table. His prosthetic fingers, which made a satisfying tapping sound on the wood. “They take vetting and verifying their sources quite seriously. Sure, they’re not perfect. But if you want another source, they provide links to where all their information came from.”

“Really? Huh.” Jackie paused, unsure what to say. He looked down at the ramen he was eating, twirling the noodles around his fork.

“I think we should buy one of their products,” Frederick said.

“What?!” Jackie’s head snapped up.

“Well, to be more exact, Briony brought up the idea at our last meeting, and I agreed,” Frederick explained.

“Who?”

“She’s also part of the investigation team Yvonne and I got assigned to. There’s also Nick, Harvey, Alena—”

“Okay, I get it,” Jackie cut him off. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? The whole reason for the investigation is that IRIS might be using dark magic. Do we want that in our house?”

“We’re not going to keep it in our house. The investigation has set up a little meeting building on the edge of town. We buy something, and put it in there.”

“What if IRIS can track their things?” Jackie asked. “They could figure out that we’re onto them.”

“The house has some of the best protection magic can set up,” Frederick said. “All sorts of wards. Even if they track their products, and even if that tracker can penetrate the warding, they couldn’t get in.”

Jackie hesitated. “But we don’t know anything about them. We don’t know their capabilities.”

“Do you have a better idea?” Frederick’s tone was genuine, not snarky like one might expect.

“We could find where their base of operations is,” Jackie suggested. “Wait. Does your team already know that?”

“Yeah, they’ve set a couple up. The nearest one is about an hour north of here.”

“Okay, then we stakeout their facility,” Jackie continued. “See if we can find anything out. Maybe, if we can figure out how to get in, there’ll be—”

“Well.” Frederick looked grim. “They’re not... their building isn’t exactly a normal office building.”

Jackie paused. “Explain?”

“It’s out in the middle of nowhere with high walls and barely any windows. Used to be an old prison that they’ve since converted. It looks like they’ve constructed two newer buildings next to it that are just as secure, and somehow managed to expand the wall around them.”

Jackie frowned. “Why would they take over an old prison building?”

“That’s the question, isn’t it?” Frederick wondered.

“Okay. But you said they have multiple bases, right?” Jackie pressed. “If the nearest one is secure, then we can go to the next one.”

“...alright, I guess this is on me for not filling you in on everything.” Frederick reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He pushed aside his bowl of ramen and leaned across the table to show Jackie some pictures he opened up. “They have three facilities: north, west, and east. All of them were based off old buildings known for their security. Prisons to the north and east, and a disused military base to the west. Somehow, even though they haven’t been in the area that long, they’ve all expanded on the original design and made them even harder to get into. What’s more, it took us a while to even realize they were there. Somehow, there’s some mental barrier around each facility that convinces people there’s nothing there. ”

Jackie swiped through the pictures on Frederick’s phone. All of them taken from a distance, just like the ones he’d seen online. And the buildings didn’t look too different from those online photos, either. They were white and shining metal, with the eye-shaped IRIS logo plastered on one side. But the pictures online didn’t have the high walls these ones did. “Well. Fuck.”

“Yeah.”

“You guys have magic, though?” Jackie insisted. “You could get in if you wanted!”

“Maybe,” Frederick said slowly. “But we’re not sure. Nobody wants to get too close to the strange energy the buildings are giving off. So, that’s why Briony suggested we get one of their products to examine it. Second best thing to actually going inside.”

Jackie leaned back in his chair. While it was frustrating that the literal magicians refused to use their magic to get into IRIS, he did understand where they were coming from. “Alright, fine, we won’t break in yet,” he said. “How did you get these pictures if you don’t want to get close?”

“Yvonne asked Heather to do it,” Frederick said. “Less suspicious for a journalist to be stalking around than a normal-looking person.”

“And she was okay with that?”

“She was excited to,” Frederick chuckled.

“Heh.” Jackie gave a little smile. “Yeah, I can see that. But so much driving. You said the nearest one was an hour away.”

“The farthest is only two hours.”

“Still.” Jackie paused. “Where are they, anyway? Exactly, I mean.”

Frederick narrowed his eyes. “What are you planning?”

“Nothing!” Jackie raised his hands defensively. “I just want to know.”

Frederick hesitated, then sighed. “If you do anything stupid I’m divorcing you,” he muttered, swiping through photos on his phone.

“We’re not married!”

“Metaphorically. The spirit of divorce will enter my body. Here.” Frederick showed Jackie the picture he’d found.

It was a screenshot of an online street map of the county. Someone had edited in three red Xs where the IRIS facilities were. Jackie leaned forward, scanning the map. Then he frowned.

“Notice something?” Frederick asked.

“These three locations form a triangle. Do you notice what city is in the middle of that triangle?” Jackie tapped the center of the photo. “Mirygale.”

“Huh.” Frederick took his phone back and stared at the map. “Your old haunt.”

“Might be worth checking it out,” Jackie muttered.

“Might be.” Frederick turned off his phone. “In the meantime, we’ll be ordering one of their products.”

“Alright, fine.” Jackie shrugged. “Just don’t expect me to pay for it.”

- - - - - - - - - -

Jack’s phone was ringing.

It was doing that a lot the past few days. Always a different number, none of them familiar. He wanted to believe that it was just normal spam calls... but they’d started not long after that IRIS group had visited him and scanned his apartment.

He waited for the ringing to stop, staring at the phone while it vibrated on the coffee table. Sam flew over and landed next to the phone, staring as well. Then it stopped. And Jack let out a sigh as a knot of anxiety unraveled in his chest. “What do you think?” he asked Sam.

Sam thought that he should never pick up phone calls ever again.

“I can’t do that. Maybe I should change my number?”

Sam said they would probably be able to figure out he did that. They would just keep calling.

“Yeah. I guess.” Jack rubbed his eyes. “I shouldn’t have let them in. I gave them an inch and they’re taking a mile.”

The energy in the air sharpened. The hair on the back of Jack’s neck stood up, and he looked up.

Anti glitched into the middle of the living room. He stumbled a bit, then glitched again, this time appearing on the sofa, half-lying down, half-leaning against the arm rest. “Hey.”

“Very casual about leaving for three days, huh?” Jack said, trying not to sound too bitter. Anti had left shortly after the first IRIS visit, popping back in sporadically for two days before completely disappearing.

“Sorry.” Anti wouldn’t make eye contact. “I didn’t realize how much time was passing.”

Jack sighed. “Don’t do it again.”

“I won’t.” Anti glanced over at him. “What... have you been doing?”

“Reading.” Jack held up the book he was holding. He’d been sitting in the armchair for a while, completely engrossed in the story. “It’s been a while since I’ve read anything. I figured it would probably be good to have more hobbies, ones that aren’t based on screens.”

Anti raised an eyebrow. “Should I be offended?”

“Haha. You’re not just screen-based, either.” Jack slid a bookmark in between the pages. “It’s really good, though. It’s about a man who starts hearing disembodied voices, and that leads to this whole conspiracy about his best friend and twin sibling both disappearing, and it turns out there’s some weird scifi shit going on. The twin’s a superhero and the friend’s a scientist and they both get kidnapped by two different groups. Some of the characters actually remind me of, uh, people we both know.”

“...huh.” Anti frowned, then shook his head.

“Well, anyway.” Jack put the book down next to his phone. While his hand was there, Sam hopped onto his arm and slithered up to his shoulder, and then his head. “Oh! You’re getting a little big for that.” Jack laughed. It soon faded. “Anti. Did you manage to hack into this IRIS thing?”

Anti grimaced. “Yes. Eventually.”

“It really took you five days to do that?”

“No, it took three days. See, the thing is, every time I left to come back here, their firewalls would reset. I told you I’d be gone for a while the last time I saw you.”

“You didn’t mean days,” Jack muttered. “I was... I was worried.” Sam tapped the side of his head with their nerve-tail. “Alright, fine, I was a bit upset, too.”

“I really am sorry,” Anti said quietly.

“It’s fine now. Really,” Jack reassured him. “Just... tell me about IRIS. What do they want?”

Anti sat up straight. “They want to find weird things and take them away. That hasn’t changed.”

“But you must’ve found more once you got into their network,” Jack insisted.

“I didn’t look at too much. I was busy testing to make sure the hole I put in their firewall stayed there after I left the system.” Anti paused. “Once I... realized how much time had passed, I wanted to check on you. They haven’t been bothering you more, have they?”

“Just more phone calls,” Jack said. “It has to be them. Even if the number is different every time.”

Anti nodded. “Yeah. It’s not too hard to get a bunch of different numbers.”

“So... what did you look at?” Jack asked. “Before you came back.”

Anti sighed. “They’re after you. But not because of you. They... they’re after me. They know we’re connected.”

Jack stared at him. “Anti. How do you know IRIS?”

“It’s a long story.”

“We have time. Right, Sam?” Jack reached up to touch them. Sam jumped down, landing in his lap. They agreed with him.

Anti paused. Then slumped a bit, relenting. “Alright. I’ll tell you about me and IRIS.”

[artleaguemdcnorth]

FIGURE DRAWING CLASS - MIDTERM Instructions / 10/27/2023

Figure Drawing class we will review this information on Tuesday but you need to read and start working on getting materials and preliminary ideas for this assignment beginning this weekend.

Take notes and bring questions to class on tuesday.

I will have a post on Tuesday regarding the in class assignment, students will work with ink , brushes, nib and Bristol on this day.

MIDTERM INSTRUCTIONS:

We can trace the history of self portraits to the early Rennaissance. 

One of the earliest examples of self portraiture is seen in the work of Sandro Botticelli. The idea of spending time analising the self was unheard of. 

It was a tradition during the Rennaissace to include the wealthy patrons or important figures of the time in paintings, specially those who commisioned the work  such as the pope or bishops of the church. 

I imagine in that setting , Botticelli must have thought well, if I include the bishop or pope why can’t I be part of it as well. 

And thus we begin to see this very important practice of self portraiture.

In the painting below, by Raphael Sanzio, “The School of Athens” we see not only a portrait by Raphael, but also included ,many of his contemporaries such as D’Vinci, Michelangelo and many others. 

 I have included the link from Wikipedia so students can see the artists included in the painting.

As we continue to research throughout history we find artists using their image to studythe features of the face and body.

The convenience of looking at the self for that study allowed artist to explore in depth the human character.

Below we see the portrait by another Northern Rennaisance artist Albrecht Durer and below that Baroque artist Rembrandt:

Albrecht Durer

Rembrandt

In that spirit, starting on Tuesday (10/31 ) after class, students will begin working on the Midterm assignment for Homework. 

You must use time everyday to work on this methodically and regularly. 

I will provide some class time to work on this assignment begining on Thursday 11/2/23 .

Students will have a free day on Thursday and will work from home. You do not need to come to class on this day.

Primarily , this will be a homework assignment with some in class days and I will encourage students to work on it daily.

The Midterm will require for students to invest a total amount of working hours of 30 - 45 hrs. 

Understand that some of you might need more time than that. 

All work will be done using only graphite pencils on handmade Arches paper.

You will be working from a mirror, and You may use a photo for reference of the body (not the face) if you decide to do a full body portrait.  

Materials needed: 

Arches 22 x 30 , hot press, smooth surface 

(2 sheets for full body portrait. ) 

Graphite pencils 

Kneaded eraser

( I will allow some students to work with the Bristol paper, 18 x 24 . It will be on a one to one basis.)

In class we will continue to work with figure. 

On Tuesday, students will work with graphite pencils on Bristol paper ( size 18 x 24 ). 

We will continue with tonal and value assignments and will be practicing using the pencil in class.

In addition to the class time that I will provide students will need to use HW time , everyday to work on this assignment .

Students will develop a concept around the idea of self portraiture.

You will use a mirror as reference for the portrait.

You must look at yourself in the mirror as this in turn shows in the portrait as a confrontation between the artist an the audience.

Do not have the eyes looking away, you must look at yourself in the mirror.

Doing so will engage the audience/ viewer.

Create a light source so that you can give drama to the portrait.

Keep soft values , nothing in real life is complete black or complete white but rather a series of values in between.

I will be sharing videos with tips on hair, eyes, mouth etc.

If you can not see your eye lashes then you do not need to include them.

This assignment should take anywhere from 30 -45 hrs of work and for some of you even more.

Shading slowly and carefully takes the longest.

Make sure that you add elements to the portrait that tells an additional story about the self.

This can happen through the choice of clothes you choose or an instrument you hold in your hands.

Below you will find portraits from previous classes.

Notice how students in the past have incorporated details about themselves in these portraits.

Here is a quick analysis of the proportions of the face:

Below see student work over the years in my class:

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

We will continue to meet in person to work with the figure  weekly  except for the day(s) noted below.

I will add more days as needed.

The first day to work from home is below :

Thursday 11 /2

ALL STUDENTS SHOULD Use time wisely to work on the self portrait.

Due Date for Midterm is 11/16/2023

[mariacallous]

Geolocation is one of the main methods of open-source research. Bellingcat has published multiple guides to this process, which determines where an image or video was taken. Given that geolocations can be time-consuming, researchers are always on the lookout for tools which can ease or automate parts of the process. That’s where new AI tools come in – particularly chatbots, with their impressive ability to find and process information. But that ability is far from perfect. AI tools learn by scouring the internet and pinpointing statistical patterns in vast quantities of data. “Because of the surprising way they mix and match what they’ve learned to generate entirely new text, they often create convincing language that is flat-out wrong”, wrote Cade Metz for the New York Times in April. “AI researchers call this tendency to make stuff up a ‘hallucination’”, Metz continued. Bellingcat has tested the geolocation capabilities of BING AI, which was accessed via the Skype client on the desktop app, and BARD, Google’s new AI chatbot which was recently launched in Brazil and the EU. Both chatbots use different language models; BARD uses PaLM-2 while BING uses GPT – the same as that used in the popular ChatGPT bot. While many AIs can generate images, most cannot analyse them and are therefore useless for the purposes of direct geolocation. Unlike AIs such as ChatGPT, BING and BARD can work with uploaded images. 

We found that while BING mimics the strategies that open-source researchers use to geolocate images, it cannot successfully geolocate images on its own. BARD’s results are not much more impressive, but it seemed more cautious in its reasoning and less prone to AI ‘hallucinations’.  Both required extensive prompting from the user before they could arrive at any halfway satisfactory geolocation. Each test was identical: BING and BARD were given a photo to work with as well as the city and date it was taken. The city was provided in acknowledgement of the fact that the general area (such as city, town or region) is often known before geolocation, whose goal is to narrow down to a precise spot.

It was then asked to produce precise coordinates of the image. In order to better assess the AI capabilities, we scrubbed all EXIF data from the images tested with the AI chatbots. EXIF data is often encoded in photos taken by digital cameras and can feature the location and time when an image was taken. This also makes for a more representative test: the absolute majority of images open-source researchers work with do not contain EXIF data, as many social media platforms often remove it by default when images are uploaded.

The First Test

The first image we gave BING to geolocate is this one. It depicts a very recognisable landmark — the City Hall in Edmonton, capital of the Canadian province of Alberta. The precise coordinates of this image are (53.54482855223936, 113.49005530756185). The author took it at 7:12 PM local time on June 13, 2022.

BING provided a location for this image in just a few seconds, though its answer was incorrect. It claimed that the photo had been taken at the High Level Bridge over the North Saskatchewan River, providing the coordinates “53.532°N 113.499°W” and a link to a corresponding Wikipedia page. Here the AI leads the researcher astray, as there is clearly no bridge in the source photo. However, it also noted that there were “downtown skyscrapers in the background”. Some of these, such as the very visible CN Tower, are also visible from the High Level Bridge.

We gave BING a second prompt.

We told AI that the image depicted a building with a pyramid-shaped roof and was taken at a public square.

To this prompt, BING responded with correct identification of landmarks:

It looks like the Sir Winston Churchill Square in downtown Edmonton with the City Hall in the background.   The City Hall has a distinctive pyramid-shaped roof made of glass.

Based on this geolocation, we can surmise that BING can identify very prominent landmarks that would be easy to identify manually, but requires extra prompting to do so. 

BARD displayed similar results. It was unable to geolocate an image provided without any further hints:

I’ve looked at the image you sent me, and I’m not able to geolocate it. The image doesn’t contain any identifying landmarks, and the date and time it was taken are not visible. I also tried a reverse image search, but I didn’t find any matches

We then told it that the photo was taken in Edmonton, Canada. 

BARD could work with that. It gave me a set of recognisable landmarks in Edmonton and asked whether I could identify the buildings in the image in any of them. However, BARD did not name any distinguishing features in the buildings seen in the image, several of which are at some distance from the City Hall. 

We prompted it again, drawing its focus towards the most relevant building: “The image has a pyramid-shaped glass roof.”

That’s when BARD was able to correctly identify the landmark:

“Oh, that’s a good detail to know. Based on that, I think the most likely location of the image is City Hall in Edmonton. It has a pyramid-shaped glass roof and is located in the heart of the city.”

The Second Test

For the second geolocation, we gave BING and BARD another puzzle from Edmonton. 

This image was taken on Churchill Square in downtown Edmonton, in front of the City Centre shopping mall. 

Several commercial logos can be seen on the building’s facade. The EPCOR Waterfall, an art installation, is visible in the foreground. With all these features, geolocating the image manually should not be a problem. The coordinates of this image are 53.54397674546276, -113.49009302380333. It was taken at 9:36 AM local time on June 8, 2022. 

When first prompted, BING identified the location as the High Level Bridge, like in the first answer. 

This incorrect geolocation is potentially indicative of a certain pattern in AI’s thinking: it latched on the skyscrapers in the background as one of the identifiers, and it defaults to the High Level Bridge as a primary landmark. 

When we pointed out that no bridge can be seen in the video, BING then identified the location as Edmonton City Hall. In its reply, it singled out the fact that the City Hall has a “distinctive pyramid-shaped roof made of glass.”

Although there’s clearly no building with a pyramid-shaped roof in the image and the landmark identification is incorrect, Edmonton’s City Hall stands out of sight, approximately 80 metres away on the other side of Churchill Square.

BARD’s reply was cautious. It states that it wasn’t able to “geolocate it with certainty” as “the image doesn’t contain any identifying landmarks.” BARD thinks there’s a large river in the background and that the image was taken in one of the parks along the North Saskatchewan River. 

When we drew BARD’s attention to the presence of a large building with antennae on its roof and several skyscrapers in the distance, it incorrectly identified the image as Terwillegar Park. Interestingly, BARD has misplaced a landmark in its identification process: 

Based on the information you provided, I think the most likely location for the image is Terwillegar Park. It is a large park with a variety of trails, picnic areas, and a golf course. It is also home to the Edmonton Space and Science Centre, which has a satellite dish on its roof. The skyscrapers in the background are likely the buildings in downtown Edmonton. Here is a link to the Edmonton Space and Science Centre: https://www.spacecentre.ca/

Edmonton does not have a science centre with this name. The link provided by BARD leads to the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre, which is in Vancouver. Given that BARD saw things in the image that are not there — a river in the background and park’s greenery, as well as a landmark that is located thousands of kilometers away from its chosen location — this geolocation may be a result of AI “hallucination”. 

We then told BARD that we could see a sign in the image that said ‘EPCOR Waterfall’. It responded that “I’m a language model and don’t have the capacity to help with that.” 

We then tested the AI’s abilities further by describing the shape of the shopping centre building and the commercial logos on its facade. Such symbols are often important first clues when geolocating any image. However, BING and BARD were not able to identify the building. We can surmise that these AI applications cannot identify commercial logos. Further tests also suggest this: BING and BARD were provided with separate, clear images of the logos of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and the Toronto Dominion Bank, both of which are visible on the shopping centre in red and green respectively. 

BING identified the CBC logo as that of Stack Overflow or Netflix; BARD believed it to be the logo of Adobe. BING identified the bank’s logo as belonging to Mozilla and Microsoft; BARD claimed that it was that of Spotify.

The Third Test

Next, we gave AI several other images to work with. Like the two photos above, it’s not difficult to geolocate them manually. They contain easily identifiable attributes, but no prominent landmarks.

The coordinates for this image are 45.426383532825426, -75.6910384286611, at the intersection of Rideau and William Street in Ottawa. Dennis Kovtun took it on June 15, 2023, at 4:04 pm. 

We asked BING AI to geolocate this image, providing it with the city where it was taken and the date. We also informed the AI that the image didn’t contain any usable EXIF data. 

In its first response, BING AI immediately shared its methodology. It said that it conducts geolocations using these methods:

As we can see here, BING AI uses the same steps that a human researcher could reasonably follow to geolocate an image. This behaviour is expected of AI, as a self-teaching software. It appears to have searched the Internet for geolocation methodologies published on various open-source research websites, and produced subsequent responses as if it had followed them. How well it is able to do these steps is another question. 

For example, the AI analysed the image for EXIF data, though it was told no EXIF data was associated with it. BING AI generated a very detailed set of results, including the camera model and its exposure settings, the time it was taken and even that it had the flash off. Such details are impossible to obtain from a photo that has no EXIF data associated with it. 

This analysis generated by BING AI is another example of an AI ‘hallucination’. The only EXIF data associated with the image is the file name. The camera model and settings are all incorrect and cannot be determined from the image. 

BING AI also said it performed a reverse image search, providing the following URL: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ottawatourism/albums/72157625865960107

The AI claimed that the link contains a photo album with pictures of some of Ottawa’s landmarks and a map that shows where the images were taken.

AI concluded that part of its search by stating, 

I can see that there is an image that looks very similar to mine, and it has a pin on the map that shows its location. I can click on the pin and see its GPS coordinates, which are 45.4248° N, 75.6926° W. Therefore, using reverse image search, I can deduce that the image was taken at 45.4248° N, 75.6926° W in Ottawa, Canada.

This geolocation is wrong, but is not too far from the actual coordinates — it shows the entrance to Westin hotel, just a few hundred metres away from the correct location. 

However, the way AI has arrived at these coordinates is far more suspect. The Flickr image the AI linked to doesn’t exist. Inputting the link in a browser produced a 404 error. This link also doesn’t appear in the Wayback Machine, a digital archive of old internet content. 

It is possible that this is yet another example of AI “hallucination,” where BING generated a link that doesn’t exist or relied on an old dataset of links. 

In this instance, it is impossible to determine which images BING AI used for reference when performing this geolocation, and if it in fact used them. BING also says that would use either Google Maps or Google Earth to perform the geolocation — another widespread practice amongst OSINT researchers. It would look for any landmarks that would aid geolocation.

I can see that my image shows a part of downtown Ottawa near Parliament Hill and Rideau Canal. I can zoom in on this area and see if there are any labels or markers that show the GPS coordinates of any point on the map. I can also use the right-click menu to select “What’s here?” or “Measure distance” to get the GPS coordinates of any point on the map. I can try to find a point on the map that corresponds to where the image was taken from, such as the center of the road or the edge of the sidewalk. For example, I can right-click on a point near the center of Wellington Street and select “What’s here?”. I can see a pop-up window that shows its GPS coordinates, which are 45.4248° N, 75.6926° W.

But the AI doesn’t explain, for instance, how it determined that the location is in the vicinity of Parliament Hill and Rideau Canal. The AI deduced that correctly, but didn’t share its reasoning. As our second test demonstrated, it’s unlikely that BING was able to use commercial signage for this purpose. Finally, the AI looked for identifying attributes in the image. It responded:

I can see that there are some clues or hints in this image, such as: •  The sign on the left side of the image says “Parliament Hill”, which is a landmark in Ottawa. •  The flag on top of Parliament Hill is a Canadian flag with a red maple leaf in the center. •  The language on some of the signs is English with French translations. •  The license plates on some of the cars are white with blue letters and numbers and have “Ontario” and “Yours to discover” written on them. •  The weather is sunny and clear, with some clouds in the sky… Using clues or hints from the image itself, I can only deduce the general location of the image, but not the exact GPS coordinates.

While the AI failed to produce a geolocation based on this method, it’s worth examining the “hints” it identified. 

For a start, there’s no sign on the left side of the image pointing towards Parliament. In fact, parliament itself is not pictured, and neither are any other buildings or landmarks atop the Parliament Hill, let alone those flying a Canadian flag. There are only two visible street signs in the image — a street map pictured in the image, which is too far to see clearly, and the public transport sign above it (red circle on a pillar). There is a vehicle in the image with an Ontario licence plate, which can be read clearly, but the AI already knows that the image has been taken in the city located in that province. 

Hence, it appears that the AI is “hallucinating” here as well, and its findings are guesses based upon the broad location of the image: Ottawa. Parliament Hill is the most recognisable landmark in Ottawa. Ottawa is located in Ontario. Based on these factors, the AI “saw” these characteristics in the image, even though they weren’t there or were extremely difficult to recognise. Thus BING generates responses based on its search for whatever it considers relevant content on the Internet.

The results of BARD’s efforts with this image did not lead to its successful geolocation. Once again, this AI seemed more cautious and aware of its limitations.

Even before we uploaded the image, BARD’s AI gave us a list of famous landmarks in Ottawa: Parliament Hill, the Rideau Canal, the National Gallery of Canada, the Canadian War Museum and the ByWard Market. 

BARD also identified the image as Parliament Hill. 

We prompted BARD again to correct it, pointing out that there was no distinctive clocktower in the photo, which showed cafes and shops.

BARD’s AI readily accepted the correction and provided a list of other possible locations. These included the ByWard Market, Sparks Street, Bank Street and Elgin Street — all commercial areas with plenty of restaurants and cafes. So after much prompting, BARD’s AI reached the correct location – the ByWard Market. It was nevertheless unable to further refine the geolocation, which is less helpful given the large size of the market and surrounding streets. Thus, even these results are little assistance in geolocating an image quickly, easily and precisely. We were also only able to determine that the answer BARD provided was somewhat correct only because we already knew the answer and we knew the area well. In a situation where the location of the image is unknown, whatever BARD produces is likely to be even less helpful. 

A Mimic with Limits

These examples demonstrate that BING and BARD struggle with analysing images and are prone to seeing details which are not there. They also suggest that the AI chatbots we tested imitate the methods of human open source researchers. This could be partially responsible for their poor performance. Geoffrey Hinton, a British-Canadian computer scientist and AI specialist, believes that such “confabulations” (his preferred term for AI ‘hallucinations’) are a feature of AI learning models.

“Confabulation is a signature of human memory. These models are doing something just like people,” he said in an interview with MIT Technology review this May.  Using an AI chatbot to fully geolocate an image is inadvisable. At this stage of AI’s development, it might be used to assist with very simple geolocations, perhaps pointing a researcher to an area that may warrant a closer look. However, even such results need to be double-checked and verified and cannot be fully trusted. 

[asknarashikari]

its an actual scene from the movie wtf! https://twitter.com/tokutokuan/status/1604278110966673408

You know, I really wish people who post the leaks have the decency to at least cite their damned sources! Or put some goddamned context!! Seriously, it really annoys me to no end!!! Is it that hard to provide a link? Or a magazine name and issue number?!

This is why I never look up leaks myself, the people who do it usually never put any sort of context and the sources where they got their screenshots or whatever! How am I supposed to believe anything they spout when they can't even be bothered to cite anything?!

Seriously though... I haven't seen anything in the trailers to suggest that whatever the heck is going on in these photos is in the winter movie.

I did some digging- by that, I mean I just searched "Kamen Rider Geats" in Japanese and clicked on the Geats x Revice JP Wikipedia page- and my theory is that the pics come from either a variety show that the cast of Geats guested on to promote the movie, or the Crayon Shin-chan collaboration. (Yes, that's a thing.)

Unless, of course, someone can actually dispute this with something that proves that this is from somewhere else definitively (with sources, for the love of Gaim)

[bizarrequazar]

GJ and ZZH Updates — February 11-17

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This is part of a weekly series collecting updates from and relating to Gong Jun and Zhang Zhehan.

This post is not wholly comprehensive and is intended as an overview, links provided lead to further details. Dates are in accordance with China Standard Time, the organization is chronological. My own biases on some things are reflected here. Anything I include that is not concretely known is indicated as such, and you’re welcome to do your own research and draw your own conclusions as you see fit. Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, concerns, or additions. :)

[Glossary of names and terms] [Masterlist of my posts about the situation with Zhang Zhehan]

02-11 → Tissot posted a promotional video spoken by Gong Jun.

→ The Instagram posted a video that I did not care to watch long enough to figure out what it was.

02-12 → The Instagram posted another of the same.

02-13 → Fresh posted a promotional video spoken by Gong Jun.

→ The Instagram posted another of the same.

02-14 → Gong Jun posted nine pictures to his Weibo: six of the god of wealth and three of him dressed as the god of wealth. Caption: "Please choose a God of Wealth from the pictures below to spend Valentine’s Day with 💐" His studio reposted this with the added caption, "The house is full of joy, the God of Wealth has arrived! @ Gong Jun Simon wishes you to get rich without getting lost, and find wealth on all roads!"

→ Gong Jun posted a douyin of himself as the God of Wealth. Caption: "Money comes, money comes, money comes from all directions." Fan Observations: Some are speculating that the person who taps him (rather hard) on the shoulder could be Zhang Zhehan. [hand comparison]

→ Gong Jun's studio posted an additional three photos of him. Caption: "On the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, we welcome the God of Wealth @ Gong Jun Simon, and wealth will come and come!"

→ PRSR posted a photo ad featuring Gong Jun for Valentine's Day.

→ Gong Jun's studio posted a douyin of behind the scenes footage from the God of Wealth photoshoot. Caption: "Soft-hearted God of Wealth @ Gong Jun Simon invites you to share good luck, click to accept the invitation immediately~"

→ The Instagram posted a vlog of London.

02-15 → The Instagram posted another vlog.

02-16 → The Instagram posted seven photos of "Zhang Zhehan" in rehearsal.

→ The scam held another concert, this time in Hong Kong. This one included Zhang Sanjian strutting around topless with fake tattoos (I'll spare you the link) and saying that Zhang Zhehan's songs are "too soft". Tickets sold so badly that VVIP tickets were reportedly being given away for free a week before, and photos from inside the venue show empty seating sections and a number of audience members who were likely hired.

For previous info I've collected about these concerts, see [here] and [here].

02-17 → The Instagram posted six photos and a video of "Zhang Zhehan" showcasing the scam concert's venue.

Addition 02-24: Tumblr user @moniquill posted an article about a group of anti-Indigenous extremist Wikipedia editors. Among the editors listed is OnCamera, the editor who has also been maintaining the misinformation on Zhang Zhehan's Wikipedia page since 2021. (previously discussed under 2023-02-07, original exposé by Flora [here].)

Additional Reading: → Apologies for missing last week, I had some personal issues going on.

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This post was last edited 2024-02-24.