#Amazon case study

[houdini-ghost]

I am upset about the season 3 announcement for many reasons.

He was already paid. Why change the scripts

Fewer episodes is a punishment for everyone else.

90 minutes is not a film length production

It is Amazon who is awful company, it feels like PR

[allaboutmarketing4you]

The Decline of Tupperware...What Happened?

" The classic brand has filed for bankruptcy. This video discusses the company's history and outlines some of the biggest reasons behind its struggles. "

Video source: Company Man

We suggest reading the article below as complementary information to the video:

"Tupperware has been struggling for years. Three charts show just how bad it’s been.By Alex Leeds Matthews, CNN,Published 10:43 AM EDT, Sun April 23, 2023:

CNN — Tupperware may be on the verge of collapse, but the 77-year-old business’ potential demise isn’t necessarily a harbinger of worsening economic conditions.

While sales data shows the rest of the US consumer retail sector — including some of the company’s competitors in the food storage space — seems to be recovering from the pandemic dip, Tupperware sales continue to decline.

Some business experts say that’s because Tupperware has failed to adapt to changing consumer behaviors. And now, faced with mounting debt, declining sales and plummeting stock prices, perhaps little can be done to save the company from bankruptcy.

Tupperware shares hit their lowest price in history Following the announcement that the company could go out of business, Tupperware stock fell to $1.24 per share on April 10.

In a statement emailed to CNN, a Tupperware spokesperson said the brand has been affected by “the pandemic, inflation and high interest rates,” and is working with financial advisers and partnerships including Target and Amazon to strengthen the brand.

“For over 75 years, Tupperware Brands has been one of the world’s most beloved, iconic household brands — and we are excited to remain at the heart of dining room tables, kitchen counters and pantry shelves for many more years to come,” the spokesperson said in the statement.

The Tupperware brand name is so iconic that it’s become shorthand for all food leftover storage. That might be part of the problem, as other brands have emerged to compete against Tupperware, sometimes at lower price points.

“A great brand name can be a blessing or a curse,” said Christie Nordhielm, a marketing consultant and adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. “It’s a curse when you kind of rest on your laurels and milk the brand for profits and don’t continue to invest in a brand.”

If you bought your “tupperware” in a store before October 2022, it was unlikely to be the actual brand. The company just introduced its products into Target stores last fall, a move that is likely, “way too little, too late,” said Barbara Kahn, a professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

“At worst, it’s one of these things where their brand name is almost generic, and not in a good way,” Kahn said. “That doesn’t have to be a bad thing… People might call things Kleenex, but they know the difference,” she added.

Tupperware has historically only sold to consumers through “direct sales,” most commonly at “Tupperware parties.” These parties were gatherings where people who enjoyed the product would demo and sell the Tupperware brand to their friends and acquaintances. That direct selling model worked well at first but fell out of favor as consumer habits changed in the decades preceding the pandemic, according to Kahn.

The fact that Tupperware moved away from that direct sales model and into Target was an “admission” that their core business model wasn’t working, said Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Business. While some businesses may have taken hits during the pandemic, Tupperware’s decline wasn’t sudden.

“The company has gradually lost steam,” Calkins said. “It hasn’t gone off a cliff so much as over many years it’s just become weaker.”

The pandemic, which affected most businesses negatively, just exacerbated those failures of Tupperware to adjust to changing consumer behaviors and competitive landscapes.

“You could have seen them making that transition very beautifully, but instead they moved into brick and mortar stores,” Nordhielm explained. “If you go and look at Tupperware in a Target, all you’re doing is seeing how incredibly undifferentiated they are, how many other substitute storage containers there are available.”

Instead, people tend to compare the products based on price, Kahn said, and Tupperware’s most valuable asset — its brand equity — loses all its meaning. Tupperware has also failed to innovate in response to these changes in competition and consumer behavior, Nordhielm said. As a result, Tupperware’s sales have been declining for years.

Tupperware sales trending down The decline in Tupperware's sales did not start with the pandemic's economic woes.

Meanwhile the rest of the consumer retail sector is showing signs of recovery after the pandemic. At the worst of the pandemic, sales saw a stark decline, but they have been improving since, recovering more than 60 percent since their nadir in April 2020.

“The state of the consumer remains relatively strong,” Hamilton said. “If a recession is in the cards, it’s not showing up yet in measures for the consumer sector.”

But the recovery in sales doesn’t mean other retailers are immune to collapse. Calkins points out that financing remains tight, creating a challenge for businesses across the sector that face high debt burdens or need support for innovation. Tupperware may be an early casualty because it was already in a weak position. The brand had to restructure its debts in May 2020.

“Sadly, I think this is not the last one of these stories we’re gonna hear,” Calkins said. " "

Source: CNN

#mktmarketing4you #corporatestrategy #marketing #M4Y #lovemarketing #IPAM #ipammarketingschool #ContingencyPlanning #virtual #volunteering #project #Management #Economy #ConsumptionBehavior #BrandManagement #ProductManagement #Logistics #Lifecycle #Brand #Neuromarketing #McKinseyMatrix #Viralmarketing #Facebook #Marketingmetrics #icebergmodel #EdgarScheinsCultureModel #GuerrillaMarketing #STARMethod #7SFramework #gapanalysis #AIDAModel #SixLeadershipStyles #MintoPyramidPrinciple #StrategyDiamond #InternalRateofReturn #irr #BrandManagement #dripmodel #HoshinPlanning #XMatrix #backtobasics #BalancedScorecard #Product #ProductManagement #Logistics #Branding #freemium #businessmodel #business #4P #3C #BCG #SWOT #TOWS #EisenhowerMatrix #Study #marketingresearch #marketer #marketing manager #Painpoints #Pestel #ValueChain # VRIO #marketingmix #tupperware #tupperwarebrands

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[jcmarchi]

From Generative AI to Reliable AI: High Stakes in Manufacturing

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/from-generative-ai-to-reliable-ai-high-stakes-in-manufacturing/

From Generative AI to Reliable AI: High Stakes in Manufacturing

The AI hype cycle exploded in 2023 with the debut of generative AI and subsequent funding injections. With it came a sense of blind AI optimism, where organizations championed the technology without a clear understanding of its ROI and practical use cases. Some merely followed the AI crowd, adopting the technology out of a fear of being left behind. Looking back, and thinking about what’s to come in 2025, has much changed with regard to AI expectations? Are we still at the stage of blind AI optimism?

In short, no. We have luckily moved farther along the maturity path. We can see the hype cycle dissipating and are progressing from blind AI optimism to proven AI optimism – or, reliable AI. The manufacturing industry, which has made tremendous strides with reliable AI, serves as a case study for this journey, and one that other industries can learn from. But before we go down that path, we have to address the real possibility of an AI bubble that is likely to burst.

Irrational AI Exuberance?

Blind AI optimism – or excitement around the newest, shiniest AI technology without a clear understanding of its implications and tangible achievements – has generated a lot of attention and capital. For instance, analysts are watching Microsoft, Meta and Amazon make sizable investments in Nvidia’s AI-powered GPUs, but there are concerns these investments will not produce the revenue gains these companies are looking for.

We are starting to see whispers of this specific AI bubble bursting. MIT economist Daron Acemoglu warned that money poured into AI infrastructure investments may not match ROI expectations for investors. People were excited about the promise of AI, but now they are starting to worry it will mirror the dot-com bubble. Such an event could trigger other investors to become more skeptical of the AI narrative and seek quicker payoff timeframes or reduce those investments. The disillusionment is bubbling up.

Make no mistake, AI is going to change the way industries work, but it won’t happen by following the shiny object. Reliable AI is quantifiable and delivers real impact, typically behind the scenes and embedded into existing processes.

So, what is an example of reliable AI that is already showing success and will stand the test of time? The manufacturing industry presents significant use cases.

Measuring Manufacturing’s Success

A leading chemical company wanted to improve efficiency and reliability in their machines to avoid unscheduled downtime and operational disruptions. They invested in an AI-powered predictive maintenance solution that equips their teams with machine health insights and recommendations to proactively address problems. They achieved 7x ROI in less than a year.

In a similar vein, one of the world’s top food and beverage companies wanted to reduce product waste and optimize their factory capacity, so they piloted AI-enabled machine monitoring at four plants. They saw capacity increase by 4,000 hours a year and a reduction in waste of more than 2 million pounds of product. The results were so impactful the pilot scaled to all of their North-American facilities.

These real-world examples demonstrate the measurable impact of reliable AI, and they line up with broader industry trends. In a recent survey of 700+ global manufacturers, the top areas for quantifying the impact of AI on business objectives were supply chain management/optimization (41%), improving decision-making with prescriptive analytics (41%), and process health/maximizing yield and capacity (40%).

The year-over-year findings reveal the true progress that was made on this journey from blind optimism to proven results. Compared to the year before, three times as many respondents are now able to quantify AI’s impact on process health and twice as many can measure its impact on unplanned machine downtime. This demonstrates that manufacturers are getting better and more comfortable with using AI, which helps them realize a more profound return on investment.

With this increased confidence, 83% of global manufacturing leaders are increasing their AI budgets – which is key to business growth and effectively visualizing and acting on factory data. So, what about other industries that are lagging in AI success? They aren’t scaling fast enough.

Slow to Scale

Up until now, manufacturers and other industry leaders have been slow to scale AI, which has hindered the speed at which we have seen meaningful results. In fact, nearly 7 in 10 (67%) business leaders are slowly adopting AI, per a tech.co report.

AI is a tool, not an outcome. There has to be a culture shift in order to realize the true benefits of these investments – it has to be more than just putting sensors on machines. Skilled labor is already hard to keep and even harder to find. The US population is aging at a faster rate with fewer people entering the workforce. Now is the time to advance reliable AI because it is essential to retaining knowledge and pushing industries forward.

Generative AI tools like ChatGPT are impressive, but the business world needs more than that. It requires purpose-built AI aimed at specific and difficult problems – and it needs results. That is where reliable AI comes in, and manufacturing has provided an impressive playbook.

[courtenaybird]

“Jeff was talking about making Amazon a ‘daily habit’ … The change for Amazon was moving from a retailer that you went to when you needed to buy something to a service provider who was just part of your lifestyle."

Inside Amazon’s Push to Crack Trader Joe’s—and Dominate Everything

[pinswizard]

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[cloudwhisper23]

Probably going to finish up the prompts for Grumbo Month and then be done with fanfic for a while. I need to focus on my other projects and my classes, so that'll be put on the back burner.

[dark-l-angel]

may I please request batfam x reader where they randomly find out the reader has Omnilingualism? the reader just randomly drops lore then the batfam is like "HUH?" me pleading:

A/N: Sure luv ❤️ sorry it took a little while.. but here you go 😺

Omnilingualism is the ability to understand all languages.. spoken, written, or otherwise.. instantly and fluently, without having to learn them first.

Batfam x Omnilingual reader + onshot bonus "wait- YOU CAN SPEAK EVERY LANGUAGE?!"

Bruce Wayne:

He pretends he isn’t impressed. He really tries. But the moment you casually correct a mistranslation in one of his case files from an obscure dialect in the Amazon, his eye twitches.

Definitely runs tests in the Batcave. "For data" he claims. Lies. He just wants an excuse to hear you switch flawlessly between Ancient Sumerian and Icelandic.

Low-key starts trusting you with delicate negotiations at Wayne Enterprises. "Accidentally" leaves confidential contracts in languages no one in the room understands except you.

Oh, and you catch him brushing up on his French. He'll never admit it, but he’s trying to catch up to you.

You once whispered something scandalous to him in flawless Latin during a gala. His hand on your lower back tightened just slightly. Dangerous man, but you’re worse.

Dick grayson:

Immediately obsessed. No chill whatsoever.

"Say something in Italian!" "Now Portuguese! Oh oh.. Tagalog!"

Thinks it’s the sexiest thing he’s ever heard. Genuinely struggles to focus if you speak in another language, especially something romantic-sounding. (You catch him blushing like a schoolboy, every time.)

Tries to flirt back in another language but completely butchers it. You gently correct him, and it turns into an unintentional couples language lesson.

You catch him Googling "How to propose in 20 languages." Cute idiot.

Teases you with fake words in gibberish, just to see if you catch on. You always do.

Jason Todd :

Oh, this man loves it. Filthy mouth, wicked grin, and a brain full of bad ideas.

Purposely swears in different languages to see if you catch him. You do. Every. Single. Time.

One time you threw back a sharp insult in flawless Russian, and he damn near swooned.

Has you read his favorite banned books in their original languages. "I just wanna hear you say it, babe." No you don’t, Jason. You want to hear them moaned, don’t you?

Will 100% ask you to dirty talk in languages no one else understands in public settings. "What? I like living dangerously."

Bonus: If you tease him in French, it destroys him. He can’t fight it. French + your voice = his personal kryptonite.

Tim Drake :

Immediately runs to his laptop. He needs answers.

"Omnilingualism is a hyper rare meta-ability.. there are fewer than seven confirmed cases worldwide.. wait- does this mean you can read codes in programming languages like they’re actual languages?!"

Makes you his official decryption buddy. His Batcomputer just became 500% more efficient.

Low-key fascinated, high-key turned on.

Asks you to record audio lessons for him in various languages. You catch him listening to them at 2am with a suspiciously dazed smile.

Will absolutely text you random phrases in dead languages at ungodly hours of the night. "For science."

Damian Wayne :

Instantly annoyed that he’s no longer the most linguistically gifted person in the room.

Challenges you constantly. "Recite this ancient Arabic proverb." You do, flawlessly, and throw in the correct accent for good measure.

He respects you deeply but refuses to admit it directly.

Secretly asks you to teach him rare dialects to communicate with his animals better.

The moment you start speaking to Titus in perfect, gentle Arabic, his eyes go wide. You’ve officially earned his permanent admiration.

Bonus: You tease him by complimenting him in languages he doesn’t know yet. He storms off to study them immediately.

Alfred Pennyworth

Unbothered king. He knew from the start.

Smiles softly when you casually slip into old, classical British idioms even Bruce doesn’t understand.

Occasionally tests you with the oddest phrases from obscure Commonwealth colonies. You pass every time.

"I dare say, Miss, you have a talent most remarkable."

Secretly keeps a list of the rarest languages to see if there’s anything you don’t know.

Family game nights? Forget it. You dominate every round of “Guess That Language.”

You become their favorite asset in undercover ops. Fake passports? Check. Local slang? You’re a walking encyclopedia.

They jokingly call you their “Batbabel.” (Yes, even Bruce lets that nickname slip once.)

Jason is convinced you must have alien blood. "Bet you could sweet talk the Martians, too."

You like to randomly mess with them by switching languages mid-conversation. Pure chaos.

And they all fall a little harder every time you do.

Oneshot bonus : Wait- YOU CAN SPEAK EVERY LANGUAGE?!

It started, as many things in Wayne Manor do, in the most stupidly casual way possible.

You were seated at the long dining table, lazily flipping through your phone while Alfred served brunch. Tim was half-asleep beside you, his forehead dangerously close to his waffles. Jason was reading War and Peace in Russian, because of course he was. Damian was arguing with Dick over the proper form for his new kata routine, while Bruce pretended to read the paper but was very obviously just eavesdropping like the rest of them.

Then, Alfred, with his calm British cadence, said something softly under his breath. In French.

"Mon dieu, cette confiture est un désastre…" (this jam is a disaster...)

Without thinking, without even looking up from your phone, you mumbled back, perfect pronunciation and all,

"Pas nécessairement. C’est la confiture d’orange, elle est censée être comme ça." (Not necessarily. It's orange marmalade, it's supposed to be like that.)

Silence.

Dead silence.

Tim lifted his head slowly, eyes bleary but confused.

Jason lowered his book.

Damian squinted at you like you’d just sprouted a second head.

Bruce folded his newspaper with a quiet, deliberate finality.

Dick? Dick’s eyes were sparkling with mischief.

"Since when do you speak French?" he asked, grinning like the cat who caught the canary.

You blinked, confused by the attention. "Huh? Oh, I don’t."

Wrong answer.

"You just did" Tim said flatly, blinking the sleep out of his eyes.

Jason leaned forward on his elbows, sharp smirk spreading. "Care to explain, mon ami?"

Your brain, still not connecting the dots, offered the most unhelpful thing possible: a shrug. "I don’t know. He just said the jam was a disaster. I just... knew."

“Wait.” Damian’s eyes narrowed into slits, laser-focused. "What did Alfred say, exactly?"

You repeated it, casually.

He tried to hide it, but his brows twitched upward. "That’s correct."

Now Jason was grinning like he knew something juicy. "Try Russian."

"What?"

"Say something in Russian," Jason pressed, eyes alight with curiosity.

You hesitated, then shrugged. "Что ты хочешь, чтобы я сказал?" (What do you want me to say?)

Jason’s chair screeched back from the table as he stood, hands in his hair. “NO. No, no, no, what the hell is this?!”

"That was perfect," Tim said, his voice pitching higher, caffeinated brain now fully awake.

"You said you don’t speak these languages?" Bruce asked, a suspicious tilt to his head like he was running seventeen background checks in his mind at once.

You frowned, getting a little defensive now. "I don’t! I never studied Russian, or French, or whatever else. I just... get it, I guess?"

Dick gasped, like someone hit him with a Batarang of Realization. "Wait wait wait.. omnilingualism."

Jason’s mouth dropped open. "No freaking way."

Tim’s eyes went huge behind his glasses. "That’s an actual thing, you know. Hyper rare meta ability. The brain automatically understands and reproduces any language it’s exposed to."

Damian narrowed his eyes, crossing his arms. "Prove it."

"Say something in Ancient Latin," Bruce instructed, his detective mode fully activated.

You tilted your head, focusing, and then fluently responded,

"Memento mori, pater. Etiam noctes detectivi requiem merentur" (Remember death, father. Even detectives of the night deserve rest.)

Pin-drop silence.

Jason cackled so hard he nearly fell out of his chair.

Dick was clapping like you’d won an Olympic gold medal.

Tim, meanwhile, frantically pulled out his phone, already Googling ‘omnilingual reader discovered at brunch’.

Bruce, stoic as ever, gave you a single nod of respect. "We’ll need to run tests."

"You mean interviews," Dick corrected, leaning closer with a grin. "Because I, for one, have a thousand questions."

"Congratulations" Jason said dryly, raising his glass of orange juice in your direction. "You’re officially our walking, talking, sexy Google Translate."

You rolled your eyes with a crooked smile. "Glad I can be of service."

"And you will be," Bruce added, already making plans in his head. Oh, you were never getting out of this one.

[greenglowinspooks]

The way that I’m brainrotting over a DCxDP crossover with a Danny who’s a vengeful villain rn

Like, let’s just say that the GiW finally get into contact with the JL. They need help neutralizing a threat, you see, and they’re on their last limb trying to keep civilians safe.

They have video evidence! They have studies to back their claims! The JL have to help them!

Unfortunately, the JL believe them. They join a fight against Danny, and defeat him due to being far more experienced than he is. Danny is locked away and experimented on by the GiW.

That would CHANGE a person. Your heroes turning against you and seeing you as a monster, being experimented on for who knows how long, not knowing if your friends and family are safe.

Danny gets out due to a simple mistake on the GiW’s part; having Blüdhaven as part of their transport route.

Of course the trucks were attacked, they’re government property!

So now, whoever decided to raid the government transport trucks (the Penguin or something) has a ton of experimental weapons with no idea how they work, and a heavily traumatized teenager.

Danny knows how they work. Danny can be useful! They won’t throw him out if he’s useful! And so, now Danny is working for the Penguin, altering the ectoplasm weapons to make them work on humans.

It’s a good deal for both parties. Danny gets to neurotically imprint on the Penguin like a small baby animal, and the Penguin gets a brilliant mind who will stop at nothing to achieve his goals.

But eventually, Danny finds out what happened to his family in his absence.

Jazz is in Arkham. Not as a psychologist, but as a “patient.” Apparently, she snapped and completely destroyed the house, leveled a few blocks of Amity Park, and conducted organized attacks on government bases (mostly GiW) for months.

Sam and Tucker helped her, eventually splitting once Jazz was captured. Sam travels to areas of extreme pollution, completely overgrowing them with her plant powers. Currently she’s in the Amazon rainforest, engaging in an ongoing feud with logging companies. Sam is winning.

Tucker faked his death, and Danny has no idea where he is. He only knows that the death wasn’t real because of a code that the three of them made together, just in case.

Ellie’s trapped in the Infinite Realms. Danny had a failsafe in place so that if she was ever cornered by the GiW, she would be sent to her haunt in the GZ. However, with the portal destroyed, she can’t come back. Danny just hopes she’s okay.

His parents are now top GiW scientists. They’re traveling the country giving speeches. They’re working on a battery powered by ectoplasm, but apparently started “having difficulties” around the same time that Danny escaped.

None of it is fair. None of it is right.

The Justice League destroyed his life, the lives of his friends, and they’re doing as good as ever. The GiW is respected, and his parents are happily working away for them.

Danny takes up some of his more experimental weapons and breaks Jazz out of Arkham. She’s a little different now, colder and more quiet, but she still loves him all the same. It’s an unimaginable comfort to him to see his sister again.

He can’t use his powers anymore. He’s so used to associating them with pain that even transforming into his ghost form is enough to take him down for hours.

However, he understands ectoplasm more than anyone else in the world. He knows how to use it in virtually everything; how it can become a weapon, how it can be used as a supplemental ingredient in poisons and nerve agents, how it can twist and distort the mind if applied correctly.

He doesn’t care what happens to him. He’s going to take down the GiW, and destroy the lives of the JL members who helped lock him away, just as they did to him.

No matter the cost.

[on-a-lucky-tide]

Price worships Nik's body like he deserves, and treats him to a new experience.

cw: chest worship, rimming, anal sex, bottom Nikolai.

"You ready?"

"I am ready."

Price nodded and took one final glance around the room to ensure all assets were in position. Window open for the breeze, candles secure, lube in place on the bedside table, towels on hand, water with ice in a pint glass. Everything was thoroughly prepared. Right, he was ready to deploy.

Price scratched the back of his neck, glancing up through his eyebrows at the slab of top tier Russian beef currently awaiting him in the middle of the bed. It had been a hard week, Nik was exhausted, but two days into their leave, with the rest of the world shut out, Nik was finally in the right frame of mind for intimacy. Price had to get this bloody right.

And there he lounged, all dark hair, thick muscle and cocky smile. Fucking beautiful.

It had always struck Price how confident Nik was naked. He swaggered around their flat with his massive dick out, hard or soft, and had once almost answered the door in the buff. Would have given Beryl from Number 4 a bloody heart attack as she clutched their Amazon parcel full of creatine.

In all fairness, Price thought as he studied his lover on the bed, he would probably walk around naked too if he looked that bloody good. Nik had one arm tucked behind his head, a knee hitched up the bed, his prick sitting semi-hard in the curve of his hip as he studied Price with those big, inquisitive eyes.

In that one gay werewolf romance novel Price had found in Soap's quarters, the author had talked about hard lines and angles, but outside the sharp edge of his jaw and defined chin, Nik was all firm curves that made Price want to sink his teeth in and hump like a randy bloody dog. His shoulders, his biceps, his plush stomach, just lean enough to see his abdominals when he clenched to sit up, the mouthwatering heft of his balls between muscular thighs.... Fuuuh-kin' 'ell.

"Are you okay?" Nik asked, head tilting to the side.

"Grand," Price said, voice tight in his throat. "Just admirin' the scenery."

Nik smiled at him. It was the goofy little grin he only ever flashed when he was up to mischief, or planning it. Price cocked a brow as he slipped out of his boxers and lobbed them in a ball towards the laundry basket. He wasn’t quite at the 'walk around the house bollock naked' stage of his personal development. Maybe that happened when you turned forty.

Price didn't miss the way Nik's eyes ran down the length of his body as he swaggered up to the foot of the bed, bottom lip rolling between his teeth. Nik rubbed one big hand over the shaft of his cock, giving it a longing little tug as his gaze lingered on Price's lips. "Mm. Are you sure you would not rather do our usual?"

Price knelt on the mattress unsteadily, his own prick filling quickly in anticipation of getting his mouth on Nik's body. He crawled his way up the bed, marking the location of those greedy hands in case he needed to deploy countermeasures to maintain control of the engagement. "Naw. Ya promised. This is what I want."

Nik sighed, flopping his hands onto the bed, palms up. They had negotiated tying them to the headboard, because Nik might be tempted to use them as a distraction to get his own way. Wouldn't be the first time. But Nik had promised to behave. Given his word, in fact. Plus, running his hands over Price was one of the parts he enjoyed the most about sex, and Price was bloody well looking forward to feeling them clutch his back for the finale, anyway.

"Let me, Nik. Wanna make ya feel good," Price said as he sprawled at his lover's side, placing a palm in the centre of Nik's belly. He stroked his thumb through the soft hair trailing down to Nik's groin, jet black streaked with wisps of white and grey, and pressed his lips to Nik's bicep, blue eyes wide and imploring.

"I have never been able to say no to those eyes," Nik said, and leaned in for a kiss. Price let him have it, kissing slowly as he trailed that hand up to Nik's chest. His palm brushed over soft nipples, a fingertip teasing around the areola of one until it pulled tight.

Tonight was about Nik and his pleasure. Not that Nik had been able to fully grasp why Price wanted such an evening. "Because yer just asked a question as stupid as that," Price had said at the time, cutting off the end of his cigar. Nik had still looked nonplussed. It was truly baffling how little Nik considered his own needs and desires.

Price kissed slowly down Nik's jaw, savouring the bristles of stubble against his lips, tracing his nose over his neck to breathe him in. "Always smell so good," Price grumbled, leaning over to press his face into the hollow of Nik's throat for a deeper breath that made his mouth water.

"You have scents you prefer." Nik's hand couldn't stay still for long. It brushed up Price's back, fingertips skating over goosepimpled skin, sliding into his hair from the base of his neck. There was no attempt to guide, only hold, Nik’s thumb circling lazily beneath Price's ear.

"Oh yeah?" Price kissed Nik's clavicle, before working slowly down the centre of Nik's chest. He paid close attention to the curve of one glorious tit while he squeezed the other, rolling it around against his palm. Nik's cock twitched with interest; he liked having his chest played with, pushed into it, in fact.

"Da," Nik's fingers tightened a little as Price kissed across the crest of his pectoral and down the outside where the skin was soft, sensitive. It made Nik shiver, the first crack in his laid-back facade. "You prefer... mm, you prefer..."

"What do I prefer, Nik?" Price's tongue swirled around a nipple before he sucked it into his mouth, stroking the other between finger and thumb. That earned him a soft moan, Nik's head flopping back as he drew in deep breaths through his nose.

"You prefer muskier scents. Ones that, ah, John..."

"Doin' well, Nik," Price whispered, warm breath ghosting over wet skin. He guided Nik's arms up again to kiss into the dip of his armpit. Nik's fingers curled into his palm and he spread his legs, hips twitching up with a swell of arousal, another soft noise of enjoyment rumbling from that thick chest. Price kissed and nosed the underside of his bicep, before kissing deep into the groove again, where the taste and smell of Nik was rich. He lingered there until Nik shuddered out another soft moan, fingers and toes curling as his cock twitched up from his hip with an involuntary flex of his kegel.

“Soundin’ so pretty for me, sweet'eart.”

Nik flushed, self conscious, and Price squeezed the fingers wound through his just above Nik's head before he released them to kiss over Nik's obliques. Nik kept his arm curled up obediently, baring himself for Price's mouth even as his hips squirmed. Every inch of skin deserved to be worshipped, and Nik was enjoying it, his prick hard and leaking thick beads of precum where it rested heavily under its own weight against his belly. "Doin' so well," Price said again.

Price's hand had followed the progress of his mouth on the other side of Nik's body, stroking the contours of his torso down to his hip. Nik's fingers fluttered over the back of his wrist as if to ground himself, finding purchase again as he stroked into Price's hair. He was breathing heavier, fighting his instinct to take the wheel, squirming against the softness of the sheets.

Price glanced up to see Nik's head tilted back, his eyes closed and his damp lips parted, before he continued down his belly to press a soft kiss to the tip of his cock. It twitched against his lips and Price ran the tip of his nose down the thick vein right to the base, nuzzling into the thick curls of black hair at his groin until he could bury his face against the heft of his sac. Price kneaded at the bedsheets, growling softly, feral, as his beard and face soaked in Nik's scent.

“Are you going to eat me, John?” Nik asked, amused, his voice thick and low as he looked down the slope of his body to John’s face. He'd see wild blue eyes buried among the thick hair around his cock, the side of John's nose brushing gently over the velvet skin of his shaft. John kept his eye contact as he opened his mouth and sucked around the base of Nik's cock, tongue swirling down over his balls. “Ahh, da… John…”

Nik sounded so good like that. Breathless, a slight tremor in his voice as a sigh stuttered over parted lips. John licked and kissed lazily, working his way back up to swirl his tongue over the soft join of skin at the back of Nik’s glans until Nik's thighs were twitching. John sucked over Nik’s leaking tip, moaning wantonly as he licked it clean of precum, tongue swirling through his slit until Nik's stomach clenched. Only then, did he pull away with a swift kiss to his glans, smirking up at Nik's flustered expression.

Nik groaned and flopped a wrist over his face. “John, pochemu ty vse vremya menya draznish?”

Price chuckled, hitching up onto his elbow so he could reach for the lube he had chucked onto the bedside table earlier. When he returned his mouth to Nik's cock, his slick fingers stroked down his taint, heavy balls nestling in the curve of his palm, so warm, so perfect, that Price couldn't help but suck another deep kiss over them. The fact that Nik's thighs spread, his hips lifting to Price's mouth in little needy twitches, made Price damn near purr.

It was rare he got to tease Nik for this long. Nik was usually too impatient to get between Price's legs and Price enjoyed getting drilled too much to put up any resistance. When time was short, they defaulted to the demands of raw need, but with two days of leave behind them and two more ahead, they had time and space to indulge.

Price pressed up just behind Nik's balls, circling the walnut shaped firmness that made Nik's back bow a little from the bed, as he kissed and lapped sloppily up and down his shaft. When Price worked lower, massaging the cluster of nerves around his opening. Nik’s fingers fisted in the sheets, a soft grunt escaping his throat.

Price kissed the soft skin of Nik's inner thigh, lips lingering over his thrumming pulse. “Ty slishkom napryazheny, tebya nuzhno rasslabit'sya…”

Nik glowed, dark eyes soft. “Ha, John… your… that was good…”

“Need ya to relax for me then,” another kiss, fingers still caressing insistently at Nik's fluttering hole, “ty khochesh etogo, da, detka?” Price asked, his voice husky and thick, and it had the desired effect, Nik’s body curled a little with delight.

“Da, ya klyanus…”

“Gluboko dyshat.” Price nuzzled the heft of Nik’s balls again, shouldering his leg a little further away as his tongue followed the slick path of his fingers to Nik's hole. He kissed the flexing muscle as deeply and passionately as if it were Nik’s mouth, tongue swirling around the outer ring before lapping inside.

Nik made the most beautiful noise Price had ever heard; a desperate, broken little whimper that might have started as a Russian curse and ended in a soft plea. A world away from the guttural grunts and moans he usually made during their tumbles. Price earned another when he thrust his tongue in again, followed by his forefinger. He worked them in and out together, the firm press of his fingertip contrasting with the slick writhe of his tongue in a messy glide that made Nik tremble.

“Ahh, haa, John… John… da, yeshcho, ahh, yeshcho,” Nik moaned, pressing his head back into the pillow, his legs shaking as Price’s finger curled to find his prostate and began to circle it. As an older gent, Nik's was a little bigger, easier to locate, and Price was going to take full advantage. Bloody hell, he was so sensitive, every flick and thrust of Price's tongue teasing another tortured pant out of him, thick tits heaving as his plush belly pulled tight.

Price took his time, tugging Nik’s rim down to lap the flat of his tongue over Nik's sloppy hole, enjoying the way it fluttered and clenched greedily, plunging back inside with his mouth wide. When he slipped a second finger in, Nik was relaxed enough to take it easily; Price pressed his fingertips up in a come hither motion that made Nik choke out another whimper.

Nik was so hard, his cockhead wet and glistening, and Price pumped a hand down it, working Nik's foreskin lazily over his glans. “Fuck, yer lovin’ this, aren't ya, sweet'eart? Love me playin’ with your hole.” Price’s jaw ached, his mouth watered at the delicious taste and smell of his lover on his tongue and lips. He closed his eyes to listen to the wet noise of his fingers working into Nik, and the soft, tortured noises his big Russian was panting into the warm comfort of their bedroom.

“Da, please… mm, John, haa, ah.”

“Reckon you could take my dick? Wanna feel ya…”

“Da, da.”

Price withdrew his fingers carefully, and sat up. “On yer front, spread yer legs fer me, love. Show me that pretty hole.”

Nik shifted slowly, his cheeks flushed and red, and rolled onto his hands and knees. Price guided him with gentle, encouraging hands. He placed a bent pillow beneath Nik's hips, urging his spine into a deeper curve and spreading his knees apart. All that heft and power presenting was bloody stunning, dark body hair, plush padding and muscle, Nik was a work of art. Nik's large shoulders and biceps bunched as big hands found an anchor in the blankets, his thick thighs twitching.

“There, fuck, look at’cha.. fuckin’ gorgeous,” Price breathed, thumbs pushing into the cheeks of Nik's arse to spread them open, admiring slick muscle and whirls of jet black bodyhair. He couldn't help it. He needed to taste him once more.

Nik scrambled at the blankets as Price buried his face against him, the soft bristles of his beard a little coarse against his sensitive skin as he was devoured. Price moaned as he ate his fill, saliva dripping down the back of Nik's balls. Nik damn squeaked, overwhelmed. “John, John, ahh…”

Price's cock ached, he was so damn hard, so damn desperate. He knew he was going to come quickly but it sounded like Nik was clinging on by the skin of his teeth too, ruddy cock heavy between his legs. When Price sat up, Nik was quivering, his face buried in the pillow. He placed a palm at the small of Nik's back while the other grasped the base of his cock, lining his tip up with his hole. The sight of Nik spreading open around his cockhead, gaping around his crown, swallowing an inch of his shaft, soft as butter. “Oh, fuck, Nik… takin’ me like a natural.”

Nik wheezed into the cotton pillowcase, bearing down against the intrusion, his hole sucking Price back in when his cock withdrew. Price squared his hips up and sank his fingers into the plush fat and muscle around Nik's hips, growling at the glorious, possessive give of Nik’s body in his grip. He started slowly, rocking in and out, sinking right to the hilt, pressing his balls into the weight of Nik's.

He listened to Nik’s moans, how they rose and fell, became more intense when Price was thrusting deep. The snug, inexperienced clutch of Nik's body was heavenly, the way he fluttered and bore down, hollowing out and relaxing more as the pleasure mounted.

Price draped over Nik's back, grinding and rutting into Nik's eager hole as he licked the sweat off Nik’s back, blissfully delirious. “Yeah, Nik… yeah, so fuckin’ good, fuck, oh, fuck, yeah.”

“Faster, please…”

Price pushed his knuckles into the mattress and lifted into his toes, pounding Nik down into the bed, and forcing increasingly urgent cries that couldn't be muffled by the pillows.

“John, John… vyyebi menya sil'neye, sil'neye!”

“C’mon, Nik, come for me. Lemme hear, fuck, fuck… yeah, c’mon, love, mm, aah.”

“Da, da, da…” Nik pushed back into Price's hips, desperate, needy, and Price slipped a hand beneath them to stroke Nik's cock. It took three firm tugs until Nik was half roaring, half seething through his orgasm, muffled by the pillow he'd shoved into his own mouth to manage the intensity. Price slowed, ekeing out the last few moments of his high, the tingling, heady, breathless peak before he tumbled over.

“Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck,” he snarled into Nik’s back, cock pulsing inside the firm grip of Nik's body. Grey splotches splashed over his vision, and he pressed his nose into the groove of Nik's spine as he wiggled and bumped his hips against Nik’s arse, humping wantonly through his own spend like a horny bloody dog. “Fuckin' ‘ell, yer so fuckin’ hot… what the fuck was that… wot…”

Nik chuckled into the pillow, breathless and limp. “John, your pillow talk is an art form.”

“Not my fault. Yer body makes me stupid. ‘m an actual dumb fuck, I…”

Nik’s soft chortles vibrated under Price's belly, rumbled around his cock still buried to the hilt, and Price grinned into his back. Those chuckles were delirious and fucked out, thoroughly satisfied, and Price felt a surge of masculine pride at his performance. He withdrew slowly, slumping to the side so he could urge Nik down against him. “You good? Nothin’ hurtin’?”

“I think I will be sore, but in a good way, no?”

“Yeah, maybe. Still. ‘m not packin’ your horse cock, so think yerself lucky.”

“You are exaggerating.”

“Nik, the first time ya fucked me, I had to stand up for the whole flight before a HALO…”

“The whole flight?” Nik asked, sounding far too pleased with himself.

“Yeah, yeah, olrigh’. Jus’ sayin’, bit of practice, everythin’ bounces back jus’ fine.”

“Hmm. You expect this to be… regular, then.”

“Got a taste of your arse now, ‘m gonna need regular top ups,” Price said, grabbing a handful of Nik's arse cheek. He leaned up on his elbow and studied Nik's face carefully. “If yer alright with that. Don't wanna be doin’ anyfin’ yer not happy with, love.”

Nik hummed. “It was… intense. I would not be against it.”

“But?”

“Being inside of you is the closest I will ever come to God.”

“Ya jus’... come out with that shit like it's normal.”

“Da,” Nik turned and sat up on his elbow, one large paw of a hand slipping around John's jaw, thumb stroking down his throat. “Mere words are not enough to express my love for you, John. But I try.”

Price swallowed, trying to ignore the fact his eyes definitely wanted to emote far more than was truly necessary. Really. He should pull himself together, damn it. They'd just fucked raw and hard, and now he was being bloody wooed all over again.

“I love you, Nik. You soppy bastard,” he croaked, and then kissed the damn fucker before he could drop anymore purple prose and make actual tears fall.

[copperbadge]

[ID: A photograph of my wrist showing a chunky metal watch; the face of the watch has the numbers from 1 through 24 in a spiral around it, and there is only one "hand", a long blue hand, which is pointed three-quarters of the way between 1 and 2.]

The last study I did for Johns Hopkins paid me with a $50 Amazon giftcard, and I don't normally shop at Amazon but there was one thing I'd had on my wishlist for a while and was difficult to find elsewhere. So I blew the giftcard and a little of my own cash on my prize -- a single-arm watch. They're read a little differently from a watch with a minute and hour hand, but not too hard to get the hang of -- for example it's relatively easy to work out that when I took this it was 1:45.

What I especially like about this one, which is one of the cheaper options in any case, is that it has the spiral of numbers -- so not only do I know it's 1:45, I also know it can be read as 13:45, and I'm REALLY BAD at 24 hour time. So if I see a timetable where something is happening at 17:30, I can look at my watch, see that "17" is below "5", and know that 17:30 is 5:30pm.

I really should be wearing my fitness tracker either instead of or with it, but I'm enjoying just having an analog watch. I might be becoming a watch guy -- I'm planning to replace the band on this one, and Mum says she may have an idea of where my grandfather's Luch got to, so if that turns up it's definitely going into regular wear.

[black-ajah-hq]

Can we also talk about how the 2+ year gap between seasons flat out doesn’t work? Shows need momentum to keep viewership, and looking at analytics alone, most shows that don’t release yearly see massive falloffs in viewership. Especially with little advertising, new seasons release and can completely fly under the radar even to fans.

This is the exact reason why all these streaming networks will never succeed in creating the next Game of Thrones mega hit show. Game of Thrones became this cultural phenomenon because a new season was released every year, and saw virtually no drop in quality. Funny, but the only time we saw a significant drop in quality with GoT is the final season, which did in fact have a delayed release and its episodes were cut down to conform more to the amount allotted to today’s streaming shows. Hah, it’s almost as if this model for tv is a recipe for disaster.

As another case study…look at House of the Dragon. First season was phenomenal, and things were looking up, but once again they cut the amount of episodes down in season 2 after a long wait and what did we see? A drop in quality and loss of interest among fans.

But anyway, if Amazon was ever looking to create the" next Game of Thrones" it was a fool's endeavor, because I legit don’t think there can ever be a streaming show equivalent to it.

[kallistoriae]

my ultimate classics reading list for the summer

[scholarship i really need to read to figure out what i want to focus on for my master’s. i’ll try to go through as many of these as i can. i ask for recs on some topics at the end of the post!]

SEXUALITY & GENDER (generic) —

*Female Homosexuality in Ancient Greece and Rome, S. Boehringer (to finish)

*The Routledge Handbook of Classics and Queer Theory, ed. E. Haselswerdt, S. H. Lindheim & K. Ormand

*Exploring Gender Diversity in the Ancient World, ed. A. Surtees & J. Dyer

Greek Homosexuality, K. Dover (to finish)

Controlling Desires: Sexuality in Greece and Rome, K. Ormand

Ancient Women Writers of Greece and Rome, B. A. Natoli, A. Pitts, & J. P. Hallett

*Sexuality in Greek and Roman Culture, M. B. Skinner

Dangerous Voices: Women’s Laments and Greek Literature, G. Holst-Warhaft

Postcolonial Amazons: Female Masculinity and Courage in Ancient Greek and Sanskrit Literature, W. Duvall Penrose Jr

*"Monter au ciel : Kallistô et Artémis dans la mythologie grecque", S. Boehringer in La religion des femmes en pays grec. Mythes, cultes et société, ed. L. Bodiou & V. Mehl

Among Women: From the Homosocial to the Homoerotic in the Ancient World, N. S. Rabinowitz & L. Auanger

Performing the Kinaidos: Unmanly Men in Ancient Mediterranean Cultures, T. Sapsford

RECEPTION

*Deep Classics: Rethinking Classical Reception, ed. S. Butler

Critical Ancient World Studies: the Case for Forgetting Classics, ed. M. Umachandran & M. Ward

Reimagining Greek Tragedy on the American Stage, H. P. Foley

Antigone on the Contemporary World Stage, ed. E. B. Mee & H. P. Foley

OVID

The Cambridge Companion to Ovid, ed. P. R. Hardie

Tragedy in Ovid: theater, metatheater and the transformation of a genre, D. Curley

*"Oscula iungit nec moderata satis nec a uirgine danda: Ovid’s Callisto Episode, Female Homoeroticism, and the Study of Ancient Sexuality", J. H. Oliver ✔️

GREEK TRAGEDY

*Objects as Actors: Props and the Poetics of Performance in Greek Tragedy, M. Mueller

*Ritual Irony: Poetry and Sacrifice in Euripides, H. P. Foley

The Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy, ed. P. E. Easterling

Reading Greek Tragedy, S. Goldhill

*Iphigenias at Aulis: Textual Multiplicity, Radical Philology, S. A. Gurd

Electra and the empty urn: Metatheater and role playing in Sophocles, M. Ringer

Looking at Antigone, ed. D. Stuttard

*Private Lives, Public Deaths: Antigone and the Invention of Individuality, J. Strauss

GREEK TRAGEDY: GENDER/SEXUALITY

Citizen Bacchae: Women’s Ritual Practice in Ancient Greece, B. Goff

*Marriage to Death: the Conflation of Wedding and Funeral Rituals in Greek Tragedy, R. Rehm

*Female Acts in Greek Tragedy, H. P. Foley

Demanding Witness: Women and the Trauma of Homecoming in Greek Tragedy, E. L. Weiberg

*Language, Sexuality, Narrative: The Oresteia, S. Goldhill

OTHERS

Sappho and Homer: A Reparative Reading, M. Mueller

Exposed: The Greek and Roman Body, C. Vout

Disability and Healing in Greek and Roman Myth, C. Laes

if you have more recs that seem to fit the topics i’m focusing on or that you think could interest me, please tell me! i’m also looking for anything on: gender non-conformity in Roman myths; the family (its structure and collapse) in mythology; incest in antiquity/ancient literature; recent studies on the reception of the House of Atreus

not exclusively classics-related but if there are books on literary analysis/theory that you think are really important and could be helpful, PLEASE tell me. + scholarship about queerness or weird things with Bodies or time/space distortion or trauma theory that could be applied to ancient lit, and other similar things that could be useful when analysing classics :)

[thevixenwitch]

Sources for Celtic History and Paganism!

So today I was reading Ancient Fire: An Introduction to Gaulish Celtic Polytheism by Segomâros Widugeni when it struck me just how many of the sources were the type of thing that wouldn't necessarily come up on a regular search, particularly some out-of-print books, a lot of which are actually available on the Internet Archive! I took some time to take note of each listed source, and tried to see if I could find the right place to request them from (in the case of a handful of articles and theses), find PDF links where they did already exist, basically whatever I could! Some books are available to buy, most secondhand, and while most are available on Amazon, I won't be linking those here. I'd encourage anyone shopping to consider an alternative option if they can! Now, I haven't read through all of these, but the moment I found at least one of them seems to be impossible to find, I was reminded of the dangers of dying media. So I wanted to put these together so anyone could use them. Not every resource listed is in English. Anyway, on to the list~

Cernunnos: Looking a Different Way

By Ceisiwr Serith

https://ceisiwrserith.com/therest/Cernunnos/cernunnospaper.htm

Cernunnos Origin and Transformation of A Celtic Divinity

By Phyllis Fray Bober

https://www.scribd.com/document/460345187/cernunnos-origin-and-transformation-of-a-celtic-divinity-phyllis-fray-bober

Basic Celtic Deity Types

by Alexei Kondratiev

https://naomh-na-tursan.livejournal.com/5752.html

Deep Ancestors: Practicing the Religion of the Proto-Indo-Europeans

Book by Ceisiwr Serith

https://www.scribd.com/document/362472999/Deep-Ancestors-Practicing-the-Religion-of-the-Proto-Indo-Europeans

The Gods of the Celts and the Indo-Europeans

Book by Garrett S. Olmsted

https://www.academia.edu/38135817/The_Gods_of_the_Celts_and_the_Indo_Europeans_revised_2019_

Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend

Book by Miranda Aldhouse-Green

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/dictionary-of-celtic-myth-and-legend_miranda-aldhouse-green/543335/#edition=5215209&idiq=16154030

The Book of The Great Queen: The Many Faces of the Morrigan from Ancient Legends to Modern Devotions

Book by Morpheus Ravenna Further

to tongu do dia toinges mo thuath [“Mi a dyngaf dynged it”], &c.

By John Koch

https://www.academia.edu/7242277/Further_to_tongu_do_dia_toinges_mo_thuath_Mi_a_dyngaf_dynged_it_and_c

Goddesses in Celtic Religion Cult and Mythology: A Comparative Study of Ancient Ireland, Britain and Gaul

By Noémie Beck

http://theses.univ-lyon2.fr/documents/lyon2/2009/beck_n#p=0&a=title

The Integration of Mercury and Lugus: Myth and History in Late Iron Age and Early Roman Gaul

By Krista Ovist

https://archives.library.wales/index.php/integration-of-mercury-and-lugus

Lady with a Mead Cup: Ritual, Prophecy, and Lordship in the European Warband from La Tène to the Viking Age

Book by Michael J. Enright

How to Kill a Dragon: Aspects of Indo-European Poetics

Book by Calvert Watkins

https://ia801404.us.archive.org/view_archive.php?archive=/7/items/twain-mark-a-connecticut-yankee-in-king-arthurs-court/1-ptry.zip&file=How%20to%20Kill%20a%20Dragon%20-%20Aspects%20of%20Indo%20European%20Poetics.pdf

The Celtic Gauls: Gods, Rites and Sanctuaries

Book by Jean-Louis Brunaux

The Apple Branch: A Path to Celtic Ritual

Book by Alexei Kondratiev

https://archive.org/details/applebranchpatht0000kond

Oxford Dictionary of Celtic Mythology

Book by James Mackillop

https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofcelt0000mack

The female deities of the Celtic religion: worship and mythology: a comparative study of ancient Ireland, Great Britain and Gaul

By Noémie Beck

https://theses.fr/2009LYO20084

Celtic Curses

Book by Bernard Mees

https://www.academia.edu/1012094/Celtic_Curses_Woodbridge_Boydell_2009

Guide to Irish Mythology

Book by Daragh Smyth

https://archive.org/details/guidetoirishmyth00smyt

The Sacred Isle

Book by Dáithí Ó hÓgáin

https://archive.org/details/sacredislebelief0000ohog

The Matronae and Matres: Breathing New Life into an Old Religion

By River Devora

http://polytheist.com/the-web-of-blessings/2015/08/12/the-matronae-and-matres-breathing-new-life-into-an-old-religion/

Interpretatio Romana and Matronae Iconography

By River Devora

http://polytheist.com/the-web-of-blessings/2015/08/31/interpretatio-romana-and-matronae-iconography/#:~:text=The%20overlay%20of%20interpretatio%20Romana,and%20plaques%20and%20glean%20valuable

Celtic chiefdom, Celtic state: the evolution of complex social systems in prehistoric Europe

By Arnold, Bettina and Gibson, D. Blair

https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/3086499

*butacos, *wossos, *geistlos, *ambactos. Celtic Socioeconomic Organisation in the European Iron Age. Studia Celtica 40, 2006: 23-41

By Raimund Karl

https://www.academia.edu/245239/_butacos_wossos_geistlos_ambactos_Celtic_Socioeconomic_Organisation_in_the_European_Iron_Age_Studia_Celtica_40_2006_23_41

The Ancient Celts

Book by Barry Cunliffe

https://archive.org/details/ancientcelts00cunl_0

Sengoidelc: Old Irish for Beginners

Book by David Stifter

https://archive.org/details/sengoidelcoldiri0000stif

Greek Kελτóς and Γαλάτης, Latin Gallus ‘Gaul’

By Kim McCone

https://spr.harrassowitz-library.com/article/spr/2006/1/6

Celtic Heritage: Ancient Tradition in Ireland and Wales

Book by Alwyn and Brinley Rees

https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.36494

Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism

By Erynn Rowan Laurie, Kathryn Price NicDhàna, Aedh Rua Ó Mórríghan, Kym Lambert ní Dhoireann and John Machate, ed. by Erynn Rowan Laurie

https://web.archive.org/web/20080418025755/http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usma&c=trads&id=6645

Which witch is which? : a concise guide to Wiccan and Neo-Pagan paths and traditions

Book Compiled and Edited by Patricia Telesco

Sources for the Three Realms

By Annie Loughlin - original source link is dead, need help to locate!

Dictionnaire de la Langue Gauloise

Book by Xavier Delmarre

https://archive.org/details/dictionnairedelal00dela (referred to as “Essential for Gaulish Language study)

The Settling of the Manor of Tara

By R.I. Best

https://www.ucd.ie/tlh/trans/rib.eriu.4.001.t.text.html

The court of law in Iron Age ‚Celtic’ societies. In R. Karl & J. Leskovar (eds.), Interpretierte Eisenzeiten 3. Fallstudien, Methoden, Theorie. Tagungsbeiträge der 3. Linzer Gespräche zur interpretativen Eisenzeitarchäologie. Studien zur Kulturgeschichte von Oberösterreich Folge 22, Linz: Oberösterreichisches Landesmuseum 2009: 135-60.

By Raimund Karl

https://www.academia.edu/245221/The_court_of_law_in_Iron_Age_Celtic_societies_In_R_Karl_and_J_Leskovar_eds_Interpretierte_Eisenzeiten_3_Fallstudien_Methoden_Theorie_Tagungsbeitr%C3%A4ge_der_3_Linzer_Gespr%C3%A4che_zur_interpretativen_Eisenzeitarch%C3%A4ologie_Studien_zur_Kulturgeschichte_von_Ober%C3%B6sterreich_Folge_22_Linz_Ober%C3%B6sterreichisches_Landesmuseum_2009_135_60

Matasović Etymological Dictionary Of Proto Celtic

By Ranko Matasović

https://archive.org/details/matasovic-etymological-dictionary-of-proto-celtic

Hammer of the Gods: Anglo-Saxon Paganism in Modern Times Second Edition

Book by Swain Wodening

https://archive.org/details/hammerofgodsangl0000swai

Various Works by Christopher Scott Thompson - recommended re: honor in Gaulish society

https://cateransociety.wordpress.com/books/

A Handbook of the Scottish Gaelic World

Book by Michael Newton and Michael Steven Newton

Celtic Values

By Alexei Kondratiev

http://dagdacelt.freehostia.com/values.html

European paganism : the realities of cult from antiquity to the Middle Ages

By Ken Dowden

https://archive.org/details/europeanpaganism0000dowd

A Definitive Reconstructed Text of the Coligny Calendar

By Garrett Olmsted

https://www.academia.edu/62011364/A_Definitive_Reconstructed_Text_of_the_Coligny_Calendar

New Calendar of Gaulish Polytheism

By Jess via Nemeton Nigromanitcos

https://thebloodybones.wordpress.com/2015/07/10/new-calendar-of-gaulish-polytheism/#more-265

Calendar of Feast-Days of Deities

Via the blog Deo Mercutio

https://deomercurio.wordpress.com/calendar-of-feast-days-of-deities/

Altkeltische Sozialstrukturen

By Raimund Karl

https://homepage.univie.ac.at/Raimund.Karl/Sozialstrukturen.pdf

La Langue Gauloise

Book by Pierre-Yves Lambert

https://www.scribd.com/document/782869557/Lambert-1994-La-langue-gauloise-description-linguistique-commentaire-d-inscriptions-choisies

Death, War, and Sacrifice: Studies in Ideology & Practice

Book by Bruce Lincoln

The Gods of the Celts

Book by Miranda Aldhouse-Green

https://archive.org/details/godsofceltsar00mira

War Goddess The Morrigan And Her Germano Celtic Counterparts

Book by Angelique Gulermovich Epstein

https://archive.org/details/WarGoddessTheMorriganAndHerGermanoCelticCounterparts

Epigraphik-Datenbank Clauss/Slaby

- Database of “almost all inscriptions ever recorded”

https://db.edcs.eu/epigr/hinweise/hinweis-en.html

A website on Gallo-Roman religion:

http://www.deomercurio.be/en/

A scholarly website with information on Epona:

https://epona.net/

[pinswizard]

Benefits Of Pinterest Marketing For Interior Designers

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[alcrego]

I'm not hating it is still your art and I still enjoy it just please understand there are environmental consequences to AI as well. the equipment to host AI services still needs to take up physically space in a server to run it and training an AI model consumes tons of electricity and leaves a big carbon footprint. whatever your choices just please stay informed. I'm not an artist so I'm not going to tell you how to do your art I just want you to know this because a lot of people using these things are uninformed about it.

I use it in my own computer using my own resources. I live in the forest and I have very few physical possessions, (I’m sure everybody critizing this don’t use Google, Youtube, Instagram, Amazon, planes, cars, plastic…)🙃

I know too from first hand that most people who NEVER used Ais nor even tried or studied how they can work are also not informed, but they feel free to give lessons about things they dont know. 👀👍

In my case I NEVER speak about what I dont know:

1st: to not be an ignorant.

2nd: to not cause disinformation and to not offend those who actually know about it.

Thanks for the insights, Im aware of them much before the trend, is my work, not a hobby.🙏

To hate or to love something or somebody first we must know.

Peace!!!