#DI Telegraph

[guilty-feminist]

[cosmicrhetoric]

ENOUGH "good media" tonight we watch naruto

[zincbot]

beat undertale yellow!!

[giuliano-jiulian]

😑ma fatti curare

Ai problemi seri perché non richiede le persone come lui?

Vi prego dottori fate capire @The_Anarky

Si telegram contatatelo

Dategli capire che io mi sto sentendo con una ragazza e che non ho più niente a che vedere con lui che crede che sono incinto e sono uomo quindi fategli capire che uno che vuole diventare un uomo non si fa mettere in cinta !

[robotsprinkles]

okay

I do like earthspark overall

but god I wish for once we could get a tf show (or just. anything) that doesn't do the "humans are better than Cybertronians at everything" bit.

In Earthspark's defense, it's not TFP.

MECH and Silas somehow being able to make an optimus clone and fight better than Optimus himself with it is idiotic on so many levels and I have no idea how they thought it was good writing.

(yeah sure Optimus has been fighting a war for four million years and 1v1s Megatron on the regular and knows the ins and outs of his body and has all the wisdom and knowledge and skill bestowed by the matrix but some jackass military prick who's at most got 50 years of combat experience controlling a second rate knockoff with what's basically an arcade control stick can kick his ass without trying)

okay before anyone gets pissy at me for saying Earthspark did the "humans are better than Cybertronians at everything" bit, I'm being mostly hyperbolic, and also: (this gets long and rambly so I'm putting it under a readmore")

I'm mostly saying Earthspark did the bit because GHOST and Mandroid were both unreasonably effective at defeating and capturing Cybertronians, on top of being able to mind control them.

(I really don't like humans being able to defeat Cybertronians on any consistent basis unless it's like. a motorcycle or minicon or micromaster getting hit by a bunch of HEAT rounds or 120mm sabot or a prolonged barrage of 20-30mm autocannon fire or specifically anti-Cybertronian weapons like inhibitors and mode locks and EM/EMP blasts and the like because then it just makes it seem like Cybertronian weaponry is on average about as effective as a nerf gun. but then you get the issue of "if humans have such effective anti-Cybertronian weapons that can incapacitate a Cybertronian in one shot why aren't the bots and cons using them instead of blasters that seem to do piss-all against anything that's not point blank")

I'm willing to give ES some leeway on the "can mind control Cybertronians despite that generally being something only people with powers or specific weapons for it can do (like Mindwipe and Bombshell and sometimes Soundwave and mnemosurgeons if you want to count them)" thing because GHOST did have Bombshell in custody and could prooobably have acquired cerebro-shells to study and experiment on. (though I don't remember if Mandroid ever had any time with Bombshell so. if he didn't then screw that, leeway lost). but also if cerebro-shells are as easy to reverse engineer as that you'd expect the Autobots to have already come up with a defense against them. Perpetual arms race and all that.

Personally, I'm not fond of humans being able to reverse-engineer Cybertronian tech and anatomy like it's nothing because I really don't care for the sci-fi trope of humans' thing being "we're so clever and smart and adaptive and so much better than all alien races at learning and improving". It's overdone and the positioning of humanity as special and/or unique that a lot of sci-fi does annoys the hell out of me

(Tangent time) as an example for why I think the "humans can reverse engineer any alien tech ever" trope is stupid and bad (sci-fi) writing: if an alien race had gravity manipulation tech that operated via graviton manipulation, (modern) humanity would flat out have no idea how it worked — even if this was a version modern humanity that universally accepted gravitons as real — unless they had the documentation from the aliens explaining that's how it worked, because "Unambiguous detection of individual gravitons, though not prohibited by any fundamental law, is impossible with any physically reasonable detector [...] a detector with the mass of Jupiter and 100% efficiency, placed in close orbit around a neutron star, would only be expected to observe one graviton every 10 years, even under the most favorable conditions. It would be impossible to discriminate these events from the background of neutrinos, since the dimensions of the required neutrino shield would ensure collapse into a black hole" (yes that's from wikipedia but it's also true (enough for the purposes of this dumb argument. if physicists want to tell me the ways this statement is wrong in any way please do I want to learn things)) (tangent over)

obviously Cybertronian anatomy doesn't function off anything similar to gravitons (in that canon has never said Cybertronian brains or sparks or anything contain or use unprovable or undetectable (to human) particles) (though you might be able to make an argument for Energon being something like that) (it generally seems human organisations' ability to detect Cybertronians is gained from Energon detecting tech given to them by Cybertronians so)

But. y'know. There's saying "1940s humanity could probably reverse engineer a Ferrari" and saying "13th century medieval Europe could definitely reverse engineer an F-35"

[reasonsforhope]

"A clinical trial studying severe allergic reactions in the U.K. is being called “life-transforming.”

Five United Kingdom National Health Service (NHS) hospitals are participating in the £2.5 million ($3.2 million) trial to help patients live with their food allergies.

The study is being funded by the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, Sky News reported. The foundation was formed in the memory of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, who died in 2016 after eating a baguette that had sesame in it...

The trial is studying clinical oral immunotherapy treatments in which patients are given small doses of the food to which they are allergic to build up their tolerance. The food is given under medical supervision by trained staff, The Telegraph reported.

The study has 139 people participating who have allergies to peanuts or cow’s milk. They range in age from 2 to 23 years old, the BBC reported.

The Food Standards Agency said 2 million people in the U.K. have a diagnosed food allergy. In the U.S., about 5.5. million children have a food allergy, the National Institutes of Health reported.

One 11-year-old who was diagnosed with a severe peanut allergy when he was an infant can now eat six peanuts.

A 5-year-old with a milk allergy can drink 120 ml of milk every day and can enjoy a daily hot chocolate, the BBC reported.

“To have a patient who has had anaphylaxis [Note: Anaphylaxis is an allergic reaction so severe that it's potentially fatal without immediate treatment. It is very common with peanut allergies in particular. x] to 4mls of milk to then tolerate 90mls within six to eight months is nothing less than a miracle,” Sibel Donmez-Ajtai, a pediatric allergy consultant and principal investigator at Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, said, according to Sky News.

The final results of the study are expected to be released in 2027.

Similar studies have been conducted in the U.S. To find one, visit FoodAllergy.org.

Earlier this year, the NIH released the findings of a study of an antibody treatment that would help children consume allergy triggers safely."

-via WHIO 7 Local News, May 8, 2024

[queenie435]

THE WORLD'S FIRST ELECTRIC ROLLER COASTER

Granville T. Woods (April 23, 1856 – January 30, 1910) introduced the “Figure Eight,” the world's first electric roller coaster, in 1892 at Coney Island Amusement Park in New York. Woods patented the invention in 1893, and in 1901, he sold it to General Electric.

Woods was an American inventor who held more than 50 patents in the United States. He was the first African American mechanical and electrical engineer after the Civil War. Self-taught, he concentrated most of his work on trains and streetcars.

In 1884, Woods received his first patent, for a steam boiler furnace, and in 1885, Woods patented an apparatus that was a combination of a telephone and a telegraph. The device, which he called "telegraphony", would allow a telegraph station to send voice and telegraph messages through Morse code over a single wire. He sold the rights to this device to the American Bell Telephone Company.

In 1887, he patented the Synchronous Multiplex Railway Telegraph, which allowed communications between train stations from moving trains by creating a magnetic field around a coiled wire under the train. Woods caught smallpox prior to patenting the technology, and Lucius Phelps patented it in 1884. In 1887, Woods used notes, sketches, and a working model of the invention to secure the patent. The invention was so successful that Woods began the Woods Electric Company in Cincinnati, Ohio, to market and sell his patents. However, the company quickly became devoted to invention creation until it was dissolved in 1893.

Woods often had difficulties in enjoying his success as other inventors made claims to his devices. Thomas Edison later filed a claim to the ownership of this patent, stating that he had first created a similar telegraph and that he was entitled to the patent for the device. Woods was twice successful in defending himself, proving that there were no other devices upon which he could have depended or relied upon to make his device. After Thomas Edison's second defeat, he decided to offer Granville Woods a position with the Edison Company, but Woods declined.

In 1888, Woods manufactured a system of overhead electric conducting lines for railroads modeled after the system pioneered by Charles van Depoele, a famed inventor who had by then installed his electric railway system in thirteen United States cities.

Following the Great Blizzard of 1888, New York City Mayor Hugh J. Grant declared that all wires, many of which powered the above-ground rail system, had to be removed and buried, emphasizing the need for an underground system. Woods's patent built upon previous third rail systems, which were used for light rails, and increased the power for use on underground trains. His system relied on wire brushes to make connections with metallic terminal heads without exposing wires by installing electrical contactor rails. Once the train car had passed over, the wires were no longer live, reducing the risk of injury. It was successfully tested in February 1892 in Coney Island on the Figure Eight Roller Coaster.

In 1896, Woods created a system for controlling electrical lights in theaters, known as the "safety dimmer", which was economical, safe, and efficient, saving 40% of electricity use.

Woods is also sometimes credited with the invention of the air brake for trains in 1904; however, George Westinghouse patented the air brake almost 40 years prior, making Woods's contribution an improvement to the invention.

Woods died of a cerebral hemorrhage at Harlem Hospital in New York City on January 30, 1910, having sold a number of his devices to such companies as Westinghouse, General Electric, and American Engineering. Until 1975, his resting place was an unmarked grave, but historian M.A. Harris helped raise funds, persuading several of the corporations that used Woods's inventions to donate money to purchase a headstone. It was erected at St. Michael's Cemetery in Elmhurst, Queens.

LEGACY

▪Baltimore City Community College established the Granville T. Woods scholarship in memory of the inventor.

▪In 2004, the New York City Transit Authority organized an exhibition on Woods that utilized bus and train depots and an issue of four million MetroCards commemorating the inventor's achievements in pioneering the third rail.

▪In 2006, Woods was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

▪In April 2008, the corner of Stillwell and Mermaid Avenues in Coney Island was named Granville T. Woods Way.

[thewertsearch]

I'm not surprised. After the stunt you pulled with that mind-control chip, you're lucky she didn't give you the Vriska treatment.

NEPETA: :33 < we can always curl up in the pile again to talk about f33lings :33 EQUIUS: D --> Nepeta, for goodness sa%es, a man can only di%uss feelings for so much time […] EQUIUS: D --> We e%amined my emotional state until we were both bl00 in the face […] NEPETA: :33 < b100 b100 b100 b100 b100 NEPETA: :33 < i just love how you say that word! EQUIUS: D --> I know

How, exactly, does he say 'b100'?

Karkat's quirk manifests as literal shouting, so I think Equius is literally saying 'bee one hundred'. Fantastic.

EQUIUS: D --> Nepeta, I think it would behoove us to address the e%treme danger in a serious manner NEPETA: :33 < you mean about gamz33? h33h33! NEPETA: :33 < im still not sure if i can believe it! […] EQUIUS: D --> His is the richest and most noble b100d possible among the high land dwellers EQUIUS: D --> As such, he is prone to being more violent and unpredictable than any of us

I'm not so sure about that.

Like - sure, based on the sample we have, the top half of the hemospectrum does seem to produce more aggressive trolls. Terezi, Vriska, Equius, Gamzee and Eridan are all demonstrably more violent than their lowblood compatriots. But are their attitudes really a product of nature?

Take Vriska, for example. She was forced to be a killer by the blue-blooded lusus that adopted her. Yeah, she's violent and unpredictable now, after years of abuse, but her situation would drive any troll to desperate measures.

Do we really think Aradia wouldn't become a murderer if her mom was a hungry spider? Of course she would!

Then there's Eridan, a troll whose behavior could not stem more obviously from the classism that was ingrained into him by society. His culture reinforces the idea that violence is his right, and that it's particularly justifiable when directed towards his inferiors.

Would Eridan really be like this if he was raised on Earth? Wouldn't Tavros or Karkat also become shitheads if they were handed this kind of privilege?

Let's not forget Feferi - a troll who, by Equius's logic, should be the most dangerous of the entire cast. She's not, and I think it's simply because there's no one above her on the hierarchy. Who's going to tell the princess that she's a failure of a highblood?

From where I'm sitting, it really seems like highbloods are aggressive due to cultural factors, rather than biological ones. Their blood doesn't predispose them to violence - it marks them as trolls who are expected to be violent. A case could be made that hemospectrum position is, in effect, a secondary gender for trolls - an institution that enforces entirely artificial standards for their behavior, which are then internalized as 'natural' by the populace.

So no, I don't think Gamzee was 'biologically predestined' to be like this - I think he picked it up from somewhere. Maybe he was more susceptible to Alternian propaganda than we realized, or maybe someone like Doc Scratch was manipulating him from the shadows. It wouldn't be the first time he's goaded a troll into violence.

You ever roleplay so hard that you literally gain a cat's slitted eyes when you're pissed?

EQUIUS: D --> I will now seek the highb100d, Nepeta […] EQUIUS: D --> I will e%act caution, even when safety 100% to be 100% assured EQUIUS: D --> Even so EQUIUS: D --> I would still like to take the opportunity to say […] EQUIUS: D --> Goodbye

Oh, man.

Alright, sound off. Does anyone really think Equius is going to stand up to a highb100d? No?

Ok, great. Let's stop beating around the bush, then.

Equius is basically walking to his death here, and he knows it. The comic's really laying the death flags on thick, with a very clearly telegraphed 'final goodbye' for Nepeta. It's almost too obvious, but I don't think it's going to be a fakeout this time. We can't all be Kanaya.

NEPETA: :33 < well ok, goodbye! NEPETA: :33 < but you had better believe i will s33 you again soon, equius! EQUIUS: D --> Yes, you will

Yeah you will - the next time you go to sleep.

[anthurak]

Ever since I started posting about the Rosebird Parents theory, aka ‘Raven is Ruby’s real dad’, the most common question/criticism I’ve gotten regarding it* has been ‘What is the point of such a reveal?’ and ‘What does this add to the story?’

Well here is the answer:

A reveal that Taiyang isn’t Ruby’s father and that Raven IS would fit PERFECTLY into Ruby’s and Yang’s looming family drama, the dysfunctional MESS that is the STRQ family, and just how much said family FAILED Ruby and Yang as parents.

Raven being Ruby’s real father is the final, ultimate ‘dirty little secret’ of Team STRQ that they’ve kept from Ruby and Yang all these years.

Not some grand plot reveal tied up with Salem, the relics and/or Oz. But rather this much more PERSONAL and ugly product of STRQ’s numerous personal hangups, baggage and dysfunctions.

And far from being ‘out of character’, Tai and Qrow keeping such a secret from Ruby and Yang would be par for the course. Not just for them, but basically EVERY OTHER ADULT in the show. Whether it’s letting Yang think that Summer was her birth mother until Yang figured it out only AFTER Summer (supposedly) died, or Qrow letting Yang think he didn’t know anything about where Raven was despite having been in contact with her for YEARS and even having a pretty good idea where she is, or of course ALL THE OTHER SHIT the adults of RWBY have been hiding from their kids/students/charges.

And let’s not forget how Volume 9 ended with Ruby discovering a massive secret that was long kept from her and COMPLETELY changes something she once believed about her family. With the Blacksmith commenting “Who knows why they kept the secrets they did…”

Or how the last episode of Beyond has Ruby herself commenting to Yang “Maybe we don’t have the full picture…” in regards to Tai’s absence from Vacuo.

Throw in just how LITTLE we can truly be sure of regarding Team STRQ thanks to the aforementioned unreliable narrators and this is ABSOLUTELY telegraphing that Ruby and Yang are due for some MASSIVE reveals regarding their family in the near future. And given all the other hints or flat out statements as to what a hot fucking dysfunctional MESS Team STRQ truly is, those reveals are almost certain to be ugly and painful.

So a reveal that Tai and Qrow have actually been lying to Ruby and Yang for their ENTIRE LIVES in regards to who Ruby’s father ACTUALLY is?

Yeah, that sounds EXACTLY like something we could be expecting.

--

*At least as far as actual arguments go and not people just going ‘WAAAA! I don’t like Raven so this theory is bad!’ and ‘Well… you’re just crazy/stupid, so there!’

[crimethinc]

Happy May Day! 🏴🏴🏴

For a short history of this day of celebration and resistance across a century and a half:

https://crimethinc.com/MayDayHistory

To give a sense of what the day means to us, read this excerpt of a text published today in Russian by the anarchist project http://akrateia.info.

We've translated it because it is a beautiful and inspiring expression of how the struggle for liberation and mutual aid has persisted across centuries against all odds.

"Mayday is an international distress signal in radio communications, similar to the SOS signal in telegraph communications. This is an approximation of the French phrase 'm'aidez,' a shortened version of the phrase 'venez m'aider'(meaning 'come to my aid,' 'help me'). On this day, we offer to come to each other’s aid (what Peter Kropotkin called 'mutual aid').

"We appeal to you: wherever you are—under fire, in a hospital, in prison, in a foreign country, trying to find a way to earn money, in your native country where you risk becoming a victim of torture by the authorities—we want to remind you that you are not alone. We want to be with you in spirit, no matter how difficult it may be right now.

"Anarchism never died. Throughout the bloody history of the 20th century. it survived and developed. If you are reading these lines, that means you are also involved in our great cause. How many times have anarchist periodicals addressed their readers on May 1? How many times have anarchists feared that anarchism might die and totalitarian countries and fascists would win?

"We will continue, as our predecessors did. We will not give up because we are coming to help each other."

[mariacallous]

A prominent Ukrainian rabbi has announced that his adopted son has been confirmed dead in battle against Russian forces.

Anton Samborskyi will be buried in Kyiv’s Jewish cemetery on Thursday, Rabbi Moshe Azman announced on Wednesday. Azman and his wife adopted Samborskyi at age 11 after the boy was orphaned, Azman said in a post on X last month when he revealed that Samborskyi had gone missing just weeks after being drafted into the Ukrainian army.

Azman is the rabbi of Kyiv’s Brodsky Synagogue and one of multiple men claiming title to chief rabbi of Ukraine. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, he has been a vigorous advocate for the Ukrainian cause, castigating the Russians on social media and posting about his efforts to distribute humanitarian aid and military supplies. He had earlier created a rural village to accommodate Jewish refugees during a previous Russian invasion, called Anatevka after the fictional shtetl in “Fiddler on the Roof.”

Samborskyi — to whom Azman and his wife gave the Hebrew name Matisyahu, in honor of the ancient Jewish priest and military leader — had lived with the family for a decade before moving out, marrying and having a child, according to Azman’s post. It was shortly after Samborskyi’s daughter was born in May that he was drafted, Azman said — reflecting a broader mobilization of troops amid a grueling war that is widely seen as effectively a stalemate.

Exactly how many Ukrainian soldiers have died in battle over the last two and a half years is unclear. The Ukrainian government has not published an ongoing tally but said in February, at the war’s two-year mark, that more than 30,000 troops had been killed. The United States has said it believes the numbers are significantly higher.

Whatever the true tally, the Ukrainian army appears to be strapped for manpower and has intensified efforts to recruit new soldiers, including by lowering the draft age and mobilizing men quickly, sometimes off the streets.

This summer, multiple people associated with Jewish communities in Ukraine said activities had grown more circumscribed because of the threat of being drafted that men face while out and about. In Dnipro, a heart of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement, an involved resident told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency last month that men of fighting age were staying home rather than joining in prayer services. And at Ramah Yachad, a Jewish summer camp in western Ukraine, fewer fathers traveled to drop their children off or pick them up, and fewer men were on staff this year.

“Since the beginning of this terrible war, trouble has knocked on the door of almost every Ukrainian — some have lost a loved one, others are fighting with injuries,” Azman tweeted in August, on the occasion of Ukraine’s Memorial Day, when he revealed that Samborskyi was missing. “On this day, I want to share with you my personal pain.”

Two weeks later, he was announcing a memorial service to be held at the synagogue where he has worked since 1995.

[hillbillyhipster84]

My head canon for Molly’s origins. She was a wealthy upperclass woman. Why did nobody come looking for her when she took off with Dutch???

*she’s the love child of an Irish aristocrat and a servant woman. Oftentimes these children were sent to live as wards with different wealthy, but not as high class families.

*I think her biological father must have loved her enough to financially set her up in luxury until she got married. But he, nor his family had much contact with her.

*so she grew up rich but unattached to her foster family, who probably loved the money more than her. But kept her spoiled rotten to keep her from complaining.

*Went through so many nurses, nanny’s and governesses, that she never grew an attachment to them. Nor an appreciation for them despite their class.

*So she grew up aloof and snobbish because she wasn’t loved the way a child should be loved. Too high born to be allowed attachments to the serving class, and her origins made it so she couldn’t socialize much with other aristocratic children.

*She definitely had half siblings from her father’s marriage. Older and not keen on sharing their inheritance.

*Molly, being bored and lonely became an avid reader of poetry, especially ones like Lord Byron, who were broody, romantic, and seeking adventure.

*Father dies, foster parents die, and half-siblings try to decide how to cut her out of the inheritance and allowances.

*They send her to the U.S. with the excuse for her to ride out a bunch of political uprisings, but she’s actually sent to find a new money American husband (since she’s “illegitimate”, it’s fairly impossible to marry her off to an aristocrat)

*She is sent West to meet newly rich oil men, but instead meets Dutch who robs the luxury train she’s on.

*He’s too damn charming, and she’s too damn bold for her own good. When he robs her, he’s polite and flirtatious. Shows off his intelligence by briefly quoting poetry to describe her beauty, while he robs her. She’s more turned on by this than scared, and full on slaps him, eager to see his reaction. He’s super into it (Arthur is impressed, but crazy embarrassed at Dutch’s reaction)

*So she tells him where she’s headed, with absolute confidence and naivety that she’s going to get what she wants in this man. He appears to be the romance and adventure from her fantasies

*She’s young, cultured, passionate, beautiful, and has a bank account. So Dutch shows up in the upscale hotel (similar to historic Ginocchio Hotel of Eastern Texas), and sweeps her off her feet. She takes off with him shortly after.

*Her servants and escorts have no idea where she went and after telegraphing her half-siblings, it’s apparent, they don’t really care. They will easily mark her off as dead.

[lostwords-found]

Oh god. Okay. SO. The Protocol red string board is going places and I am chewing drywall.

Note: I've been working on this post for a few days and nothing in here involves episode 27--I don't talk about episodes before they're out for everyone, so no worries about patreon spoilers.

Quick recap of some suspicions about Protocolverse I've written about previously:

1. I think this universe runs on a kind of balance of good & bad luck (or suffering and happiness), and that it's possible--under certain circumstances--to pawn the bad stuff off on other people and keep the good that arises to balance it out. I suspect a big piece of Protocol's overarching plot is going to be about the different ways people go about trying to come out ahead in that bargain.

2. I think some alchemists figured out how to attach bad luck and/or other similarly abstract ills into physical form.

3. I think they were trying to use this to cast out bad luck to other worlds (including that of Archives) and get good luck back. I think this is how the Fears got to Archives in the first place.

4. I think the books and coin in the tomb from MAG 23 got there this way, probably with the involvement of Protocolverse Albertus Magnus. The year on the coin -- 1279 -- is the year before Albertus Magnus died.

We'll come back to that stuff in a bit.

There's an apparently minor detail that was nagging at me recently: in TMAGP 22 Hans Berger specifically mentions having switched to silver wires in his experiments, and this change enabling his breakthroughs. It's through these silver wires, implanted directly into Herr Schmidt's brain, that he later receives the desperate telegraph signals that appear to be from a previously unheard part of Schmidt's brain.

By itself, that wouldn't ping any alarms. Silver wires are in fact what Berger used in real life; silver's highly conductive so if you're trying to read electrical impulses from the brain, probably a good choice of material. But the writing is very deliberate about mentioning them, and coming only three episodes after another historical letter about a scientist also working with silver -- Newton's tree in TMAGP 19 was a fantastical variant of a Tree of Diana, dendritic silver -- Berger's wires start feeling like maybe they're not just there for accuracy.

If, as it appears from Newton's work, consuming silver in certain forms can cause a new kind of consciousness to arise--and also, uh, turn you into a tree--what might implanting silver wires in a human brain do? Is the silver contacting or awakening something that was already there, or is it putting something there? Was that desperate OUT OUT OUT message really from half of Herr Schmidt's mind--or from something in the wire itself that was trying to get out?

That would be weird though. I mean--what, Protocolverse silver's inherently evil or something? But then I got back to thinking about alchemists trying to transmute things into precious metals. Gold's the one we mostly think of, but silver was also of interest. Which in real life is where you got stuff like the tree of Diana--alchemists thought that was a precursor to the philosopher's stone.

So... then I start thinking, if I was right in my other post that alchemists were figuring out how to put evil / misfortune / suffering into a physical form that could be used to transfer it somewhere else, what if silver was involved in that? What if they were either turning misfortune into silver, or trapping it in silver that already existed?

What if they did that, meaning to send it away, and some of that silver made its way into use?

Then I started looking some stuff up.

Did you know silver used to be mined in the Black Forest, in Germany? One mine there had a name meaning "Blessing of God." That mine dates back to the 1200s--Albertus Magnus's lifetime.

Did you know that starting in the 1600s, the G strings on high quality violins were typically wrapped in silver wire?

Do you know why movies are called the silver screen? In the 1920s, literal silver was used to make cinema screens. This fell out of favor as other cheaper designs were worked out, BUT in the 2000s silver has come back into use a bit because it works well for 3D movies. I would not be surprised at all if the screen that Tom went to see Voyeur on had silver in it.

Did you know that in the early 90s there was a specific plant in the UK that manufactured CDs covered with a layer of silver? This later turned out to cause some problems as the silver reacted with sulfur (oh hai, another alchemically significant substance!) and slowly degraded the discs. In real life these CDs were manufactured up through 1993. Per TMAGP 10, Mr Bonzo made his debut in '96 (the interview is from 2021 and is the 25th anniversary of Mr Bonzo's first appearance). The two times Mr Bonzo has appeared in person he's been summoned by playing a CD of his theme song. I wonder where and when those CDs were manufactured...

Did you notice the caterer Lady Mowbray hired in TMAGP 15 mentions that his company did silver service events? Betcha that particular feast was served on literal silver platters.

...I'm starting to think it's a really good thing ink5oul didn't end up tattooing Gwen with that silver spoon.

Okay. This all seems like there's maybe a theme here, but let's take a step back. Some materials have just been used for a lot of things throughout history; it could be coincidence. IF the above is actually on the mark--IF these were all intentional majorly-plot-relevant inclusions of Things Wot Involve Silver--where else would we expect to see this cropping up in the story? Because the topic of silver has barely been raised directly at all; I'm extrapolating wildly here, mostly on the basis of a couple episodes.

Well, here's a thought: silver was used in everyday currency for a long, long time. If there was a bunch of Evil Silver floating around surely someone would have stuck it into some money at some point. "Ill fortune" in the most literal possible sense, or whole new meaning to the phrase "bad penny" -- there are various bad jokes there that more or less write themselves. Though whoever was doing this would have had to to mark the bad money somehow so that they could avoid it...

Hey, um, remember how the OIAR's offices are in the building that housed the Royal Mint for like 150 years?

Actually, while we're on that subject, here's a funny little tidbit: Before it moved to Royal Mint Court, the Royal Mint was in the Tower of London for several centuries--its first home after being centralized. Wanna guess what year the Royal Mint was established in the Tower of London? Go on. Guess.

1279.

The same. Fucking. Year. As was on that coin waaaaaay back in MAG 23. Which was a thing I had noticed a while back when looking at the Germany eps, but I hadn't been considering a "what if some metals can be Bad" angle at that point and had just written it off as an odd coincidence.

Which I mean, it's probably still just a weird coincidence, I'm building this entire elaborate framework out of assumptions on top of assumptions on top of -- hang the fuck on, let me look something up real quick, I've gotta be misremembering--

I'm not misremembering! Isaac Newton was the Master of the Royal Mint for the last 30 years of his life.

Cool. Okay. So that's--hm. I think I'm genuinely starting to convince myself none of this is a coincidence.

Then I start poking through Wikipedia, and you wanna know some other interesting things? One, Newton himself apparently saw his work in economics as a continuation of his alchemical work. And two, during his tenure at the Royal Mint, he put limits on how much gold people were allowed to exchange for silver, and this led to a silver shortage. Because apparently, when other countries imported goods to them, the British paid for those goods in silver coins. When they exported goods to other countries, though?

They would only take payment in gold.

And there it is--there's the exact outsourcing scheme I was looking for. Stick all your suffering and pain and misfortune into your money, use that money to pay other countries, and get only the good stuff back. That... sounds really believable for the British Empire, honestly.

So I really think I might have some decent guesses on the historical stuff at play here. That only goes just so far though, because these days, silver doesn't really get used in coinage much.

Know where it does get used? Circuits. Electronics.

Computers.

If I'm right, whatever machinery the Mint used to store the intangible evils of the world in physical coinage for exportation, I would guess the OIAR is now using to instill all of those evils into FR3-D1 instead. One all-containing artifact of misfortune.

What the endgame is there, what the government gets out of it, I'm still not 100% sure--but I can't help thinking about Jonah's line in MAG 160 that Jon is not the Archivist but the Archive. That he is the record of fear, the physical embodiment of it.

There's people wanting to outsource absolutely fucking everything to AI these days, I guess.

SO THAT'S BEEN MY WEEK this is what my brain does when I have to drive all the way across the US alone, apparently. How are you all?

[skippyv20]

Eddie Spence, who made many cakes for the royal family, has died aged 91.  As a young man he spent a whole day just beating the eggs to make the wedding cake of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip.  He made cakes for many royal weddings, including Charles’ and Diana’s.  He made a cake for the Golden Jubilee.  In 2001 he was awarded the MBE for  'services to sugar craft’.  After Queen Elizabeth had pinned the medal on his jacket, he forgot she was royal and said “Thanks, pet.”  The Queen laughed and wrote it down in her notebook.  His family buried him with a piping bag in his coffin so he could teach the angels how to ice cakes.

Credit, The Telegraph

Awwwww…“angels how to ice cakes”🙏🏻❤️❤️❤️❤️

[insanityclause]

The Night Manager will be returning for two more seasons with Tom Hiddleston at the helm once again, it has been reported.

The renewal of the hit adaptation of John le Carré’s 1993 novel, which aired to great fanfare eight years ago, has been greenlit by Amazon Prime and the BBC, according to Deadline.

It is understood that the new seasons about the hotel-manager-turned-spy will be filmed later this year in London and South America.

According to reports, David Farr – who wrote the original series – has been brought back to write season two.

The first series, which won two Emmys and three Golden Globes, featured an impressive cast including Olivia Colman, Elizabeth Debicki, Tom Hollander and David Harewood.

It followed Hiddleston as Jonathan Pine, the former British soldier who is recruited by the manager of a Foreign Office taskforce to infiltrate an arms dealer’s inner circle while he is the night manager of a luxury Cairo hotel.

The series quickly became one of the top-rated UK dramas of 2016 and spawned a number of subsequent le Carré adaptations from The Ink Factory, the production company run by le Carré’s sons Simon and Stephen Cornwell.

The new adaptation will be set in the present day, according to Deadline, and will follow Hiddleston’s Pine facing a new and more deadly challenge after being informed that arms dealer Richard Roper – played by Hugh Laurie – is dead.

Laurie, Colman and Hiddleston all won Golden Globes for their performances in the 2016 spy thriller, which became an international success and even led to rumours at the time that Hiddleston, 43, could be the next James Bond.

While the Bond rumours may have been put to bed, it remains to be seen where the plot may take Pine, seeing as Le Carré‘s novel has no sequel.

When Laurie was asked in 2016 whether the series would return, he said: “It’s based on a novel, we’ve got to the end of the novel and John le Carré has yet to write another novel. So in cold practical terms, no, we’re done.”

Le Carré, who died in 2020, took a very hands-off approach to the first series, but was said to be pleasantly surprised by the alterations Farr made to his novel for the script.

Charlotte Moore, the BBC TV chief, told The Telegraph in 2017 that “Le Carré is very involved” in discussions about the next series, saying: “We wouldn’t be talking with them if he didn’t think it was a good idea.”

Announcing the new series, Ms Moore said: “After years of fervent speculation I’m incredibly excited to confirm that The Night Manager is returning to the BBC for two more series.”

“Of course he wants to take part in it, it’s his work. He will definitely be involved in what we do next,” she added.

The Telegraph has contacted Le Carré’s estate for comment on the announcement of the new seasons.

Previously, Susanne Bier, who won an Emmy for directing the first series, revealed that scripts for a second instalment were “slowly being developed”, but she said writers were wary about being able to create the same hit again.

Elizabeth Debicki, Tom Hiddleston, Susanne Bier and Hugh Laurie at the premiere of the first season

Elizabeth Debicki, Tom Hiddleston, Susanne Bier and Hugh Laurie at the premiere of the first season Credit: Michael Tran/FilmMagic

Farr agreed with this sentiment at the time, telling Variety in 2016 that he was “not keen” to do a second series, adding: “I liked the fact that the story ended where the story ended.

“But that’s entirely personal. Given the characters, there is a potential for something more to happen, and I’m sure someone could find the right idea. But for me it’s done. My simple feeling is that I wouldn’t be able to make the next one as good.”

Hiddleston, 43, will be returning to executive produce the new seasons as well as play Pine.

The British actor said: “The first series of The Night Manager was one of the most creatively fulfilling projects I have ever worked on. The depth, range and complexity of Jonathan Pine was, and remains, a thrilling prospect.”

Simon and Stephen Cornwell said season one proved “a landmark moment for the golden era of television – uniting on-screen and behind-the-camera talent at the top of their game – and an audience reception which was beyond our wildest imagining”.

“Revisiting the story of Pine also means going beyond the events of John le Carré’s original work: that is a decision we have not taken lightly, but his compelling characters and the vision David [Farr] has for their next chapter were irresistible,” they added.

Vernon Sanders, the Amazon MGM Studios head of television, added: “We are elated to bring additional seasons of The Night Manager to our Prime Video customers.

“The combination of terrific source material, the wonderful team at The Ink Factory, a great writer in David Farr, an award-winning director in Georgi Banks-Davies, as well as the talented cast truly make the series the full package.”

[sgiandubh]

Machiavelli took a day off

... when the Telegraph article was written in great haste, by someone blatantly given a last minute task, who had no fucking idea to whom she was talking and what exactly meant the PR vetted or even prompted questions.

Instead of a line-by-line analysis, we'll take things differently, on this page, using the '5 W rule of journalism' (or even non-fiction writing, in general, if you ask me):

Who? SRH, EP of the OL series and one of the two male leads of the TCND series, which will be shortly broadcast by Channel 4, in the UK and IE only (and Movistar in ES). The rest of the world is not concerned.

What? A promotional article, focused on the actor's personality, CV and projects.

When? At a particular moment in time, just after the SAG-AFTRA strike and before shooting OL's eighth and last season.

Where? Crucial to place it in LHR (to imply he is 'just visiting') and God forbid it would be in GLA, which (for some curious reasons) seems to be off-limits.

Why? An actor with solid credentials hopes to keep agents and employers interested, after above OL project is done, which is rather sooner than later. Also addressing (as per the actor's PR agent specific requirements) three particular issues: the Palestine letter, the Bond project and his 'private life'.

Onwards to the three issues at stake, which probably prompted the article. In chronological order, this time. And no, I am not going to address the Scottish independence mention, because this is a sincere, well-known position of his and this page never bitches about people's convictions - also because I educated myself on it and I agree with S.

Palestine:

It was important, for obvious reasons, to push damage control a tad further. Also, strictly from a hypothetical POV, I would be very curious to read your compare and discuss thoughts with regard to this particular post on this page:

A sort of answer came in the Telegraph paper, too. Not only to me (I am less than nobody), but to all the people (of which we were many) who thought he should not get involved in this type of debate:

This is not the first time he uses this specific talking point. Last time known to me was on the day the Queen died, on X (I looked for that post, but can't find it, because I am just a filthy lurker, like that: but it is there).

The really interesting question, therefore, is: does he/somebody monitor what is being said on Tumblr? The answer is, I think, yes, and it shows. Will it stop me talking in here? Nope, as I trust my discerning abilities, for the moment. Other than that, his damage control op does not bring anything new to the table.

Bond:

What can I say, Sir? While there's life, there's apparently hope. But that doesn't translate well, given the context of your interview. That spells desperate and it's not a great picture. Also, let us keep a pious moment of silence in fond memory of a 25 year old who had a dream and the dream went to Daniel Craig (who I detested as Bond, because every girl has her Bond and mine is Pierce Brosnan, amen).

I know people still speculate about it. I have very high reservations and I cannot, for the life of me, seriously consider even thinking about the possibility. He could do it with flying colors, no doubt. Does he stand a chance? I prefer to have zero expectations on it and be floored if it happens. If he naively still yearns/pushes for it, this interview could very well be as abysmal as C's VF tantrum.

'Private life':

Ugh. Slippery when wet. I have already touched the subject in a reactive re-blog of @samheughanswife's post about it and I will not get back to what I said even without reading the article.

Some more extraordinary wording, in here: 'there might even be space for a personal life' - begs the question 'when?' In general? (in general, all men are created equal, too - it's practice that kills the theory) Now? (it is my staunch belief the answer is yes). After OL? (then and now and after Hiroshima, too). Can you program these things? (nope, stars simply aligned) Heh. Enough said. Also, 'might' spells cheap insinuation to me. But that's just me, a blonde voice in the audience.

Now, onwards to the daughter thing. I believe this specifically addresses the cheap, abundant clickbait content on You Tube, hence the vague 'online' reference (not Tumblr, not fans, not blogs - he is not C, he kept it clean). Such as this very recent one (last 'clip' on the topic was five days ago):

The two I chose to share here, which are very conspicuous FAKES, are originating from the same 'source', an account that seems obsessed with S&C and has no problem changing its narrative three times a week, if needed. My opinion? PR induced shite, to prod numbers/interest and see what sticks.

No newborn daughter? I hear no lies.

As for OL leaving 'no time for relationships', ahem. *urv will be thrilled to read that, I bet the farm. As will Flukenzie Floozy, at least her - damn, she was persistent! Also, hello, back to 2014-2016 playbook, aren't we?

No new relationships? Whatever for, when IYKYK? I hear no lies.

'I want a cat' ('because she's great', says my shipper brain on autopilot), 'but I am too scared even for that'. Humph. A very poor lie. But admitting you wanted and got a Ca(i)t scares the bejesus out of you, since 2016. I hear no lies. Yes, I am being tongue in cheek and damn the consequences.

Morality of it?

The easiest solution is never to take personal questions in interviews or panels. Why These Two still do it completely mystifies me.