#Data Analysis Course Near Me

[mohalicareerpoint12]

Master Advanced Excel with the Best Classes in Mohali

Are you looking to enhance your Excel skills and take your data analysis capabilities to the next level? You've come to the right place if you're in Mohali and searching for the best advanced Excel classes. Our advanced Excel training in Mohali is designed to provide comprehensive knowledge, practical skills, and expert guidance to help you become an Excel pro.

Why Learn Advanced Excel?

Excel is a powerful tool widely used in various industries for data analysis, financial modeling, reporting, and more. Mastering advanced Excel functions can significantly improve your efficiency and productivity. Here are a few reasons why you should consider learning advanced Excel:

Enhanced Productivity: Advanced Excel skills can save time by automating repetitive tasks and simplifying complex data analysis.

Data Analysis: Excel's advanced features allow you to perform detailed data analysis, making it easier to make informed decisions.

Career Advancement: Proficiency in advanced Excel is a valuable skill that can enhance your resume and open up new job opportunities.

Versatility: Excel is used in various roles, including finance, marketing, human resources, and project management.

About Our Advanced Excel Classes in Mohali

Our training center in Mohali offers top-notch advanced Excel classes tailored to meet the needs of professionals and students alike. Here’s what sets our classes apart:

Experienced Instructors: Learn from industry experts who have extensive knowledge of advanced Excel functions and applications.

Hands-on Training: We emphasize practical learning with real-life scenarios and hands-on exercises to ensure you gain practical skills.

Flexible Timings: We offer flexible class schedules, including weekday and weekend batches, to accommodate working professionals and students.

Modern Facilities: Our state-of-the-art training center is equipped with the latest technology to provide a conducive learning environment.

Career Support: We provide placement assistance and career counseling to help you find the right job after completing the course.

Course Highlights

Our advanced Excel course covers all essential topics and advanced functions, ensuring you become proficient in its use. Here are some of the key highlights:

Advanced Formulas and Functions: Learn to use complex formulas and functions such as VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, INDEX, MATCH, and more.

Data Analysis Tools: Master data analysis tools like PivotTables, PivotCharts, and Data Tables to summarize and analyze large datasets.

Conditional Formatting: Understand how to use conditional formatting to highlight important data and trends.

Macros and VBA: Get hands-on experience in automating tasks using Macros and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA).

Data Visualization: Learn to create advanced charts and graphs to visualize data effectively.

Advanced Data Management: Gain skills in data validation, data cleaning, and working with large datasets.

Scenario Analysis and Forecasting: Understand how to perform scenario analysis and create financial forecasts using Excel.

Conclusion

Learning advanced Excel can significantly enhance your data analysis skills and career prospects. Our advanced Excel classes in Mohali offer expert instruction, hands-on training, and comprehensive career support to help you achieve your goals. Join us today and unlock the full potential of Excel!

[cheriladycl01]

2026 Rewind - Grid x AudiDriver! Reader

Plot: After some devastating deaths within the F1 industry from unmistakable names in 2025, the FIA decide to make a plan to race at all of the old tracks that are iconic but haven’t been on the grid for a while.

A/N: this is racing heavy with only drivers name dropped, but if you want cool Ted and Crofty with Y/N vibes while learning more about some of the FIA Grade 1 Tracks, have a read!

“So Ted, let’s talk about this years line up. It’s just so iconic that I can’t bear it!” David Croft says as they are in the commentator box at pre-season testing.

“Yeah Crofty, obviously it’s so unfortunate the reason behind what we are calling the 2026 rewind because of some losses we had in the industry and this was the way the FIA decided to pay tribute to those people!" Ted explains before the onscreen for the year comes up.

"So, lets go through the year together and analyze it. We're starting of the season strong in the lovely Kuwait, here at Kuwait Motor Town, this is where we are kick starting off this season. It's a high speed track here just north of where we would typically start in Bahrain. This is a track consisting of 20 turns, and is 5.609km of racing ahead. I'm very excited as no-one in F1 history has raced here in an F1 car. Who do you think's going to do well here Ted?"

"Well, there's some really nice corners, and it's a similar temp to Bahrain so i think it's difficult to tell but I can imagine the Audi with Y/N now having done her rookie season learning all those key values about the F1 car and how it works. McLaren will also be good here, really tightening up the constructors championship this year!" Ted offers looking at all the onboard footage.

"Yes I agree, I think Red Bull tend to be quiet strong a the start of the year naturally and its a game for the other teams to be playing catch up!" Crofty agrees.

"Okay, then after Kuwait, we'll be travelling to and correct me if I'm saying this wrong but the Kyalami Circuit in South Africa near the wonderful capital Johannesburg. It's in replacement of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, we haven't raced in South Africa since 1993 and what a beautiful circuit this is, its got some really high speed corners and yeah, I think the Ferrari will really be great on those long straights." Ted says analysis the data of the cars in testing.

"And now here we have with us, Y/N Y/L/N Audi F1 driver here to talk through the rest of the tracks!" David says and points to the camera for you to smile and wave before he pulls out the microphone in front of you.

"Hello!" you grin and David and Ted both burst out laughing.

"What did I miss, I'm really sorry i was late!" you smile looking between them and they both nod in understanding of how tight the weekend schedule could be, they are shocked they actually have your time right now.

"It's completely okay, we understand! We've only introduced Kuwait and South Africa, we are about to move onto the changed Australia track! Your thoughts?" he exclaims and you smile.

"Yeah, obviously it's going to be exciting with all these new tracks that none of us have driven, so of course there was a lot of testing in the sims... but yeah its great to be here in Kuwait, and I'm excited to go to South Africa as well!" you smile.

"Yes, and how do you feel about Australia being changed from Albert Park in Melbourne to the Adelaide Street Circuit?" Ted asks with a grin on his face knowing how you felt about the Australian races.

"Well, after the spider incident in 2022, I've always been so scared to drive in Australia" you giggle, before Crofty pulls up the video of you in P4 of the Australian Grand Prix in 2022.

Y/N - Theres a fucking tarantula in my car Race Engineer - Copy that Y/N - No i dont think you guys get it, its on me

"And you ended up pitting there was no time to get it out of the car because of where it was, you were crying for the rest of the race and you were going so quick so you could just finish that you actually ended up winning your first race here and overtaking Charles Leclerc in, what back then was an Alfa Romeo." Crofty smiles and you nod.

"Yeah, so where ever that race is in Australia I know ill be on edge the whole time, I'll have my crew do like 6 inspections on my car before each session to make sure. It was traumatizing i tell you!" you admit.

"So after what will hopefully be a spider free stint in Adelaide on their street circuit we move on to south east Asia where we will exchange Suzuka Japan, for the Fuji SpeedWay, a truly iconic track before going back to an old favorite of some of the older driver on the grid like Lewis and Fernando in South Korea at the Korea International Circuit!" Ted says showing the line up for the races after Australia.

"I'm really excited for these, the atmosphere of the fans is always amazing and the tracks here are great I think Audi thrive on these sort of tracks and yeah, I'm excited to see what we can do there!" you smile, looking at the spinning track layout that popped up on screen.

You move on to Miami's replacement being the iconic Californian Long Beach Street Circuit.

"And we've been tipped of, by a certain Cash App driver that he'll be taking you to DisneyLand while out there?" he asks looking at you.

"Yes, Liam has already been once and when I said about wanting to go to radiator springs he and Daniel jumped on the opportunity to go, which then Yuki and Max wanted to come so it's now turned into this whole massive group trip!" you laugh knowing that half the grid would come with you guys.

"And of course much like the UK Italy is another pinnacle of Motorsport and we've had to change out two of the iconic track Monza and Imola. So for the first change of Italy we've changed it to the iconic Mugello track which I just really love, don't you Y/N?" Ted asks looking at you.

"Yeah I think Lando and Osc will be really strong there, I'd like to think me and Carlos are as well with the Audi this year... so yeah I'm excited for Mugello! Obviously they raced here in 2020 so it's the most recent of all the races this year to make a return so its only really me, Oscar, Logan, Fred, Theo and Kimi who haven't raced there" you smile analyzing the twisty track up on the screen.

"Yes, then we'll be moving onto, what was probably one of the toughest decisions of this year which was switching out Monaco and what to switch out such an exciting race with, so they didn't its the only race on the calendar this year that has remained unchanged!" David explains making you nod.

"I think, where this year is to show the history of F1 and what it means to all of us, the teams and the fans. And by keeping Monaco on there where its such a historic track, i think that's actually staying true to a rewind year!" you smile, you'd always loved the vibes in Monaco, from the fans to the track to how your car performed there.

"Yeah i agree i think it was the right choice keeping Monaco!" Ted exclaims also loving the vibes at Monaco.

"Okay, then moving all the way to the west, we'll be in Canada moving from Montreal over to Quebec at the second oldest track, the Mont-Tremblant Circuit!" David shows the new Canadian circuit on screen.

"Then after Canada we've got a really special double header with two Spanish Grand Prix's at different locations. We have the Valencia Street Circuit and Del Jarama Circuit. Both very exciting and it will be a long weekend in Spain!"

"I'm excited to see a street circuit in Spain, obviously we had Madrid for the last two years after Barcelona, so I'm excited for both Valencia as a street circuit and Jarama which is such an iconic track because of those tights turns and yeah I'm really excited for this one!" you smile.

"Obviously next one was another tough one, Silverstone again another iconic track and the UK has so many other iconic tracks that its hard to choose, there was talks of Aintree, Watkins Glen and Donington Park but ultimately they went with Brands Hatch what do you think on this?" Ted asks looking over to you, holding up a page showing all the different UK tracks.

"Yeah, I think there's some really iconic tracks in the UK, its my home so i grew up racing on a lot of those tracks in different motorsport categories, I think there's ones that are arguably better for Formula one, which is why Silverstone is the main circuit as it gives for the most interesting race, however for me it would have been a call between Brands Hatch and Watkins Glen so I'm glad that they chose Brands Hatch, I've got some great memories there at testing and showcasing the car or working with the Top Gear team, so I'm excited to race there!" you explain, the United Kingdom is the like Monaco in being both a founder and royalty when it comes to Motorsport.

"I 100% agree with that, however I just love Aintree so much and am gutted we wont see it!" David Croft admits.

"So after Brands Hatch we move to Monsanta in Portugal which we haven't raced in Portugal since 2021 because of the COVID restrictions but that was in Algarve so it'll be interesting to see the difference!" Ted offers looking at the next circuit floating on their screen as he zoom's in on turn 4.

"Then, again there another track we hate to see go even if its for one year but Spa, its so iconic and its one of the most dangerous circuits we race now and it's being swapped out for Circuit Zolder on the other side of Belgium! Thoughts?" David asks out in the open.

"I" you start.

"Well I think" Ted also starts and you both look at each other in shock before laughing. You let Ted go first to say his piece.

"Well, I think it's no where near interesting as Spa, and especially where its the last race before a break... I think it's going to be way more uneventful than Spa!"

"Y/N?" Crofty asks looking at you.

"I actually think the opposite most of the tracks have been very high risk with lost of turns and chicanes and hairpins that really catch you out, however this reminds me of the simplicity of Monza and everyone, everyone loves Monza. So i think it will really even out the mid field cars" you says observing the track that had nice long straights and minimal turns.

"I agree with you there Y/N! Next after Zolder we head over to the heavily missed Nurburgring in Germany, the last time we saw it was 2019 so again, up until our 2019 rookies would have driven there how'd you feel about this track Y/N?" David asks.

"Well, it's such an iconic track for so many reasons I really wanted to race there after I watched Lando, George and Alex all race there in 2019, I was actually there in the paddock that year with Ferrari as a part of their driver development programme" you nod, explaining to them how excited you were for it.

"Now next in the place of Monza which we just mentioned we have a complete wild card of the Scandinavian Raceway in Sweden! Now this, this is one I'm excited for it's a beautiful track and has the coldest track temps we'll probably get all season! So it'll be a real fight to see who can protect their tyres and manage them well!" Ted explains and you nod, knowing it would be an exciting race.

"Then after that we travel to France where we haven't been for a while, however the Bugatti Au Mans Track in France is iconic, there are so many great tracks in France like Paul-Ricard or the Charade Circuit or Dijon de Prenois, all of them are great but the Bugatti hasn't been done is so long and really means a lot historically to the sport" David offers, showing you one of the only tracks you didn't feel too excited a lean towards.

"Then, we move back across to Aisa, going to an age of favorite of the age old Sepang International Circuit in Malasiya which is one fans have been wanting to see back on the race calendar for a while so i wonder if this will stay into 2027!" Ted takes over, and you nod.

"I'm also very excited for Sepang! After Malaysia we move onto the first ever FIA grade 1 race track the Chang Circuit in Thailand, how to we feel about this?" David asks directly looking at you.

"Not only is it a beautiful track, but it means that Alex now has a chance to race at his home track while racing under his home flag and I think he's really excited for it. He's in a great car, the Williams has come leaps and bounds and are top midfield contenders and definitely will be up there fighting for race wins!" you smile, knowing Alex was so happy to have this opportunity to race in his home country.

"I agree Alex Albon to win in Chang Circuit, I've put my money on it! Our next circuit it one that NASCAR share with us in F1 taking it back to the Indianapolis Speedway, on the lower F1 circuit of course rather than the Oval that the NASCAR drivers use!" Ted explains.

"Yeah, that lower track is great, you got the nice curve and we'll be able to get to those really high speeds. It's an iconic US track just like COTA!" you admit, taking a sip of the water you'd brought with you.

"After Indi, we'll make our way a little further down south to the Rio de Janiro International Track in Brazil, which is instead of Sao Paulo" David explains looking at the second F1 track in Brazil, it was a nice track but Sao Paulo had been on the roster for so long.

"Then, we are back in Las Vegas, but not on the Strp track that was created in 2023, no we are going back to the Ceaser's Palace Track and I know many people complain about these Las Vegas Grand Prix's because of the timings and the drivers not really liking driving at 12pm!"

"Yeah, i agree they are really strenuous just like Qatar for the heat but I love the vibe Las Vegas brings and I like the whole weekend with all the activities in the fan zone and yeah I'm excited they used Ceaser's Palace rather than the Pheonix Street Circuit which i know they were considering.

"I agree. Our last two races, then consist of the Buddah International Circuit in India and rounding off instead of in Yas Marina in the Dubai Autodrome, which will be a really nice round off" David exclaims.

Slowly you end the interview up, needing to go down to the track to get into the car for you leg of pre-season testing.

What a year it would be.

Taglist:

@littlesatanicassholebitch @hockey-racing-fubol @laura-naruto-fan1998 @22yuki @simxican @sinofwriting @lewisroscoelove @cmleitora @stupidandunnecessary @clayra-g @daemyratwst @honey-belden @moonypixel @lauralarsen @vader-is-hot @ironcowboycopnickel @itsjustkhaos @the-untamed-soul @beebo86 @happylittlereader @ziejustme @lou-larcher5 @thewulf @purplephantomwolf @chasing-liberosis @chillyleclerc @chanthereader @annoyingmoonballoon @summissss @evieepepi08 @havaneseoger08 @celesteblack08 @gulphulp @fandom1ruined2me @celebstories @starfusionsworld @jspitwall @sierruhh @georgeparisole @dakotatankbig @youcannotcancelquidditch @zzonsbeek @tallbrownhairsarcastic @mellowarcadefun @ourteenagetragedy @otako5811 @countingstacksandpanicattacks @peachiicherries @formulas-bitch @cherry-piee @hopexcroc @mirrorball-6 @spilled-coffee-cup @mehrmonga @bigsimperika @blueberry64857959 @eiraethh @lilypadlover @curseofhecate @alliwantisadonut @the-fem1n1ne-urge @21stcenturytaegi @dark-night-sky-99 @spideybv28 @i-wish-this-was-me @tallrock35 @butterfly-lover @barnestatic @landossainz @darleneslane @barcelonaloverf1life @r0nnsblog @ilove-tswizzle @kapsylia @laneyspaulding19 @lazybot @malynn @cassielikereading @viennakarma @teamnovalak @landosgirlxoxo @marie0v @jlb20416 @yourbane @teamnovalak @nikfigueiredo @fionaschicken @0picels0 @seomako @urdad-hot @formula1mount @tinydeskwriter @butterfly-lover @ironmaiden1313

[thorraborinn]

Would it possible at all for you to point me in the direction of how to translate elder futhark runes ie: “Thor, Protector of Humanity”. I’m entertaining the idea of woodburning Norse art.

lol you're gonna hate this. Nobody asks me shit like this anymore so I'm gonna take it too seriously.

Really the answer is "no." I can try to do it for you but I don't think it makes sense for me to say "learn Proto-Norse" and hope for the best. Learning how to do this is a lot more difficult than learning Old Norse or Old English (and tbh "learn ON or OE or OHG" is the actual advice I'd give here). I know you're asking about doing this in general, and not for that phrase in particular, but you happened to provide a good example so I'm going to try a translation and show all my work.

I did put together a very non-exhaustive list of sources on runes available here but honestly that will not get you far here. Turning Proto-Norse into runes is easy, it's the language part that's hard. I also made a big list of deity names in Elder Futhark. Apparently the font embedding broke so it looks like nonsense, and I'm not gonna fight with it now. But the bolded text in each entry can be transliterated into runes. I haven't looked at this in years, but did just update Thor to be more in line with what I have here. Also, don't trust Wikipedia or Wiktionary for this stuff, you can use them as a research tool but verify independently or just use them to find other sources.

If I were in your position, I would consider using Old Norse and the runes that wrote that. Völuspá even gives us a near parallel: Miðgarðs véurr, and one of many ways to write that might be ᚦᚢᚱ ᛬ ᛘᛁᚦᚴᛆᚱᚦᛋ ᛬ ᚢᛁᚢᚱ.

I should make sure sure you're asking what you want to be asking. I'm assuming you want to translate into language that was spoken when the Elder Futhark was used. Some people say "translate" when they mean the less-commonly-known-but-more-accurate "transliterate" (turn "abc" into "ᚨᛒᚲ"). Maybe you just want to go ᚦᛟᚱ ᛬ ᛈᚱᛟᛏᛖᚲᛏᛟᚱ ᛬ ᛟᚠ ᛬ ᚺᚢᛗᚨᚾᛁᛏᛁ and call it a day, and there's nothing wrong with that but you don't need my help for it so I'm guessing that isn't what you mean.

Anyway I'll give you my crack at a translation of the phrase you provided now in case you don't want to read the rest of this but the explanation is after the break:

*þonaraʀ warjaʀ *man(n)akunjas þonaraʀ warijaʀ manakunjas ᚦᛟᚾᚨᚱᚨᛉ ᛬ ᚹᚨᚱᛁᛃᚨᛉ ᛬ ᛗᚨᚾᚨᚲᚢᚾᛃᚨᛊ

(the i ~ ij thing is on purpose. word boundary markers optional)

Thor

There are some unclear phonological aspects of *þun?raz > Þórr. Haukur Þorgeirsson recently addressed this (this article is currently paywalled but for some reason the whole thing loaded just fine for me a few hours ago, not sure why), and I find his conclusions satisfactory, which complicates things. Haukur proposes an earlier *Þunurr but doesn't rule out *Þonarr (or earlier reflex of these). By Haukur's analysis the former is easier to resolve within Old Norse but the latter is more convenient with some other proposals already made, especially by comparative linguists. So we find ourselves with two proposals for the god's name in Elder Futhark-era language: ᚦᚢᚾᚢᚱᚨᛉ *þunuraʀ and ᚦᛟᚾᚨᚱᚨᛉ *þonaraʀ. I'm conditioned to favor *þonaraʀ, but I can't find fault in Haukur's preference for *þunuraʀ within the context of his own paper.

The only reason I'm not siding with it is that it seems impossible to resolve with Old High German donar and Old Saxon thunar (both 'thunder'; compare *eburaz > OHG/OS ebur, not **ebar). So while Haukur's got me convinced that *þunuraʀ seems like a more likely immediate precursor to Þórr, I can't shake *þonaraʀ being what seems to me, at least for now, a necessary precursor to the OHG especially. And for now, "seems necessary" beats "more likely." Of course variation is possible but that isn't a way to handwave conflicting data, it's a whole separate thing to investigate, and I haven't done that yet.

If I were researching something for myself, or for something permanent like a tattoo, I'd keep going and make sure I'm more confident. Even Haukur leaves open possibilities I haven't mentioned here. If nothing else, at least *þunraz no longer seems necessary to maintain (as Ringe 2014 thought following Noreen 1923).

Alternatively, one who does prefer *þunraz as the Proto-Germanic could probably be convinced to allow an epenthetic vowel for Elder Futhark-era language, so we're safe there.

I probably could have left all this out. *þonaraʀ is a fairly normal, mainstream way to reconstruct Þórr. But that wouldn't have been an accurate depiction of the situation. However we work this out, it highlights that what we're doing is not speaking/writing ancient, dead, unattested language. Or, if we are, it's only incidental to the primary thing we're doing, which is trying and sometimes failing to understand how attested words relate to each other, and taking sides in arguments about that.

protector

Selecting a word for 'protector' is difficult. It was only with some hesitation that I went with warjaʀ, a word only attested in compounded personal names like Landawar(i)jaʀ on the Tørvika A stone. It's highly likely to be derived from *warjan- 'to protect/defend.' What's a little weird, though, is that it seems to always be written warijaʀ, in apparent violation of Sievers' Law. I won't get into details here because this post is gonna be long enough as it is, but let it be known the word (and others -- the (i)ja thing recurs a bunch in the Elder corpus) is controversial and my preference for leaving it as it's attested would probably not be universal.

Snorri calls Thor verjandi Ásgarðs, Miðgarðs 'protector of Ásgarðr, Miðgarðr.' To be honest, this isn't the most common use of verjandi; usually it means 'defendant' in a trial, but we can get its meaning from context. We should stop to question whether it could have been used that way some 700 years before Snorri, and once we're satisfied that we can use it we run into trouble again with the non-phonological change of the suffix *-andz > -andi. The *-andz suffix is poorly attested in the Elder Futhark. We have the Tune stone's witada witanda-, but it's a compound word and doesn't give us the nominative ending. Then there's the Eggja stone's suwimąde swimmande and gąląnde galandi which are late enough to be basically fully Old Norse, and doesn't tell us much about earlier language. In Old Norse, these -andi words have the same endings as an n-stem in the singular, and maybe they did in Proto-Norse, but we don't have nominative (or even uncompounded in any case) forms from early enough to be sure. *warjandʀ or *warjanda? Or something else? If not for this, it's the word I'd probably use, and if we want to come as close as we can to technical dictionary accuracy, we'll have to be okay with a shot in the dark at the morphological state of the language.

Also derived from verja are vernd, verndari, vǫrn, vǫrðr. Both vernd and vǫrn mean roughly 'protection' and it makes more sense to say that Thor gives or provides them than that he is them. A vǫrðr is a guard or warden -- Heimdallr is definitely a vǫrðr but I'm not certain Thor is. Most likely, verndari is a later, Norse-era formation, which is unfortunate because it is the word I'd use if we were translating to Old Norse (might go a little bit something like ᚦᚢᚱ ᛬ ᚢᛆᚱ(ᚿ)ᛐᛆᚱᛁ ᛬ ᛘᚭᚿᚴᚢ(ᚿ)ᛋ).

In Old Norse there's also gæta. It isn't attested outside of North Germanic which means relying on internal reconstruction, which isn't great. Kroonen's (2013) *ganhatjan- makes sense and PN *gą̄tijaʀ does seem pretty reasonable as a reconstruction. Semantically, I'm not sure if it's a good fit, though I'm having trouble articulating why. Its meaning should be something like 'to watch, tend, take care of' and in most modern language is more like what Iðunn does with her apples, or what a shepherd does with their flock, than what Thor does with humans, but I don't know that we can be so precise with Proto-Norse and in either case I don't think it's wrong. Actually, perhaps gætir Miðgarðs would be a better way to put it (hint: gætir Miðgarðs < *gą̄tijaʀ miðjagarðas ᚷᚨᛏᛁᛃᚨᛉ ᛬ ᛗᛁᛞᛃᚨᚷᚨᚱᛞᚨᛊ).

The Norse word hlífa might be closer to what we're looking for, though it might only seem that way because we have little evidence to contradict it. In Norse it means 'to protect/defend/shelter (from something)' and works here, but its attestations in other Germanic languages are a little weak and don't inspire confidence in the semantics.

Given all this, I can't help but feel it's best to return to war(i)jaʀ. Though unattested outside of names, it presumably had an independent existence at some point, and is transparently derived from the verb *warjan- 'to defend.' And maybe most importantly, it is actual, attested language. This is a rare opportunity to forget about what I said at the end of the "Thor" section and connect to real language committed to real record by real people.

As an aside, véurr, mentioned way above, is probably etymologically equivalent to vé + warjaʀ, so *wīhawarjaʀ ᚹᛁᚺᚨᚹᚨᚱᛁᛃᚨᛉ.

humanity

We catch a break with 'humanity.' There are complications but they won't end up mattering. There are a few ways to say 'humanity' but they all start man(n)-; we can have our pick of -kin or -kind to end it but -kin is more common, which in PN is *kunja. But the 'man' words in early Germanic languages are a little weird. Sometimes it has one n, sometimes two; it's always two in Old Norse, but it's hard to say if that was true in elder runic language. Fortunately we can sidestep this: in most runes you only write a letter once, even if the sound is long. But to use a connecting vowel or not? Gothic has compounds in mana-, manna-, man-, and mann-. So *man(n)akunja or *man(n)kunja? Well, as Martin Syrett (1994) pounds out, Germanic in general and Gothic in particular are not consistent when it comes to stem vowels in compounds. There's a tendency to spread -a- as a connecting vowel even where it doesn't belong. So we should feel pretty safe that even if *man(n)akunja isn't the inherited form from Proto-Germanic, it was always a possibility. Finally, worst comes to worst, you could just let ᛗ stand for the whole word, given that it's the 'man' rune anyway.

Last, we'll have to put that in the genitive case to make it 'of mankind.' We don't have examples of neuter ja-stems in the genitive from the Elder Futhark but there isn't really strong reason to believe it wasn't *-jas, so: *kunjas.

We've arrived at my answer:

*þonaraʀ warjaʀ *man(n)akunjas þonaraʀ warijaʀ manakunjas ᚦᛟᚾᚨᚱᚨᛉ ᛬ ᚹᚨᚱᛁᛃᚨᛉ ᛬ ᛗᚨᚾᚨᚲᚢᚾᛃᚨᛊ

Anyway I hope you don't mind me going completely over the top answering this, I don't think I realized before starting to answer this that I needed to get it out of my system.

[destinationtoast]

I stumbled upon this... Thing by what looks like an actual journalism outfit, or at least their infographics wing. Thoughts?

https://pudding.cool/2024/10/fanfic/

Sighhhhh. Thanks for sharing this link (and then waiting three months for a reply, lol). I happened to have seen this one near to when it came out, but I am always glad to have people share such things with me!

So I have complicated, but partly "ARGH," thoughts about this article. And I ranted about it in some detail in Slack when I first read it. I initially didn't reply to this ask because I was trying to go back through the logs to find some of my specific past complaints, but they were lost to the mists of the Slack paywall. But here is my main complaint, roughly approximating the way that I probably ranted in Slack, for your enjoyment/excess punctuation needs:

There's so much data visualization here! And ship artwork, and interactivity, and more -- so much time clearly went into this!! But it's over-extrapolating!! from one data set!! of the top ships on onLY ONE FANDOM PLATFORM!!!! About which they gave no caveats or historical context when extrapolating to "what fans ship and why"!!!!!! When a bunch of fans have written about what fans ship and why, and in some cases gathered data about how platforms differ, and some other fandom journalists have cited that work!!!!!!! Why did these folks not do more research first before diving into all that data visualization, especially if they're journalists???????? ARGH.

But also...

At the same time, this is it's so close to just being really cool! There is some nifty analysis in here, including about things like canonicity and changes over time! I want more of this kind of deep dive out there, and more analysis, and more visualization! And there are some cool links to both scholarly and journalistic writing about fandom, in addition to citing/making use of Lulu's demographically detailed AO3 ship stats. So it's an interesting meaty read, if you keep in mind the limitations.

@olderthannetfic and I co-presented at GeekGirlCon 2019 about differences among some popular fandom platforms (among other things). Here is one of the most relevant graphs for caveating the Pudding article about shipping and "what fandom ships":

Franzi has also gathered a bunch of other data on differences between AO3 and FFN, and her earlier work on platform differences inspired some of my cross-platform comparisons about shipping, genres, languages. (@olderthannetfic please chime in with other relevant links if you want to, especially if you have more recent data!)

One of the things the Pudding shared that I found interesting was their comparison between the most common tags in M/M, F/M, and F/F:

[x] Nice to see more than just the top 10 tags, and interesting to see them categorized. I have gathered some related data about common AO3 tags in each of these categories, but I have to finish writing that up and sharing it. (That's one of my WIP resolutions for this year.) But I did share some data about the differences in the relative amount of use of smutty and kinky tags on AO3 between the three shipping categories:

(A commenter recently reminded me of one of my conclusions: "Everyone has butts, but only pairs of dudes seem very likely to touch or lick or fuck them." XD )

I find it interesting that F/M fic is most likely to tag Rough Sex and D/s! But of course, tagging behavior is not the same as what's being written about. And this is just AO3 data, and sometimes relatively low numbers of it, so definitely not representative of fandom at large. :)

(...this all this reminds me how much I want to get back to this work and look more at other differences between the shipping categories!)

ANYWAY. That was possibly a longer answer than you wanted, and several months later than you were probably expecting. XD But I appreciate you sharing the link and asking!

[ghelgheli]

17! but also using the opportunity of the ask game to get to know more about the effortless worldbuilding in sff :)

from the end-of-year book ask

17: Did any books surprise you with how good they were?

I think Three Body Problem is the only one meeting this condition this year so I'll have no trouble staying on topic :> but I'm gonna specifically talk about "hard" SF as I conceive of it—I haven't read any analysis so this may just be a jumble of improvised thoughts.

SF, being "speculative" fiction, of course has to take on the problem of speculating and of presenting things that don't (and perhaps cannot) happen. On average this is accomplished thru a healthy combination of scientific grounding and good-natured handwaving: I drop a few sentences about "quantum entanglement" and you go along with my ansible, or you tell me about "positronic circuits" and I agree that you can make a brain with them. This is the compact that makes SF work because you fundamentally cannot expect speculation without, well, ceding ground on reality.

But at least a subset of SF readers are of the kind to really want to grok how it is that this or that scientific feature of the world works or may come about. Every contraption and novel technology is like a puzzle to be riddled out. This is the place where speculation becomes sincere mechanical prediction, and it's why I love hard SF.

This subset of readers can be matched to a subgenre of writers who commit fully to filling in as many blanks in their technological, biological, etc. speculation as possible. The rows of astronomical data can't be left vague—tell me what frequency of light we're dealing with here—xenobiology isn't taken for granted—what is the neurology of your aliens??—and so on. The dots are connected, the rest of the owl is drawn for real, the image is made crisp. Like fireworks for the reader's brain.

When this kind of worldbuilding is executed well imo it looks effortless. Looks, not is, because behind every explanation of near-c travel is hours of research into at least special relativity and time dilation, along with calculations by-hand. Behind every account of an exoplanet's atmosphere is probably a few papers perused on the subject and several articles on scientific american. Peter Watts, in the note at the end of Blindsight, includes a fucking bibliography of a hundred or so references as well as thank-yous to many an academic he split handles of liquor with. And this is only the visible fragment of what has to be a library of knowledge accumulated both passively and actively to make a speculated world feel as concretely plausible as possible.

None of this is necessary for good SF. The aforementioned compact means any author can opt out of this commitment at any time. But it's what it takes to make tightly-written hard SF, where your conceptual hands are kept diligently at your side, waving an idea through maybe once every five chapters when you have no other choice.

So anyway, Three Body Problem is a tour de force in doing this and doing it cleanly. It uses a storytelling device a lot of hard SF employs to make it work: rather than stuffing dense exposition into narration (at which point, just read the source papers) it deploys a cast of characters who more than anything else, really know their shit. We get exposition trickle-fed through experts who are trying, along with us, to make sense of their novel environments and unfamiliar technologies using their knowledge of the present limits of human understanding. This is what Watts does in Blindsight too, by the way: a claustrophobic ship crewed by technical specialists makes first contact, so everyone has something encyclopedic to say about everything and it's only natural.

What astounded me about Cixin Liu's writing is that he made it work just when I least thought he would be able to. I was sure I was being shown things completely inexplicable and necessarily supernatural until he went and explained them in plain terms; better yet, he explained them in ways that made so much sense in retrospect that I was kicking myself for not seeing the answer. This has exactly the flavour of a good puzzle.

The trade-off hard SF makes is that you are often limited in the metaphorical/thematic work you can do through your speculation. I think the contrast between "calendrical science" in Yoon Ha Lee's Machineries of Empire series and Asimov's "psychohistory" illustrates this well.

Yoon Ha Lee has mathematical training, and calendrical science is a speculative field consisting of theorems, conjectures, proofs, etc. in the language of mathematics that stand in for cultural hegemony and power projection. This makes for a great operationalization of soft power: space is filled and distorted by the quantifiable effects of whatever regime is dominant there (the "calendar" here being synecdoche for culture writ large). But obviously he can't fill in the blanks of how a calendar causes spacetime distortions that specifically make one side's weapons more effective, or provide certain formations with shielding effects. This is, I guess, semi-hard (lol) SF—you can see how it's supposed to work, but it's clear that it just won't. What you get in return is pretty politically interesting storytelling.

Psychohistory is the converse: a deterministic-enough lovechild of economics and sociology explained in the Foundation series as using all the familiar methods of linear algebra and differential equations together with unfamiliar innovations of just how to quantify human behaviour in order to make reliable predictions. There are entire chapters dedicated to explaining the conceptual nuance that went into developing psychohistory ("the hand on thigh principle" from prelude to foundation is just about how the theory resolves divergence by reducing insignificant terms to zero) and an entire book to exploring one of its limitations. It's fascinating to read. But you also get little narrative depth out of it, because hard SF, even when done well, is not guaranteed to make a story thematically interesting or politically compelling. This is the Three Body Problem problem too: its political commitments are threadbare and unserious because that's just not what it's about. I couldn't recommend it on those terms, but that's not what I like so much about it. I will say the conceptualization goes a little off the rails in the final chapters, but I think most SF authors were in some kind of string theory inspired fugue state at the time.

What I would love to see (and I'm sure exists) is hard SF that also has interesting politics. Unfortunately that's an intersection of two already-narrow intersections.

ty for ask✨🐐

[shenanigans-and-imagines]

AB, Mogwix and Co.

This was a piece of art did by one of the other amazing players at my D&D table for The Wild Beyond the Witchlight campaign and I love it! The robot with the hat is my PC, Environmental Analysis Automaton A-B4 or AB for short. They're a Circle of the Shepherd Druid trying to find their creator who went missing at the Witchlight Carnival under mysterious circumstances.

The other member of our party include Buttercup, the minotaur college of lore bard, Pan, the half elf college of eloquence bard/fey pact warlock, Mogwix, the goblin wizard, and Goramorn, the dragonborn way of the dragon monk.

I've been playing them for a while now and thought I'd share some of what I wrote about their creation.

Also, after this campaign wraps up we'll be starting a Curse of Strahd campaign which we will be streaming on twitch! Let me know if any of you are interested in watching or at the very least would like to hear about my PC for that campaign.

Memory Banks: 00.00.00.00.001

Visual data: 

Environment: enclosed, wood interior, man made 

Danger rating: Yellow; tripping and magical hazards  

Lifeforms: 1 Humanoid, Designation: Human Male

Audio data:

Human Male:

…there was light. Ah! Yes! Third time’s the charm, or eleventh in this case. 

 Alright Environmental Analysis Automotom Prototype A-B4, let’s see if you’re the one. Oh, that really is mouthful isn’t it? We’ll have to come up with something different. Of course, if all goes well you’ll be able to do that yourself some day, eh?

Why anyone would want to scrap you is beyond me. Well you know what they say, man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

 Oh, well…I suppose I shouldn’t say that. Readings look like you’re picking up everything audio and visual. Excellent. Was a bit worried about your memory banks. Obviously for an analysis unit all you’d really be worried about are the plants and the like pertaining to your programming. Admittedly it was a spotty job. But the storage is just about perfect. Probably will need to work on expanding it. Wouldn’t want you to have to erase memories to keep new ones. 

Oh well, details to be sorted later. Made a bit of a mess myself. 

Welcome to the world A-B4. I’ve got a feeling you’re going to be spectacular. 

Analysis:

Environment: Moderately hazardous

Humanoid: Mostly harmless

Memory Banks: 00.00.00.00.102

New Program: Designation: Speech 

Audio Data: 

Julian:

Sorry AB. Seems as though I might have crossed the wrong wires. Your visual input is temporarily down, but let’s test out this new feature. 

Oh there have been so many things I’ve been wanting to ask you. Your vocabulary should be up to snuff. I took special care in your speech pattern recognition. Best way to learn is through doing, after all. Doing in this case having been listening to my rambling for the last few months. Hopefully it did us both some good. 

I think it did. It’s how children learn at any rate. 

Alright, first question: what is your name? 

Searching…

Statement: Designation: Environmental Analysis Automotom Prototype A-B4

Julian:

No, not your designation. What is your name?

Statement: Request unclear. Specify. 

Julian:

What do you want to be called? 

Statement: Request unclear. Specify. 

Julian:

Well, I do suppose it’s still a bit early for you to have proper wants now isn’t it? Still got a lot of programming to get through. We’ll save your name for later. Hopefully you won’t resent me calling you AB in the future. 

I hate to ask what your thoughts on me now are.

Statement: Answer. Analysis of Human Male, Designation: Julian. Wizard. Middle Age. Diet: Tea. Sleep pattern: Inconsistent. Communication: Heavily Verbal. Danger level: Yellow. 

Julian: 

Now that’s a shining endorsement, I must say. 

Statement: Understood. Analysis confirmed. 

Julian:

Alright, next on the list, fine tune your audio input to recognize irony. 

And I’m hardly middle aged. I don’t plan to die at seventy. Well, seventy-two if you’re getting technical, but I’m nowhere near the top of the hill let alone going down it. 

Statement: Understood. 

Julian:

Let’s just get your eyes working properly again. 

Memory Bank: 00.00.00.200

New Visual Data: Still Image: Tiefling Female. Expression: Unknown. 

Audio Data:

Julian:

Happy. See the smile? She’s happy. 

Facial Expression: Happy. 

Statement: Understood. Smile means happy. 

Julian:

Alright. Now let’s go back to this one. 

New Visual Data: Still Image: Dragonborn Male. Expression: Happy. 

Julian:

Understandable confusion. See how his brow creases. That’s anger. 

Question: Showing teeth indicates happiness and anger?

Julian:

I’d say it’s usually either or, but yes. The subtleties are in the eyes. Mouths may lie, but the eyes always tell the truth. We’ll get more into the nuances once you get the basics down. 

Question: What is lie?

Julian:

Deception. It��s when a person says one thing but means another. 

Question: Like irony? 

Julian:

Ah no…well, sort of. It comes down to intent really. It’s when somebody makes a false statement and indends for another to believe them. 

Question: Why lie? 

Julian: 

Any number of reasons. Some people lie in order to trick somebody into doing something they want. Other times people lie in order to comfort another. 

Statement: Definition unclear. 

Julian:

Fair enough. I think this is just something you’ll have to wait to figure out when you’re older. 

Statement: Understood. Question will remain unanswered. 

Memory Bank: 00.00.01.002

Julian:

I do hope you don’t find these memories too boring once you properly wake up. I mean, most days are boring, but from what I understand you’ll be able to remember everything that’s ever happened to you, this included. 

I can only imagine what you’ll think of me. Try to be charitable. I’d argue no parent in the world has put this much effort into the actual creation process. 

Oh Gods, me a father? That doesn’t sound right. I’m not old enough– Well, I am plenty old enough, but I never saw myself as the fatherly type. 

Forget I said anything. Or, no, don’t forget. That’s not an order. Just an expression.

I’m really not giving you much of a leg up if I’m your example am I?  We’re going to have to make sure you get out more.

Memory Bank: 00.00.01.095

Visual Data:

Environment: Lab

Danger Rating: Yellow, tripping and magical hazards

Lifeforms: 1 Humanoid, Designation: Elf Male

Facial Expression: Surprised, subcategory: Unknown

Audio Data:

Unknown Elf: 

What in the nine hells? 

New Visual Data:

Lifeform: 1 Humanoid, Designation: Julian

Facial Expression: Surprised, subcategory: Put-out

Julian:

What are you doing back here?

Elf Male:

I should be asking you the same thing. You’re not seriously considering this. 

New Visual Data:

New Facial Expression: Elf Male

Facial Expression: Angry, subcategory: Very

Julian:

There is a reason why I keep my work private. 

Elf Male:

It’s one thing to work with automatons, maybe dabble in trying to awaken one for a period of time, but this? Do you realize what magic you’re tampering with?

Julian:

What I’m doing is just taking the awaken spell and to its most logical conclusion. Where exactly am I going too far? 

Elf Male:

To create a sentient creature they require a soul. You think you can just create a soul out of whole cloth?

Julian:

Last I checked quite a number of creatures create new souls every day, oftentimes by accident. 

Elf Male:

You know what I mean. Those are living, breathing, biological beings touched by the divine. This is a machine. Whatever programs or even magic you put into it, all it will ever be able to do is pantomime mortal emotions. It will forever be soulless unless you give it one or somehow deluded yourself into thinking you could create one. 

Julian:

I am making no claims to my personal ability to isolate the soul. My only claim is that something doesn’t require biological parts to have one. 

AB has no baseline instincts, not even survival. They were initially programmed for cold, calculated analysis of raw environmental data. All I’m doing is attempting to give them the ability to ask why and the choice to find the answer. 

Curiosity, in its purest form. That’s where it all starts. I give them the baseline ability to recognize emotions in others and the rest writes itself. How they decide to react will ultimately be up to them as they grow to understand and empathize with the world around them. Now look me in the eye and tell me that’s not any child you’ve ever met in your life. 

Elf Male: 

All without a soul to guide them. 

Julian:

You really haven’t met many children, have you?

Elf Male:

This isn’t a joke, Julian. Gods, do you not hear yourself?

Julian:

What exactly am I doing wrong? I’m not hurting anyone. No bodies are being exhumed. No souls have been stolen. No deals have been struck. All I am doing is what every wizard has done which is explore the full extent of our reality. 

Now either you’re right and what I end up making will merely pantomime mortals. Or I’m right, and I will have proven that souls are not given to us by some divine entity. What we call a soul is created within ourselves for each other. No gods required. 

Elf Male:

I can only hope I’m right.

Julian:

And I can only feel sorry for you. 

Visual Data:

Elf Male: Out of range

Analysis:

Elf Male: Potentially harmful

New Visual Data:

Lifeform: Julian

Facial expression: Sad, subcategory: unknown

Question: Are you sad?

Julian:

Not sad, AB. Disappointed perhaps.

Statement: Understood. Expression is disappointment.

Question: What is disappointment?

Julian:

It’s when you hoped something would be different from what it actually is. 

I wish I could tell you people like him are a minority. I wish I could say that others will see you and fully accept you as the person you will become. 

Some of them will. I think most people will want to. It’s hard to say. There is a great deal of ignorance and fear in the world, and a lot of people are content to leave it that way. 

Do try to be patient with us though. We’re only mortal. 

Statement: Request unclear. Specify. 

Julian:

I guess what I mean to say is, go into the world assuming people want to be kind.

Statement: Understood.

Question: And this can cause disappointment? 

Julian:

More often than not, but you’ve got to do it anyway. 

Statement: Understood. 

Memory Bank: 00.00.00.01.269

Audio Data:

Julian: 

I really do hate to admit it AB, but perhaps Dustain was right. Arcane magic will only get us so far. You’ve progressed nicely, but something is missing. Just that last little umph. 

Don’t worry, I’m not about to ask a god for help. Bastards would just rub in our faces. 

The awaken spell is the baseline of all of this. Perhaps that’s the best place to start. The magic innate in nature is separate from the divine. You’re not so different. Metal is merely refined elements found in nature. Just because you’re man made shouldn’t exclude you. 

Hmm, perhaps I shouldn’t have wiped all that analysis programming. 

Memory Bank: 00.00.00.02.154

Julian:

Now this is silly, isn’t it. I’m not even sure if this is going to work. But, I think I’ve got a lead on something that might finally wake you up. Not sure when I’ll be coming back, if I will. Of course, if I don’t come back, you’ll hardly care, now, will you? But, you might care, someday. Depends if this works. Memories are funny like that. They change the more you remember them. That was the point of all my ramblings anyway. 

What am I trying to say here? Wish me luck? Wish us luck? 

I can’t wait to meet you.

[sasheneskywalker]

A Class Analysis of Joker and The Dark Knight

Excerpt [emphasis added by me]:

When the Joker movie came out in 2019 I remember a lot of people worrying that it glorified violence. While that worry is understandable given instances of copycat violence in the United States, it's telling that this worry wasn't apparent anywhere near to the same extent when The Dark Knight came out. A movie which could also be said to glorify violence, in which the ethically ambiguous but sympathetic titular character brutalizes a person who's under arrest as part of an interrogation, a form of violence that is very real and very common in the United States. Batman in The Dark Knight was just as willing to use violence as the Joker, the difference being that he used violence for the sake of law and order.

Of course the person being brutalized was the Joker, someone who's evil, a villain, a criminal and so undeserving of our sympathy. The same kind of excuses we might hear about real world cases of police brutality. And so a Hollywood movie teaches us to allow human rights violations here and there just so long as its victims are deemed evil enough and we are taught to trust powerful unaccountable people, not subject to any form of democratic control, to be able to decide for us exactly who is evil enough.

The Joker in The Dark Knight is presented exactly the way the state wants us to view criminals and enemies of the state. And what makes the Joker from 2019 politically significant is that it completely subverts this presentation by contextualizing the Joker in real working class life. My thesis in this video will thus be that The Dark Knight from 2008 and Joker from 2019 in fact represent opposing class standpoints.

There have already been a lot of analyses and commentaries on the right-wing politics of The Dark Knight. It for instance seems to defend the old platonic idea of the noble lie – lying to the population for the sake of political stability. In this case you have district attorney Harvey Dent lying about being Batman, a cop faking his own death, and finally that same cop lying about the crimes of Harvey Dent so that Gotham's population continues to view him positively as a public figure. An act based on the common idea that the masses need to be lied to and deceived because they are not mature enough to handle the truth. Not to mention that lie is then used to fuel support for the Dent Act which denies parole to prisoners.

Then there is a clear reference to things like the so-called Patriot Act, surveillance of private citizens, the violation of people's privacy for the sake of preventing crime and terror. In this case Batman uses private data from the phones of all of Gotham's citizens in order to locate the Joker. He admits that it's unethical but makes an exception for it, believing it to be justified as a necessary evil in this particular case. So lying to the public, violent interrogation and invasive surveillance are all used for the sake of maintaining law and order. Though of course this is a superhero movie and things like that don't happen in real life.

As has been pointed out a million times the Batman is also a billionaire, a member of Gotham's ruling class who was born into wealth and uses military gray technology to beat up criminals most of whom in all likelihood have themselves been victims of Gotham's disintegrating social conditions. Conditions that Bruce Wayne's wealth has for the most part shielded him from.

But what I'd like to emphasize here most of all is the way the movie presents the Joker. The Joker has no past, no origin. We are shown nothing about his life that would allow us to relate to him or sympathize with him. Even when he talks about his past, namely about how he got his scars, he tells two conflicting stories about them, meaning that we cannot even trust him when it comes to his own life experiences. He lies and uses violence, which of course the forces of law and order do too, but the Joker uses it for the sake of chaos.

As a concrete human being the Joker is empty and undefined. He's not given a name or any clear motivations. The only thing that defines him is that he is an agent of chaos. And this by no accident is exactly how the state under the ruling class wants people to view criminals. Not as human beings with the past with their own desires and motivations, not as people who have been conditioned by the circumstances they were born into, not as people who themselves might have been victims but rather agents of chaos, pure and simple. Because if we view the criminal not as a human being with relatable experiences and desires but as a purely evil embodiment of chaos, we are less likely to empathize with them and we are then more likely to be okay with their rights being violated when for example they are brutalized during an interrogation. If we see criminals as villains who simply want to watch the world burn, as Alfred puts it, then we're a lot less likely to object when the police force is increasingly expanded and militarized.

[...]

The Dark Knight Rises is arguably even more ideological than the Dark Knight. Featuring a bizarre allusion to the French Revolution that Christopher Nolan drew from Charles Dickens’ "A Tale of Two Cities". Bane seemingly represents the French Revolutionary Robespierre. He frees prisoners, alluding to the storming of the Bastille, and uses populist rhetoric about wealth inequality, corruption, and oppression.

Now having a revolutionary as a villain could have made a really interesting plotline for a Batman movie, raising all kinds of questions about society's structural problems, collective action and the extent to which political violence is called for in a truly corrupt society. But those kinds of questions would undermine the very ideology propping up the trilogy and so they must be blocked. Instead Bane is made out to be using revolutionary rhetoric only as a dishonest tactic with his true motive being the destruction of Gotham, using a nuclear bomb.

This plotline is completely ridiculous except as a representation of how right-wing counterrevolutionaries view revolutionaries – as immoral duplicitous villains, who talk of freedom and liberation but in truth want nothing but the destruction of civilization. Their critique, as always, tries to redirect the focus away from society's social conditions and material problems into the immoral character of the revolutionary who must be stopped and punished to restore law and order.

It is quite jarring how The Dark Knight Rises presents a revolution. It shows social unrest, prisoners being freed, people's courts set up, the buildings of the rich being occupied, suggesting that it really is a popular revolution, that it has popular support. But what it never shows even one is the revolutionary masses as a subject. We aren't shown what the people engaged in the revolution think about it, what their relation to Bane is, what kind of living conditions led them to join the revolution or the forms of organization they use. It all kind of just comes out of nowhere, as if entire sections of the population were driven to revolution as unwitting dupes, merely because of Bane's agitation.

This is again completely unrealistic but it is exactly how anti-revolutionaries view the revolution – as something organized by outside agitators because there's no way that the masses have the capacity to form their own political consciousness or create political organizations for their own goals. It is really a form of Great Man Theory – that is, history is shaped not by the masses but by powerful influential individuals. Batman on the one hand, Bane on the other. The masses exist only as ignorant background characters that are there to support either one or the other. Batman is there to rescue the people, Bane is there to destroy them, but they both ultimately seek power over them and the people themselves are just passive objects caught in the midst of their struggle.

Perhaps the most ideological moment in the movie is the scene where Gotham's police force form a crowd and charge at Bane and his mercenaries. Realistically, this scene makes no sense. Cops have weapons, military-grade equipment, and at least some tactical training. You would expect them to enter armed conflict with some degree of tactical formation or at least to take cover and assume firing positions. Instead, they move as a crowd.

This makes no sense except as a clever symbolic reversal. What does this image remind you of? It really looks more like a mass demonstration or a worker strike than a police formation. It looks like the masses coming out to the streets to protest, forming a crowd and moving spontaneously, which in real life is meant precisely with cops, standing on the other side ready to enforce repression. This symbolic reversal takes the aesthetics of mass rebellion and places it on the forces of law and order, presenting them as the true expression of the spirit of the people. Bane's revolutionaries on the other hand tell them to “disperse or we will shoot”, exactly what cops would say in real life clashes on the streets.

The portrayal of protests and riots in Joker at least reverses this symbolism to place it back on its feet. Their opposing relations to the police are also visually Illustrated in the poster for The Dark Knight Rises which shows Batman standing on a police car as its protector, which is then subverted in Joker which ends with Arthur Fleck dancing on top of a police car, symbolizing his overcoming of law and order.

When Christopher Nolan does depict class division, he always does it in moralizing terms. He shows for instance a stock trader having his boots shined who then throws a dollar bill at the shoe shiner, signifying just what a bad person he is. But this is done only so that by contrast the myth of the good moral capitalist could be propped up in the form of the Wayne family. Christopher Nolan is worried about extreme wealth inequality but his solution to it is a moral one, the nice philanthropic capitalist who cares about the people that he rules over. This comes straight out of Charles Dickens who also makes a distinction between the good capitalist who finances orphanages and the bad greedy capitalist.

This moralizing type of framing shows up again and again in anti-revolutionary rhetoric. By focusing on the moral character of members of the ruling class, the spotlight is taken off the way society is structured in the first place, obscuring the fact that the poor and the ruling classes have opposing interests by virtue of their class position itself, independently of whether they're good people or not. The economic struggle is reduced to a moral one.

[aartidigiland]

Digital Marketing Skills for 2025: How to Excel with SEO, SMM, and More

Digital marketing remains to evolve the kind of businesses and it has become an essential skill set for working individuals. It becomes critical to know the marketing skills required when you consider the fact that more organizations are transforming to digital marketing skills, If you are looking for a digital marketing course after 12th or searching for a digital marketing institute near me, these skills can help you have a great career in 2025.

Why Mastering Digital Marketing Skills is Crucial in 2025

As the future is continuously embracing the era of technology and advanced digital platforms, it is imperative to have workforce with the skills required for digital marketing. The use of digital marketing by firms to improve their visibility, interact with customers, and grow is common. Through the course skills needed for digital marketing you will be able to stand out in a competitive world when it comes to employment.

5 In-Demand Digital Marketing Skills for 2025

1. Optimisation for appearance on the list of the Search engines (SEO).

SEO still serves as one of the critical forms of Internet advertising, enabling companies to occupy higher positions in the list of search engine findings by providing a possibility to attract the so-called free visitors. To master this skill:

·Understand what holding keyword research means and why it helps increase traffic.

·Definition of on-page SEO and off-page SEO, link building and content placing.

·Apart from the basics, use such advanced tools for analytics as Google Analytics, Ahrefs, and SEMrush.

SEO Tip: Some of these keywords might rank very high with local users searching for digital marketing institute near me or digital marketing course in Hisar.

2. Social Media Marketing (SMM)

Social media are an invaluable tool to gain customers’ attention and create a brand image. To excel in social media marketing:

·Get acquainted with such sites as Instagram, LinkedIn and other social media outlets and new technologies.

·Formulate recommendations for writing interesting posts, telling stories and creating interesting campaigns.

·Use other analytical instruments to quantify the achieved results and the level of the audience’s activity.

SMM Tip: Looking at the current trend and young people devices it is advisable to invest on the current trending apps like tiktok so as to reach young people such as students who are thinking of joining a digital marketing course after 12th.

3. Analysis and Interpretation of data

Digital marketing management has always relied on the use of information when making decisions. Analytics skills enable professionals to:

·Monitor activity on a website, behaviour of visitors, and revenues of campaigns.

·For the visualization and analysis of data use tools such as Tableau, Power BI, and Google Analytics.

·Apply data to enhance the ways of targeting customers and raise the level of victory.

Data Tip: Providing data on trends by virtue of analyzing the number of searches, for instance digital marketing skills, or marketing skills, among others.

4. Content Marketing and Copywriting

Content is the key and primary focus for any digital marketing activity. Build expertise in:

·Creating engaging stories, and social proofs.

·Audience personas and how best to use them when creating content.

·Applying the concept of SEO for new page visibility and marketing.

Content Tip: Use keywords like the skills required for digital marketing so that the posts contribute to the marketing of your digital marketing course and have the potential to be found by interested readers.

5. Paid Advertising and PPC Campaigns

PPC advertising and other forms of paid advertising also a fast way of giving businesses tangible leads. To excel in this domain:

·Understand how Google Ads and Meta Ads work, for example.

·Learn the finer details of ad targeting, setting and optimization of the advertising budget.

·Research retargeting techniques in order to achieve a higher level of campaign success.

Advertising Tip: Such advertisements or promotions for phrases like digital marketing institute in Hisar or digital marketing course in Hisar will help in gaining such importance and visibility.

How to Choose the Best Digital Marketing Course for You

Choosing the right kind of digital marketing course, tailor made for your needs is of paramount importance as this should be informing a hands on approach as well as good knowledge about what is happening in the industry. Consider the following:

Eligibility: The majority of courses, including Digiland’s, are rather liberal with entry requirements regarding their digital marketing course meaning that the courses are pretty open to novices.

Location: Looking for a digital marketing institute near me means that you have the opportunity to get quality training from the nearest facility.

Specialization: Select a course that teaches skills ranging from SEO, SMM and any other things like analytics.

How Digiland Marketing Courses Help You Excel

Currently, at Digiland, we provide you with all courses that will give you skills you need to practice digital marketing. Regardless of whether the learner is a high school graduate or a working person our programs address the differing needs. Key highlights include:

·Comprehensive curriculum in line with the industry in terms of the most important domain areas of digital marketing.

·Theoretical and hands-on end-users’ training carried out by the experienced professionals.

·This is because; flexible learning schedules and affordable fees characterize most of the online schools.

If you want to know about the top institute for digital marketing in Hisar, just contact us at Digiland. We make sure that with the modern facilities and distinguished faculty our students are prepared to face the conditions in 2025.

Explore the first step towards having a fulfilling career through joining Digiland’s digital marketing programs. We are the best when it comes to digital marketing course in Hisar or looking for options after the 12th and the best part is the training is always sure to succeed. Want to become a pro in digital marketing? Then why waiting, become a member of Digiland today!

FAQs about Digital Marketing Courses

What are the eligibility criteria for a digital marketing course?

Most courses are open to all, with no prior experience required. Check specific programs for their digital marketing course eligibility.

Can I pursue a digital marketing course after the 12th?

Yes, many institutions, including Digiland, offer beginner-friendly courses designed for students exploring careers post-12th grade.

What is the scope of digital marketing in Hisar?

With businesses in Hisar rapidly embracing digital strategies, there’s a growing demand for skilled marketers.

What are the skills required for digital marketing in 2025?

Key skills include SEO, social media marketing, data analytics, and content creation.

Can beginners enroll in Digiland’s digital marketing courses?

Absolutely! Our programs are structured to accommodate learners at all levels.

[rapeculturerealities]

Crisis pregnancy centers outnumber abortion clinics | WBEZ Chicago

https://www.wbez.org/stories/crisis-pregnancy-centers-outnumber-abortion-clinics/8a973ba6-2a89-45c2-aa04-5043d4d2804d

In Illinois, it might be common for women to encounter a crisis pregnancy center before an abortion provider because the centers are in far greater supply throughout the state, according to a WBEZ analysis of data provided by CPC Map Project at the University of Georgia and from the Abortion Finder directory.

Overall, there are nearly three times as many crisis pregnancy centers in Illinois than abortion providers, the analysis shows. Among the state’s 102 counties, there are 42 counties with crisis pregnancy centers and no in-person abortion providers. Only 12 counties in Illinois have abortion providers, and 23 of the state’s 36 abortion providers are in Cook or DuPage counties.

Michele Landeau, who runs Hope Clinic, an abortion provider in downstate Granite City, has also seen patients who’ve made prior visits to crisis pregnancy centers. In times of crisis, patients sometimes choose what’s closest, Landeau said. “If I find out that I’m pregnant, unexpectedly, and I Google, you know, abortion near me, and a crisis pregnancy center comes up first, and they’re 15 minutes away. And then an abortion clinic comes up second, and they’re four hours away, I’m gonna go to the crisis pregnancy center, of course.”

[nickeverdeen]

Hii! Im requesting a matchup for Arcane and TLOU, only women please <3

My pronouns are she/her, I am Caribbean-American and have brown skin, my hair is naturally really really dark brown but I have reddish brown braids rn. When my hair is straightened (I’ve only straightened it once recently, I don’t like doing it cuz of heat), its like past my shoulders a bit in length. My eyes are really really dark brown as well.

I am 5’4 and on the curvier side, my thighs are on the bigger side with some muscle (I played soccer and danced all while I was younger), my stomach is on the flatter side but not completely flat and I’m a size 36D.

Its hard to explain my style but its like a mix of stockholm style, downtown girl, but also pretty simple and minimal. I like lace tops, dark colored jeans, colorful scarfs, linen pants, soft hoodies, low cut tops (I like showing the girls off every now and then :p). I’m a gold jewelry girl but love silver in shoes, clothing, and my bag.

I unfortunately have one of the worst resting faces. Sometimes I look sad (when I’m nott), sometimes I look upset/mad, and sometimes I just have a blank stare. I’ve been told many times from friends and family that they can’t tell what I’m thinking. In reality I have a very silly personality, I like making jokes and being sarcastic here and there but I think this part of me only comes out when I’m comfortable and close with the other person. In general I’m introverted but will usually be the first to start the conversation with another introvert. I’m pretty shy and have never really been approached or approached anyone in a sober setting. I’ve been compared to being most like a bunny or a cat in that sense.

I’m reserved but at the same time love going out with friends. Recently I was working in a group project and when I was in a group project last year, I naturally take on a leader role where I make sure ever is ok but I’m also a bit bossy bc I like getting work done. I admit I can be mean at times but I’m quick to apologize in a group setting. I can get quite annoyed easily but I never let it show unless I want it known I’m annoyed. I’m a big sister. My mbti is INTP.

Interests wise…I loveee the beach. Especially the beaches in California (I don’t live here, visited a few years ago) and the Caribbean for the clearer water. I love cats, my favorite domesticated animal. My favorite animal in general are penguins <3. I like music sm you will almost never find me without my airpods or headphones. I go to concerts as often as I can. I like anime, not into kpop in terms of the industry happenings but love the music. My career interest rn is data analysis and I actually did a data analysis on my Spotify. I listen mostly to dance pop, bedroom pop/indie, kpop, rap, grunge, and a lot more other genres.

I don’t like people with toooo much energy. I love my extroverts but they know when to be chill and serious. I don’t have a preference on whether my partner would be introvert or extrovert. I love someone that can catch my sarcasm and my jokes. I like it when ppl are honest and upfront with me, I don’t like dancing around topics. I am confrontational only when I notice something is seriously wrong in the other person. There are times or days even where I just need to be alone but I still like being checked on. My love language is definitely acts of service and quality time.

Your Arcane match is…

Caitlyn Kiramman

Caitlyn would be drawn to your reserved nature and would make it her personal mission to draw out your more playful side, finding every subtle smile or laugh you give absolutely enchanting

With your love of the beach, Caitlyn would plan a surprise trip to a lakeside spot near Piltover

The day would include a private picnic, quiet moments by the water, and, of course, an excuse for her to see you more relaxed and in your element

She’d be fascinated by your music taste, letting you introduce her to K-pop, indie, and grunge while she shares her own favorite classical or jazz pieces

She’d even bring you records from Piltover’s best music shops as little surprises

Caitlyn’s calm and observant demeanor would perfectly balance your preference for chill energy

She’d know when to give you space and would always be there to listen when you’re ready to talk

Caitlyn would be captivated by your mix of Stockholm style and simplicity, admiring your looks every time you dress up

She’d subtly hint at how stunning you look in lace and dark colors

She’d notice your love of gold jewelry and even gift you a bracelet or necklace that complements her own minimalistic style

Caitlyn’s sharp detective skills would help her interpret your resting face, making her one of the few people who can tell if you’re actually upset or just neutral

She’d pride herself on “reading” you correctly

Knowing you appreciate quality time and occasional alone time, Caitlyn would be the type to quietly sit with you while you work or read, respecting your need for space but keeping you company all the same

She’d match your sarcasm and dry humor easily, delivering sly comments right back at you

Together, you’d share a playful, teasing dynamic that brings out both your clever sides

Caitlyn would respect your natural tendency to take the lead, and in group settings, she’d subtly back you up or help you stay organized

Your TLOU match is…

Dina

Dina would understand your introverted side, loving quiet days in where you can both relax

She’d be the type to hang out at your place, listening to music or binging shows, while you both recharge

Dina would check in on you regularly without being too intrusive

She’d be aware of when you need your alone time and would respect that, but she’d leave little notes or send you a quick message, so you know she’s there

Dina’s wit and sense of humor would match yours perfectly

She’d find your sarcasm adorable and would keep the jokes going, bringing out your sillier side in the best way

As someone who’s been through intense situations, Dina would understand your reserved nature and be patient with you

Her empathy would make her both gentle and direct, knowing exactly how to approach tough subjects with honesty

Dina would take on a slightly protective role, understanding that you sometimes feel reserved around others

She’d casually keep an eye out for you in social settings, making sure you feel comfortable

She’d absolutely love your Stockholm/downtown girl aesthetic and would compliment you endlessly

Occasionally, she’d borrow one of your hoodies or scarves, adding a hint of her own rugged, effortless style to your closet

With your shared love for animals, she’d be over the moon to volunteer with you at the shelter or spend lazy days with your cats, adoring every moment of caring for animals together

Dina is straightforward, but she’d appreciate your approach to confrontation

You’d both have deep, honest conversations about anything on your minds, knowing that open communication is your foundation

She’d tease you gently about your “serious” resting face, finding it cute that you can look so intimidating while being such a warm person

You’d both laugh about how people misread you

Dina would pick up on your love language quickly, leaving little notes, cooking a simple meal for you, or organizing small surprises

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Penetrating the ice sheet of an ocean moon: Four questions about the Clipper Mission to Europa

On Oct. 14 NASA's Europa Clipper Mission launched. It is the first detailed investigation of Jupiter's moon Europa—which is believed to harbor an ocean so vast that it contains more water than anywhere else in the known universe (even Earth). While the mission won't directly search for life, everywhere water has been found on Earth, life has been present.

Europa's ocean is thought to lie beneath the moon's icy surface, which is why Clipper includes ice-penetrating radar, called Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-surface (REASON). This instrument will probe the ice for evidence of an ocean while also capturing other information about the ice itself, such as thickness and structure. REASON will also map Europa's surface topography and composition and look for water plumes emerging from the ice.

Dustin Schroeder, associate professor of geophysics and of electrical engineering and an expert in using radar to assess glaciers, is a member of the REASON science team—a journey that dates back to his Ph.D. work at the University of Texas with Donald Blankenship, leader of the Clipper radar team.

"If you told 18-year-old me I'd be going to Cape Canaveral to watch the launch of a NASA Flagship Mission, that I was part of both the science and engineering of, I think I'd be beside myself with joy and disbelief," said Schroeder.

NASA makes it clear that 'Europa Clipper is not a life detection mission.' But could it tell us anything about extraterrestrial life?

That's true. It's a "habitability" focused mission. The instruments on the spacecraft and the investigations we'll conduct are focused on exploring and understanding the conditions and processes that govern the evolution and behavior of Europa, its ice shell, and its subsurface ocean.

Once we have a better understanding of Europa, we'll be able to more effectively assess its general habitability and target follow-on missions that would try to detect potential life in the places it's most likely to exist.

In your opinion, what would be the most exciting outcome of this mission?

Of course, like everyone on the mission, I am excited about the possibility that we'll detect a pocket of potentially habitable water within the relatively shallow portion of the ice shell. But, as a radio glaciologist and radar engineer, I'm also totally thrilled to see how our dual-frequency, dual-channel interferometric ice-penetrating radar data looks.

There are a lot of really creative things that we're planning to do with REASON that are first-of-their-kind from a planetary radar point of view. So, I think it stands to be a transformative mission from both a scientific and an engineering perspective. Which is my favorite!

How does this work relate to research you've done on Earth?

My research group is focused on "Radio Glaciology," which spans the science and engineering of ice-penetrating radar. On Earth, my students and I develop ice-penetrating radar systems and collect and analyze data to understand the evolution, behavior, and sea level contributions of ice sheets and glaciers.

As part of the Europa Clipper Science Team, we're doing the same kind of science and engineering work, just focused on using ice-penetrating radar to investigate the processes, conditions, and habitability of Europa's ice shell.

Is there anything this study of Europa could tell us about Earth?

The work we've done to prepare for Europa Clipper has already made major contributions to our terrestrial work.

We've developed a passive radar sounding approach using the sun as a radio noise source to probe the subsurface of the Greenland Ice Sheet. We've discovered a surface melt refreezing and fracture process at play in the shallow firn layer—a layer of ice from a previous season that has refrozen and is characteristically in between glacial ice and snow—across Greenland.

And we're developing joint-analysis processes for active radar sounding and passive radiometer data to measure the top-to-bottom temperature profile of ice sheets. All of these are the direct outgrowth of work we're doing for Europa Clipper. It's an amazing interdisciplinary flow of ideas and techniques.

[darkx-the-dragon-kn1ght]

Chapter 7- Part 9

Ooooh, I see some discoloration in the darkness, and I think I can recognize what it is.

That’s right, our final Pokémon is a Grubbin! Apparently, this encounter can either be a Grubbin or a Joltik, I’m not sure how the game decides which bug to give you here, it could just be a 50/50 thing. But honestly, I would’ve been fine with either of them, both would be helpful for the Gym. Joltik is obvious, being part Electric-type itself by default; as for Grubbin? Well…you’ll see (and no, it’s not about its evolution).

Anyways, I’ve got a good Ball for this, so let’s start by just purely putting it to sleep with Sing.

So far so good. And now, my secret weapon: Chekhov’s Dusk Ball!

Not only is it nighttime, but we’re in a dark building, so this should work perfectly on this Grubbin (especially with it being asleep)!

Outstanding, amazing, 10/10-

I named her Prong after the metal protrusions on electrical plugs- which, you know, given the Grubbin line’s association with electricity and such, seemed fitting.

Anyways, with the lights back on, do these NPCs have anything new to say?

I mean, seems like the lights got fixed pretty quickly, so it couldn’t have been that bad all things considered.

Which god, there’s like thirty of them.

Anyways, those are all the encounters- now it’s time to build our final team for Julia! …After I admire these nighttime light effects.

Nice.

Anyways, as for our team to take on Julia- I did some looking, did some moving-around on the PC, and this is the final product (or, well, near final because there’s yet more grinding to do):

I swapped out Breeze and Streak for Bloom and Prong. Once this Gym battle’s done, I’ll probably bring Breeze back in after beating Julia, but as for Streak…who knows, this may be his time to get some rest. 

I’m keeping in Whiskers because she has a bit more type coverage in the form of Zen Headbutt and Disarming Voice in addition to a STAB Normal move. As for why I’m keeping Riptide in, well- c’mon, he’s our starter! I’m not taking my starter out of the party! It’s like Octopath Traveler, you can’t take the chosen protagonist out of the party- and even when you are allowed to take them out of the party in the endgame, I still don’t do it because I’m too attached.

Anyways, there are some interesting things about Bloom and Prong. For one thing, Bloom apparently has a unique Original Trainer-

“Sweet Co.”...whatever that is. Maybe it’ll become relevant later.

Oh, but Bloom does have the Budew line’s Hidden Ability! Very nice, even if it won’t come into play in this particular Gym battle.

As for why Prong is so special, well, that’s pretty simple: her moves! And in Grubbin’s Gen VII learnset, there’s one move in particular it learns early on, and Prong luckily has it in her current moveset:

BEHOLD! AT LONG LAST, A SINGULAR GROUND-TYPE THING! Again, I doubt we’ll be able to rely on it during this particular battle, but a Ground move is a Ground move and it is so good to have.

Now, the next task is to get these two on the rest of the party’s level- Lv. 16 specifically- and from there, grind everyone up just a bit more (but still below Lv. 20, of course). Bloom in particular is an interesting case, because I want to evolve him into Roselia, but we can’t do that until it’s daytime again. So, I can probably start building up friendship with him now, then continue tomorrow.

And it was in the midst of trying to build up friendship with Bloom that we ran into this new guy, a scientist-looking dude. What’s he got to say?

What kind of analysis would you even be doing on the outside of a building, of all things? Let alone to the point that you get the “wrong” data? How does that even happen?? Do you even have a doctorate, sir??

Wha-!? Excuse me!? Those are what the Read-Outs are?? I mean- if talking to NPCs is what gives those Read-Outs, I mean…I do that pretty frequently already, so maybe getting all the Read-Outs won’t be so bad…? I still wish we could just get the data by battling under that Field Effect a certain amount of times or something…

Which Field Effect is this Read-Out even about, anyways?

Oh- yeah, that makes sense.

Previous

Next

[oddygaul]

The Mountain in the Sea

I picked this up at a bookstore in Seattle where the shelves were covered in sticky notes with employee recommendations, reviews and comparisons on them. I wish every bookstore had that.

It was ok.

My favorite part of this book was the subtle, implied-but-not-focused-on decolonization of the world that can be gleaned through context. I think a lot of the time when you see a work take place in a realistic, “near-future” setting, unless the it’s specifically about geopolitics, you tend to see one of two things. With more entrenched subgenres, often they’ll just borrow from the classics for aesthetic and call it a day - see, for example, every cyberpunk novel that’s set in a world-dominating Japan just because. Alternatively, the author just won’t engage with the idea at all, and, despite being 50-or-whatever years into the future and centered around some life-changing technology or concept, the world powers will somehow have remained nearly unchanged in terms of makeup and influence. And I get these approaches; writing’s hard, and sometimes re-imagining the whole world isn’t what you want to spend your energy on. However, especially with the latter approach, it implies a certain immutability and determinism to the world order, and to me, lends the setting a certain hopelessness that the author may not have even intended.

So, it’s refreshing to read a novel where the world has dramatically changed in interesting, optimistic or well-considered ways, especially when it’s entirely incidental and not really even relevant to the plot like it was here. Tibet is its own autonomous nation state, seems to have fought for and claimed back its independence, and is now a world leader in semi-sentient networked drone tech. The U.S. is mentioned I think once, as an aside that implies its flagging power. And my favorite bit: many of russia’s current colonies have broken apart from the empire, derussified, and reclaimed their sovereignty, land and culture, leaving russia a fraction of what it once was and seemingly a failing state. And again, this isn’t a plot point; we just pick it up via worldbuilding moments like when one of our leads (who we later learn is ethnically a Tatar) stops in at a teahouse in the Republic of Astrakhan, next to the “whitewashed old Kremlin walls”, or when he mentions that his hometown, formerly in the Republic of Tatarstan under the control of russia, is now a part of the free ‘Ural Commonwealth’. The world as presented in the book still has plenty of bleak, horrible shit going on, of course, but it’s nice when an author takes the time and effort to present some prospects like that as a matter of course.

I didn’t think the book really delivered on its main premise especially well. I’ll admit that I read the synopsis wrong when I bought the book (I was hoping for a first contact story set on an water-based exoplanet; I’m still chasing the high of In Other Waters), but I was still game for a first contact story set on near-future Earth, and octopi are pretty dope. Thing is, the book isn’t really as interested in telling one satisfying narrative as it is in almost academically examining the concept of intelligence from a variety of different angles; it almost felt like an anthology masquerading as a novel. 

While that’s not a bad approach on its face, I simply didn’t find most of the scenarios very compelling. Evrim’s sentience and relationship with DIANIMA didn’t feel like a very unique view on AI - if anything, the point-fives, the AI partners people are increasingly turning to instead of real relationships, seemed like the most prescient take. The algorithm-driven fishing ship, with its crew trapped eternally at the whims of its churning data analysis, was a fascinatingly macabre concept, but the scenario plays out without any real surprises. Amidst all that, the encounters with the burgeoning octopus society were well done, but with all the space given to all the other subplots, the ‘main’ story felt like it just got to the end of its first act before the book ended. It’s certainly true that actually getting the two species to a point of mutual linguistic understanding would take many years; to me, though, that means the narrative demands a timeskip, not to just be ended with a shrug.

I learned a lot of neat octopus facts, at least. Did you know octopi and other cephalopods are capable of editing their own RNA?

[hollosene]

from Webb’s Jupiter Images Showcase Auroras, Hazes by Alise Fisher, blogs.nasa.com (August 2022)

"The two images come from the observatory’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), which has three specialized infrared filters that showcase details of the planet. Since infrared light is invisible to the human eye, the light has been mapped onto the visible spectrum. Generally, the longest wavelengths appear redder and the shortest wavelengths are shown as more blue. Scientists collaborated with citizen scientist Judy Schmidt to translate the Webb data into images. 

In the standalone view of Jupiter, created from a composite of several images from Webb, auroras extend to high altitudes above both the northern and southern poles of Jupiter. The auroras shine in a filter that is mapped to redder colors, which also highlights light reflected from lower clouds and upper hazes. A different filter, mapped to yellows and greens, shows hazes swirling around the northern and southern poles. A third filter, mapped to blues, showcases light that is reflected from a deeper main cloud.  

The Great Red Spot, a famous storm so big it could swallow Earth, appears white in these views, as do other clouds, because they are reflecting a lot of sunlight. 

“The brightness here indicates high altitude – so the Great Red Spot has high-altitude hazes, as does the equatorial region,” said Heidi Hammel, Webb interdisciplinary scientist for solar system observations and vice president for science at AURA. “The numerous bright white ‘spots’ and ‘streaks’ are likely very high-altitude cloud tops of condensed convective storms.” By contrast, dark ribbons north of the equatorial region have little cloud cover...

...Data from telescopes like Webb doesn’t arrive on Earth neatly packaged. Instead, it contains information about the brightness of the light on Webb’s detectors. This information arrives at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), Webb’s mission and science operations center, as raw data. STScI processes the data into calibrated files for scientific analysis and delivers it to the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes for dissemination. Scientists then translate that information into images like these during the course of their research (here’s a podcast about that). While a team at STScI formally processes Webb images for official release, non-professional astronomers known as citizen scientists often dive into the public data archive to retrieve and process images, too.

Judy Schmidt of Modesto California, a longtime image processor in the citizen science community, processed these new views of Jupiter. For the image that includes the tiny satellites, she collaborated with Ricardo Hueso, a co-investigator on these observations, who studies planetary atmospheres at the University of the Basque Country in Spain.   

Schmidt has no formal educational background in astronomy. But 10 years ago, an ESA contest sparked her insatiable passion for image processing. The “Hubble’s Hidden Treasures” competition invited the public to find new gems in Hubble data. Out of nearly 3,000 submissions, Schmidt took home third place for an image of a newborn star.  

Since the ESA contest, she has been working on Hubble and other telescope data as a hobby. “Something about it just stuck with me, and I can’t stop,” she said. “I could spend hours and hours every day.” 

Her love of astronomy images led her to process images of nebulae, globular clusters, stellar nurseries, and more spectacular cosmic objects. Her guiding philosophy is: “I try to get it to look natural, even if it’s not anything close to what your eye can see.” These images have caught the attention of professional scientists, including Hammel, who previously collaborated with Schmidt on refining Hubble images of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9’s Jupiter impact. 

Jupiter is actually harder to work with than more distant cosmic wonders, Schmidt says, because of how fast it rotates. Combining a stack of images into one view can be challenging when Jupiter’s distinctive features have rotated during the time that the images were taken and are no longer aligned. Sometimes she has to digitally make adjustments to stack the images in a way that makes sense. 

Webb will deliver observations about every phase of cosmic history, but if Schmidt had to pick one thing to be excited about, it would be more Webb views of star-forming regions. In particular, she is fascinated by young stars that produce powerful jets in small nebula patches called Herbig–Haro objects. “I’m really looking forward to seeing these weird and wonderful baby stars blowing holes into nebulas,” she said.  

– Elizabeth Landau, NASA Headquarters 

Jupiter from the James Webb Space Telescope

[zonalech90909090]

HR Training with Certification near me

Human Resource (HR) professionals play a crucial role in shaping the workforce of any organization. From recruitment and onboarding to employee relations and compliance, HR specialists ensure smooth operations. If you are searching for HR training with certification near me, then Zonal Tech Solutions is your trusted partner in providing industry-recognized HR courses. Our comprehensive training programs help individuals and organizations stay ahead in the competitive job market.

Why Choose HR Training with Certification?

Earning an HR certification provides professionals with a competitive edge. Whether you are an aspiring HR specialist or a seasoned professional, HR training programs ensure you stay updated with industry best practices. The major benefits of HR training include:

Career Advancement – A certified HR professional has higher chances of career growth and promotions.

Industry Recognition – Certifications from reputed training providers like Zonal Tech Solutions are widely accepted in the industry.

Legal and Compliance Knowledge – HR professionals must be well-versed in labor laws and company policies.

Improved Hiring Skills – Learn the best recruitment strategies to find and retain top talent.

Employee Management – Develop skills to handle grievances, performance appraisals, and training programs effectively.

Different Types of HR Training Programs

At ZonalTechSolutions, we offer various HR certification courses tailored to different levels of expertise and career aspirations.

1. HR Generalist Training

An HR Generalist certification covers all fundamental HR functions. This course is ideal for those who wish to learn recruitment, payroll, compliance, employee engagement, and labor laws.

2. HR Payroll Training

Payroll management is an essential aspect of HR. Our specialized HR payroll training focuses on compensation structures, taxation, deductions, and payroll software usage.

3. HR Recruitment Training

Recruitment is the backbone of a strong workforce. This training includes talent acquisition strategies, job profiling, interview techniques, and onboarding best practices.

4. HR Analytics Training

HR analytics helps HR professionals make data-driven decisions. The course includes modules on workforce planning, employee retention, and HR data management.

5. Advanced HR Compliance Training

Stay updated with labor laws, employee rights, and workplace compliance. This training is essential for professionals managing legal and corporate regulations.

What Makes ZonalTechSolutions the Best Choice?

Finding a reliable HR training institute near me can be challenging. ZonalTechSolutions stands out by offering:

Certified Trainers – Our expert instructors bring years of industry experience.

Practical Learning Approach – Hands-on case studies and real-time projects enhance learning.

Flexible Training Modes – Choose from online or classroom training options.

Industry-Recognized Certification – Enhance your resume with globally recognized credentials.

Placement Assistance – We provide job support and interview preparation for career growth.

Who Can Enroll in HR Training?

HR training is beneficial for:

Fresh graduates aspiring to enter the HR field

HR professionals seeking career advancement

Entrepreneurs and business owners managing HR functions

Employees transitioning to an HR role

Course Structure and Modules

A standard HR certification program at ZonalTechSolutions includes:

Module 1: Introduction to Human Resource Management

Importance of HR in organizations

Key HR functions and responsibilities

Module 2: Recruitment and Selection

Job analysis and description

Screening, interviewing, and onboarding process

Module 3: Payroll and Compensation

Salary structuring and taxation

Payroll software training

Module 4: Employee Relations and Engagement

Performance management

Conflict resolution strategies

Module 5: HR Compliance and Legal Framework

Labor laws and employee rights

HR policies and procedures

Module 6: HR Analytics and Technology

Workforce data analysis

HR software and automation tools

How to Enroll in HR Training at ZonalTechSolutions?

Joining ZonalTechSolutions’ HR training program is simple:

Visit our official website and explore the available courses.

Choose the HR certification program that matches your career goals.

Register online or visit our center for offline enrollment.

Attend live interactive sessions and practical workshops.

Complete the assessments and earn your HR certification.

Conclusion

If you are looking for HR training with certification near me, ZonalTechSolutions offers industry-leading programs that equip you with essential HR skills. With our expert trainers, practical learning modules, and job support, you can accelerate your HR career successfully.