#Difference Between Civil & Structural Engineering

[niqhtlord01]

Humans are weird: Poop Crystals

( Please come see me on my new patreon and support me for early access to stories and personal story requests :D https://www.patreon.com/NiqhtLord Every bit helps)  

The pace in which human technology progressed over the millennia was rather standard for a class 4 species. Even when accounting the periods of scientific degradation which resulted from natural plagues or religious persecution; it was expected that humans would not achieve advanced space travel until another 2-3 thousand years had passed.

Scientifically speaking human scientists were well more advanced than the society they lived in, but due to the technological limitations of the human race they were held back from implementing their designs. A primary limitation was the lack of a sufficiently powerful power source. They did have many different forms of power generators ranging from solar to nuclear, but to power larger machines often required equally large energy sources. To power their ships alone around a third of their vessels were dedicated to the power cores.   

With these restrictions in place travel between stars for humans often relied on decade long journeys in cryo sleep; which ironically required even more power generators to maintain. Their large size made them easy targets for natural disasters such as space debris or prowling space pirates seeking an easy profit margin at the slave markets. These dangers became a standard for human travel until the Terran civilization encountered the planet Nolla 987 and the species that called it home.

During a long duration colonization trip the human ship “Midas” was struck by the trail debris of a rogue comet and knocked off course. The robotic caretakers tried their best to maintain the course, but with the damage done to the ship their primary programming to maintain the lives of the crew kicked in and diverted the ship to the nearest habitable planet for debarkation. Nolla 987 was the closest planet with a stable atmosphere. Originally charted several years earlier but deemed unsuitable for colonization or industrial expansion, it was not ear marked for either and left alone; until the Midas incident that is.

The landing was not a smooth one. Several engines had been damaged and multiple hull breaches resulted in portions of the ship being shredded away during the entry process. It would be safer to say that the Midas crash landed during the final stretch of the maneuver, but with a 73% survival rate of the crew a rather acceptable crash landing.

One by one the crew and colonists were unfrozen to find the ship a burning wreck and only a handful of robotic assistants still functioning. The industrial printing machines were relatively undamaged but without the ships power core they could not be used to print components or tools needed to make the necessary repairs. The crew was then forced to ration its remaining power supply and divided into two teams. The first team would comb through the wreckage and salvage what they could of the wreck while also building shelter. The second group would scout the surrounding area for anything of use and then report back.

It did not take long for the second team to stumble upon a nest of the dominant species of the planet. An insectoid called the “Sectar” which ranged from the size of a house cat to as large as a two story building. These insects digested their food and excreted the waste into a dense crystalian substance that they then used to build massive hive like complexes.

The occupants of the hive had been driven from the hive by the crash landing of the Midas leaving it almost completely empty save for a few eggs and new hatchlings who were not strong enough to flee on their own. Several of the second team members had been scanning the crystal structures while interacting with the newborn Sectar’s. To quote a journal entry of one of them, “They were like insect golden retrievers. Extremely derpy with at least four times as many sets of eyes. They followed us around on their legs like we were their mothers and clung to our legs when we began to return to our ship for the night.”

At least one of the second team was confirmed to have brought a hatchling back to their camp. There was a debate amongst the survivors on if they should try and eat it, but the notion was quickly squashed as they still had food reserves and no one was brave enough to see how the alien’s bio matter would react inside the human digestive system.

The same human who had brought the hatchling back offered it a portion of food which it eagerly ate. Not long after the hatchling excreted a hardened crystal roughly the size of a thimble. When the human made to pick up the seemingly beautiful gem they recoiled as an electrical discharge shocked their hand. This immediately drew the attention of the rest of the crew who began carefully examining the crystal substance. After some rather rough jury-rigging, the crystal was wired into one of the printer machines and to the surprise of everyone powered the machine. The crew quickly learned that the older Sectar’s would produce larger crystal excrements but were extremely hostile and territorial. Smaller Sectar’s were deemed more desirable for the time being as they were easier to train and harvest crystals from.  

Within a matter of days the crew had not only collected enough crystals to power all of their machines and send out a distress signal, but also used the new found crystal power to create a full settlement on the planet complete with water filtration, crop fields, and a sizeable wall to keep out the native wildlife.

It would not be for another thirty years before a passing human shipped picked up their distress signal and went to investigate the planet. When they arrived on Nolla 987 they were astonished to find a fully functioning colony complete with limited orbital facilities. Nearly every human settler and their descendants had a Sectar in their household that they would take care of and feed and in exchange use their crystal excrement to power nearly everything they needed to live.

From there it was only a matter of time before the entirety of human space was aware of the events of Nolla 987 and the Sectar species. Within the decade the colony on Nolla 987 became the capital for a fully settled world with dozens of cities and communities. The Sectar species were transported throughout human space and began being implemented in all aspects of society.

There was initial resistance to the new power source by existing power blocks which realized Sectar power would be far more efficient than nuclear powered engines, but unlike other power sources they had squashed in development the Sectar power option had thirty years of trial and error to back it up with research as well as a fully functioning model with the planet of Nolla 987.

Sectar’s became a common sight on every human planet and were treated like common pets. It was even studied that when introduced to different food sources the energy output of crystal excrement could be increased resulting in certain food industries booming overnight. The composition of spices, cooking technique, and flavoring became an entirely new and highly prestigious academic field with the most successful of its practitioners being highly sought after by companies.

The technological capabilities of humanity experienced a massive surge in advancement within fifty years to the point humans no longer needed cryo ships to travel between stars. Those who had been studying humanity found themselves now being introduced to them as humans winded up on their doorstep with a Sectar on their shoulder and a perverse obsession with collecting its bodily waste.    

[dr-abigail-richelieu]

Vampires were an extinct human subspecies, discovered and then de-extinct through morally questionable genetic engineering research in the year 1981 by The Genomic Innovation Institute (or G.I.I) in an attempt at finding cures for some neurological disorders through gene therapy and tweaked retroviruses. Thanks to these… Morally questionable experiments, It was discovered that some specific dormant genes were extremely widely spread throughout the population and that these genes could be reactivated in some individuals. In certain cases some of these genes express spontaneously. This gave rise to the theory that some neurological disorders could at least partly arise from the expression of these genes albeit in a very “broken” and rudimentary form. Essentially the treatments to cure certain types of neurological disorders turned out to activate some of these dormant genes, essentially turning the test subjects into what we now call a Vampire. The Genomic Innovation Institute decided to pursue research on this subspecies, hoping to turn a profit. Thanks to them, we now have a complex understanding of Vampires…

They were humanity's natural predator, emerging between 300,000 and 200,000 years ago, around the same time as Homo sapiens, or at least shortly after. They hunted our ancestors with brutal efficiency, to the point that even though we eventually forgot about them (before bringing them back from extinction), they remained engraved in our cultural memory. For lack of better words, they were the things we feared were in the dark.

It's difficult to identify ancient vampire remains, as their identifying traits are primarily neurological and soft tissue-related. However, their skeletal structure does have some minor differences, which allow for identification now that we know what to look for. It seems that vampires began going extinct around 2000 BCE, with their population drastically reducing as civilization emerged. Their extinction was due to more than one factor. 

-Vampires were extremely antisocial, which makes sense for a predatory species whose prey resembled it that much. This however did complicate mating between vampires because vampires didn't just tend to ignore each other but would see other vampires as threats and would often attempt to dispatch each other upon contact. Since sexual dimorphism is quite lacking in Vampires, which not only resulted in both of the sexes looking very androgynous, it also meant that both Male and Female had essentially the same musculature and strength and general ferocity, sexual coercion would have most likely resulted in one or both of the party's demise or heavy maiming, rendering it extremely inefficient. Plus, vampires seemed to generally be very uninterested in copulation, though it did happen from time to time. Strangely enough all of this seemed to have made the idea of mating with humans more appealing for some Vampires which is why like with Homo Neanderthal, Vampiric DNA can be found in modern day humans. (The mating behaviours of Vampires will be discussed more thoroughly in another chapter)

-The Emergency of euclidean architecture seemed to have greatly affected vampires. We discovered that in their eyes, the receptor cells that respond to horizontal lines are cross wired with those that respond to vertical ones. When both are fired simultaneously in a specific way it'll result in quite a violent seizure. We call the effect “The Crucifix Glitch”. While the glitch will only trigger when intersecting right angles occupy more than 30° of visual arc, we discovered, thanks to our currents subjects, that the simple suggestion of the Crucifix Glitch being triggered is enough in 75% of cases to completely dissuade an attack, if they had been exposed to it previously (depending on the vampire's current emotional state). These seizure are quite violent, reminiscent of Tonic-Clonic seizures, but because of the vampire's particular muscular structure and their higher distribution of fast twitch muscle fibers, these seizures tend to result in dislocated limbs much more often than regular seizure. Plus, with the Vampire's unique neurochemistry, we suspect that the seizures are much more distressing for them. In conclusion, the seizures caused by the Crucifix Glitch are extremely traumatizing and painful for vampires to the point that any right angles, even if not in a context that could induce the glitch, will usually make a vampire extremely uncomfortable and anxious (work best if they've been exposed to the glitch at some point in their life). Because of this a lot of the vampires did not even dare to approach human settlements with euclidean architecture, which greatly complicated things for the overall survival of the species.

-Vampires make for terrible parents. Given their natural antisocial behaviour, it’s unsurprising that they aren’t the best caregivers. Despite their longer lifespans, one might expect them to invest more time and effort in their offspring, but this is not the case. In fact, it’s quite the opposite; their longer lifespans and fertility lead them to essentially not value their offspring, as they can always have another later on in life. The father is most likely going to be completely absent, as he typically feels no compulsion to ensure the survival of his offspring. The mother, on the other hand, while interested in her child's survival, is not as invested as one might expect from a primate species. She won't hesitate to abandon her offspring if she considers it a liability. She'll usually take care of it up until it's pre teenage years where she'll abandon it. However, some exceptions to this were found, as we've recently found proof of a Vampire Pack, more on this in a later entry.

-Mating with humans: As previously mentioned, vampires tend to be awful parents, to the extent that some began mating with humans. Why? Because it was easier. Human mating rituals were simple for vampires to emulate, and once mating was complete, the male vampire could leave, confident that its offspring would be cared for. Meanwhile, the female vampire could stay with the human and be looked after during her pregnancy, a wolf in sheep's clothing, she could discreetly sustain her need for blood by feeding on humans in the tribe or even her mate. Once she gave birth, she could either leave or continue caring for her children with a continuous blood supply. Another tactic vampire would use to get out of raising their young is “Brood Parasitism”. They would kidnap human children and replace them with their own. We believe that this is what gave birth to the legends of “Changelings”.

Overall the extinction of Vampires wasn't due to one reason but a combination of many things. A reminder of how evolution might screw you over. You may have been a perfectly adapted predator but something seemingly insignificant can truly come back to bite you.

Speaking of biting, the infamous bite of Vampires while not exactly as described in myths, is nothing to joke about...

This is from a setting of mine, where alot of cryptids, myths, etc are real or were directly influence by real events/creatures all explainable by science, kinda like the amazing YouTube Channel ThoughPotato This entry focuses on Vampires which biology and history is inspired and influenced by the Amazing Peter Watts and his just as amazing books Blindsight and Echopraxia (in fact this setting started out as a AU of his awesome universe)

[dracl-dragon]

Steampunk au lore dump!

(These are my lore notes but edited to be a little more coherent)

Basically its steampunk fantasy so theres still magic and stuff

The red kingdom starts out incredibly isolated.

The story would start right before the age of discovery, so basically right when it does in canon

The red steves already have big machines and stuff, but its been so long since they traveled that they think they could find resources to improve their lives and their technology

Each civilization they find will have very different types of tech of their own

Also: some characters get robotic body parts

The obsidian steves are something between living statues and machines, combining magic with engineering

The forest steves have mostly agriculture related stuff, machines to make farming easier, sprinklers things like that

The desert steves are focused on construction and creativity, building insane mechanisms to get to high places and to dig really REALLY deep.

The ocean steves don't have quite as many machines, since they're underwater, but they have things like water filters and even a few submarines

The winter steves have cooling systems, some small enough to wear like a backpack, to allow their people to travel. They also build boats despite being able to walk across the water, since its safer

The obsidian steves are very focused on combat, so most of their machines are types of weapons. They still have their spears and swords, but they've created some more advanced ranged weapons, including ballistas and some of them even have guns (like really old guns, made of wood and stuff)

Now for the chromatics-

Red steves have things like typewriters and printing presses for making books without having to hand write every single copy.

Orange steves, similar to the desert steves, have machines for building, but theirs are far more creative. They build insane, towering, mechanical structures with everything from automatic doors, opening dome roofs, and sometimes working legs

Yellow steves, being focused on energy, have generators, along with things similar to batteries. They help to power the machines the orange (and green) steves make.

Green steves mainly have medical devices, along with some agriculture stuff. Their main focus is definitely their medical devices, though. While their machines are usually smaller, they're still very useful

Blue steves have airships. That's pretty much it. They never needed many machines in the world beyond.

The indigo steves have completely nonsensical, practically incoherent things made of metal and gears and wires that serve no apparent purpose other than the fun of building them and watching the gears spin.

The violet steves are alchemists, so the few machines they have are very focused on that. They also have telescopes due to the belief that the position of the stars effects how well potions are made.

A few hundred years before the main story, what gets called the Great Chromatic War happened. The seven chromatic steves brutally fought, mainly for resources. It was thought that the red steves had been wiped out during this time. Nobody ever went to check. The red steves have few remaining records of that time and before, as most of their books and journals had been burned. So they have no record of other steve types existing, they just knew that there had been some kind of large war at some point.

At the point of them retreating, the alliances had been: the Green kingdom and Violet kingdom, the Yellow kingdom and the Orange kingdom, and the Indigo kingdom (before they retreated to the Middle World) and the blue steves that chose to live in the overworld.

There are no known blue steves currently living in the overworld. They all either retreated back to the World Beyond or were killed during the Chromatic War, and haven't shown themselves to anybody in the mortal world except the giants since.

The biome steves had been far less affected by the war, and the only ones with remaining records of it are the obsidian steves and the winter steves. It was forgotten by the other biome villages.

Also most of my original steve species are in this, too, so thats fun :)

@chaoticcyprus

[up2123753theories]

Identity

Definitions

The fact of being who or what a person or thing is

A close similarity or affinity

Rem Koolhaas: National Identity In Architecture

As said on ‘Psychology today’, a person’s “identity encompasses the memories, experiences, relationships and values that create one’s sense of self”. As much as this quote is in reference to a person’s identity it can also be related to architecture. For example, the style of buildings and placement in certain countries and cities can be seen as part of that locations identity as sometimes architects use a places’ history as inspiration for new buildings. Identity plays a large role in everyday life, from personal identity to a companies identity to a nations.

Utilities One explains the link between architecture and personal identity: “Physical spaces and places play a significant role in shaping our well-being and personal identity.” This quote really shows the importance of our surroundings and how it affects our identities. A colourful surrounding could make some very colourful and happy but it could also make others almost ‘rebel’ and dislike colour.

Even though identity is usually recognised within people it is also applicable to buildings, objects and places. Everything has different memories and characteristics which identify them.

Quotes:

“Identity encompasses the memories, experiences, relationships and values that create one’s sense of self” – Psychology Today “Physical spaces and places play a significant role in shaping our well-being and personal identity” – Psychology Today “It should be people-specific and should also represent the way of life of such people” – Chukwuali “Architecture As Identity” – Abel

References:

Abel, Chris. Architecture and Identity : Towards a Global Eco-Culture. Oxford England ; Boston, Architectural Press, 1997.

Adebayo, Anthony, et al. “Architecture: The Quest for Cultural Identity.” Facta Universitatis - Series: Architecture and Civil Engineering, vol. 11, no. 2, 2013, pp. 169–177, www.researchgate.net/publication/274829351_Architecture_The_quest_for_cultural_identity, https://doi.org/10.2298/fuace1302169a.

C. B. Chukwuali, "The influence of cultural pluralism on architectural practice in Nigeria: The content,

the context and the imperatives", Journal of Nigerian Institute of Architects, Enugu State Chapter, Vol. 1, No. 3, 2005, pp 13-20.

“Construction Spaces and the Influence on Personal Identity and Self-Expression.” Utilities One, 6 Nov. 2023, utilitiesone.com/construction-spaces-and-the-influence-on-personal-identity-and-self-expression. Accessed 20 Jan. 2024.

“Identity | Psychology Today.” Www.psychologytoday.com, www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/identity#:~:text=Identity%20encompasses%20the%20memories%2C%20experiences.

Oxford Dictionary. “Oxford Languages.” Oxford Languages, Oxford University Press, 2023, languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en/.

WA Contents. “ Rem Koolhaas: National Identity in Architecture,” WorldArchitecture.org, 26 Mar. 2014, worldarchitecture.org/article-links/pmezp/rem-koolhaas-national-identity-in-architecture.html.

During my research on identity I came to the realisation that even structures have their own identity and that they also help to create the identity of a place. For example, New York wouldn’t be the same without all its skylines which use their height to show off the powerful and wealthy identity of New York.

Chris Abel is a writer and educator who focuses on architectural practices, based in Malta. He has visited and taught in many big universities across the world. He is the author of a book called ‘Architecture and Identity’ which consists of a variety of his key essays that look into cultural and technological changes that are reshaping modern architecture. ‘Architecture and Identity’ is separated into three separate parts: Science and technology, Critical Theory, and Regionalism and Globalization. Within the section on Regionalism and Globalization he has a sub-section called “Architecture as Identity”. Within this chapter Chris looks at how architecture is used to show a places’ identity.

I strongly agree with, “Architecture as Identity” as a quote itself. This is because it shows that our architecture will and has always been used as a way to show a society or communities identity and what they find important and what they believe in, which they have done for centuries through the use of temples, churches and houses, etc.

I believe that as much as our personal identities are important, the identity of our architecture and what it tells others is and has always been equally as important. It shows off power, beliefs, religions and how our society works with each other.

Throughout my research I found that identity is such a broad subject that it is fairly tricky to pin point it to one specific topic. I tried to focus on identity within architecture as best I could to avoid going completely off-topic.

[lilburlap]

I’ve been thinking about how In Stars and Time and Outer Wilds are almost complete opposites when it comes to time loop mystery games.

Spoilers for both games ahead.

Outer wilds is a very open-ended game set within a large playable area (an entire solar system) where the bulk of the story takes place ages before the player character is even alive. The main character is such a blank slate they don’t even have a name.

In Stars and Time has a linear structure, and most of the interesting bits of the game are about characters who you can meet and talk to.

That’s all very surface level, but the most interesting thing to me about the two games is how different they are in scope.

The main story of outer wilds is about the natural end of the universe. The stars in the night sky slowly go out over the course of the loops, until eventually the star near you explodes as well. You spend the game flying between entire planets in a spaceship searching through the remnants of an alien civilization, which was only one clan cut off from their massive interstellar whole. You spend much of the game walking through engineered wonders, you see towers dedicated to teleporting folks across the solar system, you see the lab where the ancient aliens invented time travel itself, you see 2 planets exchanging most of their mass through a giant column of sand between them, eventually you even see your own star explode. Every revelation in the mystery of outer wilds has very large visible ramifications, making the story feel bigger and bigger until you eventually witness the end of your entire universe, and the beginning of a new one.

Compare that to In Stars and Time. The game starts by introducing an entire country slowly being frozen in time by a curse creeping it’s way along the land, while you and your friends are the only ones set up to stop it. Despite the heavy stakes, ISAT focuses mainly on character moments. Plot revelations are important to the characters first and foremost, and the ongoing story second. The plots 6 acts are all focused around changes in Siffrins moods and behaviors, and every large plot moment narrows the story down more and more into focusing on the cast of main characters.

I went into ISAT expecting an experience similar to Outer Wilds, but I was (pleasantly) surprised to be playing through a linear plot with so many impactful character moments. It even got the the point where I had to turn off my switch and take a walk after the first time I went on the familytale side quest with Odile. Overall both games are incredible and have genuinely changed the way I think about the art I create.

[arshipweek]

AR Ship Week - Scorpia Backstory in the Book and the TV Show

This is the last weekly post in the lead up to Alex Rider Ship Week. Only one week left!

This week we have a guest post by @icebluecyanide​ about the differences between Scorpia in the book and TV canons.

Scorpia Backstory in the Book and the TV Show

After two seasons of ominous statements and mystery, series three of the TV show finally dove deeper into the criminal organisation known as Scorpia, and the way their history intertwines with Alex’s. But what is their backstory, and how does it differ from what we see in the books? 

In this meta, I will be diving into some of the changes in how Scorpia is presented in the book (Scorpia) and the TV show. Since this is a rather broad topic, and could potentially lead to me listing every single difference from the book, I will focus specifically on the Scorpia backstory and on the structure of Scorpia as an organisation.

I’ve used book quotes throughout this meta, including page numbers. The page numbers refer to the 2014 Walker Books (UK) edition.

Scorpia 

Let’s start this off by taking a look at how Scorpia is described in both the book and the show. I’ll first give an overview of Scorpia in the book, then move on to the TV show and do a comparison.

Scorpia in the book

Scorpia was all over the world. It had brought down two governments and arranged for a third to be unfairly elected. It had destroyed dozens of businesses, corrupted politicians and civil servants, engineered several major ecological disasters, and killed anyone who got in its way. It was now responsible for a tenth of the world’s terrorism, which it undertook on a contract basis. Scorpia liked to think of itself as the IBM of crime - but in fact, compared to Scorpia, IBM was strictly small-time. (Scorpia, p. 39)

In the book, Scorpia is a criminal organisation that has its roots in the early 1980s, during the last decade of the Cold War. As we learn in Scorpia (2004), it was founded by people who were involved in the Cold War as spies or assassins or secret police for various governments, and who realised that as the Cold War came to an end, they would be able to make more money going into business for themselves.

It was a fanciful name, they all knew it, invented by someone who had probably read too much James Bond. (Scorpia, p. 38)

The name of Scorpia is taken from their four fields of operation: Sabotage, Corruption, Intelligence and Asassination. They will take on any client that is willing to pay them, and don’t care about who gets caught in the crossfire. They’re a powerful organisation, and as Julia Rothman mentions, sometimes even the intelligence agencies make use of their services for jobs that cannot be traced back to them. They operate very much as a business, and they don’t make things personal, but they also are ruthless in getting even and don’t make hollow threats. Scorpia don’t forgive and they don’t forget.

Scorpia is led by an executive board consisting of the original founders. Of the original twelve, only nine remain at the time of the book, including Julia Rothman (the only woman on the board) and Max Grendel (the oldest executive). The executives on the board are equal partners, but for each project one of them is assigned as the leader, in alphabetical order. (It’s unclear how this works for The Australian, who in some editions doesn’t have a name.)

At the time of the book, the project that Scorpia is focused on is Invisible Sword, and the executive in command is Julia Rothman. There is a client, who is offering a great deal of money for Scorpia to break the special relationship between the UK and the US, and most of the Scorpia board seem unconcerned about the principal target of the weapon being children. The only exception to this is Max Grendel, who is old and has grandchildren of the same age, who has enjoyed getting rich working for Scorpia over the years, but who now wants to retire and not be a part of the new project. Sadly, his retirement gift is a suitcase full of deadly scorpions, so his retirement is rather brief.

Scorpia are an international company, with offices and people all over the world. However, Alex first runs into them in Venice, where Mrs Rothman has a large mansion on the grand canal that is referred to as the Widow’s Palace. On the island of Malagosto, near Venice, Scorpia also has a school where they have a training and testing facility for their assassins. This is where John Rider and Yassen Gregorovich were tested and trained, and it’s where Alex also takes part in lessons. 

Scorpia in the show

Blunt: At that time, we already knew that SCORPIA were the single most dangerous emergent threat since the Cold War. (3x07)

At first glance, the Scorpia we meet in the TV show appears to be from a canon divergent AU where the organisation was all but destroyed around the time when Alex was just a baby. This is a fascinating change, and also makes intuitive sense, as of course the third series of the show came out twenty years after Scorpia (2004) did. From the start, we get hints that Scorpia in the show is different from the one in the books. 

We first learn of the name Scorpia at the end of s1, as Mrs Jones and the rest of the Department realise that Yassen Gregorovich was behind Ian’s death, and that he is still alive. Going by the descriptions we are given, Scorpia was as powerful in the past as they were when Alex met them in the book:

Smithers: I know the file, of course. At one point, they were responsible for a tenth of the world’s terrorism. 

Crawley: And political assassinations, personal vendettas. All available to the highest bidder, without remorse or compunction. (1x08)

In 2006, Scorpia was taken down by the Department, in a well-coordinated operation based on the info John Rider was able to gather. Alan Blunt was in command as all over the world, the bases and known locations of Scorpia were raided. In the chaos, some members of Scorpia went missing and managed to escape, such as Julia Rothman and Yassen Gregorovich, but when they failed to resurface in the five years that followed, their files were closed and they were assumed to be dead.

After this, Scorpia seem to have retreated to the shadows, and operated almost entirely in secret. While they no longer have the same presence in the world, they still have both funds and technology to continue their work. They have no problem spending several millions to fake the payment for the assassination of the US president in season 2 at Yassen’s request, and they have a system set in place with a phone line that can be reached only with a specifically assigned code, or else the number will be disconnected, as we see when the Department pretend to call as Martin Wilby to determine who he got his orders from. In the first two seasons, Scorpia took jobs such as helping with Dr Greif’s plan at Point Blanc, and Damian Cray’s Eagle Strike plan, and they still appear as ruthless as in the book, not caring about the deaths those plans would cause.

At first, we mostly encounter Scorpia in the scenes with the Department, where Scorpia (through Yassen) have turned Martin Wilby to pass on information about the Department and got him to lure Ian Rider to his death at Yassen’s hand. Interestingly, Ian appears to be the only person still looking for Scorpia:

Crawley: I don’t think they ever went away. I think they just got better at hiding. And we were so confident we’d finished them. Only Ian was still looking, of course. (1x08)

Ian seems to have been aware of Yassen’s survival, and presumably who he works for (“Oh Martin, you have no idea who you’re working for.” - 1x01), but none of the rest of the Department have any idea until Alex mentions having seen Yassen at Point Blanc:

Blunt: Scorpia.Mrs Jones: It explains everything. The sophistication, the global reach, and Wilby. Given our history, of course they would target us.Crawley: But we finished them.Blunt: Well, clearly not. (1x08)

In season three, we see Alex (together with Tom and Kyra) actively looking for Scorpia by visiting old locations mentioned in the files on Smither’s phone (that Kyra stole). These include Berlin and Venice, where presumably Julia Rothman had her Palace like in the book. They end up finding Julia in Malta, where she is from. This is a change from the books, where she is Welsh. We meet Nile, her apparent second-in-command, and Max Grendel, who apparently also survived the takedown.

As Alex is pulled into Scorpia, we also learn that they are planning an operation called Invisible Sword. Unlike in the book, this is not a job they took on for a client, but something Julia Rothman came up with personally. As the season goes on, we discover that while she explained it as a way to demonstrate Scorpia’s power and boost their reputation, the real objective was to take revenge against the Department for the blow they dealt Scorpia seventeen years ago.

Scorpia Leadership

Let’s narrow in further for a moment on the question of who is in charge in Scorpia. There do appear to be some changes in the leadership of Scorpia in the TV show, and part of these can be explained by the canon divergence, while others suggest that perhaps this has always been a different Scorpia. Firstly, it’s good to note that instead of talking about an executive board, the leadership are referred to as council members:

Nile: I wondered if perhaps one of the other council members decided to push their luck. (3x01) 

In general, the show appears to have less of a ‘business’ vibe compared to the book. It may be that this is a change that only came with the new Scorpia, but this may also always have been different in this universe. Similarly, we hear that Julia Rothman was elected as leader, which suggests that also the way of picking a leader isn’t the rotated schedule from the books. It appears that Julia Rothman has been elected after the failed jobs with Dr Greif and Damian Cray, in an attempt to bring Scorpia back to prominence.

Razim: We elected you because you promised to restore our influence globally. And so far, we have seen nothing. (3x01)

Speaking of Razim, we get another change from the book. The name Razim is a reference to one of the new board members brought on in Scorpia Rising in the books, and he wasn’t present in the original Scorpia book. It makes sense that with most of the organisation taken down years ago, they will have filled their ranks with new members. However, there is some suggestion that perhaps Razim was actually part of Scorpia leadership before Julia:

Julia: Razim’s always resented me. He thinks when Nicolai died, inherited my place at the table. (3x01)

Julia Rothman

Max: And besides, we both know you earned your place. (3x01)

It appears that unlike in the books, Julia Rothman was not a founding member of Scorpia in the show. This also matches up with what we learn about her from the Department file on her, where it states she ‘possesses broad knowledge of Scorpia Operational Structure and is being groomed for command’. She was most likely part of the inner circle through her husband Nicolai, given the comment about inheriting her place.

Nicolai Rothman/Mrs Rothman’s husband definitely appears to have been alive and married to her for longer in the TV show than in the book, although in both she is eventually known as the Widow.:

Mrs Rothman’s multimillionaire husband had fallen to his death from a seventeenth-storey window. It had happened just two days after their marriage. (Scorpia, p. 45)

Also an amusing detail is that in the book Nicolai Rothman is a multimillionaire, while in the TV show he’s referred to as a billionaire. Julia Rothman is canonically richer in the TV show!

Malagosto

Let’s take a moment also to look at the differences in how Malagosto is portrayed in the two canons. In both the show and the book, Malagosto is a training facility for Scorpia operatives, but that appears to be where the similarities end. The location is different in the two canons, with it being on an island near Venice in the book, and on Malta in the show. Specifically, we discover that there is a Scorpia base located underground in an old Cold War listening post on Malta. It might be that the original location had to be abandoned after Scorpia was raided, but the fact that The Department show no recognition to the name later suggests that they have never heard of it before. Definitely, the base in Malta was not known before. 

This raises some questions about whether John Rider actually trained at Malagosto in the show as he did in the book. We do have the following quote from Julia Rothman, which if taken literally suggests that he was on Malta with Alex:

Julia: Twenty years ago, your father stood where you are now. Ready to join Scorpia. (3x04)

However, if John trained at Malagosto, it is strange that this location wasn’t known to the Department or raided in the operation to take down Scorpia. So perhaps the quote should be taken metaphorically, with Alex being about to join Scorpia as his dad was, and perhaps John never trained with Scorpia. After all, in the book, he was likely only tested rather than trained, so he may have been tested elsewhere and simply put to work.

THE STUDENTS

Another difference related to Malagosto concerns the students or recruits who are present when Alex is there. In the book, d’Arc (the principal or headmaster of the school) mentions that there are usually around ten to fifteen students. Most of them appear to be people who were either part of the intelligence world or soldiers who have defected:

Alex knew all of them by now. There was Klaus, a German mercenary who had trained with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Walker, who had spent five years with the CIA in Washington before deciding he could earn more working for the other side. (Scorpia, p. 174)

They are people similar to John Rider, who already have had training of some sort that makes them suitable for Scorpia. In this sense, the school is firstly a testing facility, where Scorpia checks if people have the right skills to become part of Scorpia. Alex himself is an exception due to his age, but as d’Arc and Mrs Rothman discuss, he already has experience from both his missions and his uncle’s and MI6’s training. The other students are all older, but treat Alex surprisingly well and are friendly to him.

In the show, the recruits are all orphans and likely closer in age to Alex himself. There is no indication that Alex himself is an outlier in terms of his age. The other recruits also don’t appear to have had prior training if we take Alyona and Oleg as examples. They seem to have been children without families, either taken from orphanages or similar. Some, like Oleg, may have shown a propensity for violence which drew Scorpia’s interest, but they were not the trained soldiers or intelligence agents we see in the books.

This change could perhaps have been a result of Scorpia needing to operate from the shadows. While in the books they could recruit rather blatantly and without worrying about being noticed, they have tried to keep a low profile in the show. Perhaps they have shifted to training teenagers into operatives instead, as they have ‘No baggage, no background. It helps.’ (3x04).

It’s also noteworthy that there are only four other students aside from Alex present at Malagosto. Again, this is easily explained by Scorpia having shrunk in size and operating in more secrecy, and no doubt it made it easier for them to make the commitment of training teenagers. Sadly for Alex, they are not as nice as in the book, and he gets beaten up for being seen as weak on his first day there.

THE BUILDINGS

Another change seems to be in the buildings themselves. As mentioned, Malagosto in the show is located in an old listening post dating back to the Cold War, and that’s reflected in the lack of natural light and the bare, metallic and industrial vibes of the interior. The listening post also appears to be on a remote part of the island, but all that’s visible on the surface is a few abandoned buildings, and Scorpia seem to keep their presence low-key. 

In the book, we see the same outside appearance of abandoned buildings, as Scorpia has retrofitted an old monastery for their needs. The appearance is deceptive, however, as the insides have been modernised and Alex’s own room is much more luxurious than the one he gets in the show:

They left the main building and walked over to the nearest apartment block that Alex had seen from the boat. Again, the building looked dilapidated from the outside but it was elegant and modern inside. Jet showed Alex to an air-conditioned room on the second floor. It was on two levels, with a king-sized bed overlooking a large living space with sofas and a desk. There were french windows with a balcony and a sea view. (Scorpia, p. 164)

Alex was left alone. He sat down on one of the sofas, noticing that the room had a fridge, a television and even a PlayStation 2 - presumably put in for his benefit. (Scorpia, p. 165)

The other buildings are similarly updated, and students can train outside as the island is sheltered by trees and away from the mainland. It makes sense that in the show this is less of an option, because Scorpia are much more motivated to keep their presence hidden from the authorities. In the book, they have a legal reason to be there, as they bought the island on a lease from the Italian government, but in a world where Scorpia is assumed to be destroyed, they would need to be more careful. This explains why we only see the students go outside once for training, and that was during a night incursion exercise.

THE TEACHERS

Malagosto is a training facility, and a training facility needs instructors. This plays a larger role in the book, where we are introduced to several of the teachers at Malagosto in Alex’s time there. There is Gordon Ross, the technical specialist who teaches about weapons and explosives, Professor Yermalov, who teaches martial arts and practical skills, and Ejijit “Jet” Binnag, who teaches Botany (focused on poisonous plants). There are classrooms and textbooks and lessons as if it were a real school, but also more practical lessons such as diving and gun practice.

In the show, it’s a bit unclear who normally teaches at Malagosto. We only see two people acting as instructor – Nile and Yassen – and Yassen appears to have been assigned to Alex as a tutor rather than having general teaching duties. Nile appears to take on the role of instructor, but we also see him running around taking care of things for Julia Rothman outside, so he can’t be a full-time teacher. Perhaps we simply don’t see other instructors (much like how we don’t see the catering at Malagosto), or the training is handled more informally, with students working on their skill individually as we saw Syl doing in her first appearance.

One other thing related to the teaching at Malagosto is that in the book, John Rider is mentioned to have been an instructor there. During this time, he was also in charge of Yassen’s training for a while. This isn’t mentioned in the show, and while we get Alex asking if John trained with Yassen, we never get an answer. As Malagosto wasn’t known to the Department, as mentioned before, John was probably not a teacher in this universe.

Since we already touched on him briefly, let now take a look at John Rider and his mission to dive deeper into some of the changes.

John’s mission

Blunt: The intelligence John gathered during that time enabled us to strike at the very heart of Scorpia. Within months, we’d dismantled their entire operation. (3x07)

Based on what we are told, John’s mission is largely the same in both the book and the series. We learn that John was a decorated soldier who was in the Parachute Regiment and had seen combat before (in Afghanistan and Iraq in the show, Northern Ireland, Gambia, and the Falklands in the book). But everything seemed to go wrong for him when he killed a man in a bar fight, and was sentenced for manslaughter. 

He goes to jail for two years in the show, while in the book Mrs Rothman claims he was there for less than one, and there is some ambiguity about whether he went to jail at all:

“Everything Julia Rothman thought she knew about your father was a lie.” Mrs Jones sighed. “It’s true that he had been in the army, that he had a distinguished career with the Parachute Regiment and that he was decorated for his part in the Falklands War. But the rest of it — the fight with the taxi driver, the prison sentence and all that — we made up. It’s called deep cover, Alex. We wanted John Rider to be recruited by Scorpia. He was the bait and they took him.” (Scorpia, p. 347)

Scorpia took the bait, and John was recruited by Scorpia. In the show, we learn that John spent three years embedded in Scorpia, learning names and details about the organisation, including their long term goals and ambitions. In the book, the timeline is fuzzier, but we know he spent several months in the field as an assassin before working as an instructor at Malagosto. We are simply told that he ‘had told [MI6] as much as [they] needed to know about Scorpia’ (Scorpia, p. 348).

The reasons for breaking off the mission were similar then in both the show and the book. The risks were increasing, John had discovered most of what he set out to discover, and Helen was pregnant with Alex and John wanted to be with his family. In the book, we also specifically learn that there was a risk due to Julia Rothman, who had fallen in love with him. 

This is a point where the canons seem to deviate slightly, because the show is more explicit about John being asked to get close to Julia Rothman. The file on the Widow (Julia Rothman’s codename) mentions that a Department operative Hunter (John Rider) was assigned to develop a relationship. Julia Rothman herself told Alex that his dad was a ‘very close friend’ of hers, and showed him what are clearly love letters describing John’s feelings for her (3x03). 

Now, some of this is also in the book. Julia Rothman tells Alex she was very attracted to his father, and that he was a handsome man. And one of the letters from the show is taken straight from the book: 

My dearest Julia, A dreary time without you. Can’t wait to be at the Widow’s Palace with you again. John R. (Scorpia, p. 151)

Interestingly, we do see that Julia apparently went by her code name despite the fact that she and John became close enough over the years that she passed him information about Scorpia. John himself was known as Hunter to the Department rather than this being his Scorpia code name like in the book (although the code name isn’t mentioned in Scorpia itself). He signs the letter with his initials JR in the show, and she clearly knew him as John Rider.

It’s well possible given the way Julia Rothman doesn’t mention Alex’s mother in her initial story to Alex about John, that she was not aware at the time that he was married or that John was already with Helen. In the book, she specifically mentions that while she was attracted to him, he was married to Alex’s mother, suggesting that they never acted on the attraction.

The story of John’s capture is roughly the same, there is a trap set for him (on Malta in the book), and he is captured. A few weeks later, Scorpia kidnap a senior British civil servant (or his son, in the book) and MI6/The Department make them an offer to return John Rider to them in an exchange. This takes place on Albert Bridge in the book, while in the show it’s on another bridge somewhere. John’s death is faked, and the idea is that he will be given a new identity along with Helen and Alex so they can live quietly and without Scorpia knowing he was actually a spy.

This is the point where we get the biggest divergence in the backstory, as in the show the information gathered by John’s mission is enough to take down most of Scorpia. The operation is largely orchestrated by Alan Blunt, which is part of why Julia Rothman’s plot in the show is also aimed at him:

Mrs Jones: I’ve been looking at how we brought down SCORPIA 17 years ago. Really was an astonishing operation. Dozens of agents. Coordinates across three continents. Forty-seven key figures, dead or arrested. The entire SCORPIA hierarchy decimated overnight. You waged a private war against Scorpia, made it your mission. (3x06)

It’s not specified whether the take down of Scorpia happened before or after John and Helen’s plane was blown up by a bomb. Blunt tells Alex that ‘within months’ they were able to dismantle Scorpia’s entire operation, while Julia Rothman took six months to track John down. It seems more likely that Scorpia was taken down first, as this would give the Department an extra reason not to suspect Julia Rothman as being behind the bomb on the plane. Blunt’s reaction to Alex’s suggestion that it was Julia Rothman suggests that they didn’t have a clear suspect for all those years, which makes sense if Scorpia were believed to be defeated and not heard from again (aside from the bombing of the plane itself). WIth Scorpia gone, it also makes sense that perhaps someone became too careless in hiding the fact that John Rider is alive, as there would have been less reason to worry. 

In the book, we are first told merely that there was a bomb on the plane, which exploded and killed John and Helen and the pilots instantly. Mrs Jones and Alan Blunt seem to have no doubt about it being Julia Rothman, who had discovered the truth, although they are not clear on how she learned about it. MI6 learned valuable information about Scorpia through John’s time as an undercover spy, but they either don’t know enough to take Scorpia down for good or they don’t act on their information. 

In a way, the book takes a more cynical approach to the relationship between Scorpia and MI6. Scorpia are too large to take down completely, and any half-hearted effort to destroy them will lead Scorpia to seek revenge. And if you can’t beat them… As Julia Rothman herself points out, the secret services may nominally oppose Scorpia, but they are not above making use of their services:

The secret services can’t do anything about us. We’re too big and they’ve left it too late. Anyway, occasionally some of them make use of us. They pay us to do their dirty work for them. We’ve learnt to live side by side! (Scorpia, p. 132) 

Wrapping it all up

So what does it all add up to? As we’ve seen, the show’s portrayal of Scorpia shows an organisation that was nearly brought down seventeen years ago, and that has been operating in secrecy ever since. This single divergence explains most of the differences that we see in the present day structure of Scorpia, from younger recruits to the new leadership. However, we also saw that some aspects have always been different in this universe. The code names for both Julia Rothman and John, as well as the fact that John never mentioned Malagosto show that the backstory in the show was different even before Scorpia was taken down.

In the end, Scorpia is a different organisation in the book and the show, but in many ways it is also still the same. They are a group of people who are ruthless in their pursuit of power and money, who have no compunction about killing and even enjoy it. Scorpia may have been brought to the brink of destruction in the show, but even while hidden from the world, they have been able to keep up their activity for seventeen years. 

Until they encountered Alex Rider, that is… :) 

[mariacallous]

An unsigned agreement between the US DOGE Service (USDS) and the Department of Labor (DOL) provides significant insight into the evolving working protocols between DOGE and federal agencies.

Notably, the agreement, obtained by WIRED, calls for the DOL to reimburse the USDS up to $1.3 million for work done by four DOGE affiliates, or “a slightly different number,” over an 18-month period. The agreement also includes a section titled “scope of work” that details how DOGE will operate with the DOL. Together, these aspects of the agreement give the clearest look yet at how DOGE's relationships with government agencies may be structured.

The USDS is the renamed US Digital Service, an Obama-era agency originally set up to attract private-sector tech workers to the federal government. It has been refitted as Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) home in the federal government.

The agreement is backdated to start on January 20, the day President Donald Trump was inaugurated, and ends on July 4, 2026—a timeline consistent with the executive order that created DOGE. Paying the USDS an estimated $1.3 million for the services of four employees, or their equivalent, over that timespan would establish an implied annualized pay of about $217,000. (The federal pay scale for career civil servants tops out at $195,200.)

DOGE has spent the last few months ripping through the government, gutting agencies, and pushing out tens of thousands of federal workers in an effort, Musk has said, to eliminate “waste and fraud” and achieve savings of about $1 trillion. As part of this plan, Musk has previously stated that DOGE staffers would cost taxpayers nothing. This $1.3 million figure, coupled with previous WIRED reporting about DOGE salaries, tells a different story. Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

While the agreement does not include the names of individual DOGE operatives, Aram Moghaddassi, Miles Collins, and Marko Elez are named as being at the agency in notes from a March 18 meeting previously reported by WIRED. In addition to other documents obtained by WIRED, the meeting notes, marked “Internal/Confidential,” detail an audit the Government Accountability Office (GAO) is conducting of DOGE’s work throughout a number of federal agencies.

“So far they do not have write access,” the meeting notes read about DOGE’s access at the DOL. “They have asked; we’ve held them at bay. We’ve tried to get them to tell us what they want & then we do it. They only have read access.”

Moghaddassi and Elez have appeared as DOGE operatives at other federal agencies. Moghaddassi has worked at a number of Musk’s companies, including X, Tesla, and Neuralink; according to previous WIRED reporting tracking DOGE operatives, he has also been linked to the Treasury Department. Elez, a 25-year-old engineer who has worked at Musk’s X and SpaceX, has also gained access at the Treasury and Social Security Administration. While at the Treasury, WIRED reported, Elez had both read and write access to sensitive Treasury systems. Elez briefly resigned from DOGE after racist comments posted by an account he was linked to were discovered by The Wall Street Journal. Elez returned to DOGE after Musk and Vice President JD Vance posted in defense of him on X.

Moghaddassi, Collins, and Elez did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The interagency agreement goes into highly specific detail about what DOGE affiliates are and aren’t allowed to do at the DOL.

In the section detailing the “scope of work” DOGE will undertake, the interagency agreement states that “USDS employees will work to support DOL’s DOGE team IT modernization under the executive order.” (DOGE teams housed within agencies are distinct from USDS and can include career civil servants as well as DOGE affiliates, who may be directly employed by or detailed to the agency in question.)

The following is listed under DOGE’s “scope of work”:

Providing software engineering, modern architecture and system design, project and team management, software delivery, security and site reliability engineering, data engineering, engineering management, and/or executive leadership expertise to champion and deliver modern technology.

Being responsible for a wide range of activities including debugging, software testing, and programming. This includes quickly adapting and learning by problem solving within legacy systems and organizational constraints while working collaboratively for rapid prototyping.

Assessing the state of current projects in agencies; planning or leading interventions where major corrections are required.

Assisting on IT projects including infrastructure, implementing safeguards to prevent fraud, and ensuring the integrity and success of these efforts.

Championing data strategies and builds interoperability with other agencies as well as internal and external stakeholders.

Terms on the interagency agreement require DOGE to provide DOL with 24 hours’ notice before “seeking access to each DOL system.” USDS workers are also required to review and sign a form for access to different processes or systems at the agency and cannot use data, information, or documents from DOL systems without written permission from DOL’s Office of the Chief Information Officer. USDS workers are also, according to the terms, to report to DOL supervisors.

The DOL did not respond to WIRED’s requests for comment, which included questions about whether the agreement has been signed or enacted.

[elbiotipo]

Notes on technology in Campoestela:

Most spaceships are single-stage-to-orbit. They have rather standard jet engines to lift off from the ground like a standard plane.

To get into orbit, they use a rocket engine that uses a solid fuel made of a HIGHLY combustible (yet stable) carbon-nitrogen compound which allows a better fuel than anything previous. This was first discovered by Iranian scientists who named it "Nafta".

(sí, Beto tiene que estacionar su camión espacial para cargar nafta)

Nafta was a big discovery on its time, allowing cheap SSTO rockets. Nowadays it's produced in many worlds and widely available. It also has uses as weaponry, but it's not that efficient.

Nafta is used for lift-off and orbital burns. For manuevering in space, there are small jets on the nose and tail of spaceships, similar to the Space Shuttle.

Spaceship piloting is still not an easy task, but it's comparable to being a jet pilot, about 4 or 5 years to master. Hard, but something on the reach of many people. People from the generation ship clans are a bit more used to it and often represent an outsized part of space pilots, but there's always many wellers (from down the gravity well) who get their licenses too.

The hardest thing is always landing. Especially given all the different gravities, atmospheres, orbits and such you have to learn in each different case, even with all the automation in the world. Many spacers feel confident sticking to one or at most two or three planets they know.

Pilots that only do shuttle or cargo runs in the same star system or planet are called "Starters", because they go around the same star. It's rude, but many spacers do it.

FTL travel is another thing. FTL travel is done using a ring-like structure that projects a bubble around the ship and takes it to a (completely made-up for the setting) dimension called the Aether. The Aether is one of the meta-dimensions (there might be more) that uphold reality. Conveniently, you can use it as a shortcut to travel between stars, which project "shadows" on the Aether.

The Aether has its own navigation, with currents and whirpools and areas of thick dark matter (which, for cinematic purposes, actually look like bright nebulae) There are routes that are easier to travel and navigate, and these are where the most visited worlds are. Even stars that are close in real space might be very hard to get in Aetheric space, so there's routes that can take you all over the galaxy in a week, while many other places are out of reach.

Navigating the Aether is very similar to flying a plane through a cloudy sky. Some spacer says it's even easier than flying in real space.

Staying on the aether depends on how much you can keep the fields upholding your "bubble". This depends on the energy of your ship. Big ships can travel all over the galaxy but they have enormous energy consumption requirements.

Smaller ships (such as Beto's Mastropiero) dock with a ring-like structure that allows them to make short jumps. The average jump in an explored route is about 12-48 hours, so it's much like aircraft flights.

Exploring new aetheric routes is something that is very romanticized but in reality is a tedious process of jumping, cataloguing new systems (many of them empty and useful only as refuelling stations), seeing where the streams go and end, how they change, and more.

There is no FTL radio or live communication. There is a kind of aetheric radar that allows you to see incoming ships and do some morse-like communication, but it's not very efficient, there is no such thing as a galactic internet (though it's said ancient civilizations had one)

Aether travel engines require very sophisticated manufacturing and materials, which were hard for humans to develop. This was long only in the hands of governments and corporations, but after the Machine War, accessible aether starships hit the civilian market.

Smaller ships are still used by governments (more like loose "leagues") to do what big ships can't: supply satellites and equipment to remote bases, small-scale transport of engineers, researchers, aether "meteorology" and exploration, etc. This is very much like bush planes in remote regions or the role of Aeroflot in developing the USSR.

While humans in the setting, like most species, are composed of many different leagues, cultures and organizations, their technology is remarkably consistent. This is because cheap and reliable spaceflight depends on very reliable standarization. Some of the spaceship parts used six centuries after Gagarin are still the same used in the Soyuz. The ISO is perhaps one of the most enduring legacies of human civilization, along with FIFA.

[japanesedoramaandanimelover91]

Translation of an article with Sakurai Sho in the June issue of Casa Brutus magazine. 06.2025. The Great Ring Roof. Throughout the exhibition grounds

Designed by Sou Fujimoto.

A giant wooden structure embodying the idea that "the world is one." In March of this year, the Great Ring Roof was recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's largest wooden structure. Its design, which encircles the entire exhibition area, expresses the concept of ‘diversity united in unity." It is a symbol of the World Expo, serving as both a main thoroughfare and a gathering place for people. We will take a closer look at the mystery of this large-scale architectural project.

Design: Sou Fujimoto.

Basic design: Azusa Sekkei.

Working design: Obayashi Corporation, Daitekkōgyō, TSUCHIYA.

Joint ventures: Yasui Architects & Engineers (northeast sector).

JV Shimizu, Tokyu, Muramoto, Aoki Asunaro (southeast sector)

Takenaka Corporation, Nankai Tatsumura, Takenaka Civil Engineering & Architecture, Showa Sekkei (west sector).

After the exhibition closed, discussions about the future use of the structure resumed. A final decision on whether to preserve it as a heritage site or dismantle it is expected in June.

Sakurai-san and Fujimoto-san walk along the Skywalk, a promenade built on top of the Grand Ring roof. Inside the ring (on the left in the photo), as if embraced by the structure, are the pavilions of foreign countries.

Photos: Takemi Yabuki. Text: Ai Sakamoto. Page 034.

【Main attractions】.

Four unique architectural structures became the face of the World Expo in Osaka and the Kansai region.

The focus is on the Grand Ring Roof, designed by Sou Fujimoto. Also featured are two exhibition halls, large and small, created in collaboration between master and apprentice: Toyo Ito and Akihisa Hirata. The buildings that welcome foreign guests also attract a lot of attention and deserve a special mention.

Sou Fujimoto.

Born in 1971 in Hokkaido. After graduating from the Faculty of Engineering, Department of Architecture, at the University of Tokyo, he founded his own architectural firm, Sou Fujimoto Architects, in 2000. He has won numerous awards, including the Grand Prix at the International Architecture Competition in Montpellier (France). From 2 July, the Mori Museum will host his first large-scale solo exhibition, ‘Sou Fujimoto Architecture: The Beginning and the Future, “Forest”’.

Sakurai Sho.

He made his debut in 1999 as a member of the pop group Arashi. In addition to appearing in TV series and films, he also hosts the news programme ‘News Zero.’ The show ‘Sakurai and Ariyoshi: The Yakai’ is very popular. The exhibition ‘Shō Sakurai: Words for the Future. PLAYFUL!’ is on display at the Kenshin Cultural Centre in Koriyama until 10 June.

Page 036: A journey through the exhibition complex created with complete dedication by Sou Fujimoto. Fifty-five years after the previous exhibition in 1970, the World Expo is once again being held in Osaka. Architect Sou Fujimoto served as the design producer for the site. We spoke with him about the meaning he attaches to the expo, whose significance is being questioned today.

Special edition "Sakurai Sho's Journey into the World of Architecture". Page 037.

Sakurai Sho stands on the roof of the Grand Ring Roof, about twenty metres above the ground. Looking out, you can see the east gate leading to Yumeshima Station, the main exhibition venues, the Japan Pavilion and other national exhibitions.

Photo: Takemi Yabuki, Stylist: Nao Ishikawa, Hair and Makeup: Yoshinori Takeuchi, Collaboration: Yoshikuni Shirai, Text: Ai Sakamoto.

Photo 1: The large ring roof can be accessed not only by stairs, but also by escalators and lifts. Toilets are located on the second level.

Photo 2: View of the wooden structure from a height of twelve metres. There are three types of modules with different light openings, allowing the space to be perceived differently depending on the configuration.

Photo number 3 - Part of the roof is made in the form of a membrane (the white area in the centre of the photo), which allows sunlight to penetrate through it, resembling the diffused light in a deciduous forest.

Photo 4: A walk along the Skywalk takes about thirty minutes. One section is a walkway over the water above an inland sea created by a dam.

About thirty percent of the structure is made of Japanese wood. Of this, seventy percent is hinoki cypress and other species produced in Japan. CLT (cross-laminated timber) technology and composite beams and columns made of wood have been used. The traditional Japanese method of "through jointing" (貫接合) has been used, in which holes are cut into the beams and columns are inserted into them. The structure is supported by 109 ring-shaped wooden modules with a diameter of about thirty metres, an inner diameter of about 615 metres, and a total circumference of about two kilometres. It is the largest wooden building in the world, listed in the Guinness Book of Records in March this year. Sakurai Sho remarks with admiration: "Amazing! It's several times larger than i imagined. I couldn't even believe it was a temporary structure." His gaze is drawn to the scale and power of the wooden architecture, reminiscent of Japanese temples and pagodas such as Kiyomitsu-dera or traditional temple structures. On the contemporary significance of the exhibition:

About 160 countries are participating in the exhibition—approximately 80% of the world's nations, including the United States, China, and even Palestine. This evokes associations with a unified global society, despite talk of disunity.

"People say that exhibitions are outdated, but i don't think so," says Fujimoto, the space designer.

"The large ring roof is a symbol of a world in which many different cultures come together as one. It reflects our modern world."

Engineering features:

Interestingly, the construction was divided into three sections, each of which was carried out by its own contractor:

Northeast section—Obayashi Corporation (JV)

Southeast section—Shimizu Corporation (JV)

West section—Takenaka Corporation (JV)

Each section used its own construction method, but all complied with current seismic resistance standards. The work was completed a month ahead of schedule, which is truly impressive.

Space concept:

At the centre of the exhibition is a forest-like green area covering approximately 2.3 hectares, whose tranquillity contrasts with the other pavilions. Nearby are the "Signature Pavilions," created by eight Japanese creative producers, as well as the pavilions of the participating countries, forming a kind of "ring city."

"It's really like a single city," says Sakurai, "inside the ring, everything feels like one whole."

Fujimoto's conclusion:

"There is simply no other event where the whole world spends six months together. That is why it is so important. We are sending a message to the world: we can be one. That is what is important now."

Page 038.

The circular structure of the routes allows visitors to move freely around the site without creating congestion. Unlike linear or radial layouts with a central square, the circular traffic system distributes the flow of people more evenly. Fujimoto says: "The large ring roof serves many functions—it is a symbol of the exhibition, a traffic route, a space that protects from rain and sun, and at the same time, an entrance area that welcomes guests." In addition, it serves as an observation deck: climbing to the outer part of the structure at a height of about twenty metres, you can take in the entire inner bay, views of Osaka, Kobe Port and even the Seto Strait. The roof features a "Skywalk" walking path that encircles the entire structure and has platforms and gentle slopes to make walking comfortable. "It's like an expression of the idea that the world is united around nature," says Fujimoto. He also shared that he was not particularly interested in exhibitions before, and only after participating in the preparation for this one did he begin to truly study the subject. He also visited the exhibition in Dubai: "It was a real learning experience," he says. For the 2025 exhibition, a height restriction was introduced for buildings—no higher than twenty metres (unlike the 1970 World Expo, where, for example, the Soviet pavilion reached 109.5 metres). Inside the ring, the limit is twelve metres. This minimised the differences between the pavilions in terms of scale and budget. The site area this time is one of the smallest in history, and the budget is about a third of the previous exhibition in Dubai. Fujimoto says: "It is precisely because this is temporary architecture, disappearing after six months, that we can afford such bold experiments and send messages to the future." The exhibition is easy to navigate thanks to a navigation system—information is built into the space itself, which is visible from anywhere on the site. The Osaka-Kansai 2025 exhibition will run until 13 October. Its main theme is "Designing the Future Society for Our Lives." Sakurai Sho, for whom this exhibition was his first, said: "I was thrilled—it was a chance to experience the culture of countries i had only heard of by name." He visited all the pavilions and realised the importance of personal experience: "No matter how advanced the world of digital technology and social media becomes, nothing can compare to real sensations—seeing, touching, feeling." He especially hopes that the younger generation and children, who do not yet know what the World Exhibition is, will be able to see it with their own eyes—and find in it the beginning of the future. Photo number 1) The pillars of the ring are numbered from one to seventy and serve as addresses. Photo number 2) Open views both along the circumference and along the radius create a feeling of spaciousness. Photo number 3) A ‘kan’ joint is a fastening method in which a wedge is driven into the top of a beam. To increase rigidity, the joints are additionally reinforced with metal elements. The design, processing and installation of parts differ for each of the three construction companies. The photo shows a joint made by the Shimizu Construction JV consortium. Photo number 4) A distinctive feature of the connections made by Obayashi JV is a plate that prevents indentation at the joint. Photo number 5) Takenaka Corporation JV! implemented the design so that no unnecessary elements are visible when viewed from below.

Page 039.

Near the east gate, guests are greeted by Myaku-Myaku, the official mascot. At the west gate, where the bus terminal is located, there is another sculpture of him in a different pose. Sakurai says, "This cute and strange appearance is addictive!"

Page 040.

Main Objects 02. Guest House.

Authors: Sou Fujimoto + Nikken Sekkei (Architectural Bureau).

A welcoming space with an elegant gallery that greets distinguished guests. During the World Expo, the Guest House is used to receive high-ranking guests from around the world. Its architectural concept is "Japanese Gallery," symbolising a bridge between Japan and other countries. Sakurai-san makes a special visit to this diplomatic space.

An oval water garden, visible from the reception area, where only one willow tree grows. In combination with the inner garden adjacent to the representative rooms, the landscape design was developed by Yuki Kutsuna, director of landscape architecture.

Page 041.

Guest House Project: Sou Fujimoto + Nikken Sekkei (Architectural Office). Design control: Sou Fujimoto Preliminary design: Nikken Sekkei. Working design: Consortium of Obayashi Corporation and Yahagi Construction + Nikken Sekkei.

Concept: "Japanese Gallery" ("和の回廊"), connecting Japan and the world. The banquet hall features two tapestries by artist Aiko Tezuka, inspired by the historic Senpukan building—the former reception hall of the Meiji-era mint—and the new Guest House. The tapestries in the interior were manufactured by Kawashima Selkon Textiles.

The translation may be incorrect, so please correct it if necessary.

[dyxtd21]

The Chocoformers of the Cocoa Nebula:

The Cocoa Nebula is a distant, intergalactic candy world known for its rich and diverse Chocoformer civilization, whose members are composed entirely of various types of chocolate-based alloys. Unlike the Sweetformers of Candytron, the Chocoformers are highly isolationist, wary of outsiders, and fiercely protective of their home world.

Their society is built on a strict hierarchy based on chocolate rarity and resilience, with Dark Chocolate Chocoformers often holding positions of power due to their durability and perceived strength, while White Chocolate Chocoformers are rare and treated as near-mythical beings. The Cocoa Nebula is a world of grandeur and secrecy, where tradition and heritage reign supreme, and the arrival of outsiders is seen as an existential threat to their way of life.

Chocoformer Society & Structure:

The Chocoformers are divided into factions based on their chocolate composition, with each type possessing distinct abilities and characteristics that define their role within their civilization.

Dark Chocolate Chocoformers:

Role: Warriors, Commanders, and Protectors

Traits: Highly disciplined, resilient, and serious. Known for their strong, bitter personalities and unwavering dedication to defending the Cocoa Nebula.

Abilities: Enhanced endurance and resistance to high temperatures, making them nearly impervious to most forms of melting or damage

View on Outsiders: Most distrustful of all Chocoformers, viewing any foreign presence as an invasion.

Notable Dark Chocoformer: Chromedark (Ruler of Cocoa Nebula)

2. Milk Chocolate Chocoformers:

Role: The majority of the population, consisting of artisans, engineers, and enforcers.

Traits: Versatile and adaptable, milk chocolate Chocoformers are friendly among themselves but still uphold their isolationist ways. They are quick to action but prone to melting in extremely high temperatures.

Abilities: Flexible and fast, they can morph and adjust their structures to fit different needs, making them excellent builders and tactical fighters.

View on Outsiders: Curious but still skeptical; they believe that outsiders could contaminate their way of life

Notable Milk Chocoformer: Milkcloud (Engineer)

3. Ruby Chocolate Chocoformers:

Role: Scholars, Advisors, and Scientists

Traits: Intellectually superior and innovative, Ruby Chocolate Chocoformers have a natural pinkish hue and are known for their sharp minds. They specialize in alchemy, energy manipulation, and advanced confectionery-based technology.

Abilities: They can harness natural cocoa energy to create shields, beams, and other defensive measures. Their bodies are highly resistant to decay and spoilage.

View on Outsiders: While cautious, they are the most open-minded of all Chocoformers and secretly seek knowledge from beyond the Cocoa Nebula.

Notable Ruby Chocoformer: Rubylight (Advisor and scientist)

4. Gianduja Chocolate Chocoformers:

Role: Merchants, Diplomats, and Traders

Traits: Charismatic and persuasive, Gianduja Chocoformers are made of a smooth chocolate-hazelnut alloy, making them extremely flexible and adaptable in different social settings.

Abilities: They can manipulate their semi-soft bodies to fit into tight spaces, evade attacks, or create malleable shields. Their enhanced sense of taste allows them to detect toxins or impurities in any substance.

View on Outsiders: They are reluctant traders—while they see the potential benefits of intergalactic commerce, they are aware that their society forbids outside influences.

Notable Gianduja Chocoformer: Giandust(Trader)

5. Aerated Chocolate Chocoformers:

Role: Scouts, Spies, and Assassins

Traits: Light, porous, and full of air pockets, these Chocoformers are stealth experts who can move swiftly and silently. Their bodies make them highly agile and unpredictable.

Abilities: Their aerated nature allows them to absorb impacts and rapidly shift between solid and semi-solid states, making them difficult to damage. They can also release air bursts to propel themselves forward or disorient enemies.

View on Outsiders: They are suspicious but willing to observe before making decisions. They often serve as the first line of defense when outsiders arrive.

Notable Aerated Chocoformer: Aeros (Scout and spy)

6. White Chocolate Chocoformers (The Rarest):

Role: An enigma...

Traits: White Chocolate Chocoformers are incredibly rare, with Silverwhite being one of the only known ones, though...that's not the case. Due to their fragile nature and distinctive ivory sheen, they are revered as nearly divine beings.

Abilities: They possess the ability to manipulate purity-based energy, cleansing corruption and restoring weakened Chocoformers. However, they are extremely susceptible to high temperatures and direct combat.

View on Outsiders: They are divided—some believe outsiders could be a source of knowledge, while others (like Silverwhite) strongly oppose outside influences, fearing contamination and dilution of their heritage.

Notable White Chocoformers: Silverwhite (Second-in-command), Blitzwhite. (Crossed out by Chromedark)

[ashwin-the-artless]

Cities

Here's a post that strongly intersects with @your-tutor-abacus' blog, but I think I'll write about generics and let it reference this post when it goes to write about specifics.

The cities on the Sunspot (`etekeyerrinwuf) are build very differently than most cities on Earth (or, at least U.S. cities) and there are good reasons for this.

We all tend to take for granted what we've grown up with, so when we write about living and doing things in the cities where we've grown up, we'll tend to reference metropolitan civil structures without explaining them. Unless the story has a moment that specifically deals with why those structures exist, then we might get introspective an analyze them.

But, when you gone from one culture to an alien one, it absolutely prompts analysis and you can find yourself obsessed with it for a while, so I'm claiming this subject.

What are Sunspot cities like?

Unlike Earth cities, which have mostly grown up naturally around various human settlements that gathered around important resources, Sunspot cities were designed from the the ground up deliberately.

Some Earth cities were created in similar ways, especially the colonial ones. A country will pick a spot where it wants a city and hire a bunch of professionals (or politicians) to socially engineer the city to meet some sort of national ideal and to practice social engineering in the process.

There are still some real fundamental differences between that and what happened when the Sunspot was built.

Unlike any place on Earth, or the Earth itself, the Sunspot is a constructed world, built literally from the ground up (or inward) to be a safe place for its inhabitants to exist with sufficient resources for everyone.

It's a spaceship, not a planet, even though it's big enough to have multiple cities in it, and a whole ecosystem of plants and animals. And it had to be designed to be indefinitely sustainable.

Part of that was, in contrast to its predecessor ship, was making sure that every living thing on the ship (including every person) had equal access to resources in order to minimize conflict.

So, wherever you might live on the Sunspot, ports in the floor and/or ceiling deliver everything you could possibly need to thrive there.

You, as a living being with a biological vessel, get an allotment of ship resources, and it's probably more than you'll ever use, because the population is kept low enough to do that (which is a dire concern on a generational starship, but a false one on Earth, really).

This means that neighborhoods, communities, and cities are not built around your typical sets of resources. In fact, Belowdecks, they aren't built around any resources.

Abovedecks, in the Garden, the primary resource considered is psychological. Each city is built in an area of the Garden where the environment may best fit the psychological needs of a predicted portion of the population.

So, there are cities in the plains, the mountains, the forests, the shorelines, near rivers, and under the water to create a wide range of possible living conditions and psychological amenities.

But, besides that, the organization of neighborhoods and specialized buildings is totally different than Earthlings may be used to.

Because, the one resource that the ship systems cannot control, just by virtue of the two Living Rights, are people. Community.

But community can be encouraged and accommodated.

So, all quarters and structures Belowdecks are modular and reconfigurable. Designed so that wall can be constructed or removed as needed. Hallways are left permanently in their original locations to make navigation easy and accessible to all, but between the hallways people can do just about anything.

But, by default, the Founding Crew set this up with sets of personal quarters arranged to surround communal gathering spaces. And those communal gathering spaces have been used for libraries, audiences, galleries, warehouses, kitchens/cafeterias, and Artistry collectives of all types. And the resulting structure overall resembles the arrangement of cells in living tissue, with the community spaces serving as the cytoplasm and organelles contained by the cell walls of the living quarters. Each cell developing into a specialized purpose according to its inhabitants whims and agreements.

And then, the Abovedecks cities where designed in a similar way, except that the potential cells were originally simply foundations for buildings, and they were placed spaced out enough so that their development would have minimal impact on the environment around them.

It's been over a hundred and thirty millennia since then, and the cities and communities have evolved a lot. But the basic structure and pressures (or lack of pressures) from resources remain. And certain collectives or types of Artistry have gathered or dispersed in each city over time and given them their respective characters.

Some cities, like Gopra Pyle, have a huge central collective that unifies all the smaller collectives around it, and have developed sort of a singular municipal Art project that everyone's proud of that has spanned generations of contribution.

Others, like Frra, are more diverse, sometimes homogeneous and sometimes divided, with four major collectives to countless collectives more evenly distributed throughout their perimeter.

So, like, in most cities on the Sunspot, you're not going to find anything like a commercial district or industrial site or set of warehouses. You might find an audience with surrounding libraries that's frequently utilized by the local government, and that might look like a governmental district in an Earth city. But the civic pride that is displayed by that area by its architecture and activities is going to be unusual to Earth sensibilities, and likely a lot more fluid and less focused.

With the Network, the resource tubes, and tram system, almost everything aboard the Sunspot is decentralized. And it shows.

If anything in a city serves as a landmark or gets your attention, it's usually a communal work of art commemorating a past even, serving as a meeting place that you too can use, or just sitting there trying to be beautiful.

[luxudus]

The Neo-Anthropocene: First Contact

Originally drawn in july of 2021 and recolored in december 2021. So anatomy in my more recent drawings will be different. This post was meant to be 2 separate entries to build up to this moment but I ran out of time :(

12 days would pass as Castel, Meihui, Doumu, Santos, and 14 other survivors would have to endure the conditions of this alien world. Unable to enjoy any of the world's food as the proteins that make up all life on this planet are Right handed, contrasting the left hand proteins of earth, meaning nothing could be digested. But at least the air is breathable

Through Meihui's engineering skills, Santos' leadership, and sheer luck. A primitive radio communications network would be established with 10 of the 14 other survivors. Even if they would fade from time, at least they wouldn't do it alone

However, everything would change

One day, as Castel, Meihui, and Doumu wandered across the golden plains and forests, coming across 2 headed vertebrates of varying limbs and titanium bones. 6 sided "arthropods" that walk in all directions, and their marine counterparts. Castel would see something dart the sky. Something shaped like a plane darting over them and into the hills

Castel would break off from the group and race to the hills. Before the other 2 could catch up, They would already be at the peak

"Castel! please slow down!" screams meihui, they get no response as they just stand still, their whole body is clenched in shock

"Castel! what's wrong?! what do you see?!" screams meihui as he climbs the hill. They finally get a response, a response that would shake them to their very core

"It's a city..." mutters castel

staring off into the landscape, a city of almond-shaped structures, interrupted by forestry and what look like transit bridges. The same plane like object is landing on one of the taller buildings.

Meihui and Doumu reach the peak of the hill and freeze up just like castel, and stare into this history changing vista.

Castel shares a revelation they had when the voyager exploded, before they ever set foot on the planet, that they would have to seek help from the locals. Meihui tries to talk them out of it but Doumu intervenes, saying it's the best option other than waiting another 2 years for human rescue. Meihui eventually gives in and agrees.

Castel takes a deep breath, hugs the two, and bolts for the city, all the while screaming for help and waving their hands before switching to just one.

Someone would take notice

they see a silhouette depart from a group of 4 approach them rapidly. Castel's heart pounding, breathing as heavy as a mountain. Their entire life flashes before their eyes, they are ready to face the unknown, unafraid of their fate.

The figure approaches them and is more easily discernable, they arrive on 6 legs, they look at them with a wedge shaped head ordained by 4 eyes and 2 long ears. They share a glance before the individual greets them with their singular arm. Castel shakes it, and first contact was made

They would be taken to their city, with Meihui and Doumu catching up. Our language would be translated, biology analyzed, and the coordinates of each survivor pinpointed on their planet all in surprising efficiency.

Eventually they would find the direction we came from, messages would directly broadcasted to us, and a meeting would strike between the highest ranking officials of the United Federations and the representatives of this civilization. The remaining survivors were brought back to human space while castel chose to stay to learn about these people.

The people that make up this world call themselves the Ikleud, and this planet is their homeworld, They named it Irou. And they have been in space for as long as us.

[stringsnwires]

You ask for more engineering jokes and puns? I shall deliver.

Why was the structural engineer so confident? They knew how to hold up under pressure!

What’s an engineer’s go-to pickup line? “Are you a problem? Because I can solve you.”

Why did the engineer go to therapy? To work on their inner workings!

Why was the bridge builder so successful? They connected with everyone!

How does an engineer tell you to keep quiet? “Hold your voltage!”

What’s a mechanical engineer’s favorite exercise? Gear-ups!

What does an engineer use to keep warm? Thermal dynamics!

How do engineers stay in shape? They work on their core (programming, of course)!

How do engineers express anger? By venting!

Engineers excel in solving problems, but can’t fix their own.

What’s the difference between Mechanical Engineers and Civil Engineers?

Mechanical Engineers build weapons; Civil Engineers build targets.

I have more but i shall resist for now.

Just call for Dad joke anon and i shall appear.

Aw, yeah... I'll write these down later. Thanks so much, Pardner.

[cosmicgrapevine]

A Not-So-Brief Summary of my Novel's Worldbuilding, Characters, Plot, and Themes

@tototavros was asking for a more comprehensive summary of this project at some point, so here goes. This is a rather 'organic' project and some of the details have changed over time and will continue to change, but I'm pretty solid on most of it at this point.

This sideblog is for my posting pieces from and other content related to my WIP manuscript Through the Grapevine, an urban fantasy novel set in the late 1990s that straddles the YA/New Adult border in tone and content. While the first novel is a fairly self-contained narrative, I am writing and marketing it as a 3-4 book series.

Metaphysics: While this mostly isn't relevant in the first book, if you pan out wide enough it turns out that our universe is only one of an uncountably high (but not infinite: something something maximum number of vertices in an n-dimensional something something) number connected by a structure known as the Viabract or Great Vine. The number of universes able to support life at all, let alone a civilization of intelligent beings, is much smaller--many universes are tiny, half-formed, or incomplete 'junk dimensions'. "Our" universe has a reputation for being unusually safe, stable, and predictable, in part because our stricter physical laws make magic more difficult to perform, and magic is ultimately a force that borrows against metaphysical stability, especially on the large scale.

The Viabract is the ultimate source of all magic, although that magic manifests locally in different ways, and skilled supernaturalists can use it to travel between dimensions. The interior is a series of interconnected tunnels to which normal notions of size and distance don't really apply. The only (arguably) living beings native to it are agglomerations of pure magic called Mires, which in their natural state look something like overgrown amoebae but can possess other beings to give themselves 'real bodies' and grant significant power to their hosts. (A non-sapient possessed animal is called a Halfmire, while a sapient possessed animal is a Fullmire)

Main Characters: My two POV characters are Melanie Kitz and Tabby Jelenski, high school juniors at a Catholic school in Chicago who have been friends since childhood. Melanie's parents, Fred and Janet, are a Chicago PD detective and a social worker for Child Services, and thus she's led a fairly privileged life. She is ambitious, hoping to get into a good college and start a career in politics or activism, and prefers to follow the rules and keep her head down.

Tabby's parents, Steve and Rita, are divorced and estranged: her paternal uncle went to jail for laundering mob money through his pawn shop, which ruined her parents' already tenuous relationship. She lives with her abusive mother, her father moved to the suburbs to live with said brother once he got out of jail, and while she deeply despises her mom she's not on great terms with her dad either. She is adventurous and reckless, planning on running away to anywhere-but-here as soon as she's done with school. She rebels against her mother through petty crimes and sleeping around with neighborhood boys.

While he's not a POV character, Lynd's arc is nearly as important as the other two. He shows up one night at Melanie's house, looking for her paternal grandfather Florentino, a man she thought had been dead for decades. He claims to be a representative of an ancient order of demon-hunters called Marksteppers who live in the wilderness and forsake human civilization, and his 'clan' seeks help from Florentino, who is the most powerful living Warden, a different school of magic (broadly speaking: Wardens are rules-magic engineers, Marksteppers are spirit-magic shamans, and they do not work well together). It is soon revealed that Lynd has ostensibly arrived in search of some information, but really wants to leave his old life behind and see what life in the 'normal world' is like.

Lynd is of the Ash Clan of Marksteppers, one of nine 'Great Clans' that rule the others and whose members are significantly more powerful. While 'normal' Marksteppers are basically human, Great Clan members are closer to demigods: they don't age, can't reproduce, and the (more or less) only way to join a clan is to kill a current member and inherit their powers, thus taking their place.

Setting: All three wind up in Kahoti, Florida, a private suburb north of Tampa built, funded, and operated by Florentino. Wardens' chief magical tool is Wards, a form of defensive magic which borrows energy from the Viabract and uses it to create barriers. Historically, Wards could only be applied to single structures, as they relied on a physical anchoring point and their power could not be transmitted through empty space. Florentino is a pioneer in Warding larger areas: his first big breakthrough was (ironically) magic-proofing Walt Disney World, using the rides, monorails and the like as vectors for Wards. By the '80s, he had mastered his craft enough to build an entire community with enough space for 30,000 people, all fully Warded and protected (real life inspirations include private and/or planned Florida communities Seaside, Celebration, and Golden Oak).

Plot: Once they settle down in Kahoti, the trio joins the Lost Kids, the in-training demon-hunting group at Kahoti High (this is, at its core, a Wake Up Go to School Save the World story). The central enemy in the story is Blackmires--Mires which seem to be created artificially, hijack hosts instead of symbiotically bonding with them, and can be transferred from one person to another with the old memories intact, none of which normal Mires are supposed to be able to do.

The mastermind behind their creation is Gerald Scutaro, aka The Centipede, a former mafioso who found a way into the world of magic and used it to benefit his organization, until he got too powerful for his own good and his fellow mobsters tricked him into a Vegas trip in the early 1990s where they gave him the Rasputin treatment and left him for dead. He survived, however, to meet Anna McCarthy, current Lord of the Sumac Clan of Marksteppers. Along with another Sumac, they invent Blackmires by combining normal Mires with the Sumac Clan's signature Black Water, a substance that in small doses makes people uninhibited and hedonistic, and in large ones mutates them into monsters that the Clan Lord can control.

McCarthy and Scutaro's ultimate plan is to gain possession of two bractoscopes, items that superficially look like mirrors but are actually portals into Warded areas that they couldn't access otherwise, use them to funnel their troops into Kahoti and take it over from the inside. And that is not just for its own sake, but to secure possession of a valuable territory for the coming actions of all nine Great Clans: an attempt to summon their creator goddess back to life and turn Earth into a fortress against their extradimensional enemies. (This is not an 'Evil Plan' necessarily: some Marksteppers and humans alike think that it will lead to a new golden age for Earth as a center of interdimensional travel, and Marksteppers in general are fond of humanity and see themselves as its protectors.)

On the more interpersonal level, Melanie was already an ambitious young woman, and learning that she's the heir to her grandfather's vast empire and a prodigal (grand)daughter to this new community only heightens that aspect of her. She learns how to use this power to the benefit of all while still keeping her morals intact. She struggles in understanding her grandfather and his work; he is at turns capricious, downright cruel, and deeply merciful. Tabby and Lynd, meanwhile, quickly find themselves falling in love with each other, their shared outsider status and being targets of suspicion deepening their bond. With Tabby's help, Lynd assimilates quickly to this new world, to the point where she fears he'll lose the spark that brought them together in the first place.

Other Characters: Florentino Cervantes himself is my flashy, sun-soaked spin on the mentor character, a wizard and business baron whose two trades mutually support each other, and who mostly farms out the mentoring to his subordinates. Travis Barrett, an aggressive and vicious hunter, is his second in command, and is secretly Melanie's older brother: Florentino forced Fred and Janet to give up their firstborn to him in return for leaving their lives entirely. Since the Lost Kids meet primarily at school, most of their adult support doubles as school staff, including Gary Hansen (dean of students), Amanda Vernon (physics), and Lou Bonifacio (driver's ed and assistant baseball coach).

Gary's daughter Fawn and Lou's nephew Jordy are both 'lifers', with Fawn specializing in infosec and cover-ups and Jordy being more of a front-liner with a magic-infused baseball bat that can turn into a massive magic-fueled sledge. Kenny Boyd and Anthony Nicks began their training in middle school. Anthony is the team nerd of sorts: tech whiz and loremaster with perception-altering powers, while Kenny is a cynical metalhead and skateboarder with the ability to control metals. Finally, the 'Pool Crew' consists of Drew, Jevon, Conrad, and Corey, who answer directly to Travis and whose preferred magic is the gun kind. Jordy's girlfriend Shanti Khatri had a spot on the team for a minute, but was kicked out and memory-wiped for targeting her classmates with mind-altering magic.

Of the bad guys: Ernest Brunswick is a 200-year-old English aristocrat who gained Markstepper-immortality at age 30 or so, and the chief chemist in the creation of Blackmires. He is estranged from Scutaro and McCarthy when the story begins and seeks to undermine them. Other agents include Dale Patterson, the first Blackmire who could successfully travel from body to body, but given he was a white supremacist before being transformed, insists on possessing only white men, and Rachel Bosart, a one-hit-wonder pop singer from the '70s who is looking to ride Scutaro's magic into a younger body. While none of the students start out demonic (in the non-mundane sense at least), the bad guys do get their claws into Shanti and star pitcher Ryan Hyde as well.

Themes: The most central theme to this story is freedom vs. safety, exemplified by Tabby and Melanie respectively. Wards provide safe havens from demons, but must be carefully controlled and are not open to everyone. Personal choice is also a major factor: destiny and chosen ones do not really feature here (although some characters think otherwise), and emphasis is repeatedly placed on how all three tritagonists choose to learn more or go deeper. While I'm trying to avoid going all Ernest Cline, 90's/y2k nostalgia is a factor as well, playing up the pre-9/11, pre-Columbine sense of freedom and optimism, as well as one of the last eras where having a social life didn't require being constantly plugged into the internet.

[electronickingdomfox]

"Chain of Attack" review

Novel from 1987, by Gene DeWeese. It builds on the storyline from The Abode of Life, where the Enterprise travelled through a dimensional gate to an altogether different galaxy. And it seems this plot would be continued in DeWeese's next novel, The Final Nexus. There's been an increasing interconnection between the TOS novels in recent entries. Here, for example, there are appearances of Lt. Tomson (from Dillard's books) and engineer Alec MacPherson (from Crisis on Centaurus).

The plot itself is suspenseful, and there's a mounting tension as the Enterprise gets into even greater danger each time. So it's a novel that reads fast and doesn't get boring. Where it falls short, in my opinion, is in the execution. The style is dry and overly expository, there's barely any humor, and not much in the way of characterization (for example, Spock does little more than recite numbers, until the very end). The middle part gets also a bit repetitive, with one encounter with hostile ships after another, and the setting rarely leaves the bridge. The ending, on the other hand, feels rushed and things get solved all too conveniently. So, even if the story could have been very well a TOS episode, with its theme of communication as basis to avoid conflict, the structure and style (maybe also the expansion of an episode to novel-length) somehow damage the result.

The guest character this time is your regular unsympathetic politician that's making things even harder for Kirk. There are frequent passages told from his point of view, which help to develop him as a character and show his descent into madness. Though as a villain, he's quite ineffectual, and I don't think his presence was necessary for the story. Still, I will take the annoying jerk any day before the annoying Mary Sue, thank you.

Spoilers under the cut:

The Enterprise is investigating a series of gravitational anomalies, using probes designed by Dr. Jason Crandall, who has come along as an observer (though he's more interested in his political career than science). Several probes have been lost through the anomalies, apparently transported parsecs away. Crandall is urging Kirk to abandon the investigation, as they seem incapable of learning anything about the dimensional gates. But suddenly, the Enterprise has the misfortune of passing through an undetected gate... And it has to be the worst possible gate as well, as it transports the ship millions of parsecs away, and further than any probe before.

The stars of the unknown galaxy where they pop up are densely clustered. But the scenario they find around, when they start searching hopelessly for the gate back home, is eerily desolate. All the planets they find, once habitable, appear now completely ravaged by advanced weaponry. To the point that life was wiped away thousands of years ago, never to sprout again due to the high radiation. Everyone is overwhelmed by the thought of such a civilization, so intent in total annihilation. On top of that, there's the fact that the crew may never return to their galaxy, as the gate seems to appear randomly or not at all. Kirk and McCoy are a bit "Meh! Anyway, our whole family is here aboard the Enterprise, so no big deal!" (didn't you have a daughter somewhere, McCoy?). But Crandall has a life, so he's... annoyed, to say the least. Other than this, they encounter a planet with unusual life readings well under the surface, but Kirk considers it's too dangerous to beam down through solid rock, so they forget about it for the time being.

When the Enterprise finally finds another ship, a somewhat obsolete model, they're greeted with a preemptive attack. And once the ship finds out it can't outmatch the Enterprise, it self-destructs with everyone aboard. Later, they find more of these ships, engaged in a battle against a different model. Kirk beams up one of the aliens from the new ship, before it explodes. The alien is humanoid but vaguely reptilian, and as soon as he wakes up... he explodes as well, injuring a nurse. They're more careful with the other three aliens rescued, and remove their suicide implants before waking them up. However, the creatures are frustratingly uncooperative, and refuse to even talk. Then Spock brings up his ultimate weapon: a PowerPoint presentation. Okay, it's not a PowerPoint, but close enough: a visual representation of everything the Enterprise has been through since it passed through the gate. The aliens finally understand they're not enemies, and start talking. The translator begins to collect data, and after a while, they're able to communicate. The reptilian aliens are the Hoshan, in perpetual war with another race, the Destroyers, whom they blame for the total destruction of planets in the sector. They've grown so distrustful of other ships, that they shoot first, and ask questions never.

Therefore, Kirk's next step is beaming up one of the so-called "Destroyers". Crandall thinks this is a good moment to attempt mutiny. He had misinterpreted McCoy's familiarity with Kirk as insubordination, and thought the doctor would go along with his plan to replace Kirk and Spock, whom Crandall considers incompetent and too lenient towards the Destroyers. Of course, Crandall ends up arrested in his quarters. Kirk goes ahead with his plans. The alien, this time, looks rather avian, and says his race are the Zeator. His version of the story is pretty much a reverse of the Hoshan's. Each race blames the other for destroying the worlds, despite neither having the sophisticated technology to do so, or having been around for so long. Their ongoing war is thus the result of a tragic misunderstanding, and lack of communication. Kirk sends the aliens back to their ships, in the hope that they'll reach a truce.

Sure enough, both the Hoshan and the Zeator start collaborating, and ask Kirk to be a mediator for their peace treaty. Only that they bring a full armada of ships to the peace talks, which seems... suspicious. After seeing the superior technology of the Enterprise, they've concluded that they're the actual destroyers of worlds. Crandall, who's been allowed in the bridge again, and has turned suicidal out of desperation, attacks Sulu just as he was about to raise the shields, so the enemy fire can destroy the ship. The Enterprise manages to escape, but badly damaged, and limps back to the initial spot of the gate. It's clear now that neither the Hoshan nor the Zeator built the gates, and they'll be of no help.

Just as they're passing by the planet with the unusual life readings, the whole crew is suddenly beamed down to the planet's underground. They all appear inside a huge cavern, surrounded by a force field that isolates them from a vacuum. And their equipment is out of reach, in the surrounding vacuum. Then the new aliens start transporting individuals to a different area, and try to learn their language through several lessons. But Kirk knows that, without their translators, it will take an eternity to communicate with them. When Spock and Crandall's turn arrives, the Vulcan seizes the opportunity to mind-meld with an alien woman. He notices she's somehow connected to a central computer, and through it, to hundreds of other aliens in suspended animation (that was the origin of the strange life readings). Spock achieves a sort of collective consciousness with the aliens and the whole crew of the Enterprise. Then, Spock induces the transporter operator to put them near the equipment, instead of back inside the force field. Crandall appears next to the equipment, but Spock is too far away and dying in the vacuum (though I don't know how they can survive even a single second IN a vacuum... Whatever). Crandall has understood through the mass mind-meld from before that Kirk and the crew never meant him ill, and realizes the wrong of his ways. In a final redemptive act, Crandall throws a survival gear at Spock, and then collapses. Armed with the translator, Spock is transported again near the aliens, and can communicate with them at last, and explain their predicament.

Everything is explained in the last few pages. The new aliens, called Aragos, are native also to the Milky Way, and arrived in that galaxy thousands of years ago through a gate. They took refuge under that planet from some attackers (the actual world destroyers? it's not very clear). And there they found the hibernation technology and the computer that controls it, so they waited for centuries until somebody came through the gates to rescue them. The central computer has a monitoring system for the gates, and thanks to this, the Enterprise finds the gate back home, and also brings the Aragos to their original planet. The Hoshan and Zeator, arranged around the gate, let the Enterprise pass at the last moment, once convinced that they're not responsible for the destruction of those worlds. A while later, Crandall, who is amazingly NOT dead after all, recovers in sickbay, and is promised an ambassador post at the Aragos planet.

Spirk Meter: 0/10*. Nothing comes to mind. Kirk seems to be closer to McCoy, actually. Though it's not enough to make me consider it a McKirk example.

[frank-olivier]

Intertwined Cultural History and Language Development in East Asia

The cultures and languages of China, Korea, and Japan are closely intertwined through a long, complex history of mutual exchange and influence. China, as one of the earliest advanced civilizations in the region, exerted an immense influence on the development of Korean and Japanese cultures due to its geographic proximity, sophisticated statehood, and technological innovations.

Both Korea and Japan adopted the Chinese writing system - Korea used Chinese characters until the 15th century, while Japan still uses a mix of Chinese characters and indigenous scripts. The Chinese philosophy of Confucianism was adopted as a governing principle for state and society in both countries. Architectural styles, clothing, hairstyles, music, and aesthetics in Korea and Japan were heavily influenced by China during the Tang Dynasty. Technologies ranging from agriculture to civil engineering were transmitted from China.

Korea played a crucial role in mediating the cultural exchange between China and Japan, incorporating major Chinese elements into its own culture before passing them on to Japan. Buddhism, for instance, was introduced to Japan via Korea.

Although the flow of cultural influence was primarily from China, there was also a reciprocal exchange, with China absorbing innovations from its eastern neighbors over time. The shared use of Chinese characters also allowed for some degree of mutual intelligibility between the languages.

Despite these close connections, the Chinese, Korean, and Japanese languages developed into separate, mutually unintelligible idioms due to their distinct origins. While their vocabularies contain many Chinese loanwords, their grammars and pronunciation systems are markedly different, as following comparison of Korean and Japanese sentence structures with Chinese shows.

Similarities with Chinese:

- All three languages follow a Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) word order at the basic level.

- They use particles/markers to indicate grammatical roles like subject and object.

- Adverbs generally precede the verb they modify.

Differences from Chinese:

- Korean and Japanese have more complex systems of particles/markers compared to Chinese.

- Korean allows frequent omission of subjects when implied by context, which is less common in Chinese.

- In Korean, adjectives are conjugated like verbs following the SOV order. In Chinese, adjectives precede the nouns they modify.

- Japanese adjectives also precede nouns, similar to Chinese, but verbs still come last following SOV.

Unique Aspects:

- Korean has an extensive system of speech level markers built into the grammar to indicate formality/honorifics.

- Japanese uses different particles (wa/ga) to indicate the topic/subject in a nuanced way.

- Chinese relies more on word order than case markers to convey grammatical roles.

So while the three languages share the core SOV typology, Korean stands out with its flexible subject omission and verb-like adjective conjugations. Japanese sits somewhere between Korean and Chinese in its sentence structure. The similarities arise from millennia of Chinese linguistic influence in the region.

Neneh Cherry - Twisted

Tuesday, May 14, 2024