#Grain Storage Containers

[orteil42]

some undifferentiated thoughts about my Starfield playthrough as i have them. i am a game developer with a strong interest in procedural generation and i've enjoyed a bunch of other bethesda games so this might get pretty mean sorry

(this is a long one)

starfield dialogue is already exhausting me "oh you must've been living under a moon rock ;)" get it! because they're in space! this would've been too corny for the Jetsons

there's a kind of cheap dusting of space theme over everything. the food isn't salmon but alien salmon. it's not seaweed but alien seaweed. cooking alien stir-fry. come on

cannot get over how clumsily the theming is handled. books, board games, weapon names revolve heavily around space. these people have been living on alien planets for hundreds of years yet have this unending sense of novelty about it. the game takes itself completely seriously but feels like it's attempting to parody itself

people's EYEBALLS are CLIPPING THROUGH THEIR EYELIDS

a woman is speaking to me in french. her accent is about as believable as her haircut

these are some of the worst reflection maps i've ever seen

next to nothing is interactive. you can sit in chairs and sleep in beds and that is about it. can't even drink from people's toilets. disgraceful

game helpfully crashes 5 seconds after i decide i should get some sleep. very handy!

my character has not said a single thing since i started playing. not one peep. this is an unmitigated improvement over Fallout 4 i'm so glad honestly

the more i poke around the big city the more the NPC quips feel like something out of gen-1 pokemon. can't get enough of this coffee :) this city is where it's at :) spacesuits are comfy and easy to wear

very strange sense of altered reality from the quest dialogue too. has anyone at bethesda met a person before? i move on to some mission that has me scanning wildlife on a faraway planet hoping this will, somehow, feel less alien than human conversation

just as with No Man's Sky, every planet is uniformly dotted with equidistantly-placed points of interest that you slowly make your way to (no vehicles besides your jetpack) which always turn out to be some cave or building identical to those you've cleared before

unlike with No Man's Sky, the seamless exploration is faked and the biodiversity is nil. you do get an impressive amount of raw loading screens however

the prefab bases and power stations found everywhere on planets seem to have very sparse, very specific slots for spawning consumables, which results in encountering some giant industrial installation in the middle of nowhere with, i don't know, a loaf of whole-grain sandwich bread just casually sitting next to it all proper. there is no breathable atmosphere here. who is eating this

planetary traversal is a CHORE. i am saying this as someone who loved Death Stranding

heinous "hold to confirm" buttons sprinkled in various flow-breaking places throughout the interface

enemy AI is abominable. nobody is pathing their way to get my ass. "must've been the wind" taken to the next level. an infant playing peekaboo has more object permanence

hoisting yourself up on ledges when jumping is…nice

companions randomly nowhere to be found. persists through multiple fast-travels and loading screens until, just as randomly, they pop back up

storage space is now limited! unlike in Fallout 4 and virtually every other bethesda game, your containers now hold a finite item capacity. god forbid we let the player have fun

baffling inventory UI. i imagine there's a mod out there that completely overhauls it the way SkyUI did for Skyrim. this should not be needed! how are your UIs getting worse a decade later!

scanning the precious few species inhabiting some dusty planet; one of them is this arching red root i've already seen several times before. my job done in this biome, i travel (read: teleport with a loading screen) to the polar region to find some other species. the first one i catalogue is the exact same red root again but this time it's named "boreas root" todd howard is a genius

some alien horror comes at me full fangs out. i hop on a pebble. obscenely, i am safe

procedural terrain generation beyond dull, impossibly unimaginative. these people have not had one critical thought on what makes a procedural world interesting. beginning to feel validated in my belief that only i should be trusted with proc gen. along with perhaps tarn adams

jokes aside this is making me feel genuinely insane. there have been excellent procedural generation techniques that produce compelling explorable maps for decades now. bethesda absolutely has the budget and know-how to do miles better than this yet somehow they just…do not? the same way Pokemon has decided to just no longer bother with their mainline games despite being the highest-grossing media franchise in history? hello? what is for real going on

some of the most cynical breadcrumbing i've seen in years. approaching some random cave and this person in space gear, who in the vast immensity of the infinite cosmos just happens to be snapping pictures right here, tells me more-or-less verbatim "if you like this place, you should see this other place" [other random cave has been added to your map.]

i do not like how good this makes No Man's Sky's gameplay look. it depresses me how much i have to hand it to No Man's Sky for at least not fucking up this bad. please stop making me wish i was playing No Man's Sky instead this is grotesque

i think i've exhausted my interest and patience for this game at the moment. i'll get back to the main story at some point and try some other systems ie. crafting and base-building to see if there's any engagement to be found but so far, my god. my god

[i-am-aristiana]

I wrote a glossary of TF terms.

PLEASE NOTE: These terms are a mix of canon and fanon. It changes from continuity to continuity, and from fanfic author to fanfic author. It’s only a guide, and I have no intention of saying I know more than anyone else. Please take it with a grain of salt.

A NSFW section exist, I will publish it in another post.

Miscellaneous terms

Berth: Bed

Bond: A permanent connection spark to spark from 2 or more Cybertronians. Can be between conjuxed couple, but also happens with twins/triplets/etc, or combiners.

CNA: DNA

Amica, Conjuxed Amica: Very dear friends, but not more than friends. Another James Roberts creation!

Conjux, Conjux Endura, Conjuxed: Married couple. Thanks James Roberts for that one! :)

Em field: Electronic field emitted by the Cybertronian that another can read / detect, no human equivalent

Energon: The blood of Cybertronian and what they drink as “food’.

Enforcer: Police officer

Kibble: All the parts that had to be removed for one reason or another. It grew to mean parts of alt mode visible in their other modes as well.

Pad: Tablet computer

Split-spark twins: Twins created from a single spark, and it “magically” turned into 2, similar to identical twins. Though they don’t necessarily have the same physical appearance.

Subspace: A storage area that doesn’t physically exist, yet they use it all the time. Thanks the 80’s for the art errors and pulling a weapon out of thin air for that term.

Body part, SFW

Aft: Butt

Armor: The outer part of the frame, what’s easy to see and colourful.

Audials: Ears

Chevron: Part of the helm, on the forehead, that looks like 2 colorful prongs. See Prowl for red chevron.

CPU: Brain

Dermas: Lips

Doorwings: Wings on the back of the Cybertronian made with his front vehicle doors. See Prowl.

Digit: Finger

Exvent: Exhale

Finials: Part of the helm that protrude from the helm. See Drift.

Frame: Body

Glitch: Either when a Cybertronian “crashes” or a very doratory term.

Glossa: Tongue

Helm: Head

Intake: Mouth, throat, lips. This one changes a lot depending on the author.

Nasal ridge: Nose

Optic: Eye

Oral lubricant: Spit

Ped: Foot

Plating: The outer part of the frame, what’s easy to see and colourful.

Processor: Brain

Protoform: Inner part of the “skin”, under the plating or armor.

Sensory horns: Part of the helm similar to ears in humans. See Jazz.

Servo: Hand

Spark: A ball of energy that contains the “soul” of the Cybertronian. Considered located in the chest

Strut: Bone

Type of Cybertronian:

Combiner: A team of Cybertronian that, when transforming, can combine into a giant being instead of individuals. See Devastator or Defensor.

Aerial: Type of frame for a flier that doesn’t look like a Seeker

Conehead: Frame type of fliers very similar to Starscream, except they have their nose cone on their helm, looking like they wear a giant cone

Femme: A Cybertronian having a “feminine” shape. Though some exceptions exist, see Strika

Grounder: Type of frame having wheels. Often derogatory.

Kaonite: Cybertronian from Kaon. Often associate with large, strong frame type, and mainly Decepticon

Mech: A Cybertronian, often “male” shaped but not always

Mechling: Teenager

Praxian: Cybertronians from Praxus. Often a frame type associated with the appearance of Prowl, Bluestreak, Smokescreen, Barricade

Seeker: Type of fliers associated with Starscream frame type

Sparkling, sparklet: baby, children

[brunchable]

WINTER KING 《DRABBLE ONE》 || ALPINE.

Bucky was already questioning his life choices, particularly the one that led to a fluffy white menace currently purring in his lap. Alpine, the royal cat, had decided that the king’s lap was her throne, and there was nothing Bucky could do about it.

“I didn’t ask for this,” Bucky muttered under his breath as Alpine kneaded his thigh with her claws. He gave her a half-hearted glare, but the cat simply blinked at him in slow, feline defiance.

The council meeting was dragging on, and Lord Carter was midway through a boring proposal about grain storage when it happened. A sudden, loud sneeze broke the silence.

“A-choo!” Carter wiped his nose, blinking rapidly. “I—uh, excuse me, Your Majesty.”

Bucky raised an eyebrow, his eyes flicking between Carter and the cat. “You alright there, Lord Carter?”

“A-choo!” Another sneeze. “It’s... it's the... the—” Carter gestured weakly towards Alpine, his eyes starting to water.

Bucky’s lips twitched. “The what?”

“The cat!” Carter sneezed again, louder this time, as Alpine looked up at him with all the grace and indifference only a cat could muster. “I’m—I’m terribly allergic, Your Majesty.”

“Well, you better not let her hear that. Alpine’s got a thing for people who don’t like her,” Bucky said, barely containing his amusement. Alpine, as if sensing the tension, stood up and jumped gracefully onto the table, strutting over to Lord Carter on the table.

“A-choo!” Carter’s sneezes grew more frequent, his face turning red as Alpine nonchalantly rubbed against his scrolls. “Your Majesty, please—A-choo!”

You, sitting beside Bucky, bit you lip, trying not to laugh. “I think she likes him,” you whispered.

“She’s a menace,” Bucky muttered, watching with glee as Alpine curled her tail right under Carter’s nose. The lord looked like he might explode.

“A-choo! Your Majesty, I—I really—” Carter’s face was now bright red, and his eyes were streaming. He backed up from the table as Alpine sat smugly on top of his papers, flicking her tail with all the arrogance of royalty.

“Oh, I don’t know, Lord Carter,” Bucky said, leaning back in his chair, enjoying the show. “She seems pretty 'comfortable' with you. Must be your charm.”

You snorted quietly, covering your mouth to hide your giggle. “She’s probably has a good judge of character.”

“A-choo! A-choo!” Lord Carter sneezed uncontrollably, his composure completely crumbling as Alpine stretched and gave him a long, condescending look.

Bucky, trying to keep a straight face, turned to the council. “Any objections to this meeting being... adjourned?”

None of the lords dared to speak, especially as Carter sneezed again, loudly enough to make several chairs creak.

“Alright then, dismissed,” Bucky said, his eyes twinkling with mischief as he scratched behind Alpine’s ears. The cat purred, oblivious to the chaos she had caused.

As the council hurried out of the room, Carter sneezing and muttering under his breath, you leaned over to Bucky, your eyes shining with laughter. “You’re enjoying this way too much.”

“Of course I am,” Bucky replied, watching Alpine hop back into his lap with a satisfied meow. “It’s about time someone took Lord Carter down a peg.”

Tags: @theendofthematerialgworl @httpb3a @spiidergirlsworld @sebastians-love @stevesbbgorl

@targaryenhues @almosttoopizza @scott-loki-barnes @brckenmemories @vicmc624

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@suckerfordylansstuff @daydream-believer19 @shadowzena43 @itsshellzy @decaffeinatedjellyfishduck

@melsunshine @barnesxstan @singsosworld @kitsunetori

@im-normal-about-characters @hayleythecannibal @tallaennatargaryen @honeywithemoney

[literaryvein-reblogs]

More Geology Vocabulary

for your next poem/story (pt. 2)

Luster - The reflection of light from the surface of a mineral, described by its quality and intensity.

Microcrystalline - Describes a rock texture consisting of crystals visible only with a microscope.

Moonmilk - A soft, white, initially deformable deposit that occurs on the walls of caves.

Nuée ardente - A swiftly flowing, turbulent, sometimes incandescent gaseous cloud erupted from a volcano, containing ash and other pyroclastic materials in its lower part.

Orogeny - A mountain-building event.

Parabolic dune - Crescent-shaped dune with horns or arms that point upwind.

Perlitic - Describes the texture of glassy volcanic rocks characterized by numerous curving cracks roughly concentric around closely spaced centers.

Permafrost - Any soil, subsoil, or other surficial deposit, or even bedrock, occurring in arctic, subarctic, and alpine regions at a variable depth beneath Earth’'s surface in which a temperature below freezing has existed continuously for a long time (from two years to tens of thousands of years).

Phreatic - Of or relating to groundwater.

Phreatophyte - A deeply rooted plant that obtains water from the water table or through the overlying capillary fringe.

Pictograph - A picture painted on a rock by primitive peoples.

Pillow lava - A general term for lavas displaying pillow structures and considered to have formed in a subaqueous environment; such lava is usually basaltic or andesitic.

Pluvial - Describes a geologic process or feature resulting from rain.

Reservoir - An artificial or natural storage place for water, such as a lake, pond, or aquifer, from which the water may be withdrawn for such purposes as irrigation, municipal water supply, or flood control.

Roundstone - Any naturally rounded rock fragment larger than a sand grain.

Schistose - Describes a rock displaying schistosity, or foliation, which imparts a silky sheen.

Scour - The powerful and concentrated clearing and digging action of flowing water, air, or ice.

Strand plain - A shore built seaward by waves and currents, extending continuously for some distance along the coast.

Tree mold - A cylindrical hollow in a lava flow formed by the envelopment of a tree by the flow, solidification of the lava in contact with the tree, and disappearance of the tree by burning and subsequent removal of the charcoal and ash. The inside of the mold preserves the surficial features of the tree.

Vitreous - Having the luster and appearance of glass.

Source ⚜ Part 1 ⚜ More: Word Lists

[whencyclopedia]

Food & Drink in the Elizabethan Era

Food and drink in the Elizabethan era was remarkably diverse with much more meat and many more varieties of it being eaten by those who could afford it than is the case today. Storage of food was still a problem and so fresh produce was grown at home or regularly acquired at local markets. Thick sauces with strong flavours were popular and made even more varied as ingredients became more readily available from Asia. Pastries, cakes, and other sweet goodies of all kinds were greatly appreciated and often eaten between the savoury courses. A healthy distrust of water meant that ale and beer were the most popular drinks, with wine a welcome addition for the better off. While some commoners struggled, as ever, to feed their families, especially in the long winters of the 16th century CE, foreign visitors did often remark on how well-fed the Elizabethan peasantry was and how overfed the rich were compared to their continental neighbours.

Cooking & Storage

Most Elizabethan cooking was done at home but there were communal ovens in many parishes for people to take their prepared dough and have it baked into bread or to have a stew (pottage) slowly cooked. Those who could afford servants also had cooks, usually women but including men, too, at the great houses. Even the humblest of kitchens would have had such indispensable cooking and preparation aids as a large brass pot and iron pan, a spit for roasting over the fire, a milk pail and sundry containers, utensils and serving dishes for food made of wood, clay or pewter. Most cooking was done over an open fire of wood or charcoal with a large pot either stood on legs actually in the fire or suspended over it using chains. The main methods of cooking were boiling, roasting, and frying. The fourth method was baking and involved putting the dish inside a closed oven made of clay or brick much like a wood-burning pizza oven today.

Larger households stored food in giant meal chests which were airtight and used to keep such goods as grain and preserved meat and fish. In contrast, hutches ('pantries') were boxes with air-holes for keeping fresh food like cheeses. In households with a staff of servants, these chests were often kept locked to prevent unauthorised nibbling. The vast majority of the population still worked in agriculture and often had their own small plot of land for their own personal needs. Indeed, even artisans who specialised in such activities as weaving and making clothes still kept a patch of land for their vegetable garden and some poultry. Local markets supplied everything else but the larger estates would have been more self-sufficient producing their own bread, milk, cheese, meat, and fish on site.

Continue reading...

[fuck-customers]

Hey, just ask me what you want to know. Let's not play this "Figure out what I'm asking" game, please? "Excuse me, do you sell mason jars?" Yes we do! Jars rated for canning are on aisle 10. Cheaper jars for aesthetic and crafting and such are on aisle 15. I just moved some cute ones to the clearance section so check there as well. And of course, if it's something that can wait a few days, I can steer you towards our online selection but otherwise, you can find our in-store stock where I've directed you. :) "What do you sell here?" "Well, we're a department store, so a lot of different things. What are you looking for exactly? I can help you better if I have specifics." "Oh, well, I'm looking for glass stuff." "That narrows it down a little. We *do* have glass products all over the store. Are you talking like, vases? Drinking glasses? Baking dishes? Candle holders? Water bottles, maybe? ... mirrors?" "Well, y'know, for storing food." "Oh! Sure! You can find glass food storage containers on aisle 9. We have Brand 1, Brand 2, and Brand 3 in store." "*angry all of a sudden for some reason???* Why would you think any of those are gonna be good for canning?!" "... sir, what *precisely* are you looking for?" "I'll TELL you what I'm looking for, I'm looking for Mason jars!!!" "... Aisle 10." My guy, you could have saved us both like six whole grain sugar frosted minutes if you just SAID THAT IN THE BEGINNING.

Posted by admin Rodney.

[fancoloredglasses]

The Tribble Saga (what happens when invasive species come to the Federation (oh, the irony!)), Part 2: More Tribbles, More Troubles

[All images are owned by Paramount. Please don’t sue me]

In Part 1 of this review, we saw the debut of these little guys.

However, this Original Series episode (and the DS9 episode that ran parallel to it thanks to the magic of time travel) wasn’t the only appearance of the Tribbles in pre-Paramount+ Star Trek, as this review will reveal.

We once are again dealing with Sherman’s Planet (presumably having been won by the Federation), as the planet is dealing with crop failures. In response, the Enterprise is tasked with escorting a pair of drone freighters containing quintritruticale (presumably because the quadrotiticale has issues; and once again, I’m just gonna call it “grain” from here on) to the planet.

The Enterprise’s sensors pick up a Klingon D7 Battlecruiser in Federation space attacking a one-man scout vessel, so they alter course to chase the Klingons off.

As the Enterprise approaches, the Klingons open fire on the other ship.

The Enterprise manages to beam the sole occupant out before the Klingons destroy his ship, though the signal is scrambled due to the ship’s explosion. However…

(Thanks to CBS)

I guess Cyrano Jones didn’t learn his lesson after K-7. Why would he carry Tribbles when they were proven to be hazardous due to their rapid breeding?

So he pretty much sterilized the Tribbles he’s carrying.

However, he was supposed to be busy for another 16 years (Spock estimated it would take 17.9 years to clear the station in Season 2, while TAS technically takes place in the year following Season 3) How did he manage to clean up K-7 so fast?

OK, that explains that. The predator (known as a Glommer) ate most of the Tribbles. So what the hell is he doing on the run from the Klingons?

You did WHAT?! Did you forget how the Tribbles reacted to them on K-7?!

Kirk realizes that Jones’s little adventure violated more than a few Federation laws.

Later, McCoy is analyzing one of the genetically altered Tribbles and agrees that they don’t reproduce.

Now that the danger with the Tribbles is over, Kirk can concentrate on more urgent matters.

Spock concludes, based on his analysis, that while the weapon does render an opponent without weapons and warp power, the energy required does the same to the Klingons when they use it.

Spock is sure the Klingons will return once their reactors have recharged.

I’m guessing just handing him over isn’t an option.

Meanwhile, the grain stored in the damaged drone vessel has been transferred to the Enterprise, but has used up all available storage space.

…wait, they moved the grain…onto the Enterprise…where there are Tribbles. Who else sees things going HORRIBLY wrong?

Later, Spock detects Koloth’s cruiser in the area, so the ship goes to Red Alert.

That Tribble has grown quite a bit…

Kirk sends the drone away in case the Klingons try using their weapon again, so…

…the Klingons disable the drone so Kirk can’t try that trick again (I have a feeling the Enterprise is about to get VERY crowded with grain). Having disabled the drone, Koloth opens fire on the Enterprise. The shields hold, but the impact shakes the Enterprise and the grain canisters fall over and grain spills everywhere.

I can almost hear the Tribbles screaming “BUFFET!”

The Enterprise manages to drive off the Klingons, but now they’ll need to tow the drone with their tractor beam (which will severely slow them down) or bring the grain aboard (though now that the Tribbles are eating the contents of the first drone, they should have more room)

Kirk asks Spock for advice on how to deal with the Klingons in their limited capacity.

Meanwhile, Scotty has discovered the broken containers and the Glommer is having issues dealing with the Tribbles as they’ve gotten too large.

Jones doesn’t understand why Kirk is upset about his “harmless little” Tribbles.

Then McCoy comes to the bridge.

There’s time for that later, since the Klingons have returned! Kirk orders the drone to be released (with the intent to come back for it if they survive)

The Enterprise fires a photon torpedo, but the Klingons use the stasis beam…

…causing it to explode prematurely. The beam then snares the Enterprise! Koloth then demands that Kirk surrender Cyrano Jones to him.

Kirk has Uhura cut the transmission as he stands up. He tries to sit again, but…

That Tribble REALLY likes Kirk’s chair…and is growing by leaps and bounds!

Kirk tells Scotty to prepare to repel the imminent Klingon boarders using Spock’s suggestions (I guess we’ll find out what those are shortly)

As the Klingons prepare to beam over…

…Scotty beams over the Tribbles!

Koloth then reveals that Cyrano Jones stole the Glommer (which the Klingons designed to deal with the Tribbles) from them and demands it back.

As it was said in Part 1, the Klingons REALLY hate the Tribbles!

Koloth is willing to let Jones go if he returns the Glommer so they can free the planet that Jones sold the Tribbles to before there’s nothing left on the planet BUT Tribbles!

Jones is furious about losing the Glommer, so Scotty offers to transport Jones over as well

With that, the Klingons free the Enterprise and withdraw from Federation space. Kirk notes that the Klingon stasis field is too much a power drain on a vessel to be an effective weapon in space combat.

McCoy then reveals what his research on the “genetically engineered” Tribbles:

So you’re saying there are COLONIES of Tribbles on the Klingon ship?! (because you KNOW Scotty didn’t beam them back before the Klingons left)

(Thanks again to CBS)

Hope you enjoyed this saga. Please let me know if there are other recurring characters/threats you’d like to see explored.

[verycleverboy]

Donald fucked around, we get to find out

Via Narcity: "Starting Tuesday, Canada is slapping new counter-tariffs on U.S. products, targeting $30 billion worth of American goods. And that's just the beginning — Trudeau says an additional $125 billion in tariffs will roll out in the next three weeks if things don't de-escalate."

What follows is the full list of affected American products:

Food & drink

Poultry & eggs — chicken, turkey, goose, duck and their byproducts (fresh, frozen, preserved)

Dairy products — milk, cream, butter, ice cream, yogurt, cheese

Fruits & vegetables — tomatoes, beans, snap peas, citrus fruits, melons, peaches, nectarines, berries

Coffee & tea

Spices & flavourings — pepper, vanilla, dried spices (cinnamon, turmeric, curry, etc.)

Sauces & condiments — soy sauce, ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, salad dressing, peanut and nut butters

Grains & baking essentials — wheat, rye, rice, barley, oats, flour, mixes and doughs

Oils & fats — canola, sunflower, safflower, palm, peanut and nut oils; margarine and butter substitutes

Sugars & sweeteners — honey, cane sugar, beet sugar, maple sugar and syrup, sugar syrups, molasses

Packaged foods — pasta, pizza, bread, cakes, biscuits, cereal-based foods, soup and broth, pickles, gum, candies, chocolate

Supplements — whey powder, casein, fish oil

Beverages & alcohol — orange juice, soda beer, wine, cider, spirits, liqueurs, coolers, bitters

Tobacco products

Raw & processed tobacco — unmanufactured tobacco, tobacco extracts, chewing tobacco, pipe tobacco

Cigarettes & cigars — cigars, cheroots, cigarillos and cigarettes

Nicotine products — vapes, e-cigarettes, nicotine patches and other smokeless tobacco products

Personal care products

Cosmetics & skincare — makeup, nail polish and manicure tools, hair care, deodorants, soaps and cleansers, razors, shaving products, bath products

Electronic tools — electric razors and clippers, hair dryers, curling irons, flatirons

Fragrances — perfumes, room deodorizers

Oral care — toothpaste, dental floss

Paper products — toilet paper, tissues, napkins

Home & office items

Kitchenware — paper and plastic tableware, storage containers, glassware, cutlery and utensils, kitchen knives, scissors

Furniture & home goods — metal, wooden and plastic furniture; chairs; mattresses and bedding; lighting; storage racks

Home textiles — carpets, rugs, blankets, bed linens, table and kitchen linens, curtains, cleaning cloths

Paper & books — stationery, notebooks, memo pads, binders, file folders, carbon sets, albums, printed materials

Office supplies — letter openers, pencil sharpeners

Artwork — paintings, drawings, pastels

Clothing & accessories

Clothing — shirts, pants, dresses, suits, underwear, hosiery, pyjamas, sweaters, activewear, swimwear, outerwear, baby clothes

Activity-specific attire — diving suits, ski suits, protective gear, life jackets, climbing harnesses, work belts, safety headgear, animal saddlery

Accessories — footwear, hats, gloves, scarves, belts, neckties, jewelry

Bags & luggage — handbags, wallets, suitcases, briefcases, backpacks

Electronics & appliances

Household appliances — refrigerators, freezers, dishwashers, washing machines and dryers, stoves, barbecues, fans, humidifiers, vacuum cleaners, fabric steamers

Countertop appliances & kitchen gadgets — blenders, food mixers, juicers, microwaves, grills, rice cookers, coffee makers, toasters

Gaming & entertainment — video game consoles, board games, card games

Vehicles & machinery

Motorcycles & recreational vehicles — motorbikes, sidecars, recreational boats, drones

Yard equipment — snowblowers, lawnmowers

Tools — saws, pliers, wrenches, spanners, hammers, drills, cutting tools, screwdrivers, staple guns, vices, lighters, pneumatic tools, padlocks

Rubber tires

Building materials

Silica & quartz sands

Plastic wall, floor & ceiling coverings

Window and door fixtures — window and door components and frames, shutters, blinds

Bathroom fixtures — plastic and ceramic baths, showers, sinks and wash basins, toilets, bidets, urinals

Plastic packaging

Wood products — planks, chips, veneer sheets, particle board, MDF, fibreboard, laminated wood, posts, beams, floor panels, wood pulp

Cardboard & paper — cartons, boxes, cases, paper bags

Textiles — tarps, tents, canopies, sails, woven fabric

Precious metals & gemstones — diamonds, silver, palladium

Weapons & ammunition

Firearms — pistols, revolvers, rifles, shotguns, air guns

Ammunition — bullets, cartridges, pellets

"Have fun!"

[borrelia]

frontiers dlc cutscene simulator:

amy: we CANT let ANYONE DOWN!! sonic and the koco are COUNTING ON US i'll do ANYTHING to protect them!!! i love everyone so much im gonna BREAK SOMETHING!!

knuckles: grr i love to hit things. i love to dig in the dirt. i love to punch things WITH MY FISTS! and break things WITH MY FISTS! aww is poor widdwe sonic tired? aww too bad you have to do your little platforming boohoo Grow Up. tails, kid, you are doing amazing no notes. amy. would you like to break some things with me. with my FISTS 👊💪💪👊💥💪💥💥👊

tails: uwa i don't know if i can do this... but i have to.. but i dont know if i can.. everyone is counting on me im the Most Important guy here.. sonic don't worry about me i can handle myself. also did you know that these islands have incredible capacity to harness emerald power. by my calculations 🤓 i've hacked the mainframe.

eggman: mmyes. sonics stupid friend and his girl friend and his very scary little fox friend and also sonic. can you even appreciate that some of the set dressing on this island used to be a highway powered by emerald energy harnessed by ancient spaceships which btw are buried underground so you cant see them but theyre there. i wish i had a spaceship. i could do so much evil with that kind of power.

sonic: yooooo sup amy. tails. things are getting pretty rough, you doing alright? you are both so cool, i know youre gonna do amazing things💗. hey Treasure Hunter. seems like im better at finding the emeralds than you, Treasure Hunter. HA! eat my dust--im gonna go fall off that tower 20 more times. btw i wonder whats up with this building. can someone real quick explain what it does in 5 paragraphs or more?

sage: we are running out of time. you must find the emeralds or we will have success rate of zero percent. but since you asked. this building was a facility designed to stockpile or store grain. In the grain trade, the term "grain elevator" also describes a tower containing a bucket elevator or a pneumatic conveyor, which scoops up grain from a lower level and deposits it in a silo or other storage facility. In most cases, the term "grain elevator" also describes the entire elevator complex, including receiving and testing offices, weighbridges, and storage facilities. It may also mean organizations that operate or control several individual elevators, in different locations. i would also like to drop some casual race science into this conversation. do not worry about it.

[hmshermitcraft]

Etho's red eye isn't the weird one.

He's albino, white hair, pale skin, pink eyes. That's all normal.

What's weird is the grey one because that's where he keeps his inventory. Almost every other player store their inventory on their arm so it's easily accessible, some speed runners split it up to their finger tips (world building hotkeys is odd, idk man) but Etho looked at his perfectly good eye and thought "ah yes, free real estate."

It's a great party trick and the grain hates it. Especially when he pulls his katana out, the blade just keeps coming and coming out of his EYE, Grian nearly threw up.

Watchers are very protective of their eyes, duh, they wear masks to cover them, to keep them safe. And now there's this asshole who's using his eye as a storage container, Grian hates it. He hates it so much that he approached Etho to tell him all about how swag eyes are and how much Etho should not be using it in this way.

Etho takes Grian gently by the hands, leaning in close, Grian is sure that if he didn't have a mask on he could feel every exhale against the sensitive skin around his ear. Etho's touch is feather light when he slides his hands up Grians arms, holding him by the sides of his head.

"I AM OLDER THAN YOUR GODS," he yells in Grian's ear, Grian tries to escape but Etho holds fast, "I AM OF THEIR MYTHOS, KNOW THIS AND BE AFRAID."

Grian is rattled, obviously, and he is afraid. Etho kisses the side of his head, hugs him gently, "worry about your own eyes, mmk?"

"y....yeah..i'll do that. sorry etho."

"I don't want you to actually be scared of me, I'm nothing like the legends, but it's easier to get the point across"

After this Grian starts inquiring about keeping an inventory in an eye, and Etho happily tells him all about it. After all, the best way to instill and then get rid of a fear is to learn everything there is to know about it. Does it hurt? No. Can you feel it? Not really. Isn't it a hassle to reach up every time? Yeah. Can you teach me how to do it? Of course, you little heretic, here's how to rebel against your religion in the best way possible.

Grain doesn't keep his inventory in his eye, it really is a hassle to reach up every time, but it was freeing to have it that way for at least a little. He's still a watcher, he has no problem with them, but he's much more lax about his worship.

-carrie

Grian is glad he explored and questioned his relationship with being a watcher, even if Etho felt like a challenge at first. He isn't just a watcher because he was chosen as one now, he's actually interrogated his beliefs and he's come out of the other side way cooler.

After all, what better way to honour your eyes then use them? And though he might leave the 'as a storage container' to Etho, he'll certainly use his eyes to appreciate how hot the... Uh. Etho is.

[justforbooks]

The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad by Simon Parkin

This fascinating history of Nikolai Vavilov and the staff at his plant institute tells a story of almost unbelievable self-sacrifice while under siege during the second world war

Is there any human endeavour as heroic or under-appreciated as plant collecting? When in 1921, at the age of 33, Nikolai Vavilov arrived in Petrograd (now St Petersburg) to take charge of the bureau of applied botany and plant breeding, he found a city racked by hunger. War followed by civil conflict had crippled Russia’s food production and distribution systems – a situation compounded by the seizure of peasants’ grain stores by the Bolsheviks – and Petrograd, once the cradle of the Russian empire, had been transformed into a graveyard. Walking along Nevsky Prospekt, Vavilov was appalled to see starving citizens queueing for mouldy bread. “Westward the sun is dropping,” observed the poet Anna Akhmatova, “and already death is chalking the doors with crosses.”

On entering the bureau, Vavilov was even more dismayed to find the heating pipes had burst and the storage units containing nearly 14,000 varieties of wheat, barley, oat and rye collected by his predecessor had been eaten by famished staff. It was, recorded a member of Vavilov’s team, “a picture of almost complete destruction”.

Yet by 1940, Vavilov had secured new premises in a former tsarist palace in the centre of the city and had amassed the largest collection of seeds in the world. It was a collection brimming with “latent life”, writes Simon Parkin in his riveting account of Vavilov’s plant institute, “a Noah’s Ark of plant matter”. Once cultivated and harvested, the seeds contained sufficient genetic material to feed not only the citizens of Leningrad, as the city had been renamed following Lenin’s death in 1924, but the entire population of the Soviet Union. In the process, Vavilov, a tireless polyglot, would become the most celebrated botanist in the world, feted by scientists from Edinburgh to New York. All the more extraordinary, then, that today he is all but forgotten, a victim of the Soviet state’s desire to erase memories of the siege and the millions who perished in the Nazi onslaught.

Karl Marx wrote that “history repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce”. The tragedy is that having amassed a collection with the potential to banish famine, Vavilov was arrested on the eve of war and branded “an enemy of the people”. In this, he appears to have been a victim of a bitter struggle with the peasant-agronomist Trofim Lysenko, who had rejected Mendelian genetics for Lamarckism – the idea that plants and other organisms acquire superior traits from their environments rather than from inherited genetic material. Lysenko believed that through a combination of agronomical knowhow and political will, these traits could be passed down to future generations – a theory that Stalin found appealing.

The result was that when in July 1941, the Soviet authorities began fortifying Leningrad in preparation for the German siege and evacuated precious artworks from the Hermitage, Vavilov’s collection was ignored, though whether this was deliberate or a bureaucratic oversight, Parkin cannot say. What he shows, brilliantly, is how the farce of the seeds’ non-evacuation nearly ended in a second tragedy as Vavilov’s colleagues fought to preserve the collection from raids by starving citizens and their own gnawing hunger. Incredibly, of the 250,000 seeds that Vavilov had amassed at the outbreak of war, the majority survived and by 1967, 100m acres of Russian agricultural land had been planted with material from the institute’s collection. Not only that, but wheat collected by Vavilov in Spain, Japan, Italy and Argentina was crossbred to create high-yielding winter varieties, while potatoes from Bolivia were used to breed hybrids resistant to disease. Today, 90% of the seeds and planted crops in the institute’s collection are found in no other in the world.

Writing in 1737, Carl Linnaeus, the father of modern taxonomy, observed: “When I consider the melancholy fate of so many of botany’s votaries, I am tempted to ask whether men are in their right mind who so desperately risk life and everything else through the love of collecting’ plants.” Imprisoned for the duration of the war, Vavilov would never return to his beloved institute and died of hunger in 1943 at a prison in western Russia. Afterwards, ashamed of their persecution of the world-renowned botanist, the authorities destroyed Vavilov’s case file and did their best to discourage journalists from writing about his achievements. The result was that it was not until the late 1970s that Vavilov’s story and the fate of his employees became more widely known. Even so, Parkin’s is the first book to have been published on the subject outside Russia.

To recreate the story, the author has drawn on the institute’s archives and the diaries and letters of the two-dozen staff to whom it fell to guard the collection during the near-900-day siege, one of the longest of any city in history. In the process, he restores Vavilov and his scientific colleagues to their rightful places in the pantheon of Soviet heroes. But perhaps Parkin’s biggest achievement is to explain how the botanists who sat out the siege resisted the temptation to consume the collection. Instead, he details how they defended the seed bank from looters and braved German bombs to plant potatoes at a field station on the perimeter of the city, thereby ensuring they would produce new tubers that could be stored and preserved for the following year.

In the process, 19 staff died, most of them of starvation while surrounded by containers that could have saved their lives. In this they were guided by the conviction that many of the samples were irreplaceable because of the loss of natural habitats from which they had been collected and that they could contain unrecognised genetic qualities. Their resolve was also a product of their loyalty to Vavilov and their belief in the importance of the scientific endeavour. As one survivor told Parkin: “It was impossible to eat [the collection], for what was involved was the cause of your life, the cause of your comrades’ lives.” Astonishingly, this resolve held despite an explicit order from Moscow to “spare nothing” to save the lives of their fellow citizens.

Although Parkin has done a remarkable job of resurrecting the story of this “forbidden garden”, he admits to frustration that his efforts “could not transport me to the white-hot centre of the story”. It is a frustration this reader shares. Despite a wealth of information about the siege, the thoughts, feelings and cravings of Vavilov’s staff remain tantalisingly out of reach. Instead, Parkin ends on a deflationary note, admitting he has no answer to the question of whether in opting to sacrifice the lives of people in the present for the benefit of future generations, the botanists made the correct moral choice.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[hempseeeeds]

Oat&Linseed Bread Mix

This is a dry Mix to create very dense Bread that somewhat resembles German style whole-grain rye-and-wheat-and-seeds breads in flavour and Texture.

It goes well as a Sandwich base for sliced Cheese such as young Gouda, or with Hummus, and can be reheated and Made nicely crispy in a bread slice Toaster, Up to a week after First baking it. It's also very filling, and while it's Not inherently gluten-free by Default, it can easily be Made gluten-free without changing any of the properties, by using certified-gluten-free Oats instead of "regular", unclean Oats, and being careful about the content of Spice Mixes.

The dry mixture keeps for months and is a good idea to have around for when you're going to bake Something unrelated, and want to get the most use out of having the oven on. Most people who have an electric oven in their kitchen/as Part of their electric stove, are aware that it's somewhat wasteful/inefficient to Run it Just for one meal, but Life is such that sometimes you DO want to bake a cake, or a pie, or a meat-roast, or oven-baked vegetables, or prepare convenience food such as frozen Pizza or IKEA balls, and it makes very little difference in Energy consumption if you Put in some oat buns at the Same time.

Get yourself one of those 10 Liter buckets that are made of thin-ish, cheap-ish food-safe plastic (Polypropylene) and come with a Lid of the same material that makes a watertight but not very pressure-stable Seal, and is stackable with other buckets of the Same size due to a lip/rim on the Lid. You can get them for free If you know who to ask, because they're the typical packaging that restaurant-quantities of Ketchup and Mayonnaise and Yoghurt and Cream and Applesauce and some types of Frying Fat come in, so most Small Restaurants both use them for internal storage of EVERYTHING, and discard several per week. (If you are neither a regular at a Restaurant, nor Friends or Family with a Restaurant worker, and/or If you are too shy to ask, you May be able to buy a suitable bucket that is filled with Popcorn, or one that is empty and meant to be filled with Dog chow or parrot seed or Chicken Feed Pellets, at a Feed Store where you can buy that Stuff by weight and bring your own Container.)

Then get your ingredients. You'll need 500g of thick-rolled Oats, 500g of Instant/thin-rolled Oats, 400g of coarsely-ground Linseed/flaxseed, 100g of Chia seeds, two teaspoonfuls of mild-curry-spice-mix, and three teaspoonfuls of sea salt. Throw all of these ingredients into your bucket, Close the Lid Well, and Mix thoroughly by shaking or turning the bucket over many times. Or alternatively, Mix thoroughly by stirring with a large spoon before closing the lid.

Variations include using all instant Oats instead of half-and-half, replacing Up to half of the Thick-rolled Oats with thick-rolled flakes of other grains such as wheat/spelt, replacing the Curry with another Spice mix (like a spicier Curry, or Tandoori, or paprika-and-chili, or Mediterranean Herbs, or Pumpkin-Spice), using really fancy pink Salt, or half a teaspoon of Potassium Chloride in addition to the three spoons of Salt, or adding some oily seeds, like de-hulled hempseeds or sunflower seeds, or pumpkinseeds, or chopped hazelnuts, or sesame, or a Combination of several different seeds/nuts, Up to total 200g (per 1kg of oat).

When you are ready to make oat buns alongside the other Thing you are going to bake, boil some water. Measure two Cups (500mL) of the dry mixture into a bowl, and add one Cup (250mL) of hot (boiling/almost-boiling) water. Mix thoroughly with a fork immediately after adding the water, then add a 2-3 tablespoons of Apple cider vinegar, and Mix thoroughly again. Then you can leave the mixture alone for a few minutes and do whatever needs to be done for the other Thing you're Baking, but it's important to Mix before it becomes hard to mix from the water being absorbed unevenly. Within 10 minutes or so, all the water will be absorbed into a VERY thick/Stiff dough, that is easiest to knead and shape If you get your Hand wet with water before touching it. The best shape for baking this bread is a round flat shape Like a thick Cookie roughly the size of an adult human's palm. Two Cups of dry mixture is enough for making about six of these buns, so you should divide the contents of the Bowl into six parts. If you Happen to have Silicone moulds for large Muffins or small pies, you can Just Put each Portion into one of those moulds and Press it flat (to a finger's width) with wet hands. If you don't have moulds available, shape the dough by Hand into flat palm-sized circles, and lay them on whatever nonstick surface (foil, ceramic, metal…)to bake on. Let the requirements of the other Thing you are baking, decide your Temperature for you. If the Heat is 180°C (356°F), then it's going to Take about 15 minutes to Bake the oat buns, and the hotter the Temperature, the shorter the time. They don't rise AT ALL, nor should they shrink unless they've been baking too Long. If you want to eat them right from the oven, you can Break them into pieces and Dip in Something. If you want to use them for Sandwiches, days later, you should use a serrated knife to cut the top and bottom halves apart.

[daily-ghostly-goobs]

🏺

Amphora, a tall ancient Greek or Roman jar with two handles and a narrow neck. Frequently used to store oil, wine, milk, or grains. They were also sometimes used as grave markers or as containers for funeral offerings or human remains

I'd ask why it's in the food section of the emoji's list but the storage portion answers that, I just had to learn that myself I guess!

DAY 321 - AMPHORA (Click for better quality)

Thanks for the suggestion! This Goob tried copying the appearance based on the a real amphora’s patterns, which led to the copy being… a little more rigid than usual.

[tenpages]

TEN PAGES TO DESTROY THE MOON

[KSHZZZZT!]

You come to your senses in what appears to be a STORAGE CONTAINER. The cold, damp air resists the awakening of your joints as you stretch your heavy frame.

In this chamber a single LAMP directs your attention to a SMALL TABLE, upon which lies a DIRTY PLATE, a WRITTEN NOTE, and two EMPTY WINE BOTTLES.

Time stretches barely out of your reach in front of you. You know that above all you need to DESTROY THE MOON. Currently at your disposal you have:

(1) Set of MILITARY-GRADE STRAWBERRY CHITIN

(1) Calibrated ANTI SPACECRAFT ECLIPSE BUSTER

(3) EMERGENCY GRAIN RATIONS

(9) REMAINING PAGES

What do you do?

Next >

[nixalegos]

Trade as cold as lead.

Continued from HERE. "Wouldn't you know it, they are." He said slyly. "A man in my position occasionally keeps very colorful company." He said as if such a confession wasn't worrisome in the extreme. "Some would consider YOU quite the personality, so take it with a grain of salt." He added. "But I was under the impression the first time we chatted in Dornogol that you WERE in the market for such relics of unusual circumstances. This, spirit of cooperation and collaboration seems somewhat stifled from the onset if you're not actually here to do trade for more than rumors and tales." He said somewhat perplexed. He came to dismiss the hologram of the mask and withdraw the projection slate. "Is it a matter of storage and containment that's bothered you?" He suggested. "Currently it is stored in a lead lined case, guarded by three of my own green tags, in a sealed and warded vault far away from outside interference. I am more then willing to work with you to make sure any such trade keeps the artifact under wraps if it's hesitation over dangers." To which he looked away as if a matter of discretion. "Or is this a matter of recompensation, as we don't exclusively have to work in gold...if you find your personal finances aren't liquid enough. I'm very understanding in such matters." He said as he looked back to her for a reply. @eluviannaa

[rederiswrites]

Went walkabout today with my morning coffee. There's an old saying, "The best fertilizer is the farmer's footstep." Straightened the mulch in the veggie garden where someone--probably a stray chicken--had thrown the grass clippings from the path onto the spinach plants. Replaced the strawberry plant that something dug up overnight. I started by counting. "One, two, three--why is there a gap?" Looked around, and sure enough, there was a plant a few feet away.

Waited too long to protect the trees in the orchard, and now a lot of new leaves and growing tips have been chewed off by deer. I'm trying not to dwell on how much that sucks, because I can't undo it. The trees will recover eventually, and meanwhile I've really got to get the fence rings made and placed.

On the flip-side, though I had thought last year's drought killed every bit of my considerable investment in pond plants, looks like I have one surviving blue flag iris

I promise.

These might be soft stem bulrushes. I can't tell because they haven't set seed and I can't find any photos from that part of the life cycle. I'm just hoping, because none of the grass otherwise will grow submerged like that.

And there was a little red squiggle that could just possibly be an Arrow Arum. Maybe. Fingers crossed. I really can't afford to just throw plants in there year after year with no result.

Gave Kratos the ram some grain. Tried to make sure Mimir the wether got some but he wasn't willing to brave Kratos' greed by coming to me. They both need to be caught so that I can roo Kratos, shear Mimir (who for some reason doesn't roo), and trim their hooves. Another pressing item on the to do list.

Finally found a spot for the sunchokes where they'll be against a structure on one side and mowed on the other side. They can spread along the entire south side of the storage container as far as I'm concerned. I'll get them in later, somehow in between everything else.

And then when I came around the front of the house, I discovered a bunch of sweet woodruff under the chickweed, and spent a few minutes sitting in the grass with my coffee and carefully detangled fragile weeds from fragile herbs. Found out that a single stem of Solomon's Seal survived the chickens last year, so I'll put my remaining stash of roots there today.

The garlic patch, and the kids working hard to clear a spot for strawberries last night.