#Open Modular Construction

[dustedmagazine]

Vince Clarke — Songs of Silence (Mute)

Photo by Eugene Richards

Vince Clarke has certainly been in some storied synth bands. He wrote “Just Can’t Get Enough” (and eight other songs) for Depeche Mode’s 1981 debut, Speak & Spell, before leaving that band over creative differences. From there, he headed to Yazoo with Alison Moyet and The Assembly with Eric Radcliffe, and finally to the boppiest, poppiest synth outfit of them all, Erasure, where he played stoically as all manner of frivolity unfolded around him.  If you grew up in the 1980s or 1990s and watched any MTV at all, Clarke’s songs are burned into your cortex, and quite possibly unwelcomely, but there’s no denying he was in the thick of a certain kind of dance-y, celebratory, machine-age pop.

The critical thing to understand is that Songs of Silence is nothing at all like that.

This brooding, looming suite of songs was recorded during COVID and reflects Clarke’s sorrow and isolation as friends fell ill. He channels a haunted vibe through modular synth, building each track around a single sustained tone that runs from beginning to end. Lots of things happen around those tones, fluttery arpeggios, slashes of stringed instruments, even, in one instance, a sepulchral folk tune about a “black legged miner.” Still, these tunes are constructed around static, meditational sonic atmospheres that fluctuate in volume and timbre but do not fundamentally change. There’s a sense of the eternal in them, even when as in “Scarper” they twitch into propulsion with percolating electronic rhythms.

Consider the opening “Cathedral” with its crescendoing drones, its altered, inhuman voice sounds, its cavernous sonic space. It unfolds in one long blast of sound after another, a rumbling fog horn, a tremulous string vibration, an unearthly space voyaging organ. You can’t really participate. There’s no melody to hum, no rhythm to tap, and so the best way to experience it is through stillness. You allow it to surround you, to envelop you, to subsume you, like a mystical experience.

These cuts are mostly solitary endeavors, but Clarke invites in a few collaborators to fill out his visions. Caroline Shaw’s pristine soprano arcs through interleaved shimmers of synthesized tones in “Passage,” sounding like the dream of a dream of a dream of an angel. Cellist Reed Hays scrawls a wild, passionate signature over the hushed immanence of “The Lamentations of Jeremiah.” Warmth and anguish flare from his instrument, spilling something baroque and organic into Clarke’s ominous atmospheres.

The disc’s most affecting cut is its oddest. “Blackleg Miner” sets a old labor protest song in a desolate post-industrial landscape. The air hums and trembles around the song’s brutal simplicity, surging to obscure it, at intervals, with sounds like bells shivering in sympathetic vibration. It’s a folk song launched into deep space, hurting through black voids, carrying a faint futile message about what it meant to be human.  

Jennifer Kelly

[titanomancy]

Part deux of the Ash Wastes terrain focus is up, and since now I'm paranoid that anything I don't control directly is likely to be disappeared off the internet, I've elected to simply archive it in its entirety below the fold.

[H3] LADDERS, HATCHES AND RAILINGS

As any good ganger will tell you, a good vantage point is key to getting the drop on your rivals. To help fighters clamber around your Habs and gantries, the Thatos Pattern kits come with a host of extras - including a versatile set of ladders.

These ladders are modular, to allow for alternate strut heights. They're separated into a top section, plus short and long middle sections that allow any combination. They also can hang freely on the bars of the platforms, allowing you to combine them with whatever terrain configuration you have gone with.

These curved railings, vital for any sniper lurking near the edge of a significant drop, are also very easy to add to any build. These can be attached without glue, and will sit on the curved bar on the platforms.

Want to add some additional details to the underside of your platforms? Both of the platforms and the Hab have fittings on the underside to attach accessories from the Sector Mechanicus terrain kits – such as cables, chains, and ladders – further adding to the variety of build options on offer.

The platforms are also the same thickness as Sector Mechanicus floors, which allows for the Sector Mechanicus railings to be used on them.

For that little bit of extra detail – not to mention more cover – the underside of the roof has fittings for a long ladder section (D39, for those of you checking your construction guides) to glue into, giving gangers easy access to the roof.

Speaking of extra detail, each Hab comes with four tension cables that attach to slots on the central strut. These can be assembled in two ways – down to the base, or up to the Hab. Or if your strut is tall enough, and you’ve got cables spare… both!

Need to clamber up a stack of Habs? You can add a ladder attachment (D40) to the bottom of a ladder. This allows it to neatly and gluelessly join two curved bars, giving you an easy way to access a roof, a second Hab, or a mounted platform.

The Habs were designed to allow for easy movement of models – the roof sections don’t need glue, so you can easily take them on and off, and there are plenty of wide openings in the sides of the Habs. The kit also comes with panels, however, allowing you to fill some of these openings in. Combined with the careful placement of ladders, this can make for an interesting battlefield where fighters must climb and dodge their way through a maze of modules and walkways.

Need to keep the sun off your face… not to mention that pesky rain of radioactive dust? The awning can be built in 2 ways. It can attach to a balcony piece (A18), or you can attach two parts (D13 & D14) Which will let it attach to the curved bar.

The Hab walls have fittings for aerials, a hanging lamp, or an anemometer… which is useful to let you know when a storm is on the horizon!

The kit also comes with a shelf of stowage, and an electrical box, which can be glued onto the blank wall or blank panel. These kinds of details are great for marking out some Habs as workshops, armouries, or Rogue Doc chop shops.

There are several separate components, such as aerials, a searchlight, and radar, which can be glued on the corresponding fittings found on several other parts. Much like the stowage, these can mark out a vox-equipped Hab, or a full comms centre.

Need an ash wastes objective or just an interesting piece of terrain? The strut top made from D15 and D16 has the same fittings as the Hab, to allow for two of the aerials to attach to it and create a communications array.

Strut D17 actually has six fittings to attach aerial accessories to, allowing for plenty of customisation and stacking.  

There are two aerial features (D33 and D34) – a wind gauge and a communication emitter – that will both fit onto the top of the vertical aerials.

Want to connect a Hab roof to a Sector Mechanicus walkway or Zone Mortalis level? Like the platforms, a Hab roof has curved bars – and with the Hab being the same height (to the curved bar) as a Zone Mortalis column, this means it is the correct height to place floors.

A Zone Mortalis walkway will sit onto the vertical bars on the platforms and the Hab roofs. With these being curved, they can pivot and tilt at different angles.

Like the railings from Sector Mechanicus, Zone Mortalis and the Gang Stronghold, the railings will fit onto both of the other terrain set floors and vice versa.

The walkways fit the same gap as Sector Mechanicus floors. Use C15 (not C16) to attach the two together – this allows for several walkways to join two Habs or platforms.

That’s all for now – hopefully, these articles have given some insight into the versatility of the Thatos Pattern terrain sets, and inspired you to plan your very own ash wastes outposts!

[doshmanziari]

Hi, everyone. I have a new article up on Substack looking at the Backrooms meme and some related media. It's entitled "Heavenly Purgatories: The Postmodern Labyrinth."

The images above are some of the photographs I took over the years when I lived in Boston and which, for me, convey a kind of atmosphere that I feel is vaguely adjacent to the subject matter.

Here are a few responses to the piece from elsewhere:

I think I like the comparison to purgatory. To me this kind of stuff has a deep appeal, since I often have dreams like this, and enjoy physical spaces with the feel of being haunted by absence. Something about finding beauty in bleakness maybe. But also it can be truly nightmarish and I associate it with the labyrinthine recesses of the Unconscious. The idea of a dreamy maze-like space which I associate with Chamber's The King in Yellow, some of Stephen King's work, and House of Leaves. A piece of Dream Country constructed from the bones of human artifice. I deeply enjoy melancholic feelings a lot of times when I'm having them tho, so this is probably why it resonates so much.

The assessment that it's like the inversion of feng shui is very accurate. An interesting piece of media that explores this thematically is Shadowrun: Hong Kong, in which an eldritch demon attempts to use a perversion of feng shui to break a hole in our reality.

have I pushed "Junkspace" on people here? it's a 1999 essay about architectural design - the author is very negative about a kind of open plan modular nonspace that was expanding then and is ubiquitous now - that I think Backrooms (mostly unintentionally) taps into. the essay has kind of a poetical expression, I think you'll like it. he has another essay out there, that I can't remember exactly but he says sort of "there's no Public Square any more, the symbols of 'Public Life' are things like trash and theft of construction materials and the smell of pee in the urban environment, because that's the remainder of human life that can't be made private and paywalled while more and more of the built environment is anonymized and dehumanized." I feel like the Backrooms Monster is a very similar sort of spectre. What lives in this environment where nothing can live??

[slashersgostabbystabstab]

Hold

I took a break from writing Xenomorph stuff and decided to play some DBD. To my surprise, I encountered a Singularity who (thanks to my username Singularity Plz <3 ) sacrificed everybody except me. Even wished me a Happy Birthday in endgame chat. It delighted me so much I couldn't stop smiling, so I wrote a fast and crappy fic but was too sleepy to actually post it.

It was written super fast under the influence of complete elation so as I said, it's no doubt crappy like literally there is no editing lol. I'll pump out better fics when I actually sit down and give myself a decent amount of time ^^

Reminder that short fics for Seven and Hux are always open!

Words: 1618

Out of all the killers you could have picked as your partner, you just had to go and choose the one that was guaranteed to give you little to no affection. Emphasis on the “no” part of that phrase. He was sure to never give you a sweet nor ardent kiss, let alone hug you properly with the limbs he constructed onto his body. Hell, he would never provide any comforting words if he miraculously tried to. It just wasn’t in his programming nor newfound awareness to show any sort of sentiment. 

But even with chances as low as yours, you really did try for his affections no matter how much of a beggar it made you seem. Thankfully nobody else was ever aware of your foolish advances. 

And foolish was how somebody may have referred to you as if they had become witness to the sight involving you and the egotistical robot you called your partner. While his grappling claw fiddled with the various buttons on the panel belonging to the cloning hub, you were seated beside him with eyes glued on his form. As you gave him your most intent stare that explored every region of his anatomy, Hux stood almost completely still with what could be considered an equally fixated stare. And he never once paid any mind to you. 

Hux never took notice of the way you watched him struggle with the machine’s panel, only being aware that your presence was in his own. If anything he made sure to push your attendance to the back of his CPU; at least that was what his inner voice tried to convince him on. And you could admittedly say that you didn’t mind it one bit, this being one of those moments where being with him was almost sufficient. 

Nonetheless you remained sitting on your crate with your eyes never tearing away from him. From the entirety that was his self-made, perfect body. A smile was present on your features whilst your chin lay on the palm of your hand that was supported by the other arm that was crossed. With how lovingly you gazed at the murderous machine, you once again thanked the Entity that no killer was in your radius to see this. Let alone a fellow survivor. 

Let alone Hux’s surveillance. 

Had the word foolish been in his vocabulary and had he been paying attention to you, you were sure he would have voiced his opinion on your pathetic ogling. But alas, he somehow did not have his eyes everywhere and did not once realize that you had now inched closer towards his figure. 

You unfolded your arms to instead place them on your lap, smile widening just a tad bit more before you took another few inches off the distance between you and him. With this new proximity you took the opportunity to glance down at his modular hook that dug into the metallic flooring of the colony ship. The robot always stood in the same exact spot every time he worked on the cloning hub, having caused a dent in the ground only visible when his hook moved from said location. 

Your eyes followed up the sharp weapon ever so slowly to admire every bit of rust, and dried blood, that coated it. Not paying much mind to those bits of his claw, your eyes resumed their trail to the rest of his limb that entangled his flesh around the machinery. Seeing as Hux still disregarded you despite your intense observing, you cleared your throat loud enough to call out to him. But the only thing to come from Hux was the whirring sounds of his machine parts moving, signaling that he had not gone into sleep mode. Meaning he intentionally was keeping his attention on the cloning hub’s screen. 

You gave another clear of your throat with a slightly faltered smile, but in no way did your sense of determination fluctuate. So you subsequently removed your hands from your lap to lift yourself off of the crate, spinning around until you were facing in the same direction as Hux. Even then he only moved his claw that continued to do Entity knows what on the hub’s panel. 

Having spun your body around, you scoot even closer towards Hux with your right hand placed on your side. And although your left one mimicked the other, this one instead slid over the crate’s surface in an inconspicuous manner. 

Finally you turned away from Hux, but you did so in a playfully unknowing way as though you never took notice of what you were doing and instead stared at the hub’s screen. Once your hand reached the edge of the crate and began to hover in the air, your fingers cautiously reached out to where you knew Hux’s claw was positioned. 

Still watching the cloning hub, your fingers bit by bit stuck together before clasping onto the hook’s back side. Perhaps not the smartest decision, but it was the only comfortable way of holding the claw without it being awkward. More awkward than it already was, at least. 

The corners of your lips shot upwards at the contact while you still looked away from Hux, even when he instantly shot a look in your direction due to somehow having felt the hold on his hook.

“What are you doing?”

At long last you returned your gaze to his form, taking your time before your eyes met with his visor’s lights.

“What was that?”

“What are you doing?” Hux repeated, never once moving a single inch. 

“I’m just sitting here.” you gave a shrug before turning away with a tightened grip on his claw. “What are you doing?”

Just like moments earlier, you were met with a deafening silence that prompted you to look back at him with your same smile. Hux, despite the lack of emotions, gave you a stare that pierced right into your soul. Or it would have if you had been any other being that didn’t know him. 

“What?” you chuckled with a new grin before your eyes fell on your hand holding his claw. “Oh! Is that bothering you?”

“Yes.”

Hux’s immediate response had honestly caught you off guard, smiling face gone and instead replaced with wide eyes that looked at the ship’s wall with lightning speed. Your hand released Hux’s claw with the same speed before your hands were returned to your lap in a shame the robot was not aware of. Crazy how a robot could mortify you like that. 

“Sorry.” you mumbled with a clear of your throat, all confidence having flown out the window. “I’ll make sure not to do that again.”

“Why not?”

Now your eyebrows furrowed at Hux’s new question, making you turn to him with a blink of your perplexed eyes. 

“You just said-”

“Your directive never was to stop.” 

For a robot, he gave really confusing signals. He claimed the holding bothered him, but here he is saying he doesn’t want it to stop. Was he lying? Was he even capable of lying?

Nevertheless you gave a sigh, not sure if it was due to a newfound consolation, before your smile returned to your face. With this new relief in you, you reached your hand out to Hux and took hold of his modular claw once more. 

“This treatment is infernal.”

“Huxlee, I don’t even know what you want at this point.” You removed your hand from him again much to his disliking, causing him to finally turn his entire body to face you with his usual stare. At this, you crossed your arms with your smile remaining visible. “You want me to let you go, you don’t want me to let you go. And then you never give me a straight answer. Just how am I supposed to keep you happy?”

“I am not capable of feeling human emotion.”

“I know that.” you chuckled. “But I also know you won’t tell me to back off after this,”

No matter how many mixed signals he gave you, this was one thing you didn’t need any indication for. After standing up to meet Hux’s eyes, you took hold of his head before planting a quick kiss on the middle of his visor. And he, like many other times, remained still while his CPU recalculated just what had happened. 

“Holding…is acceptable.” Rang out his words from his voice box, making you grin at his sudden change of words. “Do not touch the modular claw.”

Was this another mixed signal, or a sort of threat?

“Human flesh is too feeble for a weapon such as that one.”

No, it was a warning. His way of looking out for you, even if it didn’t sound like it. 

“Then what can I hold?” you tilted your head to the side before Hux mimicked your action. However, his head snapped down soon after before you followed his gaze that landed on his projectile claw. And to your surprise, he lifted it and reached out to you rather than expect you to take the limb yourself. 

Your smile returned once more before you accepted his claw and met him halfway, holding his metallic fingers which gingerly curled around your own. With each of you now facing each other, you grinned up at the robot with a giggle before speaking again. 

“Are we just going to stand here holding…hands?” you blinked with a bit of a laugh, Hux merely snapping his head back in your direction. “Or…should we go out for a walk?”

“Strolling not necessary.”

Okay…guess standing in place was what it would be until he tired of it. Which, as much as he claimed to find your affections annoying, you learned would take a good minute to happen. It was just another one of his many ways of keeping you all to himself. 

You couldn’t help but laugh and shrug the strange positioning off, not like you hadn’t dealt with stranger things throughout this relationship. 

Hm. Maybe you could take things to the next step and try to hug him.

[aswegoalong72]

Space Suits - Then and Now

Since the dawn of the space age on Reyal, it became abundantly clear that there were many challenges they'd have to face.

As a social species, they struggle with solitude; the first few missions were a nightmare, as the panic from being detached from friends and family became a big issue. However, that was manageable with therapy and much shorter solo missions.

Radiation was a much more pressing issue, and after the long-term health affects became clear from the relative lack of protection, major steps were taken to build suits that would withstand the harsh environs of space.

Reyal is a very unique world, in that its thick atmosphere and highly active core provided much more shielding from cosmic and solar radiation than our own Earth would. This led to pretty much every life form on Reyal being much more susceptible to radiation's harmful effects, which would prove to be a very difficult roadblock on their technological voyage.

There was much discussion as what type of suit would be better after regular flight suits were proven to be ineffective; hardshell, which was heavy and hard to maneuver in but gave incredible protection, or soft shell, which was a tiny bit easier to work in, but offered barely any protection.

After some research and development, a mix was approved for use; soft around the joints, with most of the rest of the body being hardshell. It wasn't ideal, but there was very little else that can be done to combat the lack of mobility.

Art by @bjekkergauken After years of development, hard work, and testing, the first deep space suits were approved for regular use. The above is a display model; showing heraldry only for the Global Resource Committee's Space Division, and crampons for a rocky or icy moon.

These used many new technologies and techniques to help protect the wearer, such as a camera based vision system. This not only helps protect the eyes, but can allow for a better understanding of the environment around the wearer, being able to cycle into different types of light wavelengths.

Some other useful features are the claw grabbers that replace the gloves, allowing for much easier mobility in the vacuum. Initial testing proved that softshell gloves were a nightmare to work with, causing many engineers to nearly quit out of frustration. A few late night brainstorming sessions later, they figured out that using a manipulator was much easier than anything else. This would become a mainstay for future suit design, and open up a massive world of possibilities for on-orbit construction and more.

Aside from that, the suit also boasts a data pad for easy communication & lookup, a jetpack for low-or-no gravity environments (fueled by pure nitrogen), and a hatchback for hooking up into vehicles for easy doffing and donning.

These suits were used en masse for many years, in a massive variety of situations; from low Reyal orbit and all the way out to Alkan and her twin, they saw very heavy use for the first few decades of the Lyratet's expansion into space.

However, as their needs expanded, the old generation of suits would prove to need an upgrade. Cameras failing while out, data pads falling off, life support issues, outdated technology, and more would be the sign that things had to change.

Art by @hellagator Five years before the launch of the First Extended Thrallit Expedition, the Global Resource Committee finally approved and released the latest design; the Modular Deep Space Maneuvering Unit, or the MDSMU for short. This would be a massive upgrade from the previous design, making up for most of its shortfalls.

With advances in material science and a better understanding of life and work in space, the MDSMU sported much better mobility, all without sacrificing any radiation protection. A thin layer of a lead alloy, alongside water ice, was added to help aid in deflecting any harmful radiation. Aside from this, most everything is the same.

The same applies for the new and improved helmet, which allows for both regular vision, alongside the original camera vision. The visor is made of a heavy layer of leaded titanium glass on the outside, followed by a thin layer of water ice, and finally a quantum dot display on the inside. While it's just as safe to use regular vision these days, many still opt to cover up the outside, and use only the camera.

Another major advancement is the modular ability of the suit; while the previous design was used in a variety of situations, it wasn't very practical for exploration out past Alkan, or in the inner system past Reyal. The suit has dozens of other parts that can be swapped out or added, ranging from underwater maneuvering addons for Alkan, to an extended heating system for cave diving on Lejag, the outermost planet.

The suit can also be very easily modified to suit any changes to the wearer’s body, or in a swapping of people wearing it, thanks to machine learning and a complex system of elastic and memory foam. The only thing that doesn't change is the horn armor; GRCSED standards have them set to a certain height, mainly for ease of access among their many bases and outposts, and the dangers that come with overgrowth.

The only thing that would change would be the fuel used over the centuries; originally, monomethylhydrazine was used for fuel as an improvement upon just raw nitrogen. However, as some spills occurred in a few bases, it was quickly replaced with nitrogen once more due to the toxicity of the prior.

This suit design would be the last they would ever design, as the base was very easy to modify for practically any situation. From routine maintenance on Ro, all the way to the interstellar colony of Reyal-Lontag, the suit would see continued use until the end of civilization as we know it.

[bisphenol-a]

San Francisco closed the lid Sunday on the saga of a $1.7 million public restroom. To commemorate the commode’s installation, residents celebrated at a “potty party” they called the Toilet Bowl.

Lookie-loos lined up in the Noe Valley Town Square to give the loo a whirl. A band played songs including “Sloop John B” by the Beach Boys. (“This is a song about a john!” the band leader explained.) Children sipped lemonade and ate chocolate cupcakes while they tossed bean bags into plastic training potties on the ground.

San Francisco may have been a laughingstock over the news that it planned to spend $1.7 million to construct a single public restroom with a sink and toilet, getting skewered by late-night comedians and inspiring the “it” costume at Halloween parties.

But on Sunday, the city got the last laugh.

“We wanted to, you know, really roll with it,” said Zach D’Angelo, dressed as a giant roll of toilet paper with a red plunger as his hat. D’Angelo, the host of Tuesday night trivia at a pub down the street, served as the Toilet Bowl’s emcee — or, as he put it, the Grand Poobah.

“I am flush with excitement!” he exclaimed before he started telling toilet jokes that he said he had gotten from his 7-year-old nephew.

The mood wasn’t quite so lighthearted in October 2022 when city officials announced a news conference in the Noe Valley Town Square to celebrate securing $1.7 million in state funds to build the 150-square-foot restroom — enough money to buy a whole single-family house in the city.

The square was built in 2016 with outdoor seating, a playground and plumbing for a public toilet, but no actual toilet, because money for the project had fallen short.

Just as puzzling as the price tag was the timeline. The city said it would take two to three years to install the restroom, even after it secured the state funds.

Neighbors and a local journalist (well, me) began to question the details of the project. City officials explained the toilet would have to be approved by numerous city commissions. It would also be subject to environmental review. All that, plus the high cost of construction in the city, made the project expensive and time-consuming.

Politicians began distancing themselves from the bathroom brouhaha. Gov. Gavin Newsom took back the state money.

Then, Chad Kaufman, president of the Public Restroom Company, offered to donate a modular toilet instead. He and Vaughan Buckley, the chief executive of Volumetric Building Companies, paid for architecture and engineering work to get the site ready. They also paid for a truck to carry the modular toilet to the square, a crane to lift it into place and union labor to install it.

The tab for the city dropped to $200,000, and Mayor London Breed announced legislation that she said would help bring down the cost of other public projects. It would let city departments team up to get group discounts on goods and services for small jobs. The state gave the $1.7 million back to San Francisco again, and the city says it will be used to build more toilets.

In the end, the new red restroom in the Noe Valley Town Square was worthy of celebration. On Sunday, a woman doled out toilet trivia. Local librarians handed out free copies of children’s books entitled “Everyone Poops” and “Time to Use the Potty.” There was a toilet-themed costume contest with whoopee cushions as prizes.

Three San Francisco politicians — Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, State Senator Scott Wiener and Assemblyman Matt Haney — addressed the crowd. Haney posed for a photo in front of the bathroom.

“It’s not gold-plated, but it’s worth its weight in gold,” he said with a laugh.

Debra Niemann, director of the Noe Valley Association, a neighborhood improvement group, said she didn’t think the toilet travails had done much to make city projects, including public restrooms, any cheaper to build.

“But at least we got one,” she said. “It’s beautiful. It’s clean. It’s simple. It’s everything you could want in a public toilet.”

[markrosewater]

"Source material is a matter of taste."

I fully agree with this; the issue may be conflicting design goals competing for space.

"Each of the 10 archetypes is centered around a specific fairy tale."

"Build your own fairy tale from a set of modular components."

It's not impossible to do both, but goals perpendicular to each other puts a higher burden on all aspects of design.

How marketing framed the set is relevant; marketing and Magic story are both nonlinear, you can't control which elements a player sees. When describing archetypes, there's a lot of room between "led by Legendary creature depicting a fairy tale" and "has a fairy tale woven into the faction's very essence."

Magic players like finding patterns, as evidenced by two cards making a cycle. The flip side is being unable to find a pattern you're told exists. Anyone following your blog had at least some expectations going into the weekend -- was the experience different for those who didn't know to look for all 10 archetypal tales?

Kamigawa taught us that a theme not at common isn't your theme. Wilds may have its own lesson about factions designed as mosaics.

I don't think these two goals conflict at all. We limited our references for certain stories to certain colors. In constructed, you can choose to put the cards from the same story together or you can choose to mix and match. Both are possible. In limited, you're a little more at the mercy of what you open/draft, but us congregating stories in colors increases your ability to do that if you desire.

[charlie-rulerofhell]

Lord of the Lost - The electric plug of the iron maiden

So yesterday I stumbled across this interview with Chris in the new Sonic Seducer magazine. It was pretty short and didn't exactly give us the most specactular news, but as always, Chris had some nice things to say (such as about the bass track on 'The Curtain Falls', speaking up politically or participating at ESC again (ARD, I'm staring at you very intensely, you know what to do!)). And since I was on a short train ride anyway, I used the time to type down some translation for you all. Enjoy!

Lord of the Lost

The electric plug of the iron maiden*

(* the article purposefully doesn't use the band name 'Iron Maiden' here, but the literal German translation 'Eiserne Jungfrau', probably because the journalist thinks they're funny)

Christoph Kutzer

The very moment that the ESC-hype has cooled down, Lord of the Lost are back to continuous operation on various stages. Whether it's at the Agra hall of the WGT or in the Nokia Arena of Finnish Tampere: Energetic live shows are guaranteed. Then there are also the new songs on the extended edition of 'Blood and Glitter'. Chris Harms talked to us about the most recent events, the bass of Iron Maiden's subwoofer Steve Harris and about how Michael Jackson's guitarist found her way to a LOTL record.

Question: Right now, you are constantly alternating between playing club shows, festivals and support shows for Iron Maiden. Isn't that quite a challenge?

Chris: For us as a band it doesn't really matter where we're playing. It's very common to play at different festivals for a varying amount of stage time, on smaller and bigger stages. So we're used to that for a while now. Actually, all the logistics have become easier for us, since we now have an own crew member for every position and every thing that needs to be done. We [as a band] do not have to set up the stage nor do we need to take it down. Sometimes, the moment that the concert begins is the first time that I enter the stage, which I haven't even seen all day long. This way, we as a band get the chance to fully concentrate on doing what we're actually there for: making music. Plus, it offers many well-payed jobs for all the lovely people of our crew. For them of course, this modular setup is a challenge, with all the planning that needs to be done and the stage itself as a construction site, when you play a Maiden show one day, a club show the other, and then on the third day some open air concert.

Question: You are now touring with Iron Maiden for the second time. Have you noticed any differences in the audience?

Chris: That's hard to tell at this point, because as of now we only had one proper Maiden show this year, which took place in Tampere, Finland. We did know the Finnish audience since 2010, but only from festivals or performing as headliners, so it was definitely a different experience. But we'll continue our journey with Maiden in the next days. Just today, we have arrived in England, right now I'm enjoying the evening sun on some English highway rest stop, roughly hundred kilometres north of London.

Question: Did something change for you concerning the requirements? Did your show get bigger? The venues do have impressive sizes …

Chris: Well, the internal setup of Maiden's stage is the same as last year, it might just look different to the outside. This is why we could keep the foundation of our 2022 setup, while implementing some reasonable expansions. To make this tour, we had to ramp up quite a bit, because we practically have to offer a complete production where every single plug is our own. Maiden just gives us one big power plug, and they attach us to their light and sound system, but the rest is ours. Iron Maiden have a great, kind and helpful crew, we made some beautiful friendships there, and it's always an amazing teamwork.

Question: For the shows, you have brought a new opener, 'The Curtain Falls'. I was impressed by everything Klaas is playing there. Is that some hidden reference to Steve Harris?

Chris: Well, it actually is to some degree. After the Maiden tour of last year, I bought myself Steve Harris's signature model of the Fender P-Bass, kind of as a memory to this alleged once-in-a-lifetime experience. So this led to me writing one song on this exact bass, imagining the kind of song that I would like to open the summer shows with. I wanted to write something that, in my eyes, would be the perfect opener. That's how 'The Curtain Falls' came to be. And since all these bass lines from the demo in which I played every instrument on my own have shaped the song so much, we actually kept my original bass track for the final version of the song. Klaas said: 'Let's keep your track, it has so much spontaneity and soul, you cannot reproduce that for the album version. But I'm looking forward to playing that live.'

Question: Were 'The Curtain Falls' and 'noituLOVEr' only produced after the original record was completed? Since both songs are just on the newest edition.

Chris: Exactly, both songs were written when 'Blood & Glitter' had already been in press. All the other new songs were actually recorded together with the rest of the album in Finland, March 2022, but we wanted to keep them for the extended version. It would have been too many duets for the main record.

Question: One of those features has the guitarist Jennifer Batten, who has become quite a legend with her collaboration with Michael Jackson.

Chris: A friend of mine is playing the bass in Jennifer's solo band. He told me that she really enjoyed LOTL when he showed her some tracks that one time. So I gathered all my courage and asked him to ask her for a guest solo. She said 'yes' immediately. The little boy in me who had watched this legendary 'Live in Bukarest' concert of Michael Jackson on tv back then in the 90s, and who totally lost it seeing Jennifer Batten play, was very very happy once we found out that Jennifer would actually be part of a LOTL track.

Question: Since we're already at special moments: How did you experience your performance this year at WGT? Was that a little bit like coming home?

Chris: In a way, WGT is always like coming home. But this year I could finally put this really big checkmark behind another dream: For one time, being the headliner at WGT at the Agra hall.

Question: But apart from scene borders, you actually have one of the most colourful audiences you could imagine in front of a stage. Is the typical Lord of the Lost fan willing to face all these new surprises? Like the glitter currently, which might not have been that expected?

Chris: Hm. I think the glitter was actually not that surprising at all. It has always been a part of us. Maybe not to this extent or this concentrated. Also, luckily there is no typical Lord of the Lost fan. All of them are so unbelievably diverse, and I think that's fantastic!

Question: In November, you will play at Gothic Meets Klassik again. Then there is the LORDFEST in December. I would imagine both events to be very preparation-heavy. Where do you get all that time from?

Chris: Well, the Gothic Meets Klassik event has been prepared for years. We were supposed to play there in 2020 or 2021, I cannot properly recall, but then it had to be postponed. So all the notes have already been written. For everything else, we do have three rehearsal days in Leipzig, right before the show. That's it. Which means that the hardest part of the preparation for me right now is to actually buy a nice suit. For the LORDFEST, most of the preparation is done by our crew and the local production, so it's all in the hands of other people who'll get the instruction from us to arrange everything as we want it to be, and within a certain given budget. The only thing we need to do is come up with a setlist, get in touch with some surprise guests, then rehearse for two or three days, and then we can already get on stage.

Question: I feel like over the years you have taken a more and more political stance. Was that just not this visible before when you hadn't yet been this much in the spotlight or was there a growing need not to leave certain things uncommented?

Chris: I have always been someone who wouldn't keep quiet about these things, but back then I was quicker to get intimidated by those people who tell you to 'make music and not politics', which is utter bullshit of course. Apart from that, I gotta say that I still don't see it as political to think that Nazis are shit. But yeah, when I have to stand up and fight for a freer, more tolerant and sympathetic world, then I will always do that. Online and in real life.

Question: Will you be watching the upcoming ESC together as a band event and revel in your memories?

Chris: If we do find the time, we will do that. But even more importantly, we will apply again every single year. Even when it's practically a given that we won't be allowed to participate again after having come last once. But the experience was so awesome, we need to have that again!

[aiyexayen]

✿⋆₊⊹ Zonai Facts ⊹₊⋆✿

Mammalian features.

Furry.

Bipedal.

Had exclusive access to incredibly potent but finite power source obtained by unsustainable mining practises.

Opened enormous pit mines in underground caverns beneath every single major city of every nation across Hyrule in the pursuit of more of the energy source.

Bound naturally-occurring root systems in tight woven nets throughout Hyrule's underworld to funnel large quantities of daylight down from the surface, introducing invasive species of surface flora in the process, in order to see better in pursuit of more of the energy source.

Named the energy source after themselves.

Energy source notably corrupts other beings who mine for it.

Used their power and technological advancements to invent fully modular mass weapons of elemental destruction.

Created an army of effectively-immortal, autonomous war robots that are hostile to all lifeforms and attack immediately with deadly force.

Had the power to semi-permanently suspend enormous land masses in the air and did so.

Seeded aforementioned robots on these land masses across the entire skies of Hyrule suspended over every other peoples' land.

Spread their Zonai-exclusive-access technology across the entire surface of Hyrule as well--into towns, caves, valleys, mountaintops.

Supplanted many Hyrulean culture's beliefs and religious practises, building all of them enormous temples with little apparent religious function beyond interacting with the Zonai themselves.

Built over ancient sacred grave sites with their own architecture.

Constructed their own buildings on sacred land intruding on the homes of spirit beings.

Perpetuated the belief that the Zonai themselves were descended from gods.

Filled each of these Zonai temples across Hyrule with technology exclusively able to be accessed by the Zonai or those few they grant permission.

Each temple's technology contained the enormous elemental potential to wreak extinction-level destruction on the peoples and land of Hyrule, not unlike enormous floating war machines.

Seeded the temples with scores of their previously-mentioned immortal, armed with deadly force, universally hostile battle robots.

Places where the Zonai land masses interact with Hyrulean ground cause the latter to begin to disappear, native ecology being replaced as patterns of unknown nature spread out from the point of contact like a living tattoo.

Made a marriage alliance with the most populous and centrally-located race in Hyrule, who also claimed divine bloodline.

Both accepted and demanded allegiance from every other prominent nation in Hyrule.

Described as "warlike" by those who outlived them.

Commandeered the most powerful spiritual leaders from each race and bonded them to ancient and powerful Zonai amulets.

Crafted Zonai-style animal masks for this elite team of mages that they appeared to wear permanently, while the Zonai and Hylians remained unmasked.

Ensured their own visages and names would survive eternally through hundreds of shrines built in their image across the land and sky, filled with an absurd quantity of light energy from an unknown source (and battle robots) to eternally preserve and protect them.

Left the other mages' faces and names out of history entirely--until they do not exist even in the records of their own peoples and nations.

Adorned royalty with intricate stone jewellery.

Severed limbs capable of functioning independent of rest of body.

Had white hair.

Very tall.

Fuckable?

[titleknown]

"Build Your Character Like A Ninja Turtle" Random Tables

So, Friend of the blog Trent Troop, AKA @therobotmonster came up with a great concept called "Build Your Character Like A Ninja Turtle," with the idea of building a character via a combination of "Species/Type + Job/Skill + Schtick"

So, naturally I had to make some random D20 tables for doing that process, trying to go a bit broad and open-ended with it for maximum fun! Along with an optional bonus one to fit with Trent;'s toyetic aesthetics.

Roll once on each table to do the basic process or, for added fun, roll twice and try to combine the two results on each you roll up in an interesting way! (Re-rolling if you get doubles obvz)

Species/Type

Post-Human

Goblin

Fish

Arthropod

Furry Mammal

Alien

Body Part (Eye/Brain/Organ/Extremity/ect)

Robot/Cyborg

Demon/Devil

Dinosaur/Dragon

Mollusc

Mineral

Plant

Armored

Amphibian

Garbage

Undead

Avian

Elemental

Abomination

Job/Skill

Soldier

Sports-Person

Secret Agent

Wizard/Magician/Witch

Cowboy

Barbarian

Ninja

Martial Artist

Mad Scientist

Bounty Hunter

Doctor/Nurse

Greaser/Biker

First Responder/Rescuer

Animal/Creature Handling

Pilot/Driver

Musician

Clown

Construction/Maintainance/Demolition

Body Horror

Superhero

Schtick

True Hero

The Starscream

Pretentious Artiste

Angsty Loner

Lacksidaisical Jokester/Party Dude

Courageous Coward

Hippie

Goth

Autistic-Coded Nerd

Escaped Experiment/I Am Not A Gun

Boisterous Bruiser/Himbo (Gender Neutral)

Lovable Rogue

Stoic and Scary

Wise Mentor

Tsundere/Yandere (Gender Neutral)

Don Quixote-Type Delusional

Cynic With A Heart Of Gold

Fussy And Respectable Neat Freak

They Everything Hide A Basic Insecurity

Supreme Villain

Optional: Toyetic Gimmick

Miniaturized

Scented

Sparking

Color Changing

Translucent Plastic

Water Squirting

Glow In the Dark

Modular/Interchangable Parts

Missile-Firing

Transforming

Slime Dripping

Lights & Sound

Battle Armor

Spring Loaded Action Feature

Vac-Metalized Plastic

Covered In Fur

Magnets

Pumping Fluids

Self Destruct

Extremely Big

So... Have fun!

Also, since this was inspired by the man's work, if you like this, please donate to Trent's Gofundme and/or Paypal if you can afford it.

He's fallen on some hard times, and he deserves so much better from this world...

[shefanispeculator]

Here’s Your First Peek at Blake Shelton’s Las Vegas Honky Tonk Bar

Blake Shelton’s sprawling country bar will offer some of the best views in Las Vegas

by Janna Karel  Jan 4, 2024, 1:49pm PST

Janna Karel is the Editor for Eater Vegas.

Blake Shelton’s Ole Red, a sprawling, multi-story bar, dance hall, music venue, and restaurant, opens soon, and when it does, it may offer the best rooftop view of the Las Vegas Strip. Shelton broke ground on Ole Red in January of 2023 in front of the Horseshoe Las Vegas. Since then, construction crews have been building the four-story Tennessee-born restaurant, chefs have been developing a menu with dishes that are exclusive to Las Vegas, and Shelton’s team has been bulking up the roster of musical acts that will perform on stage beneath the 4,500-pound ceiling-mounted tractor.

The roughly 27,000-square-foot country bar has four levels. On the first floor is a stage in front of a 38-foot-tall LED screen that can project images to complement shows or be divided into smaller screens for broadcasting sports and other events. The second and third stories overlook the stage and each floor has a bar at the back and fully modular seating — meaning that each floor can offer traditional restaurant-style tables, lounge-style seating, or even have the furniture cleared away to make room for dancing.

The second floor has a first for Las Vegas — a direct walkway into the honky tonk. The elevated pedestrian walkway stretches from the Bellagio Las Vegas Hotel and Casino side of Las Vegas Boulevard to right inside the bar. Both stories have outdoor balconies, offering views of the Grand Bazaar Shops to the East and the Fountains at Bellagio to the west.

The fourth floor is up on the rooftop and will offer a more exclusive experience. Reservations will be encouraged for evening VIP dining, with semi-private cabanas and lounge seating reserved with table minimums. The rooftop will have regular dining at lunch time, then transition to nightlife service around 9 p.m. every night, with cocktail menus and entertainment unique to the fourth floor.

The view from the center Strip rooftop is panoramic, offering views from the Mandalay Bay at the south end of the Strip to the Mirage at the north end. It’s primed for viewing big events like the Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix and parades for the Golden Knights or Las Vegas Aces, with more than a mile of visibility in either direction. Ole Red can seat about 670 people, or offer standing room for more than 1,100. It’s a capacity that warrants the facility’s two kitchens.

Rendering of Ole Red.

The menu will have about 17 items from Ole Red’s locations in Tennessee, Florida, and Shelton’s hometown of Tishomingo, Oklahoma. Chef Mark Boor spent months developing a further 17 dishes that will be unique to Las Vegas. There will be appetizers like the Turnin’ Me On loaded tots, which are rounds of house-made crispy tots piled high with truffle salt, bacon, parmesan, herbs, a sweet bourbon onion and tomato jam, and a smoked black bean aioli. Shrimp corn dogs are Boor’s answer to “Vegas-ifying” the corn dog — coating skewers of shrimp in a light and flaky batter, served with three types of aioli. Boor says his favorite dish, and one he expects to be a crowd-pleaser, is the blackberry crispy chicken sliders. The three mini sandwiches are layered with sweet blackberry compote, a tangy whipped goat cheese spread with jalapenos, cabbage, and super crispy chicken on brioche buns.

Leaning into the West Coast-adjacent location, the menu will have a street corn salad with roasted corn and cotija cheese and mahi-mahi tacos with slaw and avocado. The Hell Right burger is 10 ounces of ground short rib, brisket, and chuck with hatch green chiles, pepper jack cheese, and smoked mushrooms — the result a super juicy burger requiring a two-hand grip. And there’s also the Ole Red ribeye, a 20-ounce bone-in ribeye with spiced chipotle butter, horseradish mashed potatoes, and crunchy slaw.

Ole Red Las Vegas and Ryman Hospitality Properties say that this will be the chain’s largest location to date. With a focus on live country music, the bar will predominantly boast a soundtrack of acoustic solo artists during the day, bands in the evening, and even DJs performing after dark. General manager, Ryan Klaasen says that on most days, the restaurant will be organized for lunch service through the afternoon, and then the tables and booths may take on whatever redecorating is needed to accommodate the night’s entertainment.

“I’ve been coming here a long time. I hosted award shows and worked concerts and was a fan and witness to Gwen Stefani’s residency,” Shelton said at an announcement for the bar last January. “And every time I’m here, I want to see some damn country music.” Shelton said he expects that Ole Red will welcome talent from unsigned singers and artists previously featured on The Voice. He’s also pitched a night in which visitors play talent scouts, listening to music from country artists in a venue with concert-quality production.

While Ole Red doesn’t have an opening date yet, it is expected to open within the next few weeks.

[haru-dipthong]

Gender Abolition: A Modular Essay

This essay is meant to be readable in any order. Feel free to jump around, because all of the ideas are connected, inseparable, even. Also worth noting that I speak authoritatively due to the essay format, but please know I am very open to the possibility that some of the things I have taken for granted, or the things I claim, are simply incorrect. Please let me know if you find anything you disagree with in this way.

Module 1: Gender is bad

Gender is not a force for good. It was originally an evolutionarily helpful tool for organising social structures that helped us to get to where we are now [see Module 3 and 5]. But, like wisdom teeth, which are present because we needed a larger jaw size prior to consuming softer cooked foods, it has become an obsolete, even problematic and harmful, remnant of evolution.

Gender (the division of people into man/woman/nonbinary categories) is harmful [see Module 8].

For example, gender-biased laws and regulations that differentiate between men and women almost always have the effect of perpetuating oppression of women. One clear case of this is that maternity and paternity leave entitlements in almost every country entitle mothers to more leave than fathers. While this may look like it is in favour of women on the surface, it means that in a heterosexual relationship 1. a mother is more likely to “put her career on hold” than a father, resulting in more dependence on their partner, and 2. companies will subtly and subconsciously discriminate against hiring and promoting women, due to seeing them as a liability. (Caroline Criado Perez, 2019, Invisible Women)

Module 2: Attempts to abolish gender would fail

Some people really strongly identify with their gender [see Module 8]. As long as there are people with attachments to their gender, there will be gender, no matter how much a legislative or socially organised attempt at abolishing gender tries to suppress the idea of it.

It would mean nothing for the government to say “No more concept of man and woman. Just male, female, intersex, and transitioning. All laws have been amended to be completely gender neutral, and any sex specific medicine/laws/regulations have been changed to reference the relevant biological trait (not sex, the specific trait) rather than the gender.” Such a thing would not abolish gender. We would naturally start using the sex terms to group people socially [see Module 4 and 5]. We would simply reinvent gender under a new name [see Module 3]. “Abolishing” gender in this way would only undo a lot of great work and research into the sociological, psychological, philosophical distinction between sex and gender.

Humans cannot be rid of normative attachments - it would be impossible to “abolish gender” [see Module 5].

Module 3: The universality of gender

Gender, like language, seemingly exists as a social construct in every human society. Either it emerged independently multiple times across the world, or it emerged once at the dawn of humanity and has stayed a constant presence in every human civilisation since then, throughout thousands of years of new cultures as humans spread across the planet.

This means that, like the mechanics for language acquisition, it seems likely to me that the mechanics for mentally categorising people into social roles that are initially based on biological differences of sexual dimorphism exist as a preprogrammed part of the human brain structure.

Module 4: “Gender is prior to sex”

When Laplanche says “gender is prior to sex” in his Gender, Sex, and the Sexual, I believe he means that humans conceive of their own gender, the difference between their own gender and the gender of others, and the concept of gender, prior to them conceiving of their own sex, the difference between their own sex and the sex of others, and the concept of sex. Obviously, a penis or vulva comes “first” in that it is tied to the physical body, but sex the social construct is not primary in the mind of a human - that primacy belongs to gender.

To elaborate, there are multiple aspects to this.

To its parents and to wider society, a baby’s gender (what kind of boy/girl they are imagined to grow up to be) is more important than their sex.

To its parents and to wider society, a baby’s gender is conceived of before their sex is. When someone asks “is it a boy or a girl?” they’re not primarily asking “does it have a penis or vulva?” but instead attempting to grasp the as-yet-unformed personhood of the infant. [see Module 5]

A child will understand what their gender means before they understand what their sex means.

A child will understand what their gender is before they understand what their sex is.

Module 5: The importance of gender to the socialisation interface and theory of mind

Conceptualising others’ mental states is very difficult, so humans subconsciously use shortcuts and tricks to make it easier. One major trick we use is stereotyping and profiling. By mentally marking someone as a particular type of person (or part of a particular group of people), we can make assumptions based on our existing understanding of that particular type/group of people, without trying to conceive of this person’s mind from scratch.

Gender is one of the most, if not the most, fundamental profiling group we use as humans. As anyone who’s played Guess Who would know, the most efficient grouping tool is one that divides all possible options into two halves. In fact, the evolution of an innate brain-blueprint of gender may have come about because of this efficiency of grouping [see Module 3]. Because of this, gender is the first thing we notice about a person. Freud writes “When you meet a human being, the first distinction that you make is ‘male or female?’ and you are accustomed to make the distinction with unhesitating certainty” (Freud 1933, “Lecture 33. Femininity.” New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis. Standard Edition, 22).

Obviously, stereotyping based on gender (especially perceived gender based on a cursory glance) is problematic, but unfortunately, the efficiency of this profiling group on theory of mind, and its deep roots in the functioning of the human brain, mean that, I believe, it is essentially impossible to prevent our brains from doing this automatically - like the Stroop effect forces us to automatically read text in languages we have acquired.

Module 6: Gender as Identity. Gender as Label.

Gender is not a force for good [see Module 8] - yet taking up a label is helpful, especially for queer people who can use that to then find their community and contextualise themselves within a social order previously unknown to them.

As we can see from the MOGAI phenomenon, from queer communities’ fights for X gender markers on drivers licenses, from the emphasis on linguistic rather than active allyship, reinforcement and validation of identity is important to a lot of queer people, especially young ones, or ones with less self-confidence or education on queer issues. I think some of this importance placed on identity is due to the conflation of linguistic terms with reality, and believing that if something can’t be expressed linguistically, it isn’t real [see Module 7]. I think this is why MOGAI came into being, where hundreds of obscure gender terms were created by a community of tumblr teenagers, in order to, as I see it, create a linguistic term for their specific gender experience. However, gender is experienced differently by everyone, so of course it’s not useful to come up with a gender category for every possible gender experience because you’d have 8.2 billion. So, although a label can be helpful, I think queer people should deemphasise the importance of labels and instead focus on understanding themselves from first principles, rather than comparing their experience against a general or expected idea of a label.

Module 7: The Blobfish and the Mythosymbolic

See this post.

Module 8: Gender is deep and psychological, but it’s also institutional

There are two sides to gender, and you can describe the dichotomy in several ways depending on your perspective. Personal vs social. Positive vs negative. Freedom vs oppression. Basically, gender is deep and psychological, but it’s also institutional. The deep psychological aspect is identity, forming attachments to social norms, self expression. It’s internal, and if allowed to flourish, a positive thing. “Let people enjoy things.”

The institutional aspect is oppression. Masculinity inherently comes with some power to oppress, femininity with the potential to be oppressed. It’s societal, and a negative force in the world [see Module 1].

The fucked up thing is that you couldn’t have the positive without the negative. You can’t have attachments to these social norms without the (often oppressive) institutional social norms in the first place!

The silver lining to this is that we don’t have the option to choose both or neither, so at least we don’t have to waste time agonising over the choice between revolution or status quo. We can’t get away from gender as humans [see Module 5] so it ties our hands and forces us to deal with what we have. As Alexander Avila says, “We live in a society where people are really attached to these norms and they form a fundamental part of our understanding of who we are. And like, we couldn’t even be coherent individuals without them at this point” (link to video). In which case, we should do our best to allow the positive personal aspects of gender to have as much freedom as possible, while minimising the damage caused by the institutional social aspects of gender (through laws, etc).

[usafphantom2]

UAC presents Su-75 Checkmate aircraft with a modified front

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 02/10/2024 - 11:38am Military

At the World Defense Show 2024, which took place from February 4 to 8 in the capital of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, United Aircraft Corporation presented an updated model of the light tactical aircraft Checkmate (Su-75). The project of a fifth-generation single-seater fighter is being developed at the Sukhoi Design Bureau.

The aircraft prototype was first demonstrated in July 2021 at the MAKS air show. The UAC states that the aircraft has undergone some changes and draws attention to the air intake.

On the left the Su-75 presented at MAKS 2021 and on the right the model presented this week in Saudi Arabia. (Photo montage: Cavok)

The air inlet of the Su-75 is located under the fuselage. In the 2021 version of the project, it is divided into two channels and its bottom corner protrudes slightly in the direction of flight. In the model that the UAC brought to Riyadh, there is no such division, there is only one air channel without bulkhead in the inlet flow and the bottom of the air inlet is straight.

The configuration of the tail booms and the control surfaces with which they end have also changed, and the sing has also changed: the area of the flaperons has been significantly increased. Below are two videos with the details of the model presented in Saudi Arabia.

The Su-75 may become a platform for the joint development of an aircraft with partners from Arab countries, said Alexandra Mikheeva, general director of Rosoboronexport in Riyadh. "This open architecture aircraft is today the most relevant product for the construction of joint development projects of promising aviation systems in the Middle East region," he said.

He said that the design of Checkmate already includes the possibility of creating complexes from it with adaptation to solve various problems. Among other things, the concept of the Su-75 provides for the creation of an unmanned aircraft based on it.

Unmanned model of the Su-75.

The Su-75 Checkmate is positioned by the Sukhoi Design Bureau as a universal modular platform that allows you to radically change the functionality of the entire aviation complex, while maintaining the same capabilities of its base. The concept proposed by the designers involves the use of part of the aircraft fuselage as a basis for the creation of aircraft of various modifications, which are achieved by replacing the most loaded part of the on-board equipment - the front of the fuselage. The invention of the Sukhoi Design Bureau is protected by patent RU 2807558.

Tags: Military AviationCheckmateRussiaSu-75UAC - United Aircraft Corporation

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Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has works published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. He uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

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[shivshaktimachtech]

10 Head Liquor Bottle Filling Machine

Company Overview: Shiv Shakti Machtech is a Manufacturer, Supplier and Exporter of 10 Head Liquor Bottle Filling Machine. 10 head liquid filling machine is an advanced packaging device equipped with ten filling heads that work simultaneously to fill containers with wine, liquor, vodka, spirits, whisky, Gin. This machine is designed to handle high-volume production with accuracy and efficiency, making it ideal for industries requiring rapid and consistent liquid filling. Standard Features: Sanitary flow meters equipped with tri-clamp fittings Bottom-close fill head valves to prevent drips Servo-driven fill head assembly for bottom-up filling and height adjustment 316 stainless steel pressure vessel, positioned low for easy cleaning CIP system with a spray ball in the vessel, process program, and fill head trough Sanitary product infeed control valve with air-to-open, spring-to-close actuator Intuitive PLC control system for ease of use Allen Bradley PLC control with Ethernet capability On-the-fly product weight adjustment Servo-controlled nozzle diving motion for precise bottom-up filling Tool-less adjustments for quick changeovers Modular construction allows for future upgrades Over 100 programmable recipes UL-approved control panel CE-compliant interlocked safety guards Shiv Shakti Machtech is 10 Head Liquor Bottle Filling Machine in serves worldwide, including, Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, The Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, Colombia, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Costa Rica, Cuba, Cyprus, Denmark, Dominica, Ecuador, Egypt, Guinea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, The Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guyana, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, South Korea, North Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar (Burma), Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, South Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates (UAE), United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vatican City, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. For further details or inquiries, feel free to reach out to us. View Product: Click Here Read the full article

[zebee-nyx]

CalmWriMo Day 27

[11/27/2023]

Update!

Half of my sleep felt more like half awake tv static than blank screen [as it should be] last night. So brain=hemorrhaging braincells this eve. ('>v<) Anywho, wasn't a busy day at work today and I managed to get some good progress on the things today. Which among the things is today's blurb! Which came out pretty well, if I do say so myself. And I do say so! (>v<) [y'see that? there it goes... my last braincell lol]

Progress:

2 Hour Writing Goal: ✅

Blurb: [see below]

Self Care:

Food: ✅

Hydration: ❌ [whoops, forgot the translucent life sustaining fluid exists (0^0) was a bit too zoned]

Sleep: ❌

Reading: ✅

Blurb: Housing / Architecture

Holdouts

Rarely scattered across the Undercity. They are usually single or two story brick buildings that were once homes or businesses before the Great Collapse. Now they exist as relics of the past buried under the unregulated construction of the Undercity. Usually found in back alleys as oddities and landmarks. Some of them still have windows, although whether or not they were shattered varies.

Undercity Prefab Apartments

There are two primary types of prefabricated apartments in the Undercity. The first takes it's metabolist inspiration to the greatest extreme with modular capsule rooms. Each capsule is a simple empty box roughly 8ft by 12ft in size. These are the most common, being brought in with aircranes and installed onto, well basically anywhere that it won't immediately collapse. While they all have the same basic set up, the use of space varies greatly between occupants. The second type is somewhat larger with two rooms, a mixed living area and a private bathroom. These are manufactured in several parts that can easily be transported either by a aircrane or truck to site before being assembled on location. The basic interiors are more diverse with optional bed inlets and built in vending machines among other things. They also have a few different layouts that honestly just shifts where the bathroom divides the other spaces. While water isn't necessarily a rarity, decent working plumbing often is. As such about half of these apartment bathrooms in service work more as storage closets than anything else. Due to the chaotic nature of the Undercity it isn't uncommon for walls to be cut open across several apartments to better serve the needs of small local businesses, bunkhouses, or anything else people decide to build. Also it isn't uncommon for completely random structures to be made between prefabricated buildings out of whatever scrap happens to be available. Random pipes and cables running along the walls or roofs of hallways leading towards more in-structure apartments is normal. Rooms along alleys or streets usually get their utilities directly through the wall.

Midcity Apartments

Like the Undercity most of the Midcity's apartments, at least above the first few stories, are prefabricated. However, in the Midcity they usually are larger and have a more comfortable living spaces and at least one distinct bedroom. Typically the basic utilities are better maintained allowing more access to operational bathrooms, kitchens, and stationary entertainment such as televisions. Apartments in the Midcity are often built atop old retrofitted buildings that are mostly street level shops, restaurants, or other businesses.

Uppercity Luxury Apartments

The luxury apartments of the Uppercity is about what one would expect. Spacious interiors high above the rest of the city with staff or security at the simple press of a button. Usually there is one wall that has a dedicated wide screen that can simulate a curated view of the city, nature environments, or even play video media within smaller windows. Unlike nearly anywhere else in the city apartments in the Uppercity have real wooden floors. It also isn't rare for there to be a potted plant or small garden in the apartment to truly express the tenant's wealth. Amenities such as a spa, pool, and gym are usually only a brief elevator ride away. While some are equipped with kitchens for those who prefer to cook for themselves or have a personal chef, most apartments are simply equipped with an advanced vending machine that can be programmed to prepare most meals. Beyond that the only limits is the tenant's desires and space available. The result is often limited to clean modern looking spaces, however the more eccentric individuals tend to have truly unique homes. Somewhat ironically the exteriors of the majority of these buildings contrast greatly with the interiors as they often appear as little more than massive minimally featured blocks. That is aside from prime street level viewing space of these skyscrapers which are of course covered with the colorful glowing lights of advertising and art.

[Technically there is also nomad buildings, but basically just glorified rvs made literal "mobile" homes. Which may end up time’s blurb if I don’t think of anything else... Also junkyards architecture which is, well, basically garbage slapped together into shacks. ('^.^) So, uh... Anyways and always, hope that you had a lovely day, peace (ZvZ)v]

[atlanticcanada]

Affordable housing units open in Charlottetown, Abegweit First Nation

Two new affordable housing projects in Prince Edward Island officially opened on Thursday.

One of the projects is a modular four-storey building on Fitzroy Street in Charlottetown by the Canadian Mental Health Association of PEI. It contains 28 affordable studios and one-bedroom apartments for people dealing with mental health and addiction issues.

Fifteen of the units are specifically meant for women. 

The project received close to $7.9 million from the federal government through the Rapid Housing Initiative (RHI). The P.E.I. government also contributed $2.8 million over a 20-year period in annual operating grants.

“We are providing a chance to members of our community who are struggling with mental health and addictions issues to bring a positive change to their lives and to the community. Having access to safe, supportive and affordable homes is key to their recovery,” said Sean Casey, Member of Parliament for Charlottetownin a release.

Casey also announced Thursday the completion of a five-unit affordable housing complex on the lands of the Abegweit First Nation.

The project received $1.35 million through the RHI and will serve the Mi’Kmaq community and prioritize women and their children.

The housing complex also received provincial energy efficiency funding.

The chief of Abegweit First Nation says the lack of affordable and healthy housing is a major issue in the community.

"I am extremely proud that Abegweit's own construction team built five new, healthy and energy efficient homes in our community through the Rapid Housing Initiative. Now, several young families, who struggled to find and afford shelter off reserve, can move back home,” said Chief Junior Gould in the release. “Having these families back in the community will improve the socioeconomic wellbeing of our community and give hope to our young and growing membership that solutions are on the way."

from CTV News - Atlantic https://ift.tt/B9ai0jA