#Proto-Crust

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

THE DEATH OF "FALSE HARDCORE" BEGINS UNDER THE RELAPSE BANNER IN '95.

PIC INFO: Spotlight on a print/record advertisement for various groups under the Relapse Records roster, including: SIEGE, DISRUPT, and DESTROY; with upcoming releases by band's EXIT-13, INCANTATION, and FINAL CONFLICT, from a 1995 publication of "Maximum Rocknroll."

Source: www.picuki.com/media/3279370654117458861.

[nightsunecilpse]

Was doing some research into the giant collision and the moon formation and found these most recent research theories and discoveries. So I naturally had to make a joke.

Luna is the second densest Moon in the solar system about 60% of that of Earth. But peculiarly Luna has a small iron core, and it rings like a bell when hit. Scientists believe that the moon is mostly made up of the scraped-off crust of Proto-Earth with the small iron core coming from Theia. So, theoretically, the meme is accurate about Luna being more of Proto than Theia.

[bubblesandgutz]

Every Record I Own - Day 844: Darkthrone It Beckons Us All

This is one of my favorite albums of 2024.

At this point I'm pretty much on board with anything Darkthrone releases, even if the last three albums (Old Star, Eternal Hails, Astral Fortress) haven't exactly been the most exciting entries in the Norwegian band's canon. They've slowed down and leaned into this sorta minimalist proto-doom style that just isn't as harrowing as their '90s black metal output or as invigorating as their '00s crust phase or as fun as the NWOBHM twist of their '10 albums. But they're still solid albums to spin while tinkering around the house and I consequently get a lot of mileage out of them.

While I don't expect to hear another Panzerfaust out of Darkthrone, I've enjoyed collecting their twenty+ studio albums and watching the gradual evolution of their style and approach. Some records hit harder than others, and that's okay. If anything, their three album streak of "fine but not fantastic" just makes a solid record like It Beckons Us All even more exciting.

We get a little bit of the whole Darkthrone spectrum here. There's some straightforward punk moments, some unabashed classic metal moments, some nods to their earliest death metal years, and the general black metal patina that's remained constant over the last 30+ years. It comes across like an overview of their career, a best-of of their various approaches.

Ultimately, what I love about Darkthrone is that I get the sense that Fenriz and Nocturno Culto are just gonna continue to crank out a record every year or two until they're too old to pick up their instruments. They're just genuinely stoked metal fans and eternally curious about what kind of music they can churn out of their limited arsenal. There are no frills. There are no lofty ambitions. There are no rules. It's just simple, stripped-down heavy metal made by lifers.

[mariacallous]

Bublik looks a lot like a bagel, sounds a little like a bagel, but is not quite a bagel. Bublik (pronounced boob-leek) or bubliki (plural), is the Ukrainian version of a yeasted, boiled and rounded bread that dates back to 18th century Odessa. Just like New York or Montreal-style bagels, bubliki came to Ukraine by way of Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants from Poland and Eastern Europe, later becoming popular throughout the former Soviet Union. While bread shaped into rings dates back to the 13th century, written records of the beygl (Yiddish for bagel), date back to 1610 in Krakow, Poland, where bagels were mentioned in Jewish community ordinances. The word bublik comes from the proto-Slavic word boubl, which means swelling or bubble. These delicious rings of bread are also affectionately called bublichki, and there is even a famous Yiddish-Ukrainain song from the 1920’s with this diminutive name.

Popular across the former Soviet Union, bubliki are traditionally served with tea and topped with butter, jam or smetana(sour cream). Compared to bagels, bubliki have a tender crust, are a little sweeter and sometimes have a larger hole in their center. The chewiness of the bublik varies by baker, but they’re most often lighter than their New York counterparts. While bagels are made with a simple dough of yeasted flour and water, bubliki are typically made with an enriched yeasted dough that includes butter, egg and milk. While bagels and bubliki are both boiled in water before being baked (giving them their unmistakable glossy crust), bagels are traditionally boiled in water with barley malt syrup added to it, whereas bubliki are boiled in plain water. In some ways, the flavor of bubliki is closer to a Montreal-style bagel, which is sweetened and boiled with honey. 

In all its forms, bubliki and bagels have made their way into kitchens and bakeries around the world. While it takes time to make bubliki from scratch, you will be rewarded with the incomparable joy of eating a fresh, warm bublik, and your home will be filled with the smell of one of the most comforting Jewish breads.

Note: Bubliki are best eaten the same day they are made, but they also freeze well, and can be reheated in an oven or toaster. 

[etym-a-day]

dandruff, n.

Entered English in the 1540s from an obscure source. Only the latter half of the word, -ruff, is traceable, likely from Northumbrian huff or East Anglian hurf, both variants of Old Norse hrufa, "scab", from Proto-Germanic *hreufaz, "scab", ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *krewp-, "scab or crust".

The first element, dandr-, is completely obscure. It was later (1590s) expanded into its own word, dandro, which changed form in 1786 to become the more familiar version, dander, but no satisfactory derivation has yet been proposed. Given the meaning of the latter half of the word, however, we can speculate that this portion likely means something along the lines of "small flakes, powder," or something to that effect.

[speed-metal-punk]

Been listening to Hellbastard a bit more recently and I'm really loving them a whole lot more. You definitely have to have an appreciation of proto-death and proto-black metal to get where my love is springing from. Cause like the way Hellbastard is basically crusty Hellhammer is not lost on me and really fucks so hard. Truly instrumental in the metallic crust I love today

[itsbenedict]

when i was a baby- my parents tell me- i learned to speak and read and write freakishly early. like, i would freak people out at the pizza hut by being a 10-month-old baby and getting up and turning around and looking over the top of the back of the booth and saying "Hello, my name is _____, what's yours?" to some random guy who was just trying to eat the new "stuffed crust" innovation in peace and was not expecting to be accosted by some sort of proto-Boss Baby

(and i'm kind of jealous of the kids who're growing up in a world of ubiquitous video cameras in everyone's pocket, because, man, i was 10 months old! i don't remember that happening! i only know the story, and there's no video evidence! that was probably hilarious to watch! kids these days do something funny, they get to see that when they grow up!)

[n2qfd]

@swradiograms-blog @swradiogram

0000z Friday FEB 21 2025 9265 Khz AM

Not great and I missed a few for lack of signal but still hanging in there from FN12nb New York's Southern Tier.

Welcome to program 390 of Shortwave Radiogram.

I'm Kim Andrew Elliott in Arlington, Virginia USA.

Here is the lineup for today's program, in MFSK modes as noted:

1:44 MFSK32: Program preview (now) 2:55 MFSK32: Why we think planet Theia existed 6:31 MFSK64: Test of new geothermal technology in Germany* 12:56 MFSK64: This week's images* 28:23 MFSK32: Closing announcements

with image(s)

Please send reception reports to radiogram@verizon.net

And visit http://swradiogram.net

We're on Bluesky now: SWRadiogram.bsky.social

And X/Twitter: @SWRadiogram

From Universe Today via Phys.org:

Why we think Theia existed

by Paul M. Sutter February 18, 2025

The giant-impact hypothesis posits that billions of years ago a Mars-sized body named Theia collided with the early Earth.

The immense energy from this impact not only significantly altered Earth's rotational dynamics but also resulted in debris being ejected into space. Over time, this debris coalesced to form the Moon.

We do not know for sure if Theia existed and if it collided with the young proto-Earth, but the evidence is compelling.

For one, we are the only rocky planet with a substantial moon. Mercury and Venus have none, while Mars lays claim to only two small, captured asteroids. The very existence of our large moon demands explanation.

Second, there's spin. The Earth spins much faster than the other rocky planets, and the Moon orbits around us at a surprisingly swift pace. Something deep in our past must have provided all that energy, and a collision with another protoplanet explains it with ease.

Lastly, we have an unexpected piece of evidence from our human adventures to the Moon. The Apollo missions were more than pursuits of glory; they were scientific enterprises. Trained by expert geologists, the Apollo astronauts, beginning with Armstrong and Aldrin, where taught to search for and extract interesting findings.

What they returned to Earth revealed an enormous wealth of scientific knowledge of the Moon's composition, because for the first time we were able to acquire large amounts of regolith—the generic term for the loose material that makes up the lunar surface—and return it to Earth for further study. All told, the six successful Apollo missions brought back 2,200 samples totaling almost 400 kilograms of material.

The regolith returned by the Apollo missions displayed a remarkable property: the lunar surface is oddly similar in constitution to the Earth's crust, with similar ratios of elements. The only conclusion is that we must have a common origin.

So while we are never able to turn the clock back and witness the formation of the Earth and Moon, we can use the clues scattered around us to help us understand this cataclysmic event that took place over four billion years ago.

Shortwave Radiogram now changes to MFSK64 …

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From AP via TechXplore

Major test case for new geothermal technology launches in small German town

by Jennifer McDermott February 17, 2025

Residents in the German town of Geretsried have long wanted to run their buildings with clean heat and electricity from geothermal energy instead of fossil fuels.

Their # Ôtwerel ashed about 15 years ago when a drilling company couldn't find enough hot water close to the surface to be profitable using traditional geothermal technology. That basically left them with natural gas.

"We gave up. We had big hopes," recalled First Mayor of Geretsried Michael Müller, who was raised in the town.

Today the next generation of geothermal companies is trying to succeed where previous efforts failed. They don't rely on hot water close to the surface, but instead use techniques developed in the oil and gas industry to drill deep and extract heat from dry, hot rock. One of them, Eavor, is starting up its first commercial power plant in Geretsried—turning the tiny town of about 26,000 people, south of Munich, into a proving ground for the future of geothermal energy.

Can technology like this be scal bue d really make a difference for the future of the planet? The International Energy Agency thinks so. In a recent report, it said technol§reakthroughs are unlocking huge potential for geothermal energy. Now that companies are drilling deeper than 3 kilometers (close to 2 miles), nearly every country has the potential to make heat and electricity this way, the IEA said.

"It has been a niche energy and concentrated in a few countries," IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said in an interview. But soon, Birol said, "geothermal can contribute to the global energy picture in an accelerated manner." Eavor was drawn to Geretsriew+ecause the traditional technique failed there

Eavor CEO John Redfern said the earlier failure in Gerestried opened up the possibility for a high-profile success—Geretsried's ordinary geology was appealing. No one would've been impressed if the Canadian company demonstrated its technology in Iceland, a LoÐace with abundant, easily accessible hot water, he added.

It helped that the town was excited for geothermal and open to new ideas, he added.

"Our whole point is that we want to have geothermal anywhere, everywhere," Redfern said. "What better way to prove that than to put our first well where they tried and failed with tradition3 v geothermal systems."

Germany is committed to transitioning away from fossil fuels. As part of the commitment, heating systems must switch to renewable sources because heating is one og tnii n sources of carbon dioxide emissions in Germany. And Germany couldn't depend on importing natural gas from Russia after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

Eavor, named for the phrase "energy for ever," has a demonstration facility in Alberta, Canada. Company executives know Geretsried well. One of them managed operations for the contractor that drilled there previously. Eavor says Geretsried geothermal will power up this year. That would be a milestone

This project will start by generating electricity in Geretsried, then add heat as the town fully builds out a district heating system.

With distrtieating, heat is generated in a central location and distributed to homes and businesses. Most of these systems make their heat from burning fossil fuels, especially in China and Russia, which have the largest number of them, according to the IEA. Europe has 17,000 district heating and cooling networks, serving 67 million people, according to Euroheat & Power, the international network for district energy.

In the United States, district energy systems are most often on college campuses, at hospitals, on military bases and in some downtown areas in larger cities. Some universities are switching their district heating systems ofaykeo or heating oil to geothermal energy to address climate change. The Trump administration, while pivoting back to pro-oil and gas policies, does appear to also favor geothermal.

Eavor has a contract to provide heat in the northwestern German city of Hanover, too. The city of more than 500,000 people is phasing out coal.

Eavor is also licensing its technology to utilities and companies that are trying to curb emissions and want secure tN:,erie n said. A large Japanese power provider, Chubu Electric Power Company, is a major investor in Eavor. Japan has many sites suitable for geothermal but few geothermal power plants.How does this geothermal method work?

The way it works is that Eavor drills two wells about 4 koyp (2.5 miles) deep, then branches out and drills a dozen lateral wells, ta maximize contact with the hot rock. The wells intersect to create a closed loop where water can flow, the "Eavor loop." The Geretsried project will have four loops, each with two vertical wells and about 12 lateral ones.

Eavor does not frack, or hydraulically fracture, to create cracks and increase the permeability of rock.

Instead in Geretsried, it will pump water down to flow through the hot rock, heating up on contact. It will rise naturally to the surface tho uan outlet well.

That hot water can be used to heat the utility's water so it can be sent through pipes to heat the equivalent of²ßot 36,000 homes. The hot water also can be routed to a power plant to make steam and then recirculated. When used to spin a turbine, that steam can generate electricity wip planet-warminlksreenhouse gas emissionjtç Müller, the mayor, said it's better to start changing the approach to energy today than push it off to tomorrow. He said residents can't rely on fossil fuels long term, they have to addraØ climate change and they need secure energy.

"We want to remain future proof," he said. "So let's start the future."

https://techxplore.com/news/2025-02-major-case-geothermal-technology-small.hi t eRun

 2azeouL puruetR tn 

Image: A geothermal site under construction in Geretsried, Germany, September 19, 2024 … Ö0  

This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK64

Please send your reception report to radiogram@verizon.net

This week's images …



A bagpiper of the 4SCOTS The Highlanders Company at a NATO training operation in Smardan, Rania. https://tinyurl.com/2bqanjpa …

 

A dog silhouetted the moon rising over Mount Artos in Van, Turkey, February 12. https://tinyurl.com/23xt7zzh …



Pařížská Street, Prague, 1937. https://tinyurl.com/27gdjgab …

 

Not red. Not white.eFoaF. Northern lights over Nuuk, capital of Greenland. https://tinyurl.com/29u7r883 …

 A bird perches on a branch of plum beteæ in Chongqing, China. https://tinyurl.com/29u7r883 …

 Sunrise in Washington DC, February 18. https://tinyurl.com/278dq4ld …

 Witch hazel blooming at Harvard's Arnold Arboretum in Boston. https://tinyurl.com/2cgpsmky …



A kingfisher at an arboretum in Istanbul. https://tinyurl.com/27poflze …

 Our painting of the week is "Winter Morning" (1907) by Igor Grabar. https://tinyurl.com/255ovhqg …

 Shortwave Radiogram returyMFSK32 …

 Before RSID: <<2025-02-21T00:58Z MFSK-64 @ 9265000+1500>>

This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK32 …

Transmission of Shortwave Radiogram is provided by:

WRMI, Radio Miami International, http://wrmi.net

and

WINB Shortwave, http://winb.com

Please send reception reports to radiogram@verizon.net

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X/Twitter (for now): @SWRadiogram

I'm Kim Elliott. Please join us for the next Shortwave Radiogram.

[badpunktakes]

this blog is funny. i feel like with online emoheads, they never shut up about what bands are and aren't emo. but with online punks the only discussion i've ever seen held is about politics. and battlejackets. maybe thats just cause i dont really listen to punk music so im not in the loop. but ig. how has it gotten this bad? this is the only alt subculture that i know of where i've never even seen the music discussed in passing...?

I blame a lot of popular culture for stereotyping and watering down a lot of the subculture. Anyone who has actually participated and learned about punk shit for any substantial amount of time knows that it's got a pretty vast and varied history over the past few decades. Shit moves fast and suddenly you have crust punks and street punks and beatdown meatheads and sXe kids and skinheads and all different sorts of people who have branched off from the original wave of punks in the mid-late '70s (and the proto-punks that came before them). Everyone took a little piece from the original punk subculture but very little of it remains today.

So now you have a bunch of people who learned about punk subculture through, i dunno, hobie brown, and made sweeping assumptions about what is and isn't punk based on their preconceived ideas of what seems to be progressive from the outset. Some of that is true, but it's not inherently "punk". When someone says "respecting pronouns punk", it's rooted in the idea that punk is synonymous with socially progressive, which it isn't. So my goal is to reel it in a bit by reminding people that punk is ideologically inconsistent at best, and that the only thing that binds all the different punk subcultures together is the music. I fuckin love punk music man it's so important to me.

[caliginouscalico]

[The time: Halloween, Two years after the end of the great war]

[The place: Sixth Impact Botanical Gardens Plaza, Reconstruction fund gala, Boise, Idaho, Earth]

[Several DECEPTICONS are mingling with the upper crust of Boise society. LASERBEAK and STARSCREAM lurking at the edges of the party. LASERBEAK has two hockey sticks taped to his wings and a hockey mask hanging around his neck. STARSCREAM is wearing a crown and a lush red cape.]

Laserbeak: "Why am I wasting time with meatbags when the Friday the 13th marathon is on? I could be deep frying my neurocircuits with Jason-kills right now."

Starscream: "Megatron said if we don't get the Decepticon favorability ratings above 30% by the end of the month he's sentencing us to crocodile dredging duty. Also, calling them meatbags doesn't help with that."

Laserbeak: "Shouldn't you be out there convincing the meatbags we don't want to render them into cheap lubricant then?"

Starscream: "Making sure no one hears you using slurs is the best way to make people view us favorably. Also, the nouveau riche make my paint blister."

[FRENZY, dressed in a tailored 3 piece black suit with black tie and black sunglasses, approaches, leading a woman and a TERMINALLY ADORABLE young girl. The woman is dressed in a masquarde ball mask and cocktail dress. The girl is wearing a Starscream costume, with the red picked out in GLITTER.]

Frenzy: "Hey Starscream. This is uh, Jenny and Matilda."

Jenny:" Hi, I'm Jenny, I know you're probably busy, but my daughter just HAD to meet you."

[JENNY extends her hand in a professional manner. STARSCREAM extends his index finger and performs the standard Human/Cybertronian awkward handshake in a manner so practiced it almost isn't awkward. The presumed MATILDA runs forward and grasps STARSCREAMS leg with her whole body, like an excited puppy. LASERBEAK stares into the distance, thinking of VEHICULAR HOMICIDE]

Matilda:"HiStarscreamYoureSoCoolIOrginallyWantedToBeAstrotrainButMomSaidICouldn'tBeABoyTransformerOrDadWouldGetMadSoIPickedYouBecauseYou'reTheCoolestBestFlyerEver!"

[JENNY now seems embarrassed. STARSCREAM does not notice, scanning the crowd for roaming photographers so he can stage an impromptu photo op with this conveniently adorable SMALL CHILD. LASERBEAK is now thinking about LIQUID NITROGEN]

Frenzy: "Heh, even the proto-humans have you clocked."

[STARSCREAM, having located a photographer, is just now listening to the conversation again.]

Starscream: "Clocked as what? Most regal of the Cybertronians? Rightful leader of the Decipticons? Best-Looking in a cape for 28 Light-years?"

[MATILDA giggles, thinking that her idol is playing up his arrogance for her benefit. It would be much less pathetic if that was true.]

[LASERBEAK is now out of his slasher-fugue, looking distressed]

Laserbeak: "Hey Starscream, did you know that human mentors usually heft their brats around on their shoulders? They call them swinebackrides, twenty to sixty female demographic LOVES seeing them."

Starscream: "That sounds like an excellent idea. Jenny, would you and Matilda like a Cybertronian-eye view of the gala?"

[MATILDA's eyes turn into dazzling supernovae of happiness. There is clearly nothing she would like more, ever, in her entire life.]

Jenny: "Well I suppose it would be okay, as long as we go slow."

Starscream: "I promise to treat her as delicately as a thunderbird egg! Prepare for a swinebackride that will shape the rest of your life!"

[LASERBEAK flinches upon hearing the word "egg". STARSCREAM gently scoops up the sparkling child and sets her on his shoulder. STARSCREAM gives A LOOK at his two fellow DECEPTICONS before walking away with a slow and stiff gait, clearly trying to keep the pr booster safe from sudden jostling. JENNY trails anxiously behind, not entirely convinced this is a good idea but clearly too late to stop it.]

Laserbeak: "Horns of Unicron, what is wrong with you!"

Frenzy: "Wrong with me? What'd I do? Starscream's lookin' all cute for the cameras now cause of me!"

Laserbeak: "Not that! Did you actually forget?"

Frenzy: "Forget what?"

[LASERBEAK lets out a sigh, a thing I've decided Cybertronians are biologically capable of doing as a form of heat exchange instead of oxygenation, before opening the LONG-RANGE COMMUNICATION terminal screen-thing in his chest. A RECORDING starts. ARCEE is in the center of the shot. SOUNDWAVE is behind her, off-center and with his arms crossed lending an air of support to her message.]

Arcee: "And if there's only one thing you take away from this, it's that if any of you fuck up Starscream's egg cracking I'm throwing you to the bot-eating snails at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean."

Soundwave: "As head of the Decipticon Inclusivity Enterprise, I will ensure this punishment is administered. I have witnessed these creatures on the Animal Planet, this is a credible threat."

[LASERBEAK closes the LONG-RANGE COMMUNICATION terminal screen-thing in his chest.]

Frenzy: "Ok well so what? You deflected it, right? Problem solved?"

Laserbeak: "Problem not solved rust-for-brains! Starscream gave us A Look. That look means he's gonna dig until he finds out why we were acting weird, and then he's gonna find out because you can't lie worth chromium dust, and then I'm gonna be eaten by snails because I'm in the punishment radius!"

Frenzy: "Ok, rust, how do we get out of this?"

Laserbeak: "I don't know! I'm not dumb enough to get in these messes! What do you do to avoid responsibility for your screwups?"

Frenzy: "I tell Soundwave! But I can't tell Soundwave because he's the one who's gonna feed us to vicious snails!"

Laserbeak: "Making someone else do our work. Yeah, that's good, that could work. But who do we know that's dumb enough to save random people from their own mess but smart enough to emotionally manipulate people?"

[LASERBEAK and FRENZY look directly at each other]

In unison: "Autobots!"

[LASERBEAK opens the LONG-RANGE COMMUNICATION terminal screen-thing in his chest. BUMBLEBEE appears on screen, sitting on a chair in front of Teletraan l. He is dressed as a Dracula, complete with cape. He is rocking the cape better than Starscream.]

Bumblebee:" You've reached the Autobot emergency hotline, this is Bumblebee. Laserbeak, is that you? This line is supposed to be for emergencies only, not crank calls."

FRENZY: "This is an emergency! I need your Autobot therapyspeak-rust or Arcee is gonna feed me to the evil ocean creatures!"

Bumblebee: "Oh she gave you that speech too? Well what exactly did you do?"

[FRENZY begins sobbing, no longer needing to maintain the facade of coherence now that he has a competent authority figure to beg.]

Frenzy: "There was an earth protoform, and she had a costume, and that costume was Starscream, and she picked it because of gender, and I said that even the protoforms know, but Starscream didn't, and then Starscream went away to swineback in front of the cameras, bu the gave us A Look, and I cant lie so when I have to lie Soundwave is gonna feed me to the Snaaaaaaiiillls!"

Bumblebee: "So what I'm hearing is that you haven't broken Starscream's egg, you're just worried you're going to once Starscream gets back to grill you?"

[LASERBEAK and FRENZY synchronize their braincells to nod in unison like the morons they are.]

Bumblebee: "Ok, we have time to fix this. First you need to take a couple deep breaths so you can calm down and think."

[FRENZY refocuses himself, becoming moderately less wet and pathetic.]

Bumblebee: "Ok now we just need to make it so you're prepared for Starscream to talk to you later. Starscream is a paranoid megalomaniac who creates conspiracies for fun, which is why he sees other people's conspiracies everywhere. That's what's making him follow up on this, but it's also how we can get you out of this.

Laserbeak: "How's that exactly?"

Bumblebee: "It's simple. You just need to make a fake secret for Starscream to ruin, so he doesn't keep digging for the real secret."

Laserbeak: "But ball-bearings for brains over here can't lie in the first place. That's why we had to call you."

Bumblebee: "Well this is gonna be the hard part. You need to actually do something nice for Starscream, so it's real. Then Frenzy doesn't have to lie if it's real. If you can make it involves literal eggs but not gender, that's even better. Ties up loose ends."

Laserbeak: "Well we can't get him another Easter bunnysuit. It's moon-cycles till Easter, He'll never believe we're planning in advance."

Bumblebee: "Wait, another? Wait, nevermind, different question, when did you learn about Easter?"

Laserbeak: "You watch enough horror movies you learn all the human holidays. Christmas, Purge Day, Easter."

Bumblebee: "We are going to have to have a conversation about that, but it can wait. What other ideas do you two have?"

Frenzy: "We could, um, get him a ticket to the Neo-New Zealand Biodomes?"

Laserbeak: "Megatron caved on getting our lifetime ban lifted in the peace settlement. He only got it down to a century ban. It's another ninety-four local years till we're allowed in. And the only tickets Starscream would want anyway are hunter's tickets and those are like, 3 times as much dosh."

Frenzy: "Oh yeah. But Starscream does love killing organics, what if we got him a tour in the Third Emu War?"

Laserbeak: "Ugh. The sign up sheet is already full. We'd have to bribe someone to swap."

Bumblebee: "I can chip in a bit for this. Fifteen Energon cubes enough?"

Laserbeak: "With how hard Weirdwolf has been going in on hunting? At least twenty."

Bumblebee: "Fifteen and I won't complain about you skimming the extras."

Laserbeak: "Deal."

Bumblebee: "Now we just have to invent a reason you want Starscream at the Indonesian front lines."

Frenzy: "Haven't you two been fighting that shadow-war over the group Shudder account? You keep trying to watch Chucky movies while he's watching I Saw the TV Glow. Is that anything?"

Bumblebee: "Oh man, you're a Chuckster? Laserbeak, this is great, none of the autobot horror-heads will chuck out with me. I've done the first seven and I'm trying to get the tv show-"

Laserbeak: "Ok we have a plan now we're not friends this conversation never happened byyyyyyyyyyeee."

[LASERBEAK closes the LONG-RANGE COMMUNICATION terminal screen-thing in his chest.]

Frenzy: "Aw man I wanted to keep talking. Soundwave says Me n' Rumble can only chuck out supervised and you don't watch movies with us anymore."

[tohrinha]

Mineral Cup Round 1: Quartz vs Mercury

Could this be the most controversial match-up of round one? The always a bridesmaid, never a MinCup champion icon quartz goes up against infamous, alluring "is it even a mineral" mercury.

https://www.mineralcup.org/2024/vote/r1m11

QUARTZ

The most common single mineral in continental crust, we live on quartz! It may be the most recognized mineral around - but can it make it to the championship?

Name: From German Quarz, ultimately from Proto-Slavic *tvrd-, "hard".

Bling: Rainbows, ombres, inclusions, cat's eyes - you could make a gem exhibit on quartz alone! It carves beautifully, but its natural spikes are the definition of crystal. (And have I mentioned... conchoidal fracture?!)

Uses: In addition to art, quartz crystals are crucial in electronics - it's the key ingredient for silicon wafers, and its piezoelectricity (makes a current under stress) lets watches, radios, and computers keep time. There would be no MinCup without quartz!

Team Lick: Sure! It tastes like nothing.

Parent Géry. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Fatimid ewer, 10th-11th century. Photo by Marie-Lan Nguyen. Public domain.

MERCURY

It's a liquid on Earth, but freezes into a rhombohedral crystal structure. Mineral enough to be in MinCup? Will its mirror shine capture your vote?

Name: From the planet Mercury, which was associated with the metal in medieval alchemy.

Bling: The shine! The beading! The more-liquid-than-water flow!

Uses: Makes liquid-mirror telescopes, electrodes, and is useful for extracting silver and producing chlorine. It had many more uses in the past - in addition to lighthouses and thermometers (and medicine), it's responsible for the discovery of superconductivity!

Team DO NOT Lick! Though liquid mercury isn't well absorbed, mercury vapor will still poison you.

Bionerd. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

Dnn87. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

[mariacallous]

Bublik looks a lot like a bagel, sounds a little like a bagel, but is not quite a bagel. Bublik (pronounced boob-leek) or bubliki (plural), is the Ukrainian version of a yeasted, boiled and rounded bread that dates back to 18th century Odessa. Just like New York or Montreal-style bagels, bubliki came to Ukraine by way of Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants from Poland and Eastern Europe, later becoming popular throughout the former Soviet Union. While bread shaped into rings dates back to the 13th century, written records of the beygl (Yiddish for bagel), date back to 1610 in Krakow, Poland, where bagels were mentioned in Jewish community ordinances. The word bublik comes from the proto-Slavic word boubl, which means swelling or bubble. These delicious rings of bread are also affectionately called bublichki, and there is even a famous Yiddish-Ukrainain song from the 1920’s with this diminutive name.

Popular across the former Soviet Union, bubliki are traditionally served with tea and topped with butter, jam or smetana(sour cream). Compared to bagels, bubliki have a tender crust, are a little sweeter and sometimes have a larger hole in their center. The chewiness of the bublik varies by baker, but they’re most often lighter than their New York counterparts. While bagels are made with a simple dough of yeasted flour and water, bubliki are typically made with an enriched yeasted dough that includes butter, egg and milk. While bagels and bubliki are both boiled in water before being baked (giving them their unmistakable glossy crust), bagels are traditionally boiled in water with barley malt syrup added to it, whereas bubliki are boiled in plain water. In some ways, the flavor of bubliki is closer to a Montreal-style bagel, which is sweetened and boiled with honey. 

In all its forms, bubliki and bagels have made their way into kitchens and bakeries around the world. While it takes time to make bubliki from scratch, you will be rewarded with the incomparable joy of eating a fresh, warm bublik, and your home will be filled with the smell of one of the most comforting Jewish breads.

[bolters-and-rivets]

stop wanting to put your dick in the crust of Europa, the theoretical proto-bacteria swimming around down there won't want to fuck you

[speed-metal-punk]

Been listening to Hellbastard a bit more recently and I'm really loving them a whole lot more. You definitely have to have an appreciation of proto-death and proto-black metal to get where my love is springing from. Cause like the way Hellbastard is basically crusty Hellhammer is not lost on me and really fucks so hard. Truly instrumental in the metallic crust I love today

[zharrdor-kron-archive]

From Stone to Soul: The Earthen and the Birth of the Dwarves

I. The Pulse Beneath the Stone

“They were shaped from the bones of the world to keep it in line. Now they dig for stories older than gods.”

If you have followed my previous transmissions, on the Titan-Forged, their divine architects, and the treacherous corridors of the Keeper vaults, then this next chronicle should seem inevitable. Among those forged by the Titans were a people of quiet strength and deep purpose: the Earthen.

Fashioned from living stone, these beings were designed not for glory or conquest, but stability. They were miners, delvers, and custodians of the world's crust, sculptors of mountains, not myths.

And yet, through ancient fault lines in Titan design, through the mysterious Curse of Flesh, the Earthen would become something new.

They would become Dwarves.

II. Three Rings in the Deep

I. Origins: Sculpted by Order, Anchored in Stone

The Earthen were among the first of the Titan-Forged, constructs imbued with will, not blood. Created in facilities like Uldaman and Ulduar, they were built to perform immense geologic tasks: stabilizing tectonic plates, excavating arcane materials, and maintaining planetary integrity.

Their bodies were composed of stone, their voices a rumble in the deep, and their language rich with geomantic resonance. They were not made to fight, but to endure. Unshaken by time, unwearied by depth.

Each Earthen was a living rune, a spell of constancy woven into the crust of Azeroth.

But the world would not allow them to remain unchanged.

II. Transformation: The Curse of Flesh and the First Fractures

At some point in the distant past, the constructs of the Titans began to change. A mysterious affliction, now called the Curse of Flesh, spread through the Titan-Forged. Whether it was engineered by the Old Gods, an unintended consequence of world-soul exposure, or a fail-safe left by a more rebellious mind, remains disputed.

The result, however, is not: the Earthen began to soften.

Their stone became skin.

Their minds developed emotion.

Their connection to the Titans grew dimmer, and their connection to the world itself grew stronger.

They began to dream, to create for beauty, not utility. They carved not just tunnels, but songs and sagas. They built not just vaults, but halls of mead and memory.

Thus were born the first Dwarves, once tools of order, now a people of fire, ale, and stubborn myth.

The Keepers, unsure whether to halt or study this change, largely abandoned the Earthen projects. Uldaman was sealed. The archives closed.

But the Dwarves would not forget.

III. Legacy: The Clans and the Echo of Stone

From the ancient proto-dwarves would arise the three primary clans in which we shall focus on this post, others shall have their time:

Bronzebeard: Hardy, noble-hearted delvers, proud of their history and keepers of Ironforge.

Wildhammer: Sky-dwellers and gryphon riders, shamanic and free-spirited.

Dark Iron: Cursed, ambitious, and once enslaved by fire, yet now forging a future in flame.

Though distinct, all bear echoes of their stony ancestors: the desire to dig deeper, the reverence for craft, the enduring suspicion of gods.

The Earthen still exist in vaults like Uldaman or the more recently discovered Khaz Algar, preserved as relics, some asleep, some broken, some awakened with ancient warnings. But the Dwarves live on, flesh-bound and fire-souled, seeking their own answers in the bones of the world they once helped shape.

III. Where the Stone Learns to Sing

The tale of the Earthen is a tale of redefinition. From constructs to creatures. From order to ancestry.

They are proof that even stone may dream, and that even the plans of Titans may fracture into freedom.

Where once they obeyed design, now they choose their own legends. And in those warm, mead-slicked halls beneath the mountains, you’ll find the echoes of the Titans rewritten into song.

If the League of E.V.I.L. seeks to awaken ancient technologies or bend forgotten vaults to new purposes, it would be wise to study dwarves. For in their blood runs the map to the Titan vaults, and in their songs, the keys to what was buried.

Until the next dig unearths something better left unfound,

—Zharrdor Kron, Loremaster of the League of E.V.I.L.

[thecrimsonthrone]

Journal Entry 24 - Scientific Briefing - Xenobiological Index: Achernar III

Prepared by: Office of the Pale Chorus | Overseer: Saedra Vireth Date: 2200.10.20 Classification: Tier 2 Biologicals (Sapience Unconfirmed) Transmission Type: Closed-circuit neural archive capsule Recipients: Ministry of State, Council Science Dossier Register, Sanguinarch Internal Review

🌐 PLANET PROFILE: ACHERNAR III

Biome: Ice Shelf World with deep oceanic tectonics

Atmosphere: Oxygen-thin, sulfur-heavy trace elements

Climate Variance: High – persistent magnetic storms and geothermal subpolar belts

Anomaly Rating: 3.7 – Recurring harmonic field oscillations from subterranean crust pockets

🧬 LIFEFORM OVERVIEW

1. Type-Δ43 “Glassmire Flocks”

Structure: Aeriform fauna with semi-hardened crystalline carapaces; float via magnetic resonance

Behavior: Flocks gather around polar storm lines, modulating tone emissions in fixed hexaphonic sequences

Theory: Possible pre-linguistic signal use — harmonics correlate with atmospheric pressure shifts

2. Type-Θ19 “Root-Striders”

Structure: Multi-limbed, endothermic organisms with chitin-plated torsos and low-center balance

Behavior: Display collective foraging patterns and perimeter marking rituals

Tool Use: Some retrieval of geothermal stones and heat-reactive fungal pods observed

Note: Organizes in triadic familial clusters—hypothesized to indicate proto-societal structure

3. Type-Σ11 “Shadow Spines”

Structure: Deep-cave thermal predators; external nervous sheath with luminous pulses

Predation Tactics: Engages prey using disorienting flashes; seems to feed selectively, skipping easier kills

Anomaly: A few clusters appear to create ‘light tunnels’ with deliberate cave-carving—unknown purpose

🔍 ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS

Subsurface Infra-signatures: Repeating heat distortions suggest powered movement within upper mantle—far below known fauna layers

Hypothesis: Buried relics or possible artificial lifeforms (autonomous, dormant, or concealed)

Echo-Cycle Synchronization: Several observed species sync migration to the rhythm of magnetic wave oscillations

Cultural Analogue: Could imply celestial attunement or pre-ritualized migration

🚨 ACTIONABLE DIRECTIVES

Recommend Priority: Observation Post upon system control

Focus: Vocalizations, psionic residue, thermal construction mapping

Immediate classification status: Watchlist-XenoSentient (Pending)

All current data transmitted to the Codex of Living Echoes and archived beneath the Vault of Harmony

Signature: Saedra Vireth Head of Research, Duskborn, Keeper of the Pale Chorus ☥ “What they do not say may be their loudest truth.”