#Science Amplification

[dollsahoy]

jokes aside, if you ever see a claim that a common, non-science/tech word is derived from an acronym, there's an extremely high chance that claim is wrong

[ianmiller42]

TV Programs: The Three Body Problem

Since many of you, including me, have watched the Netflix show, “The Three-Body Problem”, and since the journal Nature has published an article on it, I thought I should pass on their thoughts to those who do not read Nature, which is, after all, a rather specialized scientific journal, and add some of my own. Quoting from Nature “The story follows five young scientists who studied together at…

[gigglesandfreckles-hp]

OH JILY PROMPTS pleaseeee can you do number 51 (we're so hot) or 56 (baking is a science) ♡♡

from these prompts

They’re on very official, very important Head duties.

If asked to specify exactly what those duties entail or what makes them so very official and important, there would be some hesitation and a fair bit of fumbling, but ultimately, they’d make something up, because it’s well after curfew and the rumours about the Head Boy and Head Girl dating aren’t entirely baseless, but it’s not as if they need to add fuel to the fire.

They are distinctly not taking advantage of the freedom afforded to them by their badges to find new places to fool around.

“It’s this way,” James says, using his grip on her hand to tug her down another hallway. “I think.”

Lily sighs, a mix of exasperation and fondness. “Why didn’t you just bring the map?”

“Because, Evans,” he drawls, “where’s the fun in that?”

“Of course,” she says, rolling her eyes and quickening her pace to match his long strides. “No fun to be had in actually having a destination in mind instead of mindlessly wandering around the castle at half eleven, trying Alohamora on random doors.”

“I’m hearing a lot of complaining from the girl who practically begged me to—” He jiggles another doorknob and curses under his breath before dragging her further down the hall.

“And what if I change my mind before we find an actual spot?”

James comes to an abrupt halt, dropping her hand to turn around. “Lily Evans, you wouldn’t.”

She laughs, the kind that bubbles up and spills out. “No, Potter. I wouldn’t.”

He watches her for another moment, his eyes searching her face for any hint of deceit, before reclaiming her hand, this time threading his fingers through hers, and continues to pull her along the corridor.

And that’s when they hear Mulciber and Avery.

It couldn’t be Dolohov or Snape or anyone with half a brain; no—it had to be fucking Mulciber and Avery. The Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum of Slytherin House.

The issue with it being them is that there’s no reasoning, no common sense, no ‘get back to your common room before we have to dock points.’

It doesn’t mean they don’t try.

“Do you have a pass from a professor, to be out at these hours?” Lily speaks up before James can, because a) it’s usually easier this way and b) one of the lovely things about James Potter is that he never minds being in the background, at least not if it’s her background.

Mulciber sneers at her and Lily immediately knows what’s coming next. She wishes she was still holding James’s hand so she could warn him too, with a small squeeze of ‘don’t freak out, I’m okay, I’m used to it, please don’t freak out, he’s not worth it.’

“Filthy Mudblood bitch.”

Lily has less than a split second to decide whether to try and stop James from raising his own wand or whether to draw her own. In the end, it is a good thing she chooses the latter because Avery fires off a nasty curse that Lily barely manages to deflect toward Mulciber. The howl of pain he releases as he drops to the ground isn’t enviable. The amplification of that howl as James hits him with another hex for good measure makes Lily wince.

They make short work of Avery after that and, barring a quick argument on whether or not to levitate the boys to the Slytherin common room with a signed note and a confetti bow, decide to leave the boys where they are in the halls, petrified for whichever professor happens to be up the earliest.

It isn’t until after they round the corner down the hall that Lily lets herself think about it. Not what Mulciber said because she has spent plenty of time thinking about that—but about them, her and James, and how, well, nice it is to have him at her side in moments like this. Even if he tends to go overboard, like, all the time.

“Potter.”

“Hm?” He doesn’t look up from his task—rebuttoning the cuff of his shirt now that the sleeves are pushed up to his elbows. His forearms flex with the motion, catching her eye. The button is stubborn, apparently, as James deftly twists his fingers around. He uses his shoulder to push his glasses up the bridge of his nose, his brow furrowed in concentration. A light sheen of sweat dots his forehead, but Lily loses sight of it as a wild curl flops down into his eyes.

She smiles appreciatively at the scene. “We’re so hot.”

His head pops up to look at her, amused and curious. “Er…what?”

Lily laughs and stops them in their tracks, gently taking over the task from his fumbling fingers. “Look at us. We’re…” She successfully manages to fasten the button and smiles up at him. “Don’t you ever feel that way? Like, one day, we’ll tell our kids about all the things we got up to and they’ll tell their friends and their friends will be like, shit, your parents were so cool.”

He grins down at her and tucks a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “Our kids, huh?”

She playfully shoves his chest, feeling her cheeks warm. “You know what I mean.”

“I do. I absolutely think our kids are gonna tell stories about their ridiculously fit, Quidditch Captain dad and the sexy, rebel Head Girl—”

“Why are our kids using terms like fit and sexy to describe their parents? That feels problematic.”

“It feels inevitable, actually. I mean,” he leans down, his tone light and teasing against her lips, “have you seen us?”

“Oh, piss off,” she snorts.

His grin widens against her mouth, even as he—finally—kisses her. “We are so hot, Evans,” he murmurs, his lips ghosting over the corner of her smile. “You," and back to her lips again, "are so hot.”

[ravennanightcrown]

Parallax Error: behind the fic

Finally, I’m gonna talk about this fic ➡️ (Parallax Error) and what led to the writing of my admittedly most deranged fic ever. 

Basically, the fic’s foundation is: “What if Danchou was literally a “black hole”?”

And core to that thought is this particular description of a “singularity” being the center of a black hole:

From Britannica (https://www.britannica.com/science/black-hole)

I also spent an ungodly amount of time looking at this artist rendition of a black hole (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anatomy_of_a_Black_Hole.jpg). Among other things. Like browsing Wikipedia, Britannica, and even NASA gallery

Disclaimer: while I did base a lot of these upon science concepts, it was not my goal to be scientifically accurate to the nitty-gritty (after all, at its core, this fic is still rooted in fantasy). Moreover, a lot of these don’t completely or consistently elaborate on a soup concept—basically, I’m just throwing whatever meta bullshit I can think of into the cauldron. Be warned.

(the rest, including my thought process, under the cut!)

I. The Black Hole Theory of Danchou

So, what the fuck exactly am I talking about? 

Hear me out: Danchou is a black hole, and all that entails.

Let me go about the steps of the thought process, as incoherent my brainwaves may be:

I.1. Singularity is the center of a black hole. I.2. Danchou is a singularity.

That which pierces through all timelines, timespace textures thingy. Like an axis

I.3. [zero escape music starts playing] Danchou is the center of a black hole 🡺 [extends that further] Danchou is a black hole---- HEAR ME OUT

Danchou, like a black hole, drags everything in their vicinity into “orbit” (or rather, territory/domain of canonicity); Events™️ keep on happening around Danchou because they just…attract them. And it also happens with characters, who, once they have “interacted” with Danchou (or the Observer, or the “Journal”), are now permanently inscribed in the records of the observer

I.4. The event horizon of a black hole is “a boundary beyond which events cannot affect an outside observer”; ‘nothing that enters a black hole can get out or can be observed from outside the event horizon”; 

I.4.a. More or less, as it is also the namesake of that one tvtropes thing, the event horizon is the point of no return I.4.a.i. Fun tangent: Event Horizon is one of the chapter titles in GBVS (the final chapter of Vanilla actually) I.4.b [Refer to image again] The event horizon is the radius around the Singularity. It is roughly the area or domain from which, once something has entered, it can no longer escape.

[Refer to I.3] If such things keep on happening around Danchou, and characters inevitably get pulled into canon/records against their will, THEN [slams desk, Ace Attorney-style] Danchou’s Event Horizon must be their Field of Vision! [Objection!!!] What about recruitable characters, or fate episodes, in which Danchou was not present?? It does not make sense! [slams desk] It cannot be the Main Character’s—the Singularity’s—field of vision! [AAAAArgh!] But… it cannot be denied! These things happen by chain reaction from past-and-future because the Singularity exists! The Main Character—! (Case in point: The «Amplification Factor» passive skill of the Singularity! [Screeching] That is not relevant to the current argument!) [browsing papers] but the previous point still stands. It is not always the case that Danchou is present! Therefore— [Hold it!!!] Consider, what if it’s not the character “Danchou” themself? What if it was…someone else? Someone that still, by some definition, is the Main Character? [Argh!] You can’t possibly mean?? [Smug face] The Singularity = the Main Character = Danchou = The Player = God … And we know by now that multiple timelines exist, and some characters, notably, Danchou, can observe multiple timelines. You «You» must be seeing this, too. There is one person—nay, ONE AND MANY—who can see Everything regardless of said event’s or character’s non-existent interaction with Danchou at any given time: [POINTS FINGERS] THE PLAYER!

I.4.d. Yep. The Player is the Absolute Observer. And then apply the transitivity property to arrive at Danchou again. Further support that by proposing a Version of Danchou that has seen everything.

I.4.e. PROFIT: Danchou has an Event Horizon. It’s the…undefined yet existing field in which the Observer sees. Once seen, observed, there is no escape— Welcome to Danchou’s realm of canonicity, even if you are a failed timeline I.4.e.i. [Tangent of Seofon’t and nonexistent fantasies having been tainted by the essence of canonicity by the voyeuristic gaze of The Player/God/Absolute Observer]

I.5. Some black holes are born from the collapse of stars at the end of their stellar evolution. Inescapable gravity born out of star expending its fuel, provided there’s enough mass. What if…that mass is equivalent to «data records»? I.5.i. [Insert lore-related soup theory as tangent] Stars «Astrals» are meant to become singularities at the end of their life cycle. But since the stars have chosen stagnation, they have forsaken evolution. And therefore cannot become singularities… or gods.  I.5.a. So, that perhaps becomes circular as an argument if I claim that «We» amass data records by being the Singularity, because then, where would the mass needed to precipitate collapse «Ascension» come from?  I.5.a.i. I posit, time-space convergence.

I.5.a.i.1. Key assumption: Singularity 🡺= God I.5.a.i.2. The Boundary is where all of time converges. So… it’s a circle. Or a catbox [vomiting soup] HEAR ME OUT. The Egg Short Story.

Also, there was something a friend said about the jp of “Boundary” written in kanji I think, that could also be read as “horizon”. And then the implications, of the unreachable horizon (can be seen, but moves farther away the closer you get). Also…horizon as boundary between sea-and-sky. Much to think about.

I.6. Black holes are like, nothingness. Vibes-wise. And what gets born out of nothingness? Something. 

I.6.a. I don’t know exactly what I’m getting at here but “void 🡺 world” I.6.b. God creating Something.

Tangent:

It’s kinda interesting how the Eternals-related skins have Zenith and Azimuth there, yeah?

So yeah, that should be it for Part 1. Next, I would go on to very short overviews of 2 concepts I used for the fic, before going into dissecting the thought process of the Fic itself.

II. The Observer (condensed)

Now I talk about…  The Observer.

Yes, this part is very Very important.

The Observer is «You». And «You» are The Player, The Main Character, Danchou, God.

You…observe. LMAO. But seriously, yeah.

To observe is to be observed. To be observed is to be “real”. To observe is to make something “real”.

[insert The Catbox] The moment in which all possibilities can coexist, when the truth is unobserved.

[insert lore-related theory: Time-Space Dimensional Bubbles] I seriously theorize that the Sky and Astral realms overlap like “bubbles”. Imagine, 3D Venn Diagram 🤣

This is how I tried to reason out the inconsistency of Lucifer being described as in the Astral Realm in 10th anni, and Canaan being in the Sky Realm. What if both are true in that… in terms of “absolute” location coordinates(?) they are in the same place, but relatively speaking, it can be a place in the Sky Realm, or a place in the Astral Realm. 

This theory is not exactly related to the fic, but the idea of dimensional/reality coexistence does.

[choking on soup 🍲]

If you are God, and you are the Absolute Observer…then your dreams and fantasy are not that different from reality «canon». You Create The World.

III. Parallax Error (condensed)

The error caused by parallax—"a displacement or difference in the apparent position of an object viewed along two different lines of sight.”

Basically, an object’s apparent position shifts depending on from where it is observed. 

For the fic itself, I more or less used this concept to present the same Object as different things, simultaneously, by describing it as a different thing in separate instances. 

—But of course, with my own bullshit about The Absolute Observer being “the observed” in multiple instances. [Refer to The Egg about being multiple existences at once]

IV. The Fic (Parallax Error)

Here we goooo! Gonna divide this part into sections rather than through process chronology to be more coherent:

IV.A. Core Concept

IV.A.a. Inspiration (in the correct direction? I cannot say)

I was very much inspired by Hellstar Remina (Junji Ito).

Special mention to Soup (Umineko, Zero Escape, Sanhora, among others).

[…] the subject's gaze is always already inscribed into the perceived object itself, in the guise of its "blind spot", that which is "in the object more than the object itself", the point from which the object itself returns the gaze. "Sure the picture is in my eye, but I am also in the picture" […]

IV.A.b. The Plot

IV.A.b.i. Setting

Modern AU – Basically, I have been juggling many modern AUs in my head for a while now (with a substantially larger cast and a lighter tone). And then it just, clicked.

Astronomy – Part of the soup package. The concept was already astronomy, might as well incorporate that into the setting.

IV.A.b.ii. The ‘“Plot”’

IV.A.b.ii.1. Modern AU Danchou, but it’s not actually a Modern AU divorced from canon—this “Modern AU” Danchou is still very much the Singularity of Granblue. To cut to the chase, the protagonist Gran and/or Djeeta, is the same Entity, and is also God.

IV.A.b.ii.1.a. The characters Gran and Djeeta do Not Know they are God. That’s why the “timeline” of the fic begins with the «birth» of God aka, the discovery of a black hole or singularity, and ends with the «death» of Gran/Djeeta 🡺 «awakening» of God from their (humansona’s) dream IV.A.b.ii.1.a.i. To be specific, to align with the type of Singularity they are, their domain of authority as God is “acceleration of evolution”. This is also why the polar star could “speedrun” stellar evolution in the “dreamworlds” or Gran and Djeeta’s «Reality». And why the humansonas (God’s self-inserts) hunger for knowledge, progress 🡺 «Ascension» is inevitable.

IV.A.b.ii.1.b. Gran and Djeeta are fundamentally the same entity; think of them as separate “humansonas” of The Singularity, being in separate yet coexistent timelines—realities, or «dreams».

IV.A.b.ii.1.c. The Observer and Parallax Error

I will elaborate on this in IV.A.b.iii (The Layers), but basically what I’m going for is that the Entity (Danchou/Singularity/God/Observer/You) both acts as observer and observed object, sometimes, in a circular manner (like looking at a mirror), unknowingly.

[Refer to Illustrative Example in IV.A.b.iv.] What happens if a certain observer is aware that there is a singularity at certain coordinates (and as a corollary, that there is a black hole)? What if said observer is unaware that they already are within the black hole’s event horizon (therefore, already inside the black hole)? After all, no one knows what is actually inside of a black hole. What would be the view from the inside looking out? What if YOU were the cat inside the box?

IV.A.b.ii.2. If you realize XXX, it’s already too late. IV.A.b.ii.3. Singularities are like players in the meta-world.

IV.A.b.ii.4. SIDE: DJEETA

Djeeta’s story is a world with no one else, until she brought a certain star fallen from academic and artistic grace (Faasan) into the realm of existence, (and with it, of sentience and sapience). Because he is a star—an object that is not even a being—he is nonexistent in terms of being a creature; Djeeta’s fascination. It is his insistence of being someone who should not Exist and the unignorable incongruent state of affairs (truth of the world) that eventually shatters her worldview «Lie».

No one else exists in this world…but there sure is another character that is referred to that isn’t a star 😉

The redacted letters and choice to name Faa as Lucifaa 😉 (This is not the character I refer to in the previous statement tee-hee)

IV.A.b.ii.5. SIDE: GRAN

Gran’s story is that of a world filled with other people, all of which slowly disappear from existence as he himself forgets them in pursuit of the «Truth» through his astronomy research. All relationships lose value when weighed against The Self «God». And if something is forgotten, unobserved, by God…does it really exist?

Who better to warn of reaching The Truth «Divinity» than a certain blond man?

And yes, the incomplete names, or the letters that are lost were all 😉

IV.A.b.ii.6. Meet me halfway, me. IV.A.b.ii.7. The «Observer» desires to be observed, recognized, known, seen. By anyone, be it a lover, a companion, or ultimately—a father.

IV.A.b.iii. The Layers (Flavor text, Summaries, Notes)

The layers… These are the nested narratives—or rather, the frames used to nest them. All are true. But some are truer than others.

IV.A.b.iii.1. The Locations feat. Non-location Observers [Refer to Illustrative Example in IV.1.2.4 for actual placements]

Here we have the observers 🡺 the observed:

Event Horizon Observatory 🡺 God >The realm of the Narrative. That which proclaims God.

Lartcen Sixa Aronomiclast Strooverbay 🡺 The Sky Realm >I had a hard time combing through all moonspeak in canon to make up my own take for words without official en moonspeak. I’m quite proud of the moonspeak hehe.

Inter-Skydom Astronomical Union Observatory 🡺 The polar star GRDJ ▉0000+0000 >In-universe observatory.

International Space Station Roving Observatory (Ceres Outpost) 🡺 The planet Earth >Our world as we know it.

Djeeta 🡺LC▉ 00Ø𝜝

Gran 🡺 all named characters

God 🡺 Reality >[MSQ Chapter 129-4] A god is the definition of reality. To defy a god is to defy the world itself. 

YOU «the girl reading this» 🡺 The fic and all its layers

YOU 🡸 = 🡺 YOU

IV.A.b.iii.2. The Dates

February 29, 2017 🡺 a date that does not exist. But… it should precede March 1, 2017

The passage of time up to 2019 via nonexistent dates 🡺 all of time converges in the Boundary

February 29, 2019, 23:58 🡺 It’s also a fun coincidence that 000 first dropped on February 28, 2019

March 1, 2017 🡺 The Birth of the Singularity «What Makes the Sky Blue» This really is a lovely coincidence. I was taken aback when I saw it while researching. Earlier iterations picked February 29 of various years (2014 for Granblue going live, 2017 for “singularity” mention), ending at a proper leap year but you know how revision goes. I came across this more fun information.

IV.A.b.iii.3. High Concept: I wanted to simulate the idea of the story changing depending on how you look at it. In this case, the hovering will change the SIDE shown. Can also be toggled via clicking for accessibility. 

The texts hidden under “readmores”, and the hyperlinks/urls were to give off the vibe of “If you know where to look—"

Buttons were included to simulate the logs of the Event Horizon Observatory. Yes, that Layer. Also, yes. It could also be nth layer 😉

IV.A.b.iii.4. Illustrative Example of what the Fuck I was trying to do with this fic

I drew this a long while ago to explain my Insanity to my friends and I refuse to edit it to something more legible or comprehensible.

Observer A’s location: The Moon

Observer B’s location: Somewhere from beyond—outside the event horizon (In the fic’s case, Ceres)

Blue Circle: The Planet Earth/Sky Realm

IV.A.c. Musings about Canonicity

IV.A.c.i. Existential Pseudo-math | The (non-exhaustive) set of existential values

Canonicity Coefficient: the value describing “in how many timelines or realities do you exist”?

Canonicity Constant: the fixed value determining how similar “you” will be across iterations 

Canonicity Quotient: The canonicity coefficient divided by the total number of timelines or realities >Possibly correlated with physical proximity to the Absolute Observer

Validity Coefficient: has 2 determinants (a and b); formula still unknown >Does your existence affect the world state? Will it render a canon timeline (be it MSQ or sidestory) non/existent? >Will your existence influence the birth or existence of the Singularity? If you were/weren’t, will the Singularity not come to be? Will they cease to be?

IV.A.c.ii. Danchou and the Singularity have different existential values. IV.A.c.iii. Walder has a canonicity quotient of 1

IV.A.d. Free Will

– What is «God», the «Singularity», but one with a free will that trumps all others? To bend fate, distort probability—

⇊

IV.B. Pairings

IV.B.a. Faajita

Faasan hates Djeeta. Because she made him real. Because of her free will that overrides his own.

The very fact that he hates her, that he feels his free will, his very Selfhood, is violated, picked apart 🡺 more reason to hate her for making him be.

I WROTE FAASAN TO BE LIKE AN UNHAPPY SELKIE BRIDE

Djeeta, confessing her love to Faa: Lucifer was more beautiful than you. You are an imperfect successor, a disappointment. I think we’re soulmates. [Refer to IV.B.c. for more details]

The only attraction Faasan feels toward Djeeta is gravitational.

I just really wanted him to accuse Djeeta of eating stars.

IV.B.b. GranBabu

To be completely honest, the reason why the other pair became Faajita (when it could be any Danchou) is because at the time of conceptualizing this, I was seeing Granbabu fanworks, so I rolled with it.

[verbatim from a discord convo] Bubs: hell yeah if i gain enough muscle (mass) i will become a Singularity (black hole)

Babuchan desires to be an equal, to be of importance. And Gran cannot give him that because he is in pursuit of something Greater. 

IV.B.c. “Faaferu”

[“but Faaferu isn’t tagged?!”] Yes, exactly. Because it isn’t in here. But… it’s also, HERE.

An important aspect to the fic here is at least, for the Faajita SIDE, that Feru is the unseen 3rd “person.” He does not exist in the same plane (physical, existential, narrative) as the characters Lucilius and Djeeta—because he was not incarnated into a humansona. 

The entire time, Faasan is pining after him because they cannot be together. He has been torn away from the realm of non-sentience, and away from his twin/triplet star that is Lucifer.

He woke up one day, incomplete in almost every existential sense of the word.

He misses Feru so so much 🥺

Lucifer is the star mythologized, yet somehow the one who wasn’t incarnated and remained a literal star (because Djeeta was more fascinated with the mythos of Faasan, the Demoted One—being demoted from being The Cool™ Star)

This is because Faasan became an object of interest, like Pluto. [wordvomit] “What if he isn’t a star?” 🡺 What drew Djeeta’s attention.

Faa hated being, but he was at least comforted by the thought of Lucifer being designated as «True» by virtue of him being «False»; however, he still disliked the undisproved possibility of Lucio being the «True» One.

[Special Bonus Feature: FORK where Djeeta incarnates Lucifer against Faa’s wishes]

“We can hold hands now,” Lucifer smiles. “We didn’t have hands back then; also, the Roche Limit didn’t allow us.” Lucifaa is still as a statue, unable to process who is in front of him—in the flesh.

-RAMBLE: END-

[squeakyleftsneaker]

Watching Voltron for the 1st Time: S7 Ep 12-13

Somehow I am still watching, still present, still accounted for. Stumbling across this clusterfuck in the wild? Have a long explanation of how we got here, or if you prefer shorter explanations, I got recommended this by a middle schooler whose respect I very much NEED (so she takes me seriously when I tell her about science), and now I've gotten far enough along that I feel like I have sunk enough cost to NEED to finish it. I make a list of what I like and don't like and then ramble at the end of a run of a few episodes. I have now finished seven fucking seasons of this show. I'M ALMOST DONE FREE MEEEEEEEEEEEE.

Rare! A Good Decision!

Obligatory Shiro eyeliner appreciation comment

Veronica is so pretty and I am so gay

I'm really struggling here guys uhhhhhhhhhhhhh the artists draw earth very pretty our lil marble-y home looks lovely

I am happy Shiro gets to ruin Sendak. Will we explore the fact that he does it with an arm weapon that resembles Sendak? No. But the thought that it might have happened in a world where this show was actually developed with any time at all is nice

I actually really like the Shiro and Sendak fight. Very nice environmental use, very good stakes, solid motivation.

I am also very okay with Keith getting to murk Sendak. "As many times as it takes" and all that. [EDIT since apparently this seemed unclear. I am okay with this because I think Shiro as a character is shown as being very burdened by having been forced to kill BY Sendak. Shiro not having to kill Sendak, to me, in a better show, could be representative of the burden of having to kill being lifted from him at last. idk what to tell you man. That kind of story would speak to me as meaningful]

I have so little nice to say about robeasts but at least they remind me of the fun stuff in OG Voltron.

The new robeast is a great Haggar moment

Self sacrifice is a very poorly handled theme of this show fr but I can theoretically appreciate it

If I had any goodwill left in me for this show I would be like "What a great way to set up season 8 with the Altean in the robeast" but I don't so I will just say in a better show it'd be a good move but I have faith they'll bungle it.

Typical. A Bad Decision.

I cannot believe this fucking launch sequence has to be so long every time bro I can't take it anymore

The technobabble in this show bro I "Particle emission amplification" I can't do this anymore let's cross beams like in Ghostbusters I am PHYSICALLY tired as a result of this shit. The Death Star never explained to me how it worked with made up science words. The Death Star just murked a planet on camera and we comprehended the threat. SEE MY POINT VOLTRON????

In all honesty the second you have to explain battle strategy to your viewers mid-fight scene rather than just letting the fight play out you've failed to make it work.

STOP EXPLAINING EVERYTHING WITH YOUR FAKE MADE UP SCIENCE OMFG YOU DON'T NEED TO EXPLAIN YOU JUST NEED TO D O THINGS IK YOU'RE ALLERGIC TO THAT

This air fight really has so many moving parts that were just. Not adequately planned for and. Well. Usually I say the fights are a strength of this show. This certainly was not the case here. AND THIS IS A SEASON FINALE???

We've reached a point where not a single paladin feels like even their little trope selves.

I am OKAY with Keith killing Sendak because I think in a better show Shiro's original "I need Sendak dead" moment would've been a big thing for him (it makes sense. He lost his head back in season 1 and launched him into space. Having him NOT have to kill Sendak now after being forced to kill in the arena by Sendak? Okay!) but this moment is just robbed of ANY of that because. Well. WELL. THE SHOW NEVER EXPLORES ANY OF THAT. SO. YAY SENDAK DEAD IG BUT IT MEANS NOTHING NOW

I also think really missed opportunity to have that mean something in that we haven't seen Keith and Shiro really speak AT ALL since Shiro's mind controlled clone tried to murder Keith and Keith broke him free and then Keith had Shiro's dead consciousness transfered to the clone body like what even are they to each other now. Show has Keith say they're brothers, then they don't act like siblings or really ANYTHING??? And now I'm supposed to think Keith murking Sendak matters NOT COMPARED TO ANYTHING ELSE HE'S DONE AND CERTAINLY NOT TO THEIR RELATIONSHIP WHICH DOESN'T EXIST THIS SEASON

Everything in this show becomes a giant mecha inevitably and I think this is modestly lame and uncreative

For the record I predicted the Atlas becoming a giant mecha a few episodes ago and I still think it's kind of lame

The IDGAF Atlas truly does nothing for me I am NOT moved

Self sacrifice is a very poorly handled theme of this show and practically it pisses me off that the show does nothing to really drive home how significant it is. With the blades that die, with Keith pulling that move at Naxela, with Shiro, with the paladins now, it goes on. If you want to examine self sacrifice but you're unwilling to look at what it does to people, if you're unwilling to look at people's relationships and the love that DRIVES people to do that, then you shouldn't! There is no self sacrifice without someone to sacrifice yourself FOR.

Bro what is Axca doing here CAN WE NOT HAVE THAT POOR GIRLIE EXIST OUTSIDE OF THE CONTEXT OF SOME FUCKING MAN FIRST IT WAS LOTOR NOW IT'S KEITH ISTG SHE IS NOT A PERSON TO THESE WRITERS I AM SO MAD FR

I finished this season and I feel nothing at all! Wow! Here's the thing right. This show has a lot of potential tucked away in a soup of bad decisions and a supremely rushed development. I WANT to appreciate what could've been.

But that also feels like appreciating something that is entirely constructed. Yeah, if there'd been a lot of things going differently this show could've been good. If my mom had balls she'd be my dad, if you will. I can't appreciate what's not there. I just. Man! Plenty of things have pretty good concepts. If the actual execution isn't there behind it, there's nothing. Most sci fi has a fun concept. I mean come on, "What if some people got shot into space and there were ALIENS and GIANT ROBOTS" is really hard to make seem boring as an idea. So like. When I mention good ideas being in this show as the only positive that's like... just the fact that the genre conventions are FUN.

I get it man. I get that making a whole animated show in under three years is an impossible task. WHICH. BY THE WAY. IS WHY YOU SHOULDN'T DO IT! It's just. Unthinkable to me that anyone thought this was a good idea. When I am done with this show and therefore unafraid of spoilers/fandom interpretation leakage into my interpretation of the text, I am going to seek out interviews and explanations with showrunners because it is BAFFLING to me that anyone thought this timeline was a good idea.

I've said before that the story feels like it's just moving characters from A to B to C without much thought as to the journey. The meat on the bones. The depth to the story. And that kind of. HAPPENS with first drafts. It does! And you can see the first draft traces all over the show– characters suddenly changing in characterization with very little explanation (cough Lance and Allura and Keith) (Lance's characterization is all over the damn map! That's because they probably MEANT for him to have a pretty significant development as the audience's surrogate, but they just. Did not have time to write the in-betweens) (Allura just doesn't get nailed down at ALL and especially the second they throw Lotor in they forget about anything they had established about her) (And Keith is. Well. The fucking 180 they did on him to the point where he is now. Boring. Without showing us anything)

The plot itself has SO MANY significant moments happening offscreen, or in exposition dumps, or in flashbacks to things we didn't see! There's threads brought up and abandoned (the Blade of Marmora is being hunted down, the fact that Lotor made Voltron his representative to the Galra empire and that's never addressed, hell even Shiro's time as the arena champion!) that would also probably get worked out and refined WITH TIME.

There's also a really spectacular amount of gays that got buried this season. Which. Uh. Makes me a lil uncomfortable! Ezor and Zethrid our space lesbians, fucking Adam. Hell even Shiro himself if you really want to nitpick lmfao. No gay left unburied! There's characters that they just have no clue what to do with (Acxa) that are likely remnants of some plan that never came to fruition.

This show is underbaked! It didn't finish marinating before they threw it in the oven and it CERTAINLY didn't finish cooking in the oven. You can dress it up any which way you want, it doesn't WORK.

And that's a shame because there's a lot of talent on the show! I've spoken before about how great the performances are, how beautiful the art is, and when the writers have something substantial they've written, it's really really lovely (the Keith and Shiro fight and in general their development through the first six seasons is excellent and has subsequently just been lost in the season 7 shuffle) (I really loved Allura and the Balmera as well). But there's just SO MUCH that doesn't have any development.

It's a children's show (or at a minimum geared to middle/very early high schoolers) and they've got characters KILLING other characters and that's never explored! I don't understand how this came to be! Main characters killing other characters on screen in ANY work of fiction, even those for adults, is typically treated with gravity!

There is also how poorly this show handles race which..... I think is also something that would've benefitted from Further Marination Before Attempting To Finish It Off. All of the things I've mentioned about it in prior posts are not in and of themselves inherently problematic if they are handled with some sort of grace.

I do not think this draft of Voltron possessed much grace.

Ultimately the themes of this show just. Are lacking in every way. What is the point of this show? Self sacrifice? In some sense? But that's certainly not explored. To show us absolute power corrupts absolutely? It doesn't! Not in canon! Oppression and colonization are bad? Certainly not a narratively challenged idea in the text!

Ultimately I think the only thing this show successfully says is "Hey isn't space pretty? Isn't it fun to draw bigass robot lion spaceships? Isn't this fight cool?" Which. I think is kind of a shame because of how much the show brings up and either fails to address or just. Reinforces (again, the symbol of peace in this universe is a weapon)

None of the characters are friends, the few that have meaningful relationships are just kind of dropped or forgotten about, the characters don't feel like themselves. I feel like they're all just dolls being moved around. An empty husk of a figure so you can choose your favorite color and a toy they pilot and pretend YOU are your favorite trope, buy it now!

And maybe I was the real clown to hope for more than that when that's what this show was about all the way back in its first iteration, but I don't feel like it's my fault when the openings of this show promised so much, only to deliver on none of it.

ANYWAYYYYYYYYy uhhhhh idk I do have so many fucking thoughts as a result of this show so send me asks DM me do whatever if you wish to access more of them bc I feel like my brain is going to explode like there is so much about this show in it that is. Giving me great distress.

PS: I’m editing this to add that if you don’t get where I’m coming from with something, you can always ask! I’ll clarify, we can discuss it. But I really would appreciate if you come into it in, yknow, good faith given the fact that I am a person YOU DONT KNOW and assuming that you have a better picture of what I mean about something than I do is kinda unfair to me.

[fondfamilies]

thinking about reid coming up with more & more 'out-there' ideas on cases, bordering on conspiracy theories, taking academic theoretical & impractical theories about sciences & the universe to their absolute extremes, headaches getting worse, eye sensitivity, waking up earlier & earlier until he's functioning on sporadic naps, more coffee & sugar, losing time. reid having nightmares where the aphasia from 'amplification' is happening again, except he's awake. shots of hotch frowning at him when he's not looking, emily being startled when he talks about a theory he's come up with on why his headaches are happening (something in the government building air, something about the screens & the cases). john nash parallels, a genius brain just directed at the wrong ideas - why did gideon hire him to work for the government? so they can keep tabs on him? to cause these headaches, make him ill, neutralise his brain as a potential threat? what if this particular unsub they're calling delusional is right? etc. getting on the subway to go to work & realising he's being followed, spending the day pacing the city instead, looking over his shoulder. slow deterioration (which i kinda hoped they were going to show with all the headaches but i guess canon psychotic main character rep might be unrealistic to want while keeping him on the team. but again, john nash still taught post-diagnosis & treatment. he could be an unofficial agent, a teacher they take on cases as an in-person consultant, the director side-eyeing how he's on nearly every case. psychotic disorders are degenerative yeah but it can be a lot slower/less damaging with good treatment meaning fewer episodes).

[exsanguidus]

Controversial opinion; I think Ascended Astarion is the true Astarion. In DnD lore, vampirism amplifies a person's traits for whoever they are at the time they become a true vampire. A Paladin wanting to save people will end up ruling a city with an iron fist to keep people safe. A mage wanting to heal those they love will hurt everyone else to heal them. Astarion was on a journey with Tav - one from being controlled, owned, and tortured to being free, curious, and even powerful. Becoming a full vampire and ascending just amplified that. It forced a self-actualization, not a descent into villainy. I think Ascended Astarion is cannon Astarion. He will always be a vampire, and vampires in DnD are always the amplification of a true self. Without ascention, he is still malleable - but I don't think its what he wants. He wants to be powerful (protected by his own power too - his power being a means to self-preservation), he wants to be loved, seen, and free. Free of hunger, free to walk in the sun, free of Cazador. All these things are true regardless of the path you choose. But, they are all only attainable through ascension. When you ascend Astarion - he gets everything he wants and becomes who he truly is.

I'm going to start this with a disclaimer:

I work in the mental health field professionally and majored in Social & Behavioral Science, which is partly why I felt drawn to Astarion as a sort of case study. Characters rooted in trauma are interesting to me and I enjoy picking them apart to judge how real it feels. I utilize my educational and professional background to essentially guide how I write Astarion on this account.

That said, despite me being a professional in the field, all of what I have to say is my personal opinion and interpretation of Astarion's character based on how I interpret the material Larian gave us and the material that can be found in DND lore. Even in real life, things have variation and not all mental health struggles (getting over trauma is part of mental health) present the exact same way. There are theories that exist to try and explain some trends in mental health studies, psychology, and sociology, but again they're called theories for a reason.

Now, my response to this question will be under the cut and will include spoilers.

I know what lore in particular you're referencing, anon, because I've been going back to it a lot ever since I opened this account.

Astarion very much has an insecure attachment style born from his abuse at Cazador's hands. Specifically, an anxious-avoidant attachment type that leans more towards avoidant when he's first met and then begins to swing more towards anxious as he begins to get closer to Tav and the other companions.

Anxious-avoidant attachment types (also known as the “fearful or disorganized type”) bring together the worst of both worlds. Anxious-avoidants are not only afraid of intimacy and commitment, but they distrust and lash out emotionally at anyone who tries to get close to them. Anxious-avoidants often spend much of their time alone and miserable, or in abusive or dysfunctional relationships. Anxious-avoidants are low in confidence and less likely to express emotions, preferring to suppress them. However, they can have intense emotional outbursts when under stress. They also don’t tend to seek help when in need due to a distrust of others. This sucks because they are also incapable of sorting through their own issues. Anxious-avoidants really get the worst of both worlds. They avoid intimacy not because they prefer to be alone like avoidants. Rather, they avoid intimacy because they are so terrified of its potential to hurt them (Mark Manson, Attachment Styles and How They Affect Your Relationships).

Typically, most studies of Attachment Theory focus on the relationship of parents-children or romantic partners, but it can also be applied to any significant relationship someone has in their lifetime. Attachment styles thus are capable of changing based on new relationship experiences.

If you end up giving him the "good" ending where he denies the Ascension, it's implied in his final dialogue that he's actively working towards having a secure attachment type due to the influences of his fellow worm-afflicted associates - particularly Tav.

I think that it's important to also note that, even if Tav doesn't romantically connect with Astarion, he shows hints of desperately wanting someone to care for him, support him, and love him. He does want to know what sex would be like as something other than a tool, and especially what it would be like to actually want to have it just for the pure sake of enjoying having it.

You have to understand that Astarion doesn't even understand the concept of casual sex or friends with benefits. All those times he had to seduce people for Cazador was not casual sex or a friends with benefits situation. All of them were transactions with a means to an end. He got nothing out of seducing those victims besides the possibility of not incurring Cazador's wrath that night - but even then, there was still a possibility because Cazador was an abuser.

Abusers are incapable of providing genuine safety, but can manipulate their victims into believing an illusion of safety. Often times, they manipulate their victims into this by using phrases like "you made me do this by being disobedient", "it wouldn't come to this if you just did what you were told", and then weaponizing basic needs such as shelter, food, and social interaction. The bare minimum becomes something the victim is expected to be grateful for and viewed as a favor, which means anything beyond the bare minimum is expected to be viewed as a theatrical showing of care and love.

In game, Tav has the chance to hear Astarion tell the story of how Cazador turned him. He basically states that he got attacked by a mob due to a ruling he handed down when he was magistrate and then Cazador saved him and offered him immortality. It can be inferred that in his pre-vampiric days, Astarion had no idea that Cazador was abusive to his spawn.

This is likely because it seems that Cazador is careful about his public image. He doesn't allow his spawn to drink from humans, very likely not just as a means to further oppress them and dampen their potential power they could get from drinking people's blood, but also as a way to ensure there's not just a bunch of people out in the city being bitten and left alive to tell the story - or left dead on the street suspiciously.

He has his spawn seduce and lure people, particularly lower class people that would be harder for general society to realize is missing or just that he knows people who could actually challenge him wouldn't care for (you learn that reading some of the books and notes in Szarr Palace). The only exception to this is the kidnapping of Gur children, but even then it seems to fit his MO as it seems Gur are considered somewhat outcasts from the rest of Baldurian society due to their cultural differences.

It should also be noted that he himself doesn't do these seductions or kidnappings. He specifically chooses spawn to be his lackeys and that's likely so, if shit hits the fan and the spawn gets caught, he has deniability since he wasn't there. It's methodical and thought out to keep as many eyes away from him so he can still obtain what he wants and keep sailing under the radar.

Cazador is this methodical and purposeful as a result of his own trauma, which we learn about from the skull of his master in the dungeon of Szaar Palace. There's one interaction in particular with the skull in which Tav can learn that, at one point, Cazador attempted to rebel and usurp his master. Cazador failed and his master punished him via impalement. Not because Cazador had the audacity to try and usurp him, but because Cazador tried and failed. Cazador's master punished Cazador via torture because his master was disgusted by the fact that his spawn was too weak to succeed in such a plot.

Which brings me to my next point... it's not uncommon for victims of abuse to later become abusers. Hence the term Cycle of Abuse exists. Many abusers who were once victims often have the mentality of either "I'm not nearly as bad as my abuser was, they should be grateful I care enough to not be so bad" or "I survived and it made me tougher, they need to suck it up and let it help them build character" or both. They often fail to view their abuse as abuse and fail to recognize how their experience as abuse victims contributes into making them toxic and abusive to others.

There's many peer-reviewed scholarly articles you can find about the cycle of abuse, but one I particularly find useful is Editorial: Dissociation, and cycles of abuse across generations by David P.H. Jones. It talks specifically about parents and children, but I believe some of the general points made can be applied to Cazador and his spawn, as he crafts a very family-like setting that can be seen in the way that his spawn refer to one another as brothers and sisters.

This would thus make him the father figure, a role exponentially made important by the fact he denies his spawn education on things that could serve to give them ideas or the ability to leave him (for example, Astarion mentions that none of the spawn were permitted to learn about the language of the various symbols around the palace) and he consistently chooses his Golden Children (Favored Spawns) as a means of providing more false security. Do what he says, when he says, exactly how he says and don't complain then you will have benefits. You will be Favored, and to have his favor is the highest honor you could achieve.

Torture is clearly presented as Cazador's primary go-to for discipline. Research has also concluded that trauma has a way of affecting the brain and memories.

Trauma can prevent information (like words, images, sounds, etc.) from different parts of the brain from combining to make a semantic memory. The temporal lobe and inferior parietal cortex collect information from different brain areas to create semantic memory (The National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine).

Astarion mentions a few times in-game that he can barely remember his life before Cazador, if at all, and a huge part of that is likely because of all the trauma Cazador inflicted upon him that exacerbated the natural occurrence of memory loss from aging (if vampires experience natural memory loss from aging, that is). This is most likely true for all of Cazador's spawn.

I say all this as a set up to truly answering you, anon, specifically where you say: "from being controlled, owned, and tortured to being free, curious, and even powerful. Becoming a full vampire and ascending just amplified that. It forced a self-actualization, not a descent into villainy."

I can argue that Astarion did not feel free up until after a decision to Ascend or not was made. And I argue that stance due to some dialogue he can have with Tav here he basically states that the power Ascension could guarantee that no one, even someone after Cazador is dead, could ever come in to oppress and hurt him again. Even with Cazador dead, he has such an intense fear of being enslaved and used that he turns to catastrophic thoughts as justification to why he needs to Ascend.

Catastrophic thinking is a cognitive distortion that occurs when people have a hard time weighing the likelihood of certain outcomes and believe that terrible or catastrophic outcomes—which are highly unlikely—become, in one’s mind, salient and extremely likely. (Tom Zaubler, MD, MPH).

Aside from the Gur, whom Astarion can manage to evade and even kill perfectly fine as just a spawn, we're not presented with any hints of another big bad in the vampire world that could possibly want Astarion. As such, there's not really any tangible threat, but rather a perceived threat that he believes is destined to darken his doorstep at any time.

His catastrophic thinking is a trauma response. His belief that he needs to be the most powerful being in the room as a way to be truly free is a trauma response. Cazador broke him down emotionally, mentally, physically, and sexually to make him believe that he was weak and trapped. Furthermore, that he remained trapped because he was too weak to do anything about it.

You see how this goes full circle into how Cazador's master punished Cazador for not being able to successfully usurp him? It places blame on the victim, allowing shame and helplessness to root that the abuser can manipulate. We know that Astarion definitely feels shame because he tells Tav that. For most of his dialogue until the boss fight, he's constantly bringing up that he did what Cazador wanted and acted obedient because he had no choice.

This is true, he had to act in self-preservation to survive and unfortunately that meant he had to be subservient. A few dialogue choices you can have your Tav pick can challenge Astarion and say he could have still tried, to which he'll rightfully tell Tav that Tav has no right to judge him for the choices he made to survive.

When Astarion encounters Sebastian in the dungeon, its made pretty obvious how much guilt and shame he truly feels. Furthermore, that for all Astarion's protesting and exclaiming that no one has the right to judge him, a part of him did believe that he didn't do enough to try and escape enslavement. A part of himself blamed himself and believed he allowed himself to be abused when, in reality, he was put in a horrible situation with very limited options. He did the best he could in the moment, with what information he had in those moments.

I also want to argue that who Astarion is when we meet him isn't his true self. It's who he had to become in order to survive Cazador. Astarion doesn't even know who his true self is because he didn't have the opportunity to explore his own likes and preferences. Cazador molded all of his spawn because he had a specific purpose for them.

Not only that, but since Cazador would have to more directly deal with these spawn since he used them as lackies, he also would have molded them to behave in ways to his preference so that he wouldn't find their presence unbearable and feel inclined to murder them out of annoyance. This is also where the Favored Spawn being separated and set on a pedestal comes into play. Those who could please him and play to his wants and needs had better benefits. If all of the spawn are acting in self-preservation, they would want to be favored and thus would want to adapt themselves to things Cazador liked and approved of.

This would mean learning to be cruel to those less fortunate and not doing anything as charity. This is the reason why Astarion approves of some questionable decisions Tav can make. Astarion learned his ideals and morality from Cazador because he had to so he could know how to please Cazador and stay in his master's good graces. After a while, even if you started off disagreeing, forcing yourself to act a certain way can become a habit that sticks with you. You convince yourself to enjoy it too so it's easier to swallow.

Astarion craves power because he knows that power is the quickest, easiest, and - what he believes - most effective way to prevent him from having to use that method ever again. It's logical to want power to solve that.

You said in your ask: "He wants to be powerful (protected by his own power too - his power being a means to self-preservation), he wants to be loved, seen, and free. Free of hunger, free to walk in the sun, free of Cazador. All these things are true regardless of the path you choose. But, they are all only attainable through ascension. When you ascend Astarion - he gets everything he wants and becomes who he truly is."

In the most literal of terms, yes, Ascension gives him all of those. However, since the basis of him believing he needs power to be free is rooted in fear, that's not actually really freedom. That is still his fear ruling over him.

There's a stark difference in what someone wants versus what they need. He wants power, to be seen, to be loved, and to be free. What he actually needs is security, stability, support, consistency, empathy, and autonomy. The things he wants is what he believes will solve the empty cups of what he needs, and he believes that because the only example he had on how to act to get what you want - until the events of the game - was Cazador. He literally had no other example of how to get your needs met except through selfishness, cruelty, force, manipulation, and abuse.

Again, I reiterate. The Astarion we first meet is not Astarion's true nature. Astarion's true nature was corrupted by his abuse from Cazador and the subsequent trauma that followed. If it had been his true nature, he would have happily been Cazador's subject because their true natures would have been in alignment.

It only becomes his true nature if he allows that trauma to define him and decides that he needs to embrace it rather than fight it. That is then what gets amplified because that fear that roots those wants becomes amplified.

Honestly, it's impossible to say what would be canon for Astarion because there's too many factors.

Studies have shown that having more supportive and positive influences, even if its later in life after leaving the abuser, tends to work in favor of the victim breaking the cycle of abuse. As such, I think that if you make a Tav who's core values are autonomy, consent, second chances, and redemption and somehow manage to get high enough approval that he'd even consider caring what they think; then its more likely that Astarion would reject Ascension due to observing how much softer, kinder, patient, and merciful Tav is.

But if its a Tav that has no interest in getting to know him beyond the surface or Tav doesn't exist at all, I honestly think he would end up going through with Ascension. Mostly because, to me, it seems like he didn't really bother to have more than surface level interactions with the other companions and the other companions really only ended up getting to know him better as a result to Tav managing to get past his masking. He does not lower his mask on his own accord, only after certain things are done and said by Tav.

Unfortunately, I just don't really think any of the other companions you can pick up in-game would really be able to provide support and determined consistency in the same way that players can make Tav. Hence I don't think he'd end up caring enough about any of them to ever start to think that perhaps freedom can be defined differently than the way he initially believes, and would view Ascension as the only right way to get his needs fulfilled.

[santoschristos]

"In Mexican religion Quetzalcoatl is regarded as a great deity, a god of the air. In the Quiche cosmogony, as told in the Popol-Vuh Gucumatz is one of the first deities to appear, and holds the position of a minor creator. Quetzalcoatl’s wand and other ‘land-marks’ show him to be some great Initiate of antiquity, who received the name of ‘Serpent’ on account of his wisdom, long life and powers. To this day the aboriginal tribes of Mexico call themselves by the names of various reptiles, animals and birds.”

― Helena Petrovna Blavatsky - Collected Writings

"The serpent is the symbol and prototype of the Universal Savior, who redeems the worlds by giving creation the knowledge of itself and the realization of good and evil. The adoration of the sun was one of the earliest and most natural forms of religious expression. Complex modern theologies are merely involvements and amplifications of this simple aboriginal belief. In Indian symbolism the serpent — especially the Great Serpent — corroborates other evidence pointing to the presence of the Mysteries on the North American Continent. The flying serpent is the Atlantean token of the initiate; the seven-headed snake represents the seven great Atlantean islands (the cities of Chibola?) and also the seven great prehistoric schools of esoteric philosophy. These Children of the Sun adore the Plumèd Serpent, who is the messenger of the Sun. He was the God Quetzalcoatl in Mexico, Gucumatz in Quiché; and in Peru he was called Amaru. From the latter name comes our word America. Amaruca is, literally translated, 'Land of the Plumèd Serpent.'

― Manly P. Hall - The Secret Teachings Of All Ages

Image: Quetzalcoatl The feathered Serpent God Mahaboka

Quetzalcoatl was an Aztec and Mayan creator god, who was also the patron of rain, science, agriculture, and much more. His name means Feathered Serpent in Nahuatl, the Aztec language, and he was depicted as a combination of the green quetzal bird and a serpent.

[lixenn]

OCtober 2024 day 23: community

@myrmyrtheorca one science girl coming right up! Anemone is also working hard, pipetting lots for qPCR 🫡 what a legend!

A yapping essay under the cut, I will talk science so you have been warned.

Now before I ramble about science I'm just gonna talk about the art for a bit. I did use a reference for this because I'm not insane and drawing the lineart with it was ... alright I would say. I actually looked through my own pictures and my uni website first in case I could find something as a ref but no dice so I needed to look it up anyways. I think the most difficult lineart to draw was the fucking pipettes... I need everyone to know that all the lab equipment (except maybe the blue regant holder) is a simplification of what it actually looks like because by god I could not replicate the real thing with my current skill set. I know most people will not give a fuck but I do so it needed to be said.

Otherwise colouring went okay and rendering wasn't extremely tedious. I noticed that I actually really like rendering blond hair, years ago I found this hack where you use red for the shadows and turn the opacity down and it works so well every time, I'm a bit obsessed tbh. I need to give more of my OCs blond hair lmao.

Okay enough about art let's talk science! Honestly this is really just me explaining science stuff, so feel free to skip because this can get long.

As I mentioned above I drew Anemone doing qPCR and I chose qPCR because her focus is genetic research. So basically she looks into the human genome (entire set of human genes) to see how it correlates to the Pallid Flame.

qPCR stands for quantitative polymerase chain reaction or real time polymerase chain reaction (RTpcr) and it's a valuable tool for analysing stuff down to genetic aka DNA level. You might have learnt about PCR in school but if not or if you've forgotten: PCR is the amplification of a specific gene aka you take one specific part of someone's DNA and replicate it a bunch of times. This is useful if you want to proof if a specific gene is present in the DNA you are analysing. Now qPCR also does the DNA amplification but as it already implies with the name it also counts how much the gene was amplified. You can use qPCR in many applications for example I used this method in my thesis to test if skin related genes are upregulated (higher gene expression aka genes are more activated? <- me trying to simplify genetics I'm not sure if this is the correct term of phrase) or down regulated (lower gene expression) when I put mast cells in my skin models. It gives you insight how certain factors affect cells on DNA level and since it will give you number at the end you can do statistics which is what everyone will really care about. I hope this explanation was at least somehow understandable if anyone has any questions I can talk more about this no prob 🫡

In fact I will talk more about it just... less why you do qPCR but more on how you do it. Because the thing is with this method... You need to pipette, you need to pipette A LOT. And honestly I'm really not a fan because you need to be so exact with this pipetting since each mistake you make stacks up and shows in your data at the end. It's very frustrating especially because there are a lot of steps where you can make mistakes and you need to be fully concentrated the entire time. I... I would say I'm good at my job but I really don't like this part of it because it grates on my nerves. But I think Anemone would be good at it, it's something repetitive that requires a steady hand and patience. Normally post Docs and even some PhD students let assisstants handle this job but I'd like to imagine that Anemone likes doing small things occasionally. Maybe not the entire process (there's a lot of prep work required for qPCR) but the last few steps she can take over, just for a change of pace.

[compneuropapers]

Interesting Papers for Week 50, 2024

Synaptic rearrangement of NMDA receptors controls memory engram formation and malleability in the cortex. Bessières, B., Dupuis, J., Groc, L., Bontempi, B., & Nicole, O. (2024). Science Advances, 10(35).

Quantitative modeling of the emergence of macroscopic grid-like representations. Bin Khalid, I., Reifenstein, E. T., Auer, N., Kunz, L., & Kempter, R. (2024). eLife, 13, e85742.

Individual gaze shapes diverging neural representations. Borovska, P., & de Haas, B. (2024). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(36), e2405602121.

Competitive processes shape multi-synapse plasticity along dendritic segments. Chater, T. E., Eggl, M. F., Goda, Y., & Tchumatchenko, T. (2024). Nature Communications, 15, 7572.

Neural circuit basis of placebo pain relief. Chen, C., Niehaus, J. K., Dinc, F., Huang, K. L., Barnette, A. L., Tassou, A., … Scherrer, G. (2024). Nature, 632(8027), 1092–1100.

Morphine-responsive neurons that regulate mechanical antinociception. Fatt, M. P., Zhang, M.-D., Kupari, J., Altınkök, M., Yang, Y., Hu, Y., … Ernfors, P. (2024). Science, 385(6712).

The limited memory of value following value directed encoding. Filiz, G., & Dobbins, I. G. (2024). Memory & Cognition, 52(6), 1387–1407.

Dynamic control of sequential retrieval speed in networks with heterogeneous learning rules. Gillett, M., & Brunel, N. (2024). eLife, 12, e88805.3.

Disinhibition enables vocal repertoire expansion after a critical period. Heim, F., Mendoza, E., Koparkar, A., & Vallentin, D. (2024). Nature Communications, 15, 7565.

Dopaminergic manipulations affect the modulation and meta-modulation of movement speed: Evidence from two pharmacological interventions. Hickman, L. J., Sowden-Carvalho, S. L., Fraser, D. S., Schuster, B. A., Rybicki, A. J., Galea, J. M., & Cook, J. L. (2024). Behavioural Brain Research, 474, 115213.

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[dr-spencer-reids-queen]

Amplification: Part Two

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~1.9k

Summary: A deadly spread of Anthrax is going around infecting and killing people. One of your own is affected that completely tears your world into two. How will you over come this?

Warnings: canon violence, canon language, canon talk of death, methods of kill

Author’s Note: I do not own anything from Criminal Minds. All credit goes to their respective owners. If there are any warnings that exceed the normal death/kills from the show, I will list them. If you’ve seen the show, then it’s the same level of angst unless otherwise stated

x

The bookstore has been closed ever since Albert died, and Gayle's purchase happened right before it closed down. It would explain why only three people were hit, and when General Whitworth sent his men in for testing, they came back positive for Anthrax.

Albert's bookstore was the unsub's test run. He's gotta have a history with the place, so Penelope needs to come up with a list of present and past employees of the place, customers with grievances against the owner, and if any of them had a science background.

An attack of Anthrax isn't meant to kill three people inside a bookstore, it wants to be out in the open where it can feed and multiply in the way that it wants to. Just a small amount can wipe everyone out, and they'd never see it coming.

Another hour goes by and the six survivors of the attack are now down to four. This attack is killing people left and right and there is nothing you can do about it. The more they die off, the more family members demand answers for what's happening.

"It feels like the plague of Egypt," Linda says.

"Ten scourges created by God. Plague six was unhealable boils believed by biblical scholars to be caused by Anthrax."

"You never missed Sunday school, did you?"

"Actually, I've never been before. How is she doing?" Spencer asks about Abby.

"She's a fighter. She's held on this long because she's young and strong, but she's started to bleed into her lungs. We're running into another problem, though. When the next of kin have questions, what do we tell them about the cause of death?"

That is a question only Hotch and General Whitworth can answer. You can't tell anyone anything without punishment if it didn't come from Hotch. Instead of thinking things like that, you can try and think of the unsub and profile you have on him. It might help your team catch whoever is doing this.

Because the locations aren't symbolically significant, the attacks are personal. Understanding the significance of the locations will be the key to identifying the unsub.

This personal element strongly indicates a home-grown terrorist like the Amerithrax case. This is someone from the science or defense community. That's why the CIA is here. Hotch thinks they may know him. These home-grown terrorists are myopic zealots that believe that their work is of the greatest importance.

He may have preached about the threat of an attack on America. His coworkers would describe him as histrionic, paranoid, and secretive. He may have logged excess hours at work in the past weeks preparing for the attack. He even might have taken the full dosage of Anthrax vaccines over the recommended eighteen-month schedule and had yearly boosters.

This guy has his own workspace where he makes his product in privacy. He also has access to large, expensive, industrial-grade equipment at work. He's written about the threats of Anthrax attacks and published papers about it, yet he feels no one is listening, and that angers him. Now, he may have recently experienced some sort of professional humiliation like being demoted or fired. Now, that would have been his trigger, the moment he decided to go rogue.

He may have betrayed his loved ones to his cause and may be recently separated or divorced. This is somebody who knows every detail of the 2001 Anthrax attack and has talked about what that suspect did right or wrong. He's watching the news very closely to see how the country reacts, and it's not a good one.

The CIA dug deep into their records and found a video of a classified hearing with the Subcommittee on Defense and Homeland Security in January of 2002. Dr. Lawrence Nichols used to work at the institution and left in 2002. The video is sent to your team at the hospital, Derek's team in Maryland, and the main office with everyone else. You and Spencer go into an empty hospital room to watch the video. Dr. Nichols went to the Senator to ask for money for a project he wanted to do with dangerous chemicals. He went to talk to the Senator about the attack in 2001 and why he should have funding for his project.

"Five people died. If you ask me, we're lucky it was just five. We're lucky that whoever sent these letters used cheap porous envelopes and not a crop duster. America's enemies are capable of wiping out entire cities, and we are woefully unprepared."

"I'm looking at your proposal--"

"Yes, sir," Dr. Nichols cuts the Senator off. "Every household needs gas masks and a two-month supply of Cipro for each resident. Every major city needs hospitals with bio-safety decontamination capabilities."

"Regarding the budget you propose for this operation--"

"Anything short of fifty billion would be grossly negligent."

"Dr. Nichols, you've got to realize how unrealistic that is. We can't justify spending that kind of money on an attack that may not happen."

"You people are in denial!" Dr. Nichols exclaims.

"Doing this would incite fear and panic among the public."

"This country should be panicked! We should live in utter fear of being attacked! We live in a time of war and WMD proliferation. If you continue to be blind to our lack of preparedness, then Americans will die, and I will have no problem in pointing the blame at you!"

The committee didn't fund his project and rejected him because he was becoming unstable and fanatical, which is why they removed him from Fort Detrick and blacklisted him from other prominent positions. Even though he believes in preparedness, he felt like people weren't listening. He might have done this to prove a point.

He fits the profile of the unsub to a T. He had access to research on Anthrax, had the resources available to do something like this, lost a highly respected job, and got divorced in the process. The job he has now is through a company called Bio-Design Technology that doesn't deal with Anthrax but with the Flu. If he got demoted from working with such deadly diseases to working with the flu, he might be angry enough to use Anthrax as a weapon.

Either way, you need to bring him in.

Derek pulled you and Spencer from the hospital to go to his house while Emily and Rossi went to his work to see if he was there. Along with you, Spencer, and Derek, a hazmat team joined you so they can clear the inside of his house. You have to wait outside until they're done with their investigation.

"It's clear so far," one of the members says when he hears from one of his men inside.

"Alright, keep me posted." Derek turns to you and Spencer. "This guy just had people over for a charity event last month."

"We should probably take a look around anyway."

You three walk to the backside of the property when Spencer hisses in pain. You look over to see rose bushes with thorns sticking out of the stems. He must have cut himself on the thorns but isn't too concerned about it. For someone who messes with Anthrax, his backyard isn't too sketchy. There is a pool with a beautiful gazebo area and lots of blooming flowers. Derek's phone rings and he answers whoever it is.

"Yeah, Princess, what's up? ... Uh-huh. Yeah, we're here now. ... Sorry. what? The lab is clean? ... You're sure? ... All right." You watch Derek as he talks to Emily. You're not paying attention to Spencer who goes off on his own. He turns to you and Spencer to tell you what she said. "They got nothin'--Where's Reid?"

You look behind you to see Spencer run into the large shed in the backyard. You and Derek quickly follow after him, but he slams the glass door to keep you and Derek out of some kind of lab.

"Spencer!" you gasp.

"Morgan! Y/N! Get back!"

"What the hell are you doing? What's wrong?"

"Believe me, get back."

"Reid, open this door!"

"Spencer, open the damn door!" you yell and slam your hands on the glass.

"I'm sorry. You can't come in here."

"No, open the door," you whimper. The only reason he would be trapped inside there and refuses to let anyone inside is that this is the place where Dr. Nichols created his Anthrax poison. "Spencer, no, open the door."

"I'm sorry," he sighs.

"Come on," Derek says and puts his hands on your shoulders.

"No!" you gasp. "I can't leave him. I'm not leaving him. Call Hotch and get people out here now! I'm not going anywhere!"

Derek has no choice but to listen to you. He needs people out here now if Spencer has any hope of making it out of this alive. Derek leaves and gets Hotch on the phone, and you look at your boyfriend with tears in your eyes.

"Open this door, Spencer, or I'm gonna break it."

"Don't, Y/N. There is white powder in here, and the air is blasting."

You let out a heartbreaking sob and put your hands to your mouth to quiet them. Spencer's heart breaks at the sight of you crying for him. Hotch and the biohazard team arrive quicker than you thought they would, and Derek tells Hotch where you are.

"Y/N, get out of there."

"I can't leave him," you cry. "I'm not leaving him alone!"

"Please don't cry."

"Spencer, I've seen what this does to people. There has not been one survivor and you're infected now. If the cure is not in there, then you're gonna..." You can't even say it. "I can't lose you. I love you so much."

You place your hand flat on the glass and Spencer puts his hand over yours.

"You need to get out of here."

"I can't leave you!"

"I will be fine."

He doesn't believe what he's telling you because he doesn't know if he's going to make it out of here alive or not. He's lying to protect your feelings but he forgets that you can tell when someone is lying. Your chest feels heavy and your whole body is shaking from fear. Your legs can't hold you up any longer so you fall to the ground in a heap of tears. Someone from the biohazard team comes in and places their hand on your shoulder.

"Ma'am, you need to leave."

"Y/N, listen to them."

"Spencer," you gasp.

The man practically forces you out of the shed to where Hotch and Derek are. Derek catches you when your legs wobble.

"I need to be in there, please. I can't leave him alone. He's scared, Hotch," you cry.

"Y/N, you need to calm down."

"I can't," you hiccup. "I can't lose him."

Hotch needs you to calm down so he calls Spencer and places him on speakerphone so you can hear his voice.

"Hotch, I really messed up this time," Spencer sighs.

"Reid, we need to get you out and to the hospital."

"No, I'm staying right here."

The tears won't stop rolling down your cheeks.

"No, Spencer, please leave. You need medical attention," you cry. "Please!"

"Y/N, I'm already exposed. It's not gonna do me any good to stop working on the case."

"He's already infected," General Whitworth says. "If Nichols created the strain, he may have also created the cure."

"Look, Dr. Nichols is in here but he's dead. Someone must have bashed something in his head. My best chance is to stay here, see if there's a cure, and try to figure out who killed Dr. Nichols."

"Hotch, say something to him!"

"He's right. His best chance is inside. We're gonna get a suit and mask into you right away."

"Don't bother. it's not gonna do me any good. I'm already infected."

This thing killed the first three victims within hours.

The thought of losing Spencer is something you can't even fathom. The thought hurts too much, and your chest starts closing up.

x

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[mask131]

The gods of Gaul: Rosmerta

After a god of abundance, a goddess of abundance !

Rosmerta is a purely Gallo-Roman goddess. Not that she did not start as a Gallic goddess, mind you! For sure she was originally a goddess of Gaul – her very name is Gallic in origin. But the fact is that all we know about her, be it her role, her functions, her attributes, come from her incarnation as a Gallo-Roman goddess, part of the syncretized pantheon of Roman and Gallic gods. As such, we can only conjecture and guess who she was before the Romans arrived, based on the way the Romans handled and incorporated her.

One thing that is certain of is that Rosmerta always was a goddess of abundance. As I said, her name is Gallic, and commonly identified as being formed of three parts, “Ro”, “Smert” and “A”. The -a suffix merely denotes a female name. The prefix “Ro-“ is for amplification (like “very” ; a “robili” is someone who is very kind ; a “rocabalus” is a great horse). As for “smert”, it is found in many Gallic names and means either “who takes care of” or “who offers”. As such, Rosmerta could be translated as “The Great Giver”, “The Very Generous”, “She who takes care of very well”, “The Great Gifter”… In Gallo-Roman iconography, Rosmerta is often depicted holding a cornucopia, highlighting her role as a goddess of abundance and maybe fecundity (sometimes it is even stressed further by her holding the cornucopia in one hand, a basket of fruits on the other).

In the Gallo-Roman religion, Rosmerta is the eternal companion, the paredra, the female equivalent of the god Mercury. On all the visual depictions we have of Rosmerta, very few depict her alone – she is usually always with Mercury by her side. This makes sense when you recall who Mercury was in Roman religion. Too many people consider that the Roman gods are just the Greek ones with a new name printed on them. Mercury might have been the equivalent of the Greek Hermes, but in terms of functions and symbolism he differed from him in many ways. Most notably, while the Greek Hermes was mainly a god of talent, cunning, cleverness and intelligence (which manifested in his various attributes as god of messengers and eloquence, science and athletics, merchants and thieves), the Romans focused much more on the idea of a god of travel and commerce: as such, Mercury is the god of merchants, markets, business travels and lucrative journeys first and foremost. He was an economic god, a money-deity, who embodied prosperity and riches in a material and financial form. As such, it makes sense for him, in the Gallo-Roman syncretism, to be paired with a goddess who herself seems to have embodied abundance and fertility.

Interestingly, we can see how Rosmerta got more and more “fused” with Mercury over time. For example, in many depictions of the duo, Rosmerta is not holding her usual cornucopia, but a pouch full of coins or a bag of money – which was THE defining attribute of Mercury. The “Mercurification” of Rosmerta reached its paroxysm in a bronze depiction from Annecy, where the goddess appears alone… But with Mercury’s wings on both sides of her head, while holding a purse of coins. The transformation is complete: Rosmerta became simply the female version of Mercury, and lost her own identity. We have a lot of votive offerings and various prayer-inscriptions for Rosmerta, but they do not give us much information about her, and always made her one half of a duo with Mercury.

There is also this four-sided pillar which depicts Rosmerta holding Mercury's caduceus. You will notice with these pictures the very Roman aspect Rosmerta sports - with the Roman dress and veil and diadem.

If you are curious, the other sides of this pillar found behind Paris' Sainte-Chapelle in 1748, depict Mercury, Apollo and a "winged Genie".

Interestingly, the lack of romantic or sensual scenes between Mercury and Rosmerta have led many to theorize their couple was not a romantic or marital one. Many believe that Rosmerta was probably identified with Mercury's mother, Maia, who had her own cult by Roman times. For example, there is the fact we have votive inscriptions acting in parallels - some invoking "Mercury and Maia" together, others invoking "Mercury and Rosmerta", but the two goddesses never appearing side by side in the same inscription. Their cult-areas do not overlap geographically speaking (here is a map below from the Belgian website deomercurio) - and when you consider that Maia was a goddess of the season of spring associated with the rebirth/birth of nature ; that she was often seen holding a caduceus ; and that she had been before associated with various mother-goddesses of fertility (Ops, Fauna, Bona Dea)... Well it all points to a very possible connection. In fact, the Mercurified statue of Rosmerta with wings on her head has been debated: because while many consider it is a Rosmerta statue, some rather see it as a Maia statue... The confusion is clear.

Some theorized Rosmerta might have been a goddess of the fertile earth and the natural abundance (hence the cornucopia, the basket of fruits), which would have made the “natural” reflection of Mercury’s man-made, artificial riches (coins, commerce, merchants and markets) – after all, Gaul was one of the food-providers of the Roman Empire, the place where the Romans got a lot of their cereals and grapes. To have a goddess of fruits coupled with a god of commerce would have been the perfect representation of the Roman conquest of Gaul… Some even push the idea further by saying maybe Rosmerta was an equivalent of Proserpina, or a female Pluto, as a goddess of the riches of underworld – but I found no conclusive evidence or solid theory for this, so I’ll mention it, but I give this no credit. Let us stick simply to how she is an abundance and fertility goddess, more likely a Maia equivalent.

There are other theories linking her to other Roman deities. For example some see in Rosmerta a Gallic equivalent of the Roman goddess Felicitas, due to a Roman inscription (listing all the important gods of Gaul) having Felicitas following immediately the name of Mercury, as if closely associated with him, despite Felicitas not being typically seen as Mercury-adjacent in Roman religion. Another theory mentions how the Roman goddess Abundantia, the personification of abundance, had a strong worship in some parts of Gaul (for example by the Eduens), and was depicted in a similar way to Rosmerta as a goddess with a cornucopia and a patera in her hands. However the theory falls quite short, because on one side Abundantia was always depicted alone, without a male companion, and on the other, almost all of the goddesses of Gaul were depicted with a patera (or in a lesser way a cornucopia) in their hands. The patera was one of the recurring, typical attributes of the Gallic goddesses ; and given many of them had something to do with abundance or fertility, the cornucopia went from hand to hand... But there is no denying that Rosmerta definitively echoed the Roman Abundantia, and that in turn Abundantia found her place in Gaul, filling a shared religious archetype of a goddes of abundance, a spirit of prosperity. Maia, Abundantia, Rosmerta - they all formed a web around a central core partially missing today, and testify to Gaul's strong attachment to the idea of a fertility goddess, of a personification of a nature filled with riches.

Another interesting clue when it comes to Rosmerta is how, in an engraving found in Reims, she has by her side not Mercury, but rather Toutatis/Teutatès... Is it a clue that maybe Toutatis was her original companion before Mercury arrived? There is also a fascinating Gallo-Roman depiction, a stone statue currently at the Saint-Germain-en-Laye museum, of Mercury with an unnamed goddess by his side:

This statue is very, very important for several reasons. One: the goddess by Mercury's side is left unnamed, but if she is Rosmerta, then this statue might indicate not a mother-son relationship (as the Maia theory allowed to think) but a sexual one. Indeed, it would be one of the rare Rosmerta depictions with an accent on her body and a form of nudity - coupled with the suggestive gesture of touching Mercury's head. Two: Despite us knowing this was meant to be a Mercury, this Mercury is very unusual. He is not a youthful ephebe, but a mature, bearded man. No wings, no caduceus - only the pouch of coins typical of his charge... and a snake laying on his lap. Not just any snake: a ram-headed snake. If you read my previous post about the gods of Gaul you know what this means... This "Mercury" clearly sports the symbolism of Cernunnos. The bag of grains/food coins turned into a little purse, the antlers removed, but the beard and the ram-headed snake are still here, and the goddess still holds the god's head.

It had already been established that Mercury's popularity in Gaul was part due to replacing some aspects of Cernunnos - but if this goddess is Rosmerta (and indeed, some Cernunnos depictions did have a cornucopia-holding goddess near the god, usually identified as an unnamed mother-goddess), does this imply Rosmerta was initially a companion of Cernunnos?

As usual we are left with more questions than answers, and vague relationships we ultimately can never confirm...

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Nature-inspired solar lasers could sustainably power space missions

International scientists, including a team from Heriot-Watt University, has announced plans to develop a revolutionary new way of harvesting solar energy in space.

The new technology would directly convert sunlight into laser beams, facilitating the transmission of power over vast distances, such as between satellites, from satellites to lunar bases, or even back to Earth. The approach is inspired by the way bacteria and other plants and organisms convert light energy into chemical energy—a process known as photosynthesis. Repurposing natural photosynthetic structures from nature will form a key component in the new laser technology.

If successful, their innovative technology could help global space agencies to power future endeavors such as lunar bases or missions to Mars, as well as open new pathways for terrestrial wireless power transmission and sustainable energy solutions globally.

The APACE project brings together researchers from the U.K., Italy, Germany and Poland to create the new type of solar-powered lasers, which will provide reliable, efficient power for the growing number of satellites and future space missions.

The system will repurpose light harvesting antennas of certain photosynthetic bacteria, which are highly efficient at absorbing ambient solar light and channeling its energy to a desired target location as part of their photosynthetic cycle.

The team plans to realize their idea under laboratory conditions first, before testing and refining its suitability for deployment into the space environment.

The researchers will begin by extracting and studying the natural light-harvesting machinery from specific types of bacteria that have evolved to survive in extremely low light conditions. These bacteria have specialized molecular antenna structures that can capture and channel almost every photon of light they receive—making them nature's most efficient solar collectors.

In parallel, the team will develop artificial versions of these structures and new laser materials that can work with both natural and artificial light-harvesters. These components will then be combined into a new type of laser material and tested in increasingly larger systems.

Unlike conventional semiconductor solar panels, which convert sunlight into electricity, their bio-inspired system builds on a sustainable organic platform with the potential for replication in space. It would then allow for the direct distribution of power without relying on an electric intermediary.

Professor Erik Gauger from the Institute of Photonics and Quantum Sciences at Heriot-Watt University is leading the theoretical modeling aspects of the project.

He explains, "Sustainable generation of power in space, without relying on perishable components sent from Earth represents a big challenge. Yet, living organisms are experts at being self-sufficient and harnessing self-assembly. Our project not only takes biological inspiration but goes one step beyond by piggybacking on functionality that already exists in the photosynthetic machinery of bacteria to achieve a breakthrough in space power.

"Our APACE project aims to create a new type of laser powered by sunlight. Regular sunlight is usually too weak to power a laser directly, but these special bacteria are incredibly efficient at collecting and channeling sunlight through their intricately designed light harvesting structures, which can effectively amplify the energy flux from sunlight to the reaction center by several orders of magnitude. Our project will make use of this level of amplification to convert sunlight into a laser beam without relying on electrical components.

"We already know it is possible to grow bacteria in space, for example through studies on the International Space Station. Some tough bacteria have even survived exposure to open space! If our new technology can be built and used on space stations, it could help to generate power locally and even offer a route to sending power to satellites or back to Earth using infrared laser beams.

"This technology has the potential to revolutionize how we power space operations, making exploration more sustainable while also advancing clean energy technology here on Earth. All major space agencies have lunar or Mars missions in their plans and we hope to help power them."

The research team expects to have its first prototype ready for testing within three years.

[talonabraxas]

Sirius Connection Talon Abraxas

SUN-SIRIUS CONJUNCTION

Sirius is first visible just before sunrise around July 4th, and takes about 20 days until the Sun and Sirius rise together, referred to astronomically and astrologically as the Sun-Sirius conjunction. There are an equal number of days, 20 or so, coming down from the conjunction as the Sun and Sirius separate in their rising times. This means the period of this event affects us for about 40 days each summer.

In astrology, a conjunction is when two planets are at the same degree of zodiac at the same time. This produces an amplification of each of the energies. It is generally considered the beginning of a cycle of some type, and this day is the ‘seed’ that will result in the flowering of energies of these planets.

Sirius has long been considered a source of our spiritual energy, bringing with it growth and change. The transit of Sirius, and especially the day of conjunction, are a challenge, forcing us to expand and change our ways of being. It is usually considered negative, but, depending on one’s consciousness and outlook, it can also be a day of joy and fulfillment.

Sirius A and B

sun sirius risingNo study of ancient Egypt is complete without its endless references to the heliacal rising of Sirius. Sirius is a multiple star system. Sirius A, B and possibly C, most easily found by tracing the belt of Orion downwards.

Sirius A is the largest and brightest of the system and Sirius B, is in an elliptical orbit around A. Sirius B is very small, almost the size of Earth at 7,500 miles across, but contains almost the entire mass of our sun. It’s surface is 300 times harder, and its interior density is 3,000 times greater than that of a diamond. It spins on its axis very quickly, at 23 times a minute. This weight, size and spin combine to generate massive, powerful, magnetic fields.

While it is classified as a white dwarf star, it is more like a mini black hole, so heavy and dense that very little visible light comes from it. While there is little visible light, there is a lot of light and activity when viewed in an x-ray telescope.

Sirius C

Discrepancies in the orbits of Sirius A and B indicate there is a third star, Sirius C, that has not yet been found by modern astronomy. The Dogon people of the Sahara Desert in Africa have a religion based on ancient knowledge of the Sirius system.

The Dogon believe Sirius to be the Ancient Mermanaxis of the universe, and from it all matter and souls are produced in a great spiral motion. They tell of their ancestors, the Nommos, amphibious beings, coming to earth from Sirius for the benefit of mankind. The Nommos are also called Masters of the Water, the Monitors, and the Teachers. The Nommos were more fish-like than human, living in the water, and passed on great spiritual and astronomical knowledge.

Modern science tells us that life came from the waters. Many cultures from around the world tell stories of fish people, including mermaids and mermen.

The six sided star is known as a religious symbols of Hebrews, called the Star of David. The Hindus called the same symbol the Mark of Vishnu, who was reportedly from an ancient race of half-human half-fish beings, the divine Matsya.

[inspofromancientworld]

The Science of Discovering the Past: Archaeogenetics

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Migraciones_humanas_en_haplogrupos_de_ADN-Y.PNG

The study of genetics of humans, animals, and plants reveals to us the paths of ancient migrations, when domestication took place, and how plants and animals were changed by humanity. The field has about a 110 year history and can unlock genetics as far back as 1.5 million years ago, depending on where the genetic material was deposited.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

The first study of migration through heredity was in 1919 and consisted of the study of ABO blood group distribution between western Europe and India. Ludwik Hirszfeld, a Polish microbiologist, carried out this study, noting that blood type was independent of hair and eye color and that western Europeans were less likely to have blood group A while Indians were less likely to have blood group B. He hypothesized that the difference was the result of was the result of A and B mutating from type O as a result of the environment and through migration or intermingling. His work was continued by Arthur Mourant who expanded the map by investigating blood groups among more populations, leading to the discovery of new blood groups, including the Rhesus system,

Source: https://www.polytechnique-insights.com/en/columns/science/fossil-dna-on-the-trail-of-human-evolution/

The study of DNA within fossils requires that samples be handled very carefully to avoid contamination with modern DNA. Specimens are handled with gloves and stored in a freezer that has a temperature of -20 °C after being removed from the earth. Samples are then prepared and go through a process called polymerase chain reaction, which amplifies how much DNA is in the sample by encouraging replication. Because of this amplification, it is critical to avoid contamination during the process. The change in the environments between the sample being in the ground to it being unearthed can cause rapid degradation and freezing the samples helps prevent that.

With improvements in DNA technology and sequencing, researchers are able to trace human migration and development out of Africa into the rest of the world as well as the development of wild grasses into grains as they were domesticated by humans and where and how animals were domesticated.