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brocoffeeengineer · 29 days ago

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From Code to Compassion: Building Emotional Depth in 3D Characters

In the world of 3D animation, technology may drive the craft—but emotion gives it life. Whether it's a subtle eyebrow raise or a powerful scream, expressive facial animation is what makes digital characters feel truly alive. It bridges the gap between pixels and people, transforming renders into relatable performances.

But animating emotion is no small feat. It’s a meticulous blend of anatomy, acting, and storytelling—all made even more complex by advancing software, changing audience expectations, and new forms of interactive media. In today’s competitive animation landscape, the ability to create compelling, emotional 3D faces has become not just a technical asset, but a storytelling necessity.

Let’s explore how animators craft these emotional performances—and how the latest tools, trends, and training are changing the game.

The Face as a Storytelling Canvas

Human beings are hardwired to read faces. Micro expressions like the curl of a lip or the twitch of an eyelid convey more than words ever could. In animation, capturing those subtleties is crucial.

In traditional animation, artists had to exaggerate expressions due to limited frame counts. But in 3D, animators can lean into nuance. With rigging systems offering dozens—sometimes hundreds—of facial controls, there’s more flexibility than ever to replicate natural expressions.

Key techniques include:

Blendshapes: Predefined facial expressions that can be combined to create nuanced emotion.

Joint-based rigs: Using bones and joints for a more anatomically accurate facial structure.

Pose-to-pose animation: Setting expressive key poses and refining the in-betweens to maintain character consistency.

Facial mocap: Capturing real human emotion with precision using head-mounted cameras or AI-driven tracking.

This level of detail allows animators to push performances from believable to unforgettable.

Realism vs. Stylization: Striking the Balance

Expressive faces don't always mean photorealistic ones. In fact, stylized characters often connect better emotionally with audiences. Think of Pixar’s Inside Out—where exaggerated features communicate complex emotions in instantly readable ways.

The key is consistency and emotional clarity. Whether a character has big eyes and soft features or realistic muscle deformation, the face must match the world it inhabits. This is especially important in games and films that blend stylization with realism, like Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse or The Last of Us Part II.

Understanding the emotional spectrum and applying it believably within the style of the piece is a mark of a skilled animator.

Tools Elevating Facial Animation Today

Recent years have seen explosive growth in animation tools powered by machine learning and performance capture. In 2023, Meta unveiled its real-time facial animation tool for avatars, which uses AI to interpret 2D camera input and generate lifelike expressions—even on mobile devices.

Similarly, Unreal Engine’s MetaHuman Animator, launched in 2024, allows creators to animate facial performances with near-film quality in real time. Combined with tools like Blender’s FaceBuilder and iClone 8, animators can now produce hyper-expressive faces on tighter timelines.

The democratization of these tools means that both indie creators and major studios can explore high-end facial animation, which in turn raises the industry standard.

The Role of Emotion in Brand and Narrative

Facial animation isn’t just for feature films or AAA games anymore. Brands are now embracing emotional storytelling to connect with audiences.

In a 2024 campaign, Nike launched a 3D-animated short for its women’s line featuring a lead character who goes through triumph, doubt, and resilience—all portrayed through subtle, beautifully animated facial cues. The result? Higher engagement and emotional resonance compared to live-action spots.

Streaming platforms, too, are betting big on animated content with emotionally expressive characters. Shows like Arcane (Netflix) and Blue Eye Samurai use facial animation not as a visual trick but as a storytelling cornerstone.

Even in virtual influencers and digital humans—like Lil Miquela or CodeMiko—facial animation plays a central role in creating believable, relatable personalities.

Understanding Facial Anatomy: A Timeless Skill

No matter how advanced the tech, good animators still need a foundational understanding of facial anatomy and acting principles. The way muscles interact beneath the skin, how tension builds in the brows, or how emotion spreads across the face—these observations come from studying real people.

Workshops and programs are increasingly integrating acting classes and anatomy courses into animation education. These cross-disciplinary skills help animators not just mimic emotion, but understand its source.

Today’s students learning through an 2D Animation course in Bengaluru, for example, are being taught to blend performance theory with technical execution—an approach that aligns perfectly with the demands of emotional storytelling in digital media.

Cultural Context and Expressive Nuance

Facial expressions are not universal. A smile in one culture may carry a different connotation elsewhere. Animators working on global campaigns or international narratives must be aware of these nuances.

Localization goes beyond voiceovers. It requires adapting facial expressions to suit the cultural tone of the story. This adds another layer of complexity—and opportunity—for animators aiming to create emotionally authentic characters.

With global studios outsourcing or collaborating across continents, sensitivity to these subtleties is fast becoming a professional standard.

The Rise of Emotion-Driven Interactivity

Facial animation is no longer limited to passive media. In AR, VR, and gaming, audiences now interact with characters in real time. That means facial expressions must react dynamically to the player’s choices or even mirror the user’s own emotions through sensors and cameras.

This is particularly relevant in VR training modules, therapy apps, or AI-driven chatbots where emotional connection matters. Animators here need to think like UX designers—prioritizing believability and emotional flow as much as realism.

In 2025, we’re seeing more animated characters powered by emotional AI, able to react in real-time to a user's speech tone, facial expression, or input—a trend that's redefining what “expressive” really means.

What the Future Holds

Looking ahead, facial animation is likely to become even more immersive, personalized, and intuitive. AI will continue to play a bigger role in creating real-time emotions that are responsive, not just reactive. And with the growth of spatial computing (think Apple Vision Pro and similar devices), animated faces will need to hold up under intense scrutiny—from every angle, in every environment.

As immersive platforms evolve, audiences will expect digital characters to behave emotionally like humans. This calls for animators who understand both the art of acting and the mechanics of motion—a combination only honed through deliberate practice and holistic education.

In growing creative hubs where tech meets artistry, this fusion is happening faster than ever. Cities like Bengaluru are seeing a surge in demand for high-quality 3D content—be it for games, streaming platforms, digital ads, or interactive storytelling. Training programs focused on this emerging intersection of technology and emotion are flourishing. A 3D animation course Bengaluru now often includes real-time facial rigging, mocap workflows, and emotion-driven animation design—equipping animators with future-proof skills.

#animation course #2d animation course #vfx course #3d animation course

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the-whatcherof-89 · 3 years ago

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Purpled AKA Purp Bedwars

CR 17 N Humanoid

XP 102,400 (if used as npc for encounter) Human Sorcerer (Starsoul bloodline) 7 Technomancer 10

Neutral (with evil tendencies) Medium humanoid Init +2; Senses Perception +19

AC 24, touch , flat-footed (+2 Dex, +5 deviation, +2 natural, +4 armor +1 enhancement) hp 130 (17d6+68)

Fort +10, Ref +10, Will +23

Speed 30 ft. Melee Noqual Transformative Quarterstaff+16/11/6/1

Ranged Zero pistol+10(vs contact armor) 1d8 cold

Racial +1 Skill point per level, 1 Extra feat at lv1.

Traits Vagabond child (Disable device), Righteous indignation.

Class features Eschew materials, Bloodline powers (Minute meteors, Aurora borealis), Bloodline spells (Unseen servant, Glitterdust, Blink, Call lighting storm), Bloodline feats (Blind-fight, Toughness), Technical expertise, Efficient construction, Study technology, Recycle technology, Arcane battery, Recondition (4 items), Command robots 3/day, Technic spell mastery (Technomancy, Recharge, Rebuke technology), Unified energy, Field improvisation.

Spellcasting CL16 DC18 Spells per day 8/8/8/8/7/7/6/4 Spells known: 8-Form of the alien dragon III. 7-Limited wish, Arcane cannon. 6-Dispel magic (greater), Heroism (greater),Transformation. 5-Teleport, Wall of force, Telekinesis, Fabricate. 4-Magic weapon(greater), Stoneskin, Dimension door, Aggressive thundercloud (Greater).

3-Water breathing, Protection from energy, Dispel magic, Monstrous physique I. 2-Hold person, Web, Scorching ray, Thunder fire, Mirror image. 1-Shield, Mage armor, Grease, Enlarge person, Magic missile.

0-Detect magic, Ray of frost, Read magic, Light, Acid splash, Disrupt undead, Message, Open/close, Prestidigitation.

Str 18, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 14, Wis 9, Cha 26

Base Atk +8; CMB +15; CMD +26

Feats Spell penetration, Greater spell penetration, Craft technological item, Craft Technological armors and weapons, Craft cybertech, Technologist, Skill focus (Engineering), Quicken spell, Steadfast personality.

Skills Bluff+11, Craft(Mechanic)+15, Disable device+17, Fly+6, Intimidate +11, Knowledge (Arcana)+15, (Dungeon)+10, (Geography)+6, (Engineering)+19, (History)+10, (Local)+10, (Planes)+14, (Religion)+10, (Nature)+10, Linguistics+1, Perception+19, Spellcraft+15, Use magic device+27.

Languages Common, Draconic, Aquan, Aklo.

Combat gear Mithral Prismatic scatter light suit, Ring of protection+5, Amulet of natural armor+2, Dermal plating I, Wirejack tendons I, Thoracic nanite chamber I, Cyber fiber I, 2 Skillslots, 2 Skillchip (Knowledge Planes III, Use magic device IV), Cybernetic arm, Zero pistol, Noqual Transformative Quarterstaff+4, 16 Batteries, Boots of speed, Cloak of resistance+3, Headband of alluring charisma+4, Handy haversack, Engineer’s work gloves, Jetpack, Manual of leadership and influence+2(used), Ioun stones (Pale blue rhomboid, Scarlet and blue sphere), Wand of barkskin, Potions: 1 Gaseous form, 4 Cure critical wounds, 4 Resist energy ,4 Detect secret doors, Sorcerer kit, MWK thieves tools, Mechanical lab, 500Gp.

Background: Purpled is one of the most “alien” inhabitant of the land, in a literal sense because he is probably an alien from space. Although that is not entirely confirmed, he has been acknowledged as one of the most skilled combatant of the land second to few. Purpled always sought ways to communicate with his “outer” kin as he attempted to build a saucer to get their attention. This one was blown by Quackity after a dispute and they have ever since been on bad terms especially after the purple mercenary killed his newfound friend, Slimecicle. Purpled is a true mercenary at heart that never forget OR forgives with a strong sense of justice: siding only with those that offer him the better prices, reasons and never starting a conflict that he doesn’t want to get involved into. Despite everything, he yearns recognition by leaving a mark, one that counts. One day, he was still thinking about what he did to Slimecicle and had a thought running in his head. Quackity blew up his saucer but it was a BUILDING not LIVING THING. There is a limit, a threshold on everything and he did walked over it. Was what he did a mistake? “No. Revenge is revenge. And I am just getting started.” He finished that thought and someone whispered in his ear “Wouldn’t that be a disappointment if he reversed what you did.” Purpled turned around, nobody. He was alone. “You want to know do you? Knowledge of the stars… The understanding of the endless sea… You want to know what he wants to do. Do you?” Purpled became immediately panicked when he explored every inch of the structure and found nobody “Who are you? What do you want? WHERE are you?” A small chuckle was heard. “I am the forgotten and forbidden, giver and taker, i’m in the holes of your mind, ready to FILL the gaps. I can give you what you desire. The knowledge of the stars and how to make that man suffer even more. Also, i know how to stop him from returning his friend back into shape.” Purpled froze. “He is going to fix that slime? How? You did something?” A gurgling sound was heard. “No. Another one did.” But if you want to give chase… this is your last call. Accept my offer. And i will give you the tools to dispose of your enemy. All that I ask in trade is simple: you will guide me to the house of the green god.” Purpled was unsure and hesitated. “Tik tok little fleshy creature. He is slipping away. FOREVER.” Purpled clenched his theet: “OK… Ok! Bring me to him! And this better not be a trick or…!” And suddenly the world changed and so did him. He awoke in a spaceship, broken but still a true one… lodged in the side of a mesa. “This is all i can give you and the closest i can place you. I will see you around.” Another chuckle was heard fading in the distance. Purpled, equipped with new tools and new knowledge was now more determined than ever. “Let’s do this s**t.”

Link for the image: https://www.tumpik.com/tag/PURPLED%20BEDWARS%20IS%20GETTING%20LORE%20WOOOOO

#minecraft #dream smp #purpled #dream smp purpled #pathfinder #pathfinder roleplaying game

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arc-saber · 4 years ago

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The Way Forward - Did I write a Mandalorian Fic?

I fic-ing did. Or part of it. Look. I was bored and I’m almost always thinking about Star Wars. It was bound to happen.

No, but really. I’m not really a fanfic writer. I’m not great at it. and clearly, I start with a single, stupid idea and get side-tracked until I have a WAY TOO LONG bit of story. But my main pet peeve about a lot of fic is inconsistent characterization. So then I was like “WELL CAN U DO ANY BETTER, SMARTASS?” Answer? Mmnnmmnsssnng? I dunno. We’ll see.

Din Djarin finds himself in a predicament some years after parting ways with Grogu. Someone unexpectedly shows up to help. I W0ndEr WhO!?

Forgive my lazy backstory-ing... Story below the cut.

PART I

The Dark Saber. It had once been described to him as a symbol more than an item of power on its own. But its history said otherwise. It was both. The ancient blade was not only a feat of engineering that wedded ancient sorcery and Mandalorian tactical sense, but it was the manifestation of power on Mandalore itself. It had been forged, stolen, retrieved, lost and found again — its past was as dynamic as the story of Mandalore itself.

But today it was a tool and Din Djarin was using it to cut a hole in a scrapped hull so that he didn’t burn to death in a sudden deluge of acid rain.

The screeching metal and insulation giving way to the unyielding blade manifested on his helmet’s HUD as static while the rest of his feed grew grainy with sensor damage from the rain. Very technically, Din had known what he was getting into when he arrived on Lotho Minor, but he hadn’t been presented with a lot of options during the chaotic spiral landing he’d been forced into by his pursuers. It bothered him that he hadn’t known their affiliation and it was a troubling indictment of his life that there were too many groups with cause to target him as a general mark to make an educated guess … let alone the number of people scattered across the galaxy who had cause to target him specifically. It also bothered him that he didn’t know if these particular pursuers had broken off when he’d plunged into the junk planet’s acidic atmosphere. Or if it was personal and they had followed him to the surface.

With a heavy kick, he toppled his impromptu door into the cavity of the remains of a freighter and plunged inside after it. His armor had deflected most of the acid damage, but everywhere that beskar wasn’t was smoking and starting to sting as the rain soaked through the padding. He knew he should strip off what he could and try to allow it to dry, but after depositing himself with gravity against the far bulkhead, he was having trouble finding the will to move just yet.

About two clicks away, his shabby X4 gunship was little more than a smoking heap — his less than graceful descent having caused some pretty severe hull damage, not to mention now whatever connectors the rain was melting away. So unless he could miraculously a) find the parts he needed buried in Lotho Minor’s literal mountains of scrap or b) even more miraculously find an operational ship to get himself off the surface, he was stranded. Letting his head tilt back wearily, he let out a sigh that felt like it had risen up in him like a bubble through pitch. He was tired. He had been tired for three years — possibly longer than that — but when he’d been caught up in the concern for someone other than just himself, it had distracted him from it. His people. Then of course the kid. He sighed again, feeling as though the first hadn’t quite reset him as much as he needed. He should be relieved to only be responsible for his own skin again; what would he do here if he was also trying to keep a helpless child alive along with him? But the fact remained: whenever that brief time he’d spent as the child’s guardian crossed his mind, he missed it. Missed Grogu.

He didn’t know why lately in particular the odd little sorcerer had crossed his mind so often, but now hardly a night passed when he didn’t factor into Din’s fitful dreams somehow. Most of it was pure memory, but some seemed different — moments when he felt like he was being reached for. It was probably a result of wishful thinking. And right now, wallowing was not going to fix his situation. When he’d either sat out the worst of the acid evaporating, or simply dulled to the sting of it, he laboriously reached for the lightrod that was tucked into his belt. Raising it over his head, he could just make out the shapes of the ship’s interior by its meager glow. Most of what was left of the freighter had been picked clean by whatever locals there were here. Staying put would give him shelter, but nothing more than that. He lowered the lightrod again, disappointed, and pushed himself back to his feet. His unceremonious entry had granted him about a three foot opening through which he could now peek out and try to assess the weather.

A flash of movement and light bouncing off a metallic barrel was all the warning he got. Din jerked himself back behind the hull, milliseconds before a red blast scored the metal right next to his head. Falling back with a grunt, he wedged himself into the dark as much as he could while drawing his own blaster. He checked the charge. Decent. Outside, the sound of footsteps had distinguished from the rain just enough for him to guess at two pursuers. He edged back to the opening and did a quick double glimpse, ducking down as he popped his head out the second time, lining up a shot with the movement he saw. Two figures. Humanoid for the most part and well equipped against the hostile environment in full vac suits. “Dank — “ Another blast lit up the hull briefly overhead. “Ffffarrik.”

His free hand went to the hilt that hung at his belt. He could stay here and deplete his charge trying to take them both out before either got to him… or use the blade in the one capacity it had that had never failed him. Intimidation. Din could use a sword. He could use pretty much anything. But it wasn’t his first choice. If the Dark Saber was any other blade, he wouldn’t consider it, but the few times he’d ignited it, the effect was notable. Most people didn’t know exactly what it was, but they knew enough that they didn’t want to try to fight it. Maybe that was part of the reason he hadn’t dumped it down a canyon somewhere for Bo-Katan Kryze to go find on her own. It had caused him enough trouble over the past few years that that would make the most sense. Yet he held onto it and because of that, had suffered not a few varied encounters with Kryze and her clan and their attempts to force him into a tradition and history he knew nothing about and found he didn’t care for. That wasn’t his path — his way. It was something else entirely that had, before it knew him, labelled him a zealot.

He ignited the saber in his off hand, keeping his blaster at the ready. They were close now, but they had slowed down in the absence of return fire, approaching his shelter with caution. They would crowd to one side of the opening, one coming in first to provide cover, the second following up with the needed accuracy. Sure enough, he felt the hull vibrate as his pursuers flattened themselves against it. With little time, Din stepped back to give himself enough room to plunge the dark blade straight through the hull at about where he figured the second body would be. It met some affirming resistance and a modulated shout of shock came from the other pursuer. Din had hoped the sight of the blade would have scared off the remaining enemy, but with a stubborn war cry, the other was suddenly upon him, having whipped around the opening with a barrage of blasts chasing Din chaotically back to the back wall. When he felt one ricochet off his beskar, he’d lunged forward into a roll, losing the hilt of the Dark Saber in the process, but coming up at an advantageous position to fire his blaster.

A direct hit. He saw the flare of energy meeting his enemy’s breastplate and had almost enough time to lower his blaster with a spin towards the holster before the full weight of his attacker plowed into him. Confusion barely had a moment to sink in before he realized his error. He wasn’t the only one in beskar. Now this up close and personal, he could see the vac suit peeling away from the coated breastplate of Mandalorian armor. He only had a very brief moment to gasp out an admittedly daft: “What — ?” before the second attacker, proving to not be as skewered as he’d have liked, flung themselves into the opening, one injured arm hanging at their side, but the other wielding a blaster in an attempt to train on Din amid his grapple with the other.

“Wait— wait!” but they weren’t there to talk. He knew precisely what they were there for, and it was laying on the ground a few feet from any of them. Din had tried to yield the Dark Saber before. A few times, actually. But its inherent rules seemed to have cornered the clans, and him, into a more deadly negotiation for it. They would take it when he was maimed or dead. So now he would just as soon they didn’t take it. His attempts at getting their attention had only earned him a hard elbow to the neck, tossing him effectively into survival mode. With an uncomfortable twist of the body, he got a foot up on the bulkhead behind him and activated his jetpack. The unexpected surge caught his attacker off guard and plowed both of them straight out the opening, into the second shooter and rolled them for several yards along the littered ground.

The impact of their landing flung them apart, but the advantage of that for Din was an advantage for all of them and he was still outnumbered when he rolled to his feet, blaster raised. He swapped his aim from one to the other of his attackers, trying to give the impression that he had both of them covered at once while they simply had to train their blasters on him and start to close in slowly. “Are you with Bo-Katan?” he called out, hoping to get at least one talking. They did pause, but the grim chuckle told him he’d not only guessed wrong, but he also might have encountered a rival of Bo-Katan’s for the throne of Mandalore. “Of course.”

The prospect that he might die here — on a literal garbage planet — only filled him with weary resignation. But then — for just a moment — immense disappointment as he suddenly remembered a promise he’d made to Grogu as they parted. “Sorry, kid,” he murmured to himself as he stood on the brink of lowering his head and his weapon.

But the two others had stopped and craned around, one rapidly looking back at Din as if they suspected whatever he’d murmured had just summoned a problem for them. Unbeknownst to them, it was simply his outlandishly bad luck that had summoned a problem for all of them.

With a shriek like wrending metal — and indeed that was probably partially what it was — one of the mountains of scrap that had previously been looming over them, gave a violent buck, smaller bits of scrap now joining the acid that pelted them, shaking free from the towering metal monster that emerged and resolved into a four legged, open-mawed form that seemed to be made of the planet’s refuse itself, but fuelled by an oily hot fire from within its belly. As it swung around, a pronged foot came inches from flattening Din where he stood. He reeled back from the monstrous intrusion, no longer able to see his previous two attackers while he scrambled to get away from the brand new horror making itself his problem.

No words. No thoughts. Just survival as he reflexively activated his jetpack again and pushed off at an acute angle front he ground and away from the beast as it dove past him, mouth gaping for an improbable bite of pure scrap metal from the side of one of the hills. Perhaps the monster itself was distracted by its meal, but the teetering hillside caved and an avalanche of spare parts was suddenly rolling down from higher than even Din’s current altitude. Bits and pieces rang as they bounced off his armor and he strove to outrun the larger chunks he knew were coming. He managed to dodge the caved in hull of what looked to be part of a Mon Calamari cruiser, but found himself straight in the path of an untold tonnage of metal that was soon sweeping him out of the air and along with it in a tumble of junk that splayed out between the hills like a river of metal… and then in a breathless moment, charged straight over the edge of a dark ravine, carrying Din down with it.

#star wars #the mandalorian #din djarin #fanfic #luke skywalker #grogu #i dunno i tag like i'm dying #will it get sexy!?#PROBABLY A LITTLE!?#dinluke #hopefully #we'll see if I can pull this out of a nosedive

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a-lil-perspective · 5 years ago

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The Bad Batch and Axe/Knife Throwing

A/N: Uhhh I’ve had this in my drafts for weeks. I don’t actually know what this is. Just funky bro stuff that spiraled into like 2.5k words because I just don’t know when to stop, do I. The working title for this was “Bullshit and Bullseyes”, if that puts anything into perspective (I nearly made that the actual title haha). Anyway. Enjoy?

Technically, no; they didn’t need to spend credits on booking the space. By all accounts, there’s nothing wrong with chucking weapons against the Havoc Marauder’s hull. You wouldn’t believe the damage it’s withstood over the years.

Nevertheless, its walls had been taking quite the beating lately (honestly how many times has it actually been said “no weapons in the house”?) and quite frankly, Hunter was getting sick of grousing about the fact.

But when you’ve been cooped up in the vacuum of space for days as the Bad Batch has, you become acutely aware of the perpetual sensation of losing your mind—and of the stagnant air beginning to fester.

Let’s put it this way: Intelligence work is not kind to four Super Commandos, who’d just as soon wrangle a herd of Gundarks than allow anymore strategic analysis to keep them huddled around a comm system for days on end with no intermission in sight. It can’t be stressed enough the way this work was far, far beneath them. They’d just as soon tell High Command to get on with the invasion already (where their skill sets actually applied) and that if they want Clone Force 99’s help, they had best find a better way to hold their attention, because “tapping into enemy comm channels” ain’t worth a damn.

But, until then: there were other things that would do the trick.

Back within the planet’s gravitational pull once again, the Bad Batch prioritized their short timeframe of respite by not actually participating in the act of respite at all, instead seeking out the nearest weapons range. It felt something like freedom upon discovery.

The axe throwing establishment was practically empty when they arrived, which was the driving force in their eagerness, having booked the last session of the night. More room to work.

And, no one to tell you you can’t bring your own arsenal.

Hunter removed the strap of his weighty knife bag from his shoulder and set it down as the boys settled in their designated lane. While Wrecker and Crosshair dove for the bag like deprived womp rats, Tech had more gracefully found a spot on the nearest bench and planted himself to it, tapping away at the little box atop his vambrace. Predictable.

“Don’t even give me that look, Hunter,” Tech didn’t even look up, already privy to the quizzical gaze while fixated on his slew of technology. “You knew good and well I would be taking notes and collecting data during this session for the purpose of enhancing our overall performance going forward.”

As if he hadn’t been taking an infinite amount of notes the past five days.

“How ‘bout you take some notes on how to have fun,” Crosshair mumbled through the toothpick he anchored to the corner of his lip (Hunter always felt nervous when he worked out or trained with that thing in, just waiting for the day he finally chokes). The sniper didn’t bother looking back at Tech as he rummaged through Hunter’s bag in search of knives he deemed fit. He grinned wickedly at a particular set of five, all of them airy and tapered and perfect for his nimble fingers to sidle around. They were similar in size, if only a few inches wider, to the darts he usually threw in his quarters. He considered them with a sleight of hand, quickly piecing together an accurate projection of air velocity and the weapons’ overall weight.

Crosshair would make his mark. He always did.

It further came as no surprise that the Sergeant excelled in his turns from the get-go. He wasted no time in nailing bullseye after bullseye with a variety of weapons big and small. It was comical, the way Tech would make sounds of marvel and adjust his recording lens accordingly when Hunter would nail a pair of axes with a backwards throw or something of dramatic flair.

And Wrecker, oh, Wrecker.

Let’s say his turn was cut rather short—as were the rest of his brothers—when his very first throw, bearing as much care a demolition expert could muster, drove straight through the target in its entirety and brought the entire structure down wall-to-board. Hunter shuddered, grimacing instinctively at the harsh clang of colliding metals and wood that ended in a timbering heap.

Wrecker merely flashed a sheepish smile.

Hunter bit back his frustrated sigh, but the one expelling behind him was unmistakable. He whirled around to find the sensation to be correct, and that the expression marring the Devaronian’s features was unsightly.

Great. The owner of the establishment.

“I’ll pay for that,” Hunter offered immediately, gesturing awkwardly to the ghastly pile of materials. It was an auto-pilot response, really; Hunter was used to cleaning up after his rowdy bunch by now.

“Got that right,” the Devaronian rumbled, cracking his brooding knuckles as a statement that seemed more mindless than anything; he must’ve realized it foolish to get into it with four Super Clones. He turned around and stalked off, but not before grumbling something about the Clones being “mindless rank weeds” and “no better than droids”.

Wrecker must not have heard thank the Maker, otherwise the entire building could’ve been brought down on their heads in nothing short of an emotional outburst. Crosshair simply threw a crude gesture to the Devaronian’s retreating backside. It was either that or the knife in his hand.

“Cross, put your finger down dammit, we’re trying not to cause trouble here,” Hunter hissed. “You really wanna piss off a Dev?”

“You really wanna piss off a Crosshair?” Wrecker interjected with a wicked chuckle, always at the ready to tango with Crosshair and trouble.

He had a point, though.

Crosshair made a deep scoffing noise in his chest and simply turned his attention back to the dilapidated target. The sniper with no fear. Or so he’d like everyone to believe.

“Sorry, Sarge,” Wrecker rubbed at the back of his thick neck, having gone back to anxiously surveying the damage.

“Let’s just switch lanes,” Hunter countered coolly, helping Tech gather up their weaponry and move over one. It’s not like the owner would let him (or his pocket) forget, so there was no use worrying about it.

With a fresh target and a fresh turn at the ready, Wrecker eagerly began to ask for a re-do with the axes he skewered with moments ago only to be let down—gently, of course. Hunter wasn’t a mean brother, for fierfek’s sake.

He felt a bit guilty over limiting Wrecker’s turns but honestly, what was he thinking, bringing them to a place like this? It’s too... normal for Commandos—whatever ‘normal’ is. They would’ve been better off back on the Marauder.

No they wouldn’t have.

Maybe that’s why Hunter willingly ventured out on a weekend evening in the Coruscanti Districts for that sense of normality for he and his brothers; as if it could actually be found in the bustle of city life and whatever resided within.

It’s not that he wanted them to fit in, per se—Hunter can speak for the four of them in that they’re secure in their abilities and standings. But it’s as if he wanted something... grounding. In the middle of a war. Certainly a foreign term to both soldiers and citizens alike.

Grounding. Something to give the boys a sense of fulfillment and a taste of youth, even if only for the night. No expectations, no methods. Just Serotonin and sibling rivalry. Fulfillment.

Wrecker was certainly feeling fulfilled over the knives he opted to throw instead, much lighter and more controlled than the axe—which was a shame, really; he was very good at them. You haven’t quite lived until you’ve seen Wrecker at full capacity in his brute strength. The axes were just an inkling of his potential. Despite the fact that the majority of knives completely disappeared in his wide expanse of palm, he could still stick them with deadly force. Tech especially made relevance of the fact, insisting he show Wrecker a recap of his feats later.

When he wasn’t recording and plugging in data for the other throwers, Tech went a few rounds with Hunter’s smallest knives: quick and sleek and agile, much like the goggled member himself. The preference of axe or knife was divvied between the group: axe’s were more Hunter and Wrecker’s thing while knives were more Tech and Crosshair’s.

It took a bit of encouragement for Tech to actually complete his turn, as he was more concerned with the preliminaries and technicalities instead of the actual throwing. He’d stand there for what felt like several minutes, considering and trying to incorporate the use of his tech until Crosshair—how dare he—cut through his concentration with a sharp demand to “Just. Throw.”

It was rather unfortunate that there was only one target available to four people wanting to use it simultaneously. It seemed the members of the elite Commando squad still hadn’t mastered the art of patiently waiting their turn.

Hunter couldn’t help but find the hilarity in that Tech managed to land several of the knives as ‘butt sticks’: handle side in. He chuckled to himself. Only Tech.

The engineer claimed the act was wholly intentional. Hunter thought his witty brother was just trying to excuse a simple over-rotation. Tech had the aptitude for speed under his belt, but sometimes he had trouble controlling his speed. But if you thought that hindered Tech’s ingenuity or prowess in the slightest, you were sorely mistaken.

It’s times like these Hunter felt that familiar swell of pride in his chest as he relish his brothers’ unique array of strengths, weaknesses, and opportunes. All of it played a monumental part. The Sergeant in him couldn’t ask for a more proficient squad. The brother in him couldn’t ask for more unique siblings.

In no time, all four men had each accumulated their own sheen of sweat, the byproduct of a solid hour’s workout—no, two hours (Hunter should know by the way he grudgingly dumped another handful of credits into the Devaronian’s on the hour), their allotment extended all because the bros refused to be done, reduced to acting like petulant children because of.

Speaking of petulant.

“Who’s in the lead now, Tech?” Crosshair asked through a lingering pant, breaking from his turn as he took a seat next to the human scoreboard. He accepted the cool rag Tech handed him with a curt nod and slung it over the back of his neck to soak up the sweat, rolling his toned shoulders and shaking away the thought of potentially having to break from the rifle tomorrow because of how much he overdid it with the knives. Sore shoulders made for shit shots.

Tech chewed his lip and shot a single, timid glance up to Cross, who suddenly realized that maybe the gifted rag rapidly warming behind his neck was actually just an act of grooming for the disappointing news to come.

Tech cleared his throat. “In the current overall standing, it appears that Wrecker takes the lead, with Hunter a very close second, me of course making the ranks, and you being last—”

“Aw hell no,” Crosshair yanked the rag off and threw it to his feet as he pulled the toothpick out from between his now grit teeth, jabbing it around the room in emphasis. “I’ve easily got the best aim around here, I ain’t the one who destroyed an entire target and I didn’t miss one damn time—”

“It is not about missing, Cross; there are many factors to consider in the overall performance,” Tech answered matter-of-factly, with maybe the slightest hint of sympathy (more like irritation) laced within.

“And that includes humility,” Hunter chimed in, crossing his arms.

Wrecker and his lack of knowledge on appropriate social cues left him cheering over his victory, and Hunter forced himself to swallow the smile tugging at his lips. Few things in life filled him as much as Wrecker’s youthful exuberance. It was infectious.

He gave a light shove to the solid mass of man. “That means you too, Wreck.”

“Bullshit...” Crosshair sulked, numbingly processing his loss. He found himself leaning into Tech’s supportive pat on the back, suddenly too tired to care about his dwindling dignity or even any of his prior winnings in the past. He’ll forever be consigned to his dangerous competitive streak and that’s that.

“You’re just a sore loser!” Wrecker was grinning wide again, all teeth and triumphant. Crosshair scowled further and yes, he was actually pouting up from his spot on the bench thank you very much. Blackmail him later.

“The only thing that’s gonna be sore is your ass when I shove my foot up it.”

“Hey.” Hunter’s cue to intervene. “Settle it down. We had a good run tonight, blew off some steam, got a nice workout and stretched the legs. Let’s head back home, yeah?”

Hunter received murmurs of agreement save for Crosshair, who responded with silence, which was his answer.

The Bad Batch gathered their things and headed out, with Hunter paying the owner for the property damage on the way (reaching up to smack Wrecker in the back of the head just for good measure), and the alien made no attempts at subtlety in his relief over the way the chaotic bunch were finally departing. Apparently, the Bad Batch showcased some of the more poorer examples of decent clientele.

Funny that one might assume ‘decent’ and ‘Coruscant’ actually go together.

As they emerged back into the flow of the planet-wide city, the near-midnight breeze quickly catching in all of the sweat spots, Wrecker stopped in his tracks, having been eyeing a dejected Crosshair on the way.

“Hunter?”

“Yeah, vod?”

A timid pause. “Can we get ice-cream? I think Cross here could use some. With sprinkles and a starcherry on top, just how he likes it.” Wrecker scooped up the lanky brother in question, who squawked in protest. “And a nice, squishy Wrecker hug.” He pet Crosshair’s head. “That always helps him feel much better about me winning.”

#wrecker is so thoughtful XD #lol idk I’m sorry guys #star wars #the bad batch #clone force 99 #do y’all actually want this idk #I will happily take requests on things you DO #requests are always open for blurbies or whatever :)#butt sticks are a real thing btw #that’s how I land mine XD #my writing #it’s a lil thing

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taltos-seidmadr · 5 years ago

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Okay so I just happened to be working on two playlists that had nothing to do with each other but coincidentally their common aesthetic was “unhinged“. And then suddenly, at a moment’s notice, a god more ancient than pagan beamed an understanding into my brain in a matter of something like 10 seconds and my third eye just opened so wide that it fell right out of my skull. NONE of you are ready for the forbidden knowledge that I’m about to unleash

I would like to point out that a). what one’s definition of “unhinged“ is, is a personal metric that is not only very subjective but doesn’t need to be made objective, and b). the names are just meant to be taken as examples, they are obviously limited to music that I could think of off the top of my head, and c). regardless of a) and b) the spectrum itself in essence is still factually accurate and transcends musical genres or personal tastes

Why yes, thank you for asking, I actually DO have a playlist with examples to illustrate my point, MOREOVER even working on an extended edition of the playlist where I welcome your recommendations of music that you consider to be unhinged.

A little bit more wordy explanation of my playlist under the cut.

First, the purest forms:

St. Anger by Metallica (I meant the whole album, but the titular song is as good as any) a good example of Vaporwave that I could find Elddansurin by Heilung (pretty much anything from Heilung, but this particular song is both short enough to prove the point succinctly and fucks)

I don’t have a lot to say about these, listen into them for a few seconds and you will get a good idea what each tip of the triangle really means.

The 50/50 forms:

Sexy + angry: Engin Miskunn [No Mercy] by Hatari Their perfectly balanced nature is heightened by the complementary duality of their vocals - Hatari is like a two-headed monster whose one head is trying to seduce you and the other is very, very angry. Though, that can also be seductive in it’s own way, if that’s your thing, I’m not judging. Hatari would certainly agree from what I would know. Their entire oeuvre is kinda like this, so here’s a fresh and sexy sexy song by them that, indeed, mercilessly slaps.

Angry + c̵͓̗̿͘u̶͈̾̍R̸̪̔͠s̸̖͙̀e̶̺͖̓d̴̦͂̎?̶̥͂͋ͅ,̷̟̀,: Good God by KoRn KoRn has always been famous for doing their extremely unhinged own thing, especially in their early days. This is not even their most unhinged song from the album that this song comes from, but i felt like this is a good intersection between accessible + illustrating the point.

Sexy + c̵͓̗̿͘u̶͈̾̍R̸̪̔͠s̸̖͙̀e̶̺͖̓d̴̦͂̎?̶̥͂͋ͅ,̷̟̀,: Грустная Сука [Sad Bitch] by IC3PEAK If you don’t know them already, allow me to introduce you to absolute embodiment of Feral Big Dick Energy music of IC3PEAK. This is their most famous banger but literally everything that they make sounds like this.

Perfectly balanced, master of the three elements, the avatar themselves:

Blue Mark by Altan Urag Exactly what it says on the tin tbh. I want to add that technically any combination of modern music genre + leaning into a folk music aspect in a feral way + strange vocalizations/instruments could fit this bill, but there is something specifically about Mongolian metal that makes me instantly regress into the genetic memory of an 1200 year old ancestor who was still backwards-riding a horse on the Eurasian steppes as a nomad warrior. So here’s a little Altan Urag. If you think Apocalyptica is cool, you will like this A LOT.

Mixed forms:

Crucify Me feat. Lights by Bring Me The Horizon 60% angry, 40% sexy I had to ask for the expertise of my sister on this, who literally grew up on screamo. Based on my limited experience, I think the cursed aesthetic is missing from this genre entirely by definition, though there might be some variation to that.

Holidays In The Sun by Sex Pistols 85% angry, 15% sexy The spiritual great-uncle of screamo, this genre is an almost pure manifestation of angry unhinged, but as opposed to early Slipknot, with more of a slight sexy streak.

Human Behaviour by Björk 90% sexy, 10% c̵͓̗̿͘u̶͈̾̍R̸̪̔͠s̸̖͙̀e̶̺͖̓d̴̦͂̎?̶̥͂͋ͅ,̷̟̀ For me personally, Björk plucks the blurred line between “normal“ and “unhinged“ like the string of a harp, just being a tiny little bit off-kilter enough to be categorized as such, which in itself ads an uncanny aura to her otherwise whimsical music.

Székely keserves [Transylvanian Lament] by Kodály Zoltán 80% sexy, 20% c̵͓̗̿͘u̶͈̾̍R̸̪̔͠s̸̖͙̀e̶̺͖̓d̴̦͂̎?̶̥͂͋ͅ,̷̟̀ Kodály is a Hungarian neoclassical composer. Not everything he wrote is like this, but he can lean into the cursedness surprisingly hard if the topic/emotion demands. Please enjoy his unhinged interpretation of a miserable folk song.

Very different genre, but same sexy to cursed ratio: Too late, all gone by How To Destroy Angels

I admit that I have zero idea who the big names are in contemporary jazz but I added the first thing that sounded similar enough to what I imagined in my head. Since fluidity and going off the rails is a big staple of jazz, I think the whole genre deserves the honor. Depending on song and performance I would rate it on average about 50+% sexy, ~30-40% cursed and up to ~15% angry.

What You Believe by Jonathan Davis 20% angry, 40% sexy, 40% c̵͓̗̿͘u̶͈̾̍R̸̪̔͠s̸̖͙̀e̶̺͖̓d̴̦͂̎?̶̥͂͋ͅ,̷̟̀ This is such an interesting example because the chorus is completely unironically normal but the verses inbetween are just so cursed in a peculiar way, making the song overall both extremely strange and SUPER catchy at the same time. To the point you’re almost feeling like you’re being somehow subliminally manipulated. Just don’t worry about it mate. Everything’s fine. It slaps.

Closer (Deviation) by Nine Inch Nails Not everything that they make would I consider unhinged, but Trent Reznor has a great flare to inject music with electronic effects that sound kinda bizarre, putting his work somewhere in the direction of ~30% angry, ~50% sexy and up to 20% cursed on average. I added the most unhinged song that I could think of, and possibly one of the most unhinged songs ever made. 50% sexy, 50% cursed and 120% gnawing on the walls levels of sexually frustrated. Very NSFW.

Bitches by Mindless Self Indulgence 30% angry, 30% sexy, 40% c̵͓̗̿͘u̶͈̾̍R̸̪̔͠s̸̖͙̀e̶̺͖̓d̴̦͂̎?̶̥͂͋ͅ,̷̟̀ MSI, within this spectrum at least, is almost exactly the same as Nine Inch Nails except that they are way more cursed leaning. They are also a pretty good illustration for the point that sexual topics and “sexy” unhinged as an aesthetic are two completely different things. NSFW.

Apex Predator by Otep 60% angry, 30% sexy, 10% c̵͓̗̿͘u̶͈̾̍R̸̪̔͠s̸̖͙̀e̶̺͖̓d̴̦͂̎?̶̥͂͋ͅ,̷̟̀ I don’t have a lot to add about this, but if you wanna hear a truly unhinged woman lead a band, then you’re going to have a field day with Otep. Enjoy to your heart’s content.

My Plague by Slipknot 85% angry, 15% c̵͓̗̿͘u̶͈̾̍R̸̪̔͠s̸̖͙̀e̶̺͖̓d̴̦͂̎?̶̥͂͋ͅ,̷̟̀ When Slipknot first entered the scene, I heard a lot of metalheads turn their noses up at their work for not being “heavy enough(?)“ whatever that even means, but I think that their earliest stuff is bravely unhinged in a way that seems entirely unique to them. Kinda like the sloppiest, dirtiest of punk, but in an intentionally unappealing, even disgusting manner. Early Slipknot shamelessly embraces the filth and that earns my respect, in a way (their later stuff unfortunately lost this quality but they still write good songs, I think?) You could listen to literally anything from their first album Iowa to get my point but to be seasonaI, I added a #quarantine mood to the playlist.

So that would conclude my introductory 101 tedward talk about unhinged music that literally nobody asked for but hopefully got you acquainted with some new music and/or ideas that you have never heard before!

#literally DO NOT ask me questions about music because i will IMMEDIATELY manifest into the conspiracy theory guy from always sunny #music #shamansongs #sithi's posts #text #the nine long nights #sithi reads

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phantom-le6 · 4 years ago

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Episode Reviews - Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 (6 of 6)

As we continue our run of episode reviews for Star Trek: The Next Generation, we now come to the last two episodes of season 5, beginning with the wide-acclaimed episode “The Inner Light.”

Episode 25: The Inner Light

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

The Enterprise finishes a magnetic wave survey of the Parvenium system and finds an unknown probe. The device rapidly scans the ship and directs an energy beam at Captain Picard, who collapses on the bridge and then wakes up to find himself on Kataan, a non-Federation planet. His wife, Eline, tells Picard that he is Kamin, an iron weaver recovering from a fever. Picard speaks of his life on the Enterprise but Eline and their close friend Batai try to convince Picard that his memories were only fever dreams and incorporate him into their society as Kamin. Picard begins living his life as Kamin in his village, Ressik, having children with Eline and learning to play the flute. Kamin spends much time outdoors and with his Dobsonian telescope studying nature. As years pass for him, he begins to notice that the drought is caused by increased radiation from the planet's sun. He sends reports to the planet's leaders, who seem to ignore his concerns.

On Enterprise, the crew continues attempts to revive Picard. They try to block the influence of the probe but Picard nearly dies, so they are forced to let it continue. They trace the probe's trajectory to a system whose sun went nova 1,000 years before, rendering life extinct in the system. Years pass and Kamin outlives Eline and Batai. Kamin and his daughter Meribor continue their study of the drought. They find that it is not temporary; the extinction of life on the planet is inevitable. Kamin confronts a government official who privately admits to him that they already know this but keep it secret to avoid panic. The official gravely points out to Kamin that they have only recently launched artificial satellites using primitive rockets: their race simply does not possess the technology to evacuate people before their planet is rendered uninhabitable.

One day, while playing with his grandson, Kamin is summoned by his adult children to watch the launch of a rocket, which everyone seems to know about except him. As he walks outside into the glaring nova light, Kamin sees Eline and Batai, as young as when he first saw them. They explain that he has already seen the rocket, just before he came there. Knowing that their planet was doomed, the planet's leaders placed memories of their society into a probe and launched it into space, in the hope that it would find someone who could tell others about their species. Picard realizes the context: "Oh, it's me, isn't it?", he says, "I'm the someone... I'm the one it finds", realizing that Kamin was the avatar they chose to represent their race.

Picard wakes up on the bridge of the Enterprise to discover that while he perceived many decades to have transpired, only 25 minutes have passed. The probe terminates and is brought aboard the Enterprise. Inside, the crew finds a small box. A somber Riker gives the box to Picard, who opens it to find Kamin's flute. Picard, now adept at the instrument, plays a melody he learned during his life as Kamin.

Review:

Apparently, this episode was created by combining two ideas. The first was Michael Piller wanting to do an episode where Picard lives a life he never really lived at all, and the second came from freelance writer Morgan Gendel wanting to do a story about Picard and Riker getting memories of a war beamed into their head in an anti-war story. After multiple re-writes, the two ideas end up combined in this episode, and yet both also later appear in other episodes within Trek. Picard ends up experiencing another life unlived in the episode ‘Tapestry’ in season 6 and within the Nexus during the film Star Trek: Generations, while the anti-war story would later be the centre of a Star Trek: Voyager episode.

Until I saw the episode synopsis on Wikipedia, I for one thought the memory dump concept was somehow not quite realised properly; I thought it would make more sense for Kamin’s memories to be dumped verbatim into Picard and he’d just play along with them right from the start of the alternate life. However, in actuality he’s not really getting a simple memory dump; rather, he’s living a kind of virtual reality simulation based on the collective memories of an alien world. As such, the issue then becomes why isn’t that explained more explicitly, and how did they manage that technical feat when they were barely getting rockets up into space? Basically, the containing premise for Piller’s idea sadly has a few technical flaws that slightly spoil the overall experience.

That all being said, this is a great episode, especially in-so-far-as it never tries to get the audience to buy into Picard’s virtual life being any kind of substitute for reality. There’s another TNG episode in one of the remaining seasons, and an episode of the Batman animated series from the same era that TNG was being made in, where the show seems to be trying to get us to buy into the idea that the reality of the show isn’t reality. Frankly, I hate episodes like that; once a show establishes what its reality is, that has to remain constant or I get very angry and lose interest. Reality is reality in all things, and while we might all perceive it differently, its most basic laws are immutable. Our sun, for example, always exists until such time as it may burn out; the coming and going of night time or clouds cannot alter this. A kettle will always boil water after a set period of time according to its design and will only truly take longer when its components start to fail; whether it is watched or not will only make it seem like it takes longer; it will not actually take longer.

Because the episode doesn’t ask us to buy into Picard’s alternate life ourselves, we can actually sit back and enjoy it, and it is an enjoyable episode in that Patrick Stewart delivers a great performance as Picard, and he is actually joined by his real-life son Daniel Stewart in this episode. It’s very much a character piece, though, so don’t go expecting any kind of issue exploration. The closest we get to that is inadvertent parallels between the on-going cover-up by the officials in Kaman’s life around the impending super-nova and how many people in real life react to the concept of climate change. However, that matters even less when you also consider that the experience does change Picard somewhat, and it’s good to see Next Generation create something that can be called back to. Even by the time of this episode, overarching continuity was something the show was reluctant to do, though the Deep Space Nine and Voyager spin-off shows would compensate for this.

So overall, we have a great episode that for me almost manages to hit a top score, but falls just short through the technical flaws of the memory dump, though not by much. My end score for this episode is 9 out of 10.

Episode 26: Time’s Arrow (Part 1)

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

The Enterprise is recalled to Earth on a priority mission regarding evidence of aliens on the planet 500 years before. They are shown a cavern near Starfleet Headquarters in San Francisco containing 19th century relics, and the disembodied head of Data. Investigation reveals cellular fossils native to the planet of Devidia II, indicating a race of shapeshifters were visiting Earth's past. The Enterprise leaves for the planet, taking Data's second head. Upon arrival they discover a temporal disturbance on the planet. Though no life forms are visible, Deanna Troi senses the presence of suffering humans. The crew determine that the aliens are slightly out of temporal phase with them. Data notes that his android body has a phase discriminator that would allow him to see the aliens. Captain Picard reluctantly allows him to join the away team. Data establishes a means of communicating what he sees to the rest of the crew while in temporal sync with the aliens. Once in phase with the aliens, Data describes them as absorbing strands of light from a device in the centre of the cavern, appearing otherwise benign. He describes two aliens entering a time portal, that he is drawn into. Data finds himself on Earth in San Francisco on August 11, 1893.

Data realizes he needs money to accomplish his goals. He wins a sizable amount beating card sharks at their own game in poker. Data takes up residence in a local hotel, befriending the bellhop (future author Jack London). Data claims to be a French inventor. He enlists London to acquire 19th century supplies under the pretense of building an automobile engine, when in fact Data is building a detector to find the aliens. Data sees a photo of Guinan, the bartender from the Enterprise, in a newspaper photo. He goes to a reception she will be attending, believing she also came back in time from the future. Data interrupts her speaking with Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), speaking to her as if she is from the 24th century, which spark's Clemens' curiosity. Speaking privately, it becomes clear to Data that Guinan is native to 1893 and has yet to meet the Enterprise crew. Clemens is discovered eavesdropping on this conversation, and he becomes determined to discover the truth behind Data and Guinan.

Meanwhile in the 24th century, the Enterprise crew has determined how to build a similar phase discriminator to Data's. This will allow them to see the aliens, and go back in time to rescue Data. Guinan convinces Picard to join the pending away mission, warning that otherwise Picard and Guinan will have never met at all. The away team activates the phase discriminator and see the aliens as Data described. The strands of light are human life forces, taken at the moment of death. The away team uses the time portal to travel back to investigate further and to hopefully find and save Data as well.

Review:

There’s not much to this episode; basically, TNG was trying to make sure that they ended on a cliff-hanger in order to quash rumours generated by the start-up of the DS9 spin-off series that Picard and his crew were on the way out. Now in some respects, there’s a lot of elements that certainly drum up interest. You’ve got the idea of Data going back in time to late 19th century Earth and potentially dying, an encounter with a past Guinan that present-day Guinan suggests is pivotal to her mysterious acquaintance with Picard, random time-travelling aliens and the curious ramifications of having Mark Twain thrown into the mix. The problem, however, is that beyond this there’s not much really going on. There’s not much character development and no issue exploration, creating a cliff-hanger that is more about plot than these other things. Granted, that’s a change of pace, but it’s not the stuff of great Trek. Hopefully part 2 compensates for this. Overall, I’d give this episode 7 out of 10.

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orbemnews · 4 years ago

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SpaceX Starship: New Tremendous Heavy booster noticed at Boca Chica base The newest SpaceX Starship prototype has obtained contemporary Raptor engines and is being readied for one more check firing earlier than a high-altitude check flight as early as this as we speak, Thursday, January 21. Newly-emerged pictures have revealed the Elon Musk-owned SpaceX manufacturing plant is already beginning to assemble a brand new Tremendous Heavy booster for its first Starship prototype. In line with its specs, Tremendous Heavy will grow to be the most important operational rocket stage ever created by greater than an element of two. This behemoth is charged with boosting the 5,000 ton (11 million lbs) Starship away from our planet’s environment. To realize this unparalleled feat Tremendous Heavy will ultimately be powered by as many as 28 of the newest SpaceX Raptor engines, producing as much as 7,700 metric tons (17 million lb) of thrust throughout launch. SpaceX head Elon Musk has famous Starship ought to ultimately be able to reaching orbit on a one-way journey. READ MORE: SpaceX launch LIVE stream: Learn how to watch newest Starlink launch Nonetheless, a monster booster corresponding to Tremendous Heavy is essential in sending Starship into an orbit with all of the requisite tech and cargo essential to make the orbital spaceship reusable. And standing greater than two-thirds as tall as SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket – and twice as heavy – this might be some achievement. Final month marked the debut look of Tremendous Heavy booster number one’s (BN1) frequent dome, ‘switch tube’ segments and an eight-Raptor thrust part. Mr Musk has lately revealed SpaceX intends to carry out a brand new ‘hop’ check on the BN1 Tremendous Heavy booster “just a few months” into the yr. The lengthy lens pictures make it troublesome to say with certainty the BN2 ahead dome’s add-on is hexagonal or octagonal, with consultants suggesting both design might technically be appropriate. Tremendous Heavy will almost definitely ultimately sport 4 equally-spaced grid fins, as with the Falcon 9 and Heavy boosters. These might be used to make sure each aerodynamic stability and management authority whereas transitioning from hypersonic to supersonic speeds. SpaceX graphics point out Tremendous Heavy’s grid fins might be constructed from welded metal. As a result of they’ll span roughly 23ft (7m) in size and every weigh at the very least 5 metric tons, they’ll require each immensely highly effective actuation techniques and robust structural help. The precise constructing of SpaceX’s first booster prototype can be making vital progress. SpaceX ended an uncharacteristically lengthy interval of obvious inactivity this week when the pioneering area firm was noticed stacking the primary Tremendous Heavy ring sections since November 2020. SpaceX technicians are thought to have put in both one or two four-ring sections on an present booster section contained in the excessive bay. if(typeof utag_data.ads.fb_pixel!=="undefined"&&utag_data.ads.fb_pixel==!0)!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()n.callMethod?n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments);if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)(window,document,'script','https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js');fbq('init','568781449942811');fbq('track','PageView') Supply hyperlink #Base #Boca #booster #Chica #Heavy #SpaceX #spotted #starship #Super

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perfectirishgifts · 5 years ago

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Chuck Yeager Remembered: Crazy Stories From A Supersonic Life

New Post has been published on https://perfectirishgifts.com/chuck-yeager-remembered-crazy-stories-from-a-supersonic-life/

Chuck Yeager Remembered: Crazy Stories From A Supersonic Life

(Original Caption) 1949-Captain Charles Yaeger besides Bell X-1 after first powered take off of … [] supersonic plane.

Aviation legend Charles “Chuck” Yeager passed away Monday evening in a hospital in Los Angeles.

The retired U.S. Air Force brigadier general is perhaps best remembered as the first man to have broken the sound barrier, a feat that he accomplished piloting a bright orange Bell X-1 rocket plane on October 14, 1947.

His portrayal by actor Sam Shepard in the 1983 film The Right Stuff, based on the novel by the same name by Tom Wolfe, cemented his status as a pop culture legend. (Yeager himself had a cameo as a bartender in the film—appropriate as he was by his own account a hard partier.)

However, Yeager’s adventures—and misadventures—went far beyond those deservedly famous episodes.

Yeager could have starred in his own “Behind Enemy Lines” film

Born in 1923, Yeager grew up in rural West Virginia. Enlisting in the U.S. Army Air Force two months prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he moved up from mechanic to flight training partially on account of his unusually good 20/10 eyesight.

Overcoming an initial bout of air sickness, Yeager soon demonstrated natural aptitude for flying. He started his fighter pilot career in the sleek P-39 Airacobra, one of which tried to kill him in November 1943 when its rear-mounted engine combusted. Yeager bailed out, but injured his back.

He finally saw combat early in 1944 flying a P-51 Mustang with the 363rd Fighter Squadron based in Leiston, England. The Mustang was exceptionally fast and maneuverable, and, when equipped with extra fuel tanks, it had the range to accompany strategic bombers all the way to Germany.

North American P-51B Mustang (Photo by © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Yeager named his P-51B “Glamourous Glen” after fiancée Glennis Faye Dickhouse, a California girl. But on his seventh combat mission, and a day after Yeager shot down his first enemy fighter over Berlin, cannon fire from a German Fw-190 fighter severed Glen’s elevator cables over Bordeaux, France.

Yeager parachuted into a pine forest to evade capture, managed to contact French Resistance fighters, and basically joined their ranks in a support role for several weeks, helping them make bombs to blow up bridges. Once the weather had improved, he finally embarked with a bailed-out bomber navigator on a lengthy trek across the Pyrenees mountains towards neutral Spain.

At one point he escaped a German patrol by sliding down a mountain on an improvised log slide. Then he carried the injured navigator up a mountain and performed field-surgery with a pen-knife, amputating a leg. Though Yeager later had to leave his comrade near a road, he was rescued and survived the war.

Meanwhile, Yeager surrendered to Spanish authorities. After a stint “imprisoned” in a luxurious hotel, was repatriated back to England. You can see Yeager’s official reports on his escape here.

Yeager actually named at least four different airplanes after his wartime sweetheart

Normally escaped pilots weren’t allowed to return to combat duty. Undeterred, Yeager successfully petitioned General Eisenhower in person to return to combat duty—dodging a Nazi V-1 cruise missile strike just before the meeting—and promptly named his new P-51C fighter Glamorous Glen II.

Yeager with his second Mustang, the P-51C Glamorous Glen II.

But Glen II was soon replaced by an improved P-51D named Glamorous Glen III. This featured a bubble canopy for better visibility, and beefed up armament from four to six .50 caliber machineguns. We’ll return to Glen III in a moment.

Chuck Yeager’s third Mustang fighter, the P-51D Glamorous Glen III. Note the underwing extra fuel … [] tanks and the 12 kill markings under the canopy.

After flying his last combat mission in January 1945, Yeager married Glennis in February. Then he went on to name the supersonic X-1 rocket plane after her as well, this time using her full name (“Glamorous Glennis”). The couple had four children and remained together until her death from cancer in 1990.

Captain Charles E Yeager standing next to the Air Force’s Bell X-1 supersonic research aircraft, … [] Muroc Army Air Force Base, California, October 1947. Yeager named it the Glamorous Glennis after his wife. He became the first man to fly faster than the speed of sound on October 14, 1947. (Photo by Underwood Archives/Getty Images)

In 1997 and 2002, Yeager also flew at supersonic speeds in F-15 Eagles named Glamorous Glennis in tribute to his X-1, although whether those count as his airplanes is debatable.

10/14/97.Edwards Airforce base, California, 50 years ago on 14th October 1947 Chuck Yeager broke the … [] sound barrier, now 50 years later to the minute Brig.Gen Chuck Yeager breaks it again an F 15

He became an ace in a day—and downed two German fighters without even shooting

Technically, a fighter “ace” refers to a pilot who has shot down at least five enemy aircraft in aerial combat. Only a minority of wartime pilots shoot down even one enemy airplane, let alone become an ace. But Yeager belonged to an even more exclusive club—he’s one of a few combat pilots to have become an ace in a single combat mission.

On October 12, 1944, he was flying Glen III as a free-ranging escort for a bomber squadron attacking Bremen when he spotted 22 German Me-109 fighters at a distance. Obscured by the glare of the sun, Yeager maneuvered his squadron into a chase position behind the unsuspecting German fighters.

(GERMANY OUT) World War II A Me 109 fighter plane of the German air force in flight – without … [] further details – around 1941 – Photographer: ullstein – Sobotta – (Photo by Sobotta/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

Yeager’s squadron had closed within 1,000 yards when the German pilots realized their predicament—and freaked out. One of the startled German rolled over and collided with his wingman, forcing both pilots to parachute out before anyone had even opened fire!

The West Virginian then continued his tear as described in his combat report:

I dropped my tanks and then closed up to the last Jerry and opened fire from 600 yards, using the K-14 sight. I observed strikes all over the ship, particularly heavy in the cockpit. He skidded off to the left. I was closing up on another Me. 109 so I did not follow him down. Lt. STERN, flying in Blue Flight reports this E/A on fire as it passed him and went into a spin.

I closed up on the next Me. 109 to 100 yards, skidded to the right and took a deflection shot of about 10°. I gave about a 2 second burst and the whole fuselage split open and blew up after we passed.

Another Me. 109 to the right had cut his throttle and was trying to get behind. I broke to the right and quickly rolled to the left on his tail…I got a lead from around 300 yards and gave him a short burst. There were hits on wings and tail section He snapped to the right 3 times and bailed out at around 18,000 feet…

Yeager attributed his success to a newly installed K-14 gyro-computing gunsight, which adjusted for the lead on a target based on an estimated range dialed in by the pilot. He concluded:

I claim Five Me. 109s destroyed. Ammunition Expended: 587 rounds .50 cal MG.

That was less than third of the typical ammunition loadout on a P-51D.

Yeager nearly repeated his ace-in-a-day feat in a November air battle in which he downed four more formidable Fw-190 fighters.

His final kill was scored against a superior Me-262 jet fighter. After narrowly dodging its powerful cannons, he swooped down on the much faster jet as it was attempting to land.

He had complicated feelings about his World War II service.

Over the course of 61 combat missions Yeager was credited with 12.5 air-to-air kills. But Yeager later wrote that he wasn’t proud of all aspects of his combat career, citing how his squadron was assigned to strafe “anything that moved” over a 50×50 mile sector in Germany to “demoralize the population.” He wrote in his autobiography:

“In war, the military will seldom hesitate to hit civilians if they are in the way, or to target them purposely for various strategic reasons… I’m certainly not proud of that particular strafing mission against civilians. But it is there, on the record and in my memory.”

Yeager broke the sound barrier with broken ribs

Two days before his scheduled supersonic flight in 1947, Yeager was riding a horse with his wife at night when he was tossed off and broke two ribs. Fearing his record-breaking flight would be canceled, he had a civilian doctor tape the ribs and did not inform his superiors. Still in pain on the day of his flight, his injury forced him to rely on a jury-rigged broom handle to seal the cockpit canopy.

Yeager wasn’t just a fighter pilot—he flew jet bombers over Vietnam

Between 1966 and 1968, Yeager commanded the 405th Fighter Wing, composed of five squadrons based in Taiwan, Thailand, The Philippines and Vietnam. These flew a diverse mix of aircraft. During that period, he went out of his way to log additional hours of combat flying time by joining the crews of B-57 Canberra jet bombers based in Phan Rang, Vietnam. The B-57s flew light attack missions targeting Viet Cong forces in South Vietnam.

A twin-jet B-57B light bomber.

Yeager later commanded the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing—an F-4 Phantom jet fighter unit—that was deployed to South Korea during the USS Pueblo crisis. He frequently flew down to Vietnam in his Phantom to visit his son, then serving in the U.S. Army.

He claimed a head-of-state ordered a hit on his personal airplane

Yeager could be a difficult personality at times—unsparing in his criticism and litigious later in life. And then there was the time he was convinced Indira Gandhi personally had it in for his personal light plane.

In the early 1970s President Nixon sought to deepen U.S. assistance to Pakistan as part of his secret campaign to create a diplomatic connection with China. At the request of the U.S. ambassador, Yeager was dispatched to Pakistan to advise its Air Force between 1971 and 1973—and promptly found himself in yet another shooting war.

On December 3, 1971, Pakistani jets launched a preemptive strike on Indian airbases due to an escalating conflict over the status of then-East Pakistan (modern Bangladesh). The Indian Air Force launched counter-strikes, including one targeting an airport near Islamabad on December 5.

A Hawker Hunter jet from IAF No. 20 squadron blew up Yeager’s Beech Queen Air twin-engine light plane on the tarmac. In a fiery meeting with his colleagues at the embassy, Yeager blamed Gandhi for the attack. He later wrote in his autobiography the attack was “…the Indian way of giving Uncle Sam the finger.”

Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi confers with President Nixon at the White House.

In fact, the Pakistani Air Force had evacuated its fighters from Islamabad airport prior to launching its attack—meaning that Yeager’s Beech Queen and a U.N. transport plane were likely the only targets the IAF pilot could find to attack.

He was a technical consultant on an acclaimed air combat video game.

In the 1980s most air combat videogames (*ahem* air combat simulators), like the excellent Their Finest Hour by Lucas Arts, used two-dimensional images for graphics.

Yeager, however, served as a technical consultant with future videogame behemoth Electronic Arts EA to produce Chuck Yeager’s Air Combat covering air battles in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

And the action all played out in chunky, un-textured but oh-so-three-dimensional polygons.

View from cockpit of an Fw-190 fighter striking a B-17 bomber in Chuck Yeager’s Air Combat.

What really made Air Combat so great was its emphasis on leveraging the characteristics of the various planes. A digitized Yeager would explain the historical context of various battles, which tactics to use against various aircraft matchups, and even shout advice mid-mission and chew you out if you failed. This was a dream come true for the 9-year-old author.

Comparison of the capabilities of the P-51D and Fw-190A fighter.

You can actually play the game for free in your browser to appreciate the state-of-the-art graphics, circa 1991.

He kept on flying supersonic aircraft at an age most people are comfortably installed in a retirement home.

On October 14, 2012, the 65th anniversary of his famous supersonic flight, Yeager flew to supersonic speeds a final time in the backseat of an F-15D fighter over the Mojave Desert. He was 89 years old at the time.

From Aerospace & Defense in Perfectirishgifts

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yoyoplisetsky · 8 years ago

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I’ve had a long past few weeks and been very busy, so technically this list is for like,,, 2 weeks, but I want to get back on track, so I’m pretending like it’s only for 1. Hopefully, starting next week, I’ll be able to read/write more frequently again. Hopefully? :) Anyway, I hope you enjoy the fics I liked “this week”. As always, please please send me suggestions if you have some ^^ Also this list is like 75% Nuri and Meg and I’m only half sorry for it. Also! This time I tried to link tumblrs as much as I could; pls tell me if you know a tumblr I didn’t link :)

What I Read This Week (7/2-7/9)

The Westchester Samba - FullmetalChords - @phoenixrei - Victor knew a lot of things about his fiancé. He knew that he loved dogs, especially poodles. He knew that he was allergic to dairy and had a special fondness for a Japanese dish called katsudon. He knew that he’d taken dance lessons when he was young, and that he’d thought of going pro before realizing that art theft was a lot more lucrative. He knew every mole, every scar, every stretch mark on his body, and had spent considerable time learning and worshipping each one. He knew his fears, and he knew his dreams. He did not, however, know his name. (My review: Probs my fave story in Meg’s thief au tbh)

patellofemoral pain syndrome (Ch. 1-2) - seventhstar - @pencilwalla - It’s just…does Viktor not get bored with doing it the same way every night? Doesn’t he want to spice things up? Is Yuuri being unreasonable? He’s pretty sure that if Viktor told him his performance in bed was unsatisfying his soul would flee his body for a more merciful plane of existence, but…Viktor is thicker-skinned than he is. And so here they are. Viktor’s bed is wide and soft, and Yuuri is lying there with wet hair and ratty boxers while Viktor absently trails kisses over his shoulder. It’s nice. It’s soft. It’s good. Viktor’s headboard is enormous and Yuuri keeps thinking about Viktor’s wrists bound to it, black rope over white skin. Fuck. He should say something. (My review: Nuri’s arthritis porn is A+++ everyone needs to read it okay?)

even sinners have hearts (Ch. 1-2) - seventhstar - @pencilwalla - Alexei Ivanov is watching Yuuri as he lifts the cup to his mouth. His lips part to drink; Yuuri has never wanted to be a mouthful of sake more. I have to kill him, Yuuri thinks, and he stands up and announces to the room the time and place of the tour he’s giving tomorrow. Or, the one where they're powered criminals in love. (My review: HOOOOOOOO BOY YOU KNOW WHAT I NEED? SOME TELEPATHY MM YES. YES. WRECK THEM NURI I MEAN YUURI)

Eros, and Other Love Stories - FullmetalChords - @phoenixrei - Eros. Yuuri understands it in theory, of course. He’s seen what must be hundreds of movies about the very topic, but never really understood them. Never understood why the protagonists of these films make such fools of themselves for sex, or why they fall head over heels in love with the first pretty face they see. He nods and smiles and sighs along with the rest of them… but he’s never related to those characters’ struggles. Not even a little. What is wrong with him?- - A character study of Japan's ace, Katsuki Yuuri. (My review: I sitll haven’t commented on this because I’m 8.2 million years behind on everything but w o w Meg’s ace!Yuuri blew me away. Unbelievable)

The Triple Lutz Job (Ch. 1-4) - FullmetalChords - @phoenixrei - Backed by the world's foremost hackers, grifters, and thieves, Victor Nikiforov works the other side of the law to fight against injustice on behalf of the underprivileged. When a woman asks for his help in retrieving stolen government data, Victor and his team infiltrate a local figure skating competition in order to take down a corrupt CEO. But beneath the ice's frigid beauty lurk many perilous secrets that may be more than even the world's greatest thieves can handle. (My review: IT’S ABOUT FSAJKFSING TIME I READ THIS MEG I’M DYING MEG’S OTABEK IS BEST OTABEK.)

Twice The Love For Yuuri - smutinator - @smutinator - Yuuri and Viktor go camping and end up having a three-way with Viktor's fairy doppelganger. (My review: Look, I always need more vyv. We all know that. Very well written and A+.)

Six Hours Ahead (Ch. 6-10) - alipiee - @alipiee - (In which Yuuri unknowingly befriends Viktor online and gushes to him about the living legend himself) (My review: Another story I was 50 years behind on. I love this super sweet au, and I live for Niki and Yuuri. It’s very cute and ccan’t wait for more)

never tasted rubies - ebenroot - @ebenroot - Phichit puts up a poll on the radio website. It reads ‘What Do U Think About Yuuri K. from Hasetsu Nights and the Mysterious Caller Victor?’ Seventy-five percent of listeners said ‘lol they should just f*ck already tbh’. -- in which Yuuri is an unwilling radio host and Victor won't stop calling in to chat with him (My review: I feel like I might hvae read this one before but ??? it’s???? so good??? Definitely a favorite in the fandom)

(Don't Stop) 'Til You Knock On My Door - FullmetalChords - @phoenixrei - “And…” Victor wets his lips. “You… want this?” A sly smile spreads across Yuuri’s face. “I want,” Yuuri says, putting his hands on Victor’s hips as he pulls him closer, “to give you what you need.” He brushes his thumbs over Victor’s hip bones. “Will you tell me what you need now?” -- Yuuri is ace. Victor is not. They both find a way to get what they need from each other. (My review: Ace!Yuuri feat. Viktor getting no control in his life for once because he fucking needs that sometimes. God, Meg killed me. Again.)

While you were sleeping - Chessala - @chessala - In which Yuuri falls into a Coma after saving Viktor's life and Viktor is having a hard time dealing with it. (My review: I shouldn’t have any room to say “this is so sad” with me also writing a mcd this week but also how dare you i loved it)

Reptiles - KasumiChou - @kasumi-chou - Yuri was over JJ spamming him pictures of his snakes. Snakes were not cool. No. Nope. Cats were one hundred times better. And then he finds out how hot Otabek looks with a snake around his neck. (My review: So I’m def super behind on Kas’s Twitter au, but she did this thing with snakes and I needed more. This is my fault. <3 u kas. I loved it)

The Virtue of Sin (Ch. 1) - DefiantDreams - @gia-comeatme - When Yuuri comes home to 7 demons, each embodying the 7 Deadly Sins, it’s honestly the least of his worries.Surprisingly, they help him get back on his feet, succeed in his career and get the man of his dreams.(But, as with anything, there is a price.) (My review: so I saw essa reblog this prompt and was immediately excited because a) i love essa and b) the prompt looked great and she did not let me down, excited for more!!)

How You Turned My World, You Precious Thing - cuttlemefish - @cuttlemefishwrites - Labyrinth-inspired (1986) AU. When Viktor’s sister dies in a car crash, he’s left to take care of his one-year-old nephew Yuri, despite barely knowing how to take care of himself. It’s too bad Viktor has accidentally wished Yuri away to the Goblin King, whose killer eye-shadow game and glitter storms are nothing compared to the Labyrinth protecting his castle. Now, Viktor has 13 hours to get Yuri back or he risks losing him forever to the Goblin King, who also has 13 hours to convince Viktor that forever is not long at all. (My review: the labyrinth au i didn’t know I needed until z started to write it - feat. baby yurio, goblin king yuuri, and clueless viktor who is definitely at fault for this)

What I Wrote This Week (7/2-7/9)

never stop remembering him - “The flight from Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow to Fukoka has gone down,” The loudspeaker was saying, and Viktor wished the ringing would return. “We have no word yet on the passengers or crew, but it is reported that an engine went out and couldn’t be recovered, and the plane crash landed. As we get more information on the flight, it will be reported. For now – “ They began to talk about other delays, but Viktor didn’t bother to listen, his heart feeling numb. He just had to remember to breathe. (Or: Yuuri dies after Rostelecom and what can Viktor do?)

#yoi fic rec #yuri on ice #yoi fic #fic rec #thishasbeencary #my fic

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geeksperhour · 5 years ago

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via Screaming Frog

I got a job offer to be an SEO Consultant for Screaming Frog while I was sat in a rather goofy graduation hat and gown.

My parents then humiliated me by running around telling all the other parents of my uni pals (who we’d literally just met for the first time) about how I now had some fancy job at Google.

Me coping with the realisation that I was going to be an SEO

That was five years ago this month, so now is an excellent time to put that history degree to good use (It cost me enough!) with some musings on how the SEO industry has changed in the last half-decade.

1. Becoming Lord of the SERPs Is Harder Than Ever

Google’s been following their own advice.

The search engine has been gradually expanding the content of results pages with more and more useful features. Their bounce rates must be at an all time low, with users increasingly finding everything they need within the SERP itself.

The age of ’10 blue links’ is long over.

And it’s not just the distracting new bits and pieces they keep adding, such as user-uploaded video-answers to questions about ginger:

Everything you ever wanted to know about ginger. RIP Ginger-Facts.com.

FAQ Mark-up below existing organic listings, as one example, can also be a killer for sites just off the first page:

Yuck.

Roast Agency do a really good list of all the possible SERP features, but honestly my finger aches trying to scroll down all of it, there’s just so many.

Paid placements are also increasingly chipping away at organic real estate- especially on mobile.

The shift in gear from ‘Sponsored Links’ in a big blue box, to the much more concise ‘Ad’ in a yellow box, to ‘Ad’ in a green box that is conveniently the same green as the URL in the snippet; has undoubtedly reduced our organic CTRs.

Does this mean SEO is dead? No.

It just means smart SEO is more necessary than ever- the huge opportunities for traffic and sales are still out there, they just require more brains and budget to access.

2. Link Building Got Wayyyyy Tougher

I have a confession to make.

Not all the content I made for links in 2015 was ground-breaking, newsworthy, data driven #content that shook up the media landscape, went viral, and built 2,000 DA 99 followed links.

Much of it was infographics, which are now synonymous with low quality ‘link bait’ content.

But that was okay, content back then didn’t have to set the world on fire.

Times have changed, and the big dogs are investing more of their Xmas TV ad budget into this whole ‘digital’ thing. This is starting to trickle down into SEO and link building- which is pushing standards up.

When a journalist has 400 press requests in their inbox, and many are well researched, innovative interactive assets; they are sadly unlikely to go for your infographic on the top 10 fictional books that appear in fiction.

Formats come and go, so innovation is key if you want to stay ahead.

Really scientific slide I presented to BrightonSEO about how link building tactics are getting more complex. You had to be there.

But that’s not to say you always need a huge interactive map to win big links. The story is what journalists are interested in. Even small brands with small budgets can be nimble, and outflank those glitzy campaigns you see from the big retail giants.

Outreach has changed a lot too.

You can’t just blast the same email to 200 journos, sit back, and watch the links flow in.

It’s a game of cat and mouse, and (sometimes frustratingly) we have to do the hard work for ’em by tweaking our content so that it’s bespoke and relevant for each publication.

The alliance between PRs and SEOs, especially at agencies, is stronger than ever. Agencies need personal people who can establish long term relationships with the key influencers in the right niches, as much as they need competent SEOs who can establish the right link building strategy for the client.

SF PR Manager Amy carries me every day.

Link building in 2020 is no easy feat, but it’s definitely still undervalued by a lot of brands. Work with the people who value it and you will still succeed.

3. Not Everything Has Changed

Despite the doom and gloom of those timely and well targeted yearly SEO prediction lists:

Google is still the dominant search engine.

Voice search still hasn’t transformed the landscape.

The Yahoo! Toolbar still exists.

Most content still isn’t video.

Users still trust organic results more than ads.

People still use ‘content is king’ in blog posts.

The Apple Watch didn’t transform local SEO… why would it have..?

The web isn’t 100% AMP and all held ransom in some dark Google-owned server.

There will come a time when SEOs no longer post memes on Twitter, but it is not this day.

You can’t (yet) automate good SEO.

I still have much to learn.

Hindsight still makes writing history easy.

Even in a global pandemic we keep getting results, attending virtual SEO conferences, and Friday beer o’clock is stronger than ever.

The Screaming Frog ‘Guess That WFH Desk!’ Quiz. Hours of fun.

4. Tech SEOs Have Had to Understand People Too

As with the macarena at the year 6 disco, algorithms are getting more complex, and so must our work to keep up with the crowd.

After real-time Penguin 4.0 launched in October 2016, Google’s fight against spam was largely over. They then turned their attention to improving how they understand website quality.

The speed and mobile friendliness revolutions have come and gone. Moves toward ‘page experience’ will be the next battleground, and this time they’ve been kind enough to give us a heads-up.

SEOs need to go beyond reviewing copy and 301 redirects if they want to stay ahead of the game.

We now need to be working with in-house marketing teams, designers, and developers to ensure that site design moving forward not only satisfies technical best practices, but also improves on what’s offered by competing sites to deliver a superior experience for users.

Searcher intent too, especially post-Medic Update, is an area that Google’s gotten much better at.

Through properly researching what sort of content is ranking for generic keywords that were previously exclusively ‘commercial’ or ‘informational’, we can do a better job of serving users exactly what they’re after.

Google often discuss the importance of ‘Micro-Moments’, which are the most crucial ways users interact with search before they take an action which might be beneficial to your business. There are four main micro-moments that Google highlights:

I want to know- about ways I can find love

I want to do- a course on writing persuasive text for billboards

I want to buy- a billboard to advertise that I’m single

I want to go- to the best bar in town with my date

If you’re only going for landing pages around ‘I want to buy’ then you’re missing out on a lot of your potential customer’s time and attention.

Google have always pushed that we should build sites for users. Previously you could skirt around this with black/grey hat techniques- but in 2020 it’s next to impossible to see long-term success without just focusing on what will make users happy.

5. You’re (Still) All A Bunch of Legends

This list has been a little depressing.

But the only reason SEO is becoming more challenging is because everyone in the industry is maturing and getting smarter.

And that’s largely due to the crazy amount of collaboration and support given out, even amongst rival agencies and freelancers.

Whether it’s detailed analysis, actionable advice, creative inspiration, inclusive career support, or ideas for blog posts to rip off, SEOs have always gone above and beyond to support each other. And a lot of it is free.

(But no, I will not update this post to give you a link. That’s where I draw the line.)

Frogs after a long day of drinking up knowledge at our fave conference

My IT teacher told 15 yr old me: “Most of you lot will have jobs that haven’t been invented yet.”

At the time I thought that was nonsense, but now I am a (Senior) Search Engine Optimisation Manager. That was never a thing before!!

For a young industry with not much in terms of ‘official’ recognition, it’s humbling to see the staggering amounts of resources, talks, and blogs available to help newcomers learn and improve on what has been written already. I can only imagine where we’ll be in another five years time. Especially on the meme front.

My dad’s an accountant. Can you imagine a bunch of accountants on Brighton pier sharing ideas over a beer?

Neither can I.

The post Five Ways SEO Has Changed In the Last Five Years appeared first on Screaming Frog.

#IFTTT #Screaming Frog

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dorcasrempel · 5 years ago

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MIT research on seawater surface tension becomes international guideline

The property of water that enables a bug to skim the surface of a pond or keeps a carefully placed paperclip floating on the top of a cup of water is known as surface tension. Understanding the surface tension of water is important in a wide range of applications including heat transfer, desalination, and oceanography. Although much is known about the surface tension of fresh water, very little has been known about the surface tension of seawater — until recently.

In 2012, John Lienhard, the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Water and Mechanical Engineering, and then-graduate student Kishor Nayar SM ’14, PhD ’19 embarked on a research project to understand how the surface tension of seawater changes with temperature and salinity. Two years later, they published their findings in the Journal of Physical and Chemical Reference Data. This spring, the International Association for the Properties of Water and Steam (IAPWS) announced that they had deemed Lienhard and Nayar’s work an international guideline.

According to the IAPWS, Lienhard and Nayar’s research “presents a correlation for the surface tension of seawater as a function of temperature and salinity.” The announcement of the guideline marked the completion of eight years of work with dozens of collaborators from MIT and across the globe.

“This project grew out of my work in desalination. In desalination, you need to know about the surface tension of water because that affects how water travels through pores in a membrane,” explains Lienhard, a world leading expert in desalination — the process by which salt water is treated to become potable freshwater.

Lienhard suggested Nayar take measurements of seawater’s surface tension and compare the results to the surface tension of pure water. As they would soon find out, getting reliable data from salt water would prove to be incredibly difficult.

“We had thought originally that these experiments would be pretty simple to do, that we’d be done in a month or two. But as we started looking into it, we realized it was a much harder problem to tackle,” says Lienhard.

From the outset, Nayar hoped to get enough accurate data to inform a property standard. Doing so would require the uncertainty in the measurements to be less than 1 percent.

“When you talk about property measurements, you need to be as accurate as possible,” explains Nayar. The first hurdle he had to surmount to achieve this level of accuracy was finding the appropriate instrumentation to make reliable measurements — something that turned out to be no easy feat.

Measuring surface tension

To measure the surface tension of water, Lienhard and Nayar teamed up with Gareth McKinley, professor of mechanical engineering, and then-graduate student Divya Panchanathan SM ’15, PhD ’18. They began with a device known as a Wilhelmy plate, which finds the surface tension by lowering a small platinum plate into a beaker of water then measuring the force the water exerts as the plate is raised.

Nayar and Panchanathan struggled to measure the surface tension of salt water at higher temperatures. “The issue we kept finding was once the temperature was above 50 degrees Celsius, the water on the beaker evaporated faster than we could take the measurements,” Nayar says.

No instrument would allow them to get the data they needed — so Nayar turned to the MIT Hobby Shop. Using a lathe, he built a special lid for the beaker to keep vapor in.

“The little lid Kishor built had accurately cut doors that allowed him to put a surface tension probe through the lid without letting water vapor get out,” explains Lienhard.

After making progress on obtaining data, the team suffered a massive setback. They found that barely visible salt scales, which formed on their test beaker over time, had introduced errors to their measurements. To get the most accurate values, they decided to use fresh new beakers for every single test. As a result, Nayar had to repeat nine months of work just prior to his master’s thesis being due. Fortunately, since the main problem was identified and solved, experiments could be repeated much faster.

Nayar was able to redo the experiments on time. The team measured surface tension in seawater ranging from room temperature to 90 degrees Celsius and salinity levels ranging from pure water to four times the salinity of ocean water. They found that surface tension decreases by roughly 20 percent as water goes from room temperature toward boiling. Meanwhile, as salinity increases, surface tension increases as well. The team had unlocked the mystery of seawater surface tension.

“It was literally the most technically challenging thing I had ever done,” Nayar recalls.

Their data had an average deviation of 0.19 percent, with a maximum deviation of just 0.6 percent — well within the 1 percent bound needed for a guideline.

From master’s thesis to international guideline

Three years after completing his master’s thesis, Nayar, by then a PhD student, attended an IAPWS meeting in Kyoto, Japan. The IAPWS is a nonprofit international organization responsible for releasing standards on the properties of water and steam. There, Nayar met with leaders in the field of water surface tension who had been struggling with the same issues Nayar had faced. These contacts introduced him to the long, rigorous process of declaring something an international guideline.

The IAPWS had previously published standards on the properties of steam developed by the late Joseph Henry Keenan, professor and one-time department head of mechanical engineering at MIT. To join Keenan as authors of an IAPWS standard, the team’s data needed to be verified by measurements conducted by other researchers. After three years of working with the IAPWS, the team’s work was finally adopted as an international guideline.

For Nayar, who graduated with his PhD last year and is now a senior industrial water/wastewater engineer at engineering consulting firm GHD, the guideline announcement made the long months collecting data well worth it. “It felt like something getting completed,” he recalls.

The findings that Nayar, Panchanathan, McKinley, and Lienhard reported back in 2014 are broadly applicable to a number of industries, according to Lienhard. “It’s certainly relevant for desalination work, but also for oceanographic problems such as capillary wave dynamics,” he explains.

It also helps explain how small things — like a bug or a paperclip — can float on seawater.

MIT research on seawater surface tension becomes international guideline syndicated from https://osmowaterfilters.blogspot.com/

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watchilove · 5 years ago

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Four years after unveiling the X-TREM-1 timepiece, the watchmaker from Le Locle reveals two new versions in blue damascened steel, issued in 8-piece limited edition – the Christophe Claret X-TREM-1 Blue Damascus. X-TREM-1, the first of a generation of exceptional timepieces, represents a major technical and aesthetic accomplishment: a flying tourbillon inclined at a 30° angle, mounted on a three-dimensional curvex titanium mainplate, equipped with a retrograde hours and minutes display system that is radically different from existing watchmaking conventions. Two tiny hollowed steel spheres, isolated within sapphire tubes on the left and right sides of the caseband, magically move with no mechanical connection thanks to magnetic fields.

Christophe Claret X-TREM-1 Blue Damascus MTR.FLY11.180-188

Technics

The Extreme Complications Watches line certainly deserves its name. It expresses Christophe Claret’s determination to continue pushing the boundaries of mechanical watchmaking, integrating certain fields of research never previously applied in this domain. X-TREM-1 is a fine example of this approach that involves using a system driven by magnetic fields display the hours and minutes.

The challenge was bold and some might say a little crazy: How could someone possibly think about introducing a magnetic field – the arch enemy of horological mechanisms – into the heart of a watch? The Christophe Claret team has done just that by creating a system where two small steel spheres – hollowed to make them lighter and encased within two sapphire tubes placed to the right and left of the caseband – are controlled by precision magnetic fields generated by two miniature magnets moved by cables. The cables are incredibly flexible, made from hundreds of Dyneema nanofibers all contained within an ultra-high-strength polyethylene gel, capable of withstanding tensile forces of up to a kilo. The entire thread is thinner than a human hair (4 hundredths of a mm in diameter). The resistance of the thread has been tested in the Manufacture Claret on an accelerated-wear simulator corresponding to 60 years of operation.

The spheres have no mechanical connection with the movement, with each one floating inside the two tubes and creating outstanding horological magic. The mastery of magnetism, which allowed this feat was developed in partnership with the School of Business and Engineering Vaud (HEIG-VD) in Yverdon-les-Bains, and a team headed by Professor Besson.

The entire construction and finishing of this timepiece meets the extreme demands systematically imposed by Christophe Claret. Ultra-light titanium was used for the three-dimensional curvex mainplate and the bridges. The flying tourbillon is fitted with double ceramic bearings to enhance its shock-resistance. It is inclined at a 30-degree angle in order to make it even more clearly visible to the wearer. The hand-wound watch draws its energy from two barrels enabling the use of a sophisticated display without disturbing the rate of the tourbillon, and thus the accuracy of the watch. The first barrel is reserved for the tourbillon, the second for the hours and minutes.

The pleasing aesthetic alliance between Blue PVD titanium and blue PVD damascened steel

Driven as ever by a determination to present avant-garde timepieces, PVD-treated grade 5 titanium and damascened steel were the metals chosen to make the case of this new version of the X-TREM-1.

A keen student of history, Christophe Claret felt it would be an interesting exercise to craft the case of the X-TREM-1 – the most innovative and contemporary model in his collection – from damascened steel produced using ancestral methods. This material was first made in the Caucasus around 2500 BC, soon after the discovery of iron, and subsequently spread throughout Europe as well as to Asia. Entirely forgotten during the Middle Ages, it was rediscovered by the Crusaders. Weapons equipped with extremely sharp damascened blades were long considered the finest in the world. After a further period of neglect, this type of steel reappeared under Napoleon and was used to make gun barrels around the mid-19th century. It has been consistently used in Asia, and Japanese samurai warriors made their katana swords from this material combining the suppleness of the blade with an extremely hard cutting edge. Its resistance in combat gave them a significant tactical advantage over their enemies.

Damascened steel is traditionally produced by layer-assembling two types of steel. Several successive forging and folding steps result in a piece of metal that may comprise several hundreds of layers. This extremely technical high-end alloy boasts excellent properties: a homogenous structure, pure material, as well as extreme resistance to corrosion and shocks. For this new X-TREM-1 model, the grades of steel used are 316L and 304L. The difficulty lay in introducing gold or lacquer into damascened steel for the time indication, and the second challenge involved actually machining the case from the extremely resistant damascened steel, and especially to develop specific tools, capable of machining the damask composed of two different stainless steels.

The many details that make a difference and contribute to giving this model its strength, the stainless steel sphere that have an ultra hard orange treatment, contrasting the display of time by its bright color.

This X-Trem-1 edition is produced in an 8-piece limited edition.

Christophe Claret considers the creation of each object as a collective challenge that takes shape by dint of passion and perseverance, along with a significant measure of emotions and dreams. He is never happy just to redo something that has already been done. The brand is resolutely dedicated to technological innovation and never hesitates to venture off the beaten track in its quest to offer unprecedented ways of reading the time.

An interesting historical side note

In The Talisman, a romanticized account of the Crusades in Palestine, Sir Walter Scott tells the story of an encounter between Richard the Lionheart and Sultan Saladin. The two adversaries boasted of the respective qualities of their swords. To show the resistance of his heavy sword that he wielded with two hands, Richard sliced through a steel bar. In response, Saladin drew his Damascus steel scimitar across a silk cushion and “the cushion fell apart without even half sinking under the touch of the Sultan’s blade. It seemed almost to separate itself.” The stunned Europeans were thinking it might be a trick, when Saladin gave a further demonstration by splicing in two a supple silk veil that he held in the air. Walter Scott describes the Saracen’s weapon as ideally sharp and maneuverable, “a curved and narrow blade, which glittered not like the swords of the Franks, but was, on the contrary, of a dull blue color, marked with ten millions of meandering lines. “

Christophe Claret X-TREM-1 Blue Damascus Technical Specifications

Référence: MTR.FLY11.180-188, 8- piece limited series

Movement

Calibre: FLY11 – mechanical, hand-wound movement

Dimensions: 26.6 x 46.4 x 11.94 mm

Number of components: 419

Number of jewels: 64

Power reserve: 50+ hours

Barrels: Dual barrels: one for the movement gear train, one for the time indications

Escapement:

Swiss lever

Frequency: 3 Hz (21,600 vph)

Tourbillon rotates once every 60 seconds

Flying tourbillon inclined at 30° supported by a double ceramic bearing, with cone-shaped pinion transmission

Functions

Mystery hours and minutes displayed with indications provided by hollowed steel spheres moving 23 mm inside two cylindrical sapphire tubes. The metal spheres are driven by magnetic carriages following a thread.

Seconds displayed on the tourbillon cage

Movement state-of-wind indication

Fast time adjustment is via an integrated pusher on the caseband at 12 o’clock

Quick time correction per pusher at 12 o’clock (Tboard Key)

Distinctive features

Use of precisely-shaped magnetic fields in a mechanical movement

No mechanical connection between time indications and the movement

Winding and time-setting via lift-out rotating “bows” on caseback

Skeletonized barrel

Case

Rectangular with curvex profile

Dimensions: 40.80 x 56.82 x 15 mm

Water resistance: 2 ATM / 20 m / 67 ft

Material

Titanium PVD Blue and damascened steel blue

Spheres Orange-colored stainless steel

Strap

Blue alligator

Price in Swiss Francs (ex VAT) : 268’000.-

Christophe Claret X-TREM-1 Blue Damascus MTR.FLY11.180-188

Christophe Claret X-TREM-1 Blue Damascus Four years after unveiling the X-TREM-1 timepiece, the watchmaker from Le Locle reveals two new versions in blue damascened steel, issued in 8-piece limited edition - the…

#Blue Damascus #Christophe Claret #Christophe Claret X-TREM-1 #Christophe Claret X-TREM-1 Blue Damascus #news #Press release #X-TREM-1 Blue Damascus

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thelmasirby32 · 5 years ago

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Quantum supremacy and nine SEO trends that’ll flip 2020 on its head

Get ready because SEO trends will undergo revolutionary changes in 2020. Make sure you are on the side that embraces this revolution, rather than the one that resists it.

Google has achieved “Quantum Supremacy”, this means that they have built a quantum computer capable of performing tasks that would take modern-day supercomputers 10’s of thousands of years to accomplish.

In 2020 Google will start using these new breakthroughs for commercial purposes. This will make Google’s search algorithm exponentially more powerful since the quantum processor is fully programmable and can run general-purpose quantum algorithms and machine learning applications.

I know, scary, right.

Quantum Supremacy might affect SEO in several ways:

Making search more relevant

New tactics to overcome black hat SEO

Lightning fast and reactive algorithmic updates

Rankings that are truly based on relevancy and merit of website content (instead of backlinks)

Dramatically change Google Image search results

This is just one aspect of the future of SEO, let’s talk about the rest.

1. NLP oriented content

Google just released a new update in October of 2019 called BERT (which is based on NLP), which has impacted the ranking of more than 10% of queries in Google.

What is NLP?

In computer science, natural language processing (NLP) is a field in machine learning which focuses on the ability of a computer to understand, analyze, manipulate, and potentially generate human language.

Bonus

Do you want to learn about the basics of NLP? This paper from Stanford University can surely help.

Furthermore, NLP is changing the landscape of businesses since it has the ability to extract critical information from unstructured data (mainly in the form of invoices, online customer chats, emails, or any plain text).

BERT is a deep learning model in NLP used to analyze large bodies of text to provide interesting results and insights to users. The best part is that it’s open-source, which means anyone with Python experience can train the model.

If you’re interested in learning more BERT then check out this official explanation of BERT from Google.

This breakthrough has the capability to understand a sentence based on concepts, intent, and context (not solely on keywords). Moreover, It looks at words that come before and after a sentence when understanding context.

In a nutshell, what makes BERT different is its bi-directional approach that wasn’t implemented in the preceding algorithms of Google, like Word2Vec and GloVe.

Let’s understand it with an example

Sentence-A: The man went to the shop.

Sentence-B: He bought a PlayStation 5.

Label: IsNextSentence

BERT can perceive the relationship between Sentence-A and Sentence-B based on the word ‘the man’ and ‘He’ and ‘the shop’ and ‘PlayStation 5’. Previous algorithms couldn’t understand the left and right context in sentences.

Thanks to BERT, Google can now understand longer queries better than before. Moreover, it can detect the opposite as well. Have a look at the below example:

Sentence-A: The man went to the shop.

Sentence-B: Google is changing the gaming industry.

Label: IsNotNextSentence

Sentence-A and Sentence-B have no relationship, and they are entirely dissimilar.

But what is BERT’s takeaway?

There is no official explanation from Google, but according to the real SEO experts like Bill Slawski and Ryan Jones, who have been in the SEO industry for more than ten years, you should ignore advice from so-called SEO experts.

Are you thinking BERT can’t be implemented practically until you are a Python geek?

Boy, do I have some news for you.

Let me show you the Google NLP API tool that you can use to optimize your content.

This tool helps businesses identify unique entities from invoices, live chats, emails, or any plain text.

The part I love about this tool is that it can recognize your content against your competitors’ content and Google is using the same technology in ranking websites.

Follow the steps

Go to Google NLP Tool that looks like this:

Type anything that comes to mind. I’ve input my author bio and clicked Analyze.

This powerful tool shows four critical sections: Entities, sentiments, syntax, and categories – each section has significance for understanding content.

As it’s evident, in the ‘entities’section, Google can understand ‘Ata Khan’ is the name of a person. Entities can be the name of any person, a place, an organization, a number, and so on. Google is rapidly growing its entity library.

In ‘sentiment’, Google can understand the context of any sentence from being positive to negative.

‘Syntax’ is the technical part of language forms the grammatical structure of sentences.

The ‘categories’section is my favorite part which lets you know if your content is written for the right industry or not.

Let me explain all this with an example

Type your keyword that you want to rank for in Google. I’ve used the keyword “Best Smartphones 2019”. I opened the site that was ranking for the number one position and copied the content.

I then pasted into Google NLP. Now comes the best part, you can check whether you’re writing for the right industry or not.

Paste your content into the box to compare the results with your competitors’ content.

You should aim for a confidence score of 90% or higher in the industry you want to rank for.

But what happens when it doesn’t show the right industry? Double-check to see if you are using industry buzzwords and words used y by experts in your field (by observing the content ranked by Google).

Want to see an example of why Google ranks the ‘Car Movie’ Wikipedia page?

The reason is simple – the page contains words that are all related to movies, words like :

Director

Producer

Screenplay

Actor

The secret to a better ranking is to include as many entities as possible in your content, as per Bill Slawski.

2. SEO semantic HTML

Semantic HTML is a crucial part of SEO which most marketers ignore.

What saddens me is that most companies hire web developers that don’t have any SEO experience. This, of course, presents huge problems down the road.

I believe every good developer should know SEO, primarily technical SEO (which helps earn better rankings in search engines).

Below is a developer’s style of writing code that doesn’t possess SEO skills

<html>

<head>

<title>Example</title>

</head>

<body>

Here goes logo, navigation, etc.

</div>

A place for website’s main content

</div>

Footer information, links, etc.

</div>

</body>

</html>

Now, look at the below code, which is perfectly written for SEO. It has <title>, <main>, <p>, and <footer> that aids Google in identifying important elements on the page.

<html>

<head>

<title>Example</title>

</head>

<body>

Here goes logo, navigation, etc.

</header>

<main>

<p>A place for website’s main content</p>

</main>

Footer information, links, etc.

</footer>

</body>

</html>

What is the main advantage? Semantic HTML helps in getting a featured snippet of your website on search results pages.

According to my research, most featured snippets are taken from the <p> element.

Look at this keyword “Why people fall in love”.

Now take a look at the HTML version of the answer.

What do you find? The featured snippet is taken from within a <p> tag element.

Unfortunately, I’ve seen businesses hiring writers who don’t have any basic knowledge of HTML and end up publishing content that doesn’t rank well.

They write on Microsoft Word or Google Doc, and they use different features to make an article look better, but at the cost of poor HTML structure.

Need a real example?

Take an article written in MS Word and I paste it into the visual editor of WordPress. It looks something like this:

Such a messy code isn’t likely to be featured as a snippet by Google.

3. Schema implementation

As of November, 45% of websites on the internet don’t use Schema at all.

This is a great opportunity to increase your organic traffic as few businesses are utilizing this great traffic source.

And here’s what a search listing with featured snippets look like:

You can mark up any information with schema tags that are relevant to your business, such as reviews, ratings, and prices as compared to normal snippets which only contain a title, URL, and meta description. The greatest benefit of utilizing rich snippets is that they attract more clicks because of the larger real estate they take when displayed on SERPs (as well as providing additional useful information for searchers).

For some people, the implementation of schema tags appears to be a daunting task…But it’s not! Google tag manager makes this process very easy. Check out this tutorial which breaks down schema tag implementation step by step.

4. Voice search

Voice search is becoming more useful to users because it’s more personalized. Now, you can talk to your personal assistance as if it were a real human.

SEOs have been talking about voice search for a decade, but they still don’t know how to optimize their content for it.

If you want to be picked up by Google Assistant, you need to optimize for featured snippets because more than 40.7% of the voice searches are taken from featured snippets, according to Backlinko.

Why is voice search the future?

The reason is simple…people have become lazy. People love to shop online. And people love to chat with friends instead of meeting at a physical location.

So how do you optimize your featured snippets to be presented in Google Voice Search? Simply write the answer to the question but be sure that specific words from the questions are mentioned.

Need an example?

Look at the keyword below. The words in the question are included in the answer. This has helped to get the snippet featured.

Featured snippets may contain:

Paragraphs

Numbered lists

Bullet lists

Table featured snippets

Youtube snippets

You should try to use as many of these formatting types when writing your answers. Check out this detailed guide on getting featured snippets picked up by voice search.

5. The speed update

This is a pretty common trend, so why did it make this list? Because despite Google addressing its importance, corporations continue to ignore it.

So what has Google done so far?

Made speed a ranking factor.

Investing time and money on AMP technology across Google.

Built the new speed feature in Google Search Console.

The latest chrome version now labels slow websites with a “shame” badge.

So why is Google coming down hard on page speed optimization? Does it really matter? Well, Amazon is a great example of the importance of page speed optimization. They found that every 100ms of latency cost them1% in profit – that’s a staggering $4 million dollars in sales.

That’s a tenth of one second! Imagine what Amazon could achieve if it increases its speed by 1 second!

Ever wonder why this happens? It’s because our brain makes decisions in milliseconds, not seconds.

6. Creating branded queries

Branded queries are a direct sign of your business’ credibility since users are searching for your brand name in Google.

According to the ranking factors report by Brian Dean, branded search is a ranking factor.

The founder of Backlinko has created an astounding SEO blog that has become a brand in the SEO industry.

These branded queries provide a hint to Google that users love their blog which has helped them gain higher positions in the SERPs.

Have a look at the below Google Analytics report, 40% of monthly traffic is coming from returning visitors. It’s become a brand.

Moreover, you can also use Google Search Console to see your branded search queries by clicking New>Query>Type your website name>Apply from the Performance Report.

But the real question is how will you make your website a brand?

There is no secret. You’ll need to focus on providing excellent content to your audience that no one else can provide.

According to my experience, blogs with their own unique voice and personality (that no other blog can replicate) have the highest chances of becoming a brand.

Here are some tips to make your blog a brand:

Keep the website name easy to pronounce, easy to spell, and easy to speak.

The shorter the domain, the better (and .coms are best).

Promote your brand name on social media like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Write your own unique content. Branded topics perform substantially better than non-branded ones (like the “Skyscraper Technique” by Backlinko).

Survey your visitors and customers to understand what they need from your industry.

7. Cumulative optimization

Cumulative optimization is the process of continually optimizing your website and pages until you achieve your goals. The idea is that you never stop making improvements and analyzing your customers’ needs and wants.

Let’s talk about a case study by Ahrefs.

Ahrefs attempted to rank number one for the keyword “free backlink tool”, but they failed. The webpage kept at the 8th position on the SERP despite them doing the following:

On-page SEO

Page speed optimization

Image optimization

Internal linking

Paid traffic

Guest posting

The first rule of optimizing is to ask the question, why are you optimizing in the first place? Maybe you’re not getting the rankings you deserve, maybe you’re not generating sales, or maybe it’s something else. Whatever it is, make a note of it.

Once you’ve identified your issue, you need to type your keyword into Google and observe the top-ranking pages. Specifically, you should observe:

On-Page SEO with comprehensive content analysis

Off-Page SEO with no-follow and do-follow backlink breakdown

Ahrefs recognized that the top-ranked pages were providing backlink tools free of cost, but Ahrefs’ cost seven dollars (as a trial demo).

A week within the day Ahrefs made their backlink tool-free (which allowed anyone to check the backlinks of any website – along with other useful information), Ahrefs gained the number one ranking. They didn’t create a new page, they simply updated their existing page.

That’s why if you’re not getting the desired ranking for your page you’ll need to audit the page and find out what you lack that could be holding you back.

8. Video SEO

Businesses that utilize the power of video marketing get 49% more revenue year-over-year than those that don’t.

The reason? People love watching videos.

Leading blogs in the SEO industry like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Backlinko focus on making videos to generate quality leads.

Small businesses don’t focus on making video due to it being expensive But thanks to freelancing platforms it’s become cheaper these days. Moreover, you can use video tools that can help you further to create engaging videos.

You’ll need to understand that making videos on just any topic isn’t an effective way of video marketing (you must fuel it with keyword research).

Keyword research is a crucial step in finding topics that can be picked by YouTube and Google.

You can also find great topics on YouTube. Go to any channel in your industry, click “Sort By”, and choose “Most Popular”. You’ll end up with a list of topics that are popular – create videos for those.

Another fantastic way to find topics is by YouTube Search Predictions.

*Note – Do you want to copy the keywords from the suggest list all at once without any tool? Click on “Report search predictions” at the bottom of the suggestions list. It will pop up like this:

Once you do that there will be an option to select all keywords and copy.

Are you eager to make successful videos? Follow these tips:

You have five seconds to persuade users to keep watching your video.

Retention is a ranking factor. If you are getting more views, but only a few users are watching the entire video.

Most of the views on YouTube come from suggestions. It means you need to invest time to make a good thumbnail to attract users.

Invest in writing a script. Nothing can beat a good script. As an example to learn, watch the best videos in your niche and download subtitles.

9. E-A-T centric website

E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness – three factors help Google whether to trust a site.

Recent Google algorithms have penalized many health sites because misleading health information can lead to the death of a person. Many blogs hire cheap writers to write thin content and then rank those blogs with black hat techniques.

Google hired more than 10,000 search quality raters to discover thin websites, and they follow the instructions mentioned in the official PDF.

Every SEO should read this entire document to have a better understanding of the future of SEO.

Healthline strictly follows the instructions in the document and gets traffic in millions.

But how?

As we know, “Expertise” is the number one element. Healthline only hires professionals who are experts in their niche.

The second element is “Authoritativeness”. Healthline provides strong references to prove the authenticity of a topic.

“Trustworthiness” is the third element and it looks at the website’s UX and UI, age of the website, reputation on social media and online reviews.

It indicates when you should focus on:

Hiring expert writers in your niche. Not all writers are equal. If you write yourself, make sure you follow the E-A-T rule with an impressive author bio.

Must have an “About Us” page to show your testimonials from clients, awards, and qualifications.

Content should be written to help users, not Google. If you make your users happy, Google will reward your website with higher rankings.

Wrapping up

SEO trends keep changing with the advent of machine learning and artificial intelligence, but the main mission of Google remains the same – to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

So don’t let your competitors have all the fun. Execute these aforementioned SEO trends and watch your site climb the ranks.

Here is a short summary of what we just covered

Using Google’s NLP tool to optimize your content

Implementing Schema to cover more space and clicks from users

Making use of featured snippets to get traffic from voice search

Speeding up your site to avoid Chrome shame badge

Writing quality content to entice users to remember and search for your brand on Google

Focusing on improving a webpage that is not performing well until it achieves abetter ranking

Making interesting and compelling videos

Making your website E-A-T Centric (that is, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness)

What do you think the future of SEO will look like in the year 2020? Give us your thoughts in the comments section below.

Ata Khan is Co-Founder of Xoobo, a digital marketing agency that is on the bleeding edge of the industry.

The post Quantum supremacy and nine SEO trends that’ll flip 2020 on its head appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

from Digital Marketing News https://www.searchenginewatch.com/2020/01/02/quantum-supremacy-and-eight-seo-trends-2020/

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topicprinter · 6 years ago

Link

So before I start, I’d like to add that this isn’t an incredible feat. However, when I started working with this company they had less than 10 free triallists and their organic traffic was non-existent.With little investment on their part, we were able to increase their organic traffic exponentially and thus increase the number of free trialists they have.How did I do this?Re-work the website (on-site SEO)This included adding correct heading tags,alt txt for imagesstructuring the website so that it was easier to navigate and improving the internal linking structure.increasing site speed.improving user interface and user experience to make sure our Search engine CTR to sign up ratio increased.(there were a number of other things that we changed, but these were primary).Adding SCHEMA markupThis is essentially code you put on your site which gives the search engines more information on that specific page/post, thus giving the user a better experience in their search engines.Things like star ratings, rich snippets.Adding SCHEMA code to as much of the site, including blog articles, main page, contact page etc. This marked a huge improvement in our search rankings with a few posts ranking 0-3 for a number of keywords.New content strategyThis included finding keywords that fit into the companies niche that had high search volume and relatively low competition.From this, I deduced that one of the 3d modelling software companies we worked with had high search volume but low competition, whereas the other 3d modelling companies had much higher competition (don’t know why).We started targeting keywords related to our product and the 3d modelling software in mind. Creating articles with at least 800 words preferably 1000 words.Below is a checklist I used for every article we published. We had the idea of posting 3-4 blogs per week. This consistency really helped us with our traffic.Focus Keyword in the Title.Focus Keyword used inside Meta Description.Focus Keyword used in the URL.Focus Keyword appears in the first paragraph of the content.Focus Keyword found 3-5 times in the content.Focus Keyword found in the subheading(s).Focus Keyword found in image alt attribute(s).Images/videos throughout the content.Link out to external relevant resources.Link to other resources on your own site.Grammarly CheckerPositive sentiment or power word in SEO title800 words minimum.Targeting these low competition keywords meant we starting rankings quickly and made a huge difference in our organic traffic.Link building strategyLinks to your site is a big ranking factor for Google and other search sites. Our strategy here was 3-foldGuest posting on other sites similar to ours. Guest posting on tech news sites, architecture websites, int design websites and tech software sites.Finding already written articles about our service or niche, contacting these sites admins and wondering whether they thought our SaaS might be what their readers are looking for in this post. E.g. 10 best architecture softwares etc. How to view your 3d model etc.Cold emailing - cold emailing certain sites, influencers and certified resellers of 3d modelling software what they thought about our product and if their customers were interested in our product.Granted, this was time-consuming, and there are quicker ways to acquire backlinks, however most of them go against Googles TOC so you have to be careful. There is no 100% clean way of acquiring backlinks other than people randomly linking to your site, which takes years usually.Conclusion.For the most part, SEO isn't actually that difficult (although it can be once you start getting into technical SEO), it just takes time. Of course, there were a lot of other things I did on a daily basis which did make slight differences I feel. But overall it was about having this 3-fold strategy in place and sticking to it.

#/r/entrepreneur #reddit

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