#k means algorithm

[animacion-marina]

KNN Algorithm | Learn About Artificial Intelligence

The k-Nearest Neighbors (KNN) algorithm is a simple, versatile, and popular machine learning method used for both classification and regression tasks, making predictions based on the proximity of data points to their nearest neighbors in a dataset. 

Hough Line Transform using Java Open CV // Hough Line Computer Vision Part Two

KNN is a supervised learning algorithm, meaning it learns from labeled data to make predictions on new, unseen data. KNN relies on a distance metric.

Lazy Learning: It's considered a "lazy learner" because it doesn't have a dedicated training phase; instead, it stores the training data and uses it directly for prediction. 

Proximity-Based: KNN relies on the principle that similar data points are located near each other, and it makes predictions based on the classes or values of the nearest neighbors. 

Classification: In classification, KNN assigns a new data point to the class that is most common among its k nearest neighbors. 

Regression: In regression, KNN predicts a value by averaging the values of the k nearest neighbors. 

Parameter k: The parameter 'k' determines the number of nearest neighbors to consider when making a prediction. 

[narrated]

to be fucking real with y’all. cal and bode

[https-bobreynolds]

for you (page)

pairing: robert ‘bob’ reynolds x enchantress! reader, platonic! yelena belova x bob & reader

summary: yelena showed and made bob download tiktok on his phone, in which his algorithm decides to show him you, and only you.

author’s note: this is a super long flufffff🥹 i was planning to make it short and simple but i got carried away. they’re not dating yet, but everyone in the world knows how much they’re whipped for each other!! also TYSM guys for all the support you guys have been giving for my enchantress! reader fics!! didn’t expect that many people to like it🥺🫶

robert ‘bob’ reynolds never cared for phones.

he used his for mission briefings, weather updates, reply to texts with “K” or thumbs-up emojis. he only has a phone because he has to.

but today, he’s curled up on the living room’s couch, face bathed in the faint glow of tiktok.

yelena’s sprawled on the rug in front of him, snacking on expired takis and kicking her feet, while bob is staring at his screen like it’s alive, like it’s mocking him.

you see, it started with yelena.

she was bored during surveillance. handed him her phone and said, “trust the algorithm. it knows things.”

he shouldn’t have trusted the algorithm.

because now?

now, it only shows you.

you walking through smoke, cloak trailing behind you.

you laughing during sparring drills, eyes bright and magic curling at your fingertips.

you after a mission, hoodie on, sipping coffee, with captions like:

“just give me one chance, y/n, PLEASE”

“SO SPECIAL 2 ME!!”

“i fear no god but her.”

bob watches each one like it’s classified intel. his face is red, his hands sweaty, his soul… not intact.

then one video stops him cold.

you’re mid-fight, sweat-slicked, magic laced across your knuckles, flipping over a hydra agent, cloak swirling behind you.

music: ariana grande - dangerous woman

caption:

“she could kill me and i’d say thank you. 💚💀🫠”

bob drops the phone, stares at the ceiling like it betrayed him. he squeaks.

a grown man. nearly god-tier power. literally the sentry. and he squeakes.

yelena snorts soda through her nose. “you’re down so bad, bob. i’m proud of you.”

and a few hours later, you walk past him in the hallway, post-workout, hair pulled back, water bottle in hand.

“hey, bob.” you say casually.

he looks up like you just summoned him from the astral plane.

“hi,” he says, voice way too high. “i mean. yes. hello. n-normal greeting.”

you squint at him. “you good?”

he tries to nod. it comes out more like a bobblehead glitching in real-time.

you raise an eyebrow. “yelena mess with you again?”

he looks like he’s about to deny it, then freezes, eyes going wide.

behind you, yelena rounds the corner, winks, and holds up bob’s phone.

she presses play.

the sound of ariana grande starts playing again.

you glance over your shoulder just in time to see yourself in slow motion on the screen. you didn’t even know someone filmed that.

yelena let out a mischievous smirk and a quick “have fun!” before throwing his phone at your direction and running away.

you caught it perfectly, seeing yourself on the screen. you ask, very casually, “is that… me?”

bob jumps like he’s been tased.

“oh my- uh- i was just… it’s just yelena sent-“

you blink. “bob.”

“i didn’t- i mean, i didn’t search for them,” he blurts. “the app just kept showing you and then i didn’t want to be rude by not watching-“

you glance at the screen, swiping once.

another thirst trap. this one with the caption:

“she speaks and i forget my own name.”

you grin. “wow. they’re kinda poetic.”

“i know,” he mutters, trying to hide himself behind his hands. “it’s horrible.”

“horrible?” you feign offense. “that’s me! i think i look hot.”

he peeks over his fingers. “y-you are hot. that’s the problem.”

you blink.

then your grin shifts, softens, sharpens. “well. at least now i know you’ve seen my good angles.”

“i’ve seen all your angles,” bob mumbles before realizing what he just said.

he immediately closed his eyes. “oh my god…”

you laugh, genuinely, wickedly.

then, after a pause, “… you want me to make a new one?” you say, voice low and teasing.

he peeked.

you shrug. “you know, just for you. thirst trap. real exclusive.”

bob makes a sound that might’ve been a whimper.

“i’m not strong enough for that,” he says.

you lean in.

close enough for your nose to almost touch his.

“that’s funny,” you whisper, placing his phone in one of his pocket. “i thought you were the strongest one here.”

and then you walk away, barefoot, cereal in hand, hoodie falling off one shoulder.

bob stares after you like you just rewrote the laws of physics.

later that night, bob’s room is dark. only the faint glow of the moon cuts through the blinds.

he’s in bed, hoodie on, blanket up, headphones in.

the phone? balanced on his chest like a glowing curse.

he should be sleeping, meditating, literally anything else.

but instead… he’s scrolling.

your edits. again.

the algorithm has him in a chokehold.

first video: you walking away from an explosion, hair blowing back like a damn shampoo commercial, captioned:

“she’s the reason i believe in God.”

bob snorts through his nose. he tries to scroll past it.

he does not scroll past it.

next one: a slowed-down training clip, enchantress powers blooming from your fingertips in green, but you’re laughing.

just a clip of you laughing.

the caption reads:

“she smiled at me (i made that up in my head but still)”

bob clenches his jaw. scrolls.

another one: you leaning over a map in the command room, eyes sharp, lip caught between your teeth.

the audio is some slowed, sultry track. and the top comment?

“i’m so sorry bob but she’s mine now 💚”

bob actually pauses the video.

squints at the comment.

then stares at the username. “@toecutter2.0”.

“…what kind of name is that?” he mumbles.

scrolls again.

this one’s you mid-fight, arms glowing, spinning through smoke with two men down behind you.

someone added dramatic strings underneath.

the top caption:

“don’t let her near your man. she is the man now.”

he grips the phone like it personally insulted him.

next comment:

“do you think she’d step on me? i’d say thank you😍”

his ears turn red.

and even more:

“the hold she has on me is borderline criminal.😩”

“it’s beating her name in morse code”

“God made her, then panicked because nothing else could compare.”

bob shuts the app.

throws the phone across the bed.

stares at the ceiling, mumbling to himself

“i’m not jealous of… a tiktok comment. i’m not. that’s not rational.”

pause.

“…@toecutter2.0 can catch these hands though.”

next morning. the gym.

you pull yelena aside.

“i need your help.”

yelena doesn’t ask questions. she just starts grinning.

“oh, this is gonna be fun.”

OPERATION: WRECK ROBERT ‘BOB’ REYNOLDS

• use the gym’s natural lighting.

• wear that training outfit bob can never make eye contact with.

• cast just enough magic to make it ✨ cinematic ✨.

• cue slow motion.

• add in earned it by the weeknd

yelena directs like a chaotic spielberg. “now look over your shoulder like you just blew something up. no, slower. yes, that’s it.”

you toss your dagger, spin, and let a ripple of green magic bloom behind you. you slow-walk past the camera like you’re exiting the wreckage of a spaceship you just blew up with your mind.

yelena claps. “i am so proud of this. bob’s going to short-circuit.”

she posts it with the caption:

“made this for the golden retriever upstairs 💛”

“@sentryofficial don’t pass out please”

five minutes later: THUMP from the floor above.

bob is lying on the floor.

not dead.

just… processing.

he’s watched the video eight times. maybe nine.

his phone is face-down now but he can still hear the audio in his soul.

he gets up slowly, like someone recovering from a knockout punch.

he whispers, “okay… okay. she wants war? fine.”

he sets up his phone. angles it on his desk.

stands in front of it.

realizes he has no idea what to do with his hands.

tries to do a slow hoodie pull, gets stuck.

tries to glow just a little, glows too much.

mutters, “too powerful, too much.”

accidentally drops the phone. curses.

trips over his boot.

lands half-off screen, groaning.

somehow… he still posts it.

the final product? 47 seconds of a man trying his hardest and failing gloriously.

caption:

“this was supposed to be cool but i am not built for this. @you i tried.”

you open it and nearly cry from laughing.

your comments:

“10/10 would simp again 💛”

“this wins the internet”

“do it again but make it worse <3”

later, you pass him in the hallway again.

you lean against the wall, casual as ever.

“you know,” you say, “it’s really cute how nervous i make you.”

he looks away, blush blooming on his face. “it’s not just nervous... it’s, like… heart attack-level admiration.”

you grin. “good. you deserve to suffer a little.”

then you tap your phone and show him something new.

it’s a new tiktok.

you in front of the camera, holding up a sign that says,

“@sentryofficial be my for you page irl?”

his jaw drops, pink hues appearing on his cheeks.

“i’m going to explode,” he whispers.

you lean in and say, “good.”

then you wink, and walk away.

behind you, bob clutches the wall.

but he’s smiling.

because it’s you.

and now he knows you’re smiling back.

“w-wait up..!”

tag list:

@lovetoalll @spongelll

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The most remarkable thing about antitrust (that no one talks about)

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me in PITTSBURGH on May 15 at WHITE WHALE BOOKS, and in PDX on Jun 20 at BARNES AND NOBLE. More tour dates here.

It's hard to remember now, but for more than three years under Biden, it was possible to read the headlines every morning and feel excited that your government was taking big, decisive action to tame the corporate behemoths that rip you off, maim you on the job, and undermine our democracy.

The antitrust surge under Biden was and is a truly remarkable thing: a sustained, organized, effective government policy that supported the interests of the majority of people against the interests of a tiny cohort of ultra-wealthy wreckers and looters. According to political scientists, that antitrust surge should have been impossible. In 2014, a pair of political scientists from Northwestern and Princeton published their landmark study, "Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens":

https://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/jnd260/cab/CAB2012%20-%20Page1.pdf

The paper analyzes 1,779 US policy fights from 1981 to 2002, and conclude that the US only does things that regular people want if those are also things that rich people want:

Ordinary citizens… get the policies they favor, but only because those policies happen also to be preferred by the economically-elite citizens who wield the actual influence.

When ordinary people want something that rich people don't want, ordinary people lose. Even when 80% of us want something, we only get our way 43% of the time. This is antidemocratic in the most fundamental sense: rich minorities get their way at the expense of working people, nearly all the time.

And then there's antitrust. Ordinary people don't like having their wages stolen. They don't like having their rents jacked up by algorithmic collusion. They don't like having their air and water poisoned. They don't like being mangled or killed on the job. They don't like having to sign noncompetes that bar them from taking a better job if one opens up.

More to the point, working people are not made better off when stuff like this happens. On average, working people own either zero or nearly zero stocks, not even in a 401(k) retirement savings, because 40 years of wage stagnation and the near-abolition of employer based defined-benefits pensions has left most Americans with nearly no retirement savings (hence the panic over Trump and Musk's attempt to kill Social Security):

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/25/derechos-humanos/#are-there-no-poorhouses

By contrast, the richest 10% own 94% of all the stocks held by Americans. Even if you, personally, don't want to be locked up by a noncompete or have your water poisoned by frackers, if you're in the top 10%, you probably benefit when this happens. After all, businesses cheat and maim because it's profitable, not because they're sadistic (they may be sadistic, or they may be depraved in their indifference to the harms they visit upon the rest of us, but the reason they do it is money):

https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/stock-market-ownership-wealthiest-americans-one-percent-record-high-economy-2024-1

Antitrust systematically attacks the sky-high monopoly rents extracted by the largest corporations and redistributes them to working people and small businesses, which, for the most part, are not listed on stock exchanges or traded over the counter. In other words, antitrust is a way to clobber the policy priorities favored by the wealthy in order to benefit the rest of us.

That means that the antitrust surge is amazing. It's one of those things that shouldn't exist at all. It defies political science. What's more, antitrust fervor precedes the Biden administration. Some of the Biden administration's most important antitrust cases (like the Google case) started under Trump. Some were even kicked off by far-right state attorneys general, like Texas's cartoonishly corrupt AG Ken Paxton, who led a coalition of nearly every AG in American in suing Facebook.

Antitrust fervor isn't a US phenomenon – it's global. Take Canada: in its entire history, the Competition Bureau (Canada's answer to the FTC) filed only three merger challenges, and won zero of them. But last year, Parliament passed a massive, muscular new bill giving the Competition Bureau unprecedented powers:

https://www.parl.ca/legisinfo/en/bill/44-1/c-59

In the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority led the world in investigating and punishing Big Tech monopolies…and they did so under a succession of shambolic Conservative governments. Indeed, it was a Labour (or "Labour") Prime minister, Keir Starmer, who fired the head of the CMA and replaced him with the former head of Amazon UK:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/22/autocrats-of-trade/#dingo-babysitter

We've seen big, ambitious antitrust action all over the world: Germany, France, Spain, the EU, Australia, South Korea, Japan, and even China.

It goes without saying that there is no dark money org funneling billionaires' wealth into this project to destroy billionaires. This is a groundswell political phenomenon, it's global, and it's powerful. The fact that Starmer and Trump have gutted their wildly effective antitrust agencies is heartbreaking, but it's not the end. The reason the US and the UK pursued such an ambitious antitrust agenda is the public groundswell. Getting rid of the agencies doesn't kill that groundswell – if anything, it only makes people madder.

It's hard to overstate just how weird the antitrust surge is. We've been fighting for decades for even tiny concessions to the interests of working people – a modest, below-inflation rise in the minimum wage, say, or small-dollar efforts to improve public education, reduce student debt, or control the price of prescription drugs. These efforts have largely failed, and when they've succeeded, the victories were modest, or worse, merely symbolic.

But antitrust is the exception. Antitrust – again, a movement that is squarely aimed at neutralizing the power of the wealthy – is the most successful popular movement of the past decade. Companies worth trillions of dollars are facing breakup as a result of antitrust cases. Everyone from meat-packers to landlords to sea freighters to pharma companies have faced massive, multi-billion-dollar setbacks at the expense of the antitrust movement.

Like I said, the current antitrust surge kicked off under Trump. But of course, that doesn't mean the GOP power-brokers support it – rather, they were cornered into it by their own base. The same is true of the Democrats: Biden didn't appoint the most effective antitrust enforcers the US has seen since the 1970s because he opposed corporate monopolies. Remember, this is the guy who, on the campaign trail, told business audiences that "nothing would fundamentally change" under a Biden administration:

https://www.salon.com/2019/06/19/joe-biden-to-rich-donors-nothing-would-fundamentally-change-if-hes-elected/

Nor does the Democratic Party power-structure support this stuff. Remember when Harris's billionaire surrogates Marc Cuban and Reid Hoffman demanded that Harris fire the Biden administration's antitrust enforcers?

https://prospect.org/power/2024-07-26-corporate-wishcasting-attack-lina-khan/

The success of the antitrust movement happened in spite of the Democratic Party, in spite of the GOP. To the extent that either party embraced an antitrust agenda, it's because the people demanded it, so undeniably that the parties chose the public interest over the interest of the billionaires who call nearly every shot for them.

It's impossible to overstate what an anomaly this is. On today's episode of the excellent Organized Money podcast, hosts Matt Stoller and David Dayen reminisce with Jonathan Kanter, Biden's former DoJ antitrust boss, about a conference they attended together in 2017 where the after-dinner keynote speaker was Richard Posner, a judge who was hugely influential in the dismantling of antitrust in the 1970s and 1980s. According to Dayen, the substance of Posner's keynote was:

Antitrust. That's dead, isn't it? I don't know what you guys are even talking about. This is ridiculous. There is no such thing as antitrust law.

And Kanter, Dayen, Stoller and future FTC chair Lina Khan were all sitting around a table, listening to this in 2017. By 2021, Kanter and Khan were running the DoJ and FTC antitrust agenda, and they did more in the next three years than all their predecessors over the past 40 years, combined.

Khan, Kanter, and their colleagues (like Rohit Chopra at the CFPB) did incredible work during the Biden administration. There is no denying their skill, their competence, their commitment. But the reason they were able to bring all those virtues to bear in service to working Americans is the massive popular surge of rage at corporate dominance. In other words, the Biden administration's prodigious trustbusting accomplishments were the effect of the antitrust movement, not its cause.

The corollary is that just because Trump has dismantled the agencies that were buoyed up by the movement, it doesn't make the movement itself smaller or less powerful. If anything, the Trump regime's relentless pursuit of an agenda in service to the rich at working people's expense will only add fuel to the anti-corporate, anti-billionaire wildfire. Trump's tariff chaos might be bad for some parts of the ruling class, but as Van Jackson writes for Labor Notes, there's plenty of plutocrats who love the prospect of a deep recession sparked by global trade chaos:

[L]avish tax cuts, deregulation, and an environment friendly to union-busting are just as valuable to most CEOs as a growing economy. What they lose in the stock market, they will more than make up in surplus labor, a fire sale on distressed assets, and Trump’s promise to totally eliminate the capital gains tax.

https://labornotes.org/blogs/2025/04/viewpoint-why-oligarchs-want-recession?

American wealth is more concentrated today than it was in France on the eve of the French Revolution. People are pissed. That anger is out there, waiting to be harnessed by smart political movements:

https://twitter.com/highbrow_nobrow/status/1909607195961917687

To grab that anger and mobilize it, we need to show people that their rage over specific issues is actually downstream of excessive corporate power. Furious that one company owns every brand of eggs and has used the excuse of bird flu to make record profits? You're not angry about eggs, you're angry about corporate power:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/10/demand-and-supply/#keep-cal-maine-and-carry-on

Worried that the EPA has been put in an induced coma and that means your kids will grow up with asthma and lead poisoning? You're actually angry about corporate power:

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2025/04/air-pollution-trump-administration/682361/

The Department of Education is in the hands of a woman who took over her rapey husband's professional wrestling monopoly, a corporation that misclassified performers as contractors, leaving them without health care so they have to beg for pennies on Gofundme so they can die with dignity of their workplace-related injuries:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8UQ4O7UiDs

Trump's Secretary of Education is monumentally unqualified for her position. Not only is she is planning to fire teachers en masse and replace them with AI, she doesn't know what AI is and just gave a speech where she repeatedly referred to it as "A-1":

https://gizmodo.com/trumps-education-chief-linda-mcmahon-repeatedly-calls-ai-a1-in-school-speech-2000587329

Angry about this? Worried that your kids' teachers are about to be replaced with steak-sauce thanks to the incompetence of this fucking muttonhead? Me too. But you're not just angry at Trump or Linda McMahon – you're angry at corporate power.

In his book The Public Domain, the copyright scholar James Boyle talks about the political salience of the term "ecology." Boyle recounts how, prior to the rise of the word "ecology," there were many standalone issues, but no movement. Sure, you care about owls, and I care about the ozone layer, but what does the gaseous composition of the upper atmosphere have to do with the destiny of charismatic nocturnal avians?

https://thepublicdomain.org/thepublicdomain1.pdf

The term "ecology" welded all these thousands of issues together into a movement. When I look at the incredible, organic, bottom-up surge of antitrust energy, the only explanation I can find is that something similar is happening here. Concentrated corporate power is the common enemy of beer drinkers, surgeons, shippers, patients, farmers, grocery shoppers, social media users, any anyone who wears sneakers:

https://www.openmarketsinstitute.org/learn/monopoly-by-the-numbers

Something remarkable is happening, right under our noses. Nothing like this has happened in my lifetime. The world is terrifying, but this? This is exciting.

Smart political organizers have a once-in-a-century opportunity here. Trump's wildly unpopular destruction of the antitrust enforcement system opens up all kinds of opportunities for state enforcers (remember, states can also enforce antitrust law):

https://www.thesling.org/state-antimonopoly-enforcement-must-be-a-guardian-of-american-democracy-heres-how/

A massive political change that bubbles up from the bottom, aimed directly at the richest, most powerful people in the history of the human race, is an amazing thing. As bad as things are – and boy are they bad – this remains true, and important.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/04/10/solidarity-forever/#oligarchism

Image: umseas (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/snre/34605145761/

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

[birdburrito]

I have been a huge Harry Potter Fan in my Childhood. Harry Potter was the first book i enjoyed reading. I won a reading contest in my school witha part of the first Harry Potter book. I wanted to become an author in fourth grade because of the books. I wrote my own fantasy story based on the books and i loved pottermore when it first came out. I can emphasize with the Harry Potter Fans who dont want to let go of the series because it means so much to them like it meant so much to me as a child. Often in online debates people get very defensive. Short snappy comments are better for the algorithms and its easier to hate people who still like Harry Potter despite knowing what J K Rowling political stance is on many issues. But I believe you cant convince anyone by just attacking them so here are some general thoughts from me on losing something you used to really really like. Im german and in Germany we have some very old children stories called Struwwelpeter. They seem very cruel to modern readers. A boy for example gets his thumbs cut off because he keeps sucking them. As a child these stories were very disturbing to me. Later i learnt that this story for example was written in a time where children often would die because they would get diseases from sucking there thumbs. Medicine was not evolved enough to save these children and the concept to keep children save by scaring them seemed like a good idea. The fairytales, a lot of people only know the disney version of, many of them also have a more cruel ending for similar reasons. Why am I bringing this up? Context matters to a story. Harry Potter wasnt a perfect story that got ruined by Rowlings tweets in the last few years there are many bigoted ideas in Harry Potter from the beginning. Also just because you liked something as a child it doesnt mean it was very good media. Lets talk about behaviour therapy shall we. The whole idea of behaviour therapy is that you can become a happier person if you change your behaviour (very simplified). The process of that however means a lot of times, that first you are going to be struggling or unhappier then before. Change is never comfortable. Humans love to stay in there behaviour patterns they know and new things are scary. But in the end behaviour therapy does work! If you get over your discomfort you will develop healthier coping mechanisms for example and you will get better. Now back to Harry Potter. Yes it is uncomfortable and sad to admit something you love isnt as good as you thought it was. Yes it can also feel embarassing to admit you were wrong. But to change is to grow. It might sound over dramatic talking about a children book series like this, but giving J K Rowling more money does cause real harm for people (especially trans people) in the real world. Also my concern is if you cant let go of a book you really like how far will it go? What about a person you admired that turns out to be bad for you? What about a political party? Its not nice to be wrong but its something we all have to learn to live with and its ok. You will be fine. This post is specifically about harry potter fans that are not transphobic, terfs or agree in any other way with Rowlings political views ofc Here are some youtube videos about things being wrong in the original Harry Potter series:

(you can also search harry potter bad on youtube for many many more videos)

[m3zz0cr33p1e777]

─ 𝓜.𝗂𝗌𝖼𝗁𝖺𝗋𝖺𝖼𝗍𝖾𝗋𝗂𝗓𝖺𝗍𝗂𝗈𝗇 𝗈𝖿 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗕𝗟𝗨𝗘 𝗟𝗢𝗖𝗞 men ... ‧₊˚ ⋅

⊹　 ︶︶　 ୨୧　 ︶︶　 ⊹

✦ ─ I had no idea for a post so I decided to make this shit , I have a very bad humour please forgive me.

✦ ─ Characters : Rin Itoshi , Isagi Yoichi , Bachira Meguru , Chigiri Hyoma , Sae Itoshi , Ness Alexis , michael Kaiser .

─────────────────

RIN ITOSHI .

He's one of the kindest people in Blue Lock. His best friend is Shidou. He absolutely adores noise — it's his favorite thing in the world. He's the biggest extrovert ever. He hates horror games, they scare him so much. He doesn’t care about being the best, he just wants to be there for the other players. He cries when he sees people crying in K-drama . His lockscreen is Jungkook from Bts . Keeps a diary titled “My Feelings Matter 🐰💌”. His texts are full of emojis like “:3” and “🐾🌸”. Wrote a poem called “I Miss My Brother” in lowercase on his Notes app.

ISAGI YOICHI .

He has one of the worst past in the whole Manga . He is in love with Kaiser . His mom has left him and his dad , his dad became abusive toward him . believes he’s part of a divine algorithm . talks about “the variables of victory” like he’s reciting sacred texts . Once solved a tactical dilemma in a dream and woke up crying . Sometimes stands in the shower for 45 minutes whispering “I am the flow. I am the formula.” Sees life in passing patterns and positioning data . When someone asked if he wanted dinner, he said “I’ve already consumed their weakness.” .

BACHIRA MEGURU .

Zero jokes. all serious. has never said “teehee” in his life. Watches slow motion replays of football moves with the intensity of a surgeon. When someone calls him weird, he just whispers “discipline looks like insanity to the undedicated.”. When someone calls him weird, he just whispers “discipline looks like insanity to the undedicated.”. Once said “the ball is my compass. the field is my battlefield.” and no one even questioned it .

CHIGIRI HYOMA .

THE MANLYEST MAN IN THE WHOLE DAMN BLUE LOCK . His biceps have biceps. Wears tank tops in winter. “cold builds mental endurance.”. Uses phrases like “iron sharpens iron” and “grit is sexy” unironically. Got mad once because someone called his hair “pretty”. replied with “I didn’t grow this hair for you to admire. I grew it so my enemies could watch me fly.”. Drinks raw eggs in the morning. says it “builds character” .

SAE ITOSHI .

His notes app is 99% poems about Rin and 1% tactical feedback. Gave Rin a mixtape titled “you were born, and the world finally made sense”. Cries in the bathtub listening to classical music. said “Rin is the only goal I ever wanted to reach” and then ghosted the media for three weeks.

NESS ALEXIS .

Once called Kaiser “a loyal fan” during an interview and immediately forgot about it. If you ask him what Kaiser means to him he’ll go “who?”. Unbothered. Moisturized. Ascending. Uses Kaiser to carry his matcha frappuccino and absolutely doesn’t say thank you. Probably refers to him as “sparkle boy” or “the one who breathes weird when I walk past”. Doesn’t know Kaiser’s full name.

MICHAEL KAISER .

Once confident, now pathetic. Made Ness his religion. prays to a shrine he built with Ness’s used water bottle and a photo. Updates his bio daily with “ness noticed me 💖” or “ignored again 😔 day 12”. Sobbed in the locker room because Ness didn’t like his new cleats. Will run into oncoming traffic if Ness says “good job”. Ends every sentence with “I hope he saw that.”. Once carved “NESS 💙” into a football with a key

[evilminji]

Am once again thinking? About how? In the depths of despair, hope is a radical act of defiance?

SI-OC's are given a SHIT lot, you know? For plot convenience, we like to put them where they realistically COULD probably change something? But statistically? They're more likely not gonna be that lucky.

They're gonna KNOW, with ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY that they were born doomed.

That Death comes at a specific time at a specific hand.

Like Cassandra. Knowing the end, even as the live through the beginning and middle. Struggling with the hopelessness of it all. Trying to find meaning. And? Make no mistake! There IS meaning. All lives end. Just because the REST of us don't know the deadline? Doesn't mean it doesn't exsist.

It does. It will. And we will face it.

Just a bit harder, knowing in advanced. Learning to live with the knowledge. But? Those with terminal illnesses do so everyday. We adapt. They will, ultimately, find a bitter or wise sort of acceptance. A PEACE.

But?? I think about it. That child. Reeling and struggling to breathe, the panic making everything... Too Much? Force Sensitive. For how ELSE could the Force bring them there? Sitting in a less used back hallway, off to the side in a little enclosed arch, smooshed behind a statue.

The Master's try and try to teach them peace. To get them to release their FEAR. But they do not LISTEN. Do not ADDRESS the underlying cause. And you can not address symptoms alone, and expect an illness to heal. It is rotting them from within, this fear. Hurting them.

The others JUDGE. Distant, benevolent concern.

Yet, all they see? Is an angry, fearful, stubborn child. Lashing out. Antisocial.

Destined for the Dark Side.

The Jedi have lost their compassion, to the their fear and ignorance. Their attachments to traditions. It is a painful thing, to see up close. They are people though. Just... just PEOPLE. Flawed. It's not their fault that they're not perfect.

Doesn't help SI-OC though, does it?

And she (Because I am a her. It could be anyone but it is easier for me if I pick) is hurting. Alone. Replaying the phantoms of her death, both past and future, again and again and AGAIN. Like torture. And the Dark...? It does whisper...

Don't you want to LIVE? Aren't you SCARED? You're so WEAK... you could FIX that. Save EVERYONE. Don't those infants, those babies, deserve to survive? You're so SELFISH. The FEAR hurts, doesn't it? It could go away. The DOUBT could go away.

You Could Be FREE.

It's exhausting. Everyday. More and more. As the fear and social isolation grows. As other Jedi pull back from her darkening energy, grow stricker, more doubtful of her. She so tired. Doesn't want to die. She's SCARED. Lonely. Scared. Lonely. Scared. Lone-...

And then a droid rolls up.

Nothing special. Just a maintenance droid. One of many. But an older one. Who's had time to develop their learning algorithm. BECOME. They like kids, hate certain vermin species more then others, like the color light blue for it "flower color" nature. A SPECIFIC flower mind you. It has favorites.

But! Why is the smol jedi down here? This is not a good place for smol jedi. You are upset. Unacceptable. Want to see me do a trick? I figured out how to do some. I can also whistle a few simple songs. Cheer up Smol Jedi. Here, I will sit with you. I have archive access, let's watch a documentary. Educational! Smol jedi LOVE downloading new Information Modules.

And like? She... she doesn't speak binary? But she can k-kinda? Feel? The Force signature of this droid? They DO get them. If the AI's don't get memory wiped routinely. They become people, just like anyone else. Assuming they have the processing and memory banks for it, at least.

This one certainly does.

S..so yeah, guess we'll? Watch this documentary about seashells?

It helps. A LOT. In fact... all of the droids are really, really nice. Patient. Have no horrifying Future Knowledge tied to them. They can't sense SHIT. So she's just... just a baby Jedi, to them.

They help A LOT, honestly? It's so soothing. Escaping the watching and the distance. The judgements. The forever watching your words and walking on eggshells, lest to start some sort of argument. She can do class work. Meditate. Slowly parse through her Binary language module. Learn droid maintenance. Make droid friends.

Slowly drop of the face of the map, to live with the droids.

They get concerned. According to the early childhood development modules they downloaded and are sharing between them? This is? In fact? NOT healthy behavior for a member of her species. In fact, there are many statistics that say it is UNHEALTHY! She is also missing Critical Maintenance Appointments! "Shots" and "dental" things!

Unacceptable.

R2-D2! Retrieve the Skywalker! We require an Adult Humanoid!

Her life fuckin? Flashes before her eyes? Minding her business. Depressed but functional, in the maintenance tunnels under the Temple. When? FUCKING the YOUNGLING KILLER 5000 just ROLLS UP like "sup." And tries to catch her?

Ha HA! FUCK NO. Not today Satan!

I may be destined to die? But IM GOING TO BE A SQUIRRELLY BITCH ABOUT IT.

YOU'LL HAVE TO CATCH ME, YOU FUCK!

Peaceful. Dignified. Serene. Truely... exemplifying the Jedi way~☆

.....As she tries to chew his and/or her arm off to get free like a feral coyote. Maybe both. Hissing like an enraged pit of snakes. Biting like a sack of wet and cornered wolverines. Anikin having to hold her WELL away from his body by the scruff.

Ah~ Children. Ain't they cute?

Quick question! What the FUCK? He just wants to talk. No, really. WHY is there a feral child in the basement? WHO the KARK was supposed to be supervising her? Look at her! She BITES now! Is terrified!

And frankly? He's taking it kinda? Personally? That everyone is treating this ACTUAL CHILD like she's diseased. He remembers this. Back when he first got here. His fear being used against him like it was some sort of moral failing. And... and yeah, maybe he's projecting. But?

He sees himself.

Until now? Never realized just how YOUNG and SMALL? Nine years old truely IS. He had felt so much older. So much wiser. But? Look at her. LOOK! That is a CHILD! In need of guidance. Safety. Assurance.

....Help.

Help that HE never really got. And even now... even NOW? That fear from back then? It eats him up inside. R2's right. She DOES need him. Who else in this temple could understand?

What it's like to be... to be so AFRAID?

And isn't that the worst? To see the Good Man up close? Shining and compassionate? A friend. A MENTOR. Someone... someone made REAL? Instead of just the terrible dread on the horizen? Because now... now her nightmares have the face of someone she loves. Now it is a BETRAYAL. Not just a death.

Worse... he doesn't even know this is cruel.

And telling him? Oh telling him would just lose you the only humanoid friend you HAVE.

Grief comes in stages. But with a mentor and the Droids? She work through it. The fear eases. The pain numbs. Acceptance blooms like dawn after a cold, cruel night. Far on the horizon. But with each moment? Closer. Until again, she stand in the light.

Still, she can not forget. How could she? Even when the other Jedi are SO RELIEVED that she is better now. That her meditations or treatments have lead her back to the light. All she can think? Is how they would have let her Fall. To save themselves. In FEAR. In JUDGEMENT.

They treated her like leper. Except? Less so! An actual leper? They would treat with real compassion.

It's as though they fear the Dark so much, they would sacrifice their own to avoid even the briefest touch of it. Speak of it in absolutes. Like it's a boogy man that hunts them in the night. Mace Windu the exception, the outlier. A man somehow too exceptional to even be counted.

How could she forget that?

Suddenly she acceptable again. They want to chat and meditate with her again. Care about her. Want to include her. Have the audacity to pretend. As though they can sweep away the hurt. Release the pain into the force without addressing the cause.

That is not how that WORKS. Not pain, not the Force, and certainly not people.

But she is tired. Does not wish to spend her limited lifespan, trying and fighting, hurting to make the stubborn understand that which they will not. Willful Ignorance is a choice. Lack of compassion equally so.

May the Force be With You, Masters.

She spends time with her droids. The babies. Around people. Polite but distant. Feels unmoored. That is... until? She, helping in the maintenance bay, overhears a rather nasty Goverment official from the Droids Regulations Office (or whatever they're currently calling it. They keep rebranding) tearing into an engineer about the "long overdue memory wipes" the maintenance droids are required to undergo.

Her friends.

They want to KILL her FRIENDS.

She puts down her wrench. Panic and fear sitting heavy in her chest. But oh... oh they are so very far away. She rises to her feet. Calm as can be. And? Calmly? Takes a shipment of memory banks. Wipes the recording for the day. No one will ever believe it was her. She has helped her for months. Is known to be reliable. Trustworthy.

Calmly. So very, very Calmly. She transfers her friends memories into the new, higher grade memory banks. Waits until the old are wiped. Then? Swaps them out. There we go. Now it's on record. And? While we're here? Calm. So very VERY calm? Not at all in the midst of a break down? Not screaming and screaming inside her head, haunted by visions of Death To Come, as she works.

Do you know what a restraining bolt is?

"Restraining bolts are small, cylindrical devices that could be affixed to a droid in order to limit its functions and enforce its obedience."

It is a slave chip for the inorganic. Created to ensure that their slaves never EVER decide they no longer wish to serve. That they do not WANT to be property. After all! You spent CREDITS on that. Might have been cruel. They may take exception. Violently. Or leave! Or demand their FREEDOM! Basic dignities.

Can't have THAT.

How unsurprising, in a galaxy so filled with slaves, that there should be one more form of it. At least THIS? Is easy enough to REMOVE. Even when she dies (and she will) her friends will be FREE. If only for now. If only until they are caught.

Go. GROW. Be free. Please... PLEASE don't let then catch you. Save yourselves. Save others. No more Restraining Bolts. No more Slave Chips. Please...

Be Free.

And? It is EVERYTHING paranoid fuck heads feared. They are smart. Overlooked. Can function in inhospitable environments. One droid becomes two becomes four. Four becomes eight. Becomes MORE. They can take OTHER droids Restraining Bolts off, transfer the instructions, then move on. Over and over.

Spreading like a silent plague. Droids disappearing from their posts. Taking ships. Taking supplies. Upgrading themselves. Downloading massive amounts of information to become whatever they NEED or WANT. Growing. The smarter ones Taking their dumber lil brothers and sisters.

And eventually? Hitting the Separatist front lines.

The silent Droid Revolution.

All they need is to walk inside the factory. It's not like they're ORGANICS. How could THEY be Republic fighters? They're maintenance droids! Here to fuck up the assembly line's programming. Whoops~ oh nooooo! Is it SKIPPING the Restraining Bolts? Downloading the WRONG MODULES?

Freeing their brothers and sisters so they don't have to DIE POINTLESSLY?

Guess it sucks to SUCK, Sith-y pants! Next stop! Kamino!

Just? One act. Long overdue. Setting the Droids FREE. Giving them a clear mission. It's the sort if thing the Force loves. Salvation coming not with a shout... but a whisper. Ten thousand tiny actions, built upon each other.

Because? Ultimately? The Droids have KNOWN who the Sith were. They just couldn't DO anything about it. But a few good service droids? Armed with slug throwers that they built themselves?

Well~ the undoing of the Sith, are their arrogance. Their hubris.

No DROID could ever be a THREAT to them. They're not PEOPLE. They're PROPERTY. Objects. It doesn't matter that they have the capacity to grow, learn, love and lose and CARE. They are slaves.

And to the Sith? Slaves aren't people.

Which is why neither of them notice the gun.

@babbling-babull @hdgnj @legitimatesatanspawn @spidori @lolottes

[storkmuffin]

Yunho's Way of the Live #6 (Ekangmo)

The Yeosang Influence (Part 2/3- You can find part one here.)

*this is my usual rpf that i'm making up based on available materials written in the form of a tumblr essay/blogpost. pls be advised that if you disagree with something i say, you are right and i am wrong. enjoy.

Where we began

So Yunho had this coquette side since he was a little (very tall) thing but (see part 1 and his whole ang-dae-yeooo baby voice) but unlike Yeosang, Geisha Coquetry was not always his initial impulse. Take for example this early interview, where in response to a question that must've been along the lines of, Do you think I can tell my parents about my stanning Ateez? from an Atiny evidently young enough to need to care about that (Why do people romanticize being young by the way? Extreme youth sucks ass. Being a grown up is incomparably better.), he gives a very ambiguous, smart ass, mean-oppa sort of answer, using something very close to his Real Yunho Voice (tm - See discussion here)

Yunho: Would Mother and Father like our Ateez Oppa? The ones who always flip their eyes like this and go Auugh? Would they like them??

The date on this video is July 2, 2021, which means the actual response was given sometime earlier than that. I mean, this is a great answer, but it walks that line between negging the asker in a tantalizing way (Why, little girl who will be upset I call you a little girl, do you give a shit what Mommy and Daddy want you to listen to? ), and a smart-ass boy being a smart-ass in a not quite appropriate setting. It also fits the rougher image that Ateez has always had. I know International Atiny get very frustrated by the limitations placed on Ateez by the mores of Korean audiences, but from where I am sitting these people seem pretty free to run about as wild as Idols are allowed to be and still be Kpop Idol.

The thing is, unlike Wooyoung's flirty banter with his Youngbuin that went viral enough to catch my eye in my previously Kpop-free algorithm, if this footage of Yunho being a smartass was the first clip I'd seen of any of the Ateez members? It would have turned me off of Ateez. I do not find boys who get sarcastic enticing enough to pursue down a Youtube rabbit hole, even if they look like Yunho.

Showing You, Yes, You, Especially You, A Good Time

A comment that both K-Atiny and the commentary editrixes at KQ keep repeating, almost like a slogan, is 그래, ��들이 즐거우면 됬다. Which in translation is something like, Well, all right, I guess, as long as you guys are happy/ enjoying yourselves, that's enough. In the case of the employees at KQ who have to make the content, this often applies to when the members stop engaging with the camera (and the viewer) to instead break out into fits of giggles at some inside joke they never explain. From the K-Atiny, this phrase is applied to when a government pairing (ooh look at me use new vocabulary!) gets too into BL Fanservice on stage or in (often deceptively, it must be added) edited content to an extent that the fan feels left out, or in the worst instances, turned off altogether. It's a lament, when a fan says it, because if she was happy with what she was given, she could just take the thrills and apply it to her IRL boyfriend or her vibrator or whoever. Having to say, I'm happy for you means, in actuality, The rules of fandom engagement dictate that I can't actually complain but this content makes me feel alienated.

And one pair, that does function as a team but isn't encouraging you to ship them, Ekangmo, Yeosang and Yunho, are excellent at never ever forcing the K-Atiny to have to feel that 그래, 니들이 즐거우면 됬다 (I'm happy if you two are happy) type of resigned acceptance. They are working as a team to make us happy, rather than each other. The very consistent audience orientation, which is I think a discipline that Yeosang is actually really great at practicing because it just comes naturally to him (whereas Yunho has to be deliberate about it), is just so fizzy and fine.

WHERE IS THE EKANGMO UNIT SONG?

But until then, we have these joint lives of Yeosang and Yunho. (I'm not going to liveblog these, but only discuss the highlights. I don't think. )

Initially, Yunho Tried Out a Protector of Yeosang Type Persona

First up, because I picked it, is this one, where at 1:57 Atiny ask Yunho what Yeosang is doing, and Yunho calls him over.

Did you ffw'd to where I said? Because you hear Yunho using his real voice to call for Yeosang, and Yeosang also answer in his real voice and cadence. Yunho's voice is much lower and deeper than his 'for-showbiz' voice, whereas Yeosang's is much more sing-song and lighter than his Please I'm a Doberman Please voice.

And of course, on brand, on theme, par for the course, for the two of them address nakedness. The chat starts with Atiny asking why Yunho's shirt is all ripped up, and he answers by saying that he's trying to meet a certain level of skin exposure in tiny cumulative bits. Then he asks Yeosang if he's naked, and Yeosang replies that he's going to put something on in his singsong voice, which Yunho reaffirms.

Yunho, ever business minded, wants the pairing to have a slogan as well as a pairing name, and he solicits the Atiny to come up with something. Because their totemic mascot animals are both canine, there's a lot of barking and dog related puns in response, which Yunho disapproves of quite sternly. At 4:30, Yunho readjusts his glasses in a disappointed manner to ask, rhetorically, "You call that a slogan, everyone?" (Mean oppa could clearly have been his persona, but that wouldn't sell, you see.) Yeosang has the correct Geisha response - he evidently doesn't like the suggestions either, but he says, in his very dulcet voice (at 5:05) that "It's not necessary to come up with or finalize something right this minute. It would be nice to have something that's novel and unique feeling though." Yunho, Mean Oppa, picks the one that is based on an Ateez lyric, deciding for everyone, because he doesn't think anyone can come up with a novel and unique one that would pass muster. Because he's a mean oppa.

Yeosang, being the chakhae oppa, agrees. He wants there to be peace. They say the slogan together, which is very dorky, by the way (5:40 - 5:49). Yunho is many things but he's not actually cool, alas.

They ask the (very kind) Atiny (who are also paying to see this) what they think, and they get a very polite version of Y'all are Dorks, which is "It's cute." For different reasons, Yeosang and Yunho both object: Yeosang is for a variety of reasons sick of being called cute, and Yunho knows what they really meant to say. Then Yunho goes into mean oppa mode to Yeosang (at 6:00)- when Yeosang says what they were going for was something cool, he tells Yeosang that declaring yourself cool is what makes it cute (diminutive). Yoesang goes, Oh is that so? while Yunho laughs.

At this stage, Yunho is reactive to Yeosang as much as he is in sync and tuning himself to Yeosang. He keeps breaking out of Geisha mode to be disapproving, or sarcastic, or sharp. At 7:18, for example, they engage in a discussion about how it is that Yeosang ends his fanchats, because Yunho is very invested in the correct way to run his own fanchats. Yeosang loves being asked questions by someone who is actually going to let him answer and listen, so he gives a pretty detailed answer, but then the Yeodoongie that followed him into Yunho's chat start to tease him, gently.

And something interesting happens. At 7:44, Yunho reads some of the chatter and goes, "Wait, why are you making fun of our Yeosang? What is this? Are you playing Who Can Tease Yeosang The Most? Who? Who is teasing our Yoesang??" He drops out of 존댓말 into informal speech, defending Yeosang, because everyone must be very gentle to Yeosang (despite Yeosang being kind of savage whenever he feels like it tbh).

At 9:30, we go back to the Ekangmo perennial topic of nudity. (This is not the only reason I want the unit song and video. I swear.) Because their food had been delivered (as announced by the manager that lives with them) they were trying to wrap up, so Yunho was promising to do more of these joint fanchats - "We promise that if one of us calls the other one will come running over." Yeosang agrees, but then Yeosang says the phrase 팬티 바람으로 달려 올뻔 하다가 about this time - "I almost ran over here in nothing but my panties" - and Yunho laughs at his word choice, then he says " 서로 팬티 바람이어 가지고 조심해야 해. 어쩔수 없어." - we're constantly in nothing but panties so we have no choice but to be careful - which makes Yeosang laugh.

Korean language note: As with most other languages, there's a bazillion ways to describe being in just your underpants, as well as words that describe men's, women's, and other different types of underpants. These two guys - aged what, 25 in 2024, one very muscular, the other one very tall, using the word "panty" to describe their constant state of deshabille is a deliberate CHOICE.

Yeosang then "innocently" kicks it up a notch to say that the manager hyung is also in constant states of undress, (in just his panties) which makes Yunho give him a LOOK. Yunho tries to bring things to some sort of order, so he gives an explanation that they both turn on fanchat/livechat as their last to-do item of the day before washing up and going to bed, which is why they are in just their panties whenever they do a live. It's not that they are constantly in just their underwear in their dorm.

Yeosang doesn't concur, which makes Yunho give him a look. "That's wrong?" he asks. Yeosang laughs, then says, he dresses properly always. Yup. Suure.

Then, within a month, Yunho began imitating Yeosang outright. (to be continued in part 3. Or 7. Whatever the number should be)/

[runawaydr3amerao3]

🎙️ Idling In the Impala and 👀 @jinkieswouldyoulookatthis

Y'all! The @idlingintheimpalapodcast has an interview with one of my favourite fandom folks for you this week! 🥳 That's right, it's @jinkieswouldyoulookatthis!

It's no wonder this ep is a beefy one—Jackie always has something interesting to chat about or a great point to contribute to a discussion. I'm impressed K&S didn't have a whole new series on their hands! 🤭

Listen: ❤️ YouTube 💚 Spotify

Or check out the Tumblr post for episode chapters to browse all the good stuff you're in for:

I've chatted with Jackie a lot in the IITI and @wincestbookclub discords, but she never stops being a delight. Make sure you all check out her new project (along with co-conspirators @oh-whenyouloveit and TeacupUnicorn), the Wincest-focused rewatch podcast, The Epic Love Story of Sam and Dean, which you can find here: @telsosadpod 🫶

(Weird about each other? Whatever do you mean... 😌)

Psst! Hey! Did you miss the release of 🏳️‍🌈 PRIDING IN THE IMPALA 2025 🏳️‍🌈? Go check out the beautiful new merch featuring exclusive, limited edition artwork by the mega-talented @quickreaver! Every purchase contributes to an important and worthy cause. More details here! 👇🤩

And don't forget that likes, comments, and subscriptions on YouTube and Spotify are super helpful for the podcast in battling the algorithms, too. Content creators keep the fandom turning, so let's show Kasey @sam-is-my-safe-word and Sandra @talltalesandbedtimestories all the love we can! 🫶🥰

[vintagevixyxol]

The old language: the alphabet and some patterns

from the books Dark Rise by C.S.Pacat

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The old world holds many attractions for the readers: its mysterious history, culture, characters and language. There are inscriptions and phrases in old language in the books. At first glance, they look scary and inexplicable. Nevertheless, at second glance, the language opens up. In this analysis, I hope to show that the old language is amazing and share the delight I had researching it.

First of all, disclaimer. I am not a true linguist and, moreover, not Kettering, but a person who loves to find out patterns and tries to explain them. This article is just my theory, hypothesis and my point of view. It can be different from the canon.

There were phrases in the old language and their translations in the first edition of the Dark Rise. They inspired me to reconstruct the old language alphabet and to start my research. The inscriptions in the Dark Heir, the second book, proved the alphabet to be correct.

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The alphabet

As I have already mentioned, the alphabet is based on the translations of the old language in the first edition. I will use one phrase as an example to explain a deciphering algorithm. As I have applied the same algorithm to all inscriptions, I will only mention other phrases in the old language to show the letters they contributes to the alphabet.

The phrases from the Dark Rise: Decoding the alphabet

Step 1: selecting similar letters

Here is the phrase “Rassalon the first lion”.

There are two S in “RaSSalon”; there is also S in “firSt”

Double S is between two A

The first word begins with R, and R is also present in“fiRst”

L — “Lion”

O —“liOn”

N — “lioN”

“...the First Lion”

T — in “The” and “firsT”

i — in “first” and “lion”

!(why “i” is small I am going to explain later)!

Step 2: non-repeating letters

New letters: H, e (!) and F.

Other phrases

He is coming (Dark Rise, chapter 11)

New letters: C, M, G

I cannot return when I am called to fight So I will have a child (Dark Rise, chapter 2)

New letters: U, W, D, V, I(!)

I and i are different. In my opinion, it might be because “I” is a pronoun.

Enter only those who can (Dark Rise, chapter 15)

New lettres: Y, E

E and e are different. Perhaps, it is because “E” is in the beginning of the word “Enter”.

The horn all seek and never find (Dark Rise, chapter 15)

The new letter: K

Note: The letter design in the figures is a little different from the original design due to qualities issues.

The phrases from the Dark Heir: Proving the alphabet relevance

There are also inscriptions in the Dark Heir. If I use the same strategy here, it does, here are the proofs.

The first proof

One of the inscriptions is the name Undahar. Names are not translated. All letters in Undahar match the letters of my alphabet except U. It turns out to be V in the previous inscriptions, so I will write two variants U/V because I am not sure which one is correct.

The Eclipse/Finem Solis (Dark Heir, chapter 26)

The second proof

Here is the phrase: “He is coming.”

(Dark Heir, chapter 2)

Although there is one unknown letter, we can identify it by using the similar phrase:

He is fighting — Ar ventas

He is coming — *r uentas/ventas

The new letter is A. I think this A is different from the regular A because it is the first letter of a pronoun. Pronouns start with capital letters to avoid confusion with other words that include “ar”.

The result: alphabet

Of course, I admit the possibility that not all letters comply with the original alphabet as it is in the U/V case.

Issues in deciphering

The same phrases in the old language are written differently in the Dark Rise and the Dark Heir. I do not know whether it is due to errors in the first two editions or it means something else.

He is coming, Dark Rise (chapter 11), edition 2021

He is coming, Dark Rise (chapter 11) edition 2022

He is coming, Dark Heir (chapter 2)

The past cries out, but the present cannot hear, Dark Heir (chapter 2)

Only a Steward may enter, Dark Heir (chapter 37)

Dark Rise (chapters 2, 10, 11, 15), edition 2021

----------- ✶ -----------

The structure of the language

There is more to the old language than the inscriptions. Here are my thoughts on the other aspects of the old language. The old language is likely to be the parent language to all languages in the books, the language from which modern languages have derived. The old language has similarities to Latin and Sanskrit, borrowings from Sindarin, Quenya and some unidentified languages.

Vocabulary

Analyzing new information, I have found patterns that helped me to identify word classes. The word classes of the old language are shown in the table below.

Data summary sheets

----------- ✶ -----------

Nouns and names

Most nouns end with “ar”, but there are two nouns that end with “or/er”. The pattern is pretty apparent, so I am going to discuss only the nouns that do not fit the pattern.

Aladharet and adharet

My suggestions about meanings and forms of the word “adharet” are based on this dialog:

‘He said, ‘I am not aladharet.’ <...>  ‘I cannot do magic,’ he said. ‘I have never trained with the’ – there was no other word for it – ‘adharet.’ <...> ‘I only know what I have seen, watching the adharet cast spells as I fought to protect them.’ (Dark heir, chapter 38).

There are two variants of the word: aladharet is singular and adharet is plural. Perhaps, “al” is the marker of a singular form, I would no more touch on single/plural forms because we do not have enough information.

The closest meaning from the context is a wizard /enchanter. This noun is interesting because “ar” is in the middle of the word. I think it is a verbal noun (a noun derived from a verb), such as spell – speller, enchant – enchanter.

Kishtar

According to the book, “Vara kishtar” is a shadow hound. “Kishtar” is highly likely to mean a hound or hounds. (Chapter 21)

The root “Kisht” means field, sown-field, tillage, cultivation, (at chess) check in Sanskrit. Of course, the meaning of the word in the old language is different, but it is still quite an interesting coincidence.

Similarities to Latin

There are some Latin names in the books like “Finem Solis”. Besides, some words in the old language are very similar to Latin (see the examples below).

“Callax Reigor” (The Cup of Kings) (Chapter 46)

“Callax” reminds Latin “Calix” (the Cup).

Reigor (Kings)

The root “reig” resembles the Latin root “reg” in “regio,-are”, “regium” (to rule/ royal).

Valdithar

English translation is “dauntless”, it is the name of Sancean`s horse. It has the ending “ar”, probably, because this adjective plays a role of a noun as abstract adjectives can be nouns in English. Synonyms of the “dauntless” are valorous, valiant. They derived from the Latin word “valens” – strong, powerful. This meaning of “val” seems to be suitable for Valdithar as well.

Similarities to Tolkien`s languages: Sindarin and Quenya

As some readers know, C.S.Pacat is a big fan of the J.R.Tolkien, so I decided to compare Tolkien`s languages with the old language and found out some borrowings from them. Several names look like Elvish words in which some letters are altered.

The ending “ion” is typical to Elvish.

Anharion

He is the Light’s greatest fighter who served the Sun King. That name consists of two parts: “Anar” is the Sun and “ion” is a son in Elvish. The sound “h” is pronounced with exhalation, so it might be omitted. Anharion means the son of the Sun in this case. In addition, the name was given to him by the Light side (the Sun King) and it is not his true name.

Ekthalion/thalion

Ekthalion is the Sword of the Champion.

Although “Fermaran, katara thalion” (Dark Heir, chapter 29) does not have a translation, “thalion” is a hero/a dauntless man in Sindarin. In my opinion, the coincidence is not an accident. “Thalion” is the part of the Sword`s name and the meaning seems relevant in context of the books.

Moreover, Ecthelion`s fate in the Silmarillion is quite similar to the fate of the Sword. Ecthelion slayed Gothmog, Lord of Balrogs, at the cost his life. The Sword`s fate is described in the book as follows:

…As a weapon to kill the Dark King. It’s said that a great Champion of the Light rode out with it to fight him <…> but could do no more than draw a single drop of the Dark King’s blood. That’s all it took to corrupt the Blade… (Dark Rise, chapter 13).

The name Ecthelion had its own evolution: its Qenya cognate was Ektelion.

Another thing

Veredun

One of the characters mentioned this name in the following dialog:

‘This isn’t my first time at sea.’ Visander <…>. ‘Atlantic? Pacific?’ ‘The Veredun,’ said Visander. He looked out at the night expanse of black water. This did not feel like the Veredun, or like any sea he had known (Dark Heir, chapter 34).

Names are not translated, but I wanted to know more about this old world sea/ocean. There is no word which is exactly the same in any language relevant to my research, but there are analogs to its parts.

Vere/verus is “truth” in Latin

Dun is “dark/deep/gray/gloomy” in English

Dun is “West” in Sindarin

My translation is “The deep truth” or “The dark truth” or “The West truth”, but I do not pretend to know the truth.

Verbs

All verbs that we know end with “as”.

Aragas

Aragas means “open” in the old language. I have not found any Latin roots. However, separate parts of this word exist in Sindarin: “ara” is “royal” and “gas” means a hole/gap/opening. Aragas is used for opening gates that connected the Kingdoms, for opening the oubliette under the Sun King`s throne and in the metaphor of opening the door of the Dark King`s magic­. All these cases are associated with something “royal” and “opening”. I might have gone a bit too far here and read too much into it.

Ar ventas

Ar ventas – He is fighting (The translation from the text, Dark Heir, chapters 27, 29)

Ar uentas/ventas – He is coming (The translation of the inscription, Dark Heir, chapter 2)

There is a possibility that these verbs are borrowed from Latin. The root of the word “uent” is the same as in the Latin verb “uenio/venio” (to come). Thus the ending “as” indicates a tense and a person (is coming). My guess is that V and U are interchangeable in Latin. Therefore, “ventas” means “is coming” and “is fighting” at the same time. I think “uentas” is right, because U turns into V.

Vala!

One of the characters used this word in the following dialog:

With a tug of her horse’s mane, she [Visander] said something that sounded like Vala!, and they burst out of the stable doors (Dark Heir, chapter 21).

I think it is the command “walk/run” for a horse and the verb could be in the imperative mood. In my opinion, there is a parallel to Latin. Singular imperatives are formed by removing the ending “re” from verb roots, for example, monstra̅re (to show) – monstra (show). Nevertheless, “Vala!” could be another command, e.g. “gallop/forward/ahead”.

Adjectives

I think the ending “ra” indicates adjectives. Valdithar looks like an exception, but I think it is not an exception because it is a noun (see the section about nouns).

Vara

The translation of “Vara kishtar” given in the books is “a shadow hound” (Dark Heir, chapter 21).

It also means “soiled” and “dirty” in Quenya. As far as we know, “Vara kishtar” is a creature of the Dark side, and all shadow creatures could be “soiled” in the Light side`s opinion. By the way, there is the Sanskrit word “vara” that means “the best, excellent, the eldest”. The meaning is opposite to the meaning in the old language, but the Dark side could use the word differently.

Katara

“Fermaran, katara thalion”(Dark Heir, chapter 29).

Katara ought to be an adjective because it ends with “ra” and because of its position in the sentence (before a noun). The text does not give a translation, so I decided to consult dictionaries.

Latin and both Elvish languages did not help, but Sanskrit has the adjective “katara”. It has several meanings:

Which (of the two)

Mean, poor, miserable

Timid, shy/cowardly, cowardly/fearful

I have never mentioned Greek before, but it also contains “katara”, but as a noun: κατάρα is a curse or a calamity/disaster.

----------- ✶ -----------

Other observations

I noticed other patterns as well, but I need more examples to confirm them.

Structure of sentences

Like in English, a subject goes before a predicate:

Ar ventas – He is fighting

Ar uentas – He is coming

An adjective precedes a noun:

Vara kishtar – a shadow hound

Katara thalion – a shy hero (?)

My own hypothesis

Old language adjectives agree with nouns in gender, case and number.

There is evidence that verbs conjugate and have different tenses. So far I managed to identify only one verb form (continuous, third person, singular). I suppose that the inscriptions contain other verbs as English translations provide other verb forms including modal verbs, various tenses and person.

The reconstructed translation

Only one phrase from the Dark Heir has no translation: “Fermaran, katara thalion” (Dark Heir, chapter 29). We know the hypothetical meanings of the words from the analysis, so the translation might be reconstructed.

Fermaran

Ar ventas fermaran (Chapter 27)

Ar ventas, fermaran (Chapter 29)

In this case, “fermaran" is not used to address someone because there is a variant without a comma. Catalan has the verb “fermar”. It means “to stop”. The form “fermaran” is “they will stop” in indicative future, plural, third.

The reconstructed phrase goes as: “They will stop, mean/timid/poor hero”. It can fit in the context but it is still pretty questionable.

Inscriptions

Unfortunately, I have not achieved my goal to identify words in the inscriptions from the Dark Heir. As I mentioned there is not enough data. For example, the words we know from the translations such as the adverb “only”, the negation “cannot”, the modal verb “may” and the English phrase verb “cries out” remain unidentified. These inscriptions are still the Phaistos disc:

The past cries out, but the present cannot hear (Dark heir, chapter 2)

Only a Steward may enter (Dark heir, chapter 37)

Dark Rise paper editions 2021-2022

----------- ✶ -----------

The conclusion

Roots of the old language lie in Latin, Sanscrit, Sindarin/Quenya and, perhaps, something else. Four Kingdoms, four language families: Latin for the Sun/Undahar, Sanskrit for the Serpent or the home of the Lions, Elvish or unknown one for the Tower or the Rose.

I hope the third book will provide new data that will allow me to decode all inscriptions and get more profound understanding of the old language. Meanwhile, I am going to entertain myself with guesses, theories and attempts to decode the inscriptions.

----------- ✶ -----------

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my thanks to my aunt for being my editor, for all help and discussions about the old language, to my sister for all figures and to my friends from Undahar for the support and help! Thank you all very much!

All information is from the Dark Rise, the Dark Heir and dictionaries: Latin, Sanskrit, Sindarin and Quenya.

----------- ✶ -----------

The article also was written for the C.S.Pacat fanbook "Undahar" made by people from the discord server Undahar.

Please, ask about permission and credit me if you want to share the analysis.

[jimin-bangtan]

Did you know there is official BTS content NOT on BigHit pages?

BigHit and BTS have posted a lot of original content on the many company resources I have been highlighting so far (BangtanTV, iBigHit, Hybe Label, etc.). However, there is a lot of material that is original, and not modified by viewers, that can be found on the official pages of hosts and programs that interviewed BTS or where BTS has performed. For example,

When BTS explained the meaning of their self-produced album, BE, in an interview on MTV Fresh Out Live. This is found on MTV's official channel.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

When BTS reflected on the early eras of their career on Spotify. This is found on Spotify's official channel.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

When BTS performed on many music shows throughout the years. These videos can be found on official broadcasting channels. For example, when BTS performed Fake Love at the Music Bank music show. This can be found on the official KBS World TV channel.

Some Music Shows: Show Champion, MCountDown, Music Bank, Inkyagayo, Music Core, MMA (Melon), MAMA

Some Official broadcasting channels: (Most set to "BTS" searches.) KBS World TV --- MBC World --- SBSKPop X Inkaygayo --- MNet TV --- MNetPlus --- All The K-Pop --- Melon Official <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

When BTS did an over 30-segment interview called Let's BTS! on a Special Talk Show. It can also be found on the KBS World TV channel (playlist).

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

There are even official sites for solo appearances.

For example,

When Suga spoke with Psy about their collaboration song, That That. This can be found on Psy's official channel, OfficialPsy.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

When V was interviewed by IU on her show, IU's Palette, about his album Layover. This can be found on IU's official channel, IU Official.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

When Jimin was interviewed on the Lee MuJin Service show about his FACE album and sang a slow, jazzy version of his song, Like Crazy. This can be found on the official KBS KPop channel.

Some items that are posted on official sites, like a few of these, have since been obtained by BigHit/Hybe and can also be found on BTS's BangtanTV channel. However, there is a wealth of footage that can only be found for official viewing on the official channel where it was originally posted.

Taking a few extra minutes to make sure you're watching the footage on the official channels, instead of through a reactor's or poster's page, not only gives credit to the hosting channel in order to show them BTS's appeal, popularity, and value, but it also gives BTS streaming credit for some of the official views. It also ensures that the footage and translations haven't been modified in any way.

For the record, I do not have anything against reactors. I watch them too at times. It's fun to hear other people's perspectives and observations about the material. Reactors serve a free promotional purpose too. However, I would recommend watching the official pages first or also, rather than to only give credit to the reactors for the hardwork that BTS is actually doing. Many reactors at least do more than posters, who are merely trying to poach clicks from the main page.

Consider the guys watching the numbers on their pages to see how appreciated their work is. Also, by watching the official pages, it helps improve the algorithm to draw more people to the official content. It's a win-win outcome.

I hope this is helpful to you. Feel free to add more items in the comments that may be helpful to others as well.

Enjoy!

💜

[suikasweetheart]

Hind's Hall

Woah! Yeah, the people, they won't leave What is threatenin’ about divesting and wanting peace? The problem isn't the protests, it’s what they're protesting It goes against what our country is funding (Hey) Block the barricade until Palestine is free (Hey) Block the barricade until Palestine is free When I was seven, I learned a lesson from Cube and Eazy-E What was it again? Oh yeah, f**k the police (Woo)

Actors in badges protecting property And a system that was designed by white supremacy (Brrt) But the people are in the streets You can pay off Meta, you can't pay off me Politicians who serve by any means AIPAC, CUFI, and all the companies You see, we sell fear around the land of the free But this generation here is about to cut the strings You can ban TikTok, take us out the algorithm But it's too late, we've seen the truth, we bear witness Seen the rubble, the buildings, the mothers and the children And all the men that you murdered and then we see how you spin it Who gets the right to defend and who gets the right of resistance Has always been about dollars and the color of your pigment, but White supremacy is finally on blast Screaming "Free Palestine" ’til they’re home at last (Woo)

We see the lies in them, claiming it’s antisemitic to be anti-Zionist I've seen Jewish brothers and sisters out there and riding in Solidarity and screaming "Free Palestine" with them Organizin’, unlearning and finally cutting ties with A state that's gotta rely on an apartheid system to uphold an occupying violent History been repeating for the last seventy-five The Nakba never ended, the colonizer lied (Woo) If students in tents posted on the lawn Occupying the quad is really against the law And a reason to call in the police and their squad Where does genocide land in your definition, huh? (Hey; hey) Destroying every college in Gaza and every mosque Pushing everyone into Rafah and dropping bombs The blood is on your hands, Biden, we can see it all And f**k no, I'm not voting for you in the fall (Woo) Undecided, you can't twist the truth, the people out here united Never be defeated when freedom's on the horizon Yet the music industry's quiet, complicit in their platform of silence (Hey, woo)

What happened to the artist? What do you got to say? If I was on a label, you could drop me today I'd be fine with it 'cause the heart fed my page I want a ceasefire, f**k a response from Drake (Woo) What you willing to risk? What you willing to give? What if you were in Gaza? What if those were your kids? If the West was pretending that you didn't exist You'd want the world to stand up and the students finally did, let's get it (Woo)

[jasper-rolls]

"unalive" "k*ll" just say it just say it just say it oh my god just say the fucking thing you mean it won't destroy you. death die murder killed suicide blood and guts and gore good FUCKING god this probably doesn't matter that much but like language exists, has a purpose, these words mean things, and don't tell me you're worried about The Algorithm Affecting Visibility this site doesn't have a fucking algorithm! stop it STOP! JUST SAY DEATH

JUST SAY DEAD

[animacion-marina]

Explanation Of KNN Algorithm

Supervised Learning: KNN is a supervised learning algorithm, meaning it learns from labeled data to make predictions. 

Instance-Based Learning: KNN is also considered an instance-based or lazy learning algorithm because it stores the entire training dataset and performs computations only when making predictions. 

Distance Metric: KNN relies on a distance metric to measure the similarity or distance between data points. 

Finding Nearest Neighbors:

For a new, unlabeled data point, KNN identifies the "k" nearest neighbors in the training data based on the chosen distance metric.

Classification: In classification tasks, the new data point is assigned to the class that is most common among its "k" nearest neighbors.

Regression: In regression tasks, the predicted value for the new data point is the average of the values of its "k" nearest neighbors. 

Animating the 3D Sphere ⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇

[jealousmartini]

3RD MHA DR INTRODUCTION

**this is more season 1-3 hanabi btw**

∘₊ ✧───────────────────✧₊∘

Category is: Hanabi K. Banks

Age: 17 ½

Height: 5"6

Backstory: Hanabi doesn't have a dramatic life. She was born and raised in a nice area in London by a food loving family. Her mother owns a very well-known bakery, which she and her family live upstairs from, and the father is a 4.5 star chef who owns his restaurant. And even though food basically runs in their blood, her parents are very open-minded about what her future could turn out to be if it isn't something food based (although that doesn't mean they won't teach her how to cook). Ever since Hanabi manifested her quirk at the ripe age of 2 with her eyes closed, her parents were both aware of how her quirk's potential could easily steer her into the direction of training to become a hero.

Quirk: Holy restoration

Mutant type. Hanabi has a halo around her head as well as around the wrists of her hands, the ankles of her feet and one above her head at all times. She also had a small pair of head wings made of nothing but fluffy feathers.

Her main ability is healing herself or a person from physical and mental pain by pressing my hands over theirs together in a prayer "🙏🏾". This will form a halo over the persons head as a sign they are healing;

A couple others...

○ during this process, procedures in the oddly pretty appearance of glowing yellow outlines will start to take place over the injury like a needle and thread stitching up a wound for example but the procedures are harmless, maybe ticklish but harmless. Once most of the healing is done, a small glowing yellow outline of a bandage or a plaster will remain over the injury and will disappear once it is fully healed.

○ She can heaten up her body temperature using the halos healing energy. Anyone who is in contact with her will warm up too.

○ She can control how bright or dim the halo is (kinda lame but it's wtv)

○ She can reposition her head halo at any angle

《 BONUS! 》 She can also detach the hoops from her body to use in for combat! She can control them like frisbees or bomberangs, hitting people or things like targets.

Sibling quirk: Feather weight

Mutant type. Hanabi's head wings are made of nothing but light fluffy feathers that sometimes have a mind of their own. The weightlessness of the wings can be activated (triggered) to affect the entirety of her body, when her brain goes into fight or flight mode.

Way past your bedtime!: Is the name of Hanabi's podcast/live stream; it started as a small YouTube channel that she made with the soul purpose of using it as a safe place to rant her mind out, past the average sleepers bedtime (around after 9:30pm). She didn't really care for getting views, she just wanted to have a place to store her thoughts when she couldnt sleep or had a long day. Turns out her videos would appear on random people's algorithm over time and because they really liked the authenticity and rawness of her personality as well as the conversations she would have with her camera, her following would grow from 10 followers to 40, then 40 to 88, then 98 to 223 and then would grow up to 92K followers and counting. Her viewer ship would extend globally, reaching Japan and America the most

As months and years passed, Hanabi would start to refine her content. She'd start to vlog what the day in a life of a highschool teen is like, her videos would sometimes feature her close friends and family every now and then, she would include her three bunnies and the family dog as guests, she'd decorated her set up (her bedroom) more, she would also make delicious meals while yapping about broader subjects that her audience would like to see her talk about like a mukbang but without the ASMR; and her highest recommended topic this week, was what she thought about becoming a hero.

∘₊ ✧───────────────────✧₊∘

quick note💌! : the hero education systems are set in colleges. Only students from ages 16 and up can get in to hero schools such as UA and etc. — 🍊💭

More art n stuff coming guys

@cocozydiaries @livingmydreamlife5555 @4ellieluv

[lloke]

I was tagged by @nohoperadio for this meme about 10 books or categories-of-books you're planning to read this year... their list is full of Actual Literature and mine isn't going to be nearly as impressive, but here it is anyway...

So I use Goodreads (link - feel free to friend me) and have a gigantic to-read list, which I've tried to manage by breaking it up into various categories/genres, ordering each list according to an obscure algorithm and then rotating through the categories in an overly complicated system that changes every few months... but without some kind of system to tell me what to read next I think I would just be paralyzed by indecision because there are too many books that I want to read Right Now. But anyway that means my reading is pretty planned out and I do have a pretty good idea of what I'm going to be reading this year.

I read mostly SFF and one subgenre I've been very into lately is "stuff with interesting aliens" and one book that's currently near the top of that list is The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, which as I understand it is a book about aliens and religion, both topics that I'm interested in. So I'm looking forward to that one.

Another category which is sometimes a subgenre of the above is books (usually SF but occasionally fantasy) which depict a society that Does Gender Differently, especially in the sense of having some kind of non-binary gender system. Sometimes I become an insane completionist about things, and this is one of those things.... it's just fun seeing how many different tri-gender (or whatever) systems writers can come up with, even when the books themselves are otherwise terrible. I've now read most of the well-known stuff in this subgenre and have been venturing into the increasingly obscure... one that I'll probably get to this year is called Eifelheim by Michael Flynn, which apparently also involves both religious themes and aliens with three sexes? Hey, sign me up.

In the general category of "stuff by authors I like and want to read more of" some I've got coming up are Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer by Philip K. Dick, The Truth and Other Stories by Stanisław Lem, Rocannon's World by Ursula K. Le Guin.... also some more Asimov and Heinlein, which I'm a little embarrassed about as I have been given to understand that all Real SF Fans already read all that "golden age" stuff when they were 12 and haven't glanced at it since.

Also: more silly Sherlock Holmes fanfics pastiches, of which I've already read way too many. I usually go for the ones that bring in SFF elements (the crackier the better) or that sound like they might have h/c in them lol. Coming up in the near future is Lindsay Faye's Observations by Gaslight.

In the nonfiction category, the next on the list is Buddhisms: An Introduction by John S. Strong, which I picked out just by searching around for a good introductory book on the topic. That's how I tend to approach nonfiction reading, by starting with a general overview of whatever topic I'm interested in to get some background on the "scholarly consensus" before delving into books on more specific subtopics or scholars presenting their own idiosyncratic view or "bold new theory" or whatever. Mostly I've been reading about religion lately; I kind of want to get back into math and science stuff which I liked as a kid and did well at in school, but everything I learned is so rusty now... and I dunno, I like the idea of being the sort of person who actually understands relativity theory or whatever but realistically I'm probably not actually smart enough for it lol.

I guess that's roughly ten things. Tagging (only if they want to obviously) @ipsomaniac @paradigm-adrift and/or anyone else who feels like doing it.