#operation: spectrum

[trashpidgeon48]

If I had a nickel for every time a show opened on Broadway, after getting rave reviews from their previous openings, and the show is based on a weird true story about a misappropriation of a corpse and has a small cast that plays multiple characters I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice.

[odysseus-day]

it's time i stop running from this. my beige flag is that i still ship wyler in 2025. do with this what you will. i am a free man.

[retrocgads]

USA 1993

[molagboop]

High-echelon Mawkin suit modules can be pretty wild, and the Energy conversion module in Raven Beak's suit is no exception.

When exposed to an active current or energy field, the module accounts for the level of charged particles in the local atmosphere and converts the detected matter to power. Most substantial forms of power and radiation are compatible with its function, and it's calibrated to work more efficiently when exposed to substantially powerful forms of plasmic matter.

The conversion module is similar to (but should not be confused with) the thermal charge module, which charges the power suit in extreme heat. That technology is also implemented in the protective exosuits found in Cataris' lava zone. The Mawkin use thermal energy to power a number of their facilities: that they'd implement it in their more mobile works is only natural.

Back to the subject at hand, the conversion module's practicality is twofold: to keep Raven Beak's suit sufficiently charged and to maintain his vigor in battle. His particular biometric modifications are such that his suit, combined with his level of physical fitness, can theoretically keep him fighting without fear of exhaustion in perpetuity.

Raven Beak's juiced up version of lightning armor is the inverse of this module: it absorbs charged particles for the purpose of coalescing into a projected wave. The use of lightning armor in this manner negates the function of the conversion module for restorative purposes. Additionally, lightning armor works best against oncoming projectiles, while the reactive conversion module is at its peak when the suit is exposed to ambient radiation or concentrated, consistent flows of power.

Suffice to say, Raven Beak is probably the only person who could stick a fork in an electrical socket and have it do the exact opposite of killing him.

[stewykablooey]

‘would stewy get mad at kendall for this’ ‘would stewy turn away from kendall for that’ ‘would stewy feel guilty for doing this with kendall’ like. stewy does not operate on a different moral compass than kendall or anyone else on the show. i know we dont see a lot of him and when we do he’s fun and funny and likeable and calling people out on their shit but stewy is not nor has he ever been positioned as a moral or even rational focal point in this narrative. dont let arian moayed’s big brown beautiful earnest eyes fool you.

[indelicateink]

thinking about magnus and his 1790s pile of paris guys. and louis's own 1970s armand-tidied 128-bodycount san francisco fuck and suckfest. and what lestat thought of that particular book passage.

[arachnerd-8-legs]

im getting real sick of 'intelligence'

who decided reading books and writing counted as intelligence? who decided that getting high scores on a strict, unfeeling system meant you were better than everybody? who decided that people should be turned into numbers, tie their worth in society into numbers, to compare people on a scale that ultimately does not matter, so that the people who didn't dump everything to perform for it are berated and the people who did end up with nothing?

who decided not reading or writing was a lack of intelligence? who decided that living differently to them was a sign of lower 'societal worth' than those who conformed?

[bredforloyalty]

moved out of the apartment today with my mom's help and got to clean and pack with her for two days while she was off from work but actually there was an emergency so she also had to work the whole time and on the way back i got a wonderful opportunity to listen to her monologize in the car for hours and hours about how she's disappointed in what i've become and i wasted three years and wasted her money and her support and i'm ungrateful and i didn't do anything right and also i should start caring about my health and about my appearance because i will never be happy in this (ugly, hairy, fat) body and also she doesn't root for me or believe that everything will be okay but she doesn't understand why i don't feel secure and why i don't trust myself or believe that everything will be okay.

[evilhorse]

Captain Scarlet cards 37: Killing Time

[networkunsupported]

me, a trans man: yeah this is my sona. yeah. yeah she's a girl.

[retrocgads]

USA 1993

[captain-acab]

Yeah the HP books got popular because they were very mainstream liberal fun fantasy stories, critically, in a literary environment where the "young adult" genre did not exist. It wasn't nefarious, it was pop lit, and thats fine!The problem was all the radicalization that came after, as described above.

I would also qualify, "Don't get a god complex," as rather, "Don't get a victim complex." In a cross-spectrum ideological milieu* that equates victimhood with moral purity, it is dangerous to believe that simply existing on some axis of oppression means you are immune to criticism, or incapable of wrongdoing.

ok im going to #seriouspost for a second here. I don't think Harry Potter is a manifesto. I think it was a flawed passion project that millennials latched onto because of the fantasy of sticking it to their mean teachers and arbitrarily categorizing themselves (hogwarts houses; it's the thinking millennial's astrology). I think the fact that the series got popular when and how it did was very much a product of its time.

I don't think Harry Potter is the biggest symbol of JKR's bigotry. I think the most flagrant sign of that was how she responded to critics. I watched her become radicalized in real time. I watched how she doubled down on her racism when she was called out for the ways she promoted her tragically mid fantastic beasts movies. I watched her chase marginalized teenagers with a double digit follower count off of twitter for daring to criticize her thought process, and no one with any kind of power standing against her because she was the one who was paying them. This isn't to say Harry Potter is without flaws. This is to say she really didn't give a shit about that. Getting rich and powerful is a hell of a drug, and she had enough sycophants that she had no reason to care about what her critics were saying.

She was convinced that she was a martyr; a voice for the unheard; a leader for the ages, so of course her detractors were the bad guys. And I think we should take this to heart. We should see this as an example of how easy it is to get radicalized; if you think of yourself as a paragon of virtue, you are going to think that whatever you see as good and right is an objective fact. Most people don't know this, but the majority of terfs start out as trans allies. You are not immune to propaganda! You are not immune to falling into dangerous ideologies!!!

This is why the most important thing you can do as an activist is to listen. Do NOT think you're above being wrong; do NOT develop a god complex; do NOT form an identity out of being right all the time. Involve yourselves in the groups you claim to speak for. Listen to trans women; share resources that help trans women; familiarize yourself with the diversity of experiences that trans people have and the struggles they face.

No, none of you are as bad as JKR because you don't have her money or her power. You will likely never have the capacity for harm she does. But check yourselves. Do not affirm yourselves into thinking you always have the moral high ground. Watch yourselves; humble yourselves; check yourselves for signs of cult behavior and internalized prejudice. You are always learning. You will always be learning. Do not allow yourselves to get a power trip from brushing off marginalized voices.

[catboybiologist]

Hey. You know how laws against queer people never really mask off say that they're for queer persecution? You know how they always have to wrap it in a layer of "saving the children" or "protecting women", when the goal is actually the destruction of queer groups without actually any improvements to the lives of children or women? You know how the cherry pick examples without context of queer people committing horrible Acts, most of the times in completely false ways, try and make their point?

A bill to destroy biomedical research as we know it just got introduced to Congress with a similar tactic.

The SPARE act would ban all use of vertebrate animals for biomedical research in the United states. It's dressed in language of animal welfare, into aims to tap into the public lack of knowledge about how animal research is used and why is necessary. Not easier, necessary.

I can go into great detail about why this is, but I'm going to put this as simply as possible. There is an inherent paradox to not using animals for biomedical research. If you know enough about a factor or disease or whatever, that you are studying, replicated in a model system and no, for a fact that this model system reflects the reality of how that factor operates in a complete organism, then you know enough about that factor by definition to none use an animal. And therefore, no research is even necessary. If something is being researched, somewhere in the thread of that research, there will be an animal study involved. Maybe not in that particular paper, maybe not in that particular research group, but something that group cites, some continuation of that research, some thing that is necessary to actually provide a meaningful understanding about human or animal biology, must involve a research animal at some point in the process.

Anyone who has done animal research understands this is the case. Anyone who has done animal research also understands that there are great standards put in place by University IACUCs to maintain ethical standards. Are there lapses? Of course. And you're about to hear about *all* of them, without context, without the thousands of examples of lives that have been saved by disease research. And of course, we already *have* systems of accountability.

Animal testing is a delicate topic across the political spectrum. And for good reason. However, I don't think very many people outside of the field truly understand how necessary it is to gain literally any understanding about biological systems, nor the systems of accountability that already exist to ensure it's done ethically and meaningfully.

The goal is destruction of research science in this country. If this bill passes I'm genuinely doubtful that I will ever be able to be employed in this country again.

Please, PLEASE urge your representatives to do something about this.

Oh and by the way- if you needed any indication that this law is bullshit and they don't care about animal welfare, any testing on military and police animals is a specifically allowed exception.

[authenticblob]

A love letter to my (not really) lil' (anymore) bro:

We're eating fast food together, he's already done and waiting on me to finish my food. I drop that I'm talking to a therapist.

Bro: Really?

Me: Yeah, [explains what type of therapy]. It's nice having someone to talk to and to help you work on yourself.

Bro: Hmhmm...

Me: You just want me to get on with finishing my food don't you.

Bro: Yes, you know me so well.

Me: *pats shoulder* Of course.

-

It's just... Pure acceptance, so pure that it'd seem to border on indifference. I like it, tho, because it's supported by this unshaken foundation of connection. That it doesn't matter what I do or what I am, because we're first and foremost sibs.

I'm one lucky person.

[sirfrogsworth]

Okay, let's think this through using the basic science of electromagnetism.

This is the EM spectrum. This spectrum is basically a depiction of how energetic the waves are. High energy is on the left. Low energy is on the right.

Mobile phones receive and transmit microwaves. Microwaves are very low energy. Which means it takes a lot of effort for them to be harmful.

A real life example would be a microwave oven. It takes a thousand watts before microwaves are able to cook our food. And it still takes a while before that energy can cook the center of a Hot Pocket.

A mobile phone's max output is 3 watts, but if it is close to a tower, it could operate as low as 0.001 watts.

UV light is much higher energy. The sun outputs a lot of UV light. You can lay out in the sun for a long time and it will give you a hell of a sunburn, but it still does not have enough energy to penetrate past a few layers of skin.

Think about that.

The power of the sun. Blasting you with UV for hours. 1000 watts per square meter. And it doesn't even come close to reaching your brain.

Even if your brain was exposed and you blasted it directly with 3 watts of microwaves for hours and hours, it would not have the energy required to do any significant damage.

This is stupid. We can literally test and measure this.

[retrocgads]

USA 1993