#programming c in satellite

[ri-afan]

Anyone got a story where Amity Park becomes independent without the rest of the USA noticing until some hero stumbles upon (or crash lands in) it?

[tccicomputercoaching]

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[mutter-official]

y'all are joking but this is literally why NASA writes all their code for their satellites in C

they can be certain of EXACTLY what will run EVERY TIME the code runs because they know exactly what the translation into machine code will be

Why would you ever need anything high level. You should just make everything yourself. That is the only way you can ever be safe.

[homestuck-fanauthor-coalition]

The Homestuck Fan Author Coalition is having a songfic contest! Authors were asked to write any fic that they'd like based on a song and now the fanfics are revealed... but the authors are not!

Follow the link above to the collection, and once you've read through all of the entries, vote on your favorites using our voting form!

Then, if you're feeling like reading some spicier fics (and you are 18+), you can check out the explicit side of this competition here!

All Fics Submitted

A Girl Named Yiffy

A story about a girl with all odds against her.

they don't believe in the ghosts or forms you take

Sollux and Karkat go ghost-hunting.

find your yesterday in your tomorrow

When Vriska Serket ends up on an universe where everyone who didn't make it to Earth C is there and vice-verse, she'll have to face a difficult decision.

i'm made be He, despised by They

The universe wants to see its inhabitants in pain.

you should come with me to the end of the world (without telling your family or any of your friends)

Terezi has to juggle three relationships and several friendships. Her partners have to deal with her. Mind the tags!

i don't want to be afraid (when father time ticks in the hour)

in which roxy is stuck in a house with dirk, jane and jake.

F.E.A.R

Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

- John Malkovich

Your name is JANE CROCKER, and you’ve been feeling a little nervy lately.

I've Been Waiting, Waiting

Jade is put on a ship for her own protection in the midst of an inter-galactic war. All she can do is wait.

if you stick with the program, maybe one day you'll be (more than a machine learning how to please)

My name is CDOCRS01, which is short for Cognitive Development and Offensive Capability Robotic Structure, but Jake calls me Brobot. In appearance, I am a sixteen-year-old boy of average height and weight, which means that I am 70 inches tall and weigh 145 pounds. In actuality, I am seven months old.

Before The Breakdown

After Trickster Mode, Roxy thinks.

Made My Way to LA

“We had a plan… Move out of that town…” He whispers

Drowning Lessons

You steal from convenience stores together; the mania invades your blood, a virus spreading through your system, replacing you until all that’s left is your aching chest, and intensity of want. It consumes you easily, and you think it may consume her, too. The two of you were never really people, anyways.

Soap

Eridan and Sollux are the final trolls living on a satellite in orbit around their new planet- a bright place neither of them long to explore.

The power system is overheating.

The Prideful Pink Princess and Her Servant of Evil

Dirk's job has always been to look after his twin sister. And he intends to fulfill it. Even as she becomes the princess of the kingdom of Derse, he stands by her side. For better or for worse.

I think I understand you, but I don't

"I just wanna get you high tonight."

Jane, Jake, a crumbling relationship, and one last good night together.

The Flame of a Revolution

A look into the wayward vagabond's revolutionary origins via lyricfic.

Would You Fall In Love With Me Again?

Rose reunites with Kanaya after the events of the meat timeline.

I Am Selfish, I Am Wrong

Eridan did something very wrong, then paid the price. Is it enough? Will he ever be accepted back into his team? And will he ever tell Karkat how very pale he feels?

Look, I Love You but You Really Fucked Me over Big Time

A series of pesterlogs over the course of six months.

war is over (and we are beginning)

The first morning after creating a new universe, twelve people wake up to the dawn of a new day.

No Leverage / No Pleasure

Your name is Dirk Strider. You are sixteen years old. You’re currently on a date of sorts, slaying skeletons and whatnot, only most of the actual slaying is over now.

Most Days We Watch Our Best Friends Die

A little bit of what I think Davesprite and his Rose were up to during those 4 months.

My dawn

Your name is CALIBORN. And you won.

Coming Home

Your name is Dirk Strider, and you’ve been waiting your whole life for this moment.

......

Jane Crocker is suddenly feeling very uncertain.

Or: Dirk is a solo-flight astronaut on his first trip out to orbit. Jane is his launch director.

red flags

John's on a blind date that's going really well! But there's just this one red flag…

i recovered from this

It's the First Annual Resistance Fundraiser and you can't wait for Rose Maryam-Lalonde's interview!

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Minor, The Pain of All The World, c. 1910

* * * *

The New Malthusianism of the Right

How the Right Repackages Malthusian Logic to Justify Exclusion, Fear, and Social Control

James B. Greenberg

Jun 17, 2025

There is an unspoken logic behind the right’s crusade to dismantle the public sphere: a modern Malthusianism, dressed in the language of efficiency and merit, but rooted in something much older and more brutal. It sees poverty not as a structural failure, but as evidence of surplus life—populations deemed unnecessary, unworthy, unfit for rescue.

This worldview doesn’t rely on overt violence. It doesn’t need to. The tools are policy, budget cuts, and selective silence. Remove access to healthcare. Undermine vaccination campaigns. Hollow out the safety net. The result is a slow culling by design—death by bureaucratic abandonment. What emerges is not the spectacle of fascism, but its quieter cousin: a soft, managed cruelty that lets nature, supposedly, take its course.

Thanks for reading James’s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Pledge your support

The recent gutting of USAID under Elon Musk’s influence is a case in point. A technocrat’s dream of efficiency masks a strategic withdrawal from responsibility. Bill Gates, not often given to hyperbole, warned that this vision leaves the world’s poorest to die at the hands of the world’s richest. It’s not just a policy shift—it’s a value statement. A declaration about whose lives are worth sustaining, and whose are not.

This isn’t new. Malthusian logic has long served as moral cover for violent inequality—from colonial famine policies to eugenics programs to the gatekeeping of immigration. The targets change, but the rationale remains: some lives are worth preserving, others are simply excess. What’s changed is the mechanism. Today it’s not enacted through spectacle or coercion, but through metrics, models, and managed invisibility. The cruelty is buried in algorithms and budget lines.

Malthus imagined famine and disease as natural checks on the population of agrarian societies. But the 21st century presents the opposite challenge. Birthrates in the wealthiest countries have dropped below replacement levels. Scarcity, where it exists, is political, not demographic. Yet the Malthusian myth has endured—reshaped and redeployed as ideological cover for policies of containment and control.

Today, that logic finds new footing in national security circles. Climate change is no longer just an environmental issue—it’s portrayed as a destabilizer of poor nations and a trigger for mass migration. Droughts, floods, and crop failures become reframed not as humanitarian emergencies, but as threats to the wealth and borders of the Global North. Migrants are recast as invaders. The displaced become suspects. Fortress policies follow.

But these policies don’t just emerge from fear—they serve profit. As walls rise and aid retracts, private security firms, data contractors, and border surveillance industries step in. Crisis becomes a business model. Technologies once pitched as humanitarian tools—satellite tracking, biometric IDs, AI forecasting—are now deployed to sort, exclude, and contain. The logic remains unchanged: manage the risk, shield the center, and let the margins fall away.

What’s most revealing is how this rhetoric obscures the actual source of vulnerability. It isn’t overpopulation that drives suffering—it’s the uneven distribution of power, resources, and the means of survival. Climate change doesn’t kill indiscriminately. It amplifies existing inequalities. It hits hardest where protections have been deliberately withdrawn.

This isn’t governance. It’s triage on a planetary scale. And it reflects a profound shift in the function of the state—from protector to gatekeeper, from provider to sorter. The new Malthusianism isn’t about managing numbers. It’s about managing narratives—who belongs, who drains, who deserves.

Anthropologists have long studied how states make populations legible, governable, and expendable. What we’re witnessing now is a recalibration of that calculus under the pressures of climate, capital, and ideology. The danger is not just that certain lives are deemed unworthy—but that their abandonment becomes rational, even moralized.

We are told this is simply how the world works now. But that’s not true. It’s how power works when it no longer pretends to care. But people are not numbers. And history reminds us that even in the shadow of abandonment, solidarity can rewrite the script.

Suggested Readings

Agamben, Giorgio. State of Exception. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.

Biehl, João. “The Juridical Afterlife of the Poor: Brazilian Public Health and the Politics of Abandonment.” Journal of Political Ecology 15 (2008): 1–18.

Greenberg, James B., and Thomas K. Park, eds. Terrestrial Transformations: Political Ecology, Climate, and the Remaking of Planet Earth. New York: Lexington Books, 2023.

Mbembe, Achille. Necropolitics. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2019.

Sassen, Saskia. Expulsions: Brutality and Complexity in the Global Economy. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2014.

Vélez-Ibáñez, Carlos G. The Rise of Necro/Narco-Citizenship: Belonging and Dying in the National Borderlands. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2025.

Weizman, Eyal. The Least of All Possible Evils: Humanitarian Violence from Arendt to Gaza.London: Verso, 2012.

[longwuzhere]

Some cool Easter eggs I caught watching My Adventures with Superman that I want to show to people so they can be in on it with comic book readers:

Episode 1 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Episode 2 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Episode 3 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Episode 4 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Episode 5 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Episode 7 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here and here

Episode 8 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Episode 9 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Episode 10 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 1 post is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 2 post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 3 post is here

(SPOILERS if you havent seen it obviously)

About 3ish minutes into the episode we see Clark be affected by red sun radiation, one of the non-Kryptonite weakness Superman has.

In the comics we first learn about this weakness in Action Comics #300 (1963), cover art by Curt Swan, George Klein, and Joe Letterese, where Superman is transported to the future by the Superman Revenge Squad, where the sun turned red thus losing his powers and has to find a way back home.

At the place where Jimmy was captured, we meet Monsieur Mallah and the Brain, at least MAwS version of these characters. I talk more about them in here. The episode has them depicted more like an old married couple with no supervillainous intentions compared to their comic counterparts...

who often associate themselves as enemies to the Doom Patrol and affliated with the Brotherhood of Evil. Also the Brain is usually French in the comics, here in MAwS, the Brain is German. The cover is from Outsiders #37 (2006) cover art by Daniel Acuna.

Back outside we see where Monsieur Mallah and the Brain took Jimmy, Cadmus Minefield.

Cadmus/Project Cadmus/the DNA Project, is known for its genetic engineering projects. The organization makes its first appearance in Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #135 (1971) created by legendary comic book creator, Jack Kirby. Cadmus is pretty well known for cloning Superboy/Kon-el/Conner Kent. Like in MAwS Cadmus is a government sanctioned division that's located outside of Metropolis. Ironic since in MAwS the government disavows Cadmus. You can read more about it on these two pages from Who's Who in the DC Universe #12 (1991), the art is done by Dan Jurgens, Dennis Janke, and Anthony Tollins.

Later in the forest we see Lois and Clark have to deal with the OMACs.

In the comics, Jack Kirby created OMAC, at the time, the acronym stood for One Man Army Corp. Buddy Blank of Earth-AD (a future post-apocalyptic Earth) was selected to be part of the OMAC program where with the help of the Brother Eye satellite grants him powers of super strength, stamina and density control. The cover art here for OMAC #1 (1971) was done by Jack Kirby, Mike Royer, and Gaspar Saladino.

Years later OMAC gets reinvented to be a cyborgs of Brother Eye that was developed by Batman thanks to his paranoia about super powered heroes turning evil. The page here is from the OMAC Project #5 (W: Greg Rucka, P&I :Jesus Saiz, C: Hi-Fi, L: Phil Balsman). This iteration of OMAC uses the acronym for Omni-Mind and Community. These Cyborgs make their first appearance in the OMAC Project #1 (2005). MAwS's OMACs are a lot more robotic and Evangelion-esque designed compared to how they look in the comics. Note the mohawk/fin designs on OMACs heads in both iterations of the comics and how the robots are designed in MAwS.

Someone on the MAwS team is a fan of Gurren Lagann.

Monsieur Mallah name drops Task Force X. I talked about the organization here

Monsieur Mallah mentions one dimensions in the universe where he and the Brain can be accepted. This brings to mind...

DC's multiverse. The multiverse makes its first appearance in the Flash #123 (1961) where Barry Allen and Jay Garrick meet for the first time. DC's multiple Earths have changed over the years from having only 52 distinct Earths to now infinite. The Multiverse map created by Grant Morrison and Rian Hughes, here is from Multiversity comic series.

Someone on the MAwS crew is a fan of the ED-209 design in Robocop.

After the fight with the OMACs, the Brain talks about the General. The only person in DC comics who usually goes by that moniker is...

General Wade Eiling. The panels here are from Captain Atom #1 (1987) (W: Cary Bates, P: Pat Broderick, I: Bob Smith, C: Carl Gafford, L: John Costanza). General Eiling is often associated with Suicide Squad/Task Force X. So it's possible that much like Parasite and Ivo, the MAwS team are combining characters by having...

him be a combination of General Eiling and General Sam Lane, Lois's dad. But who knows. Gotta wait for confirmation if this is either Eiling or Lane.

Thank you for taking your time reading this and making it this far down the post. If you want to see the other posts of easter eggs and references for past episodes:

Episode 1 is here

Episode 2 is here

Episode 3 is here

Episode 4 is here

Episode 5 is here

Episode 7 is here and here

Episode 8 is here

Episode 9 is here

Episode 10 is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 1 post is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 2 post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 3 post is here

[awkw4rdtoxicity]

Just found out some more about the dog and cat that went to space :( Now I'm crying

!!ANIMAL ABUSE AND DEATH!!

LONGGG PARAGRAPHS BTW

So basically there are two animals I'm talking about. Felicette, a cat who was launched into space by France, and Laika, a dog who was launched into space by the USSR(Russia).

Laika. Most people already know about Laika. On November 3rd, 1957, she became one of the few animals launched into space and the first to orbit the earth. She was a stray who was picked up by Soviet scientists who chose to use strays on the streets of Moscow. She had completed her training and was chosen for the final selections of dogs. To prepare for the small quarters of the Sputnik 2, the space satellite that Laika was placed in, they progressively gave them smaller and smaller cages. She was chosen for the lift off and was placed into the capsule on the 31st of October, 3 days before official launch, to get accommodated. The day before she was launched, she was taken home by one of the scientists to play with their kids. When it was time for launch, she was placed in the capsule on the 3rd of November 1957 and her heart rate was around 100 beats per minutes. At peak acceleration, her heart rate spiked almost 3 times that amount and her breathing almost 4 times than before launch. Part of the capsule tore, making the temperature moderation not work correctly and having it spike to 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) However she did survive this, eating her food and within 5-7 hours no sign of life was coming from the monitors. The scientists planned to euthanise her with said food for a while, however people often argued that it could've been something else because the capsule ended up getting hotter and at one point a scientist confirmed she died because of the heat. They also confirmed that they knew she would not survive the orbit, and that the capsule had never been made to have been able to be brought back. Her capsule disintegrated.

Felicette, or Felix. Most people don't know about Felicette. On the 18th of October, 1963 she became the first to be launched into space. She was a Parisian cat and like Laika, she was a stray. She was one of the 14 cats chosen to be launched into space during the French rocket program which started in 1961. They permanently had electrodes linked into their heads. On the 18th of October 1963 at 8:00 AM, she along with the C 341 were launched into space for a sub-orbital flight that lasted 13 minutes. The C 341 was found safely and she was as well, again, making her the first to go to space. She was euthanised 2 months later so scientists could examine her brain to see the effects of going to space on the brain. They however, found nothing. Out of the 12 cats that were trained, one of them had a massive health decline and given her not being able to go to space with such terrible health, she was adopted as the mascot. Felicette and 9 others were euthanised by the end of the program.

[lonestarflight]

Morning launch of STS-68 Endeavour

Date: September 30, 1994

"The Space Shuttle Endeavour lifts off from Launch Pad 39A in a halo of light. Aboard for an on time launch at 7:16:00:068 a.m. (EDT) are a crew of six NASA astronauts and the Space Radar Laboratory-2 (SRL-2). Mission commander for the 65th Space Shuttle flight is Michael A. Baker; the pilot is Terrence W. Wilcutt; Thomas D. Jones is the payload commander, and the three mission specialists are Daniel W. Bursch, Steven L. Smith and Peter J. K. "Jeff" Wisoff. During the planned ten-day flight of mission STS-68 around-the-clock operation of the SRL-2 will once again yield a wealth of data about Earth's global environment and the changes - both human-induced and natural - which are affecting it. This is the second flight this year of the SRL, and the second launch try for mission STS-68."

"This STS-68 patch was designed by artist Sean Collins. Exploration of Earth from space is the focus of the design of the insignia, the second flight of the Space Radar Laboratory (SRL-2). SRL-2 was part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE) project. The world's land masses and oceans dominate the center field, with the Space Shuttle Endeavour circling the globe. The SRL-2 letters span the width and breadth of planet Earth, symbolizing worldwide coverage of the two prime experiments of STS-68: The Shuttle Imaging Radar-C and X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) instruments; and the Measurement of Air Pollution from Satellites (MAPS) sensor. The red, blue, and black colors of the insignia represent the three operating wavelengths of SIR-C/X-SAR, and the gold band surrounding the globe symbolizes the atmospheric envelope examined by MAPS. The flags of international partners Germany and Italy are shown opposite Endeavour. The relationship of the Orbiter to Earth highlights the usefulness of human space flights in understanding Earth's environment, and the monitoring of its changing surface and atmosphere. In the words of the crew members, the soaring Orbiter also typifies the excellence of the NASA team in exploring our own world, using the tools which the Space Program developed to explore the other planets in the solar system."

NASA ID: STS068-S-037, STS068-S-034, MSFC-9403647

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this EcoWatch story:

For a second consecutive year, sea ice around Antarctica is nearing a record low for the winter season. 

Scientists at the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership (AAPP) announced that the Antarctic sea ice coverage has reached a new low point for winter, even surpassing the levels of 2023, which were the lowest since satellite records began.

“In 2023, the winter extreme was outside everybody’s expectations — not just due to its sheer magnitude, but because it’s the wrong time of year. In winter the ocean should be freezing,” scientist Will Hobbs explained in a statement. “While the summer sea ice of 2024 was largely within the ‘normal’ variability, this winter we’ve again seen chaotic fluctuations similar to last year, now producing the lowest winter extreme on record.”

The scientists determined that warming ocean temperatures are to blame, but they are still determining whether this level of warming in the short-term is “just a blip” or can be confirmed as a result of climate change, Hobbs said.

“We know that the past two years have been the warmest on record for the planet, with global temperatures more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial for extended periods,” Hobbs said. “This global warmth is now reflected in the oceans around the Antarctic, and is likely a major factor in continuing record low sea ice.”

As The Guardian reported, the ice coverage in the Southern Ocean reached 17 million square kilometers over the weekend. In 2023, the winter ice coverage reached 17.1 million square kilometers, compared to a long-term average of 18.4 million square kilometers for this time of year. 

[khanhannahlewis]

FM: Clan Blood Spirit 3160

(ooc: something I've been working on for a while for the Operation Touchdown setting. This version doesn't include the RATs I made becasue I wont be able to get those to an html format easily or well.)

Field Manual: CLAN BLOOD SPIRIT Compiled for the general staff of the SLDF in the year 3160 “As one of the two original Clans reincarnated in the second Founding, Clan Blood Spirit was left in a somewhat lucky position. Not only had a cluster been already raised as part of the Second Founding, we had a surviving bloodnamed warrior, who by sheer coincidence, managed to come into the fold and be elevated to the position of Khan. With this basis of material and leadership, we have managed to swell our ranks significantly in the 7 years since. While we still have some years before the first trueborn sibkos born on Castor enter their full training, development is proceeding well, and within 15 years we’ll have a consistent flow of trueborn warriors. In terms of industrial capacity, growth has been even more rapid than expected. With pre-existing factories and ruins of such on our core holdings, we managed to secure sufficient production to not only maintain the levels of our touman, but to expand at a greater rate than we can recruit. On the topic of recruitment, the Volunteer Cluster program has been highly successful, with almost an entire galaxy of volunteer forces serving as a reserve formation for our front line units, as well as garrisoning our homeworlds and the handful of minor holdings we have across Nova Cat and Star League space. The recruitment of freeborn children to the warrior caste has also been successful, with two clusters raised primarily of freeborn warriors who have received standard sibko training and have passed trials of position. These warriors are a match for any of our trueborn warriors of similar experience. The assimilation of our civilian populace continues slowly, however, dissent has dropped in recent years and identification as “Blood Spirit” has risen somewhat, especially among children targeted by the new cultural education curriculum.. Currently, propaganda campaigns are constant and everywhere, and the transition to a full Clan economy is expected to begin within 3 years. Transition to the caste system is expected within 30. To state that we have met our goals as laid down under the Great Refusal Centennial plan is obvious, and to state that we have exceeded our goals should be clear from this document. ” CBS Khanate production, 3160 Rhodes Foundry:

Mad Dog Mk2

Conjurer 7

Griffin IIC 4

Howler 5

Locust IIC

Victor C

Crab 27b Rhodes Y2 Vehicle Annex:

Morrigu

Shamash

Vedette (Clan)

Cyrano (Royal) Pollux Waytani Industriplex Alpha:

Exo Industrialmech

Centaur OmniProto

Roc ProtoMech

Delphyne ProtoMech

Chrysaor ProtoMech

Rabid Medium Battlearmor

Elemental Pollux Indistriplex Beta:

Visigoth

Tyre Mi

Chaeronea

Hydaspes 3 Designs in development:

Delphyne II OmniProto: Superheavy OmniProtoMech trooper. Rollout by 3161

Butcherbird (Roc II) OmniProto: rollout by 3161

Blood Dragon XP: Small batch prototype heavy trooper OmniMech using advanced RISC technology. Stripped back version enters mass production in 3165 Important Settlements and Locations: Devil’s Rock:

Forest City

Clan Administrative Complex

Faust City

Touman Base Arcadia: Built into a mountain in the vicinity of Forest City. Constructed in the style of a Castle BRian, it consists of a surface administrative and housing complex, Mechbays, a dropport, subterranean aerospace hangars, SDS command centers, and bombardment resistant command centers sunk deep into the mountain.

Devil’s Rock Military Spaceport

Rhodes Foundry: Though the original factory was destroyed in fighting between the Wolf Empire and the Capellan Confederation, the remaining foundations and satellite facilities provided a good footprint for an all new clantech production line.Clearing rubble and stabilizing the ground took some time, but actual construction was swift with the use of several construction airships. The resulting 5 square kilometers of fortified compound contains multiple Battlemech lines, vehicle lines, repair facilities, r&D facilities, a small dropport, and enough underground networks and Mechbays to support a garrison trinary and deploy it anywhere in the facility.

Rhodes Y2 Vehicle Annex: Developed off of the York Y2 facility blueprints that had been sold to Clan Sea Fox in the past, the Rhodes Y2 Annex is its own compound within a compound of the rest of the Rhodes facility. Castor:

Castor Sibko facility: The principal training and breeding facility for all Clan warriors in the Khanate. The oldest castor-born children are now 5. Consists of housing blocks and training facilities built into rolling hills by the edge of an inland sea.

Touman Base Gorst: While Devil’s Rock is the capital of the Clan in all ways, Castor serves as the spiritual center of the Warrior Caste. The much more habitable environment and wide natural spaces makes it popular for trials and meetings of the bloodnamed. Touman Base Gorst facilitates that as an almost retreat-like facility. Surface lodges are supported by the usual fixtures of a Clan military facility burrowed deep into wind carved spires of rock among a dense pine forest. The Khan maintains a personal retreat in this base, and it is served by its own HPG uplink, a newly built one. Pollux:

Pollux Waytani Industriplex Alpha: Once one of the premier Industrialmech lines in the Inner Sphere, the Waytani factory on Pollux has been expanded and retooled to produce Clan Battle Armor and Protomechs.

Pollux Indistriplex Beta: Built on the Star League era ruins of the Allied Aerospace factory.

CBS TOE 3160

Unbroken Keshik [Khan Hannah Lewis] (1 Trinary/Elite/Fanatical)K

3x Broadsword class Dropships

2x Arcadia class Dropships The Unbroken Keshik uses a color scheme of gold on the torso, with black arms and legs. Red divides the gold and black at the waist, and highlights on the black.

Alpha Galaxy [saKhan Amber Ryder]

1st Bloodied Dagger Cluster [Star Colonel Tyrel Boques] (5 Trinaries/Veteran/Fanatical)1 The first cluster raised for the reformed Clan Blood Spirit, the 1st Bloodied Dagger was raised on Sudeten as part of the Second Founding, and was formed from the first generation of graduates from the Blood Spirit program there.

1x Overlord C class Dropship

1x Fortress C class Dropship

4x Arcadia class Dropships

1st Harwood Provisional Cluster (5 Trinaries/Elite/Reliable)1 Formerly the Harwood Mercenary company, Harwood was sold to the saKhan of the Clan, Amber Ryder, and those members that wished it were allowed to formally join the Clan as Warrior Caste members. The rest of the cluster is made of the still on contract mercenaries, and freeborn warrior caste members.

2nd Bloodied Dagger Cluster [Star Colonel Jurgen Keller] (5 Trinaries/Regular/Fanatical)1 Formed from the second generation of the Sudeten sibkos.

1x Overlord C class Dropship

1x Fortress C class Dropship

3x Arcadia class Dropships

2nd Crimson Calvary Cluster [Star Colonel Nanda] (5 Trinaries/Regular/Reliable)2

1x Fortress C class Dropship

1x Union C class Dropship

6x Broadsword Class Dropships

3x Arcadia class Dropships

5x Odyssey class Jumpships

2x Invader class Jumpships Alpha Galaxy consists of the earliest units raised for the refounding, as well as an entire mercenary unit that was absorbed. Alpha Galaxy uses a parade scheme of black and dark gray camo, with crimson arms and lower legs. The 1st Harwood Cluster has its own paint scheme, though it is similar in nature, with black bodies with red heads, shoulders, right leg, and left lower arms. Alpha Galaxy's symbol is a dagger piercing a bleeding heart.

Beta Galaxy [Loremaster Carmilla Schmitt]

1st Crimson Calvary Cluster [Star Colonel Lynet] (5 Trinaries/Regular/Reliable)2 The first cluster raised from the new Blood Spirit Khanate, the 1st Crimson Calvary consists entirely of freeborn warriors.

1x Fortress C class Dropship

2x Union C class Dropships

3x Broadsword class Dropships

1st Blood Militia Cluster [Star Colonel Ferrin] (5 Trinaries/Green/Questionable)3 The Blood Militia clusters are raised from the civilian population of the Blood Spirit Khanate, with members functioning as provisional warriors, with the possibility of testing up into the Warrior Caste proper. Unlike traditional Clan systems, there is a distinct line between officer and enlisted, with officers either being warrior caste test downs, or those promoted to warrior caste who didn’t choose to be reassigned to a higher grade unit. Unlike the traditional Blood Spirit cluster formation of 3 Battlemech trinaries, 1 vehicle trinary, and 1 infantry trinary, Militia clusters prioritize combat vehicle and conventional infantry forces, supported by a minority of salvaged Inner sphere Battlemechs.

2x Fortress C class Dropships

2x Union C class Dropships

2nd Blood Militia Cluster [Star Colonel Alexander] (5 Trinaries/Green/Questionable)3

2x Fortress C class Dropships

2x Union C class Dropships

3rd Blood Militia Cluster [Star Colonel Nic](5 Trinaries/Green/Questionable)3

2x Fortress C class Dropships

2x Union C class Dropships

3x Odyssey class Jumpships, 2x Invader Class Jumpships Beta Galaxy consists entirely of newly raised freeborn units. Largely untested and of low quality by Clan standards. Posting here to the few trueborn warriors in this Galaxy is resented. Beta Galaxy's color scheme consists of a red line running down the middle of the ‘Mech or CV, flanked by appropriate local camouflage. Beta Galaxy uses a silhouette of a greek helmet in crimson, similar to the logo of the Rhodes Foundry.

Naval Reserve [Star Admiral]:

1st Naval Trinary: 2x Comitatus, 3x Invader

1NT 2nd Naval Star:

2x Carrier

2x Isegrim

1x Noruff

1NT 3rd Naval Star:

1x Carrier

1x Isegrim

3x Nagasawa

Command asset: 1x Argo

Fighter wing: 70x ASFs

2nd Naval Binary: 2x Invader

2NB 2nd Naval Star

4x Carrier

1x Miraborg

Fighter wing: 70x ASFs Vessels and fighters of the Naval reserve are left unpainted apart from crimson accents on the nose. The badge of the Clan is positioned on the flanks of dropships and jumpships, and on the wings of fighters. Dropships on permanent attachment to a Galaxy are painted in the colors of that Galaxy.

Clan Blood Spirit Security Forces One of the changes made to the traditional structure of the Clans by Khan Lewis was the merging of the Paramilitary police and Enforcer subcaste into a single force. Functions much like a typical gendarme with the ability to reorganize into garrison militias in wartime. Drawn from preexisting law enforcement members and new recruits, as well as warrior caste dropouts and solhama. The Security Forces use a variation of the military work uniform, in white with red accents,with a “POLICE” marked tactical vest, and an MP symbol on the shoulder opposite the Clan symbol. Units in tactical kit wear the standard infantry kit, in white with red accents and marked as “POLICE.” Combat Vehicles and security ‘Mechs use the same white with red accents.

Uniforms: Badges are worn in the following configuration regardless of uniform: Clan symbol on the right upper arm, galaxy badge on the left arm opposite it. Cluster badge is set below the galaxy badge, and freeborn warriors wear an extra black teardrop under the Clan badge. The Blood Spirit rank badge is worn on the right collar, on the throat if allowed by the uniform.

Field:

As a work uniform, all warriors and soldiers wear gray cargo pants over combat boots, and a shirt colored to the majority color of the local area, with red piping and full insignia.

In combat, infantry wear a basic gray bodysuit under a full set of clan copper body armor and helmet in galaxy colors or local camouflage. The undersuit is usually also local camouflage if the body armor is as well. Other branches wear their respective utility uniforms. (cooling suits for Mechwarriors, mesh suits for Battle Armor pilots, simplified cooling vests for tankers, etc.)

Dress:

Warrior Caste: Warrior caste dress uniform consists of a red, ribbed tunic, with a staggered V shaped black smooth cloth swooping down from the neck and shoulders to a point just above the belt line, covering the chest and a small slice of the upper back The collar is high and terminates just under the chin. The tunic is tucked into straight gray pants, which are tucked into shiny black calf high boots. A leather belt matching the boots has a buckle with the Clan badge, and black gloves are optional. A black cape with red lining which attaches to the shoulders of the tunic, and is available as an option for Bloodnamed warriors only. Warriors who have served with the SLDF can wear a Star League Star on their right breast.

Volunteer Clusters: For dress uniforms, soldiers of the Blood Spirit Volunteer Clusters wear dull crimson trousers and khaki shirts, with a peaked cap matching the trousers. Officers wear a red sash and a blood drop badge on their cap. warrior caste officers may wear their warrior caste dress and ceremonial uniforms, or the Volunteer officer uniform with a gold and red Fourragere and a daggerstar badge. Soldiers who have served with the SLDF can wear a gray and olive drab Fourragere.

Ceremonial:

The ceremonial uniform is a loose-fitting, blood-red jumpsuit, tucked into calf-high red boots. A large cloak encases the torso and opens up to the waist. Voluminous sleeves flow down the arms. A deep cowl is worn on the wearer's head with a blood-red glass mask covering the face from brow to chin. Only Bloodnamed warriors can wear the uniform.

[thenixkat]

so Wonder Woman got all that flack about killing Maxwell Lord but he told and possibly brainwashed her to kill him as part of his 'make the public turn against superheroes' ploy

also Wonder Woman isn't one of those heroes with a no killing rule. ANd honestly, she shouldn't feel anything back about killing Max given he brainwashed fucking SUperman through the power of bullshit to kill people that's a decent reason to off a bitch

and this bullshit

why is Batman's spy satellite able to access half this shit?

Superman's awfully upset that she killed Max to stop Superman from murdering her and Batman like?

yeah that was a life but like yer priorities sir Brother Eye starting a fuck ton of problems to get the superheroes attention off of it while it back up plan shit

so Max's plans involved murdering Everyone at Checkmate. All of them in the backup plan. They were right to have a bad feeling about him

its almost like having a murder happy boss is a big red flag

yeah Sasha you earned that. Play mind games with lives on the line, don't be surprised if a bitch you tried to set up for shit chokes you the fuck out

Guy continues to be a gross sexist pig and i fail to see why people like him

Fire told Guy and Booster to get the fuck out of her office if they dont have info she doesnt know

Fire, the ex-spy was on the case herself. Again why wasn't Ted allowed to go to any of his friends with investigative experience for help other than the Countdown writer wanted him to die

Bea/Fire looking at the financial reports for Kord Inc of Ted getting robbed to hell and back

Brother Eye checks in on Batman to say its sentient now and does what it wants and also it changed its name to Brother Eye

damn Batman maybe you shouldnt have programmed an ai while in full paranoia mode. Its almost like that reflects in the being you created.

like fucker made a thing capable of some amount of thought, told it to watch fuckers b/c they're dangerous and may do shit that harms humanity, told it all their weaknesses, and then didn't keep a close enough eye on it to keep it from deciding that there was a flaw in the programming you gave it and find someone to help fix that flaw

the paranoid ass ai that Batman made decided that Batman can't be trusted to not try and fuck over humanity or cross the line. WHich fair, Batman made a fucking spy satellite capable of accessing every device on the planet apparently, filled it with info that could be used to hurt people, gave it an ai to operate on its own with minimal supervision, and put a death laser in it. Clearly that man is dangerous

[awesome-casuallyfamouscollector]

The Staggering Cost of Losing Europe's Arms Market (and trust) | Part 3: Drones!

Over the last few weeks, we’ve showcased Europe’s cutting-edge military capabilities—from tanks, GMLRS, fighter jets, IFVs, APCs, and air defence systems. In this episode, we shift our focus to one of the most rapidly evolving aspects of modern warfare: drones, anti-drone technology, electronic warfare, and satellite capabilities. Segment 1: Fixed-Wing Drones European manufacturers are redefining endurance and versatility on the battlefield. In this segment, we explore flagship projects like the Eurodrone program and highlight combat-proven systems such as the Slovenian-made C-astral, Danish Heidrun from Sky Watch, Tekever’s long-endurance platforms, and the Dutch DeltaQuad Evo and Pro. These drones—engineered for extended ISR missions with high-resolution sensors and modular payloads—are transforming how surveillance and precision strikes are executed. Segment 2: FPV Drones & Loitering Munitions Next, we delve into the world of FPV drones and loitering munitions. From innovative designs like Lithuania’s Sphak and Finland’s Steel Eagle to mass-produced 3D-printed variants like Goida, Bavovna, and Nort Varta, these agile platforms are proving indispensable in Ukraine. We also look at European loitering munitions, including Poland’s Warmate, KNDS’s Colibri, and other emerging systems that offer affordability and scalability in dynamic combat scenarios. Segment 3: European Counter-Drone Measures As drone technology advances, so does the need for effective countermeasures. We break down how European defence industries are developing sophisticated electronic warfare capabilities—like Italian ELT’s scramblers and Sweden’s Saab Sirius system—to jam, disrupt, and neutralize hostile drones. We also examine kinetic solutions from Rheinmetall and Poland’s Pilica system, as well as experimental laser-based directed energy weapons and advanced autonomous combat drones from Turkey and collaborative projects like Eurodrone and BAE’s Taranis. Segment 4: The Bigger Picture What does all this mean for European defence? The integration of cutting-edge drone systems with robust counter-drone measures signals a major strategic shift. By developing home-grown, scalable solutions, Europe is not only enhancing its offensive and defensive capabilities but also setting new benchmarks in military innovation and strategic autonomy.

[homestuck-fanauthor-coalition]

The Homestuck Fan Author Coalition's January 2025 Competition was a split competition with a side for explicit fics, and a side for non-explicit fics. The prompt "Bard" meant that all participants had to write a fanfiction based on a song or album. Participants had one month to write any fic they liked based on this prompt, and votes were done to determine the awards.

All Non-Explicit Fic Submissions and Awards

A Girl Named Yiffy by @meowloudly15

A story about a girl with all odds against her.

Winner of the Davepeta^2 Award for Most Creative Interpretation of Lyrics Winner of the Dave Award for Best Use of Diegetic Music

they don't believe in the ghosts or forms you take by lugome

Sollux and Karkat go ghost-hunting.

Winner of the Roxy Award for First Fic Winner of the Lil Cal Award for Best in Horror

find your yesterday in your tomorrow by lugome

When Vriska Serket ends up on an universe where everyone who didn't make it to Earth C is there and vice-verse, she'll have to face a difficult decision.

Winner of the Roxy Award for First Fic Winner of the Calliope Award for Most Interesting Headcanon/AU

i'm made be He, despised by They by shudder

The universe wants to see its inhabitants in pain.

you should come with me to the end of the world (without telling your family or any of your friends) by bralsra

Terezi has to juggle three relationships and several friendships. Her partners have to deal with her. Mind the tags!

Winner of the Vriska Award for Best in Drama

i don't want to be afraid (when father time ticks in the hour) by bralsra

in which roxy is stuck in a house with dirk, jane and jake.

Winner of the Lil Cal Award for Best in Horror

F.E.A.R by @27thfirefly

Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

- John Malkovich

Your name is JANE CROCKER, and you’ve been feeling a little nervy lately.

Winner of the Black Queen Award for Best in Character-Driven

I've Been Waiting, Waiting by @tehstripe

Jade is put on a ship for her own protection in the midst of an inter-galactic war. All she can do is wait.

Winner of the Nepeta Award for Best in Romance

if you stick with the program, maybe one day you'll be (more than a machine learning how to please) by @simsandchesscrossover

My name is CDOCRS01, which is short for Cognitive Development and Offensive Capability Robotic Structure, but Jake calls me Brobot. In appearance, I am a sixteen-year-old boy of average height and weight, which means that I am 70 inches tall and weigh 145 pounds. In actuality, I am seven months old.

Winner of the Equius Award for Best in Action Winner of the White Queen Award for Best in Plot-Driven

Before The Breakdown by @simsandchesscrossover

After Trickster Mode, Roxy thinks.

Made My Way to LA by @justficsnthings

“We had a plan… Move out of that town…” He whispers

Drowning Lessons by @jellysmudge

You steal from convenience stores together; the mania invades your blood, a virus spreading through your system, replacing you until all that’s left is your aching chest, and intensity of want. It consumes you easily, and you think it may consume her, too. The two of you were never really people, anyways.

Winner of the Eridan Award for Best in Angst

Soap by @wellofhavoc

Eridan and Sollux are the final trolls living on a satellite in orbit around their new planet- a bright place neither of them long to explore.

The power system is overheating.

The Prideful Pink Princess and Her Servant of Evil by @aeroargonic

Dirk's job has always been to look after his twin sister. And he intends to fulfill it. Even as she becomes the princess of the kingdom of Derse, he stands by her side. For better or for worse.

Winner of the White Queen Award for Best in Plot-Driven

I think I understand you, but I don't by @aeroargonic

"I just wanna get you high tonight."

Jane, Jake, a crumbling relationship, and one last good night together.

The Flame of a Revolution by @achilles--hell

A look into the wayward vagabond's revolutionary origins via lyricfic.

Would You Fall In Love With Me Again? by @achilles--hell

Rose reunites with Kanaya after the events of the meat timeline.

I Am Selfish, I Am Wrong by @shadow-wasser

Eridan did something very wrong, then paid the price. Is it enough? Will he ever be accepted back into his team? And will he ever tell Karkat how very pale he feels?

Look, I Love You but You Really Fucked Me over Big Time by @toxicchamomile

A series of pesterlogs over the course of six months.

war is over (and we are beginning) by @cosmiccaesura

The first morning after creating a new universe, twelve people wake up to the dawn of a new day.

Winner of the Caliborn Award for Best in Canon-Compliance Winner of the Davebot Award for Best Use of Non-Diegetic Music

No Leverage / No Pleasure by @thoughts-of-a-scoundrel

Your name is Dirk Strider. You are sixteen years old. You’re currently on a date of sorts, slaying skeletons and whatnot, only most of the actual slaying is over now.

Most Days We Watch Our Best Friends Die by @princevaping11-11

A little bit of what I think Davesprite and his Rose were up to during those 4 months.

My dawn by @not-someone-who-matters

Your name is CALIBORN. And you won.

Coming Home by @starlit-bawka

Your name is Dirk Strider, and you’ve been waiting your whole life for this moment.

......

Jane Crocker is suddenly feeling very uncertain.

Or: Dirk is a solo-flight astronaut on his first trip out to orbit. Jane is his launch director.

Winner of the Alpha Bro Award for Best Indirect Lyrical Inspiration

red flags by @tehstripe

John's on a blind date that's going really well! But there's just this one red flag…

Winner of the Gamzee Award for Best in Comedy

i recovered from this by @neapolitangirl

It's the First Annual Resistance Fundraiser and you can't wait for Rose Maryam-Lalonde's interview!

Winner of the Dave Award for Best Use of Diegetic Music

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Biomass satellite launched to count forest carbon

ESA's Biomass satellite, designed to provide unprecedented insights into the world's forests and their crucial role in Earth's carbon cycle, has been launched. The satellite lifted off aboard a Vega-C rocket from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on 29 April at 11:15 CEST (06:15 local time).

Less than an hour after launch, Biomass separated from the rocket's upper stage. At 12:28 CEST, the satellite controllers at ESA's European Space Operations Center in Germany received the all-important first signal, relayed via the Troll ground station in Antarctica, that Biomass is working as expected in orbit.

Controllers will spend the coming days carrying out the "launch and early orbit" phase, meticulously verifying that all systems are functioning correctly.

This critical phase also involves a series of intricate maneuvers to deploy the satellite's 12-meter-wide mesh reflector supported by a 7.5-meter boom. Once this phase is complete, Biomass will join the portfolio of pioneering missions operated from ESA's mission control center.

Carrying the first P-band synthetic aperture radar in space, the Biomass mission is designed to deliver crucial information about the state of our forests and how they are changing, and to further our knowledge of the role forests play in the carbon cycle.

ESA's Director of Earth Observation Programs, Simonetta Cheli, said, "I'd like to extend my congratulations to everyone who has been involved in developing and launching this extraordinary mission. Biomass now joins our esteemed family of Earth Explorers—missions that have consistently delivered groundbreaking discoveries and advanced scientific understanding of our planet.

"With Biomass, we are poised to gain vital new data on how much carbon is stored in the world's forests, helping to fill key gaps in our knowledge of the carbon cycle and, ultimately, Earth's climate system."

Forests play a vital role in Earth's carbon cycle by absorbing and storing large amounts of carbon dioxide, helping to regulate the planet's temperature. Often called "Earth's green lungs," they absorb about 8 billion tons of carbon dioxide annually. However, deforestation and degradation—especially in tropical regions—are releasing stored carbon back into the atmosphere, worsening climate change.

A major challenge for scientists and policymakers is the lack of accurate data on how much carbon forests store and how these stocks are changing owing to factors such as rising temperatures, increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, and human-driven land-use changes.

Biomass is the first satellite equipped with a P-band synthetic aperture radar, which is capable of penetrating forest canopies to measure woody biomass—trunks, branches, and stems—where most forest carbon is stored. These measurements act as a proxy for carbon storage, the assessment of which is the mission's primary goal.

Data from Biomass will significantly reduce uncertainties in carbon stock and flux estimates, including those related to land-use change, forest loss, and regrowth.

About Biomass

ESA's Biomass forest mission uses advanced space technology to provide new data on forests and their changes. It enhances our understanding of forests' roles in the carbon cycle and climate. Its P-band radar penetrates clouds and forest layers, scattering signals off forest elements. These signals reveal details like forest biomass and height. Biomass data will improve knowledge of habitat loss and its effects on biodiversity. The mission also enables the mapping of subsurface geology in deserts, ice sheet structures, and forest floor topography.

The satellite was developed by more than 50 companies, led by Airbus UK.

IMAGE: ESA's Biomass is the first satellite to carry a P-band synthetic aperture radar. Thanks to the long wavelength of P-band, around 70 cm, this novel radar is able to penetrate through the forest canopy, allowing it to collect information on different parts of the forest, such tree trunks, branches and stems—which is where trees store most of their carbon. The radar is fully polarimetric, which means it is capable of transmitting and receiving in two orthogonal linear polarizations, horizontal and vertical. The different signals in each polarization channel are needed to yield different information about the forest. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab CC-BY-SA 3.0 IGO

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

June 4, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JUN 05, 2024

The Gettysburg Address it wasn’t.

Seventy-seven years ago, on June 5, 1947, Secretary of State George C. Marshall, who had been a five-star general in World War II, gave a commencement speech at Harvard University. 

Rather than stirring, the speech was bland. Its long sentences were hard to follow. It was vague. And yet, in just under eleven minutes on a sunny afternoon, Marshall laid out a plan that would shape the modern world.

“The truth of the matter is that Europe's requirements for the next three or four years of foreign food and other essential products—principally from America—are so much greater than her present ability to pay that she must have substantial additional help or face economic, social, and political deterioration of a very grave character,” he said. “It is logical that the United States should do whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal economic health in the world, without which there can be no political stability and no assured peace. Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos. Its purpose should be the revival of a working economy in the world so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist.”

In his short speech, Marshall outlined the principles of what came to be known as the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe in the wake of the devastation of World War II. The speech challenged European governments to work together to make a plan for recovery and suggested that the U.S. would provide the money. European countries did so, forming the Organization for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC) in 1948. From 1948 to 1952, the U.S. would donate about $17 billion to European countries to rebuild, promote economic cooperation, and modernize economies. By the end of the four-year program, economic output in each of the countries participating in the Marshall Plan had increased by at least 35%.

This investment helped to avoid another depression like the one that had hit the world in the 1930s, enabling Europe to afford goods from the U.S. and keeping low the tariff walls that had helped to choke trade in the crisis years of that decade. Marshall later recalled that his primary motivation was economic recovery, that he had been shocked by the devastation he saw in Europe and felt that “[i]f Europe was to be salvaged, economic aid was essential.”

But there was more to the Marshall Plan than money. 

The economic rubble after the war had sparked political chaos that fed the communist movement. No one wanted to go back to the prewar years of the depression, and in the wake of fascism, communism looked attractive to many Europeans. 

“Marshall was acutely aware that this was a plan to stabilize Western Europe politically because the administration was worried about the impact of communism, especially on labor unions,” historian Charles Maier told Colleen Walsh of the Harvard Gazette in 2017. “In effect, it was a plan designed to keep Western Europe safely in the liberal Western camp.” It worked. American investment in Europe helped to turn European nations away from communism as well as the nationalism that had fed World War II, creating a cooperative and stable Europe. 

The Marshall Plan also helped Europe and the U.S. to articulate a powerful set of shared values. The U.S. invited not just Europe but also the Soviet Union to participate in the plan, but Soviet leaders refused, recognizing that accepting such aid would weaken the idea that communism was a superior form of government and give the U.S. influence. They blocked satellite countries from participating, as well. Forcing the USSR either to join Europe or to divide the allies of World War II put Soviet leaders in a difficult position and at a psychological disadvantage. 

With a clear ideological line dividing the USSR and Europe, Europeans, Americans, and their allies coalesced around a concept of government based on equality before the law, secularism, civil rights, economic and political freedom, and a market economy: the tenets of liberal democracy. As Otto Zausmer, who had worked for the U.S. Office of War Information to swing Americans behind the war, put it in 1955: “America’s gift to the world is not money, but the Democratic idea, democracy.” 

In the years after the Marshall Plan, European countries expanded their cooperative organizations. The OEEC became the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1961 and still operates with 37 member countries that account for three fifths of world trade. And the U.S. abandoned its prewar isolationism to engage with the rest of the world. The Marshall Plan helped to create a liberal international order, based on the rule of law, that lasted for decades. 

In his commencement speech on June 5, 1947, Marshall apologized that “I’ve been forced by the necessities of the case to enter into rather technical discussions.” But on the ten-year anniversary of the speech, the Norwegian foreign minister had a longer perspective, saying: “[T]his initiative taken by Marshall and by the American Government marked the beginning of a new epoch in western Europe, an epoch of wider, and above all more binding, cooperation between the countries than ever before.” 

Not bad for an eleven-minute speech.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON