#rtx

[zombielesbean]

decided to try out minecraft with raytracing since I can now and here are some choice screenshots I got of my creative world

[matt0044]

What we can learn from “The Jaune Arc Discourse” (TM).

Well, to start with, people are really resistant to being corrected on lies at worst or overstatements at best.

Like if nothing else, the Does RWBY Like Women poll was illuminating in how it showed me that a veeeeeery weird myth about Jaune Arc has persisted beyond its true relevancy.

Volume 1 of RWBY features Jaune Arc in the spotlight for… what? Four episodes? The minutes of each adding up to roughly twenty minutes, the length of an average TV episode?

While he was featured in the previous storyline where we are given an eight episode arc introducing us to our eight main protagonists, he was a lot more… ancillary as comic relief. A discount Lavernius Tucker with Felix’s voice if you will.

He's Vomit Boy in episode one. Episode two has him introduced more formally as somebody who helps up Ruby after a bad first impression on Weiss. He later appears more prominently pining over Weiss and catching Pyrrha's attention before falling to bracing himself in being catapulted into the Emerald Forest.

He's bailed out by Pyrrha and it's set up that he's in over his head by not knowing what Aura is or at least wanting to know how it works. An exposition sponge as I heard on fan call it. I could go on but the point is that all signs pointed to a Butt Monkey Ron Stoppable sort who was likely there for cheap laughs.

Amusing enough but I worried if that's all he'd be personally. Lord knows that some movies give the Comic Relief character too much comic relief and, well, not enough character. But after Ruby and Weiss have their leader/lance headbutting, the four episodes that followed reassured me that there'd be more to Jaune than meets the eyes.

But to circle back to the main thesis, it's actually fascinating that the myth of Jaune hijacking the narrative for himself is this pervasive when the offending story in question... is very much a self-contained character piece. It's way less about the wider story involving Ozpin, Roman Torchwick (at the time) and the White Fang.

It has relevance in how Pyrrha starts mentoring Jaune after he deals with Cardin and gets over himself (for now) which trickles down into future stories. Even then, the next story arc right back with Team RWBY with nary a sign of the everyman in question. A story arc that does deal with elements of the main plot, leading directly into Volume 2.

And in Volume 2, Jaune trying to woo Weiss and being ignorant to Pyyrha's advancements was just a subplot scattered in the first half of the story. It very much piggybacks off of Team RWBY's whole deal.

Volume 3 has what I consider to be a reversal of what's been known as Trinity Syndrome.

Namely the sort where a male character goes off the square off with the main villain mano-e-mano after shoving the female character/his love interest away so she won't get hurt. An egrigious example being when the love interest CAN FIGHT and back him up.

However, Pyyrha instead shoves Jaune out of the way after kissing him and goes off to face Cinder in a very fatal battle. It was honestly a brilliant (as much as the term may be disliked these days) subversion of the cliche.

And it’s Ruby who sees her death and gets the trauma induced power up. Jaune only has a scene of angst before that and was the one to call Ruby to have her try and back up the one he just realized he loved.

Jaune from that point on is an Everyman Protagonist who is forced to remember that he’s not THE protagonist. Yet the myth persistently proclaims that he hijacks the narrative from the titular Team RWBY despite only four episodes being wholly dedicated to him and his head space.

How did we get here?

Well… there’s the fact that not everyone finished Volume 1 and that not everybody, well, watched RWBY. And that would be fine on its own. You gave it a shot and it wasn’t your cuppa joe. You saw the trailer but clicked on something else.

I get it. That’s fine. Contrary to popular belief, nobody in the FNDM will really fault you for it. Less fine is when you spread faulty readings of RWBY and from those heavily biased against it no less.

It cannot be emphasized enough that tearing into RWBY is a cottage industry on YouTube. Hbomberguy might have the biggest platform but you’ll find multiple channels with lengthy series on “RWBY bad, here why.” And they are actually amongst the FNDM. They know how the YT Algorithm game is played, how it rewards engagement above all else. And sadly, negativity and rage pay more bills.

It’s why there are few positive videos or at least few that are pushed into the recommendations. Many often borrow the same points from each other born from the V1 days, namely that Jaune is allegedly given favoritism by the writers while we somehow “don’t know who the main girls are.”

From four episodes.

I also think it’s also to do with how it’s not that he actually did steal screentime… so much as many anticipated he would. A lot of shows and movies I grew up with would have strong female characters but any potential they had was hindered by the male lead and his hero’s journey. See the above Trinity Syndrome I referenced.

But Jaune didn’t do that. Even when he was central to an event like his semblance being awakened, it’s a healing/power boost that he gives to others. Weiss getting skewered might’ve brought it out but it lead to her getting back into the fray while he was largely to the sides.

Seems more like he shares screentime if anything.

People cling to these myths despite legit fans actually pointing out, “Hey, that’s not true actually and here’s why,” because that hate being told they are wrong more than being wrong. And because there are many around these who reinforce this “truth,” they feel content with it. No need to challenge it when it “feels” right.

So Jaune Arc stole screentime. Because that’s what “everyone else” is saying. By you need to question popular opinions. You need to realize that sometimes… a fan community is based on lies.

”Trust me, bro” is not the gotcha you think it is.

[yourtypicalhopelessgay]

Let’s go!! Might not be volume 10, but manifested ponytail Yang in something rwby lol. Also the muscles too!! She looks so good

[battleangel]

WHY DOES ISRAEL WANT TO DESTROY GAZA?

2008 - 2009: Gaza massacres.

2012: Gaza massacre.

2014: Gaza massacre.

2018 - 2019: Gaza massacre.

2021: Gaza massacre.

2023 - Ongoing: Gaza massacre.

Chevron also supports Israel’s lobbying effortsfor the construction of the Eastmed Pipeline, a massive, EU sponsored fossil fuel infrastructure project that would exacerbate the climate crisis and whose feasibility is widely contested.

EastMed is a mega pipeline that would carry fossil gas from the disputed waters of the Levantine Basin (Cyprus, Israel and potentially Palestine) to Italy.

It would be one of Europe’s longest pipelines, and, reportedly, the world’s deepest.

The Israeli government is one of the most enthusiastic proponents of the EastMed pipeline, as it would secure a European export market for Israeli gas reserves.

The EastMed continues from Israel to Cyprus, where important offshore gas reserves are located.

Siemens was awarded the contract for building the EuroAsia Interconnector, a  subsea cable that will link Israel’s electricity grid with Europe’s, allowing its illegal settlements on stolen Palestinian (and Syrian) land to benefit from Israel-EU trade of electricity produced from fossil gas.

The Biden administration has been working to give Israel over $14 billion to buy more weapons. This is on top of the $3.8 billion the U.S. already gives to the Israeli military annually. Israel is required to use this money to buy U.S.-made weapons.

This is a form of corporate welfare not only for the largest weapons manufacturers, like Lockheed Martin, RTX (Raytheon), Boeing, and General Dynamics, which have seen their stock prices skyrocket, but also for companies that are not typically seen as part of the weapons industry, such as Caterpillar, Ford, and Toyota.

As Israel intensifies its Gaza onslaught, focus turns to the controversial Ben Gurion Canal Project, originally proposed in the 1960s as an alternative to the Suez Canal.

Named after Israel's founding father, David Ben-Gurion, the project, conceived in the late 1960s, sought to create an alternative route to the Suez Canal, the primary shipping route connecting Europe and Asia.

Understanding the motivations behind the proposal requires exploring the complex history of the Suez Canal, the Tripartite Aggression of 1956, and the unexpected shocks to world trade resulting from its closures.

This backdrop underscores the potential strategic importance of an alternative canal, controlled by Israel, in the ever-evolving dynamics of the region.

David Ben-Gurion (1886–1973) was a prominent Zionist leader from Poland, who was known as the founding father of Israel.

He was described as a ruthless man who gave orders to Zionist militias to see the mass expulsion of Palestinians from their lands and facilitated the influx of  Jewish immigrants from all over the world into Palestine. He served as the first prime minister of Israel in 1948.

The Ben Gurion Canal project was a proposal in the 1960s by Israel to connect the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea through the southern end of the Gulf of Aqaba. The route was planned via the port city of Eilat and the Jordanian border, through the Arabah Valley for about 100 kilometres between the Negev (Naqab) Mountains and the Jordanian Highlands and veered west before the Dead Sea basin, and heading through a valley in the Negev Mountain (Naqab) Range.

It would then head north again to circumvent the Gaza Strip and connect to the Mediterranean Sea.

However, a connection between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea already exists through the Suez Canal - an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt that offers vessels a direct route between the North Atlantic and the northern Indian oceans, reducing journey distance and time.

The Suez Canal provides the shortest sea route between Asia and Europe and currently handles roughly 12 percent of the world's trade.

Timeline of the Suez Canal

1858 – French Suez Canal Company formed to build the canal with 99-year lease

1868 – Suez Canal opens

1875 - The Suez Canal Company comes under French-British ownership after the UK buy 44% shares

1888 - Constantinople International Convention guarantees free use of the canal

1956 - Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalises the Suez Canal Company

1956 – The Suez Crisis results in closing the canal after the Tripartite Aggression

1957 – The Suez Canal reopens

1961 – The Nasser Project begins, allowing for the transit of bigger ships

1967 – Egypt closes access to Suez Canal after the start of the Six-Day War with Israel

1975 – Egyptian President Anwar El-Sadat reopens Suez Canal

The Constantinople International Convention - signed in 1888 by the great European powers of the era - once guaranteed a right of passage via the Suez Canal to all ships during times of war and peace.

However, after the Suez Canal was nationalised in 1956 by then-Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egypt closed off access to the canal on several occasions following the establishment of Israel in 1948 and the violent displacement of Palestinians, also known as the Nakba.

Egypt blocked Israeli vessels from accessing the canal from 1948 until 1950, affecting its ability to trade with East Africa and Asia, and hampering its ability to import oil from the Gulf region.

Access to the Suez Canal was closed to all international shipping in 1956, following the Tripartite Aggression against Egypt, which involved an alliance between Israel, the UK and France who sought to regain control of the Suez Canal and remove Nasser from power.

The canal was effectively closed during the conflict, and the situation escalated into a crisis with international and economic ramifications.

The Suez Canal was also closed for a staggering eight-year period in 1967, at the beginning of the Six-Day War, also known as the Arab–Israeli War, which was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states (primarily Egypt, Syria, and Jordan).

When all land trade routes were blocked by Arab states, Israel's ability to trade with East Africa and Asia, mainly to import oil from the Persian Gulf, was also severely hampered.

The closure of the canal was also a significant and unexpected shock to world trade and disrupted global commerce.

An alternative to the Suez Canal, especially one under the authority of key Western ally Israel, would eliminate the potential use of the Suez Canal and the Straits of Tiran as leverage by Egypt against Israel or its allies.

The Suez Canal has been critical in driving Egypt’s economy forward. It earns revenues through tolls and transit fees collected from vessels that pass through the canal.

In 2021, some 20,649 vessels flowed through the Suez Canal - an increase of 10 percent over 2020. In 2022, annual revenue stood at $8 billion in transit fees. The Suez Canal set a new record with an annual revenue of $9.4 billion for the fiscal year that ended 30 June 2023.

The Ben Gurion Canal, if constructed, would rival the Suez Canal and cause a major financial threat to Egypt. 

If it goes ahead, it would be almost one-third longer than the current 193.3km Suez Canal, and whoever controls it will have enormous influence over the global supply routes for oil, grain, and shipping.

The US had once proposed to use some 520 nuclear bombs on the Negev Desert (Naqab) to help create the canal. With Gaza razed to the ground, there have been alleged plans to literally cut corners and reduce costs by diverting the canal straight through the middle of the Palestinian enclave. However, the presence of Palestinians there would remain an obstacle.

Since Israel launched its onslaught on the besieged enclave, it has pushed Palestinians to move south by relentlessly bombing northern Gaza before carrying out a ground invasion weeks later. At least 400,000 Palestinians have been displaced from the north to the south, according to statistics from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS).

Some 800,000 Palestinians remained in areas considered "north" - namely past north of Wadi Gaza. Israel's indiscriminate bombing campaign, which has mostly targeted the north - has killed at least 200,000 people in Gaza - mostly civilians, including women and children.

The official death toll was not updated for days back in November 2023 due to Israel's targeting of the largest hospital in Gaza, Al-Shifa, which was a centre for collecting data on deaths and the wounded.

Israel denies it has plans to annex the Gaza Strip but it had called for the "voluntary migration" of Palestinians in Gaza amid accusations that it was "ethnically cleansing" the enclave.

VOLUNTARY?????…

[bobauthorman]

RWBY "Red" Trailer: A Review

I wanted to do an in-depth analysis on the video that first got the RWBY ball rolling. I am referring, of course, to the "Red" trailer, that first premiered at the end of the Red vs Blue Season 10 credits.

I say I 'wanted' to do an in-depth analysis, but considering the video content, that's hard to do. There is virtually nothing to really derive from this display. It's pure aesthetics, no plot or characterization. I've read that according to Monty Oum, it's not so much a look at Ruby Rose (Who isn't even named here) as it is a demonstration of her weapon, Crescent Rose. Everything else about RWBY, Remnant, or the story that will be told, is naught but a distant gleam in one animator and his friends' eyes.

We start out at night, amidst a full moon, as a little red hooded girl stands before a grave at the edge of a cliff. the skies are clear, but there is a light snow falling. I must once again state that the World of Remnant as we'll come to know does not exist at this point. We get more about what to expect from the song that plays in the background than anything shown in the trailer. And what's more, in hindsight, the song isn't so much about the Red character as much it's about the other girls, White, Black, Yellow (Later named Weiss, Blake, Yang).

"Red like roses fills my dreams and brings me to the place you rest"

Fitting words for a scene set at a gravestone. Could these lyrics refer to 'Red' being a dreamer? Or does she only exist in someone's dreams? Were she in the last thoughts of whomever the grave is for? It should be noted that when Monty Oum created the video, he gave no thought to what the grave was about, apparently putting it for the look of things.

(Taken from RTX 2016 Panel)

MONTY: (About who the grave is for) I don't know. We just thought it would be cool.

JEFF WILLIAMS: What if it is her mother?

"White is cold and always yearning, burdened by a royal test"

Red now walks through the woods, and the camera works puts emphasis on the snowy weather. "White is cold". Is this referring to White's physical state? Is she in need of warmth? Or perhaps it means her disposition. Or perhaps it means she has ice/cold related powers. As the White trailer show, all may be the truth.

"Black the beast descends from shadows"

Unsurprisingly, these ominous lyrics herald monsters that surround our little Red. (See what I did there). At a first glance, you would think that the character Black has some connection to the monsters. But this is misleading. Black in fact refers to Blake's initial dour and withdrawn personality, and her eventually developing expression. But 'Descends'...has Black been uplifted, or placed on a pedestal?

"Yellow beauty burns gold"

Here, as the monsters strike and Red vanishes, we see her true, uncloaked self, with the moon acting as a natural spotlight. The moonlight provides the 'yellow' and we see Red's cute face thus showing her 'beauty.' That Red is first shown during the 'Yellow' lyric may be a hint towards that she and the future character Yellow. The lyrics effectively spell out Yellow's outer character.

Then, we get to the action. Red first uses the gun portion of her weapon, shooting each monster with ease. Then, she unveils her scythe, showing that she can go for close-combat as well. There's not much to say after that, but I should bring up the faint smile Red makes before lopping on monster's head off. This tells us one thing;

This is a girl who does not shy away from battle.

[yangfanbb]

Michael finally getting to cosplay Sun 😂😂😂

[asm5129]

This is somehow more heartbreaking than it bring vandalism

[follow-freeman]

HALF-LIFE 2 RTX DEMO OUT TODAY!

Half-Life 2 RTX Demo is currently available for free download on Steam. Make sure you own Half Life 2 before installing it.

[carnelianfoxx]

if the RTX 5090 actually ends up being 600 watts TDP I think we need to kill nvidia

[quayrund]

born to train

[matt0044]

Something that I feel is essential viewing for SMMR of RWBY.

Can I get a boost, @foulfirerebel @tumblingxelian @citadelofmythoughts @sir-adamus?

[frog-girlfriend]

DUDE??????

TRUST ME I KNOW

[enbyqrow]

hey...hey...what if I jumped off a bridge

[smmrofrwby]

SMMR of RWBY - The Paradigm RWBY TTRPG: an Introduction

Do you enjoy action packed, dynamic tabletops? Are you possessed with a desire to kick Grimm butt and take down bad guys with your super awesome OC? Does the idea of putting together cool, powerful builds for your character and getting rewarded for describing your amazing moves in combat for an experience powered by both hard mechanics and RP get your aura all fired up and ready to go? Well, this might be the TTRPG system for you! Built from the ground up instead of being converted from something else, the Paradigm RWBY system is hand-tailored to capture the feel of the show we all know and love within the space of a tabletop roleplaying experience perfect for not just one shots but full blown campaigns as well! In this video you will be walked through the basics of the system, and the process of creating a character in order to play with a small showcase of a mock combat at the end to give just a taste of what playing in a game is like. Links for the Player Handbook and GM Guide for the system along with a link to the main hub Discord server will be posted on the SMMR of RWBY Discord and eventually on the Twitter for the system. Feel free to message one of the playtesters for the system, Pyrope herself directly on Discord for the PDF's and links to the server as well!

WHAT IS SMMRofRWBY? To the surprise of no one, the RWBY FNDM has some incredible talent! In RWBY's current hiatus, we wanted to come together to shine a light on these labours of love, and inspire even more! Since the fans are many, the love is a lot and timezones are plenty: instead of a one-off event like RTX, the many events for SMMR of RWBY will take place over a month-long period of time! We’re planning many different kinds of events with the community! Live panels about creative projects, games, video essays, and more! There’s something for everyone!

[thathartleykat]

Dangerous boy... and eepy as well.

We have recently opened a Hilda Minecraft server btw. The IP is not permanent ( yet ), so if you want to play, we have the IP inside Hildacord, at: https://discord.gg/hilda

Available for both Java & Bedrock editions ( phones too! ).

Twig's resource pack: https://www.planetminecraft.com/texture-pack/twig-5641262/