#solar writes: george

[austinsastrology8991]

Planet >> Cheat Sheet <<

We got 9 Planets, and we got 2 extra things; the Sun and the Moon. So we got 11 important things. Everything else is all very revealing although I think we all can agree anything named planet takes >precedence > especially with all the. mythological writings backing them.... and we astrologers just like the moon because shes meant to be our mum. and no one can hurt mummy >> everyone with mummy issues pipe down stfu.

Well these mythological writings are nice but im here to modernize it with some writings written today. > And with this model of simplification maybe its easier to understand and interpret how they interact with one another in your life. IMO Astrology is not that complicated. Its just hard to talk about because its taboo. Especially since we connatate it with ideas like: the God Of War, or the God of the Underworld this can make it all the more harder to suspend our disbelief. Now legs go

Sun > The star governing our Solar System literally dictates how our days are gonna go depending on where he is positioned. He is the star, he is the main event, he is the bringer of light as much as he is the light > This makes him giver and a taker because he demands your attention but it literally allows us to live and feel alive. So where the SUN is makes you the star of the show, you dominate here because you invite people in to play and you make sure you playing too. The sun is the party > whats ur party lookin like? The Wolf of Wall street

Moon > The thing we all have an emotional connection with; since we are all wishing for shit at night and in all honesty its also when we are all the most comfortable getting emotional. or getting REAL. She listens to us as if she is our mum. And she is also a connection to our mums because she represents our psychological foundations which are almost always intrinsically tied to how our mothers raised us > or whoever did raise you < so our moon shows us how we were raised and how we raised ourselves. Where we find comfort and what we hold onto to feel safe. Good Will Hunting

Mercury > He's the closest to the Sun because he a lil curious how the Sun got so hot. And he right next to venus because mercury a lil curious george. Mercury is what you talk about, mercury is what your curious about. Mercury is what you understand and what you have a yearning to understand. Mercury can do it all, and whatever is touching this, is usually what people come to you for advice for, because they see you got this > all figured out. Rick and Morty

Venus > venus is the beauty, venus is what lookin good on you. and since you know it look good, you exploit it for attention. Which is why Sun dont appreciate venus because she taking some of that attention it craves. But anyway. Venus is what you attract and what your attracted to, its your value, its how others want to treat you and how you like to be treated. Venus is nice, so your nice back. so be nice or you'll be rejected and it'll hurt you more because you didnt conform to the ideals of the hot babe that is venus. get simping or die trying Wednesday

Mars > The warfield, the battlefield, the mine waiting to explode. This is mars and it was designed to blow up to cause destruction. This is where you fight and how you fight, but also how others fight you. How good you are at fighting is also indicated and well anyone can fight, but it seems we have supressed mars a lot. And its pretty fkn sad. Makes it all the more easier for some people to get away with fighting.... Which is stupid because they are not good at fighting but since most people dont like to fight we are ruining everyones abilities to fight. A bunch of bitches I say. No wonder you jump into fights as fast as you do because your so InSeCuRe. or get as angry as quick as you do because you been hearing InSeCuRe... we all in the same society calm the fuck down, but lets pretend to be the warrior and watch television again shall we. Breaking Bad

Jupiter > The generosity of abundance and the idea of attracting all your wishes. Well the rich get richer and the poor get poorer right? Well thats a Jupiter thing, because you attract what you are. And thats why your good at whatever jupiter doing. Because you get a lot of energy attracted here, and you dont mind sharing some of it around. Which only brings forth more abundance > and the cycle of abundant manifestation has been created <

Super Mario Movie

Saturn > The restriction and limiting fashion of something has actually made you learn to honour/respect it more than anything else. Saturn gave you the sauce by removing the sauce. Now you know how to make yo own SAUCCEEE. and dang don't it taste good now that you made it on your own? and you made sure it tasted as fine as you've always wanted it to be. Hard work pays off and it pays good and you bitchez complaining about saturn should put more work in, or frankly you not doing the right type of work. Saturn a boss, and if your not a boss. You getting bossed around. Saturn fucks you around so you learn to DEAL WITH IT. John wick

Uranus > Okay so everything got backflipped and made everything turn into a fuck fest. But thats okay. You learned something right? ANd you could only learn it from him.. or that specific fuck fest that he invited you to. So you have an acute understanding founded within a niche puzzle which gave you the quirky genius trait that you have > in respect to where he be. what he do. its ya boy sparky speaks and today we getting into some bullshit

MR ROBOT

Neptune > your a dumbass but your onto something. But your not owning it because it is 100% hard to understand, but this makes you look like a airhead, or a delusional something or rather. But. your actually onto something and when everyone else catches up they'll regret calling you all those names because it really was all a cover up of their own insecurities of not understanding something as deeply as you do. You are surrounded by energy here, and a lot of it is created by your imagination > which is fueled by whatever you saw that it can work with or from. And thats why you've learned ways to let it pass through you, or you learned to integrate it into your being. (its always both) Whichever you think it is; thats what happened. Scott Pilgrim against the World

Pluto > The dark thing. considered evil, misunderstood, loner. dangerous and thats why everyone looking at you all weird and distrustfully. Because pluto embodies the hunter and the hunted. The concept of life or death is your pluto. because you encounterd things that tried to kill you; you yourself too learned to kill, but its a lot more undetectable and 'mysterious' since well you are trying to kill something and that requires covert operation. It plays with the real consequences; not the scratches or bruises of a mars, but the bullet of a pluto. Which is why people distrust it a lot, and by extension you also extend that same sense of distrust. due to your understanding of fear and extreme understanding of what could be the potential consequences; you play to win. otherwise you could die. you are afraid tpyically, so you behave fearlessly; but thats actually out of fear itself. or your funneling negative energy and well thats a pluto thing. And boy does thing thing attract a lot of energy too. I mean consider how when anything bright on in the dark attracts so much, the same happpens to something dark that is exhibited in the light > they both attracts so much.

The Menu

Oh and I know there is a million overlaps. Ik there are probably better examples. This is my post > make your own < please criticise my work or that of my language again ya fkn bitchs idgaf > swamp stays swampy > fuck off <

[khensaptah]

Mystic Egyptian Polytheism Resource List

Because I wanted to do a little more digging into the philosophy elements explored in Mahmoud's book, I took the time tonight to pull together the recommended reading he listed toward the end of each chapter. The notes included are his own.

MEP discusses Pharaonic Egypt and Hellenistic Egypt, and thus some of these sources are relevant to Hellenic polytheists (hence me intruding in those tags)!

Note: extremely long text post under this read more.

What Are The Gods And The Myths?

ψ Jeremy Naydler’s Temple of the Cosmos: The Ancient Egyptian Experience of the Sacred is my top text recommendation for further exploration of this topic. It dives deep into how the ancients envisioned the gods and proposes how the various Egyptian cosmologies can be reconciled. ψ Jan Assmann’s Egyptian Solar Religion in the New Kingdom: Re, Amun and the Crisis of Polytheism focuses on New Kingdom theology by analyzing and comparing religious literature. Assmann fleshes out a kind of “monistic polytheism,” as well as a robust culture of personal piety that is reflected most prominently in the religious literature of this period. He shows how New Kingdom religious thought was an antecedent to concepts in Hermeticism and Neoplatonism. ψ Moustafa Gadalla’s Egyptian Divinities: The All Who Are The One provides a modern Egyptian analysis of the gods, including reviews of the most significant deities. Although Gadalla is not an academic, his insights and contributions as a native Egyptian Muslim with sympathies towards the ancient religion are valuable.

How to Think like an Egyptian

ψ Jan Assmann’s The Mind of Egypt: History and Meaning in the Time of the Pharaohs is my top text recommendation for further exploration of this topic. It illuminates Egyptian theology by exploring their ideals, values, mentalities, belief systems, and aspirations from the Old Kingdom period to the Ptolemaic period. ψ Garth Fowden’s The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan Mind identifies the Egyptian character of religion and wisdom in late antiquity and provides a cultural and historical context to the Hermetica, a collection of Greco-Egyptian religious texts. ψ Christian Bull’s The Tradition of Hermes Trismegistus: The Egyptian Priestly Figure as a Teacher of Hellenized Wisdom provides a rich assessment of the Egyptian religious landscape at the end of widespread polytheism in Egypt and how it came to interact with and be codified in Greek schools of thought and their writings.

How To Think Like A Neoplatonist

Radek Chlup’s Proclus: An Introduction is my top text recommendation for further exploration of this topic. It addresses the Neoplatonic system of Proclus but gives an excellent overview of Neoplatonism generally. It contains many valuable graphics and charts that help illustrate the main ideas within Neoplatonism. ψ John Opsopaus’ The Secret Texts of Hellenic Polytheism: A Practical Guide to the Restored Pagan Religion of George Gemistos Plethon succinctly addresses several concepts in Neoplatonism from the point of view of Gemistos Plethon, a crypto-polytheist who lived during the final years of the Byzantine Empire. It provides insight into the practical application of Neoplatonism to ritual and religion. ψ Algis Uzdavinys’ Philosophy as a Rite of Rebirth: From Ancient Egypt to Neoplatonism draws connections between theological concepts and practices in Ancient Egypt to those represented in the writings and practices of the Neoplatonists.

What Is “Theurgy,” And How Do You Make A Prayer “Theurgical?”

ψ Jeffrey Kupperman’s Living Theurgy: A Course in Iamblichus’ Philosophy, Theology and Theurgy is my top text recommendation for further exploration of this topic. It is a practical guide on theurgy, complete with straightforward explanations of theurgical concepts and contemplative exercises for practice. ψ Gregory Shaw’s Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus demonstrates how Iamblichus used religious ritual as the primary tool of the soul’s ascent towards God. He lays out how Iamblichus proposed using rites to achieve henosis. ψ Algis Uzdavinys’ Philosophy and Theurgy in Late Antiquity explores the various ways theurgy operated in the prime of its widespread usage. He focuses mainly on temple rites and how theurgy helped translate them into personal piety rituals.

What Is “Demiurgy,” And How Do I Do Devotional, “Demiurgical” Acts?

ψ Shannon Grimes’ Becoming Gold: Zosimos of Panopolis and the Alchemical Arts in Roman Egypt is my top text recommendation for further exploration of this topic. It constitutes an in-depth look at Zosimos—an Egyptian Hermetic priest, scribe, metallurgist, and alchemist. It explores alchemy (ancient chemistry and metallurgy) as material rites of the soul’s ascent. She shows how Zosimos believed that partaking in these practical arts produced divine realities and spiritual advancements. ψ Alison M. Robert’s Hathor’s Alchemy: The Ancient Egyptian Roots of the Hermetic Art delves deep temple inscriptions and corresponding religious literature from the Pharaonic period and demonstrates them as premises for alchemy. These texts “alchemize” the “body” of the temple, offering a model for the “alchemizing” of the self. ψ A.J. Arberry’s translation of Farid al-Din Attar’s Muslim Saints and Mystics: Episodes from the Tadhkirat al-Auliya contains a chapter on the Egyptian Sufi saint Dhul-Nun al-Misri (sometimes rendered as Dho‘l-Nun al-Mesri). He is regarded as an alchemist, thaumaturge, and master of Egyptian hieroglyphics. It contains apocryphal stories of his ascetic and mystic life as a way of “living demiurgically.” It is an insightful glimpse into how the Ancient Egyptian arts continued into new religious paradigms long after polytheism was no longer widespread in Egypt.

Further Reading

Contemporary Works Assmann, Jan. 1995. Egyptian Solar Religion in the New Kingdom: Re, Amun and the Crisis of Polytheism. Translated by Anthony Alcock. Kegan Paul International. Assmann, Jan. 2003. The Mind of Egypt: History and Meaning in the Time of the Pharaohs. Harvard University Press. Bull, Christian H. 2019. The Tradition of Hermes Trismegistus: The Egyptian Priestly Figure as a Teacher of Hellenized Wisdom. Brill. Chlup, Radek. 2012. Proclus: An Introduction. Cambridge University Press. Escolano-Poveda, Marina. 2008. The Egyptian Priests of the Graeco-Roman Period. Brill. Fowden, Garth. 1986. The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan Mind. Cambridge University Press. Freke, Tim, and Peter Gandy. 2008. The Hermetica: The Lost Wisdom of the Pharaohs. Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin. Gadalla, Moustafa. 2001. Egyptian Divinities: The All Who Are The One. Tehuti Research Foundation. Grimes, Shannon. 2019. Becoming Gold: Zosimos of Panopolis and the Alchemical Arts in Roman Egypt. Princeton University Press. Jackson, Howard. 2017. “A New Proposal for the Origin of the Hermetic God Poimandres.” Aries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism 17 (2): 193-212. Kupperman, Jeffrey. 2014. Living Theurgy: A Course in Iamblichus’ Philosophy, Theology and Theurgy. Avalonia. Mierzwicki, Tony. 2011. Graeco-Egyptian Magick: Everyday Empowerment. Llewellyn Publications. Naydler, Jeremy. 1996. Temple of the Cosmos: The Ancient Egyptian Experience of the Sacred. Inner Traditions. Opsopaus, J. 2006. The Secret Texts of Hellenic Polytheism: A Practical Guide to the Restored Pagan Religion of George Gemistos Plethon. New York: Llewellyn Publications. Roberts, Alison M. 2019. Hathor’s Alchemy: The Ancient Egyptian Roots of the Hermetic Art. Northgate Publishers. Shaw, Gregory. 1995. Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus. 2nd ed. Angelico Press. Snape, Steven. 2014. The Complete Cities of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson. Uzdavinys, Algis. 1995. Philosophy and Theurgy in Late Antiquity. Wheaton, IL: Quest Books. Uzdavinys, Algis. 2008. Philosophy as a Rite of Rebirth: From Ancient Egypt to Neoplatonism. Lindisfarne Books. Wilkinson, Richard H. 2000. The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson.

Ancient Sources in Translation Attar, Farid al-Din. 1966. Muslim Saints and Mystics: Episodes from the Tadhkirat alAuliya. Translated by A.J. Arberry. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Betz, Hans Dieter. 1992. The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, Including the Demotic Spells. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Copenhaver, Brian P. 1995. Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius in a New English Translation, with Notes and Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Guthrie, Kenneth. 1988. The Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library: An Anthology of Ancient Writings which Relate to Pythagoras and Pythagorean Philosophy. Grand Rapids, MI: Phanes Press. Iamblichus. 1988. The Theology of Arithmetic. Translated by Robin Waterfield. Grand Rapids, MI: Phanes Press. Iamblichus. 2003. Iamblichus: On the Mysteries. Translated by Clarke, E., Dillon, J. M., & Hershbell, J. P. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature. Iamblichus. 2008. The Life of Pythagoras (Abridged). Translated by Thomas Taylor. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing. Lichtheim, Miriam. 1973-1980. Ancient Egyptian Literature. Volumes I-III. Berkeley: University of California Press. Litwa, M. David. 2018. Hermetica II. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Majercik, Ruth. 1989. The Chaldean Oracles: Text, Translation, and Commentary. Leiden: Brill. Plato. 1997. Plato: Complete Works. Edited by John M. Cooper and D. S. Hutchinson. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing. Plotinus. 1984-1988. The Enneads. Volumes 1-7. Translated by A.H. Armstrong. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. Van der Horst, Pieter Willem. 1984. The Fragments of Chaeremon, Egyptian Priest and Stoic Philosopher. Leiden: E.J. Brill.

[coolheadofficial]

Once you've learned to correctly pronounce every word in this poem, you will be speaking English better than 90% of the native English speakers in the world

Dearest creature in creation, Study English pronunciation. I will teach you in my verse Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse. I will keep you, Suzy, busy, Make your head with heat grow dizzy. Tear in eye, your dress will tear. So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.

Just compare heart, beard, and heard, Dies and diet, lord and word, Sword and sward, retain and Britain. (Mind the latter, how it's written.) Now I surely will not plague you With such words as plaque and ague. But be careful how you speak: Say break and steak, but bleak and streak; Cloven, oven, how and low, Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

Hear me say, devoid of trickery, Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore, Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles, Exiles, similes, and reviles; Scholar, vicar, and cigar, Solar, mica, war and far; One, anemone, Balmoral, Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel; Gertrude, German, wind and mind, Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet, Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet. Blood and flood are not like food, Nor is mould like should and would. Viscous, viscount, load and broad, Toward, to forward, to reward. And your pronunciation's OK When you correctly say croquet, Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve, Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Ivy, privy, famous; clamour And enamour rhyme with hammer. River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb, Doll and roll and some and home. Stranger does not rhyme with anger, Neither does devour with clangour. Souls but foul, haunt but aunt, Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant, Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger, And then singer, ginger, linger, Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge, Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.

Query does not rhyme with very, Nor does fury sound like bury. Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth. Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath. Though the differences seem little, We say actual but victual. Refer does not rhyme with deafer. Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer. Mint, pint, senate and sedate; Dull, bull, and George ate late. Scenic, Arabic, Pacific, Science, conscience, scientific.

Liberty, library, heave and heaven, Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven. We say hallowed, but allowed, People, leopard, towed, but vowed. Mark the differences, moreover, Between mover, cover, clover; Leeches, breeches, wise, precise, Chalice, but police and lice; Camel, constable, unstable, Principle, disciple, label.

Petal, panel, and canal, Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal. Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair, Senator, spectator, mayor. Tour, but our and succour, four. Gas, alas, and Arkansas. Sea, idea, Korea, area, Psalm, Maria, but malaria. Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean. Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Compare alien with Italian, Dandelion and battalion. Sally with ally, yea, ye, Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key. Say aver, but ever, fever, Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver. Heron, granary, canary. Crevice and device and aerie.

Face, but preface, not efface. Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass. Large, but target, gin, give, verging, Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging. Ear, but earn and wear and tear Do not rhyme with here but ere. Seven is right, but so is even, Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen, Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk, Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.

Pronunciation -- think of Psyche! Is a paling stout and spikey? Won't it make you lose your wits, Writing groats and saying grits? It's a dark abyss or tunnel: Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale, Islington and Isle of Wight, Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough -- Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough? Hiccough has the sound of cup. My advice is to give up!!!

[1americanconservative]

AN INTERESTING CONCLUSION… SOLAR FARMS WILL BECOME THUNDERSTORM and TORONADO INCUBATORS and MAGNETS.

As more & more counties get more solar farms.....

From a STEPHENVILLE resident, George Franklin:

I should start by telling you what bonafides I have for writing this. I am a retired aerospace engineer. A literal rocket scientist if you will. I worked on MX (Peacekeeper) Space Shuttle, Hubble, Brilliant Pebbles, PACOSS, Space Station, MMU, B2, the Sultan of Brunei's half billion dollar private 747 with crystal showers, gold sinks and 100 dollar a yard coiffed silk carpets. I designed a satphone installation on prince Jeffry's 757. I did all of the design work for the structure of Mark 1V propulsion module currently flying on at least 3 spacecraft that I know of. Some of the more exciting projects I have worked on are not shareable. I am also am FAA certified glider pilot and FAI certified gold glider pilot. I fly both full scale and model sailplanes. I am Microsoft certified and ComTIA A+ certified.

SOLAR PANELS are at best about 20% EFFICIENT. They convert almost 0% of the UV light that hits them. None of the visible spectrum and only some of the IR spectrum. At the same time as they are absorbing light they are absorbing heat from the sun. This absorbed HEAT is RADIATED INTO THE adjacent ATMOSPHERE. It should be obvious what happens next. When air is warmed it rises. Even small differences in ordinary land surfaces are capable of creating powerful forces of weather like thunderstorms and tornadoes. These weather phenomena are initiated and reinforced by land features as they are blown downwind. It is all too obvious to me what will happen with the heat generated by an entire solar farm. SOLAR FARMS WILL BECOME THUNDERSTORM and TORONADO INCUBATORS and MAGNETS.

Solar panels are dark and and they emit energy to the space above them when they are not being radiated. This is known as black-body radiation. Satellites flying in space use this phenomenon to cool internal components. If they didn't do this they would fry themselves.

So solar farms not only produce more heat in summer than the original land that they were installed on, but they also produce more cooling in winter, thus exacerbating weather extremes.

So I conclude with this. THERE IS NOTHING GREEN ABOUT GREEN ENERGY except the DIRTY MONEY flowing into corrupt pockets.

There is no such thing as green energy. The science doesn't exist. The technology doesn't exist. The engineering doesn't exist. We are being pushed to save the planet with solutions that are worse than the problems.

[callistolivia]

Chiron

“Traveling between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus… Astronomers believe that Chiron originated outside our solar system and will eventually leave it. Likewise, mythological Chiron came from another realm and left the human kingdom after he had completed his teachings. Thus, Chiron serves as a link between our solar system and the galaxy, between the known (Saturn) and the unknown (Uranus).”

–Demetra George & Douglas Bloch, “Asteroid Goddesses”

Chiron’s realm of expression in one’s psyche can often be intuition or higher knowledge (in a specific area of life). This is especially true when we interpret Chiron’s interactions with other planets. In positive contacts with other planets, Chiron can represent wise, grounded energies as well as expertise. Chiron challenges set ideas and views in aspecting planets. In negative contacts, there can be debilitating self-doubt, instability, and fear of the unknown.

————————————————————————

The above writing was in part of a Chiron post I had planned to write and publish over two years ago and I never found the time to finish it. I wanted to post something about it now, but something different from what the original post intended to be. I really wanted to understand Chiron in the birthchart, and I mean REALLY understand.

If there’s one thing I love about astrology, it’s that you can learn a lot through comparing and contracting expression. Just like tuning an instrument by ear, you can compare one note to the other to understand where you are in the scale. You can compare Venus and Mars and find differing qualities; or gather information from aspects in harmony versus dis-harmony. This is what I was trying to do with Chiron.

It all clicked for me (and please don’t make fun of me for not seeing the obvious lol, I need to understand the ‘why’ very deeply) when I considered the fact that Chiron makes a full cycle after about 50 years. THE MIDLIFE CRISIS! Literally! Chiron is the wound, not a wound. Chiron is the comprehension of recollecting all that is our past experiences and understanding and staring off into the future at that halfway point. It’s how we handle a timeline of information that comes from within. How our past interferes with now (especially if the “now” heavily regards our future) and our willingness to change, survive, and overcome. This is why we often see people discussing Chiron transits as some sort of catastrophic event or in the birth chart it’s described as trauma. It’s really just activation in the face of change and challenge. We become very activated in anticipated milestones (like turning the age of 50) and when we are in this state of activation, this is where that ability to access higher knowledge and wisdom within ourselves comes from.

[alphaman99]

As more & more counties get more solar farms.....

From a STEPHENVILLE resident, George Franklin:

I should start by telling you what bonafides I have for writing this. I am a retired aerospace engineer. A literal rocket scientist if you will. I worked on MX (Peacekeeper) Space Shuttle, Hubble, Brilliant Pebbles, PACOSS, Space Station, MMU, B2, the Sultan of Brunei's half billion dollar private 747 with crystal showers, gold sinks and 100 dollar a yard coiffed silk carpets. I designed a satphone installation on prince Jeffry's 757. I did all of the design work for the structure of Mark 1V propulsion module currently flying on at least 3 spacecraft that I know of. Some of the more exciting projects I have worked on are not shareable. My personal projects include a spin fishing reel with a 4.5 inch spool which is entirely my own designed, machined and assembled. It has 2 features that are patentable. A unique true flat level wind and a unique line pickup mechanism. I am also am FAA certified glider pilot and FAI certified gold glider pilot. I fly both full scale and model sailplanes. I am Microsoft certified and ComTIA A+ certified.

Solar panels are at best about 20% efficient. They convert 0% of the UV light that hits them. None of the visible spectrum and only some of the IR spectrum. At the same time as they are absorbing light they are absorbing heat from the sun. This absorbed heat is radiated into the adjacent atmosphere. It should be obvious what happens next. When air is warmed it rises. Even small differences in ordinary land surfaces are capable of creating powerful forces of weather like thunderstorms and tornadoes. These weather phenomena are initiated and reinforced by land features as they are blown downwind. It is all too obvious to me what will happen with the heat generated by an entire solar farm. Solar farms will become thunderstorm and tornado incubators and magnets.

Solar panels are dark and and they emit energy to the space above them when they are not being radiated. This is known as black-body radiation. Satellites flying in space use this phenomenon to cool internal components. If they didn't do this they would fry themselves.

So solar farms not only produce more heat in summer than the original land that they were installed on, but they also produce more cooling in winter, thus exacerbating weather extremes.

So I conclude with this. There is nothing green about green energy except the dirty money flowing into corrupt pockets.

There is not such thing as green energy. The science doesn't exist. The technology doesn't exist. The engineering doesn't exist. We are being pushed to save the planet with solutions that are worse than the problems.

[inspofromancientworld]

Ancient libraries

Almost from the beginning of writing, there have been collections of documents that needed to be organized and stored. Even clay tablets were stored, wooden frames keeping them safe and the contents secured from being rubbed away, or on their sides after they were dried in the sun, with a title on the end that summarized their contents. Many of these documents were accounting records. Those documents that were considered important enough to make permanent could be kiln fired.

Fire is how we know about a lot of ancient documents.

By Carole Raddato from FRANKFURT, Germany - The Royal lion hunt reliefs from the Assyrian palace at Nineveh, the king is hunting, about 645-635 BC, British Museum, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37882459

The Library of Ashurbanipal 𒀸𒋩𒆕𒀀 is one of the largest ones that we know about, with over 30,000 tablets and writing boards recovered. Included in the trove were the Enūma Eliš and the Epic of Gilgamesh. There were also texts on omens, including eclipses, planetary conjunctions, and information about solar spots. There were even the seeds of what would become bilingual dictionaries as well as medical and mathematical texts. The texts were stored in containers that had primitive catalog information to allow their contents to be found. The library had many rooms, allowing its contents to be sorted in subjects like astronomy, government, and law, making the contents even easier to find.

Like many ancient libraries, Ashurbanipal's library was full of texts taken from other peoples, through threats or conquering them. He was especially interested in divination texts, likely to gain those rituals and incantations to keep his power. Most of texts he collected were written in Akkadian cuneiform, though they lack an indication of their place of origin.

The end of Asherbanipal's reign in 631 BCE was just ten years before the destruction of Babylon at the hands of the Scythians and the Medes in 621 BCE, destroying the city of Babylon, sending fire through the library, destroying the non-clay texts in the library and hardening the clay tablets so they could survive for them to be rediscovered in 1851, though there were no records of the discovery and the tablets were mixed with other tablets, making it difficult to discover which tablets belong to Asherbanipal's library and another library created by Sennacherib.

These ancient libraries give us a unique view onto the past and allow us to see what people valued and took the time to record and store as well as their stories and discoveries. These libraries let us know when the Babylonians went from basing the beginning of the month on observation to calculation, also when the Babylonians started calculating when eclipses would happen as well as records of battles and ordinary doings of the ruling elite.

By Anthony Huan - https://www.flickr.com/photos/anthonyhuan/31947606038/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=91473384

By George Smith - History of Assurbanipall, Translated from the Cuneiform Inscriptions by George SmithPublished in 1871, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=91377199

For full sized image, click here.

[knightzp]

9 people you want to know better

was tagged by @qhostbat to do this! thank you tūī!!! <3

last song i listened to: not what i usually listen to but my mom put the radio while we were having lunch and i think the last song that played was 'i'm so excited'

currently watching: bsd season 5

currently reading: nothing atm unless it counts reading and rereading the fic im currently writing

current obsession: take a wild guess. enstars

tagging: @sstrawbearies / @peach-tia /@raeygina-george / @hardboiledteacozy / @skijjiki / @torgawl / @pozge-pridumayu / @solarings / @dainseif + anyone else who wants to!

[georgieluz]

Julian!! I’ve missed you!! Sending a virtual hug and a few asks for the ask game!

❤️💛💚💙🖤🎤🎵📺🔐🧟‍♀️🍇💌🖇️🔍🪐🌚

I just realized… there’s a lot… haha sorry about that 😅 hope you’re doing well!

hiiii!! i missed you too!!! first of all, lemme return the virtual hug and then i'll get to answering!!

❤️ how tall are you?

5ft4. guess i'm joining george, johnny, frank and harry in the smol boys club

💛 what is your favourite feature on yourself?

maybe my hair? idk i feel like so many people talk about how lucky i am to have such thick fluffy hair that if i didn't choose that it would be the equivalent of cursing them and all of their families

💚 where are you from?

dwi'n dod o gymru!! actually it's fitting that the emoji is green because green and red are the welsh flag colours and i'm welsh!

💙 do you have any siblings?

just me, unfortunately

🖤 favourite hobbies outside of your blog?

archery! i used to be on my university team and we would shoot three times a week but i've graduated now and feel like i'm cheating on them whenever i shoot with my local team

🎤  have you been to a concert?

yes! i've been lucky enough to go to quite a few. some of my favourite artists that i've seen live are: my chemical romance, the libertines, epik high, vixx, kim hanbin and day6

🎵 favourite artists?

the libertines, the strokes, pulp, the cure, epik high, kim hanbin, onewe, hoppipolla, sunmi and woodz!

📺 last show you watched?

transatlantic (i'm still a wreck bc of these characters)

🔐 something no one would guess about you?

ohh this might be the toughest one bc i don't actually know how people see me so i wouldn't know what they would guess about me but maybe that i studied and competed in dance my whole life? (if you can guess what styles of dance i'll give you a prize)

🧟‍♀️ scariest thing that’s happened to you?

i don't wanna make this too heavy so i'll leave out the actual scariest things but the other week i may or may not have had an encounter with a ghost in my museum which is said to be haunted

🍇 a word your friends would use to describe you?

texted two of my friends and one replied "unnecessary" and the other said "an idiot of an enigma" so that went well lmao

💌 why did you start this blog?

because it had been so long since i had friends who loved band of brothers and i missed having an online community where i felt comfortable and happy and enjoyed engaging with people in

🖇️ what are your favorite asks to answer?

honestly i like all of them! i love interacting with people and so any asks are fun! writing asks, character discussions, get to know me asks, i'll take the lot of them!!

🔍 what character do you enjoy writing for the most?

lately it's been eddie jones!! every single idea i've had lately spawns around him and forms its own little solar system that revolves around his existence. i think it's bc i'm a little bit obsessed, but i also think the themes i enjoy writing most work very well with him so it's just the perfect match. but i also adore writing nix, he's my favourite hot mess and i love writing him. harry and tab are two i love writing who i didn't realise i loved writing until i saw the amount of times i'd written something focused on them when the work wasn't supposed to be anything massively to do with them lmao

🪐 favourite shows / series of all time?

ohhh another tough one, but i'm gonna have to say band of brothers, star trek, and lost, but succession is probably gonna end up being up there eventually but i need to give it a few years to settle before deciding. there are definitely others but they go in and out of order a lot and those are the three that always stay at the top no matter what

🌚 a show you’d tell people to stay away from?

honestly idk i think it's down to individual taste so if i knew someone didn't like a certain genre i could tell them to avoid shows based off of that but i usually don't tell people to stay away from a show unless there's something genuinely harmful in it

thank you so much for asking all of these!! it was fun to answer them and hopefully i haven't rambled on too long!!

for this ask game!

[hb-writes]

Oh, maybe I'm sending this a bit late but I just thought about "Harvey? I know it's 2 am but... I forgot about the science project for tomorrow... I need to make a solar system" for Harvey and Charlie? (and where it says solar system feel free to change it for whatever, I don't know about science projects for teenagers lol 😅)

"Harvey? I know it's 2 am but... I forgot about the science project for tomorrow... I need to make a cell...a jello mold cell."

As Charlie continued muttering about a handful of different ingredients and the corresponding organelles that all sounded like a bit of gibberish, Harvey leaned back in his chair, glancing across the coffee table to where Mike was still scouring over discovery paperwork. 

“Mito—what?” Harvey asked, repeating one of Charlie’s mumbled words.

“Mitochondria…you know about mitochondria…they’re…the…” Charlie said absently as she dug an old—probably expired—box of jello out of the cupboard. 

“Powerhouse of the cell!” Mike and Charlie both said the words at the same time, their volume and excitement growing with each word before Mike continued on his own. “C’mon, Harvey, don’t you remember learning about cells in high school—the mitochondria and the endoplasmic reticulum and lysosomes and micro—”

Harvey scoffed. “Unlike you nerds, I had far more interesting things to do when I was in highschool than fangirl after organelles.”

Charlie stopped rooting around the cupboards and walked to her brother’s side. “Are you saying you’d prefer if I acted like you when you were in high school? ‘Cause I can—”

Harvey snatched his whiskey glass away before Charlie could reach for it. “Don’t even think about it, Einstein. Stick to your science fairs.” 

“You know, it was actually Robert Hooke who discovered the cell,” Mike offered, earning a glare from Harvey. 

“But it was George Palade who was considered the father of modern cell biology,” Charlie said as she lowered herself to sit on the arm of Harvey’s chair.

Harvey rolled his eyes and nudged Charlie off his chair. “Don’t you have a jello mold due in six hours?” 

💠 FIVE LINE FRIDAYS 💠

send me an ask with the first sentence of a fanfic and I’ll write the next five-ish.

[belovedgamers]

asks for you on your birthday! any combination of [ 🍄, ❄️, 🦋, 🪲] :D?

Hiii I answered this and it didn't save and I was devastatedddd and needed time to recover lmao. Anyway, take two :D

🍄 ⇢ share a head canon for one of your favourite ships or pairings

While running her experiments, Lizzie definitely forgot an appointment or two with Joel, but it all evens out because sometimes he forgets about the day it is because of his sculpting or building or--

This continues to today. There are things they definitely hold very dear and try to schedule around, but most of the time if Lizzie is like "we booked an ocean tour around evening and it's FULL of rich people sorry", Joel's reply is something like "ooooh, more time to work out the floor's tiling". They lead very chaotic and busy lives <3

❄️ ⇢ what's your dream theme/plot for a fic, and who would write it best?

I really want to read a fic exploring what Mythland's citizens were going through during the corruption arc, and how many likely left their homes behind. Could be a single family or even just a person, or many, really. I'd be especially interested in seeing these runaways flee to the Cod Empire (Mythland is vast, for some Helianthia would be too far, and Pearl has her own relationship with the demon that may not be super comforting to run towards). How do you choose to run to your enemy? Why should they take you? Where do you go? Is there already an established Mythic diaspora there? There probably should be! And how do these cultures connect or clash? What prejudices do they all have to unlearn?

As to for who'd write it, peradi or prolix, who each wrote one of my favorite Star Wars fics (have you heard and things we know by heart, both about storm troopers rebelling). Neither of them writes for mcyt though, which means I'll have to roll up my sleeves and figure out some more geography. Heh.

🦋 ⇢ share something that has been on your heart and mind lately

I had a completely different thing here, but it got sent into the aether, so a new topic it is.

A while ago I saw a post with someone very disappointed/frustrated with George R. R. Martin's response to "what's the solar system that causes superseasons?" The response was "it's magic". The poster said you need to have an idea of why your planet works the way it works in mechanical terms, not something that handwaves and dismisses it.

I've been thinking about that lately, with Empires. Do I agree with the poster? I'm not sure. This isn't a defense of Martin, I dislike the guy, but I do think if you're reading a fantasy series with prophecies and dragons and curses and sorcerers... you do have to, at some point, accept "it's magic" for an answer?

The way I see it in Empires, where there are dragons and prophecies and curses and wizards, monsters and gods and immortals, I think of magic as a force that affects the environment, sometimes in unquantifiable ways. If you're one of the people who loves playing around with the idea presented in the end poem that the universe loves you, and I am, then that's another alive force to consider. I would even say that relying on magic is useful when translating game mechanics into a world, and then you can figure out who has access to what kind of magic or how these spell castings differ.

But maybe I am alone in this? I don't know. I'm a "politics, language, textiles and food" kinda guy. If I'm asked to figure out a solar system or complex biological underground networks, I will start weeping.

🪲 ⇢ add 50 words to your current wip and share the paragraph here

This will only make sense to you, or I hope it does. 53 words! Look at me go.

Umbra’s hands were warm. The memory is a punishment, these days. She used to reach out to him, his rough cheek held by her rougher palm, and smile. No, not smile, relax. She didn’t smile much, towards the end. A lot of details have faded, but not that one. He remembers that one.

It's no longer my birthday! Writer's truth or dare!

[c-o-z-m-o]

Just realizing how like. Dates are all connected

On May 15th, 2020, my pet rat gave birth. Two years later in 2022, I drew Petey Duckhat Lawsin for the first time

On April 30th, 2022, I had a really terrible event happen to me. Two years later, today, I finished writing one of my fanfics

In 2017, I got my fatass orange cat the same day as Garfield(the fatass orange cat in those comics)'s birthday without it even being intentional

The solar eclipse happened one year after The Owl House ended. Like how do these things happen

Also my grandma and George Washington both died on my birthday but that's not the point

[yidiyada]

Wait so sapnap is currently somewhere in the solar system that is neither North Carolina nor Florida? And George has to be in Florida by now cause Dream said he wouldn’t face reveal until george got there?

What kind of deranged fic author is writing this? And why is sapnap a plot hole?

[beardedmrbean]

Dr. Chukwumerije Okereke’s New York Times guest essay argued against climate activists like Bill Gates and George Soros writing, "My Continent Is Not Your Giant Climate Laboratory."

Okereke, who works as the director of the Center for Climate Change and Development at Alex Ekwueme Federal University in Nigeria, explained in the essay on Tuesday the concept of solar geoengineering, which is supposed to redirect climate damage from the sun’s rays.

Although the concept has been gaining traction in recent years, Okereke criticized efforts by Western countries to persuade Africa to get involved.

"As a climate expert, I consider these environmental manipulation techniques extremely risky. And as an African climate expert, I strongly object to the idea that Africa should be turned into a testing ground for their use. Even if solar geoengineering can help deflect heat and improve weather conditions on the ground — a prospect that is unproven on any relevant scale — it’s not a long-term solution to climate change. It sends a message to the world that we can carry on over-consuming and polluting because we will be able to engineer our way out of the problem," Okereke wrote.

Ideas such as reflecting sunlight away from the Earth by injecting aerosols are "highly speculative," Okereke insisted, and could cause more damage to an already poorer nation.

He wrote, "Africa is already suffering the effects of climate change, such as drought, floods and erratic weather. And while geoengineering advocates see these technologies as a solution to such problems, the technologies run the danger of upsetting local and regional weather patterns — intensifying drought or flooding, for example, or disrupting monsoon cycles. And the long-term impact on regional climate and seasons is still largely unknown. Millions, perhaps billions, of people’s livelihoods could be undermined."

Efforts to push these ideas, however, continued to be pushed by organizations funded by Bill Gates. In addition, George Soros has recently called for further investments into potentially altering the climate in the Arctic.

"Sir David King has a plan to repair the climate system. He wants to recreate the albedo effect by creating white clouds high above the earth," Soros said. "With proper scientific safeguards and in consultation with local indigenous communities, this project could help restabilize the Arctic climate system which governs the entire global climate system."

Okereke continued to warn that these risky investments would not only "need to be deployed essentially forever" to combat "suppressed warming of the carbon dioxide" but would also "divert attention and investments from building renewable energy and other climate solutions in Africa."

He concluded, "African nations should strongly resist letting their territories be used for experimental exercises like this. And they must join efforts to strengthen the de facto moratorium (under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity) on the development and deployment of these technologies. The technologies are potentially dangerous, and a major distraction from the real change that we all know wealthier nations need to make if we have a hope of outrunning climate devastation."

In December, the White House announced a five-year plan to study the effects of geoengineering. The plan was authorized by Congress and will be executed by the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Department of Energy.

[newmusickarl]

Top 10 EPs of 2023

As we have seen, 2023 has been a mega year for new albums with LIES being named as my Album of the Year earlier this week. You can read why I was such a fan of that record, along with more on the rest of my Top 50 picks by scrolling below or simply flicking through the New Music Weekly archives for December.

However, as many great longplayers we received in 2023, there was an equal abundance of great shortplayers too. In today’s hectic world where the demand for “snackable” (shout out Andrew Belt for my word of 2023) content has risen, the humble Extended Play has seen a big resurgence. So I’ve looked back over the last 12 months and picked out my ten favourites of the year. As always, I’ve gone for an eclectic selection that pulls from various genres including pop, rock, electronic, R&B, and indie. So depending on your taste, hopefully you’ll find something to enjoy on this list.

Here we go then, my Top 10 EPs of 2023…

Honourable mentions

Forever Means by Angel Olsen

White Magnolia by Bear’s Den

The Rest by Boygenius

Heady Metal by Divorce

Julie Byrne with Laugh Cry Laugh by Julie Byrne & Laugh Cry Laugh

Alaska Sadness by Katie Keddie

That Sweet Breath by Lowmello

My Eyes, Brother! by Opus Kink

Not The Baby by Prima Queen

See You In The Dark by Softcult

10. Modern Day by Bloxx

Kicking off the list with London-based indie quartet Bloxx, who have had a bit of a tough time recently. With multiple shows in recent memory cancelled, it was great to see them make a welcome return in 2023, with Modern Day their first new EP since 2021’s Pop Culture Radio.

Much like their output till now, it is a collection of five songs that showcases the band’s talent for writing catchy hooks and memorable riffs, with the strong opening trio of Modern Day, Television Promises and Runaway helping it secure a spot on this year’s list.

Listen here

9. Not As I by George FitzGerald

It was also a great year for synth-driven shortplayers as one of my favourite electronic musicians of recent times, George FitzGerald, released a new four track effort - Not As I.

Opener Mother is worth the price of admission alone, a beautifully ambient groove featuring American musician SYML on vocal duties. That said, the mind-melting synths of Venera, the spacey chimes of the title track and the pulsating soundscapes of All Roads make this one well worth 15 minutes of your time.

Listen here

8. More Truth by Daniel Avery

Sticking with 2023’s best electronic releases, DJ and producer Dan Avery also released a companion EP to his acclaimed 2022 album, Ultra Truth.

Featuring seven excellent new tracks that didn’t quite make the final cut originally, including trippy Georgia collaboration Going So Low and the accurately titled Bliss, it’s another absorbing collection from the Bournemouth musician who seems incapable of putting a foot wrong.

Listen here

7. Freak Show by ALT BLK ERA

As you can probably tell if you’ve made it this far onto my blog, I am a big champion of new music. On top of that, I am also a big champion of new music emerging out of my world-class local scene in Nottingham. And of all the fantastic Nottingham acts who had a breakout 2023, ALT BLK ERA are the ones leading the charge.

Word is finally getting out about this alt-rock sister duo, who fuse mind-melting electronica, heavy rock and razor-sharp bars for a sound that is entirely of their own making. This was highlighted this week when the pair received a prestigious MOBO award nomination for Best Alternative Act, nominated alongside the likes of Arlo Parks, Skindred and Young Fathers.

So, with ALT BLK ERA seemingly right on the cusp of blowing up in popularity, now is the time to get yourself acquainted with their hypnotic genre-defying sound. Debut EP Freak Show released back in August is the perfect introduction for those not already familiar, with the opening trio of I’m Normally Like This, Misfits: SOLAR and the horn-backed title track all well worth checking out, alongside fan favourite Oggy. I promise you, it’ll be unlike anything else you’ve heard in 2023.

Listen here

6. Homospace by Mickey Callisto

When I was first introduced to Liverpudlian pop sensation Mickey Callisto at Dot-to-Dot Festival earlier this year, it was obvious from the get-go he was a natural-born showman destined for big things. An enigmatic, commanding presence on stage, it was an utterly captivating performance that made for one of the highlights of the day and left me eager to see where his career would go next.

Well, this November saw Mickey releases his first EP titled Homospace and I’m pleased to say it’s a star-making debut release - in more ways than one. Here’s what I said in my review for 5-9 last month:

“Loosely inspired by Arctic Monkeys’ Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, Mickey’s debut EP sees him transport the listener into outer space for a visit to “a gay nightclub on the moon”. The sounds that welcome you upon entry are a mesmerising blend of disco, psych-rock and 80s-inspired synth-pop, with Mickey lyrically jumping between personal stories and cosmic metaphors. The result is a joyful, imaginative orbit around some ambitious planetary pop. This is a fantastic, high-concept debut EP from Mickey; one that is not just a lot of fun to experience, but also offers the perfect introduction and showcase for his talent. Offering a welcome escape into some vivid musical nebulas, once you’ve taken the trip to the outer limits, you’ll be reluctant to return back down to Earth.”

Read my full review for 5-9 here

Listen here

5. The High Life by Bloc Party

2022 was the year Bloc Party got their mojo back. Whilst the band’s 2016 album Hymns still had its moments, it very much reflected a band going through a transition. Indeed, Alpha Games was still far from a perfect record, but if you had ever been a fan of Bloc Party then there was plenty of familiar pleasures on offer. Following on from that effort then, and this year the indie icons released a new four-track EP where they sound even more rejuvenated.

It’s a fun collection, with summery indie belter High Life kicking things off, before brilliant KennyHoopla collab Keep It Rolling flourishes with that classic Bloc Party sound. Similarly Blue sees Kele finally get back in touch with his younger self, with the song presenting some of his most sincere lyrics in years. Final track The Blood Moon is then my pick of the bunch, with shades of Bigmouth Strikes Again by The Smiths early doors, before it then transforms into that vintage Bloc Party of old by the end, thanks to Russell Lissack’s signature riffing.

Even if you weren’t quite on board with Alpha Games, Bloc Party fans will find plenty of resemblance to that band they fell in love with all those years ago on Silent Alarm and Weekend In The City here on The High Life. Another positive step in the right direction for one of my all-time favourites.

Listen here

4. A Little Lost, A Little Found by Grace Carter

It can sometimes be lost on us as listeners just how derailing the pandemic was for new artists breaking out during that time. After discovering Grace Carter at Live At Leeds fest in 2018, it was evidently clear she was heading for superstardom. The following year cemented this prediction, as the London-based singer-songwriter made the BBC Sound of 2019 list and she set off supporting mainstream heavyweights like Dua Lipa and Lewis Capaldi on tour. However ever since the pandemic struck, Grace has been lost in the wilderness unable to further shine a spotlight on her evolving talent – until now.

Her incredible 2023 EP is Grace getting back to basics, releasing a collection of heartfelt pop ballads that explore identity, family, love and racial injustice. From the exquisitely produced groove of Pick Your Tears Up, the gospel-influenced Riot, the atmospheric tribal cries of Mother and the quirky vocal inflections of Hope, it is littered with moments that quickly remind us of Grace’s songwriting talent.

This is the mesmerising sound of Grace Carter finding herself again and getting things back on track – hopefully she has a clear run this time around.

Listen here

3. Welcome To My House by Yonaka

It doesn’t feel like too long ago I was stood watching Brighton rockers Yonaka perform in the 1am graveyard shift at Dot-to-Dot festival back in 2017. With a then long-haired Theresa Jarvis jumping off the stage to sing her lungs out amidst the modest, onlooking crowd, I was instantly entranced by the band’s energetic songs and performance. Fast forward to now and the band are now a prominent name within the British rock scene, with their songs constantly making their way into TV show, game and movie soundtracks. Returning in 2023 with another release packed with addictive commercial rock anthems, you get the feeling this new seven-track mini-album - which comes complete with a music video for every track - will only catapult them further up the chain of popularity.

With each song representing a feeling, memory or emotion within Theresa Jarvis, the trio blaze through each concisely constructed track, with most hovering around the two-to-three-minute mark. Propelled by anthemic choruses, polished production and Theresa’s ever-impressive vocal acrobatics, it’s another tour de force project from the band.

From rousing opener By The Time You’re Reading This to the anxiety-induced PANIC, through to the colossal confidence of Welcome To My House and the full-throttled punk of Hands Off My Money, it’s just an absolute blast from beginning to end. However, the EP’s best moment is arguably reserved for one of the band’s softest, most heartfelt songs to date – Give Me My Halo. Noticeably stripped back compared to the rest of the tracks here, it allows Theresa’s vocals to soar with her raw, passionate cries driving home the song’s uplifting message.

Across their early releases, their 2019 debut Don’t Wait ‘Til Tomorrow, 2021 mini-album Seize The Power and now this EP, Yonaka have built themselves an arsenal of bangers that would put most other British rock bands to shame. A seismic collection of anthems that will no doubt go down a storm when they take it on tour in 2024.

Experience the visual mini-album through the music video playlist here

Listen to the EP here

2. MANHOOD by ROB GREEN

From one visual EP to another then, however you arguably couldn’t find two more different in sound.

During my first visit to Hockley Hustle festival in 2022, an all-dayer around the cultural heartbeat of Nottingham, soul-pop sensation Rob Green’s acoustic set was such an undisputed highlight, I was wondering how he could possibly top it this year. Well, he managed it.

Performing in the corner of Broadway Cinema’s café with the Rob Rosa String Quartet accompanying him, people were literally queueing at the door to catch even the smallest glimpse of his incredible thirty-minute set. And rightfully so, as the enigmatic performer proved once again his unrivalled ability to bring immeasurable positive energy to a room and leave the audience joyously radiant by the end. I always thought if he could bottle that energy and transfer it to his studio output, he would be unstoppable. Based on his MANHOOD project released at the start of November, it looks like he had the same idea.  

Unlike any other shortplayer released in 2023, MANHOOD is a stunning new visual EP that explores masculinity, self-love and racial identity. Centred around his heartfelt recent singles I’ll Be Around and What Are We Waiting For, the other parts are short vignettes made up of beautiful gospel harmonies, catchy hooks, conversation recordings and deep spoken word passages. With the film version impressively shot in a single take too, it all makes for a powerful 10-minute experience.

A special project by a very special talent, MANHOOD gives the perfect insight into Rob’s unrivalled charm and heart as both an artist and performer. Due to take the project on a UK tour next year, I implore you to go out of your way to see his life-affirming live show if you can – I guarantee you’ll want to capture the positivity in the air and bring it home with you.

Watch the MANHOOD short film here

Listen here

1. Sucker by bexx

“Sometimes falling in love feels like the most important thing in the world, especially when you’re not doing it.” – bexx, 2023

For me, the very best shortplayers should be all killer no filler – with most at four to six tracks long, there really is no excuse on that front. Additionally for me though, they should also take you on a conceptual journey or tell you a story in the same way any great album would. Enter Notts-hailing, synthpop superstar bexx, with her banger-filled debut EP that guides the listener through the highs and lows of her hapless love life.

Ever since discovering bexx through a support slot for Fickle Friends at the start of 2022, she has been on a roll. From her incredible breakout single Hard To Love complete with soaring 80s-tinged guitar solo, to more recent efforts like the extremely catchy One More Night and body positive, rock anthem Prettier, bexx has shown her knack for writing addictive, resonant pop songs is as good as anybody in the genre right now. Taking her first big step forward in 2023, she finally released this her debut EP and it is just the perfect showcase for her talent.

Sucker presents five songs about the eternal search for human connection and the stumbling blocks along the way. It is an EP filled with irresistible tongue-in-cheek humour and packed wall-to-wall with cathartic, anti-love songs with which any amiable cynic can relate. This is “unserious, heartbreak pop” of the highest order and it makes for the most joyously fun EP of the year.

The opening title track is the perfect tone-setter, as bexx describes the urge to text back a former lover, with her wry lyricism firmly at the fore on lines like “I still wonder, do you wonder, how I’m doing, who I’m under – I’m not lonely, I’m just going through the motions.” It’s this light-hearted take on these common melancholic feelings that makes bexx so refreshing and the song itself is one of her most instantly gratifying yet, thanks to its hooky chorus.

Inescapably catchy single I’m Disgusting follows, where bexx describes becoming that hopelessly lovesick romantic she’s always despised (“The lovey-dovey shit belongs on the TV, I’d rather die”). However, the honeymoon period of the relationship quickly ends, as bexx then throws us listeners into the brutal break-up on excellent single, Stupid. Culminating in the frustration-fuelled refrain “I hate this song, ‘cause it’s about you”, it is tailor-made for heartbroken festival crowds to sing back with angst.

Recent single Bad For Each Other is then undoubtedly the EP’s best moment, with bexx found unravelling a toxic friends-with-benefits relationship (“Steal a kiss, 3AM, just a secret between friends – even though I don’t feel used, still a little bit confused”). Once again channelling some palpable rock energy with a guitar-driven chorus, it is mixed seamlessly with a brilliantly produced electronic beat on the quieter, almost whispered verses.

After taking this wild journey with bexx through her romantic life, navigating attraction, sex, heartbreak and all the mixed emotions found along the way, the EP’s climatic song Haha, I’m dying alone can’t help but feel brutally poignant. This is the moment where bexx finally lifts that shield of humour that she’s carried throughout just a little bit, but enough to show the vulnerability hiding underneath - acknowledging that making a joke out of these feelings is her way of coping with the strain of it all. It’s another special, brilliantly written pop song and it’ll have you reaching through your headphones to give bexx a big comforting hug at the end of it.

For a first outing, bexx really couldn’t have crafted a better shortplayer to introduce new listeners into her world. A collection that has been cohesively pulled together and is simply beaming with the catchy, singalong choruses and witty takes that have made her music such a joy to behold. She has really knocked it out of the park with this batch of songs and it is no surprise that it has held on throughout the year to remain my favourite EP of 2023.

Listen here

Thanks for reading – I’ll be back next week with final year-end awards, including my favourite live shows and Top 100 songs of 2023!

[ms-m-astrologer]

Would you be able to explain how to interpret transits? I am hopelessly confused. TIA.

Even though my bronchitis meds have me in a state of “mildly buzzed,” this ask has been sitting too long for me to ignore any more. Sorry in advance for any garbled sentences, and as always thanks for the ask!

Entire chapters and entire tomes have been written about interpreting transits - Steven Forrest’s book The Changing Sky, and the last part of chapter 6 in Bloch and George’s Astrology for Yourself, are good places to start learning. Bernadette Brady’s The Eagle and the Lark is excellent, too, although not for beginners.

Some of the things I’ve picked up on over the decades, that won’t necessarily be elaborated on in books:

You really have to learn the planets in order of their speeds: Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Asteroids, Jupiter, Saturn, Centaurs, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, TNOs. That’s because the slower-moving planets have much more of an impact than the speedy ones. Transiting Moon square something lasts for a few hours; transiting Pluto square the same something lasts for a few years.

If it ain’t in the natal chart, then a transit isn’t going to make it magically happen. I have watched this time and again as transiting Jupiter makes an aspect to my natal Venus, with zero lasting results - they aren’t in aspect in my birth chart. Poor me! I’ve learned to enjoy them as they happen but to expect nothing permanent.

Transits should be treated like weather forecasts, except they’re 100% accurate. Saturn is about to enter Pisces, for example - as a Gemini, I need to prepare for challenges; my Cancer friends must prepare, too, but since Pisces is trine Cancer, they won’t have as difficult a passage as we Geminis will face.

Don’t forget solar arcs and progressions, btw. Forrest wrote (The Book of Earth) that solar arcs

…reflect the Sun’s nature - which is to say they tend, like the Sun, to be more biographical and outward in their manifestations. Meanwhile, progressions are often more sensitive to evolutions occurring beyond the boundaries of the human ego and the conscious, rational mind…. Progressions are more likely to mirror those kinds of deep psychic events.

Transits are just the “weather” these solar arcs and progressions take place in. At some point when I am not addled I may write more about them here…. Blessings, ❤️❤️❤️