#some kind of analogue recording method

[doubledutchratfucker]

my history seminar had us all designing archives as an exercise in understanding historical silences and I got halfway through before I realised I was literally just designing the magnus archives

[tanadrin]

Biomes of Sogant Raha: The Mountain-Forests

[Above: Southeastern Altuum, with the larger Dappese biogeographical region in light green, and the “mountain-forests” in dark green.]

Dappese: dap khu, “true forests;” Larian: gobale, “big forests;” Seqqel: hovalla, “great forests;” Masari: shinsen, “god-forests;” Toschek: dirkabiyar, “green fog mountains”

Outside of the (now greatly reduced) region of xenogrowth, almost all biomes on Sogant Raha have some kind of terrestrial analogue, dominated by endobiota not much different from those common on the Earth when the Exiles departed millennia ago. One unique region, however, are the the forests of Dap Mbeki and Dap Ngara, home of the Dappese people. Much of the surrounding region is subtropical woodland and forest, watered by warm prevailing winds from the southwest that bring masses of moist air up from the southern sea. The most common plants in this region are deciduous trees and shrubs, and the climate is warm, and exceedingly good for agriculture along the rivers that carry rainfall and snowmelt down from the surrounding mountains. But at the heart of this region, the geography shifts suddenly: in the distance, rising thousands of feet above the lowlands, great peaks are seen, their flanks shrouded in fog. These are not wooded slopes of isolated hills or volcanic remnants: these are living trees, the size of mountains.

The key to the history of this region, and to the nature of these immense forests, lies with the Dappese themselves. Sixty thousand years ago[1], the people of the Ammas Echor arrived in orbit of the planet and began their colonization efforts in what is now western Altuum. These were the first and the most significant group of Exiles to reach Sogant Raha early in its history, but not the only ones. More than ten thousand years later, a second vessel, called by its crew the Sanardur-nasandaburkant followed in the footsteps of the Ammas Echor; and what they found when they arrived disturbed them greatly.

[1] Taking, for the sake of convenience the Conn sacking of Presh as marking roughly the beginning of the “present era” of Sogant Raha, and using our measurement of the year rather than the local one. 

The Sanda, as they called themselves at the time, were of a very different branch of the Exile than the Janese of the Echor. The ancestors of the Janese had sighted Sogant Raha long ago via the orbital transit method, which had shown them a world rich in water and oxygen, with many signs of an active biosphere, and they had reengineered their entire culture and their civilization in the hopes that their descendants would one day reach this world. In comparison, the Sanda were latecomers; their ancestors had detected planets around Kdjemmu (which they called Nakarriban) via the radial velocity method; the numerous small worlds around the star intruiged them, especially the one in the relatively clement circumstellar habitable zone, but they did not expect a world rich in liquid water and breathable air, and they certainly did not expect a world already peopled by humans.

The Sanardur-nasandaburkant was a small ship by the standards of the Exile, but a very technologically advanced one. Unlike the Janese, the ancestors of the Sanda had never lost the universal cell technology; indeed, they had been fortunate enough to occasionally invest time and energy in improving it, and improving their biotechnology generally. What they did not have, however, was a complete copy of the Great Record: an ancient schism had caused theirs to be lost to them, and compared to the millions of species of endobiota contained in the Ammas Echor’s Record, they had data on only a few thousand, much of which was incomplete. They had made much use of this information to hone their understanding of genetics and biology, and that expertise they had used to further adapt themselves to life in difficult environments–the Sanda were a hardy people, with a striking range of phenotypes very different from baseline humans, able to endure microgravity environments and radiation far better than baseline humans.

Only in the last years of their approach to Kdjemmu did the Sanda realize that the planet hosted a biosphere, a discovery as momentous to them as it had been to the Janese. In the course of the final breaking maneuvers used to enter orbit, it also became apparent that the Sandese were not the first humans to reach this world; and this information troubled them greatly. With their long memories, even if the earliest origins of mankind in Paradise were a hazy memory, that humanity in the Exile was a pale shadow of its former self. True, our species endured. On many worlds we even approached something like prosperity. Enough that, from time to time, some of those worlds could afford to build new ships, to crew them with new explorers, and to hope that somewhere out in the great darkness there could be a life less balanced on the precarious knife-edge of survival. But compared to the first few hundred thousand years of our species existence, in the lush springtime of of the world in which we were born, the amount of spare productive capacity that could be put to ends other than survival–that could be used for innovation, or creativity, or expansion–was paltry. So why, arriving at a planet as perfectly suited for human life as Paradise had been, did the Sanda find only silence?

Careful exploration of the surface was conducted; it was soon evident that some terrible catastrophe had befallen the first colonists on this world, and they had lost a great deal of the technological knowledge they had arrived with. The nature of this catastrophe was impossible to discern–it was wrongly conjectured to be linked to the layer of ash in the soil near the surface, a remnant of the Burning Spring, and to the ruins of the large concrete and steel cities that by this time dotted much of Altuum, Vinsamaren, and Démora. In fact, what the Sanda did not realize was that the catastrophe was not one, but many; and that they were ongoing. As they explored the surface, the dreaming planetmind observed them; and she was, insofar as we might analogize her experiences with our own, afraid--these were, after all, newcomers of the same kind that she had already judged a threat, and which had already radically changed her environment.

The initial plan of the Sanda was to maintain a presence in orbit, and to establish a small colony on the surface; they hoped to make contact with friendly locals, to build a small industrial base, and perhaps within a few centuries send a small vessel, with news of their discovery, back to their people. They succeeded only in partially accomplishing the first two of these goals; since the days of the first arrival of humans on the surface, some species of tahar had made major adaptations to living inside of the human body, and the first visitors of the surface brought it back to the ship. Within a few months, confusion, hallucination, and heightened aggression set in among the Sanda; their ship was sabotaged by crewmen who could later not explain why they did it, and they were forced to flee to the surface.

They brought with them enough of their technology to understand a little of their enemy, though; and they were able to genetically modified themselves to make their bodies less hospitable to the tahar. They also maintained much of their technological base long enough to adapt endobiota to create a protective habitat, one which could protect them from hostile invaders, and which would not require redeveloping an entire agricultural civilization overnight to keep from starving. This was the beginning of the great forests: chimeric strains of trees, mixing together cell lines from several distinct species, and borrowing many of the signalling mechanisms used by the tahar itself to regulate the resulting symbiotic relationship. At first, they were a source of food, of building materials, and of shelter; soon, though, the Sanda began to refine them further, and they became much more.

The native Dappese word for these organisms now is karuda, “mountain-tree;” and though a karuda may begin life as a sapling or a bulb, once fully-grown it is not much like its mundane cousin. Most woody endobiota rely on a system of xylem and phloem to move moisture and nutrients throughout their tissues; capillary action, transpirational pull, and the solute pressure of sugars in the phloem help to transport water from the roots to the leaves; hydrostatic pressure moves sugar-rich sap back down to nourish the tissues in the rest of the plant, all ultimately through a central trunk. In the karuda, the vascular system is much more complex; water and various nutrients are moved through as many as four different kinds of vascular tissue, which use active transport methods that can reach much higher pressures. As a result, where most trees on Earth could only slightly exceed a hundred meters or so in height, the karuda may be as much as three kilometers tall.

At that size, the upper foliage collects an enormous quantity of sunlight; much of the energy collected in this way is used to support the vascular tissue. A karuda is more akin to an immense colonial organism than a single plant; it has thousands of trunks which wind together and branch apart, creating an immense open lattice beneath its upper foliage. It is in these spaces that most of the Dappese, the descendants of the Sanda and neighboring peoples, now live; they can shape them with pruning and twisting methods to create living enclosures, to modulate the movement of air, and–on large scales–even to alter local weather patterns.

A karuda is as much an environmental engineering project as a habitat: they draw immense amounts of groundwater up into their branches, and the transpiration of water in the upper foliage creates masses of moist air, warmed by sunlight and the metabolic processes of the vascular tissue, that support immense hanging gardens. At the forest floor, so little light reaches the ground that it is nearly night-dark; here, the temperature is constant, and the air is mostly still. Where the warm air of the upper foliage and the cool air at ground level mix, there is a thick, turbulent fog layer; here, another layer of growth captures the moisture that condenses and what little light makes it down to this layer, and various arboreal animals thrive that the Dappese hunt for food.

The Dappese of later generations are not much like their Sanda ancestors. Culturally and linguistically, they are a fusion of the Sanda colonists and friendly peoples they allied with when they were forced to the surface; their language is in fact principally Sogantine, though with considerable Sanda influence–the prenasalized consonants of mbeki (“north”) and ngara (“south”) are reflexes of the Sanda nasal prefix, seen in both Nakarriban (na-karri-ban, “target star, star to which we are going”) and nasandaburkant (literally, “the vessel our people are traveling in”). Without the ability to produce the necessary technical equipment, the Dappese have lost the genetic engineering technology and machine construction capacity of their ancestors. But they have retained a long oral and written historical tradition, and they remain excellent astronomers and mathemeticians; alone of all the peoples of Sogant Raha, they have never forgotten that this is not their original home, and that humanity originated in the stars.

They are also physically distinct; although their exact appearance varies as it does in any human population, the prototypical phenotype of the Dappese is gray-skinned, with feet almost as good at grasping as hands, a great deal of flexibility, and the ability to easily adapted to a more rarefied atmosphere, such as that found at the summits of the karuda. About half of all Dappese have a second thumb instead of a fourth finger, a relic of ancient genetic modification.

Politically, the Dappese are only loosely affiliated; the region has proven inhospitable either to state-formation or the intrusion of surrounding polities. In the woodlands and forests, foraging, hunting, and light agriculture predominates; most inhabitants live in small villages, with larger trading towns forming a network of settlements that is important for the diffusion of technological and cultural innovations. Among the karuda, comparatively high population densities are possible, thanks to the large amount of vertical space and the possibility of layered horticulture. There are no large cities, but the whole volume of the karuda constitutes something like a vast townland, and the karuda-forests have a population of around eight or nine million.

A single karuda is often regarded as an economic and cultural unit; there are dialectical differences between karuda, and differences in custom and tradition. Governance, such as it is, is commonly based around village leaders or small councils, with matters concerning the whole tree sometimes requiring vast assemblies to negotiate. The stability of the environment, the lack of competition for resources, and the slower growth of karuda-adapted populations have tended to reduce the amount of large-scale conflict, although wars, both internal and external, are not unknown.

The most severe conflict which occurred in the history of the Dappese was in fact very recent: a generation ago, the nascent Conn empire sought to extend its dominion over southeastern Altuum. They made it all the way to the eastern coast, conquering numerous wealthy states in that region, but the Dappese forests presented a major barrier to expansion south, especially to the nearer parts of the Windlands. Initial forays using Conn cavalry into the forests were disasters; heavy infantry from the northeastern states, organized under Conn commanders, were more successful, but they had no useful tactics for penetrating the karuda, which the Dappese were far more capable of fighting in anyway.

The solution to continued resistance was simple: fire. By damaging the lowest levels of the karuda with oil-driven fires, the trees could be wounded, their upper layers could be deprived of water, and, as the wood dried, eventually the fire would spread to the upper levels. A series of unusually dry summers worked further in the favor of the Conn; within ten years, most of Dap Mbeki and large portions of Dap Ngara had been destroyed. One karuda was the work of dozens of generations of careful gardening; the Conn, in their hunger for conquest, destroyed thousands.  Millions of Dappese died in the war; others fled south and west, trying to stay ahead of the rapidly expanding frontier of Conn conquest.

The consequences of this war were disastrous for the world as a whole. There was an immense loss of Dappese science and culture, of course; but the smoke plumes from the fires rose high into the stratosphere, and soon blanketed the world. The amount of ash released was equivalent to many Krakatoas, and it took decades to clear. The global temperature fell sharply, resulting in crop failures, famine, and disease; unknown to the Conn, this worked even further to their advantage. Famine and the resulting conflict in the west greatly weakened the states of Oethiam and Nebressa; Presh’s volume of trade declined, resulting in a small regional economic collapse. Twenty years later, when the Conn armies appeared on the horizon, there were few states positioned to resist them, and many princes were willing to turn on their neighbors in exchange for a favorable position in the post-conquest order.

Eventually, after the collapse of the Conn empire and the return of many Dappese refugees, the process of rebuilding the god-forests began; there has even been talk of planting new karuda to the east, to found a new forest: Dap Tassama, “the forest of rebirth.” It may be many centuries before the lands of the Dappese return to their former prosperity; but the Dappese are patient, and are already looking forward to a future that is even brighter than before.

[ecoamerica]

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

[redolentgrove]

Thank You

There was a break between performances on the ballroom's main stage. Bijoux strode onto the stage with her harp in tow, setting it down and uncasing it. Her dress sparkled with every movement, and it was something that certainly caused gala attendees to take notice. But unlike at the high school, Bijoux's intent was not to fulfill a promise to her mom. This was her own promise, one that had been years in the making, and it was about to come to fruition as she stood in front of the microphone, holding a small stereo and disc in her hands.

"Good evening." She watched several gala-goers look her way. "For this performance, I thought I'd use a song derived from the mythologies surrounding several regions of the world. While some of it is inspired by Hisuian/Sinnohian mythos, many portions derive from Kanto and Johto as well. Portions of it were once used as odes to deities and as a method of storytelling. This particular song is considered an ending to a famous tale, and yet speaks to the hints of a new tale, perhaps even a retelling of the tale it had just closed."

The Cinccino-taur noticed several of the audience members seeming slightly restless, but continued with confidence. "Some of will notice several patches of rough, imperfect translation from some of the original lyrics, even slight changes made to the source material. No disrespect is mean by this; in fact, I, along with several others in my classes, spent months, bordering on years, fine-tuning this to our best knowledge. And I dedicated a few word swaps to a very special mythical in attendance. Mom, I'm hoping that maybe, in some way, this will help you find a bit of closure and solace."

Ohhhhhhh no. Not this again. The Shayfeon-taur looked around at the attendees, but very visibly seemed uncomfortable given what had happened the last time Bijoux had dedicated a performance even slightly in part to her. She's just lucky that she's old enough to not be groundable at this point…because I have a feeling I know exactly where this is going to go.

"Um… so, I'd like to present a song created to tell the story of a scene fading with the passage of time. Composed and coupling itself with the aftermath of the sun goddess and her victory over the demon of darkness. An ode to goodbyes… to new beginnings. A movement forward, to prevent being stuck in the past. Acknowledgement of a loss, but keeping one's hope. Something that asks for, as it were… a reset."

Oh, hell. Yeah, this is definitely where this is going to go, isn't it. Loki dreaded the oncoming performance with every fiber of her body. But if she could get through Bijoux taking the most private, deeply resonant song she'd ever known and making it into a public performance, the hybrid could make it through this one… right? Well, she kind of had to at this point.

Bijoux pressec the stereo's play button. Here came the backing track. A slow, deliberate ocarina melody began to echo through the hall, and she stood there with a long, careful sigh escaping her snout. She noiselessly counted the tempo of the melody, preparing to match her words with the newly-arriving shamisen track, fingers now strumming delicately on the harp. And with their coming, she began to sing.

Millions of flower petals fall Scattering and colouring the town However this time is at its end As the wind had foretold it to us all

Small percussion beats added themselves to the mix at this point. Traditional of the old styles that would have been played when the myths were young, perhaps even freshly occurring in the world, finding perhaps analogues in the modern world but never quite being perfectly replicated in their styles of old. It was hardly from a lack of effort; the musicians recording these instrumentals certainly did their best to remain faithful to the interpretations.

There's no need to worry anymore The seasons always find a way to change We knew that ever since the time that we Watched the moon in its brilliance before

And the string instruments were gone… mostly. While they stayed in the background to accentuate things, the next verse focused mostly on the ocarina melody, with a very faint piano score beginning to weave in alongside Bijoux's vocals. It began to set the tone for how the rest of the song would go, an alternation of letting the instruments do their work, and letting the Cinccino-taur's voice speak volumes when it was her turn to carry the song forward and tell the story.

All the time constantly, we shed these tears and we Do it again and again We don't know how much it's worth Until it's gone away for good

Well, that verse had certainly been the catalyst for Loki's memories once again. There she was, settled beneath the blooming dogwood tree in Redolent Grove. Yet again, Bijoux had transported the hybrid into memory lane. But she was alone here in this flashback. Where she would normally recall Shijima, lay simply the trunk of that treasured tree. She was alone, and with the oncoming first chorus, a cymbal crash broke her back to reality, at least… until the words again poured out of Bijoux's snout.

If I could have just one wish I would Go back to who I was Yesterday, and I'd say My goodbyes to you

Oh wait. There was the Houndoom. The purple eyes, the backward-tilted ears circled by devilish horns. Snout topped by the scar, body settled alongside her as the two locked gazes. The last lyric, 'My goodbyes to you' began to see the canine slowly fade, scattering into the earlier-mentioned flower petals, a rainbow of colours scattering with a sudden breeze that tickled at the hybrid's fur.

If my feelings stay the same and do Not change or fade away Just meet me At our favourite dogwood tree

Great. Bijoux just had to mention the dogwood tree, didn't she? And between the cymbal crash alongside part two of the chorus, and the heightening volume of all of the backing instruments, the visuals of her memory clouded, leaving her much less time to be lost in her pain. That was certainly an upside compared to the talent show from spring, if nothing else. Perhaps it was just from not having nearly as unbreakable a connection to this song as the previous one. Maybe her mind was actively shuttering herself from having to feel those same emotions. Either way… Loki was rather welcoming of this development.

We made a promise on that sunny day, So I made sure that it won't be lost By tracing my fingers on the beams Of the sunlight that chased the dark away

The percussion became more prevalent here. It was evident that progression theory was well and at work here. And the shamisen turned into a more modern guitar, giving a feeling of time's march forward as too did the song.

And here, despite whatever had kept Loki's memory blocks in place, the 'promise' lyric definitely created snippets of her wedding day to Shijima. The promises to keep him happy, to be the light that countered any darkness in his world… at least this memory was nice. There wasn't an undertone of death or loss in this portion… for once she wanted that visual, cursing whatever defence mechanisms kept her at bay. That wedding had been arguably the best day she'd ever had, and of all the things to cloud, she begged for this to not be it.

No moment is the same as the one after it You can't return to the past I'll move on with life and then, I won't hesitate again

Well… it was still nice. And still rang true. Except for second part. She certainly hadn't "moved on" in any sort of meaningful fashion, and she certainly remained hesitant through her continued attempts to push forward in her love life. Maybe that was the reason those visuals weren't coming in clearly this time. Was there something about "you can't return to the past" that hinted at it? That the most important thing she could do at this moment was to simply look forward, and not cling to memories that could never return? Part of her wanted to have that same visual play in her head, to see her husband again, but things remained cloudy despite her best efforts to create clarity.

So that all my deepest prayers will reach you Safely where you are To this day, I will sing this song again for you

Great. Loki just felt like Bijoux was deliberately calling her out at this point. It had been bad enough that her daughter had purloined the final song she had ever sung to Shijima. It was even worse that she had turned it into a public spectacle at her talent show. There was solace in knowing that despite the difficulty in listening to that one, at least it had been in front of those she knew. But here, in front of strangers? Still… maybe that was a blessing in disguise, that she wasn't so well-known in this circle, that her pain and struggles weren't as public, the scars not so evident.

If the answers that I'm looking for Exist within the world Gently Please just tell me that they do

It was probably for the best that these lyrics were followed by an instrumental interlude. It gave Loki's mind time to catch up to her heart, to indeed search around as the words had suggested, wondering… where were the answers she needed? Did she even really know what the questions in her heart were asking? Or did she only pretend she had her questions in place? She thought back to Celeste's complete undressing of her emotions; were there even questions remaining anymore? What held her back at this point anymore, if her vows to her eldest living daughter were true?

No moment is the same, as the one after it you can't return to the past I'll move on with life and then I won't hesitate again

Bijoux's harp playing was at its most prevalent during the following interlude. A familiar lead-in to the final chorus. Once again, the words stuck deeply in Loki's mind. As with the previous choral movement, she looked inwardly, wondering why she continued to hesitate. Why she couldn't move on. The centuries of staring at her past, clinging to things that would never again be. The desires to have them return, despite knowing the impossibility.

If I could have just one wish I would Go back to who I was Back in time, Just to sing once again to you

Harp and ocarina became the sole backers to Bijoux's voice as the movement into the finale began, with the two previous choruses entwining, only minor variations in the words. 'Yesterday' became 'Back in Time.' A dedication yet again to progression of the song, as if it had carried one through years, centuries even. Loki felt a definitive longing to sing to Shijima, even just one more time, and the last line of this grouping felt once more like a personal callout.

If my feelings stay the same and do Not change or fade away, Just meet me At our favourite dogwood tree

Again, the dogwood reference. But here, instead of multiple instruments and traditional sounds from verses prior, there was a more modern, quiet progression, a solemn dedication to remain by that promise, to return to that spot. A brief flash of Shijima's face appeared alongside her visualisation of the dogwood, before dissipating just as it had in the prior movements.

So that all my deepest prayers will reach you Safely where you are To this day, I will sing this song again for you

Of course this portion had to reappear. Because what kind of ode to Loki would it have been if it didn't feature a reprisal dedicated to a continued promise of singing? And as any final, final chorus would be wont to do, it brought back the percussion rhythms. A mixture of old and new. Small chimes, powerful strings, woven alongside Bijoux's voice, entwined alongside the harp and guitar chords.

If the answers that I'm looking for Are right before my eyes Gently Please just tell me that they are

The search for answers, one final time. But now instead of just existing in the world, it was as if over the song's progression, the searches had placed them so much closer than once thought. A slow, drawn-out process of realising, perhaps the solutions truly did not just exist, but so much closer to home than once expected. Too close. And then, as a callback to the very beginning, the shamisen made one last cameo alongside the flute. One set of drum beats, leading to the final vocal line, accentuated with brief guitar chords.

And reset All the sadness within me…

Bijoux's voice was gone now. And now, so too was the visual of Loki's prized dogwood tree. Several seconds of soft instrumental melodies played while the hybrid's brain puzzled things together. And as the final guitar riffs strummed, the last drums beat… it was a flick of the switch as the song's meaning became clearer. Bijoux's song had ended, but it lingered in Loki's mind. There was a brief minute of time that the Cinccino-taur basked in the polite reception to her performance, acknowledging applause as it came and then settling as she nodded with a final 'thank you' into the microphone. Loki's applause was probably the loudest, even with the rest of her brain occupied in dissecting the words she had just heard.

So that was what the Cinccino-taur had alluded to with her hint of an 'emotional reset.' That Loki's salvation of a happier future, would require more than just 'letting go' of the past. She, indeed, would have been better served resetting her emotions. Not to forget entirely, no. She would still be allowed to remember the good; it would be integral, even. Could she acknowledge the losses she had suffered? Sure. But, to cling onto previous trifles would be to never move forward. And that would leave her in the same state she had been for all those centuries since losing Shijima.

The answers were right before her eyes, weren't they? All this time… she had been searching for a sign, any hint to guide her in the right direction. She had looked in literally every possible hiding spot, and neglected to think that it could have possibly been even close to as simple as just hitting a so-called 'reset' button upon her emotional state. Once again, it had been one of her children, combining familial wisdom and reflections of the past. And unlike in Bijoux's previous performance, where the only feelings she left with were turmoil and sadness, painful relection…

Bijoux stood up, taking first the stereo off the stage, and then re-casing and removing the concert harp. She took a single look at Loki, nodded, and the pair exchanged broad smiles before hugging one another with loud, happy purrs. They then made their way silently to exit the gala, finding it fitting that such a heartfelt song would be the ending to their time at the event. And as they made their trip to the agreed-upon spot to meet Shania for teleportation back to Redolent Grove, Loki's mind continued to race with thoughts.

This time, the framework was there to rebuild herself. Loki had to commit. No matter how many times she rewound her memories, or begged otherwise, the ending would never change. She was going to find a way to sail forward, to create a new story as fulfilling as the one she had kept replaying. And if she felt herself straying…

She just had to hit 'reset,' and start anew.

((Loki and Bijoux have officially left the Abaddon's Gilded Gala.))

((Reset is a song from Okami, released 2006. This particular arrangement is from Shanath, and all proper credits are in the video description linked below. As a writer, I took inspiration to have Bijoux perform alongside this particular song. I make no claims that I wrote or performed the arrangement linked below, and all rights and accolades go to the original performers.))

[denimbex1986]

'Given that Christopher Nolan's new film Oppenheimer is a character study of the man credited as the 'Father of the atomic bomb' it's no spoiler to say that it includes a couple of almighty explosions.

Nolan has been clear during interviews that no CGI was used to create these scenes – which at one point in time led to some rather outlandish speculation that the director had detonated an actual atomic bomb in New Mexico during production.

Of course, those rumours don't actually have any bearing in reality, and Nolan in fact worked extensively with Oscar-winning special effects supervisors Scott Fisher and Andrew Jackson to create the nuclear fire and mushroom cloud that is seen in the film.

Read on for everything you need to know about what effects were used for these sequences.

How did Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer film atomic bomb sequences?

If you're familiar with Nolan's work, you'll probably already be aware that he has a strong preference for practical effects – and so it's no surprise that he was determined to avoid resorting to CGI for the atomic bomb sequences.

Speaking in the film's press notes about putting together the Trinity test sequence, the director said that he always knew it "was going to be one of the most important things for us to figure out".

He explained: “I had done a nuclear explosion via computer graphics in The Dark Knight Rises, which worked very well for that film. But it also showed me that with a real-life event like Trinity, which was well documented using new cameras and formats developed for recording that event, computer graphics would never give you the sense of threat that you see in the real-life footage.

"There’s a visceral feeling to that footage. It becomes tactile, and in becoming tactile it can be threatening as well as awesome. So that was the challenge. To find what you might call analogue methods to produce effects to evoke the requisite threat, awe, and horrible beauty of the Trinity test.”

And so a number of experiments were carried out by Jackson and Fisher, which included such relatively low-tech ideas as smashing ping pong balls together and throwing paint at a wall.

These experiments were filmed in super-close-up using small digital cameras at various frame rates before Nolan would provide feedback and ask them to work out a way to recreate these effects on a bigger scale – using massive IMAX cameras.

Alas, if you're wanting to know exactly what techniques were eventually used, you're out of luck: Nolan and co have opted to keep the process top secret, which almost serves as a nod to the Manhattan Project itself.

But whatever the techniques, cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema said that Jackson and Fisher's unit was "one big science project" adding that he was "very jealous that they got to play around so much with all that kind of stuff".

Although the Trinity test is the set piece that will grab the headlines, some of the same techniques were also used at other points in the film: specifically for those scenes portraying the chaos of Oppenheimer's mind.

Nolan said that this was another area where CGI simply wasn't an option, explaining that he "didn’t feel we were going to get anything that would feel personal and unique to Oppenheimer’s character" if that approach was taken.

“We were able to generate this incredible library of idiosyncratic and personal and frightening and beautiful images to represent the thought process of somebody at the forefront of the paradigm shift from Newtonian physics to quantum mechanics," he said.

"Who is looking into dull matter and seeing the extraordinary vibration of energy that’s within all things, and how it might be unleashed, and what it might bring.”'

[essgeiss]

What Are The Well Known Facts About Printer Service Perth

In an exceedingly universe in which using of computers and various digital to analogue products has grown to be, one of the most beneficial properties and assets for every one companies are an important well-functioning device. Combined with giving you info, any kind of well-maintained model is a fantastic device whom prevents both time and money at the end. Nevertheless, some sort of inkjet mandates recurring repairs to look after it's flawless working and thus open up it's actually life. Doing this is required to be conducted by experienced motion to get around all of the excessive headaches the day after tomorrow. Foremost, you should fully grasp how a fabulous printer's does the job precisely what actions need due to its maximum proficiency. It is often strongly recommended to see a computer owner instruction manual before doing each and every operations, because will give you elaborate directions on how to participate in differing steps. The foremost different kinds of care locations provide clean-up, lubrication, and furthermore altering pieces.

Now and again, clients really should try to switch the ink cartridges. Regardless of method of inkjet there are, you need to check out highly recommended repair calendar inside the guidebook and avoid any kind of inapropiate photocopier repairs and even expenditures. Concerning the particular of this laser printer, a regular care should be portrayed every few years. Wealth attraction facilitates cleaning out an accumulation of dust as well as inkjet accumulations that are able to obstruct it's art print higher quality. Generally if the misting nozzle seriously isn't straightened successfully, unreadable printer and therefore abandoned wrinkles will come to pass. Additionally it is very important to check the ink cartridges varieties of the computer printers. Best context know the right time to switch the very refills. To obtain the vehicle uncomplicated, seeing as everything you should deliver is take away a appropriate recording within the capsule and furthermore set it up. You may notice that the printer manufacturer's continually owning stuffed or alternatively creating odd disturbance, it is just a authorize that going barefoot ought to be predetermined swiftly. Those who desires to be aware of printer repairs perth along with highlights can feel absolve to go here.

These issues will cause a sexy delay rrnside your home business, for that reason don't hesitate to need to have impressive help and support. As soon as a printing device is absolutely not having a job the right way, it will impact on the increasing of a whole entire medical clinic or just home business. Cause you have to develop a printing company repair shop in your city that's competent to cope with these complaints rapidly and then cheaply. While many consumers plan to handle photocopier and furthermore protection servicing ourselves, it will always be cognizant of to request qualified suggestions the moment your organization features deterioration computer printers an additional technological know-how. This will certainly ensure your individuals can usually get their job implemented avoiding any individual prospective gaps or some other worries someday. Rather than the latest computer printers repairs, it might be essential for verify the software package unwanted of this instrument. Progressive printing equipments have self-testing capabilities which might clarify in case your method is working properly or sometimes ought to be current. Many of these self-tests may also capture for just a complications on your desktop and program, which will specify a possible pitfall with the actual inkjet on it's own. If your issue is inside of the programs and / or interact setting, you may possibly be competent to address the problem ones self whilst not proficient direction. Find out about this printer service perth through the connection.

[jupiter-art-alt]

Different Kinds Of Cctv Cameras And What They Have To Provide

At one time, CCTV cameras were only one size: big and boxy. Technology has enabled us to utilize a variety of types of CCTV cameras in recent decades. The options have grown from basic to bewildering as CCTV cameras have continued to dominate modern cities, and an Security system becomes an ever more essential element of an organization's security and operations. So, in collaboration with experts from maxsolsecuritysystem. Let's look at some of the most commonly used kinds.

Analogue versus IP CCTV cameras

While manufacturers may push IP solutions as the best option for new security camera but there's still a huge tradition of analog systems, both standard definition/SD and high definition (HD). The cameras listed mentioned in this article can be purchased in either digital or analogue versions.

The most significant difference is the method of transfer of images between recorders and cameras. IP cameras allow images to be streamed digitally over networks (binary data) and each camera having an IP address to communicate back to the recorder.

IP systems make use of cameras to perform A/D as well as compression. This reduces the bandwidth required for streaming video files on the internet, usually to the Network Video Recorder, though other storage options like cloud-based or servers are becoming popular.

As resolutions for images and internet/network speeds have increased, IP cameras are becoming increasingly common. While analogue systems are often cheaper and come with less bandwidth limitations, they are unable to provide the video analytics, scalability and cabling/wireless flexibility associated with IP cameras.

High Definition (HD) and Ultra High Definition(UHD) resolutions

High resolution (2MP) resolution is the minimum expectation. A lot of manufacturers offer ultra-high definitions for their static cameras. 4K (8MP) resolution is now standard for both HD analog and IP cameras.

Ultra-high resolution cameras typically require more bandwidth in order to send images to the recording device. Limitations on frame rate could be an issue.

Box cameras

The standard camera remains a box camera, with a lens of the user's preference is attached to the front, and cables are attached are attached to the back. Some box cameras have a built in lens or zoom lenses. However, these are rare.

Fully integrated camera assemblies

Many other types of camera are in essence fully integrated assembly. The lens, housing as well as the camera are manufactured together at the factory, which gives them operational versatility and ease of installation. They can be found in a variety of cases, and are often equipped with lighting LEDs.

Bullet cameras

Although bullet cameras were originally named for their cylindrical design the rectangular versions are quite common.

Cube Cameras

Cube Cameras generally refer to small blocks of HD or UHD CCTV with a fixed-focus lens. It may also have additional features such as:

PIR motion detector

Two-way audio

Short range IR Illuminator

Dome CCTV cameras

Domes have been the housing chosen most often when it comes to compact camera assemblies largely because CCTV users consider them to be more appealing visually than the "white shoebox" of yesteryear.

A hemispherical dome is used to protect the lens module of the camera, dome cameras are used in various settings, with many featuring vandal-resistant casings that are part of the crime prevention strategies.

Maxsol Security System

Australia

Phone:0455 66 55 80

E-mail: info@maxsolsecuritysystem.com.au

[passitonsg]

Different Cctv Camera Types And What They Offer

In the past the CCTV cameras were one size: large and big and. Technology has allowed us to utilize a variety of kinds of CCTV cameras in recent years. From simple to bewildering as CCTV cameras are a staple in urban areas, and an Security system becomes an ever more important element in an organization's security and business operation. So, in collaboration with experts from maxsolsecuritysystem. Let's look at some of the most commonly used types.

Analogue versus IP CCTV cameras

While some manufacturers may promote IP systems as the best option for new cctv system, there is an extensive legacy of analogue systems, both standard definition/SD and high definition (HD). The cameras listed in this article are available as either analogue or digital options.

The primary difference is in the method of transfer of images between cameras and recorders. IP cameras allow images be transmitted digitally (binary data) over a network, each camera having its own IP address to allow it to connect to the recorder.

IP systems utilize the camera to process A/D as well as compression. This can reduce the bandwidth needed for streaming video files on the internet, usually to an Network Video Recorder, though other storage options such as cloud-based or server-based solutions are becoming more common.

IP cameras have become more common as image resolutions have improved as well as internet speed has grown. Analogue systems can be cheaper and offer a greater bandwidth but they don't have the same analytics for video, scalability, and the cabling/wireless versatility of IP cameras.

High Definition (HD), as well as Ultra High Definition(UHD) resolutions

High resolution (2MP) resolution is the minimum standard. A lot of manufacturers provide ultra-high definition on their static cameras. 4K (8MP) resolution is now standard for both HD analogue as well as IP cameras.

Generally, ultra-high definition cameras will require more bandwidth to transfer their images to the recording system . Additionally, issues with processing large resolutions can result in a trade off against frame rate.

Box cameras

The most common camera is still the box camera to which an lens of the user's preference is attached on the front and the cables go to the rear. In addition, certain 'box' models come with a built-in lens or zoom lenses, but they're not very commonly used.

Camera assemblies that are fully integrated

Most other camera types are in essence fully integrated, with the lens, camera and housing inextricably combined at manufacture and allowing operational flexibility in exchange for ease of installation. Available in a range of cases, most of them come with LED lighting.

Bullet cameras

Although bullet cameras were named for their cylindrical design the rectangular versions are common.

Cube Cameras

Cube Cameras typically refer to small block shaped HD or UHD CCTV with fixed focus lens and may include several additional features such as:

PIR motion detector

Audio in two-way

Short range IR Illuminator

Dome CCTV cameras

Since CCTV users consider them more attractive visually in comparison to those who prefer the "white shoebox", domes have been the most popular housing for compact camera assemblies.

With a dome that is hemispherical and encasing the lens/camera module dome cameras can be found in a range of options, including some with vandal resistant casings as an element of crime-prevention strategies.

Maxsol Security System

Australia

Phone:0455 66 55 80

E-mail: info@maxsolsecuritysystem.com.au

[yamgirdle23]

Photographer Can Be Fun For Anyone

CAPTIVATE: This Dazzling Forest tree passage will certainly take a breath brand-new life into a tired workplace space. With an array of photography styles to consider on, there is the best one (or more) for your office or home style. Shop currently.

Before drawing on your hiking boots and also striking the routes, be sure to research study and strategy your exterior shoot. This consists of strategically selecting your time of day and lighting. You're at the mercy of the aspects outdoors and also you don't desire to be unprepared.

This gives you enough array to record some information in the distance, while likewise catching the details in your instant surrounding.

Feel confident that we will aid make your very first foray into the analogue way of life thorough as well as enjoyable. All of it began with an eventful experience in the early 1990s, when a group of students in Vienna, Austria, stumbled upon the Lomo Kompakt Automat - a little, enigmatic Russian camera. Mindlessly taking shots from the hip, and also in some cases looking via the viewfinder, they were astounded by the wonderful images it generated - the shades were vibrant, with deep saturation as well as vignettes that mounted the shot - it was nothing like they had actually seen before! Upon returning house, pals desired their very own Lomo LC-A, firing up a new style of artistic analogue photography that we currently understand as Lomography.

Analogue life never ever stops, and neither will you!.

From DSLRs, mirrorless cameras to the i, Phone, it's simpler than ever before to find a digital cam as well as begin taking excellent photos. We've compiled a listing of the ten different sorts of cams most digital photographers use. Tabulation, This write-up puts on all kinds of photographers newbie, casual, or expert.

We're not out to persuade you to purchase a details style, however to offer you information that will aid you choose one that you'll like utilizing one of the most. Continue reading to learn more regarding the sorts of video cameras in greater detail and what you 'd anticipate from every one. 1. DSLR Cameras, DSLR means "Digital Solitary Lens Reflex".

They have been the go to camera for numerous experts in the digital age. When professional photography Sydney browse the viewfinder of a DSLR you're translucenting the lens with the aid of a mirror and prism. These are inside the electronic camera body as well as enable you to view images the ideal method up.

Full structure as well as crop sensing unit. Complete structure cams have a sensing unit the very same size as a single 35mm movie video camera.

What you see when you browse the viewfinder is a little digital screen. This presents what you are pointing your lens at. In the last few years mirrorless cameras have obtained popularity. Individuals like them since they are smaller sized as well as lighter than lots of DSLR cameras without much less quality. Like DSLRs mirrorless cams come with full-frame or crop sensors.

This kind of camera is frequently called a point-and-shoot electronic camera because they are so quick and very easy to take pictures with. Whatever is automated so you do not have to pay much focus to capturing an image. If you're wanting something of an upgrade from your phone, but do not wish to bring a larger cam, this is the sort of video camera for you.

They vary in size. Smaller than your phone to a little bigger, yet will still fit pleasantly in your pocket or handbag. Sensor sizes are smaller sized, but not so little as in many phones. One large advantage a small electronic camera has over a phone is the zoom lens. Having an optical zoom lens provides you more flexibility and also convenience than your phone.

Numerous experience professional photographers like the appearance and feeling of images taken with movie. The main distinction for digital photographers who select a movie camera is the lack of a screen. Utilizing film you have to discover to be patient.

[transferhi8todigital]

Home

Knock Down The Very Best Information About Converting Video Files To DVD

Perhaps you intend to preserve your memories for future generations, or possibly you just want to be able to view them on a modern television or computer. Whatever the reason, it's worth doing if you have the time as well as the opportunity to convert Hi8 to digital.

Hi8 was a popular video format in the 1980s and also 1990s, and also lots of people still have their old tapes lying around. If you're one of those people, then now is an excellent time to convert them to digital. In general, though, converting Hi8 tapes to digital is a fantastic method to preserve valuable memories (or simply relieve some old ones). It's fairly quick and also easy to do, and also well worth the effort for any individual who has a collection of old videotapes collecting dust in their attic.

What Are The Conveniences Of Converting Mini DV Tapes Or VHS To DVD?

Different individuals have different reasons for wanting to convert their old mini DV tapes or VHS To a DVD solution. Maybe you intend to protect memories of a past event, such as a wedding or graduation. Or perhaps you have old family videos that you wish to have the ability to share with your kids or grandchildren. Whatever the reason, there are some points you should remember when choosing a conversion service.

One point to think about is the top quality of the finished product. Will the DVDs be easy to view and listen to, or will they be full of static and other problems? Make sure to ask about the quality of the final product before making your decision. Another thing to think about is cost. How much will it cost to have your tapes converted, and also is there any way to obtain a discount? Some firms provide discounts for large orders, so if you have several tapes that you want to be converted, it might be worth inquiring about this possibility.

Just How to Copy Your Old 8mm Movies to DVD?

To copy 8mm film to DVD, you will certainly require an analogue-to-digital converter box and also a DVD recorder. You will also require some blank DVDs. The first step is to link the converter box to your 8mm player utilising RCA cables. After that, connect the DVD recorder to the converter box using an additional collection of RCA cables. Make certain that both devices are switched on as well as set to the correct input settings. Now, you can begin copying your 8mm film onto DVD. Begin by putting a blank DVD into the recorder. After that, start playing your 8mm film on the player. The recorder will immediately start recording the video and audio from the player onto the DVD. When the film is completed, you can eject the DVD and also label it accordingly.

With this approach, you can quickly convert your old 8mm films into a digital format that can be played on any kind of modern TV or computer equipped with a DVD player. This guarantees that your valuable memories captured in an 8mm movie will certainly be preserved for future generations to enjoy.

[turnkendo84]

What All People Must Learn About Book

There are quite a lot of notable blogs that are available online that talk about books or are geared toward book lovers. You can browse the library by class (of which there are a whole bunch), by hottest (which means complete download count), by latest (which means date of upload), or by random (which is a good way to seek out new material to read). extremecraft This means that your info must be presented in a exact formula that features photos, knowledge and statistics. We do not spam and do not enable others entry to your personal data. Whereas this device does not play music, you need to use your voice to get instant info just like the weather or visitors updates, and even to set reminders or to ship voice messages to every room with a supported Echo machine. No KU eligible graphic seems above Hudson despite the fact that it is eligible as might be seen in one other record. As for the scale - it appears that the market has established 6″ ink screens to be the most well-liked amongst the readers. When it comes to the kind - primary e-readers use monochrome, E Ink know-how screens to show textual content, and some basic graphics.

Plenty of software vendors of this sort are providing free trial for 10 to 20 days for his or her guests. These software packages can be found over the web at cost effective prices. The Adobe Digital Edition is software program is lacking the instruments that I am accustomed to with Amazon Kindle. From good audio system to e-readers and voice-managed devices, Amazon has dozens of units which are dominating the mainstream market. The voice-managed sensible speaker with Alexa could be added to any room in your house. If you've got ZigBee-supported smart home tech, the Echo Plus can take management over these too. The Echo Flex is a budget-pleasant manner to increase the attain of the Echo to a number of rooms in your house. The only method to advance pages is to repeatedly tap the “line down” arrow, which is time-consuming. At simply £19.99 within the sale, it is an reasonably priced option to make Amazon's Alexa service go additional in your home.

In case you might be somebody who likes reading exterior, then solar glare and water publicity could not make it simple for you. Citi analysts in a notice, who rate the corporate as a "buy". Shares in the British firm rose 3% as analysts mentioned a 5% rise in underlying income development indicated a stronger trajectory than anticipated after the pandemic helped to speed up the transfer from analogue to digital learning. The online boost was reflected within the 60 per cent rise in earnings - regardless of the corporate reporting only a ten per cent rise in first-half revenues to £73m. For these multi-taskers who like a bit of background noise when having fun with their favourite book can plug of their headphones. Additional, you can combine audios, videos, background music, and more in it. This might conceivably be the beginning of a larger battle between the 2 giants, involving not solely eBooks, but also music, motion pictures and all the other miscellaneous applications that have come to be associate with the iPhone and, little question, the iPad.

But there's a superior measurement with the book you would possibly get time so that you can learn via it but in e-book reader you will browse the ebook at an inexpensive promoting worth, How long you might find a method to learn through textbooks in case your reader is charged completely? Now’s the time to get began! Like most people, we would fairly settle down and escape with a superb book, catch up on the latest information with an old fashioned newspaper, try one in all our favorite films, or spend just a little time just looking the web. These favorite subjects are usually an issue which someone is trying to find a solution to. So many persons are fascinated by whether or not or not they need to buy one, right now, with many of these individuals truly appearing upon that thought. Appearing a bit like a portable intercom, the Ring Video Doorbell Pro means that you can reply the door from anyplace and watch over your own home in 1080p HD video. If on prime of that you like reading on the seaside or next to a pool, then some degree of water resistance can be highly really helpful. All Kindles, for instance, can access exactly the identical content material, so if you are simply after a cheap way of reading a couple of books on vacation, there is no need to spend extra on a higher-finish mannequin.

[polysyndetonaddictsupportgroup]

A for the first step of kintsugi/pottery shards

A: How did you come up with the title to [insert fic]?

So, for those who don’t know, kintsugi is this:

It’s a Japanese method of repairing broken pottery with a usually-gold lacquer so as to turn an otherwise broken piece into something that’s quite frankly sick as fuck.

And the first step of kintsugi is, of course, to smash some fucking pottery.

The pottery shards verse is really one of those “it will get worse so it can get better” kind of things. (For the record? We’re still in the get worse period.) There’s one very specific thing of Peter Parker’s that I think canon constantly risked breaking that it never really explored, so I’m doing it for it. The goal is to smash it and rebuild it into something that’s different but hopefully beautiful.

The other thing about kintsugi is that it’s not always the result of accidents. Sometimes, it’s meant to repair pottery that’s otherwise been lost, but sometimes it’s just for the sake of the end goal. Specifically, pottery that’s seen as defective or not good enough on its own is usually targeted.

porcelain chips is the prelude, and it’s not really meant to be a cohesive narrative. It’s just all the things that stacked up to culminate into who peter Parker is today. It’s a bunch of little chips on a piece of once-pristine porcelain that may lead to its smashing. He’s been building towards a break for a long time, and it didn’t start with uncle ben or Germany or Frank. Peters inherently a child who has gone to frankly extreme lengths at a very young age. You don’t do that lightly, and you don’t do it because everything’s okay mentally. He’s the culmination of every little injustice he was meant to quietly bear.

glaze defects is an interlude character study thing of matt murdock and where he was during chapter seven. Glaze defects happen in the process of creating the pottery. Something gets fucked when you’re doing the firing or there’s an incompatibility between the body and the glaze and you end up with bumps or cracks or lines in the surface. People may be tempted to just smash a pot with a glaze defect.

I picked this title because there’s a lot of similarities between how we talk about the disabled and marginalized and how we talk about a fucked up pot.

Usually there’s a conversation of they should be this but instead they’re this. We act as if their existence is something that went wrong in the manufacturing process and it should be eradicated. As if there was a mistake in the process of creation, and we need to do better next time to make sure we don’t end up with a similar mistake. Which is bullshit. Which is exactly the mindset which led to the Supreme Court case Buck v Bell, which plays a central role in the study.

Marvel has tended to make superpowers a point of marginalization—mostly with the X-Men, but then we also see it with the Accords, and with scenes like in Jessica Jones where bitter people try to kill her after the Battle of New York. Whether or not it’s a fair comparison to draw an analogue between communities that traditionally face discrimination and like, superpowers is a different discussion. The language used is the same, so that’s the premise we’re left to operate from.

We inherently devalue things that we perceive as defective or different. I am more willing to break a fucked up pot than i am willing to break a beautiful pot. But a person isn’t a pot, and there is no standard to draw from that’s like “this is the model person, everything deviating is a manufacturing error.” People will pretend that there is—that’s how we ended up with eugenics in the first place.

A core trend in the anti-canon in that we tend to try and get around rights and liberties we’ve already decided to give to everyone. We made broad statements about how all men are created equal right off the fucking bat and ever since then we’ve been finding increasingly elaborate ways of saying “but not those men.”

Buck v Bell said that the disabled were a burden, and their ability to reproduce was a small sacrifice in comparison to their drain on society. Korematsu said that racial profiling, segregation, and forced internment was okay because the threat of wartime was such that it was necessary for public safety, and ergo not about race. Dred Scott said a slave being held in a free state could not sue for his freedom because he was property and had no rights. We qualify the shit out of things the second we see others as a problem as ourselves and we mitigate and we talk about burden and risks and what they really are and we have always, always done this. We hate fucking admitting that it’s okay that other people exist in ways we don’t like. We always make it about the danger they pose us, the burden they place on us, the fact that they’re really not a person if you think about it.

The thing about a glaze defect is that there’s not actually anything wrong with the pot. It doesn’t look the way you thought it would, but it’s still a pot. A lot of the disappointment in having a glaze defect is based in how you think it should have been made. Which is a fine consideration to make when you’re an outside observer. When you’re the pot? It’s a reason for people to break you. 

so glaze defects is called glaze defects because it involves two parallel stories of things that people may perceive as a problem in the actual form of the thing, and thereby discount the thing itself--disability, and how we’ve historically dealt with it, and on the flip side, superpowers, and the fact that the presence of powers tends to be a more valuable consideration than the person who has them. 

[ecoamerica]

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

[thekingofgear]

Do you know exactly what is going with Jonny's looping on live versions of How To Disappear Completely? At the "in a little while" section(from bonnaroo '06)I can tell that he records a sustained note in order to achieve harmony, but approaching the end, a complex ambience builds up that differs from live versions. Is just looping random melodies, or there is a more methodical thing going on? And also, are the melodies kind of improvised, or they have a purpose to sound in harmony with the loop?

Jonny's ondes Martenot on performances of How to Disappear Completely is improvised, but in a consistent way to fit the structure of the song. Jonny almost always records loops at the same parts of the outro, and they’re usually loops of descending lines. But the notes are certainly improvised each time — in fact, on each performance he tends to add subtle variations throughout the entire song. I’ve never heard it played the same way twice.

During most of the song, Jonny re-triggers his loops to keep them in time with the band (on his favorite looper, the Akai Headrush, he double taps the footswitch to stop and then start the loop again). But during the outro, he allows the loops to fall out of sync for a more unstable atmosphere. Though the rhythm is varied, the pitches are always part of the scale – A, F#, and E are all favorites. So when Jonny semi-improvises over the loop, the harmonies move between consonant and dissonant while staying in the key of the song. Jonny often records one loop before the climactic ascending line, then disables it and records a final loop just after he finishes the ascent.

Jonny sometimes loops just a 3-beat segment, as he does for the penultimate loop during Radiohead’s BBC Radio 1 performance in 2000. For that performance, the loop contains the song’s distinctive descending-third motif, which adds to the feeling of complexity as the 3-beat loop weaves in and out of sync with the 4-beat measure.

The final loop is usually a bit longer (often a measure or two), and the rhythm is usually less precise than on the other loops. In later performances, he often stops recording this loop while still holding a note, creating an abrupt jump each time the loop resets. Jonny never overdubs during the verses of the song (presumably it would get too muddy), but he sometimes overdubs on that final loop to create an especially complex asynchronous texture for the ending of the song. You can hear this during the band’s performance in Prague in 2009: three different layers are still audible after the band has left the stage!

The “acoustic” performance with Thom in Macerata is a good example to study, since Jonny hands and feet are both visible in fan-footage. Jonny also uses his original student-model ondes Martenot at that show, so he isn’t restrained by the physical limitations of the Analogue Systems French Connection, which a little more cumbersome than the real thing. But he does add some extra flourishes in that version to fill out the texture, so it does differ a little from the full-band version. Hope this helps!

[writingwithcolor]

Mixing North America with Old World Cultures in Fantasy: What Are The Issues?

So I sent in an ask several years ago that, due in no small part to your response, I have grown from and eventually led to a complete restructuring of my story. I included a measure of context in this, so if you need to skip it, my main three questions are at the bottom. I think this mostly applies to Mod Lesya.

The new setting is both inspired by and based on North America in the late 1400s where the indigenous cultures thrive and are major powers on the continent. Since there is no “Europe” in this setting the colonization and plague events never happened. Within the continent itself (since it is a fantasy setting) there are also analogous cultures that resemble Norse, Central European, Persian, Arabic, Indian, and Bengali. Although not native to the fantasy continent, there is also a high population of ‘African’ and ‘Oceanic’ peoples of many cultures, the latter usually limited to coastal cities as traders and sailors. Elves are entirely not-human, or at least evolved parallel to humans ala Neanderthals/Denisovans; they have green blood, black sclera, and skin tones that run from pale to dark. 

The main national setting of the story takes great inspiration from a Byzantine/Turkish/Mississippian background, and the neighboring nations are based on the Haudenosee (Iriquois Confederacy), Numunuu (Comancheria), and the Hopi and Zuni (as the descendants of the Ancestral Puebloans) (I also know that 2 of these 3 occur much later than the 1400s, but I love the government systems and they provide excellent narrative foils for the more ‘traditional’ fantasy government that takes place in the story). The Maya inhabit the role analogous to Ancient Greece in that most writing systems on the continent descend from Maya script and all the Great Philosophers were Maya (and nobility from across the continent spend lots of money to send their children to schools in the Maya City-States or in the Triple Alliance (Aztec Empire)). There is magic with varying traditions, practices, and methods spread across the continent, some of which are kept secret from outsiders, so I would hope that this avoids the “Magical Native” trope. 

Beyond the setting, I have three main questions:

When it comes to foodstuffs, I was originally planning to limit myself to Pre-Columbian cuisine from the Americas (eg the Three Sisters and potatoes) but in doing my research, Navajo fry-bread seems to be a fairly integral part of the food culture and that does require flour, which originated in the Old World. Would it be better to incorporate some of the Old World stuff that has since become traditional to indigenous groups?

For place names used in the setting and writing systems would it be better to use existing languages or writing systems or ones inspired by them? EG should I make a language that is very similar to Cherokee, complete with its own syllabary, or should I use IRL Cherokee and its extant syllabary? I ask because I feel like using the real language might step on some toes, but using the conlang might seem like erasure.

One of the main themes of this story is the harm that even a ‘benevolent’ Empire can wreak on people. The Byzantine/Turkish/Mississippian culture is the main Empire on the continent, taking cues from both western and American monarchical systems (eg the Triple Alliance (Aztec) and The Four Regions (the Inca Empire)), but when I think about it having any kind of even vaguely western ‘Empire’ spring up from the soil of a North American inspired setting might be troubling.

Thank you for your time and consideration! Do you guys have a kofi or something so I can compensate you for time spent?

I actually do remember you, and I am going to 99% disregard your questions here because you went from glaringly obvious racism to covert racism, and none of your questions ask if your basic strings of logic for assumptions you built into the setting are okay. 

Since there is some extremely flawed basic logic in here, I’m going to tackle that first.

Question 1: Why did you originally title this “Pre Colombian North American Fantasy World” when you have more old world cultures than new world cultures?

A very simple, straightforward question. The actual content of the setting is what made me retitle it.

If you want to write a North American fantasy setting… why are there so many old world cultures represented here? 

Old world: - Greece (as a societal myth; see next point) - Byzantine - Turkey - Norse - Central European - Persian - Arabic - Indian - Bengali - African (which, let’s be honest, should be heavily broken up into multiple peoples) - Oceana (which, again, should be heavily broken up into multiple peoples)

New world: - Mississippian - Iroquois  - Numunuu - Hopi - Zuni - Maya - Aztec - Inca (maybe? not mentioned as having their own place on the continent, but one of your questions mentions them) - Navajo (maybe? See above)

To account for respecting Africa and Oceana, I’m going to make African cultures count as 3 and Oceanic cultures count as 5, and this is a purposeful lowball.

Old World: 17 New World: 9

It’s a giant discrepancy, especially if your attempt is writing an exclusively New World fantasy. And this is bare minimum old world, considering the fact I tried to limit myself to peoples who would be more likely to interact with the heavy Mediterranean/Alexander the Great’s Empire centricity. 

Question 2: Why does there have to be a Greece analogue?

I haven’t spoken about this topic at length on this blog, but Greek worship in the Western world is a very carefully crafted white supremacy based mythos that was created to prop up European “Excellence” and actually erases the reality of Greece as a peoples.

Cultural evolutionism is a theory that states the (assumed-white-European) Greeks were superior because of their philosophy, their abstract art, and their mathematics. When many of these concepts were refined in Egypt (African, aka Black), or the Arab world (aka brown), but white Europeans did not want to admit any of this so they instead painted everything as coming out of their ideas of Greece lock stock and barrel. 

The theory also ignored Iroquois science, Plains and Southwestern abstract art, and generally everything about North America, because the theory was designed to move the goalposts and paint North America as something it wasn’t, just to make Europeans feel okay taking it over and “bringing it to civilization.”

This theory was still taught in force up until the 1970s, and is still a major school of anthropological thought to this day (and still taught in some universities), so it is still very much influencing the Western world.

While the theory itself is only from the 1800s, it had long-growing roots in white/ noble Europe’s attempt to prop up European “Excellence” during its multiple periods of colonization, from the Crusades, onwards. You can see it in the copious amount of art produced during the Renaissance.

Europeans ignored the sheer amount of settling and travel that happened within Greece and Rome, and you’ll notice how many Renaissance paintings depict Greek philosophers as white, teaching other white people. In reality, we have no idea what their skin tone was, and they could have taught a huge variety of different skin tones. But it was appealing to European nobility to have people like them be the founders of all things great and “advanced”, so they invested huge amounts of time and money in creating this myth.

(Note: I said their nobility, not their population. People of colour existed en masse in Europe, but the nobility has been downplaying that for an exceptionally long time)

Greece took over most of the old world. It borrowed and stole from hundreds of cultures, brought it all back, and was assigned credit for it. White Europeans didn’t want to admit that the concept of 0 came from the Arabs, the pythagorean theorem came from Egypt, etc, and since Greece won, detailed records of how they were perceived and what they stole are long lost. It’s only glaring when they took from other global powers.

Question 3: Why would you pick totally different biomes to mix in here?

Turkey and the Mississippi are very, very different places when it comes to what can grow and what sort of housing is required, which makes them on the difficult side to merge together. They relied on different methods of trade, as well (boats vs roads), and generally just don’t line up.

The fact you pick such a specific European powerhouse—the Byzantine Empire—to mix into your “not European” fantasy world is… coming back to my above point about Greek (and Roman) worship in the West. Why can’t a fantasy world set in North America be enough on its own? Why does it need Europe copycats?

Question 4: Why are you missing a variety of nomads and Plains peoples?

Nomadic plains peoples were a thing across the globe, from the Cree to the Blackfoot to the Mongols. You have hyperfocused on settled peoples (with only one nomadic group named in both new and old world), which… comes across as very odd to me, because it is, again, very European sounding. That continent was about the only one without major populations that were nomadic, and if you look at European history, nomadic peoples were very highly demonized because of the aforementioned Mongols. 

Cultural evolutionism also absolutely hated nomadic peoples, which is where we get the term “savage” (hunter-gatherers, nomads) and “barbarian” (horticulturalists and pastoralists, the latter nomadic); these were “lesser cultures” that needed to settle down and be brought to “civilization” (European agriculture), and nothing good could ever come out of them.

Meanwhile, in North America, nomadic peoples took up a very large portion of landmass, produced a huge amount of culture and cultural diffusion, and mostly ignoring them while trying to create a “fantasy North America” is, well, like I said: odd. 

General Discussion Points

My suggestion for you is to write a fantasy Mediterranean region. Completely serious, here.

With the kinds of dynamics you are attracted to—the empires, the continental powers, the fact you keep trying to make Europe analogues in North America—you will do a much, much more respectful job by going into a really richly researched Mediterranean fantasy world than attempting to mix Europe and North America together in ways that show European traits (settled peoples, agriculture, a single empire dominating the whole culture and being viewed as superior) as the default.

I legitimately cannot see anything in here that feels like it comes from North America, or at the very least, treats non-sensationalized peoples (aka, those outside the Maya and Mississippian region) with respect. 

It falls into Maya worship, which is a very sensationalized topic and is fuelled by racist fascination, assuming no Indigenous peoples could be that smart. 

It falls into settled peoples worship, which is something that has cultural evolutionism roots because under such a model only settled peoples with agriculture are “civilized.”

It falls into placing Western concepts (public schools, large cities, the ilk) as the ideal, better solution, compared to methods better suited to horticulturalists, pastoralists, and hunter-gatherers and letting those teaching methods be respected.

There is no shame in writing inside Europe

The Mediterranean region contains Indigenous peoples, contains a huge diversity of skin tones, contains empires, contains democracy/a variety of governments, and in general contains every aspect of what you’re trying to create without playing god with a continent that did not evolve the way you’re trying to make it. 

A Mediterranean fantasy world would still be a departure from “fantasy world 35″ as I like to call it, because it would be different from the vaguely Germanic/ French/ Norse fantasy worlds that are Tolkien ripoffs. You can dig beyond the whitewashed historical revisions and write something that actually reflects the region, and get all the fun conflicts you want.

You don’t need to go creating a European/North American blend to “be diverse.” You can perfectly respectfully write inside Europe and have as much variety in peoples as you can write in a non-European setting. Europe is not the antithesis to diversity.

North America developed a certain way for a reason. It had the required fauna, space, resources, and climate to produce what it created. The old world developed a certain way for its own reasons, based off its own factors in the same categories.

You’re not really going to get them to blend very easily, and if you did, the fact there is such a strong European way-of-life preference (by picking places that mirror European society on the surface) makes me raise an eyebrow. It’s subtle, but very much there, and the fact you are ignorant to it shows me you still need to do more work before you go writing North American Indigenous Peoples.

Writing in Europe isn’t the problem, here. Writing a whitewashed, mythologized, everyone-not-white-is-a-caricature, ahistorical “Europe” is the problem. And you cannot fix this problem by simply painting European ways of life a different skin tone when the setting isn’t European. In fact, you’re perpetuating harm by doing that, because you are recreating the cultural evolutionism that calls anything you can find in Europe “better.” Indigenous cultures were vastly different from Europe, even if they shared similar trappings. 

Let North America exist without trying to shoehorn its most famous peoples into European analogues.

~ Mod Lesya

[controlsroom]

Safety and security electronic camera system: what you ought to understand

A safety and security electronic camera system is an cctv camera system system with video cameras in various places to safeguard personal property from criminal activities. They function by recording residential property pictures on the video camera and then transferring them to displays for real-time feeds.

One of the most common are, for example, wireless safety electronic camera systems. They tape video clip yet send it wirelessly instead of with cable televisions. This allows them to be put virtually anywhere without having to fret about running cords to it. Some wireless cameras also come furnished with built-in movement detectors to check their building from any kind of location that has web access.

What are safety video cameras?

- Security electronic cameras are electronic surveillance systems with electronic cameras in various places to safeguard private property from criminal task.

- They function by recording residential or commercial property photos on the camera and after that transmitting them to monitors for live feeds.

- There are 2 kinds of security camera systems - analogue, which relays a video feed by utilizing a TV set across the country, and digital, which tape-records images electronically.

- Digital systems also have advantages over analogue systems because they don't lose signal toughness when transferred over large ranges.

- Wireless safety and security cam systems function in a similar way as well as have built-in movement detectors so one can check their property from any place with a web link.

What are their advantages?

There are a number of benefits connected with having actually surveillance equipment installed at your service location.

A reliable criminal offense prevention technique:

If made use of correctly, video clip monitoring can help prevent theft and also criminal damage by keeping potential crooks out of your center. Once they see electronic cameras installed on structure outsides and trained on parking lots, numerous will simply go in other places for their criminal tasks.

Video monitoring systems offer proof:

Video clip recording is a superb method for courts to identify suspects or confirm statements offered by witnesses throughout tests. When you have a lawful dispute, the video camera can tell your side of the tale.

It aids maximize efficiency:

Lots of organizations are beginning to realize that video clip security systems don't simply secure against criminal activity as well as defend against responsibility; they likewise aid managers monitor workers as well as monitor office efficiency. For example, some companies make use of cams to clock employees as they can be found in and also out of structures or keep track of for how long it takes them to obtain securely from one location to another during functioning hours.

Video clip tracking systems can enhance employee spirits:

Staff members that understand that their company is doing every little thing possible to guarantee their safety and security often tend to feel much safer themselves when on the job. They additionally feel extra valued by supervisors that use security tools as part of a general initiative to enhance performance and also cut costs.

Boosted customer fulfillment:

Video keeping an eye on innovation has shown valuable in preserving a high level of customer support. For instance, many business currently use security electronic cameras to monitor cash registers or aid consumers discover the items they are trying to find when lost in significant shopping centers as well as department stores. Safety and security video cameras likewise protect against worker theft and misbehaviour that could upset customers (such as quarrelling between workers given to the general public).

Governing conformity:

As services significantly rely on revenue from electronic commerce, federal government regulators have stepped up their enforcement initiatives pertaining to privacy legal rights and information defense. With surveillance cameras systems, you can make sure that you're satisfying all of the regulations and regulations made to protect your organization procedures while likewise protecting your clients' personal privacy.

[thisismeelephanttrying]

After reading the book, I feel fortunate enough to across his heritage of that lifetime. He must have a beautiful heart in conclusion of a floating soul in a heavy world.

"In all his writing, the world of concrete objects carries its full common sense of pleasure and hardship, of beauty and blight. At the same time, his philosophical turn of mind involves him in a real struggle of ideas, one usually carried on by closed mings and obscured by fuzzy words. This struggle pits the "materialists" with their rational methods against the "idealists" with their intuitive or spiritual insights."

"Or rather he tells us all over again that the true battle lies within us and calmly transfers the struggle to the slopes of an interior mountain which we must climb. Most of us find that a harder task than carrying on a rousing battle with an ideological enemy."

"And neither of them took cover behind the convenient shrubbery of the "ineffable"; words brought their trials and their triumphs. Daumal's work follows Nerval's in its resolve to fuse body and spirit, speech and sleep, logic and intuition, in order to enter a "second life".

'"Nerval, however, prepared himself increasingly to disappear for good into that other world, and finally hung himself in a Paris alley. Daumal, somewhat less afflicted, or blessed, with night vision, resolutely returned to this world, his eyes seeking light again, his mind struggling to tell what he had seen."

"We must first become human before seeking anything superior."

"The Westerner tends by tradition to think of grasping the meaning of life through certain crucial experiences - death, grief, danger, passionate love, sudden success, catastrophe. Existentialism has aptly termed them "extreme situations", in reference to which we discover ourselves - whence our attraction to the adventurous life, war, scientific progress, romantic love. Having cast his mind deep into Indian philosophy, Daumal senses that the reality and meaning of the world can come to us at every moment without having to rely wholly on extreme situations to wrench us into awareness. Action, as has been pointed out many times, is for Westerners both stimulant and drug. The four stages of Hindi initiation, from the Vedas to the Upinshads, and the complementary disciplines of Yoga and Zen, prepare us not for a career of great exploits to be recalled in old age, but for a life increasingly dedicated to "the teaching which cuts through illusion."

"He understood very early that the basic act of consciousness is a negation, a dissociation of the I from the exterior world of not -I. Meaningful perception reduces and refines the I, withdraws it from the world into an increasingly strict identity or subjectivity. Then, however, beginning a vibratory rhythm which must follow if self-annihilation is not to result, the pure consciousness expands again into all things, experiences the world subjectively once more, loses itself in the mystery of creation."

Asceticism

"Man achieves inner spiritual progress by his own efforts, by a human discipline that is not a gift of god and can be learned from other men further advanced on the path of knowledge. Teaching and initiation are central to all religions and cultures. Within a system where no truth comes by divine revelation but only by human attainment, the sense of a tradition of knowledge comes to support the entire structure of life.... And thus Daumal spoke un-flinchingly of a Doctrine, meaning not a narrow set of rituals or dogmas, not art for art's sake in aesthetics, not a fixed philosophical position, but a number of paths leading to the same goal: a higher form of life."

Peradam

"Mount Analogue, the novel, has the force of a curving and uncurving lens for our minds. Through it, we can glimpse that "other world" of which Nerval spoke, and Spinoza and Socrates. And yet it is hard to look through it, for so limpid a substance almost escapes one's attention even when it is right under one's eyes. One could conceivably read ever word of the book without seeing a thing."

"And from deep within me, like a bubble, rose the admission that my life had become all too stagnant lately. Thus, when I opened the letter, I could not be sure whether it affected me like a breath of fresh air or like a disagreeable draught."

"I had written in substance that in the mythic tradition the Mountain is the bond between Earth and Sky. Its solitary summit reaches the sphere of eternity, and its base spreads out in manifold foothills into the world of mortals. It is the way by which man can raise himself to the divine, and by which the divine reveals itself to man."

" ... a general discussion of symbols, which I divided into two classes: those subject to law of proportion, and those subject only to the law of scale as well.... "Proportion" concerns the relations between dimensions of a structure, "scale" the relations between these dimensions and those of the human body. An equilateral triangle, symbol of the Trinity, has exactly the same value no matter what its dimensions; it has no "scale". On the other hand consider an exact model of a cathedral a few inches in height. This object will always convey, through its shape and proportions, the intellectual meaning of the original structure, even if some details have to be examined under a magnifying glass. But it will no longer produce anything like the same emotion or the same response: it is no longer "to scale". And what defines the scale of the ultimate symbolic mountain - The one I propose to call Mount Analogue- is its inaccessibility to ordinary human approaches. .......

For a mountain to play the role of Mount Analogue, I concluded, its summit must be inaccessible but its base accessible to human beings as nature has made them. It must be unique and it must exist geographically. The door to the invisible must be visible."

" You understand that you and I have such grave decisions to make, with such a far-reaching consequences for our lives, that we can't start by taking shots in the dark. We'll have to get to know each other. Today we can walk around together, talk, eat, and be silent together. Later I believe we'll have the opportunity to act and suffer together. All is that necessary to "make someone's acquaintance" as they say."

"Up to that point I had always spotted those second-hand Satans. They were so naive and always tried the same tricks, poor devils. Their entire approach consisted of variations on a few fundamental falsehoods every one knew, such as:"To obey the letter of the rules in only for imbeciles who cannot understand their spirit". Or :"With my health, alas, I cannot attempt such hardships."

" Life dealt with me a little the way an organism treats a foreign body: it was obviously trying either to encyst me or to expel me, and for my own part I yearned for "something else" .... I readjusted little by little to contemporary life, but only externally, it's true. For, when you come down to it, I can't bring myself to fall in with this monkey-cage agitation which people so dramatically call life. ..... Fake, all fake. I can't say one of those cards: here's a truth, one small but certain truth. In the whole show there's nothing but mystery and error. Where one ends, the other begins."

Since Logos is quite crazy in his assumption because everything was merely made in his mind. He is as if a scientist making a hypothesis totally out of intuition and initiated a whole journey to test it; that is the reason why I found this description pretty cool "We all sat stunned by the audacity and logical power of this deduction. Everyone kept silent and everyone was convinced."

"The path to our highest desires often lies through the undesirable."

" If I were to tell this story the way history is usually written or the way each of us recalls his own past, which means recording only the most glorious moments and inventing a new continuity for them, I should omit these little details and say that our eight stout hearts drummed from morning to night in time with a single all-encompassing desire - or some such lie. But the flame which kindles desire and illuminates thought never burned for more than a few seconds at a stretch. The rest of the time we tried to remember it."

I do not know why but this author did have a sense of humor with all of his mockery and ironicness.

"Some people say they have always existed and will exist forever. Others say they are the dead. And others say that, as a sword has its scabbard or a foot its imprint, every living man has in the mountain his Hollow-Man, which he will seek out in death."

"No one has ever been able to catch it, for the tiniest tremor of fear anywhere close by alerts it, and it disappears into the rock. Even if one desires it, one is a little afraid of possessing it, and it vanishes. .... It's like looking for night in broad daylight."

"But in our relations with the superior beings of Mount Analogue, what would be suitable for barter? What did we possess of real value? With what could we pay for the new knowledge we were seeking? Would we have to accept it as charity? or on credit?"

"At the same time as we decided to leave our heavy equipment on the coast, we were also preparing to leave behind the artist, the inventor, the doctor, the scholar, the writer. Beneath the old disguises new men and new women began to show the tips of their ears. Men and women, and all kinds of other creatures as well."

"In the mountains a man becomes very attentive to any sign indicating the presence of one of his fellow men. That distant smoke was particularly moving for us, a greeting sent us by strangers climbing ahead of us on the same trail. For from now on the trail linked our fate to theirs, even if we were never to meet. Bernard knew nothing about them."

Rhododendron

"At the end I want to speak at length of one of the basic laws of Mount Analogue. To reach the summit, one must proceed from encampment to encampment. But before setting out for the next refuge, one must prepare those coming after to occupy the place one is leaving. Only after having prepared them can one go on up. That is why, before setting out for a new refuge, we had to go back down in order to pass on our knowledge to other seekers..."

"Probably Rene Daumal would have made clear what he meant by this work of preparation. For in his daily life he devoted himself to preparing many minds for the difficult voyage toward Mount Analogue. The title of his last chapter was to be: "And you, what do you seek?.... To face it directly is to strike against the deepest layer of being which sleeps within us, and then one must listen painfully and lucidly to the sound it sends back."

"By our calculations - thinking of nothing else - by our desires - abandoning every other hope - by our efforts - renouncing all bodily comfort - we gained entry into this new world. So it seemed to us. But we learned later that if we were able to approach Mount Analogue, it was because the invisible doors of that invisible country had been opened for us by those who guard them. The cock crowing in the milky dawn thinks its call raises the sun; the child howling in a closed room thinks its cries cause the door to open. But the sun and the mother follow courses set by the laws of their own beings. Those who see us even though we cannot see them opened the door for us, answering our puerile calculations, our steady desires, and our awkward efforts with a generous welcome."

[trek-tracks]

Trek Book Club: The Romulan Way

So I read The Romulan Way by Diane Duane and Peter Morwood! Overall, it was quite enjoyable, but I have some conflicting feelings about it. (Please come discuss it with me!)

(Spoilers Ahead)

This is an unusual book, as it features an original character as the main character (Lt. Terise Haleakala, posing as a Romulan head servant in order to better understand and report on their civilization), with Bones being asked to check up on her to make sure that she hasn’t fully “gone Romulan” after a two-year hiatus in contact. To get himself into Romulan space, he needs to get himself captured by Romulan officers who have a specific grudge against the officers of the Enterprise. He also needs to check up on Terise and get out before his automatic death sentence is painfully carried out, either in a preapproved “scenic execution pit” or behind the scenes by a Romulan willing to pay the highest price for his head. Of course, we don’t find out about this mission until much later on in the book, leaving us to assume for much of it that he’s just been captured, as usual.

The good:

Bones being Bones. Diane Duane and Peter Morwood’s Bones is great; unsurprisingly, they really understand both him and the Trek universe. His first scene in the ship, communicating with the Sulamid (shades of the “Planet Forbidden” exchange in Wrath of Khan) and then being a total badass with the Romulan leader and being as self-sacrificing as usual, even if it also turns out to be in service of a greater plan, was excellent. (There was a LOT of collateral damage here for a covert one-person mission. You’d think Bones would be even more perturbed about that than he is, but that would have spoiled the reveal of his purpose in the narrative).

Terise is a pretty solid new character; fleshed-out, interesting, conflicted, resourceful, successful, and refreshingly, a female character not there for any romantic purpose. She’d be cool to follow in her further adventures.

Terise’s immediate understanding of Bones’ “gentleness,” and his dislike of antagonism other than a shield:

Bones getting the undercover agent to break purely by purposefully being as annoying as possible.

Some good banter:

McCoy being the one to think of coating the Horta Starfleet officer’s body in Teflon so that the oxygen wouldn’t hurt him, because of course he creates more than one healing technology for this completely out-of-the-box species using duct tape and a dream.

Naraht (the Horta officer) in general, especially bantering with Bones who’s mother-henning him to eat more rocks so that he can grow up big and strong.

H’daen, Terise’s house lord and a complicated Romulan with a conscience - and numerous Romulans who don’t all behave the same way.

Bones using the Romulan filibuster method to stay his execution for as long as possible, saving his own life by ranting about everything under the sun, from criticizing the hypocrisies embedded in Romulan culture to discoursing on mint juleps, which is just so Bones that it’s amazing.

Random Sarek namedrop during one of the chapters on Romulan history, described as a “grimly handsome gentleman.”

This WAY too prophetic line about government:

“You have your own worlds to save.” Bones: “All of them.” <3

The middle:

The Romulan backstory was intriguing and very fleshed-out, but I also flipped forward to see how long the chapter was every time we went back to it, because for a story involving a heck of a lot of death and war, it was fairly dry. I wanted to know it, but I also wanted to keep reading the main story.

The “enhancing Bones’ brain with a chip so that he’s a recording device” was odd, but kind of fun, and did explain a lot of things. I enjoyed his musings about and discomfort with it. Felt like payback for Spock’s Brain and the remote control. I think they could have gotten into the implications of it for the character more, as he has a lot of trauma surrounding people messing with his brain, especially telepaths - which means that a mission like that would probably bring it to the surface. Though this didn’t really decrease my enjoyment of the novel, I kind of prefer when beloved characters succeed on their own attributes, rather than random technology enhancements (this is not a criticism of assistive tech at all - it’s just more narratively interesting when Jim Kirk bluffs his way out of a scenario using intuition than “Jim Kirk ate phlebonium and wins because he can now jump 20 feet in the air”).

The “hmmm…”:

I get that they wanted Bones to record a Romulan trial and get a feel for the Senate while he was there, which necessitated him to stay for the “trial,” even though the reasoning felt a bit tenuous as an excuse for a dramatic escape. I’m not sure I understand the purpose of essentially exploding the trial hall and killing a bunch of Romulans as Bones’ exit plan. Wasn’t this supposed to be a relatively covert operation, for Bones to check up on their spy’s mental health? I guess it took all suspicion off her, but it was a hell of a way to stage it.

I love Bones. He’s 100% my fave. But I really, really missed his interactions with Kirk and Spock when he’s totally on his own, and the fact that, other than accompanying him to the initial meeting to plan the incursion, we have no idea what the other two are doing. My favourite long-form Trek fic, Equilibrium, separates the trio for two-thirds of the story, but they’re all still very much in each other’s thoughts and influenced by what the others would do. I got a feeling of almost total separation from the book, other than Bones wryly thinking that, if something a Starfleet officer said as a compliment led to his current predicament, he’d take Spock’s insults any time (and thinking about Spock every time a Romulan or Romulan in disguised raised an eyebrow). His interactions with Terise and Naraht are good, but nothing beats the chemistry of the Triumvirate.

The pre-epilogue ending fell flat for me. Though it was cool that their rescuer was the aunt of the Romulan Commander from The Enterprise Incident, the space boss battle felt really unnecessary; if the story is about Bones and Terise, the climax is now basically something that essentially takes neither of their skills to resolve, so the main characters are either not on “screen,” or are just kind of hanging out.

Plus, the introduction of Ensign I Love Danger (the ironically-named Luks) only a few pages before he sacrificed himself made it fairly difficult to care deeply about his heroic sacrifice in and of itself. He worked as an analogue to a young Kirk, and maybe we could have explored that more in Bones’ reaction to his presence and death. Maybe that seemed too obvious to the writers, like it would have been hitting us over the head with the 2x4 of symbolism to make that any more clear. Really, it just made me miss the Bones-Jim dynamic, and felt like Ensign Ex Machina, without a greater thematic relation to the plot. Yes, I know sometimes in life things just happen in sequence, but that’s not as satisfying to read.

Leonard “Edward” McCoy gave me the same visceral reaction as James R(iberius) Kirk, even though I realize that both of these things happened before Horatio and Tiberius showed up, and I know Horatio is beta canon at best (from Provenance of Shadows, etc.) I just like it better.

Have you read the book? What did you think? Let me know!