#such variety of incorrectly labeled works

[iscratchdoors]

the amount of fic tags on ao3 that are literally just lies

[staff]

A message from a few of the trans staff at Tumblr & Automattic:

We want trans people, and LGBTQ+ people broadly, to feel welcome on Tumblr, in part because we as trans people at Tumblr and Automattic want it to be a space where we ourselves feel included. We want to feel like this is a platform that supports us and fights for our safety. Tumblr is made brighter and more vibrant by your presence, and the LGBTQ+ folks who help run it are fighting all the time for this, for you, internally. 

A few days ago, Matt Mullenweg (the CEO of Automattic, Tumblr’s parent company) responded to a user’s ask about an account suspension in a way that negatively affected Tumblr’s LGBTQ+ community. We believe that Matt's response to this ask and his continued commentary has been unwarranted and harmful. Tumblr staff do not comment on moderation decisions as a matter of policy for a variety of reasons—including the privacy of those involved, and the practicalities of moderating thousands of reports a day. The downside of this policy is that it is very easy for rumors and incorrect information about actions taken by our Trust & Safety team to spread unchecked. Given this, we want to clarify a few different pieces of this situation:

The reality of predstrogen's suspension was not accurately conveyed, and made it seem like we were reaching for opportunities to ban trans feminine people on the platform. This is not the case. The example comment shared in the post linked above does not meet our definition of a realistic threat of violence, and was not the deciding factor in the account suspension.

Matt thereafter failed to recognize the harm to the community as a result of this suspension. Matt does not speak on behalf of the LGBTQ+ people who help run Tumblr or Automattic, and we were not consulted in the construction of a response to these events.

Last year, the "mature" and "sexual themes" community labels were erroneously applied to some users' posts. An outside team of contractors tasked with applying community labels to posts were responsible for this larger trend of mislabeling trans-related content. When our Trust & Safety team discovered this issue (thanks largely to reports from the community), we removed the contracted team’s ability to apply community labels and added more oversight to ensure it does not happen again. In the Staff post about this, LGBTQ+ staff pushed to be more transparent but were overruled by leadership. The termination of a contractor mentioned in the original ask response was for an unrelated incident which was incorrectly attributed to this case. We regret that the mislabeling ever happened, and the negative impact it has had on the trans community on Tumblr. 

Transition timelines are not against our community guidelines, and weren’t a factor considered by the moderation team when discussing suspensions and subsequent appeals. We do not take action against content that is related to transitioning or trans bodies unless it includes violations of the Community Guidelines.

When it comes to the experience of trans folks on Tumblr encountering transphobic content, and interacting with bigoted users, we understand and share your frustrations. Tumblr’s policies, and Automattic’s policies, are written to ensure freedom of speech and expression. We prohibit harassment as defined in our Community Guidelines, but we know that this policy falls short of protecting users from the wider scope of harmful speech often used against LGBTQ+ and other marginalized people.

Going forward, Tumblr is taking the following actions:

Prioritizing anti-harassment features that will empower users to more effectively protect themselves from harassment.

Building more internal tooling for us as Staff to proactively identify and mitigate instances of harassment.

Reviewing which of the tags frequently used by the trans community are blocked, and working to make them available next week.

We’re sorry for how this all transpired, and we’re actively fighting to make our voices heard more and prevent something like this from happening again in the future. We know firsthand that having to deal with situations like this as a Tumblr user is difficult, particularly as a member of an already frequently targeted and harassed community. We know it will take time to regain your trust, and we’re going to put in the work to rebuild it.

We appreciate the space we have been given to express our concerns and dissent, and we are thankful that Matt’s (and Automattic’s) strong commitment to freedom of expression has facilitated it.

We will continue to fight to make Tumblr safe for us all.

— This statement was authored by multiple trans employees of Tumblr and Automattic.

[fluidity-stupidity]

What is it like to work with Archetypes?

The first thing we need to discuss when talking about archetypes is what is the definition and where does the term originate.

As defined by Carl Jung an archetype is a primitive mental image inherited from the earliest human ancestors and supposed to be present in the collective unconscious.

For example, in the archetype 'The Mother', we all most likely picture or get reminded of a maternal figure, someone who we look/looked up to as a femininely presenting, nurturing and sustaining individual that helps, yet also brought a sense of consequences when we misbehaved.

In another example, 'Kairos' as an archetype is something or someone that comes to mind, as a thought or as an image, and represents that silver lining in a cloud - the in-between of two or more things, that center of a multi-circle Venn-diagram.

The most important thing to get started is to remember what exactly one does not want, but what one needs in their spiritual practice - or maybe you are coming into this from a non-spiritual standpoint - and you delve in to which archetype fits your needs the most. If you need more confidence in confrontation the archetype 'The Warrior' may be needed, however, if it's being able to choose what words to use or what tools one needs in situations one needs to be more upfront the archetype 'The Sword' may be a good idea to incorporate into one's life, or maybe it's something a little more, yet less, thought about - the archetype 'The Sun' may be in use here, as you might need more sunlight for the Vitamin D, more fresh air (metaphorically or physically), going outside more and moving your body physically, feeling warmth when your cold - the list goes on.

I'll take myself for example, I have two archetype altar spaces, if you remember from my previous text-post about Altar Types I have an altar space for the archetype of the zodiac sign of Scorpio, I also have one for the archetype of 'The Gatherer'. The Scorpio archetype is about passion, loving what one is doing whole-heartedly, being dark and mysterious, as a Scorpio stellium, for the longest time, I had a hard time believing I was supposed to be this hermited, Draco Malfoy-esk, snob, but delving deeper into astrologer, and especially my own astrology chart (not just the neo-natal), helped me come to a lot terms that I've needed to learn about myself. My moon in Scorpio alongside my Mercury (in Retrograde) in Scorpio helped me make sense of me denying myself of being a perfectionist, when I clearly was; and my Pars Fortuna in Scorpio alongside my Sun and Moon in Scorpio helped me figure out that I could get more from a lot more sources so long as I kept my Venus in Sagittarius (my other stellium) in mind.

Moving on to my other archetype altar, 'The Gatherer', came to mind after creating my Scorpio Archetype altar space. I have always had a hard time keeping hobbies, switching from acrylic painting to weaving, to wanting to learn long-boarding to swimming, to wanting to learn divination to trying to create perfumes - having never really stuck with one hobby, I labeled myself as a gatherer rather than a hunter, since I've collected so many materials to create all of these new hobbies. This is something I needed to keep in mind when going about my day-to-day life. I needed to stop gathering. Archetypes are not just the positives, it's also the negatives and in-betweens of a concrete collective concept that typically pre-dates certain eras of humanity, because if you think about the archetype 'The Fruit', you can essentially include the technology brand Apple products alongside things like the fruit bowl (variety), or fruition (the blooming or ideas), you can also include rotten/rotting fruits in the archetype or the bud that bloom the fruit in the beginning.

There really is no way to get archetypes incorrectly when setting up altar spaces or using them in psychological senses/terms. If you wanted to work with the archetype 'The Ouroboros' you might incorporate snake/dragon-like imagery into the altar space, or with the archetype 'The Crone' you might make knitted pieces of clothing that can be seen as devotional outfits/jewelry, the archetype 'Aletheia' you may incorporate statues of divine individuals like Zeus, Titania, Adrestia, or other divine individuals that represent/rule over truth into your altar space, or perhaps the colour 'red' or 'the reddening' as an archetype by remembering colour associations especially if one needs to remember what one is passionate about, or knowing it's okay to get angry when one has been denied their anger in the past.

These altar spaces are meant to be long-lasting, yet temporary. As we grow and learn and progress in our lives, we remember these things better and more clearly with time. Creating small boxes to literally and metaphorically shelve these for later will help grow as a person, remember witchcraft is meant to better one's self.

[i-cast-teatus-deletus]

Post-surgical nutrition is not one of my real areas of interest for this blog, for a lot of reasons. For example, as surgeries go, top surgery isn't a particularly invasive surgery and the recovery time isn't particularly long. Nutrition is also a somewhat complicated topic because there's no one-size-fits-all solution and trying to be specific enough to be useful but general enough to cover even part of the spectrum of possible diets is pretty difficult.

This is a moderately long article with a lot to think about, but I think that they managed to give a lot of very specific advice that will suit a wide variety of people. Some things that it includes that are difficult to find in a lot of articles on post-surgical nutrition are:

Written (at least partially) by an Registered Dietician who has a MHSc (Master of Health Science) as well.

Doesn't recommend any additional supplements outside of regular vitamins, a particular pet peeve of mine because of the ridiculously lax regulations on supplements in the states. I mean, maybe bromelain or arnica or whatever helps, but most likely it has zero benefit and at the risk of getting a supplement that's incorrectly labeled or intentionally tainted/cut with other products.

Wide variety of food recommendations, including some recs that would work for someone who's vegetarian or has specific food allergies. Some of the products they mention specifically are pretty cost-effective, as well.

Pretty reasonable recommendations on how to increase calorie intake after surgery without confounding the point with a bunch of diet talk.

I likely won't add anything else about post-surgical nutrition unless it's a similarly high quality source (though I am making a tag for it), but even if I don't, this is a pretty robust resource that probably doesn't need supplemented.

[purplefixations]

I love TikTok, I love autistic TikTok, it's really fun and really helpful to learn things. And while there is some incorrect stuff out there, it's the internet, that's going to happen.

But I swear to God, if I see one more person use the word 'neurodivergent' when they are really just referencing ADHD or autism, I'm going to unspeakable atrocities to their kneecaps!!

Now I like the word neurodivergent. It's a good descriptor word, and if you have more than one mental illness/mental disability it can describe your mental state more simplistically than listing out all of your stuffs. But the problem occurs when people oversimplify the meaning, or apply it to situations where it does not fit.

The word neurodivergent means any neurotype that is different than what our society considers typical. Any mental illness, learning disability, or mental disability (I list both learning and mental as two different things because they are technically different categories) is encompassed by the word neurodivergent. This means that any person who has a mental illness or mental disability can be categorized as a neurodivergent, if they so choose. This is especially useful if you want to explain why you are acting differently than they expected without disclosing your diagnosis or whatnot.

However, when people apply this word to themselves or other people without context (or explanation) can lead to a variety of issues. There are people who will so diagnose themselves as neurodivergent, which is not helpful to anyone. I am all for self-diagnosis, I will talk about specifically autism because that is something I have most experience with as an autistic person (low support needs). Now no one is entitled to be told about someone's medical needs, mental or otherwise. However, when you just say that you are nerdivergent while self diagnosing, that doesn't help you or anyone around you. Being a divergent can mean having a myriad of different disabilities or mental illnesses. And because there are so many under that label, all with different traits and accommodation needs, just saying you were near divergent does not give anyone the context they need to help you, nor does it help you in figuring out what accommodations you need or in figuring out how your brain works.

The biggest issue I see currently is people using the word neurodivergent when they really are only referencing autism or ADHD. As someone who has both of these things, I hate it when people do this. Autistic is not a bad word, labeling yourself or calling somebody who is autistic "Autistic" is not mean or insensitive. And when people use the word neurodivergent as a synonym for autistic, that is leaving out a bunch of people. I see this happen a lot with people saying things like "neurodivergent traits", which is a phrase that is incorrect. Because there are so many different labels under the umbrella label neurodivergent, all that have their own traits, there cannot be one universal nerdivergent trait. Which leads to people saying autistic traits (which is also a phrase that can be used incorrectly, as autism is a spectrum and everyone has different traits and both presents and internalizes things differently, but that is a topic for another time) and putting it under the label nerdivergent. Which leads back to my other issue of people equating the word neurodivergent with only autism, or ADHD as I've seen.

All this to say, when you're using the word neurodivergent, to describe either yourself or others, do not use it at the synonym for another disability or mental illness. It's all well and good if you want to classify yourself as nerdivergent, just remember to be mindful of that word and what it means to you. I say that I'm neurodivergent because I have a small list of mental illnesses along with autism and ADHD. And I don't often feel like listing those off and putting them out for the world to see. And even if you only have one diagnosis, self or official, you can use that word. I'm not trying to say that you shouldn't. I'm just asking people to please not equate it with just one mental illness or disability.

TLDR: please don't use the word nerdivergent as a synonym for a single mental disability or mental illness. Leaves out lots of people, and can lead to people thinking that the word you're referencing is bad.

[guiltiestlove]

I love that you’re doing simon fics! And they’re really good too

Can i ask for simon with a male s/o who’s a defense attorney? (nsfw or sfw)

(I’ll be 🫚 anon?)

After a painfully long day in court as a defense attorney, you get a little surprise from your prosecutor boyfriend.

Simon Blackquill x masc!reader ~880 words

N/SFW, MDNI !

cw/tags: reader has a penis, reader is masc, established relationship, handjob, kinda public sex, degradation if you squint

notes: i wasn’t sure whether to label this as masc!reader or male!reader tbh! i honestly havent written much from either pov (ive always worried i cant do it justice) so this is both masc and y/n has a penis which obviously can mean a variety of things gender wise lol; i hope that works anon!! im cis but i hope my writing is enjoyable for everyone and i’m happy to accommodate any specific requests (ofc not fetishization lol) i hope this makes sense! and let me know if i ever fuck up :’)

“What an absolutely excruciating day,” you thought to yourself as you walked out of the courtroom. Incorrectly submitted evidence, scheduling problems, the judge nearly falling asleep—you couldn’t be happier it was finally over. Exhausted but relieved, you made your way down the halls and up a few flights of stairs; surely your boyfriend would be milling about somewhere. Stopping for a drink at the water fountain, you mull over the events of the day.

“Can’t believe I got stuck working on a case against Winston Payne again… Simon was supposed to be on this case with me! Maybe I can try—” And as you were straightening up from your hunched position at the fountain, you felt a smack on your ass and the low voice of your boyfriend in your ear, “Evening, handsome.”

“Simon!”

You whip around, your entire face flushed in embarrassment, praying to whatever gods existed that no one else was around. Incredibly proud of himself, Simon stood laughing for a moment until he wrapped both arms around your waist leaning hips forward into you. “Hah hah hah hah! There’s no reason to be so bashful. Your case took so long that the courthouse is practically abandoned.”

You’d been so dazed you hadn’t even noticed, but there really didn’t seem to be anyone around, in fact it was quieter than you had ever heard it. You relaxed into your boyfriend’s touch, moving his hair out of his eyes and started laughing, “God, can you imagine though? People would never let it go if they saw us fooling around in the courthouse halls.” You pulled at his tie ever so slightly, pressing into him even more. “Fooling around, hm?” his tone was dripping with mischief. Staring into your lover’s eyes, it was remarkably easy to pick up on his train of thought. Getting distracted as your gaze moved to his lips, you pondered how you wanted to reply. But before you could act, Simon immediately pulled you around the hallway’s corner into a more secluded, dead-end corridor.

It was late enough that the moon’s light shone through the large window directly onto your partner, granting him more of an ethereal glow than usual. Steadily he pressed you up against the wall, leaning on you with his full body weight. While you didn’t want to feed his pride too much you couldn’t help but happily sigh and untuck his shirt just to feel his skin.

One of his hands was on the wall boxing you in while the other was stroking your cheek. His eyes were sparkling, and his mouth was now mere centimeters away from yours. “Ironic isn’t it? The more you try to resist a thought…” His free hand felt down your tie to your belt buckle, to the bulge in your pants. “…the more urgent the thought becomes.” When you felt his roaming touch end at your crotch, you inhaled sharply as your head fell back to the wall. As he lightly palmed you, you couldn’t help but provoke him in between breaths. “You’re the one… who couldn’t keep their hands off me…Been needing me that badly?”

While you were slightly nervous someone could be around somewhere, you didn’t care enough to stop this, especially not after the horrible day you’d had. And it’s not like there weren’t worse rumors about what defense attorneys and prosecutors got up to around here…

Simon’s voice brought you away from any anxiety you might have had, “Perhaps I did need you that badly.” Lazily he met your lips, his tongue immediately seeking yours. Your feet shifted as you felt him slowly unbuckle your belt. Though your mouths moved at a relatively slow pace, your kiss was filled with electricity, both of you channeling the last bouts of energy from an incredibly draining day. As Simon finally unbuttoned and unzipped your pants, you began kissing him with more hunger, biting at him, unable to resist the need for his flesh.

When his large, muscular hands finally wrapped around your cock, you were hard and dripping. He purred into your ear, “Hmph. Now who’s needy?” As he began pumping your length, you were only able to mutter curses under your breath. Every time you and Simon were intimate, it had been impossibly good. Getting drunk off each other’s touch was baked into every day one way or another, and the simplest touches from him could light your skin alive.

As he slowly moved up and down on your shaft, he spent extra attention rubbing your wet head with his thumb. “God, you feel so fucking good,” you breathe across his lips. You feel the warmth of his laugh on your face, “Hah,” as he punctuated it with a kiss.

You suddenly groaned as you felt him remove his hand from your pants. “Fuck you’re such a tease, Simon,” you mutter, as you try to clammor for his neck with your mouth. Smug as ever, he quickly zips and buttons you slacks back. “Hmph. The sooner we get home, the sooner we can resume… Surely you can resist such thoughts for a little while longer?” Not having the energy to quip back, you buckled your belt faster than you ever have in your life. Hurriedly taking Simon’s hand, you practically fly out of the courthouse.

[604designresearchharriet]

Week 8 Tutorial

Elements

Constrast 

Emphasis 

Hierarchy 

Variety

Unity 

Continue to iterate 

No blog = fail 

Blog needs no gaps 

Evidence of the work 

Research on the blog in and your work 

In class activities and SDL need to be on the blog 

Lots of different types of research 

Synthesis, integration, bringing it all together 

Take a position 

Ingredients, how much have you cooked it?

Contextual enquiry

 Some of your slides were incorrectly labelled e.g. you are the creator, the creation is your work, and everyone else is part of the creative community section. 

Good to see your draft poster ideation coming together on one slide. Foreground the ideas: what do these objects mean to you and why? 

More could have been made of your own work eg. reflecting on the ideas and themes that drive it (beyond the material, media), and the slides could have provided much more detail on your own work at the start. 

There is some good reflection on ideas and contexts (eg. Hoch, Schneeman, etc) and this could also have been pushed further e.g. art/design and activism, social change, etc. 

Research Skills:

There is no map of the creative industries showing clear links to you (eg. as we did in Miro in class). 

Critical Analysis:

Slides needed more extensive captioning. 

Good to see a reference list but also very hard to read. 

Synthesis, integration:

There are interesting ideas and contexts operating here, and which propel your work further, well done. 

This was a key strength and will serve you well in future. 

Some of the creators selected appear to be more directly relevant than others e.g. your influences across art and music seem more conceptually and contextually relevant than the NZ designers you profiled. 

What are you going to research about this object further? 

History, oral histories 

Leads on from contextual enquiry 

What research tools are more appropriate for each object 

(Do this for all 20 elements) 

What do I have to say about the research as a response? 

Then bring all this together to write about it further, flow chart rubrics 1-4 

[genrxonlineca1]

Can zithromax overdose provoke risk? Explain

Azithromycin (Zithromax) is received to behave toward certain bacterial ailments, such as pneumonia; bronchitis, (STD) sexually transmitted diseases, and diseases that are correlated with ears, sinuses, lungs, skin, throat, and reproductive organs. Azithromycin also is acquired to handle or remove transmitted Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) infection, this is a type of lung disease that frequently influences people with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Azithromycin comes in a classification of treatments named macrolide antibiotics. It functions by suppressing the progression or development of bacteria in the body.

It is not worthwhile to take an antibiotic medication like azithromycin if you have a severe infection like influenza, chilliness, or a variety of viral illnesses. Using antibiotics when they have not been required thrives your danger of acquiring an infection or disease later that impedes antibiotic procedure. If you require to purchase this medicine you can directly buy Zithromax 1000 mg online. 

Zithromax is a powerful antibiotic for Bacterial Infections

Azithromycin comes under a macrolide antibiotic that prevents bacterial protein synthesis, and quorum-sensing and decreases the proliferation of biofilm. Building up effectively in our cells, especially phagocytes, it is delivered with increased attention to regions that are tainted, as signified in rapid plasma discharge and comprehensive tissue diffusion. Azithromycin is inferred for dermal, respiratory, urogenital, and varied bacterial infections, and exerts immunomodulatory impacts in lasting inflammatory diseases, containing diffuse panbronchiolitis, rosacea, post-transplant, and bronchitis. 

Azithromycin side effects 

Here are some of the most well-known azithromycin side effects an oral capsule can include:

diarrhea

nausea

abdominal (belly) pain

vomiting

headache

If these significances are modest, they might go off within a few days or a couple of weeks. If they’re more hazardous or don’t go away, immediately consult with a doctor or pharmacist.

Azithromycin works in 

For handling most infections, azithromycin should operate within a few days after consuming it and you will be realizing it within a few days, for nicer outcomes you should have obtained your full course of medication.

Azithromycin is an antibiotic that should be obtained one time a day unless you're putting up with it by injection. Begin to obtain your medication at a similar time each day.

The widespread Azithromycin dose is 500mg once a day taken for 3 to 10 days depending on the type of infection being ministered.

Azithromycin is usually put up once a day. Strive to acquire it at a uniform time for each day.

If your physician has selected azithromycin capsules, you should put up with them at least 1 hour before just picking up your food or 2 hours after eating.

Precautions to be taken 

Using antibiotics incorrectly can direct trusted Sources to the development of drug-resistant burdens of bacteria in our bodies, demonstrating that antibiotics no longer function against them. All of this is named AB (antibiotic resistance)

When you are selecting azithromycin or any additional antibiotic, people should conform to the information given on the label extremely carefully.

Put up with the whole course of antibiotics as the physician notifies, even when you proceed to feel good.

Do not attempt to receive antibiotics like azithromycin without an adequate prescription. There are different types of bacteria that can be treated with different antibiotics.

Don't let anyone else use your antibiotics, and make sure you keep them with you at all times.

Do not put up with antibiotics on a various dosing list than the one a specialist prescribes.

Immediately call upon a doctor if azithromycin side effects happen. If you notice that you are having an allergic reaction, such as breathing difficulties, call the emergency room immediately.

How to buy Zithromax 500 mg online? 

Zithromax 500 mg is one of the best pills received to deal with specific bacterial behavior and also these capsules are effortlessly available anywhere at decent convenient prices. It is possible to quickly purchase Zithromax 500 mg online if you do not find this medication in your nearest pharmacy.

Zithromax 500 mg can be purchased online as it is readily available at most online pharmacies and can also be ordered to be delivered directly to your house. An apothecary store can sell these medicines immediately after receiving a doctor's prescription and instructions. Different online pharmacy stores allow you to purchase Zithromax at home without the hassle of leaving your house. 

Buy Zithromax online with confidence knowing that it is 100% legitimate, powerful, and influential. The company even sells testing kits for smart prescriptions so you can be sure they are genuine. When you purchase Zithromax online, you can do so with full confidence.

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Relatively low prices:-  Buying artificial online costs extremely low. By ordering from these sites, you can purchase Zithromax for a significant discount. Particularly if you buy in bulk.

[indovance]

How Stickers Can Improve Safety on Construction Sites

Overview

The workplace you work in presents a number of risks. Employers are in charge of protecting their workers from perilous circumstances just for this reason. To safeguard construction workers from harmful impacts, flying debris, severe impacts, and electrical shock.

Conducting a risk assessment, identifying potential risks, and adhering to health and safety regulations are crucial for any engineering project.

Once your assessment is complete, you may decide precisely what sorts of safety stickers to print to keep everyone safe.

It is critical to utilise labels and stickers properly since engineering projects may contain a variety of possible health and safety problems.

These are just four applications for safety stickers.

1. Arc Flash Labels

Safety stickers are necessary for all installations, not just electrical ones.

According to the National Fire Protection Association's recommendations, employers must adhere to Occupational Safety and Health Administration rules to guarantee that employees are not exposed to arc flash or other electrical risks.

Any electrical equipment that might need inspection, adjustment, or repair when energised must have clear labelling.

It's important to note that the employer, not the equipment manufacturer or installer, is responsible for arc flash labelling. Additionally, it is the responsibility of the employee to follow any safety instructions given by the employer.

Panel boards, switchboards, industrial control panels, transformers, and motor control centres should all include arc flash labelling.

2. Electrical Safety Labels

To ensure that workers are alerted to potential risks, it is crucial to use electrical warning labels on any electrical installations, such as switch panels and fuse boxes.

The stickers you place on such items need to clearly state that they should never be opened by anyone other than an authorised electrical engineer and should also include information like the voltage of the installation and which parts of the equipment are earthed. Examples of such items include switch panels and fuse boxes.

You can prevent unauthorised individuals from coming into touch with dangers and give knowledgeable electrical engineers vital information to keep them safe by clearly marking potentially dangerous equipment.

Never undervalue the significance of using safety stickers on electrical equipment. A dangerous fire could happen, for example, if the equipment is connected to a power source but the voltage is not listed on the safety sticker or is stated incorrectly.

3. Safety Attire

Workers who work on engineering projects are always required to wear and use safety gear, such as hard hats and fireproof gloves.

Therefore, it is crucial that safety stickers are put in the proper locations to warn employees and anybody else on the job site that protective gear is required.

For instance, you could use stickers to remind employees to wear safety goggles when operating particular equipment.

4. Hazard Communication

Engineering projects themselves are not the only things that could be dangerous. It is equally crucial to employ the proper labelling whenever there is a possible harm to one's health or safety.

For instance, it's important to properly label anything that can burn someone severely and is hot to the touch.

Not only does that imply that you must include stickers with concise details on hot machinery. It also includes identifying appliances in the kitchen, such as kettles.

Final Thoughts

Construction site warning, caution, and danger signs are present to keep employees away from potentially dangerous situations.

Labels and stickers come in a wide range of options, including personalised holographic labels, permanent labels, matte labels, waterproof labels, vinyl labels, and clear labels.

[betterthanadventure]

BTA 1.7.6.2 - Pre release 1 has been released

New Features

New blocks and textures:

Stone bricks (old stone bricks have been renamed to "polished stone bricks")

Polished slate and slate bricks

Polished stone, polished granite, polished limestone and polished basalt

Charcoal block

Slightly altered the textures for basalt, limestone and granite

Controller support

Overhauled armour protection:

Scrapped durability based protection and made different sets protect better against different types of damage to promote mixing and matching sets

Leather protects better against fall damage and fire

Iron protects better against projectile damage

Diamond protects better against melee damage

Steel protects better against explosion damage

Chainmail and gold offer all-around protection

Overhauled command system - all SP commands now also work in multiplayer

Can now obtain coloured wood through different log types

Spruce logs - brown planks

Birch logs - white planks

Mossy logs - green planks

Euclyptus logs - orange planks

Cherry logs - pink planks

Optional 3d items and item stacking

/colour command for setting your chat colour in MP

A new server player list accessed by pressing L (can be rebound)

Improved control rebind menu and lots of new rebinding options

A new "Photo mode" for taking isometric screenshots, including a variety of shader effects

Labels that can be named and coloured to name mob - this also stops them from despawning naturally

Labyrinths now spawn a new library room

A new server menu that allows saving servers

Diamond's mining speed has been significantly buffed

Nether coal is now much more frequent

Empty buckets now stack

Support for HUD padding and gamma correction

Blast furnace now requires nether coal to craft again

Wet sponges can be crafted via a bucket of water and a dry sponge, and will instantly evaporate in the nether

F3+N now switches gamemode when cheats are enabled

Added new block placement settings and a new "direction lock" option for locking the direction of rotating blocks

Information overlays - have a compass, watch, or calendar in your inventory in survival to display extra info in your f4 screen

Placing netherrack in a furnace now makes it appear to be lit

F3+R shortcut to reload textures

Slime chunk particles can now be disabled

Tool durability is visible in item tag when F3 is enabled

Placing netherrack in a furnace now makes it appear to be lit

Guidebook and creative GUI can now be paged via the scroll wheel

Can now bind performance to VSync

Experimental texture mipmapping

Experimental custom shader support

Increased Vertical Item pickup range

Increased Fire Striker durability

Items now fall slower in water

Support for custom water, lava and portal animations

Water now creates sources on other water sources

Bug Fixes

Fixed slimes jittering in multiplayer, and having incorrectly sized hitboxes

Fixed world holes appearing in multiplayer

Restored retro leaves texture

Sheared sheep no longer flash when hit

Fixed tile entity dupe

Fixed world type getting corrupted when leaving the nether sometimes

Fixed placing sugar cane, repeaters and cakes consuming 2 of the item instead of 1

Fixed bug that caused entities to stay in memory after walking into unloaded chunks (should improve mob farm efficiency)

Olivine blocks are now made with 8 olivine instead of 9

Players can now sleep during thunder storms

Creepers now flash in multiplayer

GUI scale now behaves better

SP and MP mining speeds are now consistant

Frame-time graph no longer appears when inventory is open

Shift+F now behaves properly

Bonemeal now works as intended on dirt in retro worlds

Water now renders properly under ice

Water is coloured on its bottom face

Texture streams are now properly closed after use

Fixed clay brick block description

Crash report now appears when the renderer crashes

Players no longer take damage when exiting a minecart in a 3-block-tall space

Fixed TNT dupe bug (don't worry, not that one)

Flying up and down simultaneously in creative now makes you stay still

Moss now only spreads to adjacent blocks

Fire no longer destroys moss blocks

Dirt paths can no longer be created if there's a solid block above

Picked up items now go to the currently active hotbar

Slimes no longer suffocate in blocks when they spawn

Spiders and baby slimes now spawn in one-block-high holes

Hidden guidebook items now render properly

Boats now face the direction they were placed

Chat Messages now appear in the log

Log now shows time

Chat Messages now appear in the log

Lighting TNT now takes Fire Striker durability

Fixed Tooltips going off-screen

Animations now work properly with non power of 2 resolutions

Fixed shift-click for some fuel items in furnaces

Game no longer crashes when high res texture packs are selected

Skeletons now hold their bow properly

[ashipwreckcoast]

My name is Cole and I’m a queer historian with a background in paleontology/passion for cool rocks and as you can imagine, today, I’ve been fielding a lot text messages, tweets, and emails about Ammonite (2020). I’m going to sum up the main questions & my responses

- were these real people? Mary Anning and Charlotte Murchison were real people, a paleontologist & a geologist, respectively. However, unlike in the film, Mary was actually ten years younger than Charlotte so switch that age difference around.

- do we have evidence they were queer? The majority of queer history is unwritten.

I know you’re thinking “Cole, is that fancy way of saying no?” Yes, it is.

But I have an explanation.

Queer history is coded, hidden, burned by both the writers themselves [out of fear], their families [out of fear & disgust], and others [nazis, etc], and it was and still is forcibly suppressed by historians. History books are still being published where little evidence or lack of evidence writes off the existence of historical queers as an ‘anomaly.’ These writers do not want quality, they want quantity. They don’t care how dangerous it was for queer people to exist, but they believe that if they did exist, they should have made themselves known to society. Because you know, that’s always worked out well for us in the past.

In the 2019 AASLH conference, museum professional, Margaret Middleton, used the term “queer possibility” in reference to when they wanted to examine a historical relationship more closely and without bias. We’re conditioned to look at any relationship with a heteronormative lens. Some of the worst offenders are archaeologists where skeletons ID’d in the same grave as male & female are labeled partners but those as same sex as labeled familiar or master & servant. Did you know that the gender bias in archaeology caused a 12% rate of incorrectly ID’d skeletons?

Anyway, we’ve all heard the terms “book-loving & confirmed bachelor who never had time for a wife” or “a woman turned spinster who no man could keep” or “one of a kind character whose marriage tragically failed.” If you look closely, some historical figures [Florence Nightengale, Alexander Humboldt, Amelia Earhart, Margaret Benson, etc] are sometimes given a footnote about how they had a dear or intimate friend, perhaps even a lifelong companion.

It does also need to be mentioned that most of these people had the privilege via their whiteness & their money in order to live what could be considered a queer lifestyle that we could even recognize but that’s for a separate medium article and also not one written by me, just a different queer white person.

Still, this is where queer possibility comes in. I urge you to challenge what you’ve been taught about history & historical figures and ask that if archaeologists are able to make such broad guesses regarding the heteronormativeness of bones they found in the ground and have those hypotheses be written in textbooks as facts, what else were we being taught that isn’t true or “normal.” For all the secret love letters from 12th century nuns and correspondence signed with initials that we have, history is filled with missing queers and their variety of relationships.

- why do you keep using the word ‘queer’ I’m using it as a blanket term for this piece of writing to indicate any relationship that wouldn’t be considered heterosexual. Language is constantly evolving and if your main argument for a historical figure not being LGBTQ+ is that they wouldn’t have called themselves that specific term, then figure out what they would have been using. If they were not conforming to the gender or relationship norms of the time, they sure as shit considered themselves something

- why is this movie being made if there’s no “evidence” Because the director saw an opportunity for queerness we haven’t yet seen in film & a production industry backed him From The Guardian: “Lee defended the decision on Twitter writing: “After seeing queer history be routinely ‘straightened’ throughout culture, and given a historical figure where there is no evidence whatsoever of a heterosexual relationship, is it not permissible to view that person within another context?”

Further reading under the cut!

 There is so much work and research being done to push back against the heteronormative lens through which we view history and archaeology. These are just a few resources but I urge you to seek out more: - Margaret Middleton [referenced above]: https://www.margaretmiddleton.com/articles - Interpreting LGBT History at Museums & Historic Sites by Susan Ferentinos with various case studies - Queer Representation and Inclusion within U.S. Museums by Alanna Schuh - Pride & Prejudice: LGBTQ Heritage and its Contemporary Implications edited by Richard Sandell, Rachael Lennon, and Matt Smith - Bodies in Motion: Narratives and Counter Narratives of Gendered Mobility in European Later Prehistory by Catherine J. Frieman, Anne Teather & Chelsea Morgan, found here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00293652.2019.1697355

[famedroleplayarchive]

As promised, here’s an admin update post. This addresses several topics you all probably knew were coming and might have been waiting for the answers on, as well as some other topics, additions, and changes! Please take your time to read this thoroughly, and thanks again for four years of Famed! There’s a lot here, so take your time reading it.

URL change

The main blog’s URL has changed to famedroleplay. Some links are still being updated, but if you notice anything still links back incorrectly after a week or so, please do let me know!

Faceclaims

After hearing out the opinion of everyone who shared theirs regarding banning faceclaims involved in bullying scandals and taking that into consideration, face claims will be banned if they are linked to outside crimes or severe such as sexual assault, molka, or bullying in connection to suicide / suicide attempts. This means the initial ban on actor Kim Jisoo and April members Kim Chaewon, Lee Naeun, Yang Yena, Lee Jinsol, and and ex-member Jeon Somin remain in tact.

Bullying allegations not linked to these outside factors will still be grounds for someone to be allowed to ask to change a faceclaim before their faceclaim change waiting period is up, though, if they are uncomfortable continuing to use a faceclaim because of bullying allegations. If a faceclaim leaves the industry and/or removes themselves from the public eye for the foreseeable future for any reason, they are also still unusable, but this rule was already in place.

As for how this will affect parts of the roleplay other than faceclaims, please see the section further down about Element. Two April songs (”Oh My Mistake!” and “Love Clock”) were previously used for the first season of base’s COLLA3ORATE. These will be retroactively replaced with Elris’s “Jackpot” and “Like I Do” respectively, but if you had a muse involved in “Oh My Mistake” and would prefer to remove them from COLLA3ORATE season one entirely, just message me and they will be removed. I assigned the lines trying to match the positions and line distributions up similarly, but if your muse was involved and you’d like to keep them in “Jackpot” but want to switch to an untaken position, you’re welcome to request that as well. Otherwise, any references to that can simply use those songs instead now.

Element update

Due to the recent allegations involving Somin, a major revamp of Element has had to be conducted. After discussing the situation with the current muns of the group, the past model discography of Element has been replaced using Checkmate, K-Tigers Zero, and Lucky J, and they will be making their final comeback on April 12. After those promotions end, Element will be disbanded and the members will re-debut later in the year in a boy group, Quicksilver, with model groups of Ateez and Treasure and a girl group, Marigold, with model groups of BVNDIT and Melody Day with two new members each. The Element spots have been reopened, but the new positions in the new groups won’t be opened until after Element have finished promoting. This will be a major plotline for the roleplay and Gold Star in particular so expect to see it brought up in schedules and in some articles on the Exclusive blog as the storyline unfolds.

The new debuts in Quicksilver and Marigold will be available on May 13.

Fuse’s model discography update

Thanks to everyone’s suggestions, I was able to find two groups to add to Fuse’s model discography that I felt could align with their sound, direction, storyline, and positions enough to be happy with for now. These groups are Cherry Bullet and Weki Meki. The updated line distribution can be found on Fuse’s page.

There are other groups I’m looking into adding onto the model discographies of, but Fuse was the most urgent, so they’re the only official update I have today!

Canon soloists

Ultimately, after the poll, more people voted to remove canon soloists than to keep them, and they are officially being removed from the roleplay.

Those discographies previously used for the soloists will begin to be open for points claims at midnight/12AM EDT on April 12.

With the removal of canon soloists, the plan is to allow a solo music career to become a more prominent claiming option, and there are plans for some additional claim options to become available in relation to such a career, but those will be added and addressed at a later time.

As for storylines linked to some of the soloists, this is how those will be retconned:

BC Soloist 1: Instead of BC signing and debuting a known Gold Star trainee, BC hired a high profile creative director from Gold Star known from working with Gold Star since their inception and had worked on some of their most defining comebacks and announced she would be taking over as one of the company’s main creative directors. She has since worked on conceptualizing several group’s comeback as well as most heavily on Chroma’s pre-debut project.

Dimensions Soloist 3: Instead of Dimensions buying out a small and brand new company created by a crew of popular music producers with one soloist who they transferred to their label, in early 2020, Dimensions bought out a music production company that was created by a top music production team with several rising producers signed with them and made the producers in-house producers for Dimensions. Since then, the new producers have helped to produce several hit Dimensions songs since.

While Gold Star Soloist 1 no longer exists as an IU stand-in, Gold Star still had an incredibly popular and loved NPC soloist as one of their first artists that helped give their name prominence. At the beginning of 2021, she announced her departure from the agency to create her own label, citing her reasoning as feeling she needed a more focused environment than Gold Star’s growth could provide. There are rumors she was alluding to dissatisfaction with Gold Star’s recent management and gossip that Gold Star was pushing for her to pursue activities in overseas markets she wasn’t interested in.

Anyone who had a feature or MV appearance claim on a soloist can contact me and let me know whether they’d like to just drop the claim (and, if a points claim, recollect those points), keep it as a claim in an unspecified work, or try to replace it with something else. The following muses had claims this applies to:

Features:

Cha Kyonghwa (Kami) (app claim) Kang Sunghee (app claim) Park Jaewon (points claim, 10 points) dropped! Choi Joosung (Sun) (points claim, 10 points) Moon Chaeyeon (Dita) (app claim) Park Duri (points claim, 10 points) kept as unspecified!

MV appearances:

Kim Kyongmin (Alice) (app claim) Ryu Jaein (points claim, 5 points) dropped! Seo Minjung (points claim, 10 points) points reclaimed! Moon Chaeyeon (Dita) (app claim)

Points shop updates

There have been a few updates to the points shop!

Firstly, the nation’s title claim checklist now requires a headcanon on the muse’s image and how it relates to their claims and career to be completed. This is just so I can see a mun’s own intentions for how everything ties in with their image. This headcanon shouldn’t focus on the title itself since that isn’t ever guaranteed for approval, but the muse’s general image as the mun has shaped it. The viral moment requirement for a nation’s title is now also specified to need to relate to the image involved in the desired title.

In the wake of canon soloists being removed, I’m planning on being a little more strict regarding music claims aligning well with positions.This applies to both individual songs and whole discographies. Still, the intent is to be reasonable. Chungha having a rap-like verse in “Bicycle” won’t require someone to have a rap position to claim it since it’s not a lot of the song and she’s not known as a rapper, but I also wouldn’t approve a muse whose most prominent position is main rapper or a main dancer making their entire discography IU releases since IU is primarily a singing-focused artist.

There used to be a rule requiring that muns seek admin approval before claiming songs written by deceased artists, but that rule has now been removed. Keep it respectful, though, please. If any issue arises with muns breaking the fourth wall in relation to these songs to be disrespectful about a real person’s passing, that claim may be revoked and the rule may be reinstated. Songs performed by deceased artists still cannot be claimed.

There’s also a new claim available — a YouTube variety show or talk show. Please see the variety page for examples and more information, but note that this is separate from both a reality show claim. I’ve tried to specify the difference, but if you’re ever unsure which one what you want to claim would fit into, feel free to ask! Both will now be uploaded in-’verse to base’s Youtube Channel. Likewise, there has been a small change so that future radio show claims are now through base Radio, a radio streaming application (think Naver Now). 

Company building pages + Pinterest

I’m currently working on pages that give more detail on the layout of the company headquarters. They aren’t quite finished yet, but I have created a Famed Pinterest account for those of you who find more muse visually or who are into visual worldbuilding! One of the sections on the boards there gives a rough idea of company building visuals. There are group concept boards as well, so if you’re struggling to decide where your muse might fit, looking at those might help you if you’re more of a visual person. No one is required to follow it and I won’t be answering messages or anything of the sort there, but I thought it might be a helpful way to visually convey locations and concepts! I’ll make a small post to let everyone know when the pages with in-depth information on the company buildings is available.

Activity rules updates

I mentioned there’d be a few more touch-ups to the activity rules to fill in loopholes that have been around a while, so here they are.

- There is now a formal hiatus request form that must be submitted to request a hiatus. Simply sending the main an IM that you want a hiatus will no longer qualify as a valid request and it will not be processed.

- There will no longer be a week-long grace period after a hiatus ends. You are responsible for being active for the next activity check after your hiatus ends.

- The maximum length of a hiatus is now three weeks (and the minimum one week). The initial hiatus request maximum is still two weeks with one week extensions, but extensions may not be stacked to exceed three weeks total without a passed activity check in between. If you can’t be around for a longer period of time, it might be best to rejoin at a later time when you’re more available! In total, a mun is allotted a maximum of four weeks of hiatus over any twelve week period.

- If a muse reaches three activity warnings in a month, they will be automatically moved to the unfollow list on their third warning instead. If a muse is removed and refollowed three times over the course of six months, they will not be able to be re-followed again and will have to re-apply.

New points opportunity

As of this post going up, muses may now collect one point for every first closed thread with a new muse after it has reached ten posts. This will no longer only apply during events and the ten post requirement is new. Members should be interacting with new muses all the time, not just during events, so it felt right to adjust this accordingly. This applies only to threads started after this post goes up.

Chroma

As schedules have been made quarterly, all remaining Chroma roles will be made available for reserves and applications in at midnight/12AM EDT on April 12.

Suggestions + Feedback

I want to end off this post by reminding everyone that I’m always taking suggestions for events, tasks, etc! I plan on opening an official suggestion submission blog at some point down the line, but I’m happy to take suggestions through the ask box or submit if you have any. I’m also open to feedback as well. If you do send in either of these things, please specify if you’d like a reply from me, since sometimes I might be naturally inclined to keep a message simply giving a suggestion or idea without any questions instead of responding to it.

Thanks for reading this very long update! There are more additions to the roleplay in the works, some I’ve hinted at here and some I’ve not, but I hope Famed’s fifth year is able to be its best one yet!

[architectuul]

Demolitions

for Czechoslovakia’s architectures between 1960s–1980s is a controversial subject. The public may still regard it negatively, owing to a lack of information or an adverse experience with the country’s regime before the Velvet Revolution. 

Omnipol Building by Zdeněk Kuna, Zdeněk Stupka, Milan Valenta, Josef Zdražil, Ladislav Vrátník (1974–1979) | Photo © Kamil Warta, National Gallery Prague

Erosion of Transgas (2020) by NGP/Loom on the Moon 

Helena Doudová, the curator of the exhibition NO DEMOLITIONS! Forms of Brutalism in Prague, presents Brutalism buildings in Prague that prominently enter the urban scene. The nearly two hundred and fifty original architectural plans, photographs and models come mostly from the Architecture Collection of the National Gallery Prague. The examples of the most progressive architecture works feature the Kotva Department Store, the former Central Telecommunications Building at Žižkov (marked for demolition), the former Federal Assembly, Hotel Intercontinental and Barrandov Bridge and the recently demolished Transgas complex.

“No Demolitions!” is a quite straightforward title for an exhibition. What is happening in Prague and the Czech Republic, that led you to organize this exhibition and choose this title?

With the exhibition we intended to highlight the values of late modern and brutalist architecture in Prague that becomes either demolished or refurbished beyond the point of recognition. Some of the buildings ceased to exist throughout the one year since we started working on the topic. We intended to show that the buildings by the architects like Karel Prager, Karel Filsak, the husband-and-wife team Machoninovi and Šrámkovi have built edifices, which are comparable with the most prestigious architecture production of the former Western Europe and the US.

Center of Home Design by Věra Machoninová, Vladimír Machonin (1971–1981) | | Photo © Kamil Wartha, National Gallery Prague

The Trade Fair Palace is an exclusive choice for an architectural exhibition; why did you choose this location?

It is a building with strong symbolic meaning, a real jewel of functionalist architecture but at the same time it is difficult to present an exhibition due to technical parameters as light because paper plans and photography are very sensitive to it. The gallery floor plan worked quite well in a sequence, so the exhibition concept fit quite well. Ondřej Císler created vitrines with colored large plans and prints from the architecture collection of the National Gallery in Prague. Plans are contrasted with the photography of the deteriorated state of the buildings by Olja Triaška Stefanović.

In many countries of the former East Bloc, protecting Late Modern architecture creates a specific challenge, as these buildings are widely associated with the negative perception of the political era they were created in. This can very easily lead to iconoclastic gestures, as we have seen in the case of Skopje 2014. What can art history, museology and the wider profession do against this phenomenon?

The negative public opinion toward these buildings is a cluster of multiple problems. One general problem not only in the Central or Eastern Europe is the poor long term maintenance, which makes the buildings appear even more brutal than intended in the architecture design. As the exhibition shows, the architects were thinking of the public space around these buildings, inserted artworks and parks, as a number of designs show.

Secondly, the political associations are difficult, but also controversial to me. I very much think that the socialist state invested into large public buildings before 1989 and did provide socially accessible culture programs, sports, etc. So to me the brutalist buildings are valuable and authentic through their aim to belong to the community but also undercover propaganda. One can’t change people's memories or their experience with communism, but it’s not the fault of buildings that were ironically planned in the golden sixties in the time of the political détente in Czechoslovakia.

The exhibition | Photo © Katarína Hudačinová, the National Gallery Prague

In comparison, no large public building in Prague has been built since 30 years, what shows the shift of the capital flow with privatization. Nowadays, the real estate investors misuse the negative public opinion to demolish high quality buildings to acquire lucrative plots in the city centre for private investment. In many cases it would have been possible to reuse the brutalist buildings at a lower expense, like for example the Embassy of CZ in Berlin.

The National Gallery seems to be a prestigious place for the exhibition about the architecture of an era that is widely disputed and is also a strong institutional statement; how are Czech academics and professionals reacting to the events around the architecture of the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s?

I very much believe in the power of the exhibition as a tool for mediation and education, but also bringing up controversial or uncomfortable topics. That is the position the National Gallery has. Its architecture collection is centred around post-1945 architecture so it is logical to present it in an innovative perspective. Brutalism has received international acclaim in architecture history since 2010s, so we have had many academic discussions, but to me it is important to bring the phenomenon to the public. It is interesting that the expression is the same in former East and West, the only difference is that in the former West the buildings like the MET Breuer are celebrated, while in the former East these buildings are admired by the professionals and despised by the wide public.

In most of our countries we see the profession and the public speaking out to protect some of these buildings, in Hungary this happened by the proposed demolition of Zoltán Gulyás’ Chemolimpx office building in the early 2010s, and more recently when the government announced the demolition of Csaba Virág’s soc-hi-tech Electric Power Distribution Center. There are similar stories in Czechia and Poland - how do you explain the public being so involved in these cases?

Yes, there is an entire movement of active architecture historians, architects and interested public. David Crowley, the head of arts department of the NCAD in Dublin, is a great observer of these shifts, which demonstrate a renewal of the consciousness for public sphere and public spaces in general. So far the protests have been unsuccessful in confrontation with the investment pressures, a culmination point was the demolition of the Transgas building, public protests accompanied the demolition of Hotel Praha, and eventually rescued railway station in Havířov. Crowley says this a unique trait in Central Europe as he has not seen such engagement in the UK or Ireland. In Germany, the heritage protection of post-war buildings is really advanced by now, but there are not such strong public initiatives to me...

Transgas Complex by Ivo Loos, Jindřich Malátek, Václav Aulický, Jiří Eisenreich, Jiří Kozák, Jan Fišer (1966–1978) | Photo © Kamil Wartha, National Gallery Prague

Why did you choose brutalism as a specific style to sum up these buildings? Strictly speaking, the term is quite well defined and confined to a specific group of mostly British and American buildings, what is brutalism in your definition?

The usual association is béton brut, with the main inspiration of Le Corbusier. At the same time, I took at hand Rayner Banham, who speaks about three criteria, in short – the figure, the revealed construction and authenticity of material, which would better comply with the notion of brutalism in variety. Also brutalism has been changing from the expression of the Smithson's Hunstanton school, to let's say Paul Rudolph. In such way brutalism became an international expression with multiple specifics.

Hotel Intercontinental by Karel Filsak, Karel Bubeníček, Jiří Louda, Jaroslav Švec a kol. (1968–1974) | Photo © Kamil Wartha, National Gallery Prague  

The notion of brutalism has been a subject of a dispute in the curatorial team with Petr Vorlík, Klára Brůhová (CTU Prague) and Radomíra Sedláková (NG Prague). We assumed the Czech architecture was influenced by brutalism, to a smaller or larger extent depending on every architect. Architecture of late modernism in Czech shows finer handling of material such as glass, mosaics, of wooden cladding, a variety of bright colours, that do not particularly express the notion of brutalism associated with rough concrete. The houses do in a way respect the scale of the surrounding city, are most often broken down in a composition of smaller volumes, reference bay windows of surrounding houses, etc.

PZO Centrotex Building – Václav Hilský, Otakar Jurenka (1972–1978) | Photo © Kamil Wartha, National Gallery Prague  

At the same time the label brutalism is in public drawn to all kinds of buildings, which have with little or nothing to do with late modernism, actually, are clad in stone. So as architecture historians we strived to differentiate and raise public awareness on the topic.

Is there a specific Czech brutalism? Are there any national or regional characteristics in this era?

This is not an easy question. Brutalism was a global and a local phenomenon. Interestingly, in the Czechoslovak architecture we see magazines that iconic brutalist buildings were published, like La Tourette, or the architecture by Stirling in the 1960s and 1970s. So the information iron curtain was more semi-penetrable in terms of architecture knowledge and expression, like Ákos Moravánszky says. The regional specifics construction processes, the quality and variability of materials, which was lower in the former Eastern block, and also the public opinion which incorrectly associates the buildings with state socialism.

We are talking about the architectural production of an era that produced an incredible amount of buildings. How is it possible to create a canon for such a recent past and what do you think about the monumental protection regarding these buildings? What should be protected and how? Can you also name a few example, interesting buildings (and interiors) from Czechia?

A unique example is the already heritage protected Kotva Department Store by architect's team Věra and Vladimír Machoninovi.

Kotva department store in Prague. | Photo © Olja Triaška Stefanović

The former Federal Assembly is another iconic example of a daring construction originally intended for bridges. It encloses the former classical modernist stock exchange building and complements the ensemble anew. Interiors have unfortunately been refurbished and only very few items are present in the museums.

Former Federal Assembly Building Prague. | Photo © Olja Triaška Stefanović

A unique example is the Czech embassy in Berlin with intact interiors. A contested interior reconstruction is currently Hotel Thermal by Machoninovi in Karlovy Vary. At least five outstanding buildings have been demolished in Prague, countless have been refurbished. Only two above-named brutalist buildings are heritage protected, other like Hotel Intercontinental by Filsak, or Centrotex by Hiský, Motokov by Kuna should become protected as unique works of art and architecture.

___

Interview by Dániel Kovács and first published in Epiteszforum.

Photo © Jan Faukner

Helena Doudová is curator of the Architecture Collection of the National Gallery Prague. She gained curatorial and museum experience as research and curatorial fellow of the International Museum Program in the German Museum of Books and Writing in Leipzig in collaboration with the University of Erfurt and the German Federal Cultural Foundation 2016/2017, as a Robert Bosch Fellow at Architecture Museum of the TU Munich – Pinakothek der Moderne (2011–2012) and as an intern in the German Architecture Centre DAZ in Berlin (2013–2014). She initiated and curated NO DEMOLITIONS! Forms of Brutalism in Prague, Baugruppe ist super!, Image Factories: Infographics 1920-1945: Fritz Kahn, Otto Neurath. She is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Art History of the University of Zurich. She was awarded DAAD research scholarship and Aktion Österreich scholarship.

***

NO DEMOLITIONS! Forms of Brutalism in Prague

From 6.3.2020 to  22.11.2020 at the Trade Fair Palace – 3rd floor Dukelských hrdinů 47, 170 00 Praha 7 Map

Curator: Helena Doudová Collaborating experts / co-curators: Klára Brůhová (FA CTU in Prague), Radomíra Sedláková (NGP), Petr Vorlík (FA CTU in Prague)

[yourlocalenglishmajor]

Commonplace Book

Hello everyone! This is my first post on this blog, and it is going to be a project for my college English course! Feel free to read through it if you’re interested; if not, that’s okay, this is really just for my professor ^^

.

Piece 1: “Big Guns, Small Dicks”

Unfortunately, this piece does not have a specific author or creator; I found it on State Street in Madison last summer. It is an anonymous piece of graffiti that speaks to the movement it was created during. For those who may be less familiar with Madison, Wisconsin, it is considered a very liberal and even leftist city, especially with how frequent and powerful the Black Lives Matter protests were. This was created during those protests, as well as hundreds of other works all along historic State Street. As ACAB - All Cops Are Bastards - protests went hand in hand (usually) with BLM protests, the phrase “Big guns, small dicks” is a jibe at the police and its racist foundations and use of excessive force.

It best relates to class through the conversations about race and equity we’ve had. Our readings have been centered around a diverse cast of authors instead of the one viewpoint of the cisgender, heterosexual white man, which is something the BLM movement also aimed to achieve. In addition, although it has not been a focal topic yet, we have talked about police brutality and how it impacts POC most; another key point of the BLM movement. Lastly, we talked about what mythic America, or the American Dream, really is, and why it is never realized for so many people. The Black Lives Matter movement is all about how the American Dream is something almost no one can truly achieve, and how it leads to othering and a sense of disillusionment with the effectiveness of our society.

Piece 2: Vonnegut’s Slapstick

For my second piece, I chose to utilize a work of a famous satire writer to draw comparisons to our coursework. As for the image, I took a picture of the copy I own and edited it. Kurt Vonnegut’s Slapstick centers around two twins who are geniuses together, but entirely stupid on their own; they are neglected by their parents, who are a family of renown and ashamed of having deformed children. Their parents look at them as if they are to be pitied for the very nature of their existence. They use this to sneak around and live lives of luxury, continuing this ruse of being entirely stupid so that they may live as freely as possible in their circumstances. 

In this work, the children are quite literally tossed in a house and locked away to prevent others from seeing them; this is something I personally connect to the concept of silencing, which happened frequently during the BLM movement. Protesters, peaceful or not, were arrested; protests were escalated by cops far more often than by protesters, but that was generally ignored and used as a way to disregard the protests as nothing more than “riots”; large platforms such as Twitter and Instagram incorrectly labelled some posts as “misinformation”. Voices were silenced all over the internet. In addition, some white allies were not using their platforms to actually help/spread information, but were using them to spew white guilt and accomplish very little. As L. Ayu Saraswati says in her textbook Introduction to Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies, Interdisciplinary and Intersectional Approaches, “Guilt as a response to...racism...does very little to contribute to efforts toward social change as it recenters whiteness” (page 15), basically saying yes, these folks are speaking their mind and are at least partially aware of their privilege, but their feelings of guilt without taking action are not actually doing anything to help what they feel guilty for.

Piece 3: The Hymn to Demeter

My last selection will be an ancient work known as the Hymn to Demeter, and the version I am using is translated by Gregory Nagy. I am using this statue of Demeter and Persephone as the visual accompaniment to this analysis. This piece was originally written to be performed orally by a poet/performer as praise to Demeter. It details the kidnapping of Persephone, Demeter’s daughter, and the subsequent founding of the Cult of Demeter in the city Eleusis. 

When Persephone is first kidnapped, it is said that “she cried with a piercing voice, / Calling upon her father, the son of Kronos, the highest and the best. / But not one of the immortal ones, or of human mortals, / heard her voice” (lines 20-23). To me, this draws clear parallels with the silencing of victims of police brutality and their families. Public outrage did nothing to bring accountability to Breonna Taylor’s killers or the flawed justice system that let them get away with it. The victim’s family was silenced and the movement to convict her killers has died down since it happened almost a year ago. 

Additionally, it is later revealed to Demeter through Rhea that this kidnapping was not only endorsed by but planned by Zeus himself. As Greek households were patriarchal, it was not uncommon for a father to arrange a relationship/marriage without informing the daughter or allowing the daughter to meet her betrothed first. This endorsed act of violence can also be paralleled to the actions of the police; their brutality is actively supported by a flawed, racist justice system, just as the actions of Hades were actively supported by the all-powerful Zeus. What’s more, nobody stood up to Zeus or questioned his actions because of all the power he has, which is another perfect example of how this parallel functions.

Lastly, Demeter’s pure rage and grief is reminiscent of the rage and grief of the black mothers who lost their children to police brutality. Last semester, I attended a Theater of War performance known as “Antigone in Ferguson”, and after the performance was over, there was a discussion led by a panel of educators and victims of police brutality. Several of them were mothers who told painful stories of how their children, usually sons, were murdered and how they are still trying to find a way to keep living. Their powerful grief is parallel to Demeter’s; the only difference is that Demeter gets her child back.

A Meta-Commentary

My process in finding these works and deciding which would draw the best parallels was to find a bunch of subjects I thought would work well and then cut down on them. I knew the “big guns, small dicks” would be included for sure, as it was an image I took myself and had good parallels to draw right off the bat. It’s a good way to catch someone’s attention! And the message is powerful. Seeing all the graffiti on State Street last summer was impactful, but this simple phrase stood out to me and was (I believe) the only picture I took out of all the graffiti down there. The Kurt Vonnegut work I included because I like the comparison between how the twins are treated in the book and how folks who were active and open about their opinions were silenced; also, I’d be lying if I failed to mention that part of the reason is because I adore Kurt Vonnegut and wanted to find a way to bring a work of his into this. My third choice, the Hymn to Demeter, was chosen because it’s a cool way to connect one of my other classes to this one. In addition, it’s a good piece to reinterpret as an allegory for how the justice system enables the wrong people and fails the right ones.

Also, although I did not choose many direct quotes, I think the parallels I drew between the content of these works is substantial! I put a lot of thought into how I worded things and what content actually related best to the works of this class, specifically the themes we’ve discovered so far in Claudia Rankine’s Citizen. The heaviness of the book relates well to the power behind each of these pieces, especially the first one, as the message is plain and simple but impactful. The prose and structure of Rankine’s work is incredibly unique and not directly paralleled in any of the pieces I chose; however, the Hymn to Demeter is written in a very specific structure that is almost poetry? It’s a very confusing structure, because it does not seem to have any meter or consistency, but is still patterned in a specific way. This may be a result of translation, it may have been intentionally created this way by the original writer (who is not known; the transcript of this hymn was found in a stable in Moscow in 1777), or it could be a byproduct of the format itself as a hymn. The repetition Rankine takes advantage of in Citizen is actually something Vonnegut is known for as well. Several of his works have anaphoric phrases; Slaughterhouse V has both “po-tee-weet” and “and so it goes”, and Slapstick has the comedic “hi-ho”, used as a way to break the tension of the work, as it is supposed to be satire. This repetition and the more casual grammar these authors both share give their works a heavy feeling (cut far more frequently in Vonnegut’s than in Rankine’s) that also works as a conversational element, making both of the works feel like the audience is also in the narrative itself.

Commonplacing is a valuable step in making powerful literature more accessible to people! Providing unique and interesting analysis of a work makes it much easier for people to casually consume! Additionally, using platforms like Tumblr for this analysis makes things even more accessible, as anyone can see it and Tumblr allows posts to be any length! Opening thoughtful literature and analysis to the public like this also allows for good, guided conversation on a variety of subjects, and creates interest for the works in their entirety. This can easily inspire people to pick up a copy of their own of any of these works if someone is interested enough in how these can be interpreted! (If any of you are interested in the Hymn to Demeter, I used the one found at this website , it’s free ^-^)

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A big thank you to any of you who read this all the way through (including you, professor)! I’ll be doing more fun and less serious literary analysis on this account as well, so if that’s something you’re interested in, stay tuned!

[shiningliive]

7th Stage Set List Speculation 

Tumblr hates tall images so please click to see in higher quality!

I put way too much time and effort into thinking up a possible set list for 7th stage, and I’m sure it’ll be way off, but I’m curious how close I can get. Some clarifications, other ideas, and explanations below the read more. Be warned, it’s very long.

*This is not an official set Utapri 7th Stage list, just speculation.

Basic Layout:

1. This is all assuming they want something similar-ish to Maji Love Kingdom, plus solos and other recent songs. I didnt want to just copy the Maji Love Kingdom set list and whack some solos in there

2. Another order I considered was similar to the 5th stage layout where they did ‘character 1 solo, character 2 solo, character 3 solo, song they did together.’ I do think this is definitely possible for 7th stage, and if they do do this, it could be, for example, Tokiya solo, Cecil solo, Yamato solo, Colourfully Spark. I mainly didnt use this for my primary example because I figured it might be odd if they arent doing Quartet Night Solos. 

3. Not very notable, but I also placed the solos in the order the boys are usually in (Otoya, Masato, Natsuki, Tokiya, Ren, Syo, Cecil) with the matching Heavens order. 

4. I did my best to not have too much focus on one group to the point where you dont see another at all until the second half or later. This happened with 6th stage with Heavens not even being introduced until an hour and 45 minutes in. There is a bit of a gap without Quartet Night as Heavens and Starish do their solos, but I feel like this is a bit unnavoidable, and tried to counterbalance it by having the shining masterpiece songs (no heavens) before the solos. 

5. Of this speculative set list, I consider Setsugetsuka-Michibiki Hikari to be the first half, and Up Down Up-Welcome to Utapri Kingdom (just realised I wrote welcome to utapri world in the graphic but you get me) to be the second half. This doesnt matter too much, but it could be split this way across discs or have an interlude inbetween. There are less songs in the ‘second half’ but it does end up being around the same length when you consider we usually get about 2 20 minute talks at the end.

Explanations:

1. I didnt include Quartet Night songs for a few reasons. Mainly because they dont have any new ones released lately and there have already been two QN only lives with qnlf being the most recent main live since 6th stage. It’s certainly possible that they might include some repeats of older QN solos, but this set list is already at the same length and amount of songs as 6th stage, so it would add enough extra time to make 7th stage too long. 

2. Obviously I didnt include a Nagi solo because Wingu isn’t able to attend 7th stage. I assumed this would not affect other song selections and that they will likely have other members fill in for his parts in group songs.

3. I was unable to figure out which new set of solos for Heavens and Starish they would use. I didn’t decide the ones used for any particular reason, so I wouldn’t at all be surprised if different solos than I wrote are used. 

4. I used Setsugetsuka as the opener song, because I thought it would not only allow for special outfits to be worn by Starish and Quartet Night that could be chanegd after their introductions, but it also saved time (instead of having one starish song and one QN song, theyre combined). It’s not quite an exciting booming start to the live, but it is a very well loved song by the fandom that hasnt been performed yet, and the first few notes are very recognisable. I can also imagine it fading nicely into a Heavens group song  I’m not sure about this choice, but I couldnt quite shake the idea, so I kept it. Wouldn’t be surprised if they started with the same three group songs as Maji Love Kingdom though. 

5. In general, I tried to consider things like outfit changes, the time of each song, having a first and second half that can be split onto two discs for dvd/bluray release, and most importantly perhaps, not having the same seiyuu perform too many times in a row to avoid them getting too exhausted.

6.  I found it very hard to place Encore. Unlike a lot of the other Mamo songs, it isnt exactly a hype, exciting song to start off a live (after the initial group songs) but it also doesnt really work in the middle after the solos, or towards the end. Having the song be called ‘encore’ and being played during the credits of Maji Love Kingdom really give that vibe that it should be an encore song.

7. I don’t think they would want 4 Quartet Night+Starish joint songs without Heavens (as it would cause a bit of an imbalance) so I figure they might do either the Shining CD 2 songs or the upcoming Black/White songs that are released shortly before the live. For now I’ve gone with Wonder Rondo and Dancing Over Night because we dont know the length of the Black/White songs.

 “Things that would be cool but probably won’t happen”:

1. I placed Encore towards the start of my set list, but theres something that I would love to see, no matter where its placed. If the song starts with Mamo singing, as expected, until about 30 seconds in when slowly all other seiyuu would walk on stage and join in. This would allow the song to be used as an encore with all seiyuu, or just help build variety and excitement to an otherwise (albeit intense) but slower more emotional song. It also lines up well with the songs build itself as well as the MV that slowly includes more and more people. 

2. More special outfits for Setsugetsuka and the Shining Masterpiece songs and more special outfits/performances in general. I think this is the reason why previous performances like Koizakura and other Shining Theatre songs are so memorable.

3. Pretty sure this one is almost 100% not happening, but, I want Sawashiro Miyuki as a guest to sing Maigo no Kokoro, Haru’s solo song from the first season of the anime. It’s so often forgotten, but its a beautiful song. This would also serve as a nice interlude for the boys to have an outfit change or change staging etc. 

4. I feel like there should maybe be a third encore song, but I couldnt choose a good one. It feels odd to not have 1000% or 2000%, so a version of them with all three groups is possible. If they are going to have a new version of an older song, I feel like a Mirai Chizu would be a great choice. Not only does it suit an encore (emotionally and lyrically speaking), but they haven’t performed it since 1st stage, and I feel like it could work really well with all groups together. Or it could be some kind of new medley or song entirely. 

5. Of course, there are 3 big things we’d all like to see announced at 7th stage. These being: a 5th season of the anime or some kind of sequel, Dolce Vita news, and a large scale update to shining live (eg, adding Heavens.)

Stats of my set list:

1. The total song time of my set list is 2 hours and 20 minutes with an hour and a half of extra time including a shining dancers or other interlude, introduction video, talks, about 5-10 seconds inbetween songs, audience encore call, and goodbyes. 

2. The final time of this set list would be about 3 hours and 48 minutes. 

3. For the performance on the 18th for example, doors open at 2pm, and 7th stage begins at 4:30. With this set list, it seems like it would end at about 8:15-8:30pm which allows for enough time to exit the dome before 9:00pm.

4. There are 33 songs in this set list (one talk is incorrectly labeled as an extra song in the graphic) which is the same as 6th stage.

For anyone who’s gotten this far, thank you. This is literally essay length and I wrote it in 50 minutes. It was a lot of fun thinking up this set list, so I’m excited to see if im at all accurate, or 100% wrong. Either way I’m so excited to see the actual set list.