#temporal development division

[akanemnon]

Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plantsin the taxonomic division Bryophyta(/braɪˈɒfətə/,[3] /ˌbraɪ.əˈfaɪtə/) sensu stricto. Bryophyta (sensu lato, Schimp. 1879[4]) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and hornworts.[5]Mosses typically form dense green clumps or mats, often in damp or shady locations. The individual plants are usually composed of simple leaves that are generally only one cell thick, attached to a stem that may be branched or unbranched and has only a limited role in conducting water and nutrients. Although some species have conducting tissues, these are generally poorly developed and structurally different from similar tissue found in vascular plants.[6] Mosses do not have seeds and after fertilisation develop sporophytes with unbranched stalks topped with single capsules containing spores. They are typically 0.2–10 cm (0.1–3.9 in) tall, though some species are much larger. Dawsonia, the tallest moss in the world, can grow to 50 cm (20 in) in height. There are approximately 12,000 species.[2]Moss

Temporal range: Carboniferous[1]–present  

PreꞒ

Ꞓ

O

S

D

C

P

T

J

K

Pg

NClumps of moss on the ground and base of trees in the Allegheny National Forest, Pennsylvania, United StatesScientific classificationKingdom:PlantaeClade:EmbryophytesClade:SetaphytaDivision:Bryophyta Schimp. sensu strictoClasses[2]

Takakiopsida

Sphagnopsida

Andreaeopsida

Andreaeobryopsida

Oedipodiopsida

Polytrichopsida

Tetraphidopsida

Bryopsida

Synonyms

Musci L.

Muscineae Bisch.

Mosses are commonly confused with liverworts, hornworts and lichens.[7] Although often described as non-vascular plants, many mosses have advanced vascular systems.[8][9] Like liverworts and hornworts, the haploidgametophyte generation of mosses is the dominant phase of the life cycle. This contrasts with the pattern in all vascular plants (seed plantsand pteridophytes), where the diploid sporophyte generation is dominant. Lichens may superficially resemble mosses, and sometimes have common names that include the word "moss" (e.g., "reindeer moss" or "Iceland moss"), but they are fungal symbioses and not related to mosses.[7]: 3 

The main commercial significance of mosses is as the main constituent of peat (mostly the genus Sphagnum), although they are also used for decorative purposes, such as in gardens and in the florist trade. Traditional uses of mosses included as insulation and for the ability to absorb liquids up to 20 times their weight.

GUYS I FOUND BERDLY

[mangoshorthand]

Arrow of Time- [Five Hargreeves x F Reader]. Chapter 1 (Hard Feelings Part 5)

SUMMARY: When the mother of all teenage tantrums causes time itself to fracture, Five has to travel back to 1831 to repair the damage. But will he be able to cope with what he finds there? Chapter 2 >> << Back to prologue

You've had a shit day at work, Aoife has a secret and Five has a panic attack.

We're looking at a big ol' time jump friends.

Chapter One: My Bambina

“Now look: p(𝑥) is a polynomial and k is an integer. So we gotta put the 𝑥-2 on the outside and then what do we put on the inside….?” When she stares blankly, he prompts her, “We start with 𝑥 cubed…and what then?”

Aoife sits at the desk, looking up at him with his own eyes. The same expression of panicked frustration is still there, writ large.

“ Cosa non capisci, cara?” 

“ Tutto!” she exclaims, throwing her arms in the air and a whine entering her voice, “I still don’t get it, Dad.”

He sighs, running his fingers down his face before turning from the dry erase and placing the lid on his pen.

“This important stuff, tesoro. We have to grasp this to understand limit cycles.”

“Why won’t you let me just try?!”

He lets out an angry sigh, praying to a deity he doesn’t believe in to give him strength. Five is not a patient man by nature, but the last thirteen years of fatherhood had expanded his capacity tenfold…but everyone has their limit.

“You know why,” he grinds out, teeth gritted tightly together, “because you’re averaging a D+ in math and if you try to time travel without even basic understanding-”

From the entrance hall, the grandfather clock chimes, just audible up the attic stairs. Immediately, her head whips to face him, throwing down her pencil.

“You said we’d stop at seven.”

“Aoife- you have to get this.”

“You promised,” s he says, looking for all the world as if he’d been applying thumbscrews rather than teaching her rudimentary polynomial division, “that’s so unfair!”

He stifles a groan. God help him- he loves this girl more than life itself but her overly-developed teenage sense of injustice is infuriating, especially when she puts on that goddamn ‘woe is me’ voice. 

Suddenly, he finds himself smiling; it’s pretty cute, now he thinks on it. His little girl, all anger and injured entitlement.  

“Okay,” he says, softening, “just humor me for five more minutes and then I promise I’ll let you go. Come with me to the study.”

With a huffed-out sigh expressing that she is the most unfairly treated child in the world, Aoife follows his blink with her own, alighting from her portal sat atop Reginald’s desk.

“Smooth landing,” Five says, approvingly. “One tip though: never blink somewhere so specific unless you can see it or you know damn well that the space is empty: you’re sitting on a fountain pen.”

Aoife hops off the desk immediately, letting out a noise of shocked dismay as she turns to see the ink-spot spreading on the butt cheek of her favorite white jeans.

“Don’t worry, it will come out in the wash,” he murmurs, sitting down casually behind the desk and reaching into the lowest drawer.

Aoife takes her own seat across from him, looking around the study with interest. Dad had never exactly forbidden her from coming in here without him, but he made his disapproval obvious if he ever caught her in here alone. If he thought that would stop her finding the room fascinating, then he’s even more of a dumbass than Aoife was quickly coming to suspect he is…that she's been coming to suspect both her parents are, actually.

“Take a look at this. I call it a temporal ambimeter: I built it around ten years ago.”

Onto the desktop, he carefully places a small instrument: Attached to a three-footed metal plinth is what looks like a full circle protractor marked with incomprehensible measurements. It drifts, turning a sedate three hundred and sixty degrees clockwise. On top of the circle, seeming to float, is a spindly metal needle, held at a perfect horizontal along the protractor’s diameter by invisible forces. Even from this distance, Aoife can feel a tingle in the ends of her fingers.

“This is time,” he says, simply, ghosting his finger along the line of the needle, static crackling there as he does so: “This is  an absolute line of polarity. Can you feel it?”

Aoife nods, fascinated in spite of herself.

“Go on,” he said, smiling slightly, “feel it like I did.”

Stretching out her fingers Aoife, imitates her Dad- sparks flying as she runs her fingers along it like a tiny theremin. The sensation is like blood rushing back to fill dead fingers. Mentally, it’s more complex than that.

“There’s something…it feels.”

Five helps, though he’s barely able to put it into words himself, “Like putting the last jigsaw piece in?”

“Yeah,” she breathes, “it feels…right.”

“That’s because it is. Come here.”

She stands on slightly numb legs and walks around the desk to where Five waits for her with an arm outstretched. Though she resists slightly, (ever more often shying away from cripplingly uncool parental affection), he puts his arm around her anyway.

“Watch.”

For this demonstration, he only needs to reverse time five seconds or so, but it’s always an effort, especially when taking somebody else. At least he doesn’t need to physically move their bodies.

Aoife felt time contract around her under her Dad’s power, holding onto his arm for dear life: he’d never done this with her before.

“Watch,” he says, voice cracking with the strain.

She looks down at the instrument: the protractor shudders to a halt and turns anti-clockwise along with the physical sensation of time reversing, speeding up as Five really gets hold and reverses the seconds.

“The…needle stays in place though.” he says, still straining “S-still feels like the last jigsaw piece, right?”

He’s right: though the rest of the instrument wavers in the current of Five’s power, the needle stays perfectly still.

He grunts and relinquishes his hold on the seconds, taking a deep breath and stretching out his neck. The protractor begins to turn slowly clockwise again.

“See,” he says, grinning at Aoife, “that’s a constant. No matter the timeline, no matter the paradox, that’s what stays in place. It’s what I access when I manipulate time, and you will too, one day. But cara, this stuff is fragile. That’s why you need to have a sound theoretical understanding before you try, okay? You know I don’t say this just to be a tight-ass, right?”

He pulls her closer as he says it, planting a kiss just above her ear.

“ Capisco papà. Posso partire adesso?”

“Sì, he sighs, “I need to go for a bike ride anyway. But not before I get a hug, right?”

She hugs him, laying her head on his shoulder momentarily before throwing off the childish impulse.

“You’re still my bambina whether you like it or not,” he says, raising his voice as she leaves, laughing at her little ‘uggh’ of disgust. Had he been like this when he was thirteen?

No: he’d been like this by the time he was nine. When he was thirteen, he was far, far worse.

Dad had cycled for as long as she could remember. It was only recently she’d noticed just how embarrassing his bike shorts and helmet were, but at least she didn’t have to be seen with him when he was out on the bike.

When she’d heard the door close and could be sure her mom was busy in another part of the house, Aoife blinked from her bedroom back into her father’s study, concealing the notebook under her sweatshirt.

This room had once been her grandfather’s but  in the years since his death Five had worked his way so naturally into using it regularly that it was now informally acknowledged as his. Until it became firmly her father’s domain, Aoife had never dared step foot in here. Even now, his bedroom,  (all but untouched since his death) is the one room in the house Aoife has never dared to go.

The oil-paintings of him still hanging around the house held a curious fascination for her, and this one above the study fireplace was no exception. He stood tall, hand domineeringly over a walking cane. She and her cousin Santi both agreed: Reginald hung like a spectre around the house along with those of the tortured children the Umbrella Academy once were. He was cruel, exacting…and had been her personal bogeyman ever since she could remember. The portrait always started with cold eyes, so unlike those of her young father hanging in the living room. Five’s portrait always made her smile; Reginald’s always made her feel like she was being watched.

The journals are kept in a locked, glass-fronted cabinet and it had only taken her an hour of searching the study to find the key. They’re ordered from 1-6 and each number has several volumes.  She started from  01, I and has just finished 05, VII. Reading these journals has been spookier than Aoife had even imagined. Reading about her Uncle Klaus being locked in a mausoleum in 04, XII had given her nightmares for a week.

Quite why Reginald has this hold on her imagination, she doesn’t know, but keeping it a secret is electrifying. Perhaps if she told Mom and Dad about her pre-bedtime reading, the spell would be broken. The journals concerning her Dad have been generally less interesting: he seemed to have been the perfect student and Reginald had only positive things to say about his skills (although was less impressed by his ‘‘impudence’). Nevertheless Aoife placed 05, VII back beside 05, VI and reached to pull the next journal out of line.

Reading roman numbers did not come naturally to Aoife, yet after a quick look at the previous journals, she realized something was wrong: 05, VII was followed immediately by 05 IX … there was one missing from when her father was eight.

For now, she took 05 IX and blinked back into her room…this was a mystery for another day.

Work is…not great right now. You’ve always been ambitious, (something Five regularly teases you for) and you worked hard over your twenty-year career. You’ve been at your new firm for three years now and you’ve got the fancy private office and a team of thirty subordinates. It’s busy and exhausting but it would be fine if the bullshit ended when you got to a certain rung on the ladder…but it actually seems to get worse. 

For one thing, it turned out that the VP of sales position you had just lost out on went to an old coworker of yours: a guy called Charlie. He had been a smug chauvinist when you knew him and didn’t seem to have changed. He’d acted surprised when he bumped into you, but something about his shit-eating attitude had made it clear how much he was loving this. It was clear he hadn’t forgotten the time Five broke his nose in the parking lot of your joint workplace. You’d noted with satisfaction that surgery had still been unable to correct the damage: his nose was permanently misshapen.

Also, you’d recently raised eyebrows by turning down a huge FMCG contract; no matter how much they were willing to pay, there was no way you were going to be involved  with it after you found out that it was the same people behind JUICED, trying to get back into the market after the poisoning scandal you and Five had uncovered. It was a cockroach of a company: surviving anything, no matter how severe.

So now, mentally drained, you lounge in the main living room, having dumped your stuff unceremoniously on the floor. You were absurdly grateful when Lila, unasked, had poured you both a glass of wine. Now, she lies at the other end of the sofa, trying to take your mind off it with talk about her son: the nephew you’d known since he was seven.

“He seems okay…” her mouth pulls downwards, “but I don’t think things are going well at the lab.”

You sigh, “why?”

“It’s your fault, really,” she says, giving you a slightly stern look, “I knew those researchers wouldn’t have a chance, but it’s you that got it into Santi’s head that he’s under some kind of moral obligation to all mankind or something.”

You look down…she’s not wrong. You were definitely very vocal in encouraging Santi’s attempts to ensure his healing powers could be harnessed by medical science.  

“He’s not obligated,” you say, guiltily, “but it is important to at least try.”

“Yeah, and now he’s put his entire life on hold to be some kind of bleeding-heart lab rat.”

There’s no real anger in her voice: Santi was always a sensitive boy and now he’s grown into a principled young man. Though Lila doesn’t share his ideals, she’s proud of him for having them.

A static buzz; a crash from the atrium and the sound of labored male breathing. Five.

You’re off the sofa almost before Lila’s registered something’s wrong. Five half kneels and half lies on the tiles, covered in sweat, gasping for breath and clutching his chest. His bike lies on top of him, his ankle caught in the chain. His eyes are wide, terrified: his breath comes in desperate, vocalized “hahs” low in his chest.

Immediately, you kneel behind him and place your body between his and the floor.You recognise the symptoms immediately.

“H-help,” another of those pained grunts of breath, “my heart.”

“It’s okay. It’s just a panic attack,” you say, holding your arms around his chest as Lila appears in the living room doorway, “you’ll be okay.”

“N-no!” beneath your arms, his heart kicks like a rabbit in a snare.

“It’s okay. It’s okay,” you soothe…but it’s worrying. He’s not had a panic attack like this in over ten years.

With another <ffssht>, Aoife appears, she looks from her Dad to you in panic.

“He’s okay; he’s just having a little turn. Can you get the bike off him, honey?”

“I-I-‘m fine,” he wheezes, trying to reassure his daughter without much success.

“Shh. Don’t try to talk. Just breathe. Count the seconds.”

As Aoife manages to remove the bike, you smile gratefully up at her.

“Good girl.”

She sits beside you both and takes Five’s sweat-slippy hand. As he slows his breath and tries to ride out the feeling of doom, he squeezes Aoife’s hand.

“You okay shitface?” says Lila, catching Five’s eye.

He nods, eyes still wide and heart still skittering.

“Shame,” she quips.

“When you’re ready, tell me what happened,” you whisper soothingly into his ear.

“Later,” he breathes.

When his breath is almost steady again and some part of the all-consuming fear recedes, he stands up shakily, holding one of your hands each. His spandex cycling gear whispers as his limbs unfold from one another.

“I’m fine,” he says, sounding more like himself, “I just had a little freakout.”

“Did you take your pills, papà?” Aoife hangs off his arm now, resting her head against his bicep.

“ Si cara, non preoccuparti. Starò bene. Ho bisogno di sdraiarmi.” he kisses the top of her head before translating for you and Lila, “I’ll be fine. I just need to lie down.”

“Do you want me to blink you?”

The bike shorts don’t have pockets, but he puts his hands to his hips as if they did, his body leaning forward in his characteristic swagger. Still breathing a little harder than normal, he gives her his cheeky, almost grimace of a smile and vanishes is a buzz of static.

His voice echos down the stairs from the 2nd flight,

“I’m not that broken down, sweetie!”

She laughs, grins farewell to Lila and blinks away herself. The sound of quiet drumming issuing down the stairs lets you know she’s back in her room. 

You turn to Lila, holding up a single hand in farewell.

“I should check on him. I probably won’t be down again tonight- I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?.”

“Night chicken

“Night”

You follow them to the attic. Apparently you’re the only one who uses the stairs these days. 

In the last five years, the attic has been completely renovated for your family’s exclusive use. Although you prefer to sit and be sociable downstairs, you have a family living space for when you want some privacy. It’s cosy: the sloping ceilings only add to the feeling of being pleasantly enclosed.

Aoife’s old bedroom has been turned into a space to do her homework and learn the theory of time travel while her new room, (another of the old storage rooms), is devoted to sleep and her drum kit. This had been a gift purchased by Lila. While it had clearly been designed to torture Five (in which you were collateral damage), Aoife had really excelled under Lila’s tutoring. This had delighted you all, (although Five pretended to Lila that he didn’t care), and now the parts of Aoife’s bedroom walls that weren’t covered with a psychedelic jungle, (courtesy of Uncle Klaus) were covered in posters of Cindy Blackman and Meg White with the White Stripes 

Before heading to your room, you drop in on Aoife.

“Hey. Sweetie?”

She scowls immediately. It irks you and not even how much she looks like Five when she pulls that face can soften it. 

“What?” she says, annoyed, “can’t you knock?”

“Excuse me young lady” you say, hearing yourself use the ‘mom’ voice that makes you feel a million years old, “I’m happy to knock in future and I should have done it this time, but I expect you to ask nicely .”

“I shouldn’t have to ask.” she snaps, “I’m thirteen, Mom. I deserve my privacy!”

She’s always been a daddy’s girl, but recently things have gotten worse between you and her. Five’s a brilliant Dad and he doesn’t shy away from discipline when needed, but you’ve had to play bad-cop with Aoife more often than him. You never exactly disagree on parenting but your moral standards for Aoife are higher than his. Last year, when she punched Whitaker Crane in the face for making fun of her sweatshirt, Five had given only a brief show of disapproval before asking whether she’d used her right or left hook. He’d left it down to you to lecture and ground her. 

Partially as a result of his attitude, Aoife is always on the offensive when it comes to you. Arguing with her is not what you came in here for so you take a slow, deep breath. 

“Are you okay, after all that?”

“Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Because that wasn’t nice to see.”

“It’s okay Mom.” she says, rolling her eyes, “I’m not a kid , I can deal with it.”

“It doesn’t matter what age you are, he’s your dad. That could still be scary.”

She rolls her eyes and pouts (something Five says she got from you) as she throws off your hand.

“I’m fine.”

“Okay sweetie,” you sigh, “but stop with the drumming please.”

“Mom,” (she draws out the word so it sounds like: ‘MoOoom’) “it’s like nine PM.”

“Yes, and your dad needs quiet!” you say, feeling the stern look on your face. “Don’t you have a math test you need to study for?”

She huffs out air like an angry horse and throws her drumsticks onto the bed in a slight show of temper.

“ Fine .” she says.

“Thank you.” you reply, eyebrows raised at the little display of temper, “now: goodnight, love you.”

She grunts. 

“Aoife?”

“Goodnight.” she says, grudgingly.

Aoife watches you sigh and withdraw before leaving the drumkit and crossing to her bed where Reginald’s notebook lies hidden between the sheets. Before her Dad appeared dramatically in the atrium, she’s been reading Reginald’s notes on him from when he was nine. They were strange: when he was seven, Reginald had still been writing about Five’s budding ‘chronokinetic’ abilities, but this edition of his journal had so far only mentioned his blink-accuracy. 

She knew that her Dad (like her) had been forbidden to time travel when he was young and the disastrous results when, at her age, he had travelled decades into the future and couldn’t return.  It seemed that something when her father was eight had put Reginald off developing this aspect of his power and made him institute this new rule.

For her part, Aoife has another pre-bedtime secret which developed a couple of months ago: almost as soon as she started reading 05, III. 

Grabbing the old Wonder Woman alarm clock still beside her bed, she pulls her covers up over her head and checks the time. It’s 21:09. She closes her eyes and tries to feel for it, reaching for that sensation for which she now has the words to describe: the polarity…the final jigsaw piece, searching for that sense of perfection.

There: the needle. The… polarity . And somewhere underneath (or maybe within?) the drifting dial that reminded her of a protractor. She wills it to reverse.

Is it happening? She opens her eyes a crack.

21:10…so no.

Taking a deep breath, she closes her eyes again and accesses that intuitive sense of perfection. There it is… there . Back inside or back underneath, she visualizes herself grabbing and pulling: molding time like clay…and then it happens. She feels it again, like when Dad took her with him. The air around her becomes thicker: her entire body fills with static, like stepping through a waterfall of cool electricity. Somehow, she knows when to stop.

As the feeling dissipates, she opens her eyes again, heart beating madly.

It’s 21:05.

Tag list: (please comment to be added or removed.) @dilfjohhny , @sunsunhe, @w4stedtr4sh, @nevbrooke-555, @theredvelvetbitch, @td-miley01, @five-hxrgreeves, @rorygi1more, @jamiebower88 (sorry for clogging up your notifs with my double post, taglist pals!)

Chapter 2 >>

Masterpost

Alternatively, join me on A03.  Here is a link to the whole series

[astrojulia]

Which house system do you prefer Julia?

I vehemently use Topocentric

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"Is the chosen one truly the best? Why this specific option over others? What rationale supports this selection? Are the reasons rooted in astrology or astronomy? Could it be the conviction of its proponents that swayed our decision?" These questions, first posed by Gustave L. Brahy in 1938, remain remarkably relevant. Each astrological house system has its unique merits, yet I strongly advocate for the Topocentric system, and I am eager to explain why.

You see, astrological house systems fall into three main categories: Spatial (like Campanus and Regiomontanus), Ecliptic (including Whole Signs and Equal Houses), and Temporal (like Placidus and Koch). These systems were crafted by scholars and mathematicians, each attempting to address the shortcomings of earlier models. The Ecliptic systems revolve around the ecliptic plane, while Temporal systems focus on how much sidereal time a specific degree needs to journey from the Ascendant to the Midheaven (that's the day semi-arc) and from the Ascendant to the IC (the night semi-arc) arc). This distinct focus is what leads to the varying house divisions we see in these systems.

It's important to note that the development of various house systems primarily revolves around mathematical and astronomical models for division, rather than stemming from astrologers' dissatisfaction with the interpretations.

Yeah, every system has its own limitations. For example, the differing pace at which signs ascend on the horizon due to the ecliptic's obliquity (23° 27') is something to consider. While this might not be a significant concern within the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, once we venture away from the ecliptic—particularly with higher latitudes—the temporal start showing distortions, resulting in unevenly sized houses, in this case we have limits with the Temporal Systems.

But in the world of Astrology, which is built on the natural movements and positions of celestial bodies, the Spartial and Ecliptic house system kind of stands out as an outlier. This system is at odds with the innate connection between movements and effects within the zodiac. Its adoption creates incongruities in the logical-mathematical-physical underpinning of the astrological model. If we entertain the idea of designing divisions that lack inherent kinematic relationships, it prompts the question: why meticulously calculate the positions of the other celestial bodies if we are manually controling its position anyway?

Houses, according to Placidus, are not spatial but temporal objects, as it is a method based on the measurement of movement and time. Placidus argued that houses, like life, have movement and develop in stages. Hence he considered the movement of the astral elements into their divisions. The topocentric system can be seen as the improved version of Placidus for reasons that I will talk about below. Furthermore, Placidus' calculation is not perfect because projecting a three-dimensional figure onto a two-dimensional surface is a big problem but it is the most widespread (to be honest, every system suffers from this problem).

I learned in my course to use the Topocentric (or "local space") system is based on the concept of making house divisions according to the individual's specific location on Earth (different from Placidus). In this approach, the houses are calculated based on the actual horizon and meridian lines of the observer's birthplace, taking into account the latitude and longitude of that location. This means that the angles of the houses may vary for different locations, making it a highly personalized approach. The Topocentric system seeks to create a more accurate representation of the sky as it appears from the individual's unique vantage point. This system is like having seen the sky at the time of your birth and not modifying the location of the planets as whole signs does and also not changing the place where you were born, what placidus does (Placidus system uses the diurnal motion (rotation of Earth) to calculate the divisions).

Note: when I don't have the option of using topocentric, I use placidus and when I have to do the calculation in my head, then I use whole signs.

Extra Sources:10 métodos de divisão das casas astrológicas;Dez métodos de divisão de casas;As Casas Astrológicas;O Problema dos Sistemas de Casas; House Systems;House (astrology).

[thevalleyisjolly]

Rewrite of the Timeless Child concept to keep what I feel are some of its strengths (the idea of Gallifrey as an Omelas that's rewritten its own history to obscure its exploitative foundations; opening up story opportunities with forgotten regenerations) and addressing some of its weaker areas (making the Doctor even more secretly and innately special; keeping the Doctor's sense of self-identity static throughout their regenerations instead of grounded in their choices and experiences; some logistical questions about the reconfiguration of Shobogan society into pretty well established Time Lord lore):

Long ago, when the inhabitants of Gallifrey still called themselves Shobogans and they were newly venturing out into the wider universe for the first time, a colony ship meant to travel to the next galaxy over fell through a rift in time and space and was lost. For generations, the Shobogans thought that was that and regretfully wrote the colonists off as dead.

Several hundred years later, an explorer named Tecteun travels to the edge of the universe in a much more advanced ship and finds the wreckage of the colony ship around a monument underneath a wormhole. Oddly, there is a small group of children living amongst the ruins but no trace, living or dead, of any adults. The number of children is the same as the number of children recorded as being on the colony ship, though none of them match any passenger descriptions, and none of them have any memories of anything other than the small planet they're currently on. Tecteun scans them and while their base genetic structure reads as Shobogan, there are some fascinating anomalies she can't make sense of which seem to have something to do with the wormhole.

She brings the children back to Gallifrey where they collectively become known as the Timeless Children. Opinions are divided on whether they're descendants of the colonists on the ship or if they're somehow the same children from hundreds of years ago and if so, what might have happened to them to enable their survival for so long.

Tecteun begins conducting highly unethical experiments to decode the anomalies she detected. Along the way, she discovers that the children have gained a high sensitivity to temporal energy and that their cells contain some sort of regenerative quality which should give them a much longer lifespan than the average Shobogan. The biggest "discovery" happens when one of the children falls off a cliff while playing, and regenerates into a new body in front of Tecteun's eyes.

Using this knowledge, Tecteun ramps up her experiments on the children until she figures out how to reproduce the secret of regeneration. Most of the children die as a result of experiments about what conditions would cause or prevent a regeneration. Receiving a fatal wound to both hearts, for example, or complete destruction of the body will prevent regeneration. In the end, only one child survives the gruesome experiments and outright murder - the child who first fell off the cliff.

Inspired by their new regenerative abilities and awareness of temporal lines, the Shobogans refocus the bulk of their scientific and societal development towards the mastery of time. This is eventually fully realized by enterprising scientists such as Rassilon, Omega, and The Other. Having gained the power of the Time Vortex and the Eye of Harmony, the Shobogans rename themselves as "Time Lords" and fully dedicate their society and culture around this theme of temporal mastery.

The child is largely forgotten by everyone. Eventually they are snatched up by the Division as an agent. They don't use the name of "Doctor" and they are seldom trusted alone with any TARDIS, but they seem to enjoy having the company, they show a delighted wonder in seeing the universe, and to the Division's occasional frustration, they will drop everything no matter how important or pressing to help a child who is crying or alone. After an unspecified amount of time and several memory wipes, they vanish even from the Division.

Coincidentally around this era, one of the official founders of Gallifrey, the Other, quietly disappears without any fuss. It is unclear if they died or were lost or are still living somewhere as a recluse or were even assassinated, but it very easily (almost too easily) falls out of everyone's minds.

Some generations later, the House founded by The Other gains a new child of somewhat vague origins. The official position is that they were Loomed like any other proper Time Lord, although there are scurrilous rumours that one of their parents is actually a human, while some within the House itself believe that the child is a reincarnation of The Other due to certain dreams and memories in their mind. Whatever the truth, they thoroughly disappoint everyone when they're brought to the Untempered Schism for initiation and instead of being inspired or even driven mad, they just run away.

Many years after that, an old man and his granddaughter steal a TARDIS (or maybe a TARDIS steals an old man and his granddaughter) and they run off into time and space.

[ceresfromnationstates]

Henry's condensed backstory (Fan canon)

Related post: Henry's ref sheet.

Born in the city of Carlsbad, New Mexico, Henry was born in late 1991 to a middle income family who had just moved from Provo 1 year after he was born. An only child, Henry was fortunate enough to have a loving family that rarely gets into fights even to this day.

From a young age, Henry was known to be a quiet kid and also a troublemaker, but despite the numerous bruises and disciplinary actions he got for his behavior, he continued doing what he did best, mainly out of the sheer fun and thrill he gets from it. Though Henry did have a bit of an unsavory reputation, he also formed a close circle of friends with his other schoolmates and neighborhood kids, something that he would strive to uphold for as long as he could.

By middle school, Henry started moving away from causing trouble and focus more on making friends, as well as learning to stand up to the tougher kids. He also developed a knack for picking up abandoned money that he found and would later use to buy things whenever he's short on pocket money, over time, he would go on to even picking pennies on sight. By now, his greed is now growing.

Henry now knows how to live on his own by the time he graduated to high school, meaning that he could do more things in private without his parents' prying eyes. He had moved on from taking just pennies on the ground to small-time theft, mostly small items from stores or somebody's unattended trinkets in one place or another, suffice it to say, he was never ashamed of it.

It was also at this time where he vividly remembers experiencing his first temporal phenomenon, what he describes as "the same day repeating over, and over, and over, and over again, but increasingly fast forwarded every time I wake up again". Though he'd considered the possibility of it being a very realistic dream, Henry adamantly believes that the event was a temporal phenomenon of sorts, though he could not explain how he acquired the number of supernatural abilities he would soon have.

By the time he went to college in Austin, Henry's habitual stealing had died down, as he was more occupied with his studies than he does with the former. At this time, he also met his two close friends Calvin and Chris, where they would continue being close friends even today.

A year after he finished college, Henry is now 19 and back in Arizona, now living on his own in Phoenix. Unfortunately his part-time job didn't pay him very well and he is short on cash, so he had to resort to stealing. This attempt failed, and he soon found himself in West Mesa Penitentiary, where he would somehow escape after 9 months spent in there.

Some time after his close brush with the law, Henry swears to never commit thievery again. This wouldn't last very long as just 1½ years later, he would steal the Tunisian Diamond and reap his ill-gotten rewards. Henry even has the audacity to call the heist "The single most greatest achievement in my life as a petty criminal.".

Eventually, he would be recruited by the Federal Government to assist Cpt. Hubert Galeforce in taking down the Toppat Clan's airship division from the inside. Afterwards, he was granted amnesty by the government for his service.

Life would go on normally for another 4 years before he was taken from his home to rural British Columbia to be brought in front of the warden of The Wall and imprisoned, where he also met with Ellie, where the both of then would go on to spark an all out riot in the complex and successfully flee from it in the process.

2 days after the inmate outbreak, The Wall is put under the control of the Canadian Forces and Royal Canadian Mounted Police, consisting of a detachment of the Canadian Army, Royal Canadian Navy as well as several elements of the RCMP. After this, chaos energy levels in southwestern British Columbia have dropped significantly.

Henry and Ellie, who by now had crossed into South America and have been closely followed by surviving Wall Group elements had intended to join the remnants of the Toppat Clan and give the Romanian Ruby back to them, but at the last second, defected to U.S. forces and took down the Toppats once and for all. Both Henry and Ellie are then officially pardoned by the Government and offered monetary compensation.

It is because of Henry's actions that the last remnants of the Toppat Clan are now scattered across Europe and North America, and Wall Group are now under investigation by Interpol.

It has been one year since. Life for Henry and Ellie have been relatively normal ever since their escapade in South America.

Or is it?

Masterpost | Henry's main page

[arabian-bloodstream]

La'an & Kirk: A Theory

I have a theory about La'an and Kirk!

La'an and Kirk actually first met in their first alternate timeline. In the first season finale, 1x10, "Quality of Mercy," this timeline was created after Pike prevented the death of some Starfleet cadets. La'an transferred from the Operations division to the Command division. She reached the rank of Commander and was assigned to the… wait for it! USS Farragut under, oh yes, the command of Captain James T. Kirk.

So, that is Timeline Number One.

Then in season 02, 2x03, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow," La'an is bum-rushed by a man in a business suit who hands her a device and tells her to save the bridge. She goes to the bridge where the captain is James T. Kirk, but it's not her bridge (obviously, no Pike), and he's not the captain of her Enterprise in her universe (again, duh, no Pike). We are now in another alternate timeline. The Vulcans and Romulans and Klingons and everyone hates each other and cats and dogs are all fighting! It's war! War! War!

So, this is Timeline Number Two.

Jim reaches for the device in La'an's hand and activates it and they are transported to Earth 21st century. They steal clothing, play chess, hang out in a hotel room, engage in car chases, visit a new, old friend, save the future, and develop the feels for one another, have a kissy-face, and then Kirk dies before La'an does what she has to do (i.e., letting her evil future ancestor live), and she gets transported back to her timeline. La'an sends a subspace call to Kirk to say 'Hey!' -- as they had never spoken or met prior -- but then is visited by a temporal bigwig who tells her no telling anyone, that's a big no-no!

That be Timeline Number Three.

In the current timeline in which La'an normally occupies, Lieutenant James T. Kirk comes on over to the Enterprise and he and La'an officially meet. Subspace harmonies happen and truths do be spilled in song, so La'an decides to break the big timey-wimey no-no to Kirk before a 17th sea shanty can do the deed. He too feels the connection, but alas, his on again/off again girlfriend is on because she's preggers. So, welps!

And this, folks, is Timeline Number Four.

So, my theory!

Kirk and La'an have now been thrown together in not one, not two, not three, but FOUR different alternate timelines. That's a lot of timelines for two people to be linked together. Now, admittedly, the two in "TATAT" are tied together, but they are still two separate timelines. The kicker is the one from "Quality of Mercy." Another one? Really?! So, yeah. And, it has been pointed out, if you take a gander at her uniform, it looks as if she is not only in command but as if she is his First Officer, his Number One! Uh, yeah.

However, before we dive into that, let's look deeper at the conversation between the real timeline Kirk and La'an which I feel has been misrepresented overall from what I've read. The overall take I've seen is that Kirk and La'an are dunzos because of that convo, and I dunno, I just didn't even remotely get that. Kirk made things very clear, and based on what we know about life in this era, other things can be pretty clearly inferred, and based on what we know from The Wrath of Khan we know other things.

So, let's do some numbering.

Life is complicated.

In other words, the fact that he has a girlfriend who is pregnant is "complicated," not good or happy, but rather "complicated."

She is his "sometimes" girlfriend.

That in and of itself is NEVER how one should describe their significant other. Like EVA!

Carol is intensely dedicated to her job on Starfleet One.

He tends to not stay in one place for long which is a growing problem since Carol is pregnant.

We are putting these two together because Carol is intensely dedicated to her job ON STARFLEET ONE, while Jim tends to NOT STAY IN ONE PLACE LONG. Ie., yeah, it's complicated. This is basically a bright, neon glaring sign that this is a relationship that is not for long. Like at all. (Even if we didn't already know that.)

So, OK, in this era, it's not really easy to get pregnant what with modern technology and medicine, right?

Carol is his "sometimes" girlfriend who ain't leaving Starfleet One, while her "sometimes" boyfriend goes flying all over the place, and she just happens to get preggers? Hmm, OK, then. We know from "The Wrath of Khan" that when David shows up and finds out about Kirk, Kirk, of course already knows, and tells Carol, "I stayed away like YOU wanted me to." Mmhmm!

So, with all that said, I'm speculating that Carol either (a) got herself pregnant to make Kirk stay on Starfleet One or (b) was so busy science'ing up she got preggers. Either way, being pregnant it came down to he needed to make a choice choose her and his kid, or her career and the stars. And Kirk chose his career and the stars. And that is what is going to come out… and La'an will be there through the fall-out because there likely will be fall-out from like Sam, and Kirk just feeling guilty and all that.

But what about the timelines? Well, so my theory is that Kirk and La'an have a relationship, happiness, blah blah blah, while he's on the Farragut, she's on Enterprise, etc., and then as we get near the end of SNW's run, some big choice has to happen. In order to save lives or some such, La'an makes a sacrifice, saving peeps, but in the process, everyone in the current timeline forgets her. Thus, no mention of La'an when they meet Khan, no mention of her and Kirk, or basically just her at all in TOS.

But for her sacrifice, she gets:

TADA!! Timeline Number Five….

In this one, she and Kirk live happily ever after. And her family didn't die at the hands of the Gorn. So on and so forth.

Or maybe this is all just wishful thinking, hahahahaha!

[discworldwitches]

i know the theory of evolution has been used to justify eugenics but what do you mean it's tied to pseudoscience (besides pop science and racist understandings of it)? and like, what are the actual alternatives then?

evolution as in the actual phenomenon cannot & does not affirm the idea that certain ways of being, behaviours, bodies, etc. are “degenerate” or “primitive” but the theory can and was applied in this pseudoscientific way (ie social darwinism). so what i am referring to is pseudoscientific applications of evolution such as “race science” (which we referred to racial pseudoscience or race pseudoscience in some of my upper level classes in my degree).

i wrote a whole big reply but i went back to steven angelides and he explains it best.

note, bisexual was initially coined (krafft-ebing. 1886) to refer to intersex individuals and bisexuality was referred to as “psychic h*rmaphroditism” (cw for use of h slur)

The newly emerging registers of sex/gender and sexuality were inextricably entwined through the hegemonic discourse of evolutionary theory. Determined to reorder dominant social hierarchies, scientists explained deviations of normative being and behavior in terms of a hetero-teleological scale of evolutionary development. Blacks, homosexuals, children, and women were situated at lower points on this scale than white heterosexual men, not able (or not yet able) to reach the highest stage of (hu)man evolution. The category of bisexuality played a central role in this linear model, and thus in the epistemological configuration of the category of sexuality (Angelides, 2001). The human differences of race, age, gender and sexuality were thought to be the effect of a specific temporal and spatial relation to what evolutionists and sexologists referred to as primordial hermaphroditism or embryological bisexuality. Believed to be the earliest form of human ancestry, primordial hermaphroditism, or bisexuality, as Frank Sulloway (1979, p. 179) points out, became the evolutionists “missing bisexual link.” This was confirmed by recapitulation theory, which posited that the human embryo repeated “in its own life history the life history of the race, passing through the lower forms of its ancestors on its way to maturity” (Russett, 1989, p. 50). In other words, as Charles Darwin (1927 [1871], p. 525) posited, every individual “bears rudiments of various accessory parts, appertaining to the reproductive system, which properly belong[s] to the opposite sex.” This meant that blacks, women, children and homosexuals were thought to be the effect of an unsuccessful evolution, closer to, or retaining many more elements of, the originary (pre-historic) bisexuality of the human race and individual embryo. Put differently, an individual’s distance from this state of primordial bisexuality dictated the degree of one’s evolutionary advancement. Within this framework, therefore, the axes of race, age, gender and sexuality were defined and aligned by their very relation to bisexuality.

However, bisexuality posed a problem for sexological discourse. In the attempt to catalogue human sexual behavior, sexologists were con- fronted with the dilemma of containing its variant forms within the nascent and rigid oppositional categories of hetero- and homosexuality. After all, even in his 1897 publication, Sexual Inversion, Havelock Ellis (1897, p. 133) acknowledged the “person who is organically twisted into a shape that is more fitted for the exercise of the inverted than of the normal sexual impulse, or else equally fitted for both” (emphasis added). Similarly, Krafft-Ebing (1965, pp. 373-385) had identified what he called “psychical hermaphroditism.” Yet, sexology was unable to account for bisexuality as a form of sexuality. For instance, on the one hand, Ellis (1928 [1901], p. 88) claimed that “[t]here would seem to be a broad and simple grouping of all sexually functioning persons into three comprehensive divisions: the heterosexual, the bisexual, and the homosexual.” Yet, on the other hand, he affirmed like Krafft-Ebing, that “[m]ost of the bisexual prefer their own sex . . . [and that this] would seem to indicate that the bisexuals may really be inverts.” “In any case,” stated Ellis (1928 [1901], p. 278), “bisexuality merges imperceptibly into simple inversion.”

The difficulty for sexologists constrained by a linear logic of temporal succession was how to reconcile bisexuality as at one and the same time a biological cause (embryological bisexuality) and a psychological effect (bisexual identity). Ultimately, bisexuality as a form of sexuality or identity had to be refused in the present tense.5 That is to say that bisexuality always had to be somewhere else–in the embryo, the sphere of human prehistory–or something else–either really heterosexual or homosexual. It could never be a stable sexual identity in the here and now otherwise the epistemological integrity of the very categories of man, woman, heterosexual and homosexual would be thrown into doubt (Angelides, 2001).

steve angelides, historicizing bisexuality p. 130-132

@librarycards tagging u bc this relates to ur tags

[timekeepertwister]

Operation: Time Twister - Case 1: Compiled Control

🥖 Briefing: Support Division, this is your first major case as part of “Operation: Time Twister” and definitely not the last. Unlike the Orientation, which had a set narrative from beginning to end as it was in the past prior to the formation of this task force, you will have your chance to influence the story between posted Files. Likewise, this story will be a lot more complicated as turbulence from other temporal regions beyond Earthbread is to be expected. However, if collateral damage occurs, you will be held accountable for any expenses. Here are the immediate missions that are part of this Case:

Locate Croissant Cookie’s group consisting of her, Walnut Cookie, Almond Cookie, and Roguefort Cookie within the Past Dark Cacao Kingdom and return everyone back to their proper times

Track down the locations of Cinnamon Cookie, Wizard Cookie, and Cream Puff Cookie to return them to [12/24/2020 - PET-EB-C/W] safely

Retrieve loose fragments of the Blue Cheese Watch where possible

Follow up on newfound evidence regarding White Lily Cookie, Beast-Yeast, Lilywhite Space, and the Lilywhite Capital

Locate and retrieve any of White Lily Cookie’s Soulstones if possible

——————————————————————————————

🍓🍰 Disaster Response Division Memo: A new time rift has torn open in a far-eastern region of Outer Earthbread within the Primary Earthbread Timeline. Detected temporal signatures suggest that this rift was caused by loose parts of the Blue Cheese Watch, although more evidence is needed. Intelligence reports suggest that at least three people have fallen into this rift. Be on the lookout for these people who may not appear as Cookies and more likely to look like the Witch. We will be sending Strawberry Shortcake Cookie, the High Priestess of the Pomegranate Village, and a staff member of the railway transportation services of the World of Dreams to lead the detachment’s investigations, the latter of whom were commissioned as support. As such, here are the additional missions posed by the Disaster Response Division for your team:

Assist in the gathering of testimonies from local townspeople from the region

Identify any and all immediately misplaced individuals from this region

Locate misplaced individuals that have been sent to Earthbread after entering the time rift

Return all misplaced individuals to their respective region

Create a comprehensive report on how the time rift opened in the region

Stabilize the time rift before it causes additional damage within the region

Record all individuals involved on the Subject Roster

——————————————————————————————

Case Investigations

Investigation A: The Frost Miko Incidents (Active)

Investigation B: Misplaced Magicians

Investigation C: Y3 Intelligence

Ongoing Side Investigation: The Resolvers’ Incident - Courtesy of the Disaster Response Division. Their investigation’s progress will be listed within the individual investigations.

———————————————————————————————

Supervisory Memos

Timeguard Keepers are on standby for dispatch, and we plan to send three of them. Suggest via the ask box a parallel presence of someone whom you want to see from the canon lineup as a Keeper. Selections will happen behind the scenes regardless.

Support has been requested from forward field agents. It is now up to you to service these requests at your discretion. You as the Support Division can now partially influence the story by sending asks between Case Files according to incoming requests.

The pinned post has been updated to organize AU terminology and tags and to add a few more.

The Subject Roster, Space-Time Atlas, and Inquiry Master List are under development. Remaining Subject Records that have not been processed and made available to you during the Orientation will be processed after the publication of the Subject Roster.

Subject Roster - Under Development

Space-Time Atlas - Under Development

Inquiry Master List - Under Development

[secularprolifeconspectus]

The Mind Starts at Conception

Every abortion risks the creation of a bodily traumatized abortion survivor. The body remembers what our conscious mind does not record. It seems ridiculous to suggest to a survivor that what happened did not happen to them. Why?

Even if the body isn't harmed physically by an abortion, the stress still registers in the body-mind. You CAN stress out an embryo, literally. But then aren't epigenetics (inherited stress) part of a mind? I think so. That doesn't mean I think every cell with genes is a mind.

Gametes cease to exist upon fusion. They don't go through a stage of development; they become an entirely new thing. When their substances change there is a break in continuity between the gametes and the human minds to whom the gametes contribute genes and material. Meanwhile, a human organism doesn't cease to be at any point between fertilization and death, substantially or metaphysically.

A gamete not only ceases to be in physical substance at fertilization, (sperm in particular more or less dissolve,) but also metaphysically, in identity. For a lone gamete, the possibilities for which humans would inherit its DNA and material is an infinite set. It is unspecific. The zygote, on the other hand, is limited to about 4 potentialities. They are a specific, individual set. After the primitive streak, that set converges. Ergo, the set of a gamete is divergent, the set of a zygote is convergent.

"Markov blankets" is a theory related to the Free Energy Principle of Karl Friston that the mind is statistically boundaried to its most complete set. In other words, we can make a reasonable guess that a mind is definitely in some locations, not others.

I think we have good reason to suspect that the boundary lies somewhere between where the subsets of convergent series end (all the proprietary cells of the new person) and the divergent series begin (gametes). (We treat gamete cells more as 'your property' than as 'you'.) You could fairly speculate that the donor gamete MIGHT be in an individual's markov blanket. But if it is, it appears to be a statistical outlier. (One of these things is not like the other = outlier.) We're not unreasonable in saying gametes fall outside the line of best fit.

This shift from divergent series to convergent series seems like an extremely reasonable place to draw the metaphysical boundary of "I end and you begin". Like drawing the fault lines where two geological plates shift in different directions, but mereological! Of course, I could be wrong. If you can show me that the sets I am including pre-brain birth are meaningfully metaphysically different than the sets post-brain birth, then I'll reconsider my mereological stance. Perhaps the blanket is smaller than I think. But perhaps not.

When I ask myself, "which subsets of markov blankets act within this surprise-minimizing system" (a bare-bones definition of an individual mind,) I cannot say the donor gamete is clustered with the whole. On its own the gamete minimizes surprise in singularity, not individuality—individual, here referring to indivisible.

When I cut my hair, I don't look down and say "that's me on the floor". That hair isn't contributing to my system's perceptions in order to minimize surprise. I also wouldn't say that about my eggs if I froze them. They're divisible! But if you touch the living skin connected to my surprise-minimizing system, I'd say, "stop touching me". Not divisible. My zygote? Not divisible! Its perceptions are continuous with my system. If you tamper with a gamete, infinite individuals could inherit the effects. But once the tampered gamete fuses into a zygote, the effects are limited to an individual set of about 4 specific people. (4 because that's about how many times an embryo can bud a twin.)

An individual set of people in one blanket? You know what's cool about this?? This means up to about four people can exist as an individual set simultaneously in a single spatial and temporal location!! That's fucking neat. Yes, while these people's specific markov blankets will eventually diverge, they originate with convergent overlap. In this way, identical siblings can be said to LITERALLY share a mind, to some extent! Their markov blankets overlap!!

We cannot draw the boundary line for personhood based on substance, location, time, or ability alone. I'm drawing upon bayesian logic to make metaphysical inferences. Ergo, the pertinent question to me is not "is this a mind". Yes, I think my surprise-minimizing system, my sophisticated ability to think in predictions, is continuous with and contingent upon the rudimentary perceptive ability of my zygote.

The question is rather, why should you care? I think you should care about minds that are not like yours, but if all keeps going well, will be. I think you should care about minds that would be like yours, but all did not go well, so they are not. I think you should have unconditional regard for human minds in all forms.

[vxidlight]

General Biography

Iota and Visionary are the same person. Iota is 1-4; Visionary is 5-beyond.

Iota 1: Iota one attended the Academy at the same time as the Doctor and the Master. She graduated with a first in Biology and earned her licence to fly a TARDIS. Growing up, she saw visions of the future which earned her the nickname, the Visionary. She went on to become a medical student in the Acadia Hospital and travelled around in an intern program to Gallifrey's allies offering aid. She eventually returned to Gallifrey and became a doctor, then later a researcher at the Arcadian Hospital. Her life came to an end due to a sabotaged experiment in her lab causing an explosion that caused her regeneration and the death of her lab assistant.

Iota 2: Put on trial for the murder of her assistant, Iota faced a dire situation. Later proven innocent when Iota returned to the Hospital, she found she no longer enjoyed her work as a medic. Unfortunately for her, she was assigned to the Castellan's Guard so the Castellan could keep an eye on her developing visions. Eventually, Iota worked up the courage to leave and was offered to join the CIA working for their Paradox Prevention division. There she stayed until the end of her life when she was taken before Rassilon who demanded she be his Visionary for the Time War, refusing, she was forced to regenerate.

Iota 3: Iota!Three fought in the Time War as a doctor alongside her brother, Ganymede.

Alice: Alice is the human version of Iota!Three. When Iota's TARDIS was struck by a temporal bomb, the TARDIS was ripped open and Iota looked into it. The TARDIS granted her wish to run away and forget the Time War, so the TARDIS placed her DNA and memories behind a temporal lock designed to unlock when a Time Lord found her one day, made her a baby and placed her with a human family. Alice grew up and all was well until she was eight years old when the DNA portion of the lock broke. Alice denies she's an alien and clings to her human life.

Iota 4: After sacrificing her life, Iota regenerates into her fourth body. Lost and without her TARDIS, Iota struggles to adapt to normal life as an alien. It isn't long, however, before she discovers something wrong and it's because of her TARDIS dying. Risking her life to save both the Universe and her TARDIS, Iota brings her nearly dead ship back to reality, begins repairs, eventually fixes it, and returns to Alice's time to find her daughter. Finding her daughter missing, Iota begins searching only to find her and herself become infected with a parasite that slowly breaks down her mind by feeding on her darker impulses. Eventually, she is shot before she can make a grave mistake. Refusing to regenerate, she is cryogenically frozen "in case she changes her mind".

Iota 5: Iota wakes up in an empty room with her an one other "person". This person makes a deal with her - make up for what she's done or become Death's Companion. Not wanting to experience more death, Iota agrees to the former and wakes up in a newly regenerated body. Not knowing if her experience was real or a hallucination, Iota took it seriously. She laid low and became a doctor, helping where she could and exploring when she didn't. She sometimes took on companions.

Iota 6: After drowning in a pool of sentient acid, Iota's new body was an adventurer. Much like the Doctor, she kept her promise and helped others in bold and often daring ways. She takes on companions and is rarely alone. Six eventually becomes trapped in a parallel world and chooses to stay with her lover but is forced to leave when it's discovered her cells are breaking down due to being unable to tolerate the background radiation of that universe. She is forced to return home, but she is forced to regenerate due to the damage done.

Iota 7: After regenerating, Iota and her companions find themselves in another parallel world that looks like Gallifrey but is run under a dictatorship and ravished by plague. She and her friends struggle to help save her parallel homeworld. Later, Iota is shown a vision by her parallel self that she will need to go into her Gallifrey's past to save the parallel Gallifrey from destruction creating a fixed point. Iota goes into Gallfrey's past and is found and punished by Rassilon. Seven regenerates due to damage from Rassilon's glove when she uses her visions to force Rassilon into a regeneration at the end of the Time War.

Iota 8: Iota was saved from death by the entity who granted her the visions, guilty the entity said this was their apology. Iota ended up in the 49th century. After being put on trial and acquitted of the charges, Iota teamed up with the Earth Police and later became one of the leaders who started the Time Agency. Getting restless, Iota built a Time Suit to travel in time and space to build a machine to recover her TARDIS from a parallel world.

[jordanianroyals]

14 August 2023: King Abdullah II participated in a trilateral summit with Egypt President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in New El Alamein City, and discussed the latest developments concerning the Palestinian cause.

In a joint communiqué released following the summit, the leaders called for ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian Territories within a clear timeframe.

King Abdullah and President El Sisi highlighted their support for President Abbas’ efforts to defend the interests of the Palestinians and secure them with international protection.

The three leaders agreed that resolving the Palestinian issue and reaching just and comprehensive peace is a strategic option, and a regional and international need, the communiqué said.

The summit also called on Israel to adhere to international law, and to respect its commitments as an occupying power in the Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem. (Source: Petra)

The leaders stressed the need for Israel to stop its aggression against occupied cities in the West Bank, noting that Israel should also release Palestinian funds it has frozen without a legal justification.

The three countries denounced the ongoing and escalating illegal Israeli measures that violate the rights of the Palestinians and undermine the two-state solution, according to the communiqué.

The leaders called for an end to intimidation and terrorism attacks by Israeli settlers and extremist groups, stressing that violators must be held accountable.

Turning to the holy sites in Jerusalem, the three leaders denounced violations of the historical and legal status quo in the holy city, urging an end to the frequent storming of Al Aqsa Mosque/Al Haram Al Sharif.

The Egyptian and Palestinian presidents reiterated the importance of the historical Hashemite Custodianship of Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, commending its role in safeguarding the Arab identity of the city.

The three leaders expressed their complete rejection of attempts for temporal and spatial division of Al Aqsa Mosque.

They agreed to maintain coordination within this trilateral framework to support other frameworks aimed at activating international efforts seeking to fulfil the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, Director of the Office of His Majesty Jafar Hassan, General Intelligence Department Director Maj. Gen. Ahmad Husni, Jordan’s Ambassador in Cairo Amjad Adaileh, and a number of senior Egyptian and Palestinian officials attended the summit.

[leebird-simmer]

Drugs & Behavior Week 1

Intro

drugs: chemical compounds administered to produce a desired change in the body.

pharmacology:

(a) study of drug action on the body AKA pharmacodynamics

(b) study of the fate of drugs in the body AKA pharmacokinetics

psychoactive drugs: affect behavior by altering the functions of the nervous system.

psychopharmacology: study of how drugs affect the nervous system and behavior.

What You Will Need to Know for the Exam

Difference between the Central Nervous System (CNS) and Peripheral Nervous System (PNS), components of each system

Difference between somatic and autonomic nervous systems

Difference between sensory and motor function, definitions of each

Definition of plasticity

Explain the three different cuts to view brain structures: horizontal, sagittal, coronal

Three brain divisions based on surface features: cerebrum, cerebellum, brain stem

Three brain divisions based on brain development: forebrain, midbrain, hindbrain

Components of forebrain:

A. End brain

1. Cortex

2. Corpus callosum

3. Limbic system

4. Basal ganglia

5. Olfactory bulb

B. Between brain

1. Thalamus

2. Hypothalamus

Components of midbrain:

A. Tectum

B. Tegmentum

Components of hindbrain:

A. Pons

B. Cerebellum

C. Medulla

Divisions of the cortex:

1. Frontal lobe

2. Temporal lobe

3. Parietal lobe

4. Occipital lobe

Difference between sulci and gyri (i.e. which is a bump and which is a groove?)

Three areas of cortex:

1. primary motor cortex

2. primary sensory cortex

3. association cortex

Which brain structure can be severed as a last-resort treatment for severe epilepsy?

Structures of the limbic system:

1. Amygdala

2. Hippocampus

3. Cingulate cortex

Structures of basal ganglia:

1. Striatum

2. Globus pallidus

3. Nucleus accumbens

Difference between thalamus and hypothalamus, including locations and their major functions

What is the function of the pineal gland?

Structures of midbrain:

1. Substantia nigra

2. Ventral tegmental area (VTA)

3. Periaqueductal gray (PAG)

What happens when there is cerebellar dysfunction? Is there complete paralysis?

What is the medulla’s role in respiration?

What drugs suppress respiratory control?

How does the medulla act as a vomiting center?

Definition of a ventricle; know the four ventricle locations

Why is CSF so important?

What causes hydrocephalus?

Difference between cranial and spinal nerves

How many segments does the spinal cord consist of?

Major functions of the spinal cord

How is either the gray or white matter organized in the spinal cord?

What are the functions of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)?

Difference between the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic divisions of ANS:

(A) Which is rest & digest vs. fight or flight?

(B) Know general body controls with each division (i.e. heart rate, digestion, etc.)

What do neurotransmitters are released by the ANS?

[argumate]

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s February 21 address to the Russian Federal Assembly did not articulate specific goals or intentions for the war in Ukraine, instead reinforcing several long-standing rhetorical lines in an effort to buy Putin more space and time for a protracted war. Putin claimed that Russia began the “special military operation” in Ukraine a year ago in order to protect people in Russia’s “historical lands,” ensure Russian domestic security, remedy the threat posed by the Ukrainian “neo-Nazi” regime that he claims has been in place since 2014, and protect the people of Donbas. Putin virulently accused the collective West of arming Ukraine and deploying bases and biolabs close to Russian borders, thereby unleashing the war on Russia. Putin falsely analogized the Ukrainian Armed Forces with various Nazi divisions and thanked the Russian Armed Forces for their efforts in fighting the Nazi threat. The emphasis of a significant portion of the speech was on the supposed resilience of the Russian economic, social, and cultural spheres, and Putin made several recommendations for the development of occupied territories of Ukraine. Putin's speech notably re-engaged with several long-standing Russian information operations regarding the justifications of the war and did not present an inflection in Russia’s rhetorical positioning on the war. Putin could have used this event to articulate new objectives and means for achieving them, such as announcing another formal wave of partial mobilization, redefining the “special military operation” as an official war, or taking additional steps to mobilize the Russian defense industrial base (DIB) in a more concrete way. Instead, Putin said very little of actual substance, likely in order to set continued information conditions for a protracted war in Ukraine by not articulating specific temporal goals and framing the war as existential to the Russian domestic population.

[galactic-pirates]

It’s a day ending in Y so I am musing about Star Trek as is my thing at the moment.

The Delta Quadrant was an unknown when Voyager got stranded there.

Now I was a Stargate fan first and they have hyperdrive in that, not Warp Drive. Near as I can tell from google maximum Warp is 2-3 light years travelled per day. For a Stargate regular Asgard-Earth hyperdrive (as seen on the Daedalus) they can do more like 143,000 a day. If they pair it with a ZPM it’s 750,000. Now hyperdrive speeds do vary. The Goa’uld pre-Apophis (probably reverse engineered Asgard stolen) would have taken a year to make the trip to Earth. In the Season 1 finale they did it in a couple of days. Wraith hyperdrives are also slower and they have to stop (a bit like Warp) as the engines/ships take damage and need to rest. But regardless hyperdrive is ridiculously much faster than Warp Drive.

All alien races in Trek seem to use some iteration of Warp Drive. I mean achieving Warp is when a race is considered ready for first contact right? Well it’s FTL not Warp and as I understand it because Warp has to set a course around everything, they are still in normal space. It’s basically just like really fast, with some kind of something so that there isn’t a temporal issue. Which is a bit how Destiny worked in Stargate (which pre-dates every other ship seen). So it could be said that Warp is like “early development” when it comes to FTL but due to first contact, and then the federation, they never broke from it. They just kept going like with a mental block. Sort of an echo chamber thing due to working together the second any race started down FTL.

Anyway so Delta Quadrant is far away in terms of Trek travel times. Not really far enough but work with me. What if races here had developed something akin to hyperdrive?

This is a very long way of musing about what such a development could do to the federation. They have the Prime Directive right because introducing advanced tech to people who aren’t ready for it - they could destroy themselves. Fear leads to jealousy, leads to divisions, leads to fighting and boom it’s war. So if they encountered a race with hyperdrive how would Voyager feel being on the ‘other side’ of the Prime Directive? Knowing this race had a way to get them home but they were refusing for Voyager/the Federations own longterm good.

Or alternately what if they did agree to share? What would the Federation suddenly having such tech do? Comparing 2-3 light years per day with hundreds of thousands times more, is like some guy who has only ever walked anywhere, suddenly getting a supersonic jet. What would that do to the power relations/politics of the federation? Would it help areas that StarFleet had given up on as it could increase their reach as ships could move around more easily? Or would it increase the inequality? If the Federation had the tech but they wouldn’t share with say the Romulans, would that lead to a first strike war as the Romulans afraid of what the Federation could do, sought to weaken them preemptively and then of course the Federation would what? Expand with imperialism. As the Klingons in Discovery said the most dangerous of words “we come in peace”?

I don’t know. My mind is chewing on it.

[sosation]

 The following is a variety of historical figures expressing, in their own words, their interpretation of socialism and their arguments for why they support the ideology. In framing this in such a way, my aim is to inform those who would otherwise be averse to, or ignorant of, socialist arguments and to show them that many, very smart, very important people supported these ideas. -Temporal Distortions

Albert Einstein

Monthly Review - Why Socialism (May 1949)  https://monthlyreview.org/2009/05/01/why-socialism/ 

“Since the real purpose of socialism is precisely to overcome and advance beyond the predatory phase of human development, economic science in its present state can throw little light on the socialist society of the future.”

“...Socialism is directed towards a social-ethical end. Science, however, cannot create ends and, even less, instill them in human beings; science, at most, can supply the means by which to attain certain ends. But the ends themselves are conceived by personalities with lofty ethical ideals and—if these ends are not stillborn, but vital and vigorous—are adopted and carried forward by those many human beings who, half unconsciously, determine the slow evolution of society.”

“I have now reached the point where I may indicate briefly what to me constitutes the essence of the crisis of our time. It concerns the relationship of the individual to society. The individual has become more conscious than ever of his dependence upon society. But he does not experience this dependence as a positive asset, as an organic tie, as a protective force, but rather as a threat to his natural rights, or even to his economic existence. Moreover, his position in society is such that the egotistical drives of his make-up are constantly being accentuated, while his social drives, which are by nature weaker, progressively deteriorate. All human beings, whatever their position in society, are suffering from this process of deterioration. Unknowingly prisoners of their own egotism, they feel insecure, lonely, and deprived of the naïve, simple, and unsophisticated enjoyment of life. Man can find meaning in life, short and perilous as it is, only through devoting himself to society.”

“The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of the evil. We see before us a huge community of producers the members of which are unceasingly striving to deprive each other of the fruits of their collective labor—not by force, but on the whole in faithful compliance with legally established rules. In this respect, it is important to realize that the means of production…may legally be, and for the most part are, the private property of individuals.”

“…The owner of the means of production is in a position to purchase the labor power of the worker. By using the means of production, the worker produces new goods which become the property of the capitalist. The essential point about this process is the relation between what the worker produces and what he is paid, both measured in terms of real value. Insofar as the labor contract is “free,” what the worker receives is determined not by the real value of the goods he produces, but by his minimum needs and by the capitalists’ requirements for labor power in relation to the number of workers competing for jobs. It is important to understand that even in theory the payment of the worker is not determined by the value of his product.  Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones. The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population.

            Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights.”

“Production is carried on for profit, not for use. There is no provision that all those able and willing to work will always be in a position to find employment; an “army of unemployed” almost always exists. The worker is constantly in fear of losing his job. …Technological progress frequently results in more unemployment rather than in an easing of the burden of work for all. The profit motive, in conjunction with competition among capitalists, is responsible for an instability in the accumulation and utilization of capital which leads to increasingly severe depressions.”

“This crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our whole educational system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive success as a preparation for his future career.”

I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals. In such an economy, the means of production are owned by society itself and are utilized in a planned fashion. A planned economy, which adjusts production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done among all those able to work and would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman, and child. The education of the individual, in addition to promoting his own innate abilities, would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellow men in place of the glorification of power and success in our present society.

Nevertheless, it is necessary to remember that a planned economy is not yet socialism. A planned economy as such may be accompanied by the complete enslavement of the individual. The achievement of socialism requires the solution of some extremely difficult socio-political problems: how is it possible, in view of the far-reaching centralization of political and economic power, to prevent bureaucracy from becoming all-powerful and overweening? How can the rights of the individual be protected and therewith a democratic counterweight to the power of bureaucracy be assured?

[smukher2]

Article: Beyond the Standard Model by #BigPictureScience #Podcast #Audio #Tunein http://tun.in/tBlBKI

ArticleSummary: "Ever heard of a beauty quark? How about a glueball? Physics is full of weird particles that leave many of us scratching our heads. But these tiny particles make up everything in the quantum world and in us and are the basis of the fundamental scientific theory called The Standard Model. But it doesn’t explain everything. It can’t account for dark matter or dark energy, for example. We find out whether new physics experiments might force us to rewrite the Standard Model. Plus, we discuss a NASA proposal to fly spacecraft close to the sun in search of new physics. Guests: Phil Plait – Aka the Bad Astronomer, former astronomer on Hubble, teacher, lecturer and debunker of conspiracy theories. He is also the author of a new book “Under Alien Skies: A Sightseer’s Guide to the Universe.” Harry Cliff – Particle physicist at the University of Cambridge who works on the LHCb experiment at the largest particle physics laboratory in the world, CERN. He is the author of: “Space Oddities, The Mysterious Anomalies Challenging Our Understanding of the Universe.” Slava Turyshev – Research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake. Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network."

By #www.smukher2.com #www.smukher2.eu #www.smukher2.co.uk #www.smukher2.org #www.smukher2.net #smukher2 to #Everyone:

BigPictureScience is to Science, what #FreakonomicsRadio is to Economics and #PhilosophizeThis is to Philosophy. Now, this article, rather podcast episode is a fascinating discussion by physicists about the matter as it organizes and changes spatiotemporally in space. It reminded me of Richard Feynman's quote, "I, an atom in the universe; I, an universe of atoms," and Kierkegaard's insight on humans being a "synthesis of finite and infinite". It's intriguing to see how both science and philosophy converge on similar existential conclusions about existence. This inspired me to focus matter as it organizes and changes spatiotemporally in biological systems. In my research, I have focused on the integration of various omics datasets and the development of an integrated computational pipeline for this purpose. Recently, I successfully integrated different gene expression datasets related to heavy metal toxicity but all of one type (transcriptomics) and constructed a machine learning model using this integrated data, here HAL Archive France https://hal.science/hal-04084188 . Currently, my goal is to expand this integration to include different types of omics data (not just transcriptomics) along with imaging data to build advanced machine learning models, deep learning algorithms, and knowledge graphs. I plan to share my work on the HAL Archive France, create tutorials, and make the codes openly available for the scientific community. While exploring multimodal data, I came across the concept of "multi-level" data organization, which highlights the hierarchical structure of organism from molecules to organisms. However, I noticed a common confusion regarding the term "multi-scale," where the term "scale" is often misinterpreted as level rather than spatial or temporal scale. So I want to clear the air on this, because this will be like the first chapter of #fairwissenschaft foundations. Let me explain.

Multi-Levels in Biology:

Biological systems can be studied at different organizational levels, including the molecular, cellular, tissue, organ, organism, population, and ecosystem levels. Each level has distinct properties and interactions contributing to the functioning of living organisms.

Molecular Level: Involves the study of essential biological molecules such as DNA and proteins.

Cellular Level: Focuses on the structure and function of cells, including processes like cell division and metabolism.

Tissue Level: Involves groups of cells working together to perform specific functions, such as muscle and nervous tissue.

Organ Level: Examines structures composed of different types of tissues working together to carry out specific functions in an organism, like the heart and lungs.

Organism Level: Studies entire organisms as integrated systems with various organs working together.

Population Level: Focuses on groups of individuals of the same species and their interactions in a particular area.

Ecosystem Level: Encompasses all living organisms in a particular area along with their physical environment.

Biological Techniques that Measure in Multi-Levels:

Microscopy techniques like light microscopy and electron microscopy allow visualization of structures at different levels from cells to tissues.

Molecular biology techniques such as PCR and Western blotting help analyze molecular components within cells.

Flow cytometry enables the analysis of individual cells based on their physical and chemical characteristics.

Immunohistochemistry is used to study protein expression within tissues.

Next-generation sequencing techniques provide insights into genetic information at various levels of organization.

Multi-Scales of Time in Biology:

Time scales in biology refer to the range of time over which biological processes occur or can be observed.

Microscopic Time Scale: Includes processes that happen within fractions of a second or milliseconds, such as ion channel opening or enzyme-substrate interactions.

Short Time Scale: Processes occurring over seconds to minutes, like cell signaling pathways activation or muscle contraction.

Medium Time Scale: Events happening over hours to days, including cell division or circadian rhythms.

Long Time Scale: Processes spanning weeks to years like development from embryo to adult organism or evolutionary changes within populations.

Biological Techniques that Measure in Multi-Scales of Time:

Live-cell imaging allows real-time observation of cellular processes at various time scales.

Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) measures the movement of molecules within cells over short time scales.

Longitudinal studies track changes in individuals or populations over extended periods.

Radiometric dating methods help determine the age of fossils or geological samples over millions of years.

Multi-Scales of Size in Biology using Units of Measurement:

Size scales in biology refer to the range of sizes at which biological structures exist, from subcellular components to entire ecosystems.

Subcellular Scale (Nanometers): Includes structures like proteins (2-10 nm), DNA (2 nm diameter), and cellular organelles such as mitochondria (0.5-10 micrometers).

Cellular Scale (Micrometers): Cells typically range from 10-100 micrometers in size depending on the cell type.

Tissue/Organ Scale (Millimeters-Centimeters): Tissues like muscle fibers can span millimeters while organs like hearts can be several centimeters in size.

Organismal Scale (Centimeters-Meters): Organisms vary greatly in size from microscopic bacteria to large mammals like elephants measuring meters in length.

Ecosystem Scale (Meters-Kilometers): Ecosystems encompass areas ranging from small ponds (meters) to vast forests or oceans spanning kilometers.

Biological Techniques that Measure in Multi-Scales of Size:

Electron microscopy provides high-resolution images for studying structures at nanometer scales.

Light microscopy is used for observing larger biological specimens such as cells and tissues.

X-ray crystallography helps determine atomic structures at the molecular scale.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) allows non-invasive imaging of organs and tissues at varying sizes within organisms.

Integration of Multimodal Biological Data:

The integration of multimodal biological data from multi-levels, multi-scales of time, and multi-scales of size with computational techniques is a complex and interdisciplinary field. It involves the use of various tools and methods to model and predict phenotypes based on comprehensive biological data.

Integration of Multimodal Biological Data with Artificial Intelligence:

In addition to computational techniques, the integration of multimodal biological data with artificial intelligence (AI) allows for advanced modeling and prediction of phenotypes. AI techniques can analyze complex biological data and identify patterns that may not be readily apparent through traditional methods.

References:

Multi-scale computational modelling in biology and physiology - PMC https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7112301/

MultiMAP: dimensionality reduction and integration of multimodal data | Genome Biology | Full Text https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13059-021-02565-y

A guide to artificial intelligence for cancer researchers | Nature Reviews Cancer https://www.nature.com/articles/s41568-024-00694-7?fromPaywallRec=false

SM-Omics is an automated platform for high-throughput spatial multi-omics | Nature Communications https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28445-y?fromPaywallRec=true

The emerging landscape of spatial profiling technologies | Nature Reviews Genetics https://www.nature.com/articles/s41576-022-00515-3?fromPaywallRec=true

Multimodal biomedical AI | Nature Medicine https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01981-2

Artificial Intelligence in Oncological Hybrid Imaging - PubMed https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36170852/

Where is laboratory medicine headed in the next decade? Partnership model for efficient integration and adoption of artificial intelligence into medical laboratories - PubMed https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36327445/

Explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) in deep learning-based medical image analysis - PubMed https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35576821/

Explainability and white box in drug discovery - PubMed https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37105727/

The Essentials of Multiomics - PubMed https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35380712/

DNA methylation-based classification of central nervous system tumours - PubMed https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29539639/

Big data in IBD: big progress for clinical practice - PubMed https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32111636/

Current and Future Use of Artificial Intelligence in Electrocardiography - PubMed https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37103054/