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popculturebuffet · 4 years

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The Casagrandes Reviews: Operation Dad

In my first look at The Casagrandes, We meet Ronnie Anne and Bobby’s dad Arturo as Ronnie tries to get him to start working in the city to be closer to them.. and when a genuine honest appeal dosen’t work, shenanigans will have to do. Dad stuff under the cut.

This is one i’ve had in the works since my labor day catchup binge of shows, but kept getting pushed back either due to regular coverage or specifically timed things like the bi visalblity day review of “What Was Missing. And with Halloween next month, my time to cover this is running out a bit and I feel it’s a great place to start covering this show so, pitter patter. The Casagrandes didn’t really hook me in at first: It did have two things going for it: An intresting premise A blended family coming together, with our heroine and her big bro being fish out of water in a new family situation. Wheras with the Loud House Lincoln, and by extension most of his sisters, is used to how his house runs, knows the score and knows how to manuvre around it, Ronnie Anne was being dropped into a new situation, with people she KNEW, but only likely from seeing them breifly. It’s one thing to see your cousin once or twice a year, as I did with mine at that age, it’s another to live with them. It had a lot of potential. The other thing was Bobby Santiago, Ronnie Anne’s brother, and one of my faviorite characters across both shows, an endlessly nice guy who while suffering from a terminal case of dumbass, is utterly likeable, helped by his VA Carlos PenaVega, with the spinoff and i’ts build up only fleshing him out more by giving him his job at the Mercado, and showing he has serious buisness acumen in addition to his many other talents.

But what made me wary was the lead: Ronnie Anne didn’t get the best intro on the loud house. You know this, I know this. We all know this. No sense beating around the bush: She was a bully, who had a crush on lincoln and masked it by pummeling him. And this was seen as okay by the show which isn’t as suprising in hindsight as Chris Savino clearly has messed up views about women and harassment, and is thankfully no longer part of this. She did get slightly better once she actually showed up, getting genuine chemstiry with Lincoln and being shown underneath the bully exteriror was a pretty nice kid who shared his intress. Granted it wasn’t perfect as the show madei t clear he was terrified of her, but it did at least also make it clear he no longer had a reason to be, and while she’d prank her boyfriend, or assits his sister during her dark time once a year in doing it, and if your wondering if i’m ever going to watch or cover the april fools episodes .. yeah i’m just waiting you know.. for april fools.

My point is it was kinda mixed and their solution was to soften her up a bit but also act like she and LIncoln weren’t intrested in each other all of a sudden instead of you know, dealing with her past actions and having her make up for them. It was sloppy is what i’m saying and the character while not bad wasn’t in the best positoin to tkae the reigns of her own show. They did add some intresting depth with the move though, showing that Ronnie Anne and Bobby were often on their own, and that Maria moved them to the casagrande household simply because she felt her daughter would be happier NOT having to be the strong one or take care of herself all the time and actually have someone look out for her instead. It was a good emotional reason for hte move and both casagrandes showed up ocasoinally, mostly Bobbi whose still with Lori to this day as seen in the season 5 premiere. It was an okay foundatoin but it would depend on what they did with her character.. and i’m glad to say.. they made it work. The show still has rough edges, mostly having the same problem ducktales and the loud house itself had during season 1 of juggling such a large cast: Most of them outside of Ronnie Anen and Bobby have only gotten 1 episode, and even then CJ feels underutlized despite being amazing, while the adults outside the grandparents feel underutlized. Buuut the show is funny, intresting, has good pacing and unlike the loud house, having already learned that lesson, while Ronnie Anne does get more episodes than the rest of the family, it does feel more like an ensemble show and the focus on her feels less like the show not knowing what it has and more like easing the viewers into the rest of the cast by using her as a viewpoint. Ronnie herself is better, the bully aspects gone. She can still take care of herself, and is still fairly indpentent and clever, but she’s got a sharp sense of humor and a clear love of her family and the fish out of water aspect I hoped for, while not used a ton, still comes up in intresting ways. Overall i’d say the show is off to a good start.. and it has Melissa Joan Heart and Ken Jeong as a married couple and let’s Ken play a diffrent role for once: A dorky, kind dad instaed of any degree of lunatic. That being said given his character her’s last name is Chang, I can’t help but think this and community are in the same universe and that the Changs have just had to put up with whatever insane phase Senor Chang was going througha t the time every time he visted. I mean i’d love to hear Sid tell ronnie anne the time her uncle came over in a napoleon outfit and revaled he’d taken over his community college with the help of a bunch of children. But i’m getting off topic, I gots an episdoe to cover and out of the ones I watched this felt both like a great re-introduction into the cast and was easily one fo the best with a great emotional core and great jokes and LOTS to dig into. So i’ve jawjacked enough, pitter pater. Again!

It’s with this episode we properly meet Arturo Santiago, Ronnie Anne and Bobby’s father, Maria’s ex, and owner of one hell of a beard. Ronnie mentioned him back in friended aka the pilot because fuck that airing structure but not the time or place for that moving on.

We see he video chats his daughter once a day, though today she made hte mistake of doing so on a crowded subway while with her best friend and future wife Sid. NOW we can talk about Sid. Sid was introduced in Friended! over on the loud houd house as part of that mini arc I keep yelling about and will again and again. Sid is Ronnie Anne’s clyde: A best friend whose there as her sidekick, emotoinal support and resident goofus, being a bit of a weirdo and given i’m a giant ass weirdo, you can see why I like her/want to keep her safe from the nightmare that is at last half this fandom. Plus she and ronnie anne are adorable together and have more chemstiry than she and lincoln did.. thoguh the two do have OT3 energy together in his one episode, but that’s for another time.

Anyways as Sid helps her rangle wifi by them by doing the mecha shiva we soon find out Arturo is coming home! Home lord he’s been off in Peru for too longggg. Point is Ronnie Anne is excited, Bobby is excited, everyone’s excited except for Hector who hates him.. and honestly I can see why the contrast. For everyone else, Arturo is a charming, friendly guy who genuinely loves his kids and only is away from them because he has a lot of important work to do and even with that is still an active part of their lives. Buuuut Hector likely sees it diffrently and is likely homing in more on the fact Arturo is barely there in person for his kids and left Maria to do all the raising them by herself, with her own demanding job. It’s not a black and white situation is what i’m saying and.. I genuinely love that. It’s a complex thing to deal with: A parent who isn’t there for his kids but it’s hard to say if he’s being selfish or not. He’s not david from roseanne doing this so he can feel good about not wanting to deal with being a father or the death of his brother, Arturo genuinely just wants to help those who need him, even if he has to sacrifice a lot to do it. Ronnie Anne naturally wants him to move here though and convince him during his visit, and her plan nicely shows off the duality of her charcter: She’s clever and can easily think things through, as his originzation has it’s home office in Great Lakes City so he could still help those in need, just more from the organizational end, as well as i’m assuming GLC’s own homeless and needy. But she also has an 11 year olds understading of complex issues and thus thinks the easiest way to convince him is to take him on a fun daddy daughter day that will make him love the city. Bobby is less optimistic about the plan though.. and that’s because he’s been through this with Arturo already. Granted his job for him was at weenier on a stick because it’s bobby, the boy is a peach of a human being but has the plkanning skills and common sense of a basset hound on qualudes. He just sugest she enjoy the time. And this says a lot about BOBBY too: He’s used to his dad being out of his life, he’s probably been gone for most of it and while he loves him, he’s had ot get used to the fact he’s probably never going to be regularly in his life and while he understands why his sister’s trying this he wants to spare her the pain he went through. It’s interactions like this that to me show the series at it’s best and what it could be: deeper character interactions that really let the characters and voice cast shine, that still mix well with the usual nonsense. Arturo arrives and everyone loves him.. and again it’s easy to see why: he’s kind, friendly and to the kids, he’s their cool uncle who lives in another country and as someone with one of those, It does feel neat. Hell he was my cool uncle when he just lived in chicago or seattle, but somehow he had to top those by moving to fricking ireland. So I get where they come from and really relate to it.. I mean I met mine in high school, my family tree is complicated, but still. So while everyone but Hector is happily remeetinmg their uncle Maria shows up. And it’s awkward, the two not knowing how to greet each other, but it’s very obvious Maria and Arturo are on good terms, it’s just hard when theres so much history there. Speaking of Maria let’s talk about her since this is one of her only scene’s this episode. Maria is one of my faviorites. She isn’t used a ton, but this is more excusable than it is with the Casagrande parents, as the whole point of Maria uprooting her kids to Great Lakes City was to give them company and someone to take care of them while Maria worked the long and varied hours of being a nurse. She’s a good parent, who just picked a rough career, and made the hard decision to uproot her kids, not for her sake, as it can’t be easy living with both your elderly parents, your sister and her husband not to mention 5 kids, a giant adorable pupper and an obnoxious parrot, but so they’d be happy.. which given Ronnie Anne went from having no friends and largely having to be the rock in the house, to having a sizeable friend group plus her cousins, as well as generally being happy while Bobby went from bouncing from job to job to running the family buisness and planning to expand it when he gets older. She’s a good gentle person who still makes time for her kids, and I wish we saw more of her with her spotlight episode, which was about Ronnie Anne trying to spend more time with her, being one of my faviorites so far. I also like the fact that for once in a cartoon a parent with a time sink of a career isn’t demonized for trying to put food on the table and rather than just quit or have a mean boss or the usual cliches, Maria just found a way her kids wouldn’t be alone. She’s awesome. Ronnie Anne first tries showing him how great the city is with home cooking and a warm bed, but the first while nice is something he still gets, and the latter in a nice touch is just.. too soft for him. Ronnie meant well, but understadably he’s just not used to it and makes a cot under the stars instead.. he’s not trying to be ungreatful, he’s just sued to it.

Anyways Ronnie indeed takes him on a montage, with some cab headbonks beacause why use an uber that’s cheeper and safer huh? Anyways our father and daughter do have a montage, and hector gets beaten up by a luchadore because this promotion apparently dosen’t get not to attack the crowd. They really need to stop booking that guy.

Ending on our article image, which is really sweet and a real beautiful shot, Ronnie Anne finally gets to her Ronnie Plan. First Arturo cycles through two diffrent assumptions about what she’s asking him about. He first thinks she’s about to tell him about a special boy or girl in his life, his exact words. He backspaces to include that. She says no which.. I guess okay you have other things in mind but you can’t put off him meeting Sid forever. That aside I do think it’s a good indication Ronnie Anne might be bi, and both her parents just easily accepted it which is great. I could be reading too much into this, and I probably am, but I’ve thought I was before on nickeodeon and look how legend of korra ended.

The next is just hilarious as Arturo tries to let her down gently that he’s not getting back with maria which Ronnie Anne agrees with and was not remotely her point, but I do like as it shows their well and truly done, and it’s nice to see that sort of dynamic with a divorced couple in fiction where it’s not because of lingering sexual tension or anything, just that their apart but have kids to think about and presumibly the split was amicable if again still awkward. Finally Ronnie asks him.. but he gently refuses, since the people he helped need him as much as he wants to stay.. but part of what makes Arturo likeable, especially since he’s in the REALLY throny situation of not being in his kid’s lives in person despite having the opprountiy now, is that he genuinely tries to compromoise, saying he’ll try to up the calls to two a day, and he’ll visit more often. Ronnie Anne sadly and half heartdly says it’s fine and walks off. So Ronnie Anne vents to that girlfriend she apparently dosen’t have that he cares more about her patients than him and Sid sidgests that part of that is simple: He dosen’t feel she and bobby need him since, as I pointed out earlier, their doing better than ever. So Ronnie Anne intitates a second Ronnie Plan: to convince him she’s a troubled youth and get him to stay and reasssmbles her cousins to help. Before we move onto this plan that’s totally a good idea and not a borderline Zach Morris evil scheme, let’s talk about those cousins real quick. Quick fire: CJ is really great, a sweet kid and I wish they’d use him more and generally do nto get why they don’t, Carlota is fine but not all that defined at this point but Alexa PenaVega tries.. and why yes it is kinda weird Carlos PenaVega’s wife and the former star of spy kids is playing his sister. And Carl.. I don’t likes him. I just don’t. He did give me a really good episode, which we’ll be covering next month, but he’s just a little asshole with out the charm of fellow little asshole Louie Duck, who alsos cams people but actually gets consqeunces more often.

That quickfire done Carl does a forgery which depsite me being eh on him, clearly, is a funny bit, to make Ronnie Anne look like she’s failing, but that fails as you’d expect when he can help her with that from Peru. So it’s on to the actual plan: Which really boils down to this.

I mean.. that’s essentially the plan convince him she’s running with a dangerous crowd and is breaking bad, dressing up in punk clothes and making a scene at breakfast. She also gets a really neat new haircut, similar to luna’s but spiky which.. why isn’t this her normal hair? and why dosen’t she at least keep the cool leather jacket? I always get annoyed when a character’s temporary costume change is even better than their default design and htey fail to realize it but whatever. IT starts to work a little but clearly a breakfast tauntrum won’t be enough so Ronnie Anne enlists Sid.. who is frightend,d osen’t recognize her and dosen’t want to get shoved into a locker. .. who hurt you.. tell me.. I have a box to deliver. Just let me pop a quick H on there real quick.

Anyways, once Sid realizes “Oh that’s not a bully come to shove me in a locker that’s just my girlfriend in the middle of a zack morris grade elabroate manipulative scheme”, which happens once a week their fine, she comes up with one last plan: Have her friends, who are neat but need more filling out, dress up like punks bullying her friend sameer. This plan.. makes no sense. For one she was already a bully back home.. granted it was because she liked the kid, which no just no, but it’s heavily implied she did the same to the rest of the lincrew too. .which aside from Rusty isn’t a good look. I mean his face is punchable and he mocked hte idea of them being together despite next season hitting on Lincoln’s sisters, there’s a 1:1 chance he hit on her and she shoved him in a locker as is the natural response to anyone getting asked out by that goober. No matter how hard the show tries to pretend that didn’t happen it did. If her bullying kids didn’t get him to move home back in royal woods it won’t work now.

So they had behind the fish market for their plan, Arturo is directed there.. and sees through it. I mean she’s probably sent him pictures of her friends, he knows who they are and no amount of costumes is going to fix that. I mean you really only changed Nikki’s hair. Why not just have a dance fight. i’m legitly asking dance fights are rad and this reminds me of the venture bros episode where hank, to impress his date, has billy and white pretend to be a street gang to impress his date. Just do that for sid instead of trying to gaslight your dad into staying. But no while he pulls her into the car, Arturo knows this was a stunt and asks why. When Ronnie Anne tearfully reveals she just wanted him to stay.. he hugs his child.. and agrees. He realizes that if she’s willing to go to these lengths to get him to stay, she must REALLY miss her papa. So he plans to call the office to transfer. But then while helping her dad unpack, Ronnie Anne finds something and we get another emotional scene: Ronnie Anne finds the letters he got from the various kids he’s helped, and is moved to tears. Props to Izabella Alvarez for her performance here as she reads the letter and realizes just what her dad’s work does ,and why it means so much to him. He truly helps those who need it and she decides she can’t take that awy from it: Sure her dad won’t be around.. but other kids need her dad more. She has a big family, she misses her dad.. but she can live without her dad. They need a doctor.

So Arutro heads out with a tearful goodbye and Ronnie Anne leaves him a scrapbook of their time together. We then cut to the Santiago sibs playing cards, and being sad about their dad and all that.. when Arturo calls.. and then shows up in person. He took the Headquarters job after all, though a close friend of his we met earlier in the episode but I ddin’t mention will be taking over in Peru, and from earlier clearly wanted to get back out in the field, so it all works out. And it’s a nice character moment; Arturo realizes while his work is important, and as mentioned he does make sure a compient replacment will continue it.. his family can be too and it’s okay to think of himself and them for once. As I said he’ll still be able to help just in a diffrent way and there are probably needy kids who need him here too, if not in the same ways obviously as a doctors without borders type project. So eveyrone shares a group hug and even Hector bursts into tears. And Maria comes in wondering what she missed whiel Sergio asks who wants to tell her. oh sergio.. why didn’t you stay away when you ran away in a future episode. Final Thoughts: Not much more to say. It’s a well done episode with high emotinal stakes, great acting and some great jokes I didn’t get to, and while the plot of “Make absent parent stay by pretending things are bad’ isn’t new, it’s done well enough here. Overall just a really good episode that shows what this show can do and why it’s unique family setup makes for intresting stories a lot of shows can’t tell, and validates this spinoffs existnace. The episode also really fleshes out Ronnie Anne’s character, and givne Arutro’s been gone since the divorce if not longer, it’s resonable to supsect her earlier bullying might have been lashing out at her parents divorce. It’s just good stuff. Keep an eye peeeld to this blog for my regular loud house and ducktales coverage , and some more casagrandes this october. ANd until then, Go Team Venture!

#the casagrandes #ronnie anne santiago #arturo santiago #bobby santiago #maria santiago #sid chang #cj casagrande #carl casagrande #carlota casagrande #the loud house #reviews #animation

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bluenightfyre · 4 years

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Tagged by @radiowrites to post 10 niche interests (my phone doesn't do fancy titles 😭)

1. The Wars of the Roses

Ever since I saw the first series of Blackadder about "what really happened to Richard III and the princes in the tower", I've had a burgeoning interest in the actual events. I recently read a historical account of all the politics involved and it intrigues me. I guess its niche in that not a lot of people would find the politics side of it interesting

2. European Metal Music

Nightwish, After Forever, Epica, Leaves Eyes, Arch Enemy - I'm working my way through Europes entire metal discography and I love it.

Particularly Nightwish. I know each band member by name and face and have a fair idea of the families and background of a few of the members. I'm obsessed!

3. Worldbuilding

Maps, history, politics, religions, myths, legends, I love making up stuff like this for my books. I have a big ringbinder I'm working on filling with background info on the world Rosethorn resides in.

4. Cradle of Filth and all things Dani Filth

There's a British black/symphonic metal band called Cradle of Filth whose songs have the lyrical quality of Lord Byron turned up to 12 on the pervert scale. The songs are hideous, the lyrics are disturbing but my god I love them so much

5. Elizabeth Bathory

An offshoot of my Cradle obsession. They did a concept album inspired by the myths and legends surrounding this lady, a late 16th-early 17th century Hungarian countess who brutalised and killed either 50 or 300 servants in her castle, depending on the sources. I have a character in my series based on her. She's great.

6. Gilles de Rais

Another Cradle concept album brought me to Gilles de Rais, 15th century commander of the French army, companion in arms to Joan of Arc and confessed serial killer of children. Fun guy.

There's a theory he was a victim of an ecclesiastical plot to overthrow him and have his estates interred into the pockets of the Church, but then, who knows with the 15th century tbh. They did a retrial in 1992 and found him not guilty. He must have been delighted.

7. Ed Gein or The Butcher of Plainfield

Another serial killer here, I like me a disturbing horror story!

This guy only killed 2 women himself, but its what he did to the bodies that's scary. Police upon tracing him in the investigations surrounding one of his victims discovered a long list of items including but not limited to lampshades, curtain pulls, chair upholstery and bowls made from human skin and skulls. He also excavated the local graveyard for fodder for his sickening creations. Do not look through Google Images under his name because the items WILL come up.

8. British comedy

There's something about British standup and sitcoms that's just other. I love it. Maybe because my parents are British and thats what I grew up with. Favourites include Russell Howard, Jimmy Carr, Jon Richardson, Billy Connelly, Dave Allen, the list goes on

9. Mythology

So far I've clued myself into Norse and Greek and am currently reading the Kalevala, the Finnish epic featuring their traditional folk tales. I also need to find a comprehensive one of my own country, Ireland, which is hard because they're all called different names by different people and a lot of them were lost I'm told. If anyone has any recommendations for mythology from different cultures, please let me know!

10. Art

I love painting, but even more than that I love watching TV programs showing other people painting and watching their process. Its fascinating and I learn a lot from people whose works I admire.

Tagging @happyorogeny @aelenko and @raevenlywrites and anyone else who would like to play, please tag me so I can check it out 😊

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justforbooks · 4 years

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Writer and cartographer who documented the landscapes of the west coast of Ireland in a series of influential books

Tim Robinson, who has died aged 85 after contracting Covid-19, was a cartographer, visual artist and writer who made a sustained study of the landscape of the Aran islands and Connemara after moving from London to the west of Ireland in 1972. A walker in all weathers, he wrote a series of influential books, and created intricate hand-drawn maps to accompany them, which were published by Folding Landscapes, the imprint he set up with his wife, Máiréad.

In the two volumes of Stones of Aran, Robinson recorded his walks around Árainn, the largest of the Aran islands, which sit by the mouth of Galway Bay. Pilgrimage (1986), the first book, which won the Irish Book Awards literature medal, traced the endless perimeter of the island’s rocky coastline, Robinson in search of “a single step as adequate to the ground it clears as is the dolphin’s arc to the wave”. Observing patterns of rock, wind and water opened his prose to the fractal dimensions of the inlet, the cove, the cliff and darkening pool.

Labyrinth (1995), the second book, headed into Árainn’s interior. Understanding the Irish language as the living code that connected humanity to the deep time of stone and water, Robinson was a meticulous collector of names, stories and places. His life’s work laid new strata in the cultural history of Ireland.

The Connemara trilogy – Connemara: Listening to the Wind (2006), Connemara: The Last Pool of Darkness (2008) and Connemara: A Little Gaelic Kingdom (2011) - continued Robinson’s exploration of the relationship between the human and the inanimate, and won him two more Irish Book awards. He had a long association with academics at the National University of Ireland Galway, from whom he sought advice on everything from rock formations to language puzzles. These questions evolved from conversations with the local communities of which he was part and whose knowledge he respected deeply.

The resulting fusions created a culture of collaboration, or meitheal, that for decades drew artists and scientists to the Robinsons’ home in Roundstone, County Galway, where they had settled in 1984. Spry, sharp and gently intent, Robinson encouraged John Moriarty, Moya Cannon, Robert Macfarlane and many others, his natural frugality leavened by the supply of tea and chocolate digestives. Robinson signed his correspondence with Andrew McNeillie, whose magazine Archipelago situated Robinson beside another great coastal artist, Norman Ackroyd, with a cormorant’s “squawk”. This mimicked the sound of the bird on a rock as it made room for another, just as Robinson shared his learning with so many of his contemporaries.

He was born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, and grew up in Ilkley, Yorkshire, one of two sons of Grace (nee Drever) and Frank Robinson, whose family business sold engineering equipment, stipends from which kept Tim going as a young artist and writer. As a child he explored “the watery intricacies” and “airy uplands” of Wharfedale and Ilkley Moor with his brother, landscapes that were later echoed in the Burren area of County Clare and in Roundstone Bog.

Educated at Ilkley grammar school, Robinson did his national service in the RAF as a technician servicing radar devices in Malaya. He studied mathematics and physics at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge and in London in 1959 married Margaret Fitzgibbon, known as Máiréad, whom he met in a house share soon after graduating.

Máiréad, or M in the books, was Tim’s constant partner, reading to him, encouraging him, and travelling with him on his unlikely expeditions, first to Istanbul, and then to Vienna, where he painted and exhibited. Unsettled on their return to London in 1964, Tim – using the name Timothy Drever, after his Scottish mother – worked as a subeditor and technical illustrator, and continued to paint and show his work; he later donated his geometric paintings from this period to the Irish Museum of Modern Art, in Dublin.

The Irish phase of his life began with his arrival in the Aran islands in 1972, a westerly terrain that consumed his imagination ever after. His first work was Setting Foot on the Shores of Connemara, published by Lilliput Press as a pamphlet in 1984. The notes and maps made during these years filled the flood-prone ground floor of the Robinson’s home in Roundstone, the upper floor of which looks over the pier and the landward bay, out towards the Twelve Bens of Connemara.

No matter what the talk, this was a hard place to keep the mind still, the clouds scudding across the far mountains, squalls racing the water. At the back was a cluttered hall and a bedroom whose doors opened to a garden hedged against the salt winds of the Atlantic. On spring days Tim and Máiréad lay in bed and waited for the robin to feed from the dish of crumbs they kept beside the bed.

Robinson was elected to the Royal Irish Academy in 2010. His maps of the Aran islands, the Burren and Connemara – places he referred to as the “ABC of earth wonders” – are little miracles of collective assembly, combining topography, language, geology, myth and physics. Robinson was acutely conscious of the damage, both representative and real, that centuries of conflict over land and language had caused. A Land Without Shortcuts, his Parnell lecture in Cambridge in 2011, while he was visiting Parnell fellow at Magdalene College, was a manifesto of his belief that attention to the local invited wonder at the universal. In Robinson’s last book, Experiments on Reality (2019), he reflected that the “course of evolution that brought us forth from cosmic dust is a sequence of marvels the contemplation of which has dazzled and delighted me my whole life”.

From 2006 to 2014 he donated much of his archive material, including photographs, manuscripts, place name records and correspondence with other writers, to the James Hardiman Library at the National University of Ireland Galway.

For decades the Robinsons kept a flat in West Hampstead in London, where Tim wrote and to where they moved in late 2015 due to increasing ill-health. Máiréad died two weeks before Tim; he is survived by his brother, Nigel.

• Tim Robinson, writer, artist and cartographer, born 26 March 1935; died 3 April 2020

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

#JUST FOR BOOKS #Tim Robinson

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meghanpage · 4 years

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To the Stars Ch. 2 - Out to Sea

Words: 2278

Also on AO3

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In the suite rented for them by Lucho, Valentina was unpacking her art. Around her, servants bustled to and fro, arranging her and Lucho’s belongings under the direction of Montilla. Montilla himself was under the direction of Lucho, of course, therefore everything was set according to his tastes, and not Valentina’s.

Determined not to be pushed aside in what were just as much her quarters as Lucho’s, Valentina had already pulled out a number of her favorite works as was planning where to put them. She had enlisted Chivis’ help, and they were now searching for a certain piece in particular.

Chivis held one up to show her. “This one?”

Valentina shook her head, and Chivis slid the painting back into its slot. “No, it had a lot of faces on it.” She spotted the one she was looking for and pulled it out triumphantly. “This is it!”

“God, not those finger paintings again,” Lucho but in as he approached from the other room, leaning in the doorway. “They were such a waste of money.”

Valentina kept her back to him, studying another painting Chivis had pulled out. “The difference between Lucho’s taste in art and mine,” she told her conversationally, “is that I have some.”

Chivis hid a laugh behind her hand.

“I love them.” Valentina said. “I like the way they make me feel. Like being in a dream or something.” She loved looking at the blocky and surrealist style of the paintings. They made sense to her, producing feelings she didn’t get from more traditional art. There was truth, but no logic.

“What was the name of the artist again?” Chivis asked.

“Something Picasso…” she replied, the artist’s first name slipping her mind at the moment.

Lucho scoffed. “‘Something Picasso,’” he mocked. “He won’t amount to a thing. Trust me.”

She ignored him sourly as he took a sip of his brandy then brandished it towards Montilla. “At least they were cheap.”

---

As the Titanic sailed towards France and then Ireland to take on her remaining passengers, Juliana briefly stowed away her meager belongings and settled into her bunk, to the surprise and confusion of her roommates. The rest of her time she spent wandering the decks, trying to get the lay of the ship. It truly was enormous, with endless corridors snaking through the interior and miles of deck to stroll on.

Walking the decks gave her an opportunity to engage in one of her favorite hobbies: people watching. With all the different kinds of people on board, she was provided with a wide variety of interesting subjects. She couldn’t help but pull out her drawing pad and sketch some life drawings.

She also kept an eye on the upper decks, watching the first class passengers promenade in their flowing gowns and long coats. Those clothes were the main focus of Juliana’s attentions; she always liked to keep up with the latest fashions, copying down the lines and shapes for inspiration in her own designs.

They weren’t something that really brought in money, her designs, but she loved the feeling of taking an idea for a garment and seeing it take shape on paper, until it was something someone could wear. She didn’t have much opportunity to turn the sketches into actual clothes, but she never stopped dreaming of the day when she could.

As the Titanic turned its nose away from Ireland, out towards the Atlantic, Juliana could feel the great engines propelling it forward, the ship gaining speed. She immediately wound her way to the bow, wanting to really feel it moving, to see it cut through the water.

She found where the deck jutted forward the farthest and went right up to the foremost tip. Leaning out over the railing, she gave herself an unobstructed view of the sea and sky racing past her. The sun was high in the sky, sparkling off the waves thrown up by the front of the ship as it sliced through the water. The wind rushed against her face, blowing her ponytail back and ruffling the hem of her ratty jacket.

She noticed movement in the water below her and leaned out even farther to see. There, where the hull met the waves, a pod of dolphins dipped and raced. She laughed out loud, watching as the dolphins began to leap from the water, gracefully arcing as they kept pace with the ship.

Feeling almost giddy, Juliana hoisted herself up on the rungs of the railing, bracing her feet of either side of the point of the bow. She tilted her head back and spread her arms wide, letting the wind whip around her. As she opened her eyes, nothing lay before her but the wide horizon. She felt like she was flying, and her heart soared with her.

---

Valentina felt like she was drowning.

She had been excited for that day’s lunch, as Camilo Guerra, the Chief Engineer, and Johny Corona, the Director of the White Star Line, were going to be dining with them. They were also to be joined by another passenger named Lucía Borges; she was “new money,” as Eva sneered, whose husband had recently struck gold in the American West.

Valentina had hoped the men would going to talk about the building and functioning of the ship, as she was fascinated and wanted to learn more about it. But all they seemed to do was grandstand, talking in circles about how the Titanic was “the biggest moving object made by the hand of man” and how “its supremacy would never be challenged.” Valentina had to fight down her frustration at the thought of this being the rest of her afternoon.

She pulled out a cigarette and lit it, more for something to do with her hands than anything. As she took her first inhale, Eva narrowed her eyes at her, leaning closer to whisper, “You know I don’t like that.”

Instead of replying, Valentina fixed her with a stare of her own, and blew a stream of smoke into her face.

Lucho noticed their exchange and plucked the cigarette from its holder between Valentina’s fingers, stubbing it out in the ashtray. “She knows.”

Valentina’s blood boiled, but she knew she couldn’t retaliate, not there at the table with Eva and everyone else watching. She noticed Lucía’s gaze on her from across the table, but didn’t meet her eyes.

When a waiter approached to take their orders, Valentina breathed a sigh of relief at the distraction. She looked to the waiter to place her order, but Lucho spoke over her before she could begin.

“We’ll both have the lamb, rare, with very little mint.” Seemingly as an afterthought, he looked to Valentina. “You like lamb, right, amorcita?”

She knew he didn’t really want to hear her opinion, so she just gave him her fakest smile.

Across the table, Lucía spoke up. “Are you going to cut her meat for her too, Lucho?” Her voice was joking, but her eyes flashed in a way Valentina admired. Not waiting for him to reply, she quickly steered the conversation in another direction, which Valentina also appreciated. “Now, who thought of the name Titanic? Was it you, Johny?”

Mr. Corona puffed up a bit, looking pleased with himself behind his glasses. “Well, yes, actually. I wanted to convey sheer size. And size means stability, luxury, and above all, strength.”

“Do you know of Dr. Freud, Mr. Corona?” Valentina asked before she could stop herself. “His ideas about the men’s obsession with size might be of particular interest to you.”

Lucía flashed a grin at her, while Eva hissed, “What’s gotten into you?”

Valentina wasn’t quite sure herself. She stood hurriedly from her chair, making it squeak against the new floors. Barely remembering to excuse herself, she hurried out into the cool air on deck.

---

Juliana was sketching near the stern of the ship, engrossed in the scene of a father explaining the propellers of the ship to his young daughter. He had her propped up on the railing, his arms wrapped securely around her as they spoke and gestured. Their movement provided an interesting challenge for Juliana, as she had to focus more on capturing their basic frame instead of their details.

She finished a bit of shading and looked up to watch two porters walking a handful of dogs past her. They were first class dogs, come down to steerage to take a shit. She scoffed lightly to herself, shaking her head. Always nice to know where you ranked in the scheme of things.

As she raised her head, her eyes caught on a bit of movement on the upper deck, and she stopped still. Walking towards the railing of the first class deck was the most beautiful woman she had ever seen.

Her dress was a lovely silk and lace affair, but for once Juliana couldn’t make herself focus on fashion. The woman was slim and willowy, her light brown hair coiled in a complicated style at the back of her head. Her cheekbones and jaw were sharp enough to cut, and as she looked out over the ocean, her eyes shone with sadness.

Juliana watched as she leaned on her forearms against the railing, her brows drawing together as the corners of her lips turned down.

Somehow, Juliana couldn’t stop staring. Without thinking, she flipped to a blank sheet of paper on her sketchpad, her fingers tracing the outline of the woman’s features. She could barely look away to focus on the sketch, but she knew she had to get her on paper, capture this moment before it flew away.

The woman turned her head, looking towards her, and for just a moment, their eyes met. She looked away again quickly, but Juliana felt something inside her jolt at her gaze. Her fingers flew even faster, sketching the shape of her eyes, the tilt of her mouth.

She wanted her to look at her again.As if she could hear her desire, the woman’s eyes slid over to her once more, locking with Juliana’s. Even from a distance, Juliana could tell they were a lovely, brilliant blue. Their gaze continued for a long, breathless moment. There was something about the woman that called out to Juliana, that pulled towards her, that begged her to…

The moment was severed. A man strode up and grabbed the woman’s elbow, tearing her gaze away. He spoke harshly to her for a moment before she broke free and stormed away from him. Juliana watched as he followed after her, and they both disappeared back into the first class accommodations.

---

Valentina escaped towards the edge of the deck which looked out over the rear of the ship. She just needed some air, a breath to herself. She felt suffocated, constantly prodded this way and that by Lucho and her sister. Was there nowhere on this godforsaken ship she could go to be alone?

As she leaned on the railing surrounding the deck, she looked out over the ocean, letting its openness soothe her. Her father had loved the open water, had loved sailing. It was part of why he had taken them on the trip to Europe; a way to enjoy the vast ocean as they saw the world outside of their native Mexico. But the trip was also why she had had to bury León in a foreign country, far away from the rest of their family, and why she now had to leave him behind.

She turned away from the water, squashing down her thoughts of her father. Dwelling on her grief was certainly not helpful at the moment. To distract herself, she looked at the second and third class passengers on the decks below her. Though they were so close, they felt a world away, their lives so different from those in her well-polished world.

Her eyes caught on the figure of another woman - a woman who as definitely staring back at her. She was alone, sitting off to the side against the railing, a sheaf of papers in her lap, and she was gorgeous.

The woman’s dark hair was in a ponytail, swept back from her tan skin and deep brown eyes. She was wearing a dark men’s shirt and men’s trousers, which instead of being odd only served to highlight her beauty.

Valentina quickly looked away, back towards the ocean. Their eyes had only met for a moment, yet there had been something there, something that called for Valentina to look back.

She shouldn’t, she reasoned, it would be rude to stare - but she couldn’t help herself. Her eyes turned back to the other woman, and found her still staring. There was a strange intensity to the woman’s stare, and as their gazes met, Valentina felt as if she was looking straight into her, past every defense and down to her very essence.

Valentina felt herself growing warm, and even as she wished for the moment to go on forever, it cam roughly to an end.

A hand grabbed her by the elbow, and Lucho’s admonishing voice pierced through the fog in her mind. “What do you think you were doing, running off like that? Your sister and I had to apologize and make excuses.”

“Don’t touch me,” Valentina snapped, still too focused on the unknown woman to care about reigning in her behavior.

“Vale, stop this,” Lucho growled, not letting go. “Behave yourself and come back to lunch.”

Wrenching her arm out of his grip, Valentina stalked back towards their suite. “I’m going to my rooms,” she told him, leaving him to make whatever excuses he liked to their lunch party.

#amar a muerte #juliantina #juliana valdes #valentina carvajal #fanfiction #my work #titanic au

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cromulentbookreview · 4 years

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Puntastic!

“The first thing you should know about me, the truest most important thing, is that I ain’t never really had friends” - Jane McKeene

Because this blog is for cromulent book reviews rather than reviews of standalones or first books of a series, I’m going to keep on going with my streak of reviewing sequels. I’m sure nobody has a problem with it, as nobody reads this blog.

And by that, I mean: Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland!

I absolutely love Westerns. I was raised on Westerns. And, living in the Pacific Northwest, basically all of the history of where I live is a combination of a Western and the Oregon Trail game.

(Fun fact: as a wee little beeb growing up in rural Oregon back in the Days of Yore ((you know, the 90s)), we played Oregon Trail on ancient DOS computers. Oh man the day when you could snag one of the color computers, instead of just the black-and-green ones…God, I’m old.)

Anyway, Westerns! I love them.

Westerns, yay!

I also like stories with zombies.

Zombies, yay!

And when you combine them in a story starring two badass young women of color, you get Justina Ireland’s Dread Nation! I loved Dread Nation, because, like I said, its a Western with zombies starring two badass young women who can (and will!) kick ass and take names. Dread Nation came out in 2018, which somehow feels like it was both forever ago and just yesterday. I don’t know, time means nothing these days, and it means even less when you’re sleep-deprived. Still, Dread Nation is one of many books I’ve kept on my radar because the moment I was done, I needed a sequel sometime yesterday. And the moment Deathless Divide hit Edelweiss, I hit that request button so fast - well, I mean, I clicked with normal speed, then had to wait for my crappy rural internet to kick in, but I got there eventually.

The horror...

Just one more fun story then I’ll get to the review, I promise! I got a physical ARC of Deathless Divide because I won a pun contest Justina Ireland held on Twitter. Special thanks to my sister, who knows all the best puns and introduced me to the concept of Caribbean Pie Rates. I’m generally more of a loser rather than a winner, so winning a pun contest on Twitter was the highlight of my 2019.

Ok - Deathless Divide!

We begin exactly where Dread Nation left off - Jane and Katherine (NOT Kate, only Jane is allowed to call her Kate) have barely escaped the shit-show town of Summerland, Kansas with their lives. Now, along with Jane’s kind-of-sort-of boyfriend, Jackson and a ragtag band of survivors, they make for the nearby town of Nicodemus, which promises some sort of safety from the coming zombie shambler hoard.

Only, in a world full of zombies shamblers, there is no such thing as safety.

Things go quickly from bad to tragic on the way to Nicodemus, and our two favorite zombie shambler harvesters barely make it there either. Nicodemus promises some semblance of safety: the walls are well-fortified, and the town seems far more welcoming to black people than Summerland, and there are even a few of Jane and Katherine’s classmates from Miss Preston’s School of Combat. There is one major problem, though: it’s still Kansas, and the dead are still coming.

Heh. That would happen in Kansas. Beautiful, scenic Kansas.

Once in Nicodemus, Jane is arrested, as word of her more lethal shenanigans in Summerland has gotten there already. Also there already are a few others who also managed to escape the ill-fated hellhole that was Summerland, like Daniel Redfern, who has somehow wrangled himself a position as Sheriff, and Gideon Carr, the infuriatingly gorgeous mad scientist tinkering with a vaccine against the dead. Gideon wants to test his vaccine on the entire town, and he wants Jane to help him convince people that the experiment is safe. Jane, stuck in the town prison, just wants everyone to get the hell out of Nicodemus as soon as possible because there is a massive hoard of the dead coming and there’s no walls or vaccines or anything that will save them except getting the hell out.

Running is their best option for survival.

But the zombies shamblers aren’t the only threat to humanity’s survival. There’s also pure, human stupidity to contend with. The people of Nicodemus are convinced their walls will hold. They’re convinced Gideon’s bullshit vaccine will protect them.

It does not go well.

For those of you who have, like me, been waiting longingly for a sequel to Dread Nation, you will not be disappointed - Deathless Divide is every bit as exciting, thought provoking and heartbreaking as its predecessor. The best part about this book is that, while Dread Nation was narrated entirely by Jane, Deathless Divide alternates between Jane’s POV and Katherine’s. It’s awesome to finally see things from Katherine’s perspective - in Dread Nation we only ever see her through Jane’s eyes, and in Deathless Divide we get to know her a lot better, including her struggles with anxiety and her feelings about her close but sometimes fraught relationship with Jane.

Deathless Divide is more than just a zombie Western (a genre I of which I absolutely need more) - it is a story of friendship, vengeance and maintaining your humanity in a world determined to strip it from you. As a sequel, Deathless Divide is exquisite- it expands on the world introduced to us in Dread Nation, provides us with a whole new perspective with Katherine's POV, and there is plenty of zombie-related action. The book may be 500 pages, but it really doesn't feel like it. You'll want to binge it all in one go, and then be left wanting more in the end. Speaking of which - I have high hopes for a third book. I've got my fingers crossed that, in the hypothetical book 3, Jane and Katherine get a chance to hang out with Bass Reeves, because I get the feeling that, in this universe, Bass Reeves is not only the badass bounty hunter he was in our universe, but also a kickass shambler harvester.

I mean, come on. The man brought in over 3,000 felons and shot and killed 14 people in self-defense. He would be a zombie-killing machine! Just look at that mustache!

Dear HBO: yes, it was awesome to see Bass Reeves featured on Watchmen (which, if you haven’t watched it yet, what are you doing, stop everything and just binge the whole thing right now).

But! I’m still waiting for my six part miniseries dedicated to the life and adventures of one of the coolest people to ever to have existed, ever.

Me, waiting for HBO’s Bass Reeves TV series:

And now for a moment in which I fall into a history-related research hole!

Late in Deathless Divide Ireland mentions the fact that, at the time, it was illegal to be a black person in Oregon. This is true. In 1844, the territory banned black people from living there altogether. And, even though the territory was made up mostly of people who disapproved of slavery, well...A guy going from Missouri to Oregon back in the late 1870s wrote about the prevailing attitude toward his fellow settlers: “Many [poor whites who migrated to Oregon from slave states] hated slavery, but a much larger number of them hated free negroes worse even than slaves.”*

Yeah, Oregon. I love my home state, but we…well, we are not very diverse. Most Oregonians are white, myself included. Only 2% of Oregonians are black, and this is because of Oregon’s long history of being shitty to people who aren’t white, which you can read all about here and here and here and here and also here. Apparently it all stems back to an incident in Oregon City back in 1844 known as the Comstock Incident, but it really, it was all just racism.

Accurate.

I was a grown-ass adult when I learned all about this section of Oregon’s history. They didn’t teach us about this when you’re growing up in rural Oregon in the 90s. No, it was all “Manifest Destiny!” and “let’s build little mini covered wagons and pull them around the school yard while dressed in bonnets and shit.” Meanwhile, the reality was that the whole state was basically a Sundown State.

Oregon, my Oregon, you crazy-ass State. I love you, but you were definitely founded as a racist utopia. That, in the alt-history of Deathless Divide the exclusion laws were never repealed is no surprise. Technically such laws were all invalidated when Oregon ratified the 14th Amendment on September 19, 1866. But Section 35, which made it illegal for black people to even move here, wasn’t repealed until 1926. Don’t think that made things easier for black people in Oregon, though! It didn’t. It really didn’t.

Damn it, Oregon. At least it’s pretty here.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Anyone whose interest is piqued when they hear the phrase “zombie Western.”

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR: Anyone who can’t handle badass young women killing zombies or being badass while also being protagonists of color.

RELEASE DATE: February 4, 2020

RATING: 5/5

ZOMBIE RATING:

ANTICIPATION LEVEL FOR POSSIBLE THIRD BOOK: Sagarmatha

* REFERENCE:

Brooks, Cheryl A (2004). "Race, Politics, and Denial: Why Oregon Forgot to Ratify the Fourteenth Amendment" (PDF). Oregon Law Review. 83: 731–762 – via University of Oregon.

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zareleonis · 5 years

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My Star Wars Top 10 of 2018

This year I fell massively in love with Star Wars, learned more about a galaxy far, far away that I ever expected and started this blog, first to liveblog Star Wars Rebels, and later to share my thoughts on whatever new (and old!) Star Wars media I came across. In honor of what, in my mind, was a really fun year for Star Wars, I wanted to share my top 10 list of my favorite Star Wars things that came out this year, across different kinds of media. Read more because it’s really long :P

Honorable Mention: Flight of the Falcon multimedia series (by multiple authors and artists)

Okay, if I’m honest, this gets honorable mention spot, mostly because I felt like putting it in top 10 when it’s really a BUNCH of comics and books would be totally cheating :P One of the more fun things to come out of Solo: A Star Wars Story, this series of loosely connected books and comics whose main connecting factor is the Millennium Falcon (and Bazine Netal’s hunt for it!) is an absolute joy. Cavan Scott knocks it out of the park with the ridiculously fun Choose Your Destiny: A Luke and Leia Adventure. IDW Comics does what’s it does best by bringing together some exciting and unexpected pairs of characters for the last couple months of Star Wars Adventures. In Lando’s Luck Justina Ireland gave us the coolest darn Princess in Star Wars since Leia, Rinetta Gan. And they’re not even done yet, with 2 more comics and Pirate’s Price left to go!

10. Star Wars: Scum and Villainy: Case Files on the Galaxy’s Most Notorious by Pablo Hidalgo

What an awesome and fun book! So much great art, and Pablo Hidalgo always gives 100% with his work. It’s such a creative concept, following Tan Divo and and his descendants, as they report on the criminals and rebels of their day. I completely geeked out over how it gave soooo much neat new information about characters and organizations from ALL OVER the Star Wars universe. It’s an absolute blast!

9. Solo: A Star Wars Story: Tales from Vandor by Jason Fry

This book is AMAZING. Even among the “replica journal” style books that Studio Fun puts out, it stands out as super unique, written from the point of view of the Midnight, the bartender at The Lodge on Vandor (where Han meets Lando), as if he is telling the story to a guest. It’s such a fun outsider’s point of view of Han and the other characters of Solo. The best part though, is the parts of the book that are just a shameless love letter to Star Wars Legends, with nods to stuff like The Wookiee Storybook, LEGO Star Wars: The Padawan Menace and several novels. Jason Fry’s love for the franchise really shines through.

8. Star Wars: Poe Dameron by Charles Soule and penciller Angel Unzueta

This year we said a bittersweet goodbye to Marvel’s monthly Star Wars: Poe Dameron and goodness gracious it was good. Between the Legend Found arc that was to be the original ending and the final The Awakening arc, where Black Squadron is reunited after The Last Jedi, this comic really touched my heart. The last couple pages of issues 25 and 31 still make me cry. :’)

7. Solo: A Star Wars Story directed by Ron Howard and screenplay by Lawrence and Jon Kasdan

THIS MOVIE IS CRIMINALLY UNDERRATED AND I’M MAD AT EVERYONE WHO LET IT FLOP. I’ll admit I wasn’t exactly desperate for a Han Solo Backstory Movie, but Solo was just AWESOME. Just some good, raw, Star Wars-y fun that you can’t help but smile the whole way through. It might not be groundbreaking, but it introduced some super cool characters in L3-37, Qi’ra and Enfys Nest, gave us Maul’s grand triumphant return to the public at large and has INCREDIBLY charming performances by Alden Ehrenreich and Donald Glover as the Han and Lando we all come to love.

6. The Mighty Chewbacca in the Forest of Fear! by Tom Angleberger

If Solo, is good, this kid’s book written to accompany it is even better. I mean, Chewbacca meets K-2SO meets Tooka cats meets teenage bounty hunter/librarian?? On a planet with scary monsters and a spooky evil Force user? Also Cassian is there?? And the daughter of This Funny Hat Dude from Return of the Jedi? Hell yeah!!!!!

The book is hysterical, ridiculously fun and I can’t recommend it enough. I just have to say if you do get it, try and grab the audiobook it’s got a full cast of voices for the main characters including Marc Thompson giving his best Shyriiwook as Chewbacca. I laughed so hard I cried at the narration and a K-2SO’s lines done out loud. You won’t regret it!

5. Star Wars: Women of the Galaxy by Amy Ratcliffe and eighteen awesome artists!

THIS is one of the coolest Star Wars books out there and a celebration of all the women we know and love (and sometimes hate) in a galaxy far, far away. It’s such a wonderful collaboration, created by all women (& non-binary) artists and author. I love that it’s got characters from practically everything—movies, books, comics, video games, you name it! We even got to see characters like Jas Emari for the first time which makes me SO HAPPY. it’s one of the books I come back to all the time just to flip through it and enjoy the illustrations.

4. Star Wars Resistance created by Dave Filoni and executive produced by Athena Yvette Portillo, Justin Ridge, and Brandon Auman

I LOVE RESISTANCE SO MUCH!! I didn’t quiiite know what to expect with the new animated series, but was super excited and it hasn’t disappointed one bit. It’s such a fun show and really enjoyable to have a Star Wars show that is almost just ‘slice of life’ compared to the others. The animation is so cool to me and the characters really cute. I’m ridiculously charmed by all of them, especially our main man Kazuda Xiono and really hyped to see where these characters go. It’s more happy and fun than anything, but I know it will break my heart to pieces soon enough (KAZUDA XIONO. HOME PLANET: HOSNIAN PRIME). I hope more people give it a chance because it really is awesome!

3. Star Wars Adventures: Tales from Vader's Castle by Cavan Scott and various artists

LET THIS BE MY LOVE LETTER TO CAVAN SCOTT AND ALL THE COOL AND AWESOME STUFF HE’S DONE WITH THE STAR WARS UNIVERSE!! I was soooo excited when these came out because it’s such an AWESOME idea, I mean? Star Wars Horror story one-shots connected by a wider plot??? YES PLEASE AND THANK YOU. Doubly so when they star Lina Graf, of the Adventures in Wild Space series by Cavan Scott and Tom Huddleston. I was soooo excited to see her again and it’s amazing to see how she’s grown from a young kid to a brave and capable pilot and Commander in the Rebellion.

Then the individual stories are just awesome. It was a joy to see Kanan and Hera back together again after Rebels (or, well, pre-Rebels). The Dooku story was just amazing and such an enthusiastic tribute to Christopher Lee as Dracula. The Frozen inspired Han and Chewie story was also pretty great and I LOVE that it referenced the events of The Mighty Chewbacca in the Forest of Fear! And, my personal favorite story, the spooky ewok story featuring a young Chief Chirpa and Logray was brilliant and I enjoyed getting a closer first-hand look at ewoks (something we don’t have much of, at least in canon!). All in all just an absolute masterpiece in my book and a great reminder of why IDW Comics’ Star Wars stuff has been so freaking awesome.

2. Join the Resistance: Attack on Starkiller Base by Ben Blacker and Ben Acker and illustrated by Annie Wu

I’M BACK AT IT YELLING ABOUT WHY MORE PEOPLE NEED TO CARE ABOUT THESE WONDERFUL, CHARMING LITTLE KIDS’ BOOKS!! This was such a perfect end to the J-Squadron kids’ story. To me, this series is such a hidden gem and I really hope more people give it a chance. It was wonderful how all the characters’ stories closed out. I loved seeing Jo finally openly defy his parents, Mattis putting his faith in the Force and his friends, the return of Klimo, AG-90 and Dec fighting as brothers but growing stronger for it, and Lorica becoming the hero everybody thought she was. There’s so many fun cameos, from Rey, to Hux to Poe and Black Squadron, with the backdrop of the actual climactic battle in The Force Awakens.

And, one thing I really want to talk about that I love, is how the book (in tandem with the first two) give us the first gay character in a Star Wars kids book, with Dec Hansen. I wish they could’ve said it a bit more explicitly, but we actually got the kid and his friends talking about it in the books? And, with most of the LGBT characters falling more on the “scum and villainy” circles of the galaxy, it’s so refreshing to see a brave and unambiguously heroic gay teenage starfighter pilot trainee. Like, holy shit that actually happened!!!! ANYWAYS READ THIS SERIES I LOVE THEM AND YOU SHOULD TOO.

Oh, also, Annie Wu’s illustrations are AWESOME and I hope she does more Star Wars stuff (Pirate’s Price, out in a week!)

1. Star Wars Rebels created by Dave Filoni, Simon Kinberg and Carrie Beck

I don’t think there’s way I could place anything but Rebels at #1. This show changed my life in so many ways and I’m just. ridiculously thankful it exists. without Rebels, I wouldn’t have this blog, I wouldn’t be up to my ears obsessed with Star Wars and I there’s so many friends I wouldn’t have either. It’s touched my heart in a way that.... gosh I don’t know if I can even think about anything that resonates with me quite in the way Star Wars Rebels has. Pretty sure most if not all of my followers have seen Rebels, haha, but if you haven’t. You won’t regret it. Well, you might. It hurts. I hate to say, but it does. But even if the end destination leaves you heartbroken and uh prone to randomly bursting into tears about it, you will never regret the journey. Everything I learned and experienced with Ezra, Kanan, Hera, Sabine, Zeb and Chopper is beyond precious to me and I’m thankful it exists because it made my year in so many ways.

#star wars rebels #star wars resistance #solo a star wars story #the mighty chewbacca in the forest of fear #join the resistance #tales from vader's castle #star wars: women of the galaxy #star wars poe dameron #tales from vandor #star wars: scum and villainy #flight of the falcon #star wars

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cathygeha · 6 years

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REVIEW

BlueStone & Vine by Donna Kauffman

Blue Hollow Falls #2

If I could move to live in this community I believe I would. The people are wonderful with true friendships, sense of community and love of family. In this book Pippa and Seth meet, fight their attraction and then succumb. Seth with his vineyard and wine to make has a huge giving heart that gives as much to Pippa as she gives to him. She is afraid…and worried and is thrilled to find “music” again while by the falls and then later in other places as she stays. Pippa and Seth are perfect together…just perfect :)

Mabry – and older gentleman – has such pithy wisdom to share with both Seth and Pippa and I was thrilled that they listened and took his advice.

Will and his son Jake make an appearance and their story is so sad and yet filled with hope. I think that Will may need a romance of his own later in this series. I am also wondering if his son Jake and Bailey – both still young – might end up together in the distant future.

Moira – Seth’s sister – calls home from Ireland with heartbreak experienced. I see that the next book in the series is going to be hers and I can hardly wait!

There is also Hudson the cook and he could need a book, too…so many characters including a paper artist that might eventually end up there, too?

Did I like this book? Definitely

Will I read more in the series? Of course ;)

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing – Zebra for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38530694-bluestone-vine

BLURB

Pippa MacMillan is a legend on the Irish folk music scene. But when her voice requires a time-out, she's left wondering how--and where--to find happiness in the silence . . . Seeking answers, Pippa leaves Ireland in favor of a small town in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Turns out lovely Blue Hollow Falls is the perfect place to heal--and solitary Seth Brogan is the surprisingly perfect host. After all, Seth is beginning again too: turning his renovated stone barn and beautiful hillside into a vineyard is the start of a whole new life for the former Special Forces soldier. Only Mother Nature keeps thwarting both their plans, leaving Pippa snowbound with unsettling thoughts about how life can take unexpected turns . . . To Pippa's surprise, she might actually fall for small-town living. She might even fall for Seth, whose quiet strength is a balm for her world-weary soul. But when the music starts once more, will she follow her fortune back to Ireland, or surrender to the call of her heart?

#Donna Kauffman #Kensington-Zebra #NetGalley #Blue Hollow Falls 2 #Contemporary Romance

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landensueo436 · 3 years

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Background Of The Pendulum Clock

Content

Time Screen Methods

Department Of Mechanical Engineeringprof Michael Nosonovsky.

Mechanical Water Clocks

Abbey Clocks As Well As Clock Towers

Yet given that the exception actually does show the policy, let's elevate yet another concern inquiry; let's ask when the initial mechanical clock was developed. In 1927, Canadian-born Warren Marrison, a telecommunications engineer, was looking for trustworthy regularity standards at Bell Telephone Laboratories.

Time Display Methods

In atomic clocks the controller is a left microwave tooth cavity affixed to a microwave oscillator regulated by a microprocessor. A thin gas of caesium atoms is released right into the tooth cavity where they are subjected to microwaves. Then the microwave signal is divided by electronic counters to end up being the clock signal. In atomic clocks, it is the resonance of electrons in atoms as they discharge microwaves.

Division Of Mechanical Engineeringprof Michael Nosonovsky.

Every person from old people to cops participated the action, with industrial communities hiring multitudes of knocker-uppers. By the 1920s nevertheless, as alarm clocks spread out, the special profession started to vanish. Since the Industrial Transformation started, people had been finding means to ensure they reached service time.

At the top, a round on a platform kept track of the movement of the worlds. The clock stayed in place as well as functioning until 1126 when it was lost in a Tatar intrusion.

Mechanical Water Clocks

When the wheel transforms, the top pallet stops it and creates the foliot, with its regulating weights, to oscillate. The wheel advances till it is caught once more by the bottom pallet, and also the procedure repeats itself. The activities of the escapement maintain the power of the gravitational force as well as are what create the ticktock of weight-driven clocks. period) depends only on the length of the pendulum and is virtually independent of the level of the arc.

The reason would have been entirely unknown to anybody living in the time of Galileo, however it began to make good sense once we started to comprehend exactly how gravitation worked. We like to think that Glance represents the next generation of wall clock. Moving on from Quartz, we have actually come to a time when clocks do more than simply inform time, they aid you schedule your appointments, alert you of inbound calls, and aid monitor your rest-- simply to name a few modern-day features. Nearly every residence has at least one or two hanging on the wall surfaces, as do workplaces and also numerous public spaces. Clocks assist us govern the circulation of our day and remain on schedule with those around us ... no wonder they are so crucial. In 1929 the quartz crystal was initial put on timekeeping; this development was probably the solitary greatest contribution to precision time dimension.

John Harrison, that dedicated his life to boosting the precision of his clocks, later on got substantial amounts under the Longitude Act.

For instance, there is a document that in 1176 Sens Cathedral installed an 'horologe' but the mechanism used is unknown.

--' to tell') was used to define very early mechanical clocks, but using this word for all timekeepers hides the true nature of the systems.

In Europe, between 1280 as well as 1320, there horloge-factory.com/products/horloge-design-a-balancier was a boost in the variety of recommendations to clocks as well as horologes in church documents, and also this most likely indicates that a brand-new kind of clock system had actually been devised.

This regulated launch of power-- the escapement-- marks the beginning of truth mechanical clock, which differed from the formerly pointed out cogwheel clocks.

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The regularity of the chosen optical requirement would, naturally, require to be properly determined in terms of the caesium frequency, to avoid any gap in the meaning. However this can easily be achieved making use of a femtosecond optical frequency comb-- a laser source whose spectrum is a consistently spaced comb of frequencies-- to link the void in between the optical as well as the microwave frequencies. One barrier to a redefinition is that it is uncertain which optical clock will eventually be best. Each system being researched has advantages as well as drawbacks-- some offer higher achievable stability, while others are highly unsusceptible to ecological perturbations.

When Was The Wristwatch Created?

Who designs DC?

Other accounts credit Abel Cottey, the first of the "Six Quaker Clockmakers" featured in the book of the same name, with building the first American-made clock in 1709.

One preferred approach, at the very least in Britain and Ireland, involved employing a knocker-upper. Utilizing everything from a truncheon to a pea shooter, the knocker-upper would bang on windows and doors to wake those inside. The adjustable alarm clock enabled the customer to establish a time to awake, as opposed to being ruled by the dictates of others.

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gldnsctn · 3 years

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A spiteful scar crossed his face: an ash-colored and nearly perfect arc that creased his temple at one tip and his cheek at the other. His real name is of no importance, everyone in Tacuarembó called him the Englishman from La Colorada.” Cardoso, the owner of those fields refused to sell them: I understand that the Englishman resorted to an unexpected argument: he confided to Cardoso the secret of the scar. The Englishman came from the border, from Rio Grande del Sur; there are many who say that in Brazil he had been a smuggler. The fields were overgrown with grass, the waterholes brackish; the Englishman, in order to correct those deficiencies, worked fully as hard as his laborers. They say that he was severe to the point of cruelty, but scrupulously just. They say also that he drank: a few times a year he locked himself into an upper room, not to emerge until two or three days later as if from a battle or from vertigo, pale, trembling, confused and as authoritarian as ever. I remember the glacial eyes, the energetic leanness, the gray mustache. He had no dealings with anyone; it is a fact that his Spanish was rudimentary and cluttered with Brazilian. Aside from a business letter or some pamphlet he received no mail.

The last time I passed through the northern provinces, a sudden overflowing of the Caraguatá stream compelled me to spend the night at La Colorada. Within a few moments, I seemed to sense that my appearance was inopportune, I tried to ingratiate myself with the Englishman; I resorted to the least discerning of passions: patriotism. I claimed as invincible a country with such spirit as England’s. My companion agreed. but added with a smile that he was not English. He was Irish from Hungarian. Having said this, he stopped short, as if he had revealed a secret.

After dinner we went outside to look at the sky. It had cleared up, but beyond the low hills the southern sky, streaked and gashed by lightning was conceiving another storm. Into the cleared up dining room the boy who had served dinner brought a bottle of rum. We drank for some time, in silence.

I don’t know what time it must have been when I observed that I was drunk; I don’t know what inspiration or what exultation or tedium made me mention the scar.

The Englishman’s face changed its expression; for a few seconds I thought he was going to throw me out of the house. At length he said in his normal voice:

“I’ll tell you the history of my scar under one condition that of not mitigating one bit of the opprobrium, of the infamous circumstances.”

I agreed. This is the story that he told me, mixing his English with Spanish, and even with Portuguese: “Around 1922, in one of the cities of Connaught, I was one of the many who were conspiring for the independence of Ireland. Of my comrades, some are sell living, dedicated to peaceful pursuits; others, paradoxically, are fighting on desert and sea under the English flag; another, the most worthy, died in the courtyard of a barracks, at dawn, shot by men filled with sleep; still others (not the most unfortunate) met their destiny in the anonymous and almost secret battles of the civil war. We were Republicans, Catholics; we were, I suspect, Romantics. Ireland was for us not only the utopian future and the intolerable present; it was a bitter and cherished mythology, it was the circular towed and the red marshes, it was the repudiation of Parnell and the enormous epic poems which sang of the robbing of bulls which in another incarnation were heroes and in others fish and mountains . . . One afternoon I will never forget, an affiliate from Munster joined us: one John Vincent Moon.

“He was scarcely twenty years old. He was slender and flaccid at the same time; he gave the uncomfortable impression of being invertebrate. He had studied with fervor and with vanity nearly every page of Lord knows what Communist manual; he made use of dialectical materialism to put an end to any discussion whatever. The reasons one can have for hating another man, or for loving him, are infinite: Moon reduced the history of the universe to a sordid economic conflict He affirmed that the revolution was predestined to succeed. I told him that for a gentleman only lost causes should be attractive . . . Night had already fallen; we continued our disagreement in the hall, on the stilts, then along the vague streets. The judgments Moon emitted impressed me less than his irrefutable, apodictic note. The new comrade did not discuss: he dictated opinions with scorn and with a certain anger.

“As we were arriving at the outlying houses, a sudden burst of gunfire stunned us. (Either before or afterwards we skirted the blank wall of a factory or barracks.) We moved into an unpaved street; a soldier, huge in the firelight, came out of a burning hut. Crying out, he ordered us to stop. I quickened my pace; my companion did not follow. I turned around: John Vincent Moon was motionless, fascinated, as if energized by fear. I then ran back and knocked the soldier to the ground with one blow, shook Vincent Moon, insulted him and ordered him to follow. I had to take him by the arm; the passion of fear had rendered him helpless. We fled into the night pierced by flames. A rifle volley reached out for us, and a bullet nicked Moon’s right shoulder; as we were fleeing amid pines, he broke out in weak sobbing.

“In that fall of 1923 I had taken shelter in General Berkeley’s country house. The general (whom I had never seen) was carrying out some administrative assignment or other in Bengal; the house was less than a century old, but it was decayed and shadowy and flourished in puzzling corridors and in pointless antechambers. The museum and the huge library usurped the first floor: controversial and uncongenial books which in some manner are the history of the nineteenth century; scimitars from Nishapur, along whose captured arcs there seemed to persist still the wind and violence of battle. We entered (I seem to recall) through the rear. Moon, trembling, his mouth parched, murmured that the events of the night were interesting I dressed his wound and brought him a cup of tea; I was able to determine that his ‘wound’ was superficial. Suddenly he stammered in bewilderment:

‘You know, you ran a terrible risk.’

I told him not to worry about it. (The habit of the civil war had incited me to act is I did; besides, the capture of a single member could endanger our cause.)

“By the following day Moon had recovered his poise. He accepted a cigarette and subjected me to a severe interrogation on the ‘economic resources of our revolutionary party.’ His questions were very lucid; I told him (truthfully) that the situation was serious. Deep bursts of rifle fire agitated the south. I told Moon our comrades were waiting for us. My overcoat and my revolver were in my room; when I returned, I found Moon stretched out on the sofa, his eyes closed. He imagined he had a fever; he invoked a painful spasm in his shoulder.

“At that moment I understood that his cowardice was irreparable. I clumsily entreated him to take care of himself and went out. This frightened man mortified me, as if I were the coward, not Vincent Moon. Whatever one man does, it is as if all men did it. For that reason it is not unfair that one disobedience in a garden should contaminate all humanity; for that reason it is not unjust that the crucifixion of a single Jew should be sufficient to save it. Perhaps Schopenhauer was right. I am all other men, any man is all men, Shakespeare is in some manner the miserable John Vincent Moon.

“Nine days we spent in the general’s enormous house. Of the agonies and the successes of the war I shall not speak: I propose to relate the history of the scar that insults me. In my memory, those nine days form only a single day , save for the next to the last, when our men broke into a barracks and we were able to avenge precisely the sixteen comrades who had been machine- gunned in Elphin. I slipped out of the house towards dawn, in the confusion of daybreak. At Highball I was back. My companion was waiting for me upstairs: his wound did not permit him to descend to the ground floor. I recall him having some volume of strategy in his hand, F. N. Maude or Clausewitz ‘The weapon I prefer is the artillery,’ he confessed to me one night.

He inquired into our plans; he liked to censure them or revise them. He also was accustomed to denouncing ‘our deplorable economic basis’; dogmatic and gloomy, he predicted the disastrous end.

‘C’est une affaire flambée,’ he murmured. In order to show that he was indifferent to being a physical coward, he magnified his mental arrogance. In this way, for good or for bad, nine days elapsed.

“On the tenth day the city fell definitely to the Black and Tans. Tall, silent horsemen patrolled the roads; ashes and smoke rode on the wind; on the corner I saw a corpse thrown to the ground, an Impression less firm in my memory than that of a dummy on which the soldiers endlessly practiced their marksmanship, in the middle of the square . . . I had left when dawn was in the sky, before noon I returned. Moon, in the library, was speaking with someone; the tone of his voice told me he was talking on the telephone. Then I heard my name; then that I would return at seven; then, the suggestion that they should arrest me as I was crossing the garden. My reasonable fiend was reasonably selling me out. I heard him demand guarantees of personal safety.

‘Here my story is confused and becomes lost. I know that I pursued the informer along the black, nightmarish halls and along deep stairways of dizziness. Moon knew the house very well, much better than I. One or two times I lost him. I cornered him before the soldiers stopped me. From one of the general’s collections of arms I tore a cutlass with that half moon I carved into his face forever a half moon of blood. Borges, to you, a stranger I have made this confession. Your contempt does not grieve me so much.’’

Here the narrator stopped. I noticed that his hands were shaking.

“And Moon?” I asked him.

“He collected his Judas money and fled to Brazil. That afternoon, in the square, he saw a dummy shot up by some drunken men. I waited in vain for the rest of the story. Finally I told him to go on. Then a sob went through his body; and with a weak gentleness he pointed to the whitish curved scar.

“You don’t believe me?” he stammered. “Don’t you see that I carry written on my face the mark of my infamy? I have told you the story thus so that you would hear me to the end. I denounced the man who protected me. I am Vincent Moon. Now despise me.”

The Shape of the Sword :: Jorge Luis Borges

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newstfionline · 4 years

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Thursday, October 29, 2020

Rent and debt problems (WSJ) A new study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia found that outstanding rent debt in the United States will hit $7.2 billion by the end of 2020, and without additional stimulus spending Moody’s estimates that it could hit $70 billion. They estimate that 12.8 million people will owe an average $5,400 from missed payments, which is significantly higher than the 3.8 million homeowners foreclosed on from 2007 to 2010. Across the U.S., 30 million to 40 million people face possible eviction once moratoriums expire.

A Divided Nation Agrees on One Thing: Many People Want a Gun (NYT) In America, spikes in gun purchases are often driven by fear. But in past years that anxiety has centered on concerns that politicians will pass stricter gun controls. Mass shootings often prompt more gun sales for that reason, as do elections of liberal Democrats. Many gun buyers now are saying they are motivated by a new destabilizing sense that is pushing even people who had considered themselves anti-gun to buy weapons for the first time—and people who already have them to buy more. The nation is on track in 2020 to stockpile at record rates, according to groups that track background checks from FBI data. Across the country, Americans bought 15.1 million guns in the seven months this year from March through September, a 91 percent leap from the same period in 2019, according to seasonally adjusted firearms sales estimates from The Trace, a nonprofit news organization that focuses on gun issues. The FBI has also processed more background checks for gun purchases in just the first nine months of 2020 than it has for any previous full year, FBI data show. “The year 2020 has been just one long advertisement for why someone may want to have a firearm to defend themselves,” said Douglas Jefferson, the vice president for the National African American Gun Association, which has seen the biggest increase in membership this year since the group was formed in 2015.

The ‘Right to Repair’ Movement Gains Ground (NYT) If you buy a product—a car, a smartphone, or even a tractor—and it breaks, should it be easier for you to fix it yourself? Manufacturers of a wide range of products have made it increasingly difficult over the years to repair things, for instance by limiting availability of parts or by putting prohibitions on who gets to tinker with them. It affects not only game consoles or farm equipment, but cellphones, military gear, refrigerators, automobiles and even hospital ventilators, the lifesaving devices that have proven crucial this year in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, a movement known as “right to repair” is starting to make progress in pushing for laws that prohibit restrictions like these. The goal of right-to-repair rules, advocates say, is to require companies to make their parts, tools and information available to consumers and repair shops in order to keep devices from ending up in the scrap heap. They argue that the rules restrict people’s use of devices that they own and encourage a throwaway culture by making repairs too difficult. They also argue that it’s part of a culture of planned obsolescence—the idea that products are designed to be short-lived in order to encourage people to buy more stuff. That contributes to wasted natural resources and energy use at a time when climate change requires movement in the opposite direction.

Peru’s Machu Picchu reopening Sunday after pandemic closure (AP) Except workers repairing roads and signs, Peru’s majestic Incan citadel of Machu Picchu is eerily empty ahead of its reopening Sunday after seven months of closure due to the coronavirus pandemic. The long closure of Peru’s No. 1 tourist draw, which has hammered the local economy, marks the second time it has been shut down since it opened its doors to tourism in 1948. The stone complex built in the 15th century will receive 675 visitors a day starting Sunday, the director of Machu Picchu archaeological park, José Bastante, told The Associated Press. The site is accustomed to receiving 3,000 tourists a day, though it recently passed regulations limiting visitors to 2,244 visitors a day to protect the ruins. Still a large number given experts belief that in the 15th century a maximum of 410 people lived in the citadel on the limits of the Andes mountains and the Amazon.

Evo’s return (Foreign Policy) Evo Morales will return to Bolivia on Nov. 9, the day after President-elect Luis Arce is sworn in. Morales’s return will come just over a year after he was forced out of the country. An outstanding arrest warrant for sedition and terrorism issued for Morales was annulled on Tuesday, paving the way for his return. Meanwhile, hundreds of supporters of the right-wing opposition marched on a military barracks on Tuesday asking for “military help” to stop the Movement for Socialism (MAS) party from regaining power.

New protests loom as Europeans tire of virus restrictions (AP) Protesters set trash bins afire and police responded with hydrant sprays in downtown Rome Tuesday night, part of a day of public outpouring of anger against virus-fighting measures like evening shutdowns for restaurants and bars and the closures of gyms and theaters—a sign of growing discontent across Europe with renewed coronavirus restrictions. It was a fifth straight night of violent protest in Italy, following recent local overnight curfews in metropolises including Naples and Rome. All of Europe is grappling with how to halt a fall resurgence of the virus before its hospitals become overwhelmed again. Nightly curfews have been implemented in French cities. Schools must close at 6 p.m. Schools have been closed in Northern Ireland and the Czech Republic. German officials have ordered de-facto lockdowns in some areas near the Austrian border and new mask-wearing requirements are popping up weekly across the continent, including a nationwide requirement in Russia. Yet in this new round of restrictions, governments are finding a less compliant public. Over the weekend, police used pepper spray against protesters angry over new virus restrictions in Poland. Spanish doctors staged their first national walkout in 25 years on Tuesday to protest poor working conditions. In Britain, anger and frustration at the government’s uneven handling of the pandemic has erupted into a political crisis over the issue of hungry children.

Cake Lady helps wounded soldiers heal, one treat at a time LONDON (AP)—David Wiseman heard Kath Ryan before he met her. He was at the far end of Ward S-4 at Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham when shouts of “Cake Lady’s here! Cake Lady’s here!” began rolling through the room full of wounded soldiers, bed by bed. Who was this Cake Lady, he wondered, until he saw a middle-aged woman in a “strange dress” pushing a trolley and handing out cake. “When all you’ve seen is doctors and nurses and the odd relative, it was just a bit of an assault on the senses,” Wiseman remembered. “And she was doling out hugs and, you know, cakes. … She just brought joy into that place.” Since 2009, retired nurse Ryan, 59, has made some 1,260 visits to British hospitals, bonding with the patients as she fed them an estimated 1 million slices of cake. But Ryan brought more than treats. She brought herself—bubbly, irreverent, and fearless. As she could see that most of the injured were in a terrible state, she never asked, “How are you?” “I would go in with the trolley and apron and stand at the end of the bed, and say, ‘Can I lead you into temptation this evening?’” Ryan recalled. “Straight away, they would scream laughing.” One soldier got into the spirit and asked, “What’s on offer, love?” “Anything you want,” Ryan replied. “As long as it’s legal, moral, and on the cake trolley.”

With eye on China, India and U.S. sign accord to deepen military ties (NYT) India and the United States signed a pact Tuesday to share geospatial intelligence, paving the way for deeper military cooperation between the two countries as they confront an increasingly assertive China. The agreement will give India’s armed forces access to a wealth of data from U.S. military satellites to aid in targeting and navigation. The two countries signed the accord in New Delhi during a visit by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper a week before the U.S. presidential election. The agreement is the latest example of how India and the United States—the world’s two largest democracies—are drawing closer together to respond to the challenge of China’s rise. For India, that challenge is no longer theoretical. In June, India and China engaged in their deadliest clash in more than 50 years high in the mountains near the unofficial border between the two countries. Twenty Indian soldiers died, while the number of Chinese casualties remains unknown. India and China are still locked in a dangerous standoff, with tens of thousands of troops preparing to wait out the harsh Himalayan winter.

Typhoon, landslides leave 35 dead, 59 missing in Vietnam (AP) Typhoon Molave set off landslides that killed at least 19 people and left 45 missing in central Vietnam, where ferocious wind and rain blew away roofs and knocked out power in a region of 1.7 million residents, state media said Thursday. The casualties from the landslides bring the over-all death toll from the storm to at least 35, including 12 fishermen whose boats sank Wednesday as the typhoon approached with winds of up to 150 kilometers (93 miles) per hour. Vietnamese officials say it’s the worst typhoon to hit the country in 20 years. At least 59 people remain missing in the landslides and at sea. The toll may rise with many regions still unable to report details of the devastation amid the stormy weather.

Scale of Qatar Airways scandal revealed (Foreign Policy) Female passengers on “10 aircraft in total” were forced into invasive physical examinations at Doha airport on Oct. 2, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said on Wednesday, as the Qatari government apologized publicly and began an investigation into the incident. The women were removed from flights after a newborn baby was found abandoned in one of the airport bathrooms. The Transport Workers’ Union of New South Wales, whose members service Qatar Airways planes in Sydney, condemned “the brutal attack on the human rights of Australian female airline passengers” and is considering industrial action in response. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison pledged a “further response” after reviewing the results of an investigation. He told reporters, “As a father of daughters, I could only shudder at the thought that any woman, Australian or otherwise, would be subjected to that.”

Australia’s second-largest city ends 111-day virus lockdown MELBOURNE, Australia (AP)—Coffee business owner Darren Silverman pulled his van over and wept when he heard on the radio that Melbourne’s pandemic lockdown would be largely lifted on Wednesday after 111 days. Silverman was making a home delivery Monday when the announcement was made that restrictions in Australia’s second-largest city would be relaxed. He was overwhelmed with emotions and a sense of relief. According to the Victoria state government the lockdown changes will allow 6,200 retail stores, 5,800 cafés and restaurants, 1,000 beauty salons and 800 pubs to reopen, impacting 180,000 jobs.

Nigeria considers social media regulation in wake of deadly shooting (Reuters) Nigeria’s information minister said “some form of regulation” could be imposed on social media just a week after protesters spread images and videos of a deadly shooting using Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Images, video and an Instagram live feed from a popular DJ spread news of shootings in Lagos on Oct. 20, when witnesses and rights groups said the military fired on peaceful protesters. The protesters had been demonstrating for nearly two weeks to demand an end to police brutality. The army denied its soldiers were there. Social media helped spread word of the shootings worldwide, and international celebrities from Beyonce and Lewis Hamilton to Pope Francis since called on the country to resolve the conflict peacefully. Information Minister Lai Mohammed told a panel at the National Assembly on Tuesday that “fake news” is one of the biggest challenges facing Nigeria. A spokesman for the minister confirmed the comments, and said “the use of the social media to spread fake news and disinformation means there is the need to do something about it.”

#headlines #news

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031cinephile · 4 years

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European Film Festival 2020 Goes Virtual

This year’s annual European Film Festival goes completely virtual with an excellent line-up of twelve brand new films, all of which are premiere screenings in South Africa. All of these eleven films are screened free of charge and one additional documentary will collect a fee towards a worthy cause.

Emphasising her support for the festival’s continuity despite the challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic, EU Ambassador to South Africa, Dr Riina Kionka, said: “Twelve films in eleven days shows the determination of this European partnership to overcome difficult circumstances. Since my arrival in South Africa this is my second European Film Festival: I can tell you that it is a cultural highlight not to be missed. In addition, I invite you to participate in the various special events lined up during the Festival!”

Old Worlds and New

Invoking a moment of reflection, and the opportunity to reset our attitude to the world and our 2020 circumstances, this year’s 7th edition of the European Film Festival, is about Then and Now, with the films inscribing an arc from Old Worlds to New.

Starting in the Middle Ages, this year’s Austrian film is based on the story of Narcissus and Goldmund, written by Nobel-prize winning author Hermann Hesse, and directed here by Oscar-winning Stefan Ruzowitzky (The Counterfeiters). It examines the powerful bond between two very different characters, amidst the dichotomy between religious monastic life and the passion and adventure of secular life.

Moving forward a few hundred years, there are two reflections on wars of the 20th century.

After World War 2, when most countries around the world were focused on recovery and rebuilding, the small country of Lithuania remained in a war situation as locals resisted Soviet occupation for about another 15 years. Sharanas Bartas’s film In The Dusk dramatically takes us into that desperate time and place. From the same era, but focused in a different part of Europe and Africa, Home Front is a Belgian film directed by Lucas Belvaux, where painful memories of the time of the French colonial war in Algeria explode into the present, opening up chapters of a toxic past which is still not fully spoken of today.

Marco Bellocchio's award-winning film The Traitor takes us into the 1980s when a whistleblowing mafia boss-turned-informer triggers the largest prosecution of the Sicilian mafia in Italian history. A riveting insight into the operations of one of the world’s most notorious crime syndicates.

The German film Curveball, directed by Johannes Naber, is a thriller that catapults viewers into the 21st century. In a sober warning about how terribly easy it is to slip into war, this is a fact-based story about how a lie regarding chemical weapons, sets in motion a chain of events that results in the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, forever changing the global political landscape.

On a much lighter note, the Spanish film directed by Bernabe Rico, One Careful Owner, tells how a woman buys a new home with a certain ‘inconvenience’, namely that the 80-year old current owner will remain living in it until she dies. The two very different women in this story will form an unlikely friendship filled with tenderness, emotion and much laughter.

Another film focusing on female relationships, and in this case a mother-daughter relationship, is the French film Proxima, by director Alice Winocour, about a French woman astronaut who is forced to consider her priorities of family versus career.

There are two stories of unique emancipation and self-discovery – the first is the Dutch film, Becoming Mona, directed by Sabine Lubbe Bakker and Niels van Koevorden, in which we follow, from childhood through to adulthood, Mona’s struggle to break free from the stifling constraints of a life lived in service of other people’s egos.

The UK film this year is Bassam Tariq’s Mogul Mowgli, starring Riz Ahmed as a rapper on the verge of a big international tour when he gets cut down with a severe illness, causing him to confront his Pakistani/English culture, and himself.

The Polish film Sweat by director Magnus van Horn focuses on a fitness motivator who has become a social media celebrity and influencer - it’s about how she wrestles with the nature of her popularity and what loneliness and intimacy mean in her world, all highly pertinent issues in this modern digital era.

The festival also includes two powerful documentaries. The Irish representative, The 8th, is about the highly emotive and divisive topic of abortion and women’s reproductive rights. Here, three award-winning women directors, Aideen Kane, Lucy Kennedy, and Maeve O’Boyle, follow the grassroots activism of the campaign to repeal the 1983 8th amendment (which criminalised abortions) in a defining moment of Irish history.

Finally, bringing us right up to date, is a film which focuses our attention on one of the greatest crises humanity has ever faced, climate change. Nathan Grossman’s deeply personal Swedish documentary I am Greta follows the teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg from her one-person school strike to her astonishing wind-powered voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to speak at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York City.

“These films give us much to think about, a common theme in all of them being Relationship,” says Peter Rorvik, curator of the festival. “The wide range of relationships deal with antagonism, dominance, and dependency; with competition and conflict; with cooperation, friendship, and love; with class, race, and culture. It is also about relationship with ourselves, and with our environment, and the eco-systems of which we are a part. We cannot always control our circumstances, but how we manage these exchanges will mark our place in the world. This selection will not just entertain, but contribute to our awareness of relationships, guide our actions, and inform our ongoing journey of discovery of the world and ourselves.”

Free Screenings

The 2020 edition of the European Film Festival is virtual and accessible online across South Africa only. The film screenings are free, except for I am Greta, whose entry fee of R50 serves as a fundraiser for a climate action group who will be awarded screening proceeds after the festival.

Look out for the full programme of screenings and special events on https://www.eurofilmfest.co.za/

Bringing the best of European film to South Africa’s home screens, the European Film Festival 2020 is a partnership project of the Delegation of the European Union to South Africa and 12 other European embassies and cultural agencies in South Africa: the Embassies of Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden and Wallonie-Bruxelles International, the French Institute in South Africa, the Goethe-Institut, the Italian Cultural Institute, and the British Council. The festival is organised in cooperation with CineEuropa and coordinated by Creative WorkZone.

#European Film Festival #Online Virtual Edition #South Africa #FreeFilm #EUFF2020 #streaming

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philthevaliant-stuff · 6 years

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Loud House Highlight Time - When Ronnie (Anne) Met Lincy, #5: The Loudest Mission [Or just 'Relative Chaos' if you're in the UK]

With 'City Slickers' coming tomorrow, I've decided to do daily highlights of the Ronniecoln episodes, as a build-up to whatever surprises await us. Part V: Ronniecoln - The Special! Plus there's time to make history once again!

*Lori kicking things off by calling Ronnie Anne Lincoln's 'girlfriend'.

*A tearful scene for the Lobby shippers as Lori and Bobby say goodbye to each other, complete with Lincoln and Ronnie Anne looking at them in a way that harkens back to 'Save the Date'. After this episode, it won't be until 'Selfie Improvement' that Bobby physically returns to his Babe!

*Lincoln and Ronnie Anne's friendly goodbye to each other.

*The Casagrandes! This marks their first appearance together, and as the promos for 'City Slickers' and the upcoming comic books indicate, it definitely won't be their last! Favourite family members from me include walking encyclopedia Carlos, snapshot supremo Frida, almost-reticent mimicker Carlitos, cooking legend Rosa, and last but by no means least...

*...CJ Casagrande. Like Howard & Harold and Luna & Sam before him (immediately before him in the latter two's case), CJ makes animation history right from his first appearance cosplaying a superhero: not only is he the first ever Nicktoon with Down Syndrome, but he's also the second animated character EVER with that disability (being beaten to the punch by Irish cartoon character Punky, who appeared 6 years prior*), and as such the news went to town over him, spoiling him like rotten, even though the staff members treat him like part of the family here.

*Carlota's thrift store purchases resembling something out of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

*Everyone watching The Dream Boat. Highlighted because CJ's scenes in this episode are oozing with wholesomeness and so I'm placing them all here in this bullet-point to save space.

*Ronnie Anne walking in on Sergio in the shower.

*This exchange between Bobby and CJ, whose plot reveals are the stuff of epicness:

"This weekend's gone by so fast. I'm really gonna miss everybody." "Nuh-uh." "Yes-huh, CJ. I'm gonna miss you." "Nuh-uh. 'Cause you're not leaving ever!"

*Lori driving full pelt to the Casagrande's. Highlighted because it will later be revealed in 'Selfie Improvement' that it's a three hour drive to where Ronnie Anne's family live, making this scene feel like Lori reaches the place in three MINUTES! So she’s driving near the speed of light, then! :P And unlike 'Pulp Friction', Vanzilla doesn't break down here despite being pushed to such speeds, which shows how much of a good mechanic Lana is! :P

*Rosa's chocolate cake. Hey, I'm a chocoholic, so sue me!

*Carlitos wearing a paper decoration around his head, no doubt mimicking a lion at this point. You see, you never quite know what’s he going to do! He’s so spontaneous.

*Lincoln and Ronnie Anne insisting (at the same time) that they're absolutely, definitely, totally NOT in love with each other!

*Lincoln and CJ playing pirates together.

*Lori's makeover in an attempt at taking Bobby's mind off of his work at the bodega... and Carl managing to follow in the footsteps of Clyde, even though our plucky friend/boyfriend of Lincoln's won't appear in the story arc until next time!

*Lalo and Sergio watching The Dream Boat.

*The street cats. By far the most interesting of the one-off antagonists, since there's literally a sea of them!

*Sergio getting into the love potion. It seems to be either CJ or Sergio who gets the lion's share of the scenes here! :P

*Lori somehow managing to dislocate her right arm over what she thinks is the potential loss of her boyfriend. Yikes.

*On that note, Carlota catching Detached Eyelashitis from the Louds. Let's hope it doesn't strike again in tomorrow's episode! :P

*Lincoln with chocolate cake around his face.

*The nice moment between Ronnie Anne and her mum. I was crying at this point as it was so sweet...!

*Ronnie Anne's new room, complete with Frida's expertly-made photo wall and CJ's sign-making skills.

*Everyone working together to fend off the cats, complete with pirate swashbuckling from Lincoln and CJ.

*Ronnie Anne saving the cake.

*The second goodbye between Lincoln and Ronnie Anne, with the latter hugging our protagonist for the first time in the show's run. But, you know, he's NOT her boyfriend...! :P

*The reveal that Lincoln has bestowed the Louds and Clyde's ability to break the fourth wall to Ronnie Anne. Which makes the potential, upcoming Facebook livestream with the both of them much easier for Ronnie Anne. But as Lincoln will insist on telling us, she's NOT his girlfriend...! :P

*And finally, the credits insisting that Lynn Sr. made an appearance in this episode. He obviously played the role of Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Special. :P

*Wait a minute, though - since Punky hails from Ireland, that does technically make CJ the first NORTH AMERICAN cartoon character in history with Down Syndrome, to my knowledge. What a pop culture legend that CJ is!

TO BE CONCLUDED IN 'BACK OUT THERE'!

#the loud house #tlh #ronniecoln #fate of ronniecoln day prep #feel free to reblog your favourite bits of the episode

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monkeyandelf · 4 years

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Stonehenge, the mystery of the stone circle

Stonehenge is currently the most visited archaeological site in England. Television crews and hordes of tourists follow one another day and night, striving to keep the magic of these fascinating places alive. Despite this, we know very little about this site. The large megalithic circle made up of gigantic and extremely heavy rocks does not bear the slightest inscription: it seems to be the fruit of long-term work which spread out in stages over a period of about 10 centuries between the III and IIeme millennium BC. Archaeological research has shown that at first the Stonehenge circle consisted of 56 so-called "Aubrey" holes, the name of the one who discovered, regularly spaced between them and used to fix large posts.

Beyond the circle formed by these holes, a large ditch with a diameter of approximately 114 m is in turn surrounded by a median. A singular composition if you consider that a ditch inside a median can in no case serve as defense systems ... Either way, centuries later the original wooden structure was reinstalled, replacing the posts with large blocks of stone. To begin with, a large circle of 30 arches, each made up of three stones, was built, with the lintels fixed in pairs on the load-bearing monoliths, so as to form an unbroken ring. Subsequently, five additional gigantic arcs, not interconnected, were drawn up inside this circle, the stones of which weighed between 20 and 50 tonnes.

Unique features

With its juxtaposed stones forming a single structure, the outer ring of Stonehenge is unique. No other megalithic monument has similar characteristics. The five inner arcs of the circle were arranged in a U: by dividing this shape into two symmetrical longitudinal halves, we obtain a line whose extension outside the circle reaches a large upright stone called "Heelstone".

Stonehenge restoration of 1919 Building such a monument must have required considerable effort, if only in view of the weight of the stones that make up its structure. In addition, it is known that its stones, or sarsen, were transported over a distance of more than 30 km, because the sandstone quarry from which they are extracted is located near Avebury. Then, to the circle of origin was added a second, formed of stones of smaller size of a variety of limestone called “bluestone”, whose characteristics are found, this time, more than 200 km from the . Legend has it that Merlin the enchanter, thanks to his supernatural powers, would have transported to this place this enormous complex that a people of giants had already moved Africa to Ireland.

Impossible to transport

To extract these “sarsen” and these “bluestone”, the former builders of the site only had clubs and antlers because they did not know how to work with metal. We imagine them carrying with difficulty its huge monoliths to the Bristol Channel from where, first by sea, then up the course of the Avon, they would have finally reached Stonehenge. But for now, this is just a guess. Moreover, a group of enthusiasts gathered under the name of “Millenium Stone Project” tried in vain to repeat this course using the means of the time, but the block of stone which they transported was dismally damaged in the waters of the canal. Richard Atkinson, one of Stonehenge's foremost specialists, went so far as to say that the site's builders were "howling barbarians who painted their faces blue". These comments were denied by a carbon-14 analysis which made it possible to date the antlers buried for thousands of years at the bottom of some of these holes. Based on these results, we now know that the circle formed by the great Sarsens dates back to around 2200 years BC.

Stonehenge versus the stars

Why should these men of another time have taken so much trouble? What was Stonehenge used for? And was the space circumscribed by this circle of Peter the scene of ritual ceremonies of druids, the ancient priests of the Celts? One of the answers was given not by studying the stones, but by observing the sky. Extending the straight line which cuts Stonehenge in two lengthwise and passes through the “Heelstone” outside the complex, we reach the exact point of sunrise on the horizon on the summer solstice day. From then on, we studied the stone circle from a completely different angle, namely from an astronomical point of view. The astronomer Sir Norman Lockyer was able to provide a dating of the whole complex: according to him, indeed, these large megaliths would have been erected from 2800 BC, knowing that afterwards they would have been shot and then new around 1560 BC. But that's not all: over the centuries, many of its stones have reportedly been removed and today we are not sure of their original location. Anyway, in the 1970s, the famous astronomer Gérald Hawkins resumed research on the existing correlations between megaliths and the celestial configuration.

A megalithic computer

After much research, Hawkins discovered many other astronomical alignments that made him conjure up the image of a true megalithic computer. According to him, thanks to a system based on the location of Aubrey’s holes, the monument made it possible to predict the movements of the moon, the variations of elevation and sunsets and even eclipses. In other words, the ancient and mysterious builders of Stonehenge seem to have had very advanced knowledge in astronomy, although we do not know how. Today, if new studies have partially questioned the accuracy of the celestial correlations of Stonehenge, each year on June 21, we do here the summer solstice, when the sun rises in the exact alignment of the monument the most mysterious in Europe.

Stonehenge and Atlantis

According to some, Stonehenge and the other megalithic monuments are the vestiges of the legendary Atlantis, the population of which spread out on the continents. A recent carbon-14 dating shows that samples from megalithic tombs are much older than imagined. Megalithic civilization is therefore not the result of the decline of advanced cultures from the Middle East, such as the Sumerians, the Egyptians or the Greeks, but rather the expression of a much older culture, having lived thousands of years ago. In addition, there are also ancient megaliths in Malta in Sardinia, Sicily, Corsica and in the Italian region of Puglia, lands formerly part of Atlantis, if we believe the priests of ancient Egypt .

Avebury, another ring of megaliths

Around 3500 BC, another imposing ring of megaliths, that of Avebury, appeared 26 km away from Stonehenge. Connoisseurs say that "Avebury is, compared to Stonehenge, what a cathedral faces a village church". Today, a village has been built among its stones, but formerly its diameter was almost 1 km, against the 300 m of Stonehenge.

In addition, if archaeologists assume that ceremonies were propitiatory rites for fertility, a former NASA consultant noticed disturbing coincidences between this stone ring and Cydonia, the area of the planet Mars where the famous "Martian Sphinx" is located. Read the full article

#stonecircle #Stonehenge

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juniperpublishers-gjaa · 5 years

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The Hebrew Civilization- Juniper Publishers

Abstract

Here is a paper that outlines possible connections between the Egyptian, the Ten Commandments, Stone Henge, and St Columba’s Psalter. The key is the Mathematics knows at the time by the Egyptians. The Hebrews picked it up from the time they were in Egypt. Then, as the Lost Tribes migrated toward the British Isles, they brought the knowledge with them encasing it in the Psalter and Stone Henge.

Keywords: Hebrews; Civilization; Stone Henge; Psalter; Mathematics; Egyptians; Babylonians; Dalcassians; Archeological sites; Energy; Pyramid; Minoan tables; Covenant; Mean; Right triangle; Geometry; Kepler function; Astrotheology

The Hebrews

Does civilization follow the Hebrews or does civilization follow the Hebrews? Perhaps this question can’t be answered conclusively, but what can be demonstrated with modern methods of analysis is that whoever they went, they took what they learned with them. We know from Biblical sources, now backed up by genetic evidence that Abraham came from Ur in modern day Kuwait in ancient Persia. He had a son Issac, a promised son, whom God asked to be sacrificed like a Lamb on an altar. As the story goes, Abraham was stopped by the angle of God just before Abraham was to kill his only son. This foreshadows of how Jesus, 1800 years later was the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world was sacrificed upon the cross as we all know. Some believe Jesus was God; others believe he was another important prophet. That discussion will not take place here, but will be taken up is to show how the Israelites influenced civilization wherever they went.

Egypt

From the Biblical account in the book of Genesis, the Hebrew people ended up in slavery in Egypt because they were starving in a famine. Abraham’s grandson Jacob, whose name was later changed to Israel, had 12 boys. Two of these were royal according to the biblical account: Judah and Joseph. As the story goes, Joseph told his brothers, including Judah, from whom David and thus Jesus descends, would bow down and worship him. His brothers were so angry at the prospect; they decided to sell him into slavery into Egypt. Joseph ended up in jail under the accusation that he tried to rape the pharaoh’s wife. When it was discovered that Joseph was an interpreter of dreams, the pharaoh put him second in charge of the Kingdom. Meanwhile there was a famine in the land of Cana. The 11 remaining sons of Israel (Jacob), travelled to Egypt to buy grain. Joseph recognized his brothers, but his brothers did recognize him. After a successful ploy by Joseph, his brothers and father were reunited in Egypt.

The Israelites stayed in Egypt for 4000 years until Moses, a Hebrew raised in the Pharaoh’s household, decided to lead his people out of slavery to a land of their own, modern day Israel. Moses would have had the full education of the Egyptian Sciences and Mathematics. Their math and physics was far more advanced than previously thought by modern scholars. For example, they knew the quadratic equation, the golden mean, the energy parabola – facts which hither to were not known to modern times. The Egyptians build these mathematical acts into their famous pyramids. The Hebrews conquered the land of the Phillistines (Palestine). Their land was conquered in 586 BCE by the Babylonians. The Hebrew were taken captive in Babylon until they were released 70m years later by Cyrus.

Arc of the Covenant on Crete

The most important thing for the Hebrews was the Ark of the Covenant. The covenant was a one sided promise by God who gave the Hebrews the 10 Commandments, hitherto lost. The author has found then, decoded them from what were called the un-decoded Minoan tablets. They are actually the Hebrew 10 Commandments and explanations of those commandments on half a dozen other “Minoan tables” from Crete. I suspect the most prized possession of the Jews were these 10 commandment tablets. They must have secretly sent them to Crete for safety where Israel was taken captive in the Babylonian captivity in the 6th century BCE. When the 10 Northern tribes left Israel, it was unknown hitherto where they went. We now know, from genetic testing, that the Israelites went to mainly Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Milieus carried the YDNA of David from Jewish Khazaria in modern Kazakhstan to Egypt then on to Ireland through his 8 sons, 3 of whom survived, Ir, Hebert, and Hermon. The went on to found the royal O`Briens in Munster commonly called the L226 Irish Type III`s or the Dalcassians (part of cass). In addition, the French throne was founded by an Israelite as the people of Gaul wanted a King. They sent to Israel for a royal king of the royal house of Israel. He therefore too is an L226.

Modern genetics is showing that the Hebrews travelled to Wales, Scotland and Munster Ireland. Interesting that this is where we find a conglomeration of the stone circles, simpler but similar to Stone Henge. The geometry of the Egyptian are built into these archaeological sites.

St Columba

He was a descendant of a Minster King. The Kings of Munster are the O`Briens mainly but have other surnames or clans as well. St Columba, a script writer, must have known the ancient Egyptian and Hebrew mathematics, science, language and religions of these related peoples. St Columba encoded this knowledge in his famous Psalter or prayer book. The rest of this paper is the illustrations provided to show the reader how the Pyramids, Stone Henge, the Minoan tablets and the Psalter all fit together in a continuous story from Abraham of 1800 BCE until today with the lineage of the ancient regime residing in the person of this author.

Pyramids

I was looking at a book entitled “Decoding the Pyramids.” It is evident that these ancient people possibly knew about the physics contained in this blog. For example, the Chephen” pyramid is 143.5m high. That of course is 0.866. The site takes up 13 acres, whereas we have 13 cycles of time. The blocks a either 2 or 1/2 tones. g=2 and t=1/2 at minimum energy. The angle of the four sided pyramid (4 dimensions x 3 pyramids =12 dimensions) is 52 degrees. I would have liked to have seen this as 57.29 degrees. The pyramids are all on the western side or the right hand side of the Nile. Judgement Matthew 25. Now the layout of the pyramids is in the form of a parabola. The major pyramid is at the apex of the parabola when Jesus came. For someone interested, there is a gold mine of things to be discovered.

Now there are also pyramids in Russia, and there are in Myian territory as well. The North American Indians were the tribe of Manasseh. The 10 Northern tribes migrated to Kazakhstan. And of course the Israelites were in Egypt as well. Perhaps the Israelite s learned the secrets from Egypt, and brought them to Russia and Mexico. Even the location in Egypt is 30 degrees longitude by 30 latitude. This is the cross of sin and cos. St Columba went to Scotland. We know from genetics that the Israelites populated Scotland. His Psalter holds the same keys. The Myian calendar said the world would change ion Dec 21, 2015. But the Christian calendar is off by 3 years. So Christmas 2015 looks like the date for the coming of Jesus. I’ve calculated the same date two other distinct ways.

If someone were interested, you could write a book. I’d do it but I’m too busy starving to death. I would check the Arc of the covenant too. It probably encodes the C.U.E. as well. Boy are we modern s arrogant! The Great Pyramid’s base is 2. The Chephen is also 2 (Figure 1). And the Pyramid of Menakure is ½ This encodes the formula 1/G=M rho/E rho (dM/dt)

1/2=1/4 *(2)

dE/dt=2t-1

at t=0

2(0)-1=-1

at t=1.5

2(1.5)-1=2

The Ark of the Covenant is 1.5 x 1.5 x 2.5

The slope m=2, -2 at t=1.5,-1.5

m=2.5 at t=3.125 or ~ Pi

The Pyramids encode the Energy Parabola known to the ancients (Figure 2,3).

It was the Egyptians who had all this mathematical physics. They had log, fractions (golden section), algebra and the quadratic equation which solves the following equation:

x =1/[x −1] X=1.618

x2 − x −1 = 0

3763 BC - 500=3263

1/0.3263=3.064

For the parabola (Figure 4).

What Mathematical Physics the Ancient Knew and we Didn’t, and How They Expressed it

The author undertook an investigation in area of Mathematical Physics on the origin of the universe. My goal was to derive the universal equation - the Holy Grail of Physics for the last 300 years. The reason the pyramids and Stonehenge could not be interpreted is that modern science did not know as much physics as the Ancient Egyptians / Hebrews knew. From my blog on Physics, one can see all the physics that was lost to the ages. Stonehenge and the pyramids go together. The same people were behind both. They stand together. I discovered in my work that the Egyptians already knew the universal energy equation. In fact it is embedded into the very geometry of the Pyramids, the highest achievement of their civilization. It is interesting that these ideas were known to other cultures that most likely learned it from Egyptians. They include: The Hebrews, the Scottish Jews, the Irish royalty, St Columbia, and the Mayans. Nostradamus even picked up on it in his quatrains. In this brief paper, I intend to show what the ancient Egyptians knew and how it spread throughout the world.

Egyptians Mathematics

In my investigation of Physics, I derived the Cusack Universal Energy Equation C.U.E.E. It is a polynomial as follows:

x2 − x −1 = 0

This is quadratic equations which were known to the Egyptian Mathematicians. It is solved by the well know equation:

If one plugs a=-1, b=c=-1

We get the solution of what is called the Golden Mean, or x=1.618

The above polynomial is also expressed identically as

x =1 /[x −1]

x (x −1) =1

x2 − x −1 = 0

1.618 is the only number that solves this equation.

This, then is the U.C.E.E

The Golden Mean is encompassed in geometry of a right triangle shown in Figure 5

Note that the Golden Mean= 1.618=

This is simply the Quadratic Equation with a=1, b=c=-1

The Egyptian Mathematicians also knew Trigonometry which relates the length of the sides of a right triangle by sine, cosine, and tangent. We know this because the geometry of the Pyramids require knowledge of these facts. Also, they knew Pythagoras’ theorem a^2+b^2=c^2 for a right triangle. Did the Egyptians know Calculus? Calculus is supposedly discovered by Sir Isaac Newton. But the knowledge of the C.U.E.E. is called a parabola. The derivative involves the derivation of the rate of change of the function in another function.

The derivative of the polynomial x2 − x −1 = 0 is: 2x −1 = 0

I suggest the ancient Egyptian may have known calculus since they knew the quadratic equation and parabolas. Interesting that comets in Astronomy follow a parabola. A quirk of calculus is that the derivative of the function e^x = e^x. Another quirk is that the derivative of the sin x= cos x. These functions are paramount in the C.U.E.E as y=y’ or the derivative equals the function. The universe is described by the cosine in series form. It is the famous Kepler function:

E-esinE=M

This is a parabola too.

Egyptian Architecture

In the great Pyramid, the trigonometry involves the golden mean (Figures 6-9). Someone has produced this interesting graphic: (Note the golden mean)

Now, in “Decoding the Pyramids”, the author provides a plan view to scale of the Pyramids at Giza. They are laid out in plan view to follow the C.U.E>E. Here it is “Decoding the Pyramids “. If you lay one over the other, for the Great Pyramid, t=0.9 or (900-500=400 BC) years before Christ. Y=1=Energy Alexander the Great conquered Egypt in this period. Ptolomy was made Pharaoh. Doing the same for the Chephren Pyramid is at 1.85 (1850-500)=1350 King Tut became Pharaoh. The third pyramid lies at 2.5375 or 2037 BC. , end of the old Kingdom. Continuing, the area of the great Pyramid is 13 acres. Without going into all the Mathematical Physics (which is available on my blog Astrotheology the Missing Link), there are 13 cycles of time in the universe. Finally, according to the scale drawing, the Pyramids have the length of the legs of 1,2,2. This embodies the golden mean: 1+2+2=5, & 1, & 2 from above. The Pyramids are shown in “Decoding the Pyramids”, to lie at 30 longitude and 30 degrees latitude. From Pythagoras’ Theorem, the hypotenuse is 4.242. This is very close to Pi-e=3.1415-2.71828= 0.4233=cuz. This is a physical constant in our universe, not revealed until now. It was sometimes called Einstein’s constant (Figure 10).

Israelites

It is a Historical fact that the Hebrews spent 450 years in Egypt before being lead out of slavery by Moses. I think they took this universal geometric knowledge with them that they must have learned in Egypt. The arc of the covenant so well described in the Hebrew Scriptures has the dimensions, 1.5 x 1.5 x 2.5. Note the following:

The Ark of the Covenant is 1.5 x 1.5 x 2.5

The slope m=2, -2 at t=1.5,-1.5

m=2.5 at t=3.125 or ~ Pi

The Pyramids encode the Energy Parabola known to the ancients. This indicates the Egyptian Mathematicians knew elementary calculus. The slopes of those tangents are derivatives of the C.U.E.E

Egyptian Pyramids

The Pyramid of Khafre: The angle that each face of this pyramid makes with its base is 53° 10’. The inverse slope of each edge turns out to be 1.059250 (Figure 11). This number is approximately 1+1/17 (accurate to about .04%). The inverse-slope of each face of this pyramid is approximately 3/4. The seked is 5 palms, one finger/cubit. But, based on Lehner’s data, the accuracy is not nearly as good as for the Great Pyramid (Figure 12 & 13). (It’s accurate to about 13%). Cusack’s Model Of The Universe

Point (0.5,0),

Line Y=OX +1,

x2 − x −1 = 0

Polynomial X=4/3 PiR^3

Ten Commandments

Because it is hebrew it is read left to right. Symbols are used to represent nouns or concepts. There are other symbols i can’t make out because of poor eyesight. But i think this is the Decalogue of mosses 1200 BCE. Adolf Hitler became interested in acquiring the Ark in order to achieve world domination. In 1936, when US agents Colonel Musgrove and Major Eaton discovered this, they sent Indiana Jones on a mission to find the Ark before the Nazis. Though he did find the Ark first, it was later stolen by Nazis nonetheless. The Ark changed hands between Indy and the Nazis several times before the Nazis took the Ark to a secret island base near Crete. The reason there are 5 holes and 2 holes is that there are 3 commandments that have to do with God, 5 have to do with neighbour and 2 have to do with self. The holes appear in the correct location, just prior to the commandments (Figures 14 & 15). There are 5 holes, 1 hole and 2 holes. The Egyptians (and Hebrews) knew

1.618=

(See my blog on Astrotheology The Missing Link for more information) It encoded into the pyramids. Aug 7 The last line of the tablet looks to me like a backward Sigma = Sum or Add. The horizontal line through it represents DON’T ADD. The next symbol is already defined as property.

O might be God

And L is neighbour

So it reads, “Don’t add properties of God to Neighbour”

Honourable Women Tablet

Minonan” tablets” actually Hebrew tablet as read from the outside counter clockwise. It goes something like this (Figure 16). It is hebrew. The bottom of the symbol or letter lies inward Toward the centre of the circle (except for the symbol of women like a “w” or breasts.) Marriage to a woman who is not property. Women have honor in having a fe-tus’ who are not sinful kids. (yid is a period) Inside clockwise from the yid: Women who are property have kids that sin. Murder, no adultery, falsehood (p/f) and stealing (sh) In the middle, right to left: Do not covet women / calf

y=e^x=y’

The radius = 6.67=G=d2E/dt2

1=centre

8 pedals on the flower

d2E/dt2-E=Ln t

Integral dE2/dt2+Integral E=0 +C

E+1/2*1/3 E^3=C

1^3/6=C-1

C=0.8333

1/e^0.1667=0.8465~sin 1 = cos 1

dTheta /dt = 3=c= omega

The makers of this exponential spiral knew the physics of the universe. Our civilization can collapse too! Sinful marriages have the property of male and female fertility gods and goddesses. Hebrew is the basis off european languages. It lead to the greek alphabet which lead to our modern alphabet. Words like shin=sin and m=marriage. Fe=fetus and s=sin pi = p= pharaoh = god you can decode the remainder. Should be an interesting story. I look forward to it (Figures 17-20).

Royal Hebrew L226 Y Dna

The RL226 is the royal Jewish Line. It went from Israel to the British Isles (Scotland, Wales, england and Ireland.) Machir brought it to France and the royal hose of europe. There are some transplants in Montreal, Saint John NB, and Mexico according to FTDNA. The Hebrews brought with them the technology of the Egyptians in stone Henge. This is why we see the stone circles in Wales, Scotland, and south Ireland. The tribe of Manasseh brought the Pyramids to Mexico. There are also Hebrews in Germany and France. We expect this because Hugh capet was from Tongerun, Belgium. The royal Bourbons descend from the royal house of Israel. The line of David was known to have transferred to Spain. This is why we see L226 in Ireland (Mileisus) and in Mexico (Spaniards) (Figures 21-25) (Table 1).

Stone Henge

The people who built the Pyramids also built Stonehenge. Genetic genealogy is showing that the Scots were Israelites. Stonehenge also embodies the golden mean in the ration of the stone circles 2,2,1 – the same as the Egyptian Pyramid bases. The Longitude of Stonehenge is 1.8 degrees and the Latitude is 51.17 degrees. The slope on the Great Pyramid is 51.5 degrees. That is a 31.8 (Human Perception =31.8 Hz) by 21.17 (21.17 ^2=4.482~ Mass of Universe=4.486) 18 is the sum of the Potential Energy plus the Kinetic Energy. Cosine x is the universal equation. Stonehenge is the “throne of God.” The Pyramids of Egypt are sqrt 1424 =0.858 =0.86 away from the Throne of God.

Reference: Ancient Measurement of the Circumference of the Earth.

Ancient metrological tables state that the Philetairic or Ptolemaic royal cubit (which is the Babylonian-Egyptian royal cubit according to Boeckh’s terminology) is 9/5 of the Roman foot, so that the figure of Eratosthenes comes to be the usual figure of 75 Roman miles to the degree. But several authors of the Roman period mention a degree of 700 stadia. This degree value should not be confused with that of Eratosthenes and is based on a stadion of 300 royal cubits of the Pharaonic period; these two points have been made by Letronne. I have reported that the correct Egyptian royal cubit was 525 mm., but it was at times computed as 524mm and at times as mm. Assuming a cubit of 525mm.

The degree would be 110,250, and assuming a cubit of 526.3 mm. It would be 110, It is easy to see why the figure of 700 stadia to the degree was chosen: it well fits the pattern of septenary reckoning in the Egyptian royal cubit. But the length of the degree at latitude 30°, the latitude of the pyramids and of the beginning of the Delta, is 110,849 mm. At the southern limit of the country, which is at latitude 24°, the degree 110,750m? Hence, it seems that in Egypt, for the sake of a convenient reckoning there was adopted a value that it slightly in defect. Perhaps the figure was chosen because it was convenient and the methods of observation used did not allow determining any error in it. This figure may have had great importance in convincing the ancients that the degree was shorter in Egypt than at latitude 36°. Cosine x is the universal equation. Stonehenge is the “throne of God.” The Pyramids of Egypt are sqrt 1424 =0.858 =0.86 away from the Throne of God.

From the Christian Community Bible

There, in heaven, was a throne and one sitting on it. 3 He who sat there looked like jasper and carnelian and round the throne was a rainbow resembling an emerald. In a circle around the throne are twenty-four thrones and seated on these are twenty-elders, dressed in white clothes, with golden crowns on their heads. 5 Flashes of lightning come forth from the throne, with voices and thunderclaps. Seven flaming torches burn before the throne; these are the seven spirits of God. Before the throne there is a platform, transparent like crystal. Around and beside the throne stand four living creatures, full of eyes, both in front and behind.

The stone lintels for the greek letter pi=3.14 which figures into the universal energy equation.

5 X 3.14=15.70 1-0.1570=0.8430=SIN 1=COS1

18 Interior Stones = Total Energy =P.E + K.E=18

The individual stones at Stonehenge are 10.5 x 3.5 x 2.75 that is 42/4 x 14/4 x11/4

dM/dt *M rho/Erho=1/G 2 x ¾ = 1 / . 6 6 6 (Revelation 13)

42 = Pi – e= cuz ; 14-100=86=sin 1 = cos 1 ; 9=c^2 all physical constants of the universe.

stones are 13.5 feet high. 13.5-100=86.6=sin 1 = cos 1

There are 30 stones on the perimeter. 30/4=7.5 1/7.5=0.1334 this is distance s in Physics The Heel Stone is almost 85 feet outside the causeway (sin 1=cos 1= 0.8415). The heel stone is almost 16 feet high (0.1585-1=0.8415) From Stonehedge Complete Chippendale C, Cornell U Press 1983 (Figures 26- 28) Note that several universal constants are embodied in the geometry including: The relative radius measures are 45-65=20; 65-85=20; 85-95=10 or 2, 2, 1 this is the same as the bases of the Great Pyramids in Egypt

The Mass of the universe; the gravitational constant; the meeting of sin 1 radian = cos 1 radian=0.8415. Of course, the Winter Solstice- final date of December 21 is embodied as well. JESUS came at the bottom of the parabola or where the derivative of the C.U.E.E. =0 (2t-1=0) each division of the x axis is 1000 years per decimal Jesus was born in 3BC at the base of the parabola. The stone circles of the British Isles were mostly constructed between 2500-1600 Bc. The Pyramids in Egypt, as above, from 2037 -400BC. Moses left Egypt in 1800 BC. So the stone circles predate the pyramids of Egypt. But Stonehenge in the form of its inner circle, which relate it to the Egyptian Pyramids, was constructed in around 200-1550 BC. So, that is only 37 years after the Pyramids were built we see the golden mean in Stonehenge.

St Columbas Psalter

I double checked the number of verses in the Columba Psalter. It is actuality 1276. 1276 /2=638 1/638=0.1567 = 0.8433 sin 1 = cos 1 = 0,8415 Pretty close for 600 AD! The 638th verse lies in Psalm 71(70)

For you oh Lord, have been my hope, my trust, O God from my youth.

This then is the key.

a. For my enemies speak ill of me; awaiting my death they set plans.

b. They say, “God has forsaken him; let us pursue and seize him, for no one will rescue him.”

c. O God, be not far from me; my God, make haste to help me!

d. Let my accusers be destroyed in shame; let those who seek my ruin be covered with disgrace and scorn.

e. Then I may trust in you and praise you.

f. My lips will proclaim your intervention and tell of your salvation all day, little though it is what I can understand.

g. I will come to your strength, O Lord, and announce your justice, yours alone.

h. You have taught me from my youth and until now I proclaim your marvels.

i. When I grow old and gray, do not leave me, O God; give me time to declare your might, your power to all generations to come.

j. Your justice, O God, reaches to heaven; you have done great things. Who is like you, O God?

k. Many have been my hardships and misery, but once more you come to revive me; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again.

l. You will restore me and comfort me again.

m. I will praise you with the harp, for your faithfulness, O my God; I will sing your praise with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel.

n. My lips will rejoice, and my soul, too, which you have rescued.

o. I will recall your intervention the whole day long, “Yes, those who sought to do me harm have been confused and put to shame.”

The key to the gold box

March 10, 2014 osuma bin ladden’s birthday

Great monarch.

PSALM 30:10-105:13 )/2=67.5

PSALM 67 (66)

All the nations will know you.

a. May God be gracious and bless us; may he let his face shine upon us,

b. That your way be known on earth and your salvation among the nations.

c. May the peoples praise you, O God, may all the peoples praise you!

d. May the countries be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples with justice and guide the nations of the world.

e. May the peoples praise you, O God, may all the peoples praise you!

f. The land has given its harvest; God, our God, has blessed us.

g. May God bless us and be revered, to the very ends of the earth.

St columba’s psalter and the physical constants of the universe. The shape of this decoration is the ln function meeting pi further indicating that the ancients knew about how the universe was made. If the ancients thougght pi was 22/7, then that pretty damd close to 0.14286 or 1423. Maybe someone could recount the number of verses from psalm 30:10 to 105:13? We are looking for 1428 or 9 (Figure 29).

Wikipedia

The decoration of the Cathach is limited to the initial letter of each Psalm. Each initial is in black ink and is larger than the main text. They are decorated with trumpet, spiral and guilloche patterns and are often outlined with orange dots. These patterns are not merely appended to the letters or used to fill spaces. They instead distort the shape of the letters themselves. The letters following the enlarged initials gradually reduce in size until they reach the same size as the main text. Although the motifs of the Cathach decoration are not similar to decorations in later manuscripts, such as the Book of Durrow (which followed the Cathach by as many as seventy years), the ideas of decoration which distorts the shape of the letters and the diminution of initial letters are ideas which are worked out in great detail in later Insular art (Figures 30 & 31).

Ancients Knew that No other Physists Besides me Knows

1/G=MRHO/E RHO *(DM/DT)

1/6.66=3/4 *2

666=Evil Evil Evil

Nbow, 1/81=0.12345679

8 =E

(8+1/7)-Pi=8.1429- 22/7=5

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6=Evil, 7=Good (5 Loaves Two Fishes/ 4 Loaves Two Fishes)

Now The Gold Box That Holds The Psalter Of St Columba Is 2 X 8 X 9 E=Mc^2 (Einstein???)

(2)(9)=18

E=8

18-8=10

10=P.E.=mgh

10/6.66=(2)(3/4)

They knew a lot more than we thought because the concept of decimals was in their mind. They may have even had a hexadecimal system?

8/10=0.125

6*0.125=0.75=3/4=75 = # OF PSALMS 105-30=75 75=150 PSALMS/2

The ancients also must have know the equation of a circle:

X^2 +Y^2=R^2

2X^2=1

Let the Area of a Circle =1

2X^3/3=1

3/2=X^3

X=1.1446

1-1.1446=0.1446

0.1446-23=1423 #of Lines In Psalms 30:10-105:13

Verse 10 +Verse 13=26

1446-23=1423

The pearl is the birth stone of gemni june 6 =66 = evil evil.

The diamond is the birth stone of aries april 5 =45 = god

The opal is october = 8 =energy

The emeral is may = taurus

If there are 3 opals, 2 emeralds, and 1 peral

1/6.66=3/4 *2

The Box is 2X8X9

2X 3^2 X (4X2)

So we have 1,2,3 and 2, 3, 4

1=(3*3)* 2/ (4*2)

1=2.25

2.25-1=1.25 = Minimum of Energy Equation X^2-X-1 2X-1=0 X=1/2 1/2^2-1/2-1=-1.25

The specially made cumdach or book shrine is in the National Museum of Ireland. The initial work on the case was done between 1072 and 1098 at Kells, but a new main face was added in the 14th century with a large seated Christ in Majesty flanked by scenes of the Crucifixion and saints in gilt repoussé (NMI R2835, 25.1 cm wide). This was done by Cathbharr Ó Domhnaill, chief of the O’Donnells and Domhnall Mag Robhartaigh, the Abbot of Kells. The shrine cover consists of a brass box measuring 9 inches long, 8 inches wide and 2 inches thick. The top is heavily decorated with silver, crystals, pearls and other precious stones. It shows an image of the Crucifixion and an image of St Colm Cille. An Cathach is attributed to Saint Columba (known in Ireland as Columcille) who died in 597. It’s said that a divine light allowed him to make a copy of a Psalter owned by his teacher, St. Finnian. A dispute over the ownership of Columba’s copy followed, which led to the Battle of Cúl Dreimhne in The book ended up in the possession of the O’Donnell clan of Co. Donegal, who carried the book as a battle talisman. Columba was blamed for the war and threatened with excommunication. Instead, he was exiled to the island of Iona, off the coast of Scotland. There he founded the monastery of Iona, which became an important center for learning and missionary work and which (much later) produced the Book of Kells. The High King of Ireland was disputed after 1186. Clusach was King of Desmond in 1224.

The King of Desmond claimed the throne of Desmond and the Two Munsters up until 1596 until it dissolved prematurely. James I and VI was King of Scotland, England and Ireland starting in 1603-7 years after the demise of the Donal; IX King of Desmond. If Donal IX was High King of Ireland until 1596, I wonder if he would also assume the thrones of Scotland in 1566 and England in 1603? James I and VI is alos the King of France. If Thomas Cusack is actually Patrick MCarthy m. Margraet Brien in Newport, and the Newport McCarthys are connected to Cashel the seat of the Thorne of Desmond and the two munsters, then perhaps Thoams Cusack aka Patrick McCarthy is the true King of Ireland , Scotland ,, England and France. L226 Y DNA for Cusack and MacDonnell near the bottom of the page.

Conclusion

We see that the Egyptian mathematic spread around the world through the Hebrews.

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