#1.12 Vertigo

[kent-farm]

Well aware.

—Oliver Queen, Arrow, “Vertigo”

#Arrow #Oliver Queen #Stephen Amell #Felicity Smoak #Emily Bett Rickards #Olicity #John Diggle #David Ramsey #1.12 Vertigo

[fictionfromafar]

Bad Kids by Zijin Chen

Bad Kids

By Zijin Chen

Translated by Michelle Deeter

Pushkin Vertigo

Publication Date: 4 August 2022

It may take some time for Chinese crime fiction to take a hold on readers in the way that authors from Japan have captivated many in the western world in recent years. Aside from Zhou Haohui who has had two novels from his Death Notice series and a standalone published in English, few have been translated, however this may change with Bad Kids by Zijin Chen. This intelligently written and multiple twisted story definitely deserves to receive the same attention. The story follows a key young character who becomes locked in a battle of wits with both a murderer he is blackmailing and the police. In 2020 a Chinese streaming television series televised adaption of the 2014 novel was premiered on iQiyi). Overseen by House of Cards screenwriter Joe Cacaci, it was immediately successful with The Beijing Times noting: how it raised “the standard of domestic suspense dramas” while director and actress Zhang Ziyi proclaimed "after watching American and British dramas for so many years, there is finally a "Chinese drama" whose quality can compete with them.” It also became a social media hit, in the first week it had garnered 1.12 billion topic posts on Weibo, and within 2 weeks of its release had trended on the site 50+ times.

From the outset of the novel there are indications that hint at why it captivated so many as we witness a young man Zhang take his elderly in-laws to a remote mountain location where he then pushes them offf a cliff in what he considers a perfect murder.

However the primary focus of the story is on Choayang, a teenager with a very modest lifestyle living in Ningbo, a small city not far from Shanghai. While he is a very able and studious pupil at his school who particularly relishes maths and reading, he finds there is little pleasure to be derived from the rest of his life. While he has a mother who loves him dearly, her work often takes him away from their family home for weeks at a time. By contrast to this he has a wealthy father, Zhu Yongping. Unfortunately for Choayang, he left his first wife early in his son’s life. Remarried Zhu Yongping is very much under the thumb of his new wife Wang Yao and rarely sees his son while doting on her younger half daughter Jingjing. Choayang like his mother is small in stature and we see him bullied by a girl in his school who is the daughter of police chief Yan. Indeed due to his academic success and apparent cold demeanour he only regularly speaks to one other member of his class. Naturally he gains the reader’s sympathy in the opening sequences of the book.

His life and indeed his character will unexpectedly change when visited by Ding Hao, a long lost friend from primary school and the boy’s female friend Pupu who arrive unannounced at his door. Having escaped from a children’s house in Beijing, the two are orphans who share troubled backgrounds. With his mother away, Choayang allows them to stay the night. Shortly afterwards the three teenagers are passing the time taking photos at a local beauty spot when they inadvertently capture Zhang’s actions. Later they decide rather than contacting the police the best outcome for them would be for them to contact the killer and request a large monetary amount from him. By lucky (or unlucky) coincidence he appears in Choayang’s neighbourhood and they approach him. Zhang is shocked that there is record of the crime he believed was perfect. He is clearly infuriated that these young people are attempting to blackmail him. While these premises would be enough for a cat and mouse game between Zhang and Choayang and his friends, there are further elements which weave a tight tapestry of suspense.

While Zhang has his own problems getting hold of money despite the death of his in-laws due to the suspicious of his wife, Choayang is emboldened with the support of his found friends. Unlike him, they have avoided being pushed around and when they hear about his unfair treatment from his father and hostility from his step mother and half-sister (whom they term big and little witch respectively). They convince him to look to put his half sibling in her place. This leads to an unexpected outcome for Choayang the implications of this both for him and his own development are crucial. Meanwhile Zhang has not finished plotting and it later becomes clear that Choayang and his friends could find other uses for him than simply blackmailing him for money.

There are so many unexpected events that develop in this story as police chief Yan is lead to work on two apparently separate cases. It’s only when the bodies continue to mount that some strange connections begin to emerge. Bad Girls is an absorbing and fascinating story for it’ portrayal of characters from different ages and social classes. Writing a story from the perspectives of younger characters can be a challenge yet I found the voices given to each was very convincing and I must also give great credit to translator Michelle Deeter. I believe this is the first novel I have written by Deeter who appears to focus more on business than literary translations but her work in this case certainly helped a story set in quite a different society feel quite familiar. Significantly the book also but it also superbly shows how attitudes to injustices and resulting behaviours can be passed and evolve from one person to another. While Ding Hao is initially cocky and Pupu uses her cunning, Choayang’s actions are inspired both as well as the deceptive behaviour of Zhang. This is taken in a direction that none of them would possibly imagine. The book is keen to mark the distinctions between the extremes that people will go to, their motivations demonstrating the differing morals and motivations of each. In Choayang’s case it does appear that he is far from the innocent and easily led school boy seen earlier in the story. Thus challenging the readers’ original opinions of him and by contrast the other characters.

Those who have enjoyed books by authors such Keigo Higashino, Un-Su Kim and the aforementioned Zhou Haohui should certainly be attracted to this story but I would state that Bad Kids deserves to receive the same adoration as publications by many of the other finest sleuth and mind-game writers from any era. While Bad Kids is clearly a standalone novel, I have discovered there was a previous novel by Chen called The Untouched Crime published by Amazon Crossing in 2016 which also received a serialisation on Chinese television. I will be certain to hunt this down soon and eagerly look forward to reading more future translations of Zijin Chen. Highly recommended.

#crime fiction #crimeintranslation #chinesecrimefiction

[green-arrow-tv]

#1.12 Vertigo #Arrow #Stephen Amell #Oliver Queen #John Diggle #David Ramsey

[laurelsource]

Laurel Lance in every episode: 

      ↳  Arrow 1.12 “Vertigo”

“I[Sara]’s not the saint you make her out to be. I know she was arrested for shoplifting, and I know you made it go away.” “Well, maybe if I let her go to jail, Queen wouldn’t have had her on that damn boat” “Dad, you make it sound like he kidnapped her. For so long, you and I have blamed Oliver for Sara’s death, but Sara’s to blame, too. When I look at Thea, I see Sara’s potential in her. And her flaws, too. Yes, Thea made a mistake, but she’s been through a lot. She lost a father and a brother. She doesn’t need prison, she needs help.”

#arrowedit #laurellanceedit #dcmultiverse #dcladies #dctvladies #dinahlaurellancesource #dcedit #dctvedit #laurel lance #black canary #tv: arrow #1x12 #season 1 #gifs #my gifs #lliee

[marquis-de-all-the-knives]

My brain isn’t done with Fort Galfridian yet, sorry. I got curious about stuff like how fast it would have to be rotating and how much the artificial gravity would vary between levels. Obviously we don’t have any solid numbers from the canon, but @thedreadvampy provided some conjectures in this post which I’ll be going off of for the sake of speculation. Specifically, we’ll assume the station has a diameter of 25 miles at its innermost level (i.e. Camelot-level).

If we want to have Earth-like gravity (9.8 m/s^2) at that level, what circular velocity do we need? I looked up the formula for centripetal acceleration in terms of velocity, which is actually nice and simple:

Don’t, uh... maybe don’t stick your hand out the window.

(nah, I’m just kidding, there’s no air out there to actually create a ~1000-mph drag wind, so totally feel free to stick your hand out the window. You MIGHT however burn to a crisp due to lack of radiation shielding. You ALSO probably just punched a hole in the atmosphere containment system, so have fun with that!)

Anyway. Given that circular velocity = circumference / period, we can also get from this that the station takes about 4.74 minutes to complete one rotation, which I think is kinda nifty to know even though no one inside is probably aware of it. The Saxons might know, since they have viewports. I think a great way to give yourself vertigo is to look out a window and see the stars hurtling past once every five minutes.

Once we know the period, we can calculate the circular velocity at any distance from the center. Note that yes, the velocity does vary! Someone very close to the core / tube sun (TUBE SUN!) only describes a small circle in those 4.74 minutes, whereas someone on the outer hull describes a circle with a circumference somewhere north of 75 miles in those 4.74 minutes, so one of those people is traveling much more quickly. 

And guess what else varies with radius? Centripetal acceleration! I wrote a little Python script to calculate a bunch of values. Here’s the gravity you would feel at various distances from the core (1gee = earth gravity):

mile 0 (center) -  0 GEE mile 12.5 (Camelot) -  1 GEE mile 13 -  1.04 GEE mile 14 -  1.12 GEE mile 15 -  1.2 GEE mile 16 -  1.28 GEE mile 17 -  1.36 GEE mile 18 -  1.44 GEE mile 19 -  1.52 GEE

The further out you go, the heavier you feel. It’s not clear to me how thick the layers of the station are, but even just a one-mile-thick shell would provide a huge amount of space with not too much variation in gravity. I’m also not sure what the limits of human tolerance are for extended high-gee living. I imagine that 1.5 gees would be pretty drastic, so if the station goes out that far, those levels were most likely built for maintenance functions rather than habitation. (Not that that’s stopping the Saxons, of course.)

Anyway, that’s all I have for now, but I hope this was as fun for you as it was for me! LMK if you spot any errors, or want to see some of the equations I handwaved, or if you have more fun facts to add!

#hnoc #high noon over camelot #fort galfridian #fort galfridean #i know it’s math but it’s math about SPACE! which i think is pretty cool!

[dinahlaurellancesource]

laurel lance per episode ➼ 1.12 vertigo

#arrowedit #laurellanceedit #dcmultiverse #dailydcheroes #bbelcher #dcladies #1.12 #gif #laurel lance #laurelpep #* #by mari #been trying to upload this into tags since friday

[joharvell]

oliver queen per episode ★ 1.12 vertigo

#arrowedit #dcmultiverse #dailydcheroes #chewieblog #bbelcher #userstream #oliver queen #arrow #* #tv: arrow #ch: oliver queen #oliverpep

[thatmansplayinggalaga]

felicity smoak → every episode ↳ 1.12 “Vertigo”

#felicitysmoakedit #felicity smoak #olicityedit #olicity #oliverqueenedit #oliver queen #arrow #mine #marrow #molicity #mfelicity #moliver #felicityee

[emilybettrickardslove]

Felicity Smoak in Every Episode of Arrow - 1.12 Vertigo 

#felicity smoak #emily bett rickards #felicitysmoakedit #arrowedit #arrow #my gifs #gifs #fsieeoa project

[ferryboat-postit]

FELICITY SMOAK IN EVERY DCTV EPISODE  → Arrow 1.12 Vertigo

[ In chronological order ]

#arrow #DC superheroes #DC vixens #Felicity Smoak #arrows1edit #dc comics #dc superhero girls #emily bett rickards #emilybettdaily #emilybettrickards #frembett #fuckyeahfsmoak #legends of tomorrow #oliver queen #steven amell #the flash #the green arrow #felicitysmoak

[kent-farm]

—Arrow, “Vertigo”

#Arrow #Oliver Queen #Stephen Amell #Felicity Smoak #Emily Bett Rickards #Olicity #Cats #Cat #1.12 Vertigo

[yahoo-roto-arcade-blog]

Farm Report: San Diego prospect Fernando Tatis Jr. heats up

There’s a chance Padres shortstop Fernando Tatis will make at least a cameo appearance for San Diego in 2018. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

Fernando Tatis Jr. wasn’t exactly hitting like one of the game’s top prospects in the opening weeks of his season. After a buzzy spring, Tatis went 0-for-4 in three straight games to begin his year at Double-A San Antonio. At the end of April, the 19-year-old shortstop was slashing just .177/.231/.333

Subsequent weeks have been a bit better, however. Tatis began binging as soon as the calendar flipped to May, going 9-for-22 with three homers, four doubles and seven RBIs in a four-game series at Frisco. He continued to rake thereafter, hitting .336/.414/.639 for the month, stealing five bags and launching seven home runs. Tatis is now hitting .278 on the season with 11 homers, 31 extra-base hits and seven steals. He went 4-for-5 on Wednesday, then homered on Thursday.

[Yahoo Fantasy Football leagues are open: Sign up now for free]

Tatis isn’t the game’s most heavily hyped teenager or its most-hyped junior — those honors belong to young Vlad — but he’s a solid No. 2 on each list. There’s a decent chance Tatis will make at least a cameo appearance for San Diego in 2018. He was a 20/20 player in the Midwest League last season, so his fantasy appeal is obvious.

• Reds prospect Nick Senzel finally came off the DL on May 29, and he’s put together a modest seven-game hitting streak. Here’s hoping he remains vertigo-free (vertigoless? de-vertigo’d?) going forward. Senzel still has a shot to make an impact in Cincy this season.

• Austin Slater is getting a bit old for prospect status (he’s 25), and he’s already appeared in 40 games for the Giants over the past two seasons. But it’s still worth mentioning the fact that he’s been crushing in the PCL this year, slashing .359/.444/.588 with 25 XBHs and eight steals. Be prepared to act if/when he’s recalled.

• Kevin Cron, younger brother of C.J., hit a pair of bombs and drove in four runs for Triple-A Reno on Thursday, lifting his season average to .297. Cron has been absolutely feasting over his last nine games, going 16-for-40 with six homers. He’s hit at least 25 home runs in each of the past three minor league seasons, so there’s no doubting the third baseman’s power.

• While we’re discussing D-backs minor leaguers, check the stats produced so far this season by Double-A RHP Jon Duplantier: 2.52 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 41 Ks in 35.2 IP. He was obscenely good at two Single-A stops last season, striking out 165 batters in 136.0 innings while delivering a 0.98 WHIP and 1.39 ERA. He recently hit the DL, but the issue is not believed to be serious. File away the name.

Follow the Yahoo fantasy baseball crew on Twitter: Andy Behrens, Dalton Del Don, and Scott Pianowski

#_uuid:ccf8cb83-e4c9-3d74-8791-baf7d23d6392 #_author:Andy Behrens #_category:yct:001000854 #_lmsid:a077000000CFoGyAAL #Fernando Tatis Jr. #Fantasy Baseball #_revsp:54edcaf7-cdbb-43d7-a41b-bffdcc37fb56

[kent-farm]

—Arrow, “Vertigo”

#Arrow #Oliver Queen #Stephen Amell #Felicity Smoak #Emily Bett Rickards #Olicity #John Diggle #David Ramsey #1.12 Vertigo

[kent-farm]

You look like something the cat dragged in. Not that there are cats in this building. Well, once a cat did get in, but a guard tazed it. It smelled like fur and static in here for a week.

—Felicity Smoak to Oliver Queen, Arrow, “Vertigo”

#Arrow #Every Arrow Episode #1.12 Vertigo

[joharvell]

tommy merlyn per episode ★ 1.12 vertigo

#arrowedit #dcmultiverse #dailydcheroes #chewieblog #bbelcher #userstream #tommy merlyn #arrow #* #tv: arrow #ch: tommy merlyn #tommypep

[joharvell]

thea queen per episode ★ 1.12 vertigo

#theaqueenedit #arrowedit #dcmultiverse #dailydcheroes #dctvladies #dcladies #thea queen #arrow #* #tv: arrow #ch: thea queen #theapep #someone hug her for fucks sake