#combining binary with numbers stations

[kaleidoru]

angel of broadcasting

#anthro #furry #angel #rabbit #bunny #oc: relay #oc group: marzon #they can pick up any signal that can be sent and received over air #combining binary with numbers stations #also LOOK!!! THE EFFORT HAS RETURNED FROM THE WAR

[insomniamamma]

Safe: Ezra x f!reader w/Cee

A/n: What can I say? I'm hormonal and all my shit hurts and if I cannot get snuggles IRL then I will write something super soft and self-indulgent to make myself feel better. Part of the Prickle AU. Set sometime after Sacellum.

Warnings: Oh no! There's only one bed. Soft!Ezra. Language. Cee's best friend on The Pug is non-binary and also named after my little boy's favorite stuffy. Maybe the slightest bit of angst. But mostly super soft.

         "You did this on purpose."         "Right hand to Kevva, I did not. I asked for double occupancy and they must have misunderstood and--"         "You don't have a right hand,"         "Let's go back to the reception desk," says Ezra, "We may be able to negotiate more appropriate accommodations."         "Errgh," you groan. Reception had been a nightmare, three freighters worth of traffic trying to secure berths all at once. It was a lot of people. Too many for your liking. Cee was staying with Kit and their family. Kit and Cee had practically tackled each other right there on the dock, everyone else forgotten, walked away arm in arm.         "We shove off in three cycles," Ezra hollered at her retreating back, and she flapped a dismissive hand at him. You had to smile. For three cycles Cee gets to be a normal teenager hanging out with her best friend without worrying about points and pulls and overhead costs and fuel margins.         "I don't wanna go back down there," you say, "Too many people. I think twice the population of Falnost was waiting in that fucking line." You brush past him and into the suite. The ceilings are low and slightly curved and it feels strange to be under this much grav. The outer rings of Puggart Bench have something close to terra-normal gravity, but after so much time spent on little moons and worldlets, this much G feels weird and you have no desire to trudge back down to reception.         "You sure?" Asks Ezra.         "Yeah," you drop your day bag and press a hand to the mattress. "Look at the size of this thing. It's, like, five crash-couches wide. This seems above our pay grade."         "They're overbooked," says Ezra, "We're paying the same points for the berth we should have gotten. I made sure of it. I can sleep in that recliner if--"         "No."         "No?"         "Kevva, Ez, we're both adults," you say, "I think we can share a bed for a night without exploding."

        Your suite has a real, honest-to-Goddess shower with a generous 15 minute timer. You scrub as fast as you can and then just let the water hit you, let the pressure pound on your tense back muscles until the chime sounds and the water cuts off. You towel off and dress, soft clothes you sleep in, and pad out into the main room. Ezra is reading, face far off and serious, and you just look at him for a minute, illuminated in the warm lamp-light, absorbed in his book, little furrow between his brows and then he looks up, all knowing smirk and dancing eyes, he's caught you staring.         "Your turn, Ez," You say and turn your face away. Kevva. This man. You've been trying to keep things professional, but it's a losing battle. His flirtations make you flush, but he's never tried to push you, never tried to leverage the fact that it's his name on the ship's title, that you signed a contract, that you are junior-most crew. You feel safe with him. And, from your limited experience in the fringe, that is a miracle in itself.

        Ezra sets his book aside and heads for the bathroom. You peel the sheets from the other side of the bed and settle in. There's a media player bolted to the wall, but you just want quiet. You switch off the lamp on your nightstand (we both have lamps, we both have a nightstand, how weird is that?) The sheets feel deliciously cool against your skin. To be clean and sleeping in clean sheets...if Heaven isn't like this Kevva's got some answering to do.         Ezra sings in the shower. You're barely awake and you smile. Ezra can't carry a tune in a bucket, singing fringeling songs and reels, stories of mercs and pirates and ghosts and you drift off to the sound of him, the sound of the water running.

        He sees you soft and loose and asleep. No rail-gun, no body armor, no thrower under your pillow. Your face slack, snoring slightly. You've kicked out of the blankets and lay curled as if chilled.         "Hey Artichoke," he murmurs, pulls the blankets up and tucks them around you, "Let's get you warm, yeah?"

        Ezra wakes. Bleared red numbers of the clock saying that this is still the deepest ditch of local night. Ezra is warm and confused. He feels you pressed against him, your chest to his back, an arm hooked around his middle, your legs entwined with his. You've sought him out in your sleep and folded yourself around him, your breath slow and steady against his nape. Ezra's eyes prick with tears. He can't remember the last time he's been held like this. He's had lovers. He has payed for sex on the less reputable Benches of the Great Arm, but for someone to hold him? For someone to touch him without payment, without trying to press some advantage, gain some kind of leverage, without priming him for the inevitable backstab?  He is overwhelmed. He tries to wriggle away from you, but your arm just tightens around him.         "...fixed the transponder," you mutter against his neck, "told you we didn't need...told you..." He pats your arm and relaxes against you.         "Okay, Artichoke, okay, sweetheart. Go back to sleep."

        You wake enfolded, Ezra's good arm wrapped around you. You feel the steady beat of his heart beneath your ear, the slow sussurration of his breath, the snores that catch in his throat and turn to murmurs, the rise and fall of his chest beneath your cheek. You've tucked yourself against him in your sleep. Your hand rests on his sternum. Oh Kevva. What are you doing? You go rigid.         Your first impulse is to wrestle out of his hold, take one of the blankets and install yourself in the recliner that you wouldn't let Ezra take, but part of you wants to stay right here in the combined warmth of your bodies, feeling his breath, his heart, his calloused palm spread against your shoulder. You shift, making the smallest effort to pull yourself away and his arm tightens further, a low, sleepy chuckle reverberates through his chest.         "Hi Ez,"         "Hi." He strokes the pad of his thumb along the exposed curve of your shoulder.         "I'll get up," you say, even as he shifts and cups the back of your head in his palm, tucking you closer.         "You don't have to," he says, voice rough with sleep. This gesture pricks at your heart. Coming up on Falnost has made you hard, guarded, there has been precious little gentleness in your life, pulling rocks out of the parched ground since you were big enough to lift a shovel. Learned to fight and shoot to chase water-thieves from the homestead. He strokes the back of your head like one might pet a skittish cat and your heart squeezes.         "Ezra?" You hate how small your voice sounds, you hate the uncertainty you hear there, "Are we okay?"         "Of course we are," he says, "Why wouldn't we be?"         "I wrapped around you like a Bueller's world python and I did it in my sleep-"         "The wrapping was mutual-"         "You're not mad or uncomfortable or anything?" He laughs again, gentle huff of breath against the crown of your head.         "Mad about waking with you in my arms? The day I'm mad about that you can just shoot me in the head and send me to Kevva because I will surely have lost my ever-loving mind." You smile against his skin and relax some, your hand unfists and you curl your arm around his soft belly, feel his breath hitch.         "Tickles."         "Sorry." You feel yourself drift, skirting the edge of sleep. He is warm and solid and you let yourself relax against him.         “This feels...safe..." you say, so close to sleep that you're not sure if you've said it aloud or if you've just thought it. And you're not sure if you hear his response or dream it, one word. Always.

        "She's late," says Ezra.         "We still got a sixteenth to button up and board,"         "Still," says Ezra, "Yon freighter will leave with our pod wether we're strapped in it or not." You see Cee and Kit, trailed by Kit's parents, weaving through the crowd. Cee is beaming, her blonde hair has a brilliant streak of blue, and Kit has a matching streak in their hair.         "Hey guys!" Cee hugs Ezra and then hugs you.         "How was your shore leave, Little Bird? I like the fancy hair."         "Isn't that cool? We've got matching streaks," says Cee.         "It's semi-permanent," says Kit, "We'll pick a different color next time!" You have to smile. Cee looks revitalized. Three cycles spent with her friend, just doing normal kid things has been good for her.         "Check this out!" says Cee and pushes a laminated drawing towards the two of you. Ezra makes a show of looking carefully.         "I recognize you and Kit," he says, "I am not familiar with these other people, though."         "They're from The Streamer Girl, dumbass," says Cee, "Here's Clo and Reive and Lily and Auri. See? Kit put us right in the story." Ezra gives Kit his best smile.         “You drew this? You are very talented." Kit smiles big.         "Thanks!" says Kit, "I'll put you guys in the next one! Maybe you could be professors at Bowsun Academy or something."         "I look forward to it," says Ezra.         "Time to go, Cee," you say and Cee and Kit exchange one more enthusiastic hug.         "Later fringeling!" Calls Kit.         "Piss off, stationer!" Cee calls back. Ezra curls his fingers around yours and squeezes. Cee tells you all about her three cycles with Kit, the movies they watched, the Real Food they ate. How Kit's little brother wanted a blue streak in his hair too and Kit's parents said no and how mad he got. I wanna be cool like Kit and Cee.         "I told him he's got plenty of time to be cool," says Cee, "And he told me that I don't understand how the world works. He's like, four." Ezra laughs.         "Wise for his years." Says Ezra. And the three of you fall quiet. You find the pod much as you left it, towed to the Polly Jean and clipped in, transferred by the station's tugs. You settle in and do a full systems check. Calling out the checklists and making sure everything is good for transit.         "What are you guys so happy about?" asks Cee.         "Whatever do you mean?" asks Ezra.         "You been all smiles since I hit the dock," says Cee, "Both of you. Did we score a really good job? Did we win the Puggart Bench lottery or something? What aren't you telling me?"         "That," says Ezra, "Is for us to know and you to endlessly speculate about."         "Hmph," says Cee.

Tagging: @oonajaeadira, @grogusmum , @honestly-shite, @writeforfandoms, @ladyvengeancesposts, @the-blind-assassin-12

#ezra x f!reader w/cee #ezra prospect x f!reader w/cee #ezra and cee #soft!ezra needs his own warning #don't look at me #this is so soft

[valheri-a]

SKILLSET :  NETRUNNING [   𝟮  /   𝟑   ]

𝙿𝙰𝚁𝚃 𝟶𝟶𝟸 : 𝙰𝚁𝚂𝙴𝙽𝙰𝙻

FORCEFIELD

its primary purposes is to protect the 𝐕 against bodily attacks. & much like the attacks, these protective tools create a "wall" of static interference, temporarily blinding enemy programs.  such protocol corresponds to another type of 𝙳𝚘𝚂 attack: one aimed specifically offensive quickhacks or databreaches.

this constitutes a reliable & ultra-fast technology to detect malware by masks & hashes. ( external tier 2 portable equipment such as 𝐕's techgogs to perceive & interact with the Net ── when connected to a station, can perceive & surf more thoroughly in 3D! )

emulation.  runs suspicious code in an isolated environment.  both binaries (codes) & scripts are mirrored, which is critical for protection against threats.

detection routine.  it is a tool that allows 𝐕 to write a code & deliver it directly to her database without expending excess RAM.  it complements the solution with decryptors for invasions & unpackers for legitimate transmissions.

machine-learning models on the backend.  their high generalization ability helps to prevent the loss of quality when detecting unknown threats, even if an update of her database was not available for more than two weeks ( which she routinely tweaks ).

leveraging threat analytics from all endpoints in any number of 𝐕's programs, which, in turn, enables unprecedented reaction to new threats & minimizing false positives ( e.g "unauthorized scanning deemed safe" ).

heuristics.  based on the execution logs transmitted.  there is no more fail-safe way than to thwart an enemy hack than catching them in the initial stages of the act.  the final step is always an instant backup of data impacted by a suspicious process & an automated roll-back ; neutralizing malware the very moment it is detected.

WEBPOISON

this nasty little malware fast-spreading daemon that targets a vulnerability.  like most effective malware, 𝚆𝙴𝙱𝙿𝙾𝙸𝚂𝙾𝙽 is a blended threat, combining features of several different approaches.  once 𝚆𝙴𝙱𝙿𝙾𝙸𝚂𝙾𝙽 infects a CPU, it disables many security features & automatic backup settings, deletes reset / restore points & opens connections to receive instructions from the remote hacker.  once the first system is configured, 𝚆𝙴𝙱𝙿𝙾𝙸𝚂𝙾𝙽 uses it to gain access to the rest of the network ( this is usually a follow-up to the use of 'ping' ), thus forming a botnet or a network of devices infected by malware that are under the control of a single attacking party.

when activated, 𝚆𝙴𝙱𝙿𝙾𝙸𝚂𝙾𝙽 replicates itself to system applications with a random name ( usually harmless-seeming ).  it then modifies the self-scanner, a legitimate diagnostics service, & then launch the malicious malware at system reboot.

perform brute-force attacks on other connected computers or hosts to obtain administrator passwords, gain unauthorized access & / or  make copies of itself in system folders if used on computer devices.

on a security system ( rather than a person ), it is programmed to contact 𝐕 via a number of pseudorandom URLs, which change on a minute-by-minute basis in order to conceal its activity from other netrunners. she will register one of the URLs & leave instructions & updates there for the daemon to follow & download. these updates would help the daemon circumvent new security enhancements that are meant to stop it.

on an enemy netrunner, the daemon would latch onto & slow down the enemy’s cyberdeck, decreasing the elapsed time of its total RAM recovery rate. like actual poison, systems are rendered vulnerable.

NEURAL ENTROPY

an upgraded offshoot of “virizz” with a lethal twist.

when 𝐕’s RAM capacity is at full, she has a 40% chance to fry the interface chip that a cyberdeck uses to connect to the Net, & disable the entire device.

cause hardware errors & force system reboots. it will target the nearest processor in the attacked deck or system, or focuses just on cyberdecks.

force the enemy’s cyberdeck to delete / wipe one completely randomized program or file per 30 seconds. codes that constitute a quickhack? wiped.  ice protocol?  wiped!  it will remain active as long as the system is active or until the system is restarted ( it stays in operation until reboot, which is a dangerous defensive tactic when a netrunner already has a read on your systems as it were ) it is running only from RAM. 

should the initial outright damage of interface prove successful ( rather than the inconvenient errors ), the crux of the attack releases a very fatal surge of 3,700 volts of electricity by admission of systems rapidly overheating.

#* ⠀ / ⠀ 𝙑𝘼𝙇𝙃𝙀𝙍𝙄 ⠀ ﹕ ⠀ ❪ ⠀ lore ⠀ ❫ #𝙑𝘼𝙇𝙃𝙀𝙍𝙄 ⠀ ﹕ ⠀ ❪ ⠀ lore : netrunner ⠀ ❫

[tsukikoayanosuke]

(game version )(Watch the original MV here)

(gacha club version)

Etsumi Akizora (秋空 絵津美, akizora etsumi) is cool yet sometimes moody 1st year who loves fashion, sweet snacks and cute things, and has a talent as a DJ.

Biographical Information:

Name: Etsumi Akizora (秋空 絵津美, akizora etsumi) Based on/Face Claim: Vivid Bad Squad / Shiraishi An Gender: Non-binary Pronoun: They/them, “boku” Age: 16 Birthday: 8 December Height: 160 cm Eye color: Orange Hair color: Black with blue tips

Professional Status:

Dorm: Melodiva Uniform Color: Pink Preferred Style: Hip-hop and street pop/rock School Year: First year Class: 1-A, seat number 16 Occupation: Student, animator on YouTube Club: Art and Photography Club Homeland: Kingdom of Vivid

Fun Facts:

Dominant Hand: Left Favorite Food: Pancake and coffee Least Favorite Food: Carrot Dislike: Ghost and scary story, taking pets a bath, silence and being alone Hobby: Drawing, designing clothes, people-watching, late-night baking, listening to very loud music, watching models show Talents: Barista, costume making, photography, rapping and beatboxing

Personality:

Etsumi is colorful. They are cool but sometimes moody. They don’t have any problem in being blunt when needed to, but rarely ever spoke their opinion. They’re also quite smart and loves looking through some symbolism and deeper meaning, like flower-language and color theory. They adore being able to express themselves through colors. They aren’t really thinking much about their future, preferring to go with the flow of life.

Loneliness was something Etsumi very familiar with. They had a hard time making friends because they never find a perfect group where they truly belong. They’re worried that one slip from their mouth and everyone would leave them. Thus, they drowned themselves in loud music and animatic. Despite knowing it was a parasocial relationship with their subscribers, at least it was something, right?

Backstory:

Etsumi was born in a loving family who is always supportive of them. Their father is a hip/hop artist and DJ who often perform in the underground street club. Their mother is a cafe owner and they often help around. 

Their father was the one who taught them everything about music and colorful life on the street. When they first made their graffiti together on the side of the cafe building, Etsumi knew they wanted more. They always followed their father when he was performing with his band and often bringing drinks for the adults. Once day, they wanted sing on stage and created a duo with their friends who was also the son of their dad’s friend, Neku Masaki. Neku also invited two new friends, making them a quartet named ‘Stray Dogs’.

Etsumi thought that they had found a good friend group. That was until they accidentally overheard about the other members of Stray Dogs talking about them behind their back, including Neku. That crushed them and later started to put a distance between them, giving excuses as they started to become a animator on YouTube. Soon, the sparks was gone and Stray Dogs was disband and Etsumi lost contact with all of them, with the exception of Neku who last they heard was pursuing his dream to be a magic doctor while Etsumi still lives in the world of music. 

Etsumi later enrolled to Hourglass Station Academy, mostly because it has a good connection with the music industry.

Unique Magic:

“Colorful Palette”

An ability to conjure any color as they wish, whether it was in form of a smoke/gas or changing anything they touch.

Trivia:

While Etsumi represents the Vivid Bad Squad band members, they also have many similarities with 25-ji, Nightcord de.’s member Akiyama Mizuki.

Their surname  is a combination of 秋 (aki) which means “autumn” and 空 (sora) which means “sky”.  While Their first name is a combination of 絵 (e) which means “picture, drawing, painting, sketch”, 津 (tsu) which means “harbor”, 美 (mi) which means “beautiful”

Their birthday is the release date of Forward in the Project Sekai JP server.

Her gacha hairstyle is inspired from An Encounter Linked Through a CD card

#twisted wonderland #disney twisted wonderland #twst #twisted wonderland oc #twst oc #hourglass station academy #melodiva #etsumi akizora

[teenslib]

IT’S FINALLY DONE! Every year, the Rainbow Book List Committee has more books to review, because literature is slowing getting queerer, and children’s and YA lit are at the forefront of that change. This year, our committee of 13 people had to review nearly 500 eligible titles, and 130 (well, 129) were good enough and queer enough to make the list. There were so many terrific books that we got a special dispensation to create TWO Top Ten lists--the first time the committee has done so! The Top Tens are below, and please visit the link above for the full list.

I’m proud of our committee’s focus on diversity--along lines of race, ethnicity, queer identity, and even genre. At least half of the Top Ten Books for Young Readers and seven of the Top Ten for Teen Readers are about characters of color, and most of those were written by authors of color. We also tried to feature as many different letters of the alphabet soup as possible. I’ve noted the racial and LGBTQIA+ rep for the books that I’ve read.

Here are the Top Ten Books for Young Readers:

Ana on the Edge by Sass, A.J. Ages 8 to 12. Sports Fiction/Figure Skating. MC is nonbinary and Jewish-Chinese-American. Ana is a champion figure-skater. She hates her new princess-themed program, but how can she tell her mother that, when it cost so much money? And why does it bother her so much, anyway? When she finds the word ‘nonbinary,’ she realizes why the program doesn’t fit, but she still has a lot of work to do repairing relationships that have suffered in the meantime.

The Deep & Dark Blue by Smith, Niki. Ages 8 to 12. Fantasy. One of 2 MCs is a trans girl, all characters appear to be Southeast Asian. A pair of twins flee after a political coup that puts their lives at risk. They decide to disguise themselves as Hanna and Grayce, two girls living in the Communion of the Blue, an order of weaving women who spin magic like wool. What one twin doesn’t know is that, for the other, being Grayce isn’t a disguise. This is a beautiful story about self-discovery, acceptance, and affirmation.

Drawing on Walls: A Story of Keith Haring by Burgess, Matthew and Josh Cochran (Illustrator). Ages 6 to 14. Biography. MC is a white gay man. This colorful picture-book biography traces the life and art of Keith Haring.

The Every Body Book: LGBTQ+ Inclusive Guide for Kids about Sex, Gender, Bodies, and Families by Simon, Rachel E. and Noah Grigni (Illustrator). Ages 8 to 12. Nonfiction/Health. Various identities and races included. Filled with self-affirming information, The Every Body Book uses inclusive language, illustrations, and facts to cover a number of important topics for young people including consent, relationships, gender, sex, puberty, and hormones.

King and the Dragonflies by Callender, Kacen. Ages 8 to 12. Realistic Fiction. MC is a gay black boy, his best friend is a gay white boy. King’s family–especially his father–have strong opinions about what it means to be a Black man, and they don’t allow for being gay. But King admires his friend Sandy for escaping an abusive home and living his truth no matter what. If King comes out, too, can his father learn to change?

Magic Fish by Nguyen, Trung Le. Ages 12 and up. Realistic Fiction/Fantasy. MC is a gay Vietnamese-American boy. A young Vietnamese-American boy literally can’t find the words to tell his parents that he’s gay, but cross-cultural fairytales help bridge the language barrier in this beautifully-illustrated graphic novel. 

My Maddy by Pitman, Gayle E. and Violet Tobacco (Illustrator). Ages 4-8. Realistic Fiction. MC’s parent is nonbinary, MC and her parent are white. My Maddy is a heartwarming story about a young girl and her parent. Readers learn that not all parents are boys or girls; some parents are just themselves. In this young girl’s case, that parent is her Maddy, a loving, caring parent who lives outside the gender binary.

My Rainbow by Neal, DeShanna, Trinity Neal, and Art Twink (Illustrator). Ages 4-8. Realistic Fiction. MC is an autistic black trans girl. Autistic trans girl Trinity wants to have long hair, but growing it out is too itchy! None of the wigs in the store are quite right, so Mom makes Trinity a special rainbow wig.

Our Subway Baby by Mercurio, Peter and Leo Espinosa (Illustrator). Ages 4 to 8. Adoption Non-fiction. MCs are white gay men, the baby they adopt is Black. Loving illustrations help tell the story of how an infant abandoned in a NYC subway station was adopted by the man who found him and his partner.

Snapdragon by Leyh, Kat. Snapdragon. Ages 10 to 14. Fantasy. Haven’t read this one yet, so I can’t comment on its representation. Snap gets to know the town witch and discovers that she may in fact have real magic and a secret connection to Snap’s family’s past.

And here are the Top Ten Books for Teen Readers:

All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by Johnson, George M. Ages 14 to 18. Memoir. Author/MC is a gay Black man. “Memoir-manifesto” is a well-chosen label for this book, which relates stories from the author’s childhood and young adulthood and contextualizes them within a queer Black experience. Although the author’s family is loving and supportive, pervasive heteronormativity, queerphobia, and anti-Black racism threaten his mental, emotional, and physical safety.

Camp by Rosen, L.C. Ages 14 and up. Realistic Fiction. MC and his love interest are gay Jewish boys. For Randy, going away to Camp Outland is a breath of fresh air, a time to be exactly who Randy can’t always be at school. But this year will be different. This year, Randy won’t be the flamboyant theater kid, this year Randy will be exactly the type of bro Hudson would want to date. Changing a thing or too will be necessary for Randy to succeed, even if that means leaving some friends behind.

Cemetery Boys by Thomas, Aiden. Ages 13 and up. Paranormal/Romance. MC is a trans Latino, his love interest is a gay Latino. Yadriel accidentally summons the wrong ghost in an attempt to prove himself a real brujo to his family who struggle to accept his gender identity. Though he thinks he is summoning the ghost of his cousin, he actually summons the ghost of Julian Diaz, and finds himself with not one, but two, mysterious deaths to investigate.

Circus Rose by Cornwell, Betsy. Ages 12 and up. Fantasy. One MC is white and one is mixed-race, one is a lesbian and one is questioning. Ivory and Rosie are twins and half-sisters, born to a bearded woman who refused to choose between her lovers, and raised in their mother’s circus. After a long foreign tour, they come home to find themselves under attack by religious zealots. As tragedy follows tragedy, will Ivory be able to save her circus family?

Elatsoe by Little Badger, Darcie  and Rovina Cai (Illustrator). Ages 12 and up. Mystery. MC is an aro/ace Lipan Apache girl. In this OwnVoices novel, Elatsoe is on a mission to discover who killed her beloved cousin, and why. If not for her cousin, then she is doing this for her people, the Indigenous Lipan Apache tribe. Elatsoe has the ability to raise ghosts from the dead, a tradition that has been passed down through generations. On this journey it will take vulnerability, wit, and the legends of her people for Elatsoe to understand all that is hidden in the small town of Willowbee.

I’ll Be the One by Lee, Lyla. Ages 13 and up. Realistic Fiction. MC is a bi Korean-American girl, her love interest is a bi Korean boy. Skye Shin dreams of becoming the world’s first plus-sized K-pop star, and a reality TV competition may just be her chance. To win, she’ll have to deal with fatphobic beauty standards, fierce competition, and intense media scrutiny–as well as unexpected attraction to one of her competitors.

Miss Meteor by Mejia, Tehlor Kay and Anna-Marie McLemore. Ages 14 and up. Magical Realism. (I haven’t read this one, but I think both MCs are WLW Latinas.) Lita is a star – literally. After falling to earth several years ago, she’s now living life as a teenage girl. When the annual Miss Meteor pageant rolls around, Lita decides to enter – but will her ex-best friend Chicky be willing to help her? Will the pageant help her forget about the past and imagine a new future? Lita learns that winning isn’t about being perfect, it’s about showing your true self to the world – even the parts that no one else understands.

You Should See Me in a Crown by Johnson, Leah. Ages 12 and up. Realistic Fiction. MC is a black WLW (woman-loving-woman). In this affectionate rom-com, Liz Lighty finds herself an unlikely candidate for prom queen at her affluent suburban school. Shy, awkward, Black, and low-income, Liz has never felt like she belonged, and she can’t wait to leave for her dream college. But when her scholarship falls through, it seems her last resort is to win prom queen, and the scholarship money that comes with it. Liz’s plan is complicated when new girl Mack decides to run for prom queen also…and ends up running away with Liz’s heart.

War Girls by Onyebuchi, Tochi.  Ages 12 and up. Science Fiction/Afro-Futurism. Both MCs are Nigerian, one is a WLW. In a not-so-distant future, climate change and nuclear disasters have made much of the earth unlivable. In the midst of war in Nigeria, two sisters, Onyii and Ify, are torn apart and face two very different futures. As their lives progress through years of untold violence and political unrest, battles with deadly mechs and cyborg soldiers outfitted with artificial limbs and organs, they are brought together again and again and must come to terms with how the war has impacted their lives.

When We Were Magic by Gailey, Sarah. Ages 14 and up. Contemporary Fantasy. MC is a white bi/questioning girl with gay dads, her friends are racially, ethnically, and queerily diverse. This firecracker of a novel follows a group of friends who attempt to correct the accidental murder of a classmate. When We Were Magic combines magic, friendship, and awkward moments to create a captivating story. Each character brings their own uniqueness to the strong group of friends, but despite their differences, their loyalty remains. Author Sarah Gailey has written another page turning novel, with the quirky strange content to boot.

#Rainbow Book List #LGBT literature #queer books #queer YA #queer children's books #Book Recommendations #we need diverse books

[ylizam]

going to continue the trend of saying, DO THIS IF YOU WANT TO. look, a shiny time-wasting internet question thingy! just like Ye Olde Livejournal days! tag, you’re all it.

1. Name/Nicknames: I do not tend to use my real name here, so call me whatever. if you do know my real name, I absolutely prefer my full name to any traditional nicknames of same! but also initials are good! 

2. Gender: non-binary

3. Star Sign: leo

4. Height: 5′1.5″, aka I was once measured as tall as 5′2″ but I’m really not quite. (apparently my lack of height comes from my Italian great-grandmother’s side of the family. everyone else is, if not tall, at least over 5′4″.)

5. Time: 13:57 EST.

6. Birthday: august 17

7. Favourite Band: I’ll go with Fleetwood Mac, as they are both band and soap opera combined.

8. Favourite Solo Artist: Dolly Parton

9. Song Stuck in My Head: Survivor’s Eye of the Tiger! (um, mostly because we sing it to our (tiger) cat.)

10. Last Movie: Judas and the Black Messiah, which I enjoyed but also the main characters are cast Too Old. which kept taking me out of it a bit. (the actors are very good, mind, but the real people were so young.)

11. Last Show: we’re (re)watching Babylon 5 right now (which is a surprise to ... no one following this tumblr, I am sure, what with my Ivanova and Delenn spirals). (“re” in parentheses because I’ve watched it all the way through before but roommate has not). I’m also watching Dix Pour Cent when I have the brains to watch something in French (which I find takes more concentration than watching things in other non-English languages, as I understand just enough that I tend to both read the subtitles but also simultaneously try to interpret the spoken French and anyway!), so it’s taking longer than it might otherwise take (but also means it feels like there’s more of it somehow, so bright side there?).  

12. When I Created This Blog: apparently December 2016? but I had a sideblog with this name before that, only I got frustrated with the limitations of that set up and just created this one. 

13. What I Post: mostly photos and gifsets of the fictional women about whom I obsess on the regular, ditto ships I am into; on the rarest of rare occasions, I even post fic.

14. Last Thing I Googled: hahaha where to get a covid test (I was ill yesterday, but am better today so fingers crossed I won’t have to use this information right now because wow is testing around here very car-centric). 

15. Other Blogs: a largely unused anymore DW that every so often I think about using again, also a tumblr that I use for just non-fannish stuff basically (and to which I pay only sporadic attention). 

16. Do I get asks?: sometimes! I am terrible at answering them, though, especially if I don’t immediately know what to say. 

17. Why I Chose My URL: it’s my LJ/DW username, but backwards because someone had already claimed my actual old username. 

18. Following: 115

19. Followers: 182

20. Average Hours of Sleep: never enough

21. Lucky Number: 7

22. Instruments: I played clarinet through middle school? um, piano for a bit, guitar for a bit. mostly I sang—choirs, musical theatre, madrigals, lessons, etc. (please note that I do none of the above now.)

23. What I Am Wearing: grey joggers and my A’ja Wilson hoodie. 

24. Dream Job: one that I’m not required to hold down due to money/healthcare/etc.? 

25. Dream Trip: lately I’ve been fantasizing about going to New Zealand and/or Australia during the Women’s World Cup? like taking a long stretch of time off, catching at least one match, and mostly just visiting friends and spending too much money traveling between places in Australia and New Zealand when I really ought to split them into more than one trip. (clearly, in this dream trip, we’ve somehow perfected transporter technology because I know that much actual traveling between various locations during a vacation would stress me out.) 

26. Favourite Food: probably pizza (and now I am thinking fondly back on the days of buying a slice from the local place and staking out a booth for everyone, sprinkling on the parm and red pepper flakes, not even bothering to soak up any of the grease). things with vinegar. bread (particularly with good butter or good olive oil). eggs are pretty miraculous. chocolate. 

27. Nationality: american. 

28. Favourite Song: but there are so many songs! how does one choose? so let’s just say I’ve had a soft spot for Billy Joel’s Scenes from an Italian Restaurant forever, which is not at all a surprising fact about me. 

29. Last Book I Read: what is this reading thing? honestly, though, it’s been a rough stretch; I think the last thing I actually finished reading (as opposed to skimming through to the end because I feel guilty borrowing an ebook and not finishing it because I know there are limits on usage and whatnot, but also I just couldn’t actually read the book in question anymore) was Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger? 

30. Top 3 fictional universes I would love to live in: hm. the Star Trek utopia (the version it claims to be, at least) is probably the big one. after that? this is very hard! maybe the Galavant-verse, as I too inexplicably break into song at any occasion? I can’t think of another right now, but it would have to be a gentle space setting, possibly a station; stars everywhere but no capitalism, no war, plus community, plus magic, plus joy.

#a true story about me #long post

[littleprickproductions]

Hardware Vs Software in Production

Hardware in the production world. 

Ok, I'll be honest, as far as hardware goes in my production process it starts with my NI S61 midi keys and ends with my Presonus 5s, with unfortunately nothing in the middle but my mac and audio interface. I know there are hardware gurus out there that would be shocked that I even call that hardware, but my point is, I’m a complete novice. From using VST plug-ins to create sound to mastering with software equivalent reverb and everything in between; ninety-nine percent of my whole production process is software. During the course of this blog, I have been given the opportunity to use real-life hardware versions of the VST plugins you find in your software library, and ask the question what place does hardware have in this increasingly digitised world?

My goal throughout this process, along side testing hardware, is to create three tracks form the hardware being tested each week and therefore giving the hardware a good run and the shot it deserves at proving its worth.

Private link to Tracks:

DRUMs & BASSes

Being an aspiring Hip hop producer, I decided to begin week one of my hardware pursuit in the way I start most of my tracks, with drums- and boy it did not disappoint. More specifically the Arturia Drum Brute Sequencer. The sequencer allows you to trigger drum sounds at certain times through a 16step sequence and then shape the sounds to suit, including tone decay and velocity adjustments. One early finding with hardware and something to bear in mind, it's not as easy as just uploading a software VST and away you go. “VST” is an acronym that stands for Virtual Studio Technology and was introduced by Steinberg Media Technologies in 1996. It was invented as a way of adding real-time audio effects to audio tracks recorded on a computer. It elevated the computer from being a MIDI sequencer and audio recorder to becoming the fully-fledged audio recording, mixing and producing platform that we know today (Vincent, 2019). Hardware requires essentially more hardware to support the integration with your chosen DAW and enable recording of the audio. In this case the MOTU 624 Audio Interface. An audio interface is in the simplest of terms a router for your audio signals with line inputs and outputs to allow playback from the hardware through to the monitors. If I were to use the drum sequencer as my only hardware, the simplest way of connecting the hardware would be from the sequencer to the interface via jack lead, or even simpler, directly with midi to the computer. However to do this project justice I will accompany each piece of hardware with at least a second, maybe more, to encourage creativity and hopefully give the hardware a real chance at proving its worth. Besides, you don't just create drums on a track and call it quits, do you? 

Introducing my second hardware instrument, the Moog Sub Phatty. The Sub Phatty is an analog (also known as subtractive synthesis) synthesiser, designed for low-end bass. I found this to be a very powerful synth and very interactive, once I managed to get my head around the basics, and look at it as I would any software synth that I would load into my DAW, Serum for example. Choose an oscillator wave type, add a filter, adjust the envelope and so on. I was flying! Straight away I found it so intuitive. There's something about being able to interact with a synth, the same way you would learn to play an instrument. This by far is the biggest pro I've found when using hardware at this point, due to the contrast between having the knobs and keys in front of you and playing them, over moving the mouse and then drawing midi notes as you would with the software equivalent.

I find that physical interaction fits a lot smoother into the creative flow over clicking a mouse.

Routing Diagram

Bibliography

-Vincent, R. (2019). What Is a VST? All Your VST Questions Answered! Retrieved December 8, 2020, from Careers In Music.com website: https://www.careersinmusic.com/what-is-a-vst

Midi Integration

My first impression with this week's hardware was just how scary it all looks, especially the Korg Volca and the JP-08. The JP-08 is a remake of the 1996 FM synth, the JP 800. FM or Frequency Modulation Synthesis is based on the use of at least two oscillators; a Carrier and a Modulator. The Carrier Frequency is most related to the pitch or the fundamental frequency and is usually controllable with a keyboard or other MIDI input. The Modulating Frequency is used to alter the Carrier at a specific Modulation Rate and Modulation Intensity or Index (Mantione, 2017). This session showed the importance of reading manuals. One downside of hardware, that unlike software synths, is that you cannot just install and click away. In this case, there were many procedures I had to follow to get even the smallest soundwave. My advice would be to follow the signal path due to the hardware requiring a clock source to keep all parts time/tempo synced. So I began by sending the Midi Clock from the DAW (used at the master clock) to a Midi Motu interface. Midi stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. It was introduced by Robert Moog in October 1982, with the idea that one universal language could be used to support various instruments. However no audio is passed through midi, instead, it sends a series of digital binary signals (1s and 0s) which the computer, instrument or Midi interface then transfers to the audio signal. (Wreglesworth, 2018)

From the midi interface, midi signals are sent to the individual hardware (to keep them synced), then audio to the mixer and on to an audio interface- ensuring each element is passing a signal to the next and so on. Secondly, ensuring all inputs and output through the DAW are set correctly, in this case, output to midi and input from the audio interface. Eventually, after many attempts and using my own advice of following the signal paths, we have audio!

The next step was to create some recordings, which began by inputting midi notes to trigger midi signals. I found this a great combination of both software and hardware. Using the DAW to write the notes and then use the JP-08 to modulate the sound. This allowed me to concentrate fully on the sound development itself while playing the notes on a loop, tweaking the oscillators, envelopes and creating modulation until I found a sound that I liked. From there it was a case of repeating the process, layering multiple sounds over different octaves, creating sounds and filling the frequency spectrum. Using the Roland TR-8 sequencer to add a drum pattern in a similar way as the DrumBrute in previous weeks, and a third instrument- the Korg Volca, I had everything physically in front of me to compose a track.

Routing Diagram

Bibliography

-Mantione, P. (2017). The Basics of FM Synthesis. [online] Pro Audio Files. Retrieved from https://theproaudiofiles.com/fm-synthesis/. 

‌Wreglesworth, R. (2018). A Beginner’s Guide To MIDI: What Is It? How Does It Work? Retrieved from Musician’s HQ website: https://musicianshq.com/a-beginners-guide-to-midi/

Synchronisation and Collaboration 

Synchronisation is a broad term and occurs a lot during the creative process, especially when using hardware. Previously I've spoken about hardware being synchronized with other hardware by the use of midi to match tempo through a master clock from the DAW. However in this case, I'm exploring synchronisation with others. Synchronous meaning happening, existing, or arising at precisely the same time (Merriam-Webster. n.d.). Most weeks I've had the opportunity of working with another person when using the hardware set-ups. This weeks set up is somewhat similar to last weeks, we’re using the Roland TR-8, the Roland TB-3 and the Novation Bass station. Having a second person there to bounce off, one experimenting with drums on the TR-8 and the second on the Bass station playing with melodies, very quickly sparked innovation and creativity. Once we heard something we liked whilst vibing of the energy of one and another, we began to develop further to create almost a full track/performance. We’d record melodies and loops and then experiment with effects on the mixer to create risers and evolve the piece, whilst adding a creative depth. However, I am aware that the ability to be able to play side by side with another in a room is not always going to be a possibility, especially with the cost of studio time and the rise of home studios. This is where we were introduced to Ableton Link. Ableton Link is a technology that keeps devices in time over a wired or wireless network. Link is built into Live as well as a growing number of iOS applications, and any Link-enabled software can play in time with any other Link-enabled software simply by joining the same network.

Link allows two or more users of the same local network to sync clock, use audio hardware collaboratively and share audio stems. If a local network is not available, users can use ad-hoc (computer-to-computer) connection to do the same (“Link, Synchronisation, and ReWire — Ableton Reference Manual Version 10.,” n.d.).

I found this process extremely creative as both users can share ideas and bounce off each other's energy. However there are things to consider, users have to be flexible and open to the fact that there is going to be differing opinions on direction, including BPM of the track, key and genre to note a few.  

Routing Diagram

Bibliography

-Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Synchronous. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved December 8, 2020, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/synchronous

The Power of Modular

I have been using a Human interface device throughout this whole process without realising exactly what it is. A human interface device can be defined as a type of computer device that ordinarily takes input from humans and gives output to humans. While the original plan for the HID specification was based on the idea of a standard for human input devices, the acronym itself was changed to human interface device as it became clear that the standard would support bi-directional communication, meaning both inputs and outputs (“What is a Human Interface Device (HID)?”, 2020). However, this doesn't just apply to the use of synthesizers. By definition, this applies to any device that allows humans to interact with computers, from pointer tools such as a computer mouse to the output of the speaker audio. For me, the use of hardware throughout this module has identified the importance of choosing the correct HID for the task. Which brings me my next piece of hardware. Modular synthesis. 

Simply put, a modular synthesizer is an electronic musical instrument that consists of a multitude of different components (modules) that are used and combined to create electronic sounds (“Modular Synthesizers - A simple explanation,” 2019). Modules are connected via patch cables, to create and develop sounds and effects. Once an initial sound is produced, more modules can be introduced to modulate carrier waves and effects, and more added again to modulate that modulation. In theory, the possibilities are endless and once you've found your feet with the initial sound creation and the signal path, it becomes very intuitive and evidently a creative HID. I rapidly learned it would be my body that would fatigue far before the sound creation possibilities with the modular. One negative aspect was that as all the hardware was timed and sequenced to the clock it was difficult to fail. This being said, it is important to remember to stick to any goals set before starting, as the rabbit hole with this one goes a long way down. 

It's great the fact that you can go, oh ok what does this do and experiment, however, if I specifically decided I want to modulate the hi-hats, for example, a certain amount of knowledge is required to enforce this.

Routing Diagram

Bibliography

-‌Modular Synthesizers - A simple explanation. (2019). Retrieved from t.blog website: https://www.thomann.de/blog/en/modular-synthesizers-explained-simply/

-‌What is a Human Interface Device (HID)? (2020). Retrieved December 8, 2020, from Total Phase Blog website: https://www.totalphase.com/blog/2020/08/what-is-human-interface-device-hid/

Evaluation

Over the past few weeks, I have had the opportunity to explore hardware synthesisers, sequencers and mixers- learning in detail the processes of what it takes to set up hardware through the application of midi and audio interfaces. I've learned how creative and intuitive hardware can be, through the use of different types of human interface devices, and exploring how using many different approaches can affect the speed, ease and development of the music-making process. To begin I learned the basics of hardware set up. Through the use of manuals and tutorials, I gained confidence in my ability to be able to be given a new piece of hardware and use it to create and record soundscapes. I learned very quickly not to judge the hardware on its looks, especially when it comes to modular. Once I broke the process down and followed the signal path, I learned that use of hardware wasn't as scary as it looked. It didn't however come without its complications. Throughout the weeks, I discovered that hardware is a lot more complicated to set up than simply plugging in a VST software instrument. Sometimes even if everything looks like it should work, it doesn't, and it can take a long time to gain even the simplest sound. However, it has definitely been worth it. It is difficult to deny the fact that hardware, and the ability to play the hardware as an instrument, is extremely creative. Especially in comparison to my usual desk with a mouse and keyboard. Hardware still firmly has its place in the production world, and I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to explore it, to go and do so. However, I believe the combination of hardware and software is the best equation when the end goal is creating music. 

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this Think Progress story:

More than 30,000 deaths have been linked to poor air quality in the United States over the past two decades, according to new research funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). And even at levels considered to be safe, researchers argue that air pollution can increase mortality rates.

The study, released Tuesday, was also supported by the research charity Wellcome Trust, and reinforces long-running concerns over microscopic pollution particles in the air and their impact on human health. It also widens the gap between the Trump administration’s efforts to rollback clean air rules and the government’s own findings on the importance of air quality.

Researchers from Imperial College London and Carnegie Mellon University’s Center for Air, Climate, and Energy Solutions authored the new study, published in PLOS Medicine, which probes the impacts of air pollution across the contiguous United States from 1999 to 2015. At the center of the study is PM2.5, atmospheric particulate matter with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers — 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair.

These particles typically come from sources like power plants and cars, and are so tiny that they can travel deep into the lungs, risking various health problems like cancer and lung disease. The current national standard is 12 micrograms per cubic meter of air (ug/m3) but Tuesday’s study shows that might not be strict enough — while PM2.5 has declined nationally since 1999, the researchers found that PM2.5 levels as low as 2.8ug/m3 are associated with an uptick in deaths.

Using a combination of satellite imagery, data from over 750 U.S. air quality monitoring stations, and the National Center for Health Statistics, the researchers found that air pollution deaths during the 16-year time period examined totaled more than 30,369. That data, which used binary gender, broke the total number down to 15,612 women and 14,757 men, and noted that they died from cardiorespiratory conditions like asthma or heart attacks.

Region and class status seemingly played a role in the deaths as well. Some areas were more prone to high PM2.5 concentrations and associated mortality, including Los Angeles, California, and a number of Southern states, like Arkansas and Alabama.

#air pollution #public health

[humansoulsarg]

Lasagna Solve

In this post: http://pangenttechnologies.tumblr.com/post/184191526847/ Pangent links to a new public Signal and Noise video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VewU7AZvIjQ

Towards the end are broken up characters and there is also audio spectrogram content. Both appear to be characters from the Moon System of Embossed Reading.

The broken up characters from the video we’ll get to later, first taking a crack at the spectrogram characters which appear to be digits. So interpret as decimal ASCII:

77 69 68 73 65 100 109 51 114 118 101 57 115 57 104 101 55 57 98 108 MEDIAdm3rve9s9he79bl

77 69 68 73 65 48 114 116 51 106 98 48 105 57 102 49 115 99 115 97 MEDIA0rt3jb0i9f1scsa

So we have two mediafire link IDs. These lead to the following:

birthdaywordcross: http://mediafire.com/?dm3rve9s9he79bl

touchwordcross: http://mediafire.com/?0rt3jb0i9f1scsa

Wowzers! Each of these contain a wordcross puzzle with a grid with numbers and shaded squares, and a matching list of clues which describe words that need to go into the grid, either across or down.

There is a lot to take in here. Huge thanks to player Zomperzon for taking the first cracks at these and doing so much of the heavy lifting. it’s a very impressive set of puzzles, even without knowing the solution, but after you see what all was involved, I think you’ll agree these are highly complex puzzles created by a genius.

We first made progress on the Birthday wordcross, and once answers were in place for all the numbers, the shaded squares were transcribed.

Taking the shaded squares in the order of the numbers we get:

ARMRDITICDRTINLAEIOIETIMIFRHRIRAUARHIGAIDEMNADORCLRAIETAHIAHREAFIICREAARARARMRGRAGIDEMNAHRDERNALFIIAETAIAANARFRIRIASIHGRTROAAIDEM

Which appears to have some backwards ‘MEDIA’ entries in there so let’s reverse it and separate them:

MEDIA AORTRGHISAIRIRFRANAAIATEAIIFLANREDRHAN MEDIG ARGRMRARARAAERCIIFAERHAIHATEIARLCRODAN MEDIA GIHRAUARIRHRFIMITEIOIEALNITRDCITIDRMRA

So we’re looking for mediafire links here, which are 15 characters either lowercase letters or decimal digits. We have 16 different characters here, and 38 characters for each row. If it’s hexadecimal ASCII we would expect 30 characters, so something needs to happen to remove 8 characters from each one.

In the previous Garbage Ape solve, Pangent introduced a 'Letter Frequency Cipher’ for the 10 digits. EATONRISHD so we thought we needed to find the next six letters in that sequence to assign to the final six hexadecimal values.

According to wikipedia:

Herbert S. Zim, in his classic introductory cryptography text “Codes and Secret Writing”, gives the English letter frequency sequence as “ETAON RISHD LFCMU GYPWB VKJXQ Z”

This could be the source of the particular English Letter Frequency code Pangent used, now to work on those extra 8 characters.

Then, it was noticed there appeared to be the word 'GARFIELD’ in each string, in order. So perhaps we need to do a 'minu Garfield’ operation? Interesting twist, Pangent.

However, the Herbert Zim encoding didn’t appear to give valid mediafire links, so something else was needed.

Pangent helped us out with a post around Easter (we took FOREVER to solve this puzzle, sorry intended Birthday recipients, enjoy the Belated Well Wishes) https://pangenttechnologies.tumblr.com/post/184341559352

This post was a negative image of a Garfield comic with Garfield removed, and hidden text in one of the panel gutters:

Here we see a sequence: ETAONRISHDFCMUGY - same as our assumption except the 'L’ is missing. Using this cipher, we made progress!

first one: MEDIA AORTRGHISAIRIRFRANAAIATEAIIFLANREDRHAN MEDIA AORTR HIS I IR RANAA AT AIIF ANRE RHAN MEDIA 34626 978 7 76 63533 32 377a 3561 6935 4bixwf5327z5ai5 - bingo! a valid medaifire link! to a file: 0626 birthday greetings.mp4

http://www.mediafire.com/?4bixwf5327z5ai5

A birthday video for Mayor Sassenheim who as we know from way back in the Party Planning Committee days has an at least symbolic birthday on June 26th.

Second one:

MEDIGARGRMRARARAAERHIIFAERHAIHATEIARLCRODAN MEDI ARGRMR  ARAAERHII AERHA HAT IAR CRO AN MEDIA 6e6c6  363316977 31693 932 736 b64 35 nlcc1iw1i92skd5 - another match!

http://www.mediafire.com/?nlcc1iw1i92skd5 - 0401 birthday greetings 2.zip

This archive contains two videos, one a birthday video for Leslie (0401 birthday greetings 2.mp4) and a second one (VHS.mp4) which appears to be some clips of a younger Eric displaying his budding acting, writing, directing, and editing skills. (And is that a penguin mask?)  Apologies, but I don’t know the background song.

third one: MEDIA GIHRAUARIRHRFIMITEIOIEALNITRDCITIDRMRA MEDIA  IHR UA IRHR  MIT IOIEA NITR CITIDRMRA MEDIA  796 d3 7696  c72 74713 5726 b72706c63 ym7ilrtq5rkrplc - bingo! 0401 birthday greetings.mp4

http://www.mediafire.com/?ym7ilrtq5rkrplc

This is 0401 birthday greetings.mp4 - another birthday video for Leslie.

Now that we’ve got a bit of a solution method, let’s go back to the broken up letters in the original lasagna video.

Taurtini combined frames to create these composite images, making decoding much easier.

SDALONER ARIRSNTF RAOARAEA RGFIDNTY

YDRLUOAE RYNIGONN HFRNRRAF RNGNOATY

This time the sequence (invert and remove Garfield, then use ETAONRISHDFCMUGY to hex) leads to non-public YouTube videos on the Signal to Noise channel.

YT NDIFGRAEARAOARFTNSRIRARENOLADS YT NDIF R EA AOAR TNSR RAR NO A S YT 507a 6 13 3436 2586 636 54 3 8 Pza3CbXf6T8 http://youtu.be/Pza3CbXf6T8 hex title: 736f6d6e69627573 -> somnibus

Latin for 'dream’ this includes shots of Eric in a room on and off a bed, close up and far away from the camera, possibly in reverse. I hope I don’t dream of this.

YT AONGNRFARRNRFHNNOGINYREAOULRDY YT AON NRF  RNR HNNOG NYR AOU R Y YT 345 56a  656 9554e 5f6 34d 6 f 4UjeiUN_cMo http://youtu.be/4UjeiUN_cMo binary title: 01110011 01101001 01100011 01101011 -> sick

Two and a half minutes of Eric coughing, wheezing, dry heaving, and in general living up to the name of the video. Not one I will return to often.

After quite a lull in our timeline, work began again on the second wordcross, and almost all of the answers were found. Enough to suss out the final two characters and find the rest of this Pangent trail’s treasures.

The solution method is the same, take the shaded squares in the order of the clues, reverse the string, remove Garfield, and convert with Pangent’s version of the Letter Frequency cipher to ASCII hex. This time we have four mediafire links.

The string is:

IANDIORLHIIEAIIFISIFITIHADARARMARTGRHAAIDEMRAT?IDINRLDITRIERRIARAERFDIYRIRAIERGOAAIDEMSIDAFITAORDDLIIASEAHAHRURFIIFARAIRIGSIAIDEMTIFIRASDID??ILIADAHIEIAIFRFURRACRSIIGAAIDEM

Reversed:

MEDIA AGIISRCARRUFRFIAIEIHADAILI??DIDSARIFIT MEDIA ISGIRIARAFIIFRURHAHAESAIILDDROATIFADIS MEDIA AOGREIARIRYIDFREARAIRREIRTIDLRNIDI?TAR MEDIA AHRGTRAMRARADAHITIFISIFIIAEIIHLROIDNAI

First one:

MEDIA AGIISRCARRUFRFIAIEIHADAILIEADIDSARIFIT MEDIA A IISRC  RU RF AI IHADAI IEADI SARIFIT MEDIA 3 7786b  6d 6a 37 793037 71307 8367a72 37 78 6b 6d 6a 37 79 30 37 71 30 78 36 7a 72 7xkmj7y07q0x6zr http://mediafire.com/?7xkmj7y07q0x6zr poweroffive.mp4 - A version of the Spice Girls’ video intro to the new Channel 5 station. Well, it was new back in the 90’s. This may have been cleaned up a lot by the Pangent crew as it looks pretty snazzy.

Second one:

MEDIA ISGIRIARAFIIFRURHAHAESAIILDDROATIFADIS MEDIA IS IRI  A  IFRURHAHA SAII  DROATIFADIS MEDIA 78 767  3  7a6d69393 8377  064327a3078 xvszmi987pd2z0x http://mediafire.com/?xvszmi987pd2z0x tankgirl.zip - containing sp_tankgirl.mp4 which appears to be an audition clip for Tank Girl featuring Geri Halliwell from the Spice Girls.

also included is wounds.mp4 which appears to show Eric’s arms and face after an encounter with what would be presumed to be an angry cat as he is scratched up.

Third one:

MEDIA AOGREIARIRYIDFREARAIRREIRTIDLRNIDI?TAR MEDIA AO REI  IRYID REARA RR IRTID RNI I?TAR MEDIA 34 617  76f70 61363 66 76270 657 7?236 34 61 77 6f 70 61 36 36 67 62 70 65 77 ?2 36 4awopa66gbpew?6 4awopa66gbpewb6 - bingo! http://mediafire.com/?4awopa66gbpewb6

oneofthesegirls.mp4 - an aceppella version of 'one of these girls’ by all five Spice Girls. They sound great.

Fourth one:

MEDIA AHRGTRAMRARADAHITIFISIFIIAAIIHLROIDNAI MEDIA AHR TR M ARADAHITI  SIFIIA IIH ROI NAI MEDIA 396 26 c 363039727  87a773 779 647 537 9bl609rxzw7ydu7 http://mediafire.com/?9bl609rxzw7ydu7 touchumentary.zip - An 18 minute documentary featuring early Spice Girls auditions, practices, interviews, and details about the Girls before they were Spices, maybe when they were to be called 'Touch’ before they broke out on their own.

It appears that brings us to the end of this puzzle trail. Tons of Spice Girls content, somewhat timely in our present timelne as the Spice Girls are now launching their reunion tour here in 2019.

Another amazing puzzle from Pangent, I can’t imagine creating these wordcross puzzles, so many moving pieces. It took our crew a while to solve as we don’t really have the numbers for quick work and life can sometimes get in the way.

#video #unlisted video #puzzle #puzzle solution #human souls arg #submission

[optionsspreads-blog]

Options Spreads Explained

Please visit our Autotrade page for a list of brokers that provide this service. Why the heck won't these far OTM options decay? That is why selling a limited number of put spreads works better than buying call options, especially over the longer term with options spreads.

In this strategy, one OTM put with lower strike is sold after buying one OTM put with strike even lower, and one OTM call with higher strike is sold after buying one OTM call with a strike even higher.

Options Spreads

NEVER put everything in one basket. One month's profits today is more than last month's which was larger than the month before that. It might not work if IV drops faster on the front month. I will only do the roll if I can earn a credit for doing so because a credit reduces my net risk in the position. Bets on US 500, US Tech 100 and Wall Street options can be dealt until the close of business on the Thursday before the third Friday. It reflects the excess yield an investor can earn from a bond with more credit risk relative to the safe bond. If you like the idea of knowing exactly what your profit will be, exactly when the trade is closed, and exactly how much money you will risk then credit option spread trading is for you. People then started to contact Morgan asking for products. It is gaining in popularity, with traders of all experience levels taking an interest and discussing such things as credit spreads and covered calls. Using credit cards maybe a convenient way to get money into your trading account, if you broker offer this option.

The Executive Programme in Algorithmic Trading (EPAT™) course covers training modules like Statistics & Econometrics, Financial Computing & Technology, and Algorithmic & Quantitative Trading. Option Trading Strategy, in the world of finance, is the sale or purchase of one or various option positions and possibly an underlying position. When dealing with option spreads your looking to purchase one option in conjunction with the sale of another option. Position takes like to trade spreads because the short option premium helps to offset the long option cost. The market was on a downtrend, so I decided to SELL during the 7am EDT Hour, consistent with the strategy I usually use when I trade the "Strudel" Strategy with Binary Options. Rather than recommending one specific strategy for hedging, let me expound on the rationale behind delta hedging. One of the problems with merely using a stop loss is it fails to protect you against gaps. In one embodiment, the network managing station is not directly involved in the requesting of binding quotes, or sending quotes and orders to Exchanges, but rather monitors this activity and maintains an audit trail for review purposes. You buy a Call (Put) that has a delta of magnitude .45 to .65 with options spreads.

Put; Buy a Straddle versus selling a put: Buy the straddle (i.e. Buy a put and call at the same strike), as well as selling a put at any strike. Maximum loss occurs when the price of the stock falls at or below the lower strike of the put purchased or rise above or equal to the higher strike of the call purchased. It doesn’t have to break a price barrier or the floor. However, this is called investing and the price of admission is gut wrenching drawdowns and sometimes years and years with nothing to show for it. Messaging traffic of price updating is thereby reduced by limiting quote traffic to interested parties who query specific contracts and/or contract combinations. For example, a March FTSE 100 Index Future 6500 is the right to buy the March FTSE 100 Index Future on or before a fixed date in March. This means that, as well as knowing which option is more expensive, you should find out which is cheapest per day.

How Facebook Could Save Its Stock Price and Reputation As a Solid Business Model

Risk and uncertainty run in conjunction with the opportunity to generate profit. Trying to anticipate swings in the stock market is actually impossible. When you consider buying different investments with equal growth potential and expected returns, a much better buy could be those stocks that have possibilities open.

There is an ugly side of investing that creates that uncomfortable feeling. According to market data assembled by Kenneth French at Dartmouth College, large cap stocks have observed drops of 25% or maybe more about much over the past 85 years. That averages once every 8.several years, however, there are some very long periods where there were no steep drops along with other stretches where they started in clusters. If you started investing soon after an industry drop (say, 2002) your investments performed significantly better than should you began neglect the life shortly before a drop (2000 for example). The Nikkei-225 index (Japan) is down about 75% during the last 22 years, that has ruined the retirement plans of your entire generation. Of course, Japan's problem was an over-heated housing market, multiple recessions, expensive debt, and an aging population. That could never take place in the U.S. Finally, it's very difficult to invest like Warren Buffett. Goldman Sachs never offered me perpetual preferred stock using a 10% yield. I also can't buy to get a small business, install the management, and hold them responsible for superior performance.

Companies that do practice corporate social responsibility thinks morally obligated to offer to town in the area that their clients are conducted. A small mom and pop business could be the sole revenue stream for that area it's in and giving time for that small community could be considered the ethical course of action. A larger corporation could hire numerous employees in your neighborhood they operate and so feel more socially responsible to deal with that area.

When the share prices start dipping, they rush to market the stock, or steer clear of market. Some investors who bought the stock at higher values always buy or retain the stock hoping it would regain its position or averaging your cost. How much they should invest and exactly how far is something that only experienced person can define. Moreover, some self-control is important while playing in these markets.

To demonstrate what are the not enough an edge seems like, let's use a typical Covered Call option strategy, which can be becoming very popular as investors look for sources of income and further yield. A Covered Call strategy involves buying shares of stock and selling Call options to generate extra revenue. A typical position might resemble this.

To read more about options spreads see the resources below.

Resources

Options Spreads: Put & Call Combination Strategies

Options Spreads Strategy Guide - Strikingly.com

Understanding Vertical Options Spreads | Sang Lucci

#options spreads

[superseraphim7]

***** INCOMING PLASMA SUPER-WAVE 1114018 ***** *TRIPLE-SOURCE COMBINED GALACTIC PLASMA WAVE INBOUND!* ESTIMATED TIME OF ARRIVAL: NOV. 18TH. GREETINGS GREAT ONES, AS WE SAID IN OUR LAST TRANSMISSION: A MAJOR ENERGETIC SHIFT OCCURRED OVER THIS PAST 11:11 WEEKEND AS A MASSIVE PLASMA WAVE CAME IN FROM THE GALACTIC CORE AND COMBINED WITH A MODERATELY POWERED GEO-MAGNETIC STORM! TO ANCHOR THESE SUPER HIGH-VIBRATIONAL LIGHT FREQUENCIES INTO THE CRYSTAL CORE OF THE EARTH, A RECORD NUMBER OF OVER 3 BILLION INCREDIBLE LIGHT BEINGS STATIONED ON EARTH, COMBINED THEIR CONSCIOUS FOCUS INTO ONE ACCORD DURING THE 11:11 SOLAR PORTAL! NOW AS WE SOAR ON TOWARD THIS WEEKEND THERE IS AN EVEN MORE POWERFUL GALACTIC STORM BREWING IN THIS SOLAR SYSTEM AND ITS COMING RIGHT FOR US! PLANET EARTH AND OUR HUMAN-BODY-AURIC-FIELDS ARE GOING TO BE IMPACTED WITH A TREMENDOUS WAVE OF ASCENSION LIGHT FROM THREE DIFFERENT SOURCES AT THE SAME MOMENT, SUNDAY MID-MORNING, 11-18-18! HERE ARE THE CURRENT THREE INBOUND GALACTIC LIGHT-WAVE SOURCES INCOMING THIS WEEKEND: 1. A MODERATELY POWERED GEO-MAGNETIC SOLAR STORM. ETA: 11-18. 2. STRONG GAMMA RADIATION PLASMA WAVE PULSING FROM BINARY STAR SYSTEM SS433 IN THE AQUILA CONSTELLATION . ETA: 11-18 3. ENORMOUS-SIZE DIRECT EARTH FACING SOLAR PROMINENCE PROJECTED TO CREATE A (HYDER-FLARE). ETA: 11-18 WHAT ARE THE ODDS OF THIS TRIPLE COSMIC PUNCH FROM THREE UNIQUE SOURCES OF INBOUND ASCENSION LIGHT DATA, ALL SYNCHRONIZED TO BLAST THIS PLANET AT THE SAME TIME, ON SUNDAY 11-18-18? ALSO ADD IN THE FACT THIS IS RIGHT AFTER WE JUST BROKE THE UPPER BARRIER OF 4D AND BREACHED THE 5D BOUNDARY ON 11-11? ON A RELATED MATTER, THE EARTH'S IONOSPHERE IS REPORTING A SUPER POUNDING AT THIS HOUR EVEN BETWEEN THESE TWO HISTORICAL COSMIC ENERGY STORMS. DETAILS COMING.... PLEIADIAN SOURCE INTEL CONFIRMS THAT HUGH PLASMA CRAFT IN THIS SOLAR SYSTEM ARE IN THE PROCESS NOW OF RAMPING UP THE POWER OF THESE EARTH-DIRECTED SOLAR BEAMS AFTER SENDING 24 CONSECUTIVE GEO-MAGNETIC BEAMS TO EARTH SINCE 9-11, TO ESCALATE THE GRAND HUMAN ASCENSION EVENT! FLEET COMMANDERS SAY THEIR GOAL IS TO SEND ENOUGH GAMMA-PHOTON LIGHT PACKETS INTO OUR AURIC ENERGY FIELDS TO FINISH ACTIVATING THE DNA OF ALL STARSEEDS ON EARTH TO THE 5D LEVEL. THEY SAID MOST OF YOU HIT THE 5D BOUNDARY ON 11-11 AND WE ARE GONNA NOW BLAST YOU ALL THE WAY INTO IT! THIS SOLAR FLASH OF GAMMA LIGHT THATS COMING IS EXPECTED CREATE A COMPLETE COMPRESSION BREAKTHROUGH AS PROJECT DELTA GROUND CREW FORCES AND DRAGON-ALLIANCE FORCES COVERTLY MOVE IN ON CABAL NEGATIVE ENTITY TARGETS! GREAT ONES, ISN'T IT AMAZING WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE? YOU HAVE SEEN PROOF AFTER PROOF AFTER PROOF RIGHT BEFORE YOUR EYES AND EVEN BETTER YOU ARE EXPERIENCING I ALL IN YOUR BODIES AND YOUR LIVES IN A PERSONAL WAY SO YOU KNOW FOR SURE THIS GRAND ASCENSION EVENT IS WELL UNDERWAY NOW! THIS IS GONNA BE ONE HELL OF AN AWESOME WEEKEND! WE ENCOURAGE ANOTHER GLOBAL MASS MEDIATION SUNDAY MORNING AT 11:11AM TO ADD EVEN MORE POWER TO THIS EVENT SO SPREAD THE GOOD NEWS! LET US KNOW WHAT KIND OF ASCENSION SYMPTOMS OR LIFE CHANGES ARE YOU EXPERIENCING AT THE MOMENT? THIS IS SUPER PURGING ENERGY AS WELL CAN YOU DETECT LOWER EMOTIONAL VIBES COMING UP FOR TRANSMUTATION? WE ALSO WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU ABOUT EXPERIENCING WHAT EVERYONE IS CALLING 'THE FEELING' WHICH IS A MOMENT OF EXPERIENCING AN ECSTATIC BLISS STATE OF BEING. THIS 'FEELING' IS THE 5D HERTZ FREQUENCY OF 40-100 GAMMA STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS. IN THE GAMMA STATE, BOTH HEMISPHERES OF THE BRAIN START WORKING TOGETHER AT THE SAME MOMENT. WE ARE WORKING ON AN ENTIRE VOLUME OF INFORMATION ABOUT THIS NEWLY EXPERIENCED 5D STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS TO BE RELEASED SOON! BUCKLE UP STAR BEINGS! ALL HANDS ON DECK FOR THIS COMING WEEKEND! WE ARE ALL GONNA GO THROUGH THIS TOGETHER AND SHARE OUR PERSONAL DATA IN AS IT HAPPENS! ITS GOING TO BE A SUPER EXCITING WEEKEND! GOD-SPEED, MICHAEL

[thotyssey]

On Point With: Theydy Bedbug

This genre-blending and gender-bending performer has evolved (over a short period of time) through several incarnations in Brooklyn nightlife into what we have today--something that’s hard to define, but thrilling to behold. Before you tuck yourself in tonight, let Theydy Bedbug bite!

Thotyssey: Hey hey, Theydy! Happy Almost Halloween! Do you have your lewk prepared yet?

Theydy Bedbug: Why hello! Well... Dragoween is all month, right? So I have ideas for a couple lewks! But no, I am an impromptu bug.

So, you often find yourself putting makeup here or there and pulling random things out of your closet with no idea how it will all add up?

Oh, definitely. I am making it up as I go! Unless a certain number has a specific costume that relates to the storyline, I try to do new looks each time by pairing together new combinations, and normally don’t know what I’m wearing until hours before... oops!

How would you describe, to the uninitiated, what kind of an artist you are? A burlesquer, a drag performer, a performance artist, all or some of the above?

All of the above! Draglesque clown, nonbinary bug, performance Fartist.

That is a business card I would definitely keep! Where are you from?

Well, I grew up in Indonesia and Singapore, but to two US citizens, so home is still a big ol’ question mark.

And how did all this fartistic clownery begin?

I’ve always been interested in the performing arts. My parents did community theater, so I was always around it and I was always make-believing scenarios. I think one way of dealing with being a baby closeted queer was making up fantasies and living in them.

My parents haven’t always understood my gender and sexuality, but they certainly unconsciously raised me to be a femme fag considering there were always costumes around my childhood. I feel really blessed to have had access to those tools to transform.

When did you find yourself mixing it up with the Brooklyn nightlife scene?

Three years ago, I took a workshop with Crimson Kitty called “Ladyqueen University.” It helped get the ball rolling and got me experimenting with names, lip sync, and makeup. My gender and my drag name have changed since then, but I appreciate that initial platform. 

And then it was competing in the Mx Nobody pageant in 2016 that connected me to the Brooklyn scene and The Nobodies. After, those fools kept letting me roll through their shows and give messy numbers for tips.

I remember seeing you at that first Mx Nobody at Eastlands; it was my first or second ever judging gig. I don't remember what your performing name was then, but I remember your act involved a tricycle and a poopy lollipop!

Wow, yes! That was Miss Cuntstrude. If Theydy is the intersection between a boy and a bug, MC was between an actual baby and a slut. She was helping me work through the infantilized sexuality of young girls, but also she was a HOT MESS.

She was memorable! A lot was memorable that night... Elle McQueen and Kandy Muse wound up in the Top 2, and then Elle won the final lip sync battle and the crown. But there was a sense of shade from the Haus when that happened, at least from my perspective.

True. I think that was a time in the scene where AFAB drag performers were not welcome. Not to say we have it easy now, but when I first began, non-cis men in drag were really excluded... even in Brooklyn. Honestly, The Nobodies were some of the only folks who gave me the time of day.

Things have changed dramatically in Brooklyn in just a few years! Still not perfect as you said, but so much of what the scene IS now involves gender fluid identity.

Thank goddexx.

Congratulations on being the first person to appear twice in the Mx. Nobody finals! Do you think you might give it a go again next year?

I think my Mx Nobody competing days are over. It’s time to make space for other folks. That competition pushed me to make pieces I’m proud of, and introduced me to fab folks. It taught me to ask for support emotionally and artistically from my communities, which is actually quite hard for me. I can be stubborn about doing it all. And next year, I can’t wait to support!

Yes! So I get “Theydy,” which evolved from Lady and reflects a non-binary identity, but why “Bedbug?” No creature evokes more horror and disgust in this town.

Truly! A lot of my trans and my drag is about rejecting the position of pretty, weak, victim. I came to drag because I was tired of being cast in plays as the vapid ingenue, only valid in sexual relation to men. I wanted to access my rage, my ugly, my raw: the gross parts that compulsory femininity attempts to exterminate.

Bedbugs are resilient and relentless, not easily extinguished. Much of the poetry I perform is about turning sexual trauma I’ve experienced into strength by trans~forming myself into something that cis straight men are repulsed by. Plus, queering sexuality to me means flipping what we find sexy, and what we fear. Can you describe s recent number / performance you’ve done that best embodies this description? I just revamped my Mx. Nobody ‘18 finale number for a monthly show I help put on, Primal Scream. I begin this piece as a high femme fragile flower. After a tragic striptease, I pour “OFF” candles on my skin to ward off the bugs, and a spooky voiceover says: “think you can get rid of me that easy? Just because you’re itchy?” A poem ensues about how this flower is both flower and insect, and denying the bug, the gross, the ugly, the trans, will never make them less of a pest. This flower transforms into a full bug costume and a song about how “bed bugs bite, I hope they eat your heart” ensues.

Tell us more about Primal Scream, monthly at Bizarre Bushwick. It’s a kinky cabaret that leads into a sensation play dungeon. I think the word dungeon intimidates people, but it’s really a basement with different stations for folks to safely explore different kinky sensations. It’s produced by Rara Darling and I perform and guide the hot wax station. We focus on teaching sexy ways of communicating consent boundaries within a pansexual queer space where all genders and body types feel welcome, we hope! Sacred and intentional kink through candles has been really healing for me, so I love guiding folks to connect with their breath and body and partner if it’s a couple session. It’s more spiritual than sexual for me. I think it has profound power for healing trauma and dysphoria stored in the body.

We’ll also see you this Thursday night at Starr Barr.

Yes! Compost Bin with brASS Burlesque! A Radical Cabaret, to deal with the times!

And THEN... there's an event coming up next weekend I'm super excited about: Thee Suburbia's Full Moons: Harvest Moon Halloween Showcase at Bizarre Bushwick on Sunday the 28th! I'm gonna be making my onstage hosting debut (gag), and the tremendous roster of Spoops includes Zalika Parsons, Chris of Hur, Martyr, Vylette Tendency, Pinwheel Pinwheel, Jayse Vegas ... and of course, THEYDY! And so many more, I’m gonna be so starstruck! Aaaaaaaaa! Can you even!?

Hah! It’s going to be a wild time. There’s a lot of performers on the roster who are old pals, and many I’ve never met before! I appreciate that Suburbia offers opportunities to new folks in the scene. I think it’s easy to be a gatekeeper and fear new artists coming for your gigs, but much more in the spirit of community and collectively breaking down binaries to be a gate-opener. So let’s spoop on!!!

What else?

Well! I’m hosting Keepeasy Sundays, a live jazz band burlesque show on Sunday at The Keep....

And I’m teaching a drag performance class to 8-11 year olds at BAX Brooklyn Arts Exchange this Fall. It’s been pretty heart-warming. Werk! Last question: Will you be voting in November?

Most certainly!

Thanks, Theydy!

Check Thotyssey’s calendar for Theydy Bedbug’s upcoming gigs, and follow them on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

On Point Archives

#onpointwith #theydybedbug

[perfectirishgifts]

Does Geothermal Energy Have A Future Under The Biden Administration?

New Post has been published on https://perfectirishgifts.com/does-geothermal-energy-have-a-future-under-the-biden-administration/

Does Geothermal Energy Have A Future Under The Biden Administration?

Sunset over a U.S. Department of Energy geothermal test site (Naval Air Station Fallon in Nevada). … [] Photo credit: Dick Benoit

The Biden Administration – due to take office January 20th, 2021 – is expected to turn political rhetoric into political action when it comes to the nation’s resource use and energy management. Central to this will be decarbonizing the US electricity sector through renewable power sources as part of the much-touted green energy transition.

Yet, it needs to be done responsibly and rationally. Wind and solar power are the global rock stars of the clean energy stage. While market forces are a major driver of renewable adoption in the US,  state, local, and federal policies such as mandated Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) and green subsidies are also boosting the proliferation of these carbon-free technologies. In fact, the power generated from renewables surpassed that of coal in 2019. And in 2021, investment in new renewables projects will outpace their hydrocarbon competitors. But amidst this green growth in the power sector, there are other low-emission renewable energy sources (RES) that should not be overlooked. Geothermal energy is one of these viable technologies.

Geothermal energy extracts heat from the earth’s crust to turn water into steam. It is one of  the renewable energy sources that can provide clean electricity as well as heat for ‘direct use.’ Geothermal energy has the advantage of a high capacity factor compared to intermittent RES, and thus is a good source of affordable and clean baseload electricity.

There is a catch, however. Geothermal plants must be constructed in specific tectonic hotspots to be financially viable.

Countries like Iceland, Kenya, Indonesia, El Salvador, Turkey, and New Zealand are well suited for this technology due to their favorable seismic zones and continental rifts. The United States is also home to a number of geothermal ‘hotspots.’ In fact, this country boasts the largest geothermal installed capacity in the world with 3.7 Gigawatts. But that’s not enough.

The majority of the US geothermal energy is located in the Mayacamas Mountains and Imperial Valley of California, as well as in Western Nevada. In power generation, geothermal energy has four conventional forms of production: dry steam plants, flash plants, binary cycle plants, and combined cycle plants – all of which are dependent on the heat, fluid, and permeable substrate that are naturally available in the earth’s surface. This form of power generation is also called hydrothermal electricity generation.

In addition to conventional geothermal energy, the field is preparing for a new technology that is expected to be more commercially viable and less location specific: Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS). The Department of Energy (DOE) describes EGS as a “man-made reservoir, created where there is hot rock but insufficient or little natural permeability or fluid saturation. In an EGS, fluid is injected into the subsurface under carefully controlled conditions, which cause pre-existing fractures to re-open, creating permeability.” The ability to tap into sub-surface heat from virtually any location is the Holy Grail of geothermal technology.

For the US, conventional geothermal energy currently makes up 0.4% of net electricity generation. The DOE projections suggest that with the use of EGS, there may be over 100 Gigawatts of geothermal electric capacity in the continental US, which would account for nearly 10% of current US electricity capacity and be 40 times the current installed geothermal capacity. The downside of this technology, and in fact any geothermal energy project, however, is that they require advanced engineering expertise and have high capital costs during the development phase (risks and costs generally increasing with depth and temperature). Additionally, similar to fracking, the application of EGS involves risks related to ‘induced seismicity’, or manmade earthquakes.

Geothermal energy could play a much larger role under the Biden Administration.

A study published by the U.S. Department of Energy last year highlights the “enormous untapped potential of geothermal” for the United States. The report, titled GeoVision: Harnessing the Heat Beneath Our Feet was also recently discussed at a virtual panel organized by the Atlantic Council this week, where the Department’s Assistant Secretary Daniel R. Simmons, from the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, underlined that “there is so much opportunity with the geothermal energy” and that in the next Administration, the DOE is seeking to continue the dialogue between the U.S. and other pioneering countries like Iceland and New Zealand to succeed in this field.

Indeed, geothermal has been on the DOE radar since the Obama years. In 2016, the Department announced a $29 million funding prize under the Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE) program for multiple EGS research projects at Sandia National Laboratories and the University of Utah.

In October of this year, FORGE Utah began drilling its first experimental EGS well using techniques similar to those seen in hydraulic fracturing. Per Joseph Moore, PhD, the Principal Investigator of Utah FORGE:

“The upper part of the well will be drilled vertically through approximately 4,700 feet of sediments at which point it will penetrate into hard crystalline granite. At about 6,000 feet (around 1,800 meters), the well will be gradually steered at a 5º angle for each 100 feet (30 meters) until it reaches an inclination of 65º from its vertical point. The total length of the well will be approximately 11,000 feet with the “toe” – or the end of the well – reaching a vertical depth of 8,500 feet (2,600 meters). The temperature at this depth will be 440 degrees F (around 270 degrees Celsius).”

Like the breakthrough hydraulic fracturing technology that was initially funded by the US government, EGS techniques require advanced engineering that – once developed – could have huge ramifications for the US energy industry, much like the Shale Revolution of the past decade. In the meantime, geothermal could create an opportunity for the now-debt-ridden shale industry to use its technical expertise in an area where it is “cool” to frack. Industrial leaders admit that a great deal of overlap exists in technical aspects between the O&G and geothermal sectors. With encouragement from an administration dead set on decarbonization, geothermal may bring good prospects to the gloomy US oil and gas sector.

With assistance from Talya Yuzucu

From Energy in Perfectirishgifts

[aion-rsa]

Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 Episode 3 Review: People of Earth

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This Star Trek: Discovery review contains spoilers.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 3, Episode 3

If you were expecting the Discovery’s return to Earth to become a major plot point in Season 3 of Star Trek: Discovery, then keep guessing. The show makes a clever and unexpected narrative decision by, upon reuniting our wayward travelers with Michael, almost immediately bringing the crew of the Discovery to Starfleet’s (former) home planet, only for them to find very few answers or comforts there. It’s a bold move, one that tells the crew and the viewers that, while Earth may have been at the occasionally-visited anchor of many a Star Trek story before now, it has never been what this show is really about—which is to say: looking outward, towards unknown and unfamiliar stars—and it’s not about to start. In this way and many more, Season 3 of Discovery continues to live up to its ambitious title.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

While the plot of “People of Earth” is about the crew’s return to the birthplace of Starfleet, the heart of this story really lies in the reunion of Michael and the rest of the crew. We begin more or less where last week’s cliffhanger left off, as Michael beams aboard after dropping the bomb that she arrived to the 32nd century a full year before her ship. It’s an emotional reunion and, at first, that joy is simple. It doesn’t matter that the crew hasn’t seen Michael in days while its been a whole year for her. For a little while, all that matters is that they’re together.

Last week, I mildly lamented the fact that Discovery was reuniting Michael with the Discovery so early in the season, but, after seeing how it is playing out, I am totally on board. While Michael may be back with her family, there is also a tension between Michael and the rest of the crew that is fascinating to see play out. It’s not malicious or even volatile in nature, but it is there, complicating that simple joy into something a bit more uncertain. Michael has spent a year having to make choices in this strange place without her crew as support, and even us viewers don’t know quite what that means. But Michael does, and she knows it’s changed her. She knows that, at a certain point, she had to let go of the hope that the Discovery would come in her lifetime just so she could keep on living.

When the Discovery accidentally pores fuel on the fire that is a dispute between Earth and a band of attacking Titan raiders led by someone named Wen, Michael goes rogue (well, with Book) to solve the problem, expecting that Saru will follow her lead and trust her even though she has kept him in the dark about her plans. He does, and it’s another inspiring example of faith in his crew from Captain Saru, but it’s not not a problem. Michael may have spent the last year looking for clues about the fate of the Federation, but she’s been living without the institution of Starfleet around her, without the rules and regulations of a ship and its crew. As she tells Saru, it’s going to take some time before she can remember what it’s like to be part of something like the Discovery again. It’s really moving to see both Tilly and Saru, the two people that Michael is closest to on the Discovery, recognize the changes in their friend and to offer their acknowledgment and patience as she reacclimatizes to life aboard a Starfleet ship.

It’s an especially big ask of Saru who, as the captain of the ship, needs to know he can count on his number one. He already has Emperor Georgiou—who, to her credit, makes no secret of the fact that she will do exactly what she wants to do, regardless of whether it goes against Saru’s plans—to worry about. He can’t afford to also have Michael as a loose cannon. It’s even more impressive that Saru can find it in himself to trust Michael through this, as she has demonstrated herself capable of making the wrong decision before, as she did in the Discovery pilot. But Michael isn’t the same person she was then, and neither is Saru. He has settled into his role as a leader, and it has been inspiring to see him represent a kind of leadership that is similar to Pike’s, but also a brand of captainship all his own. We’ve never had a Star Trek captain quite like him, and I continue to be impressed by Saru’s combination of even-keeled confidence and boundless empathy.

Saru’s choice to trust Michael, both in the heat of a skirmish and in the quiet debrief afterwards, allows the Discovery to play diplomat between Earth and the people of Titan, aka Saturn’s moon. The “B” plot is similar to many we’ve seen before in on Trek television, but it’s none the less powerful for it. Turns out, Wen and his attacking radars are also human, people who were stationed on a research colony on Titan. When there was an accident that took out much of their capability to take care of themselves, they returned to Earth looking for help, only to be fired upon. Since then, they have been raiding Earth as a way to survive, further escalating the war of humanity that Earth ignorantly began.

The Discovery’s involvement allows the people of Titan and the people of Earth to begin peace talks proving that, one ship can do the work of the Federation even when they’re all alone. It’s the kind of institutional functionality we didn’t always see from Discovery even when they were surrounded by Federation support in their home time, and it’s just one more example of how this series has seemingly finally figured out what kind of story it wants to tell: one of hope in the absence of comfort, and bold kindness in the face of nihilism.

In all the hubbub, it can be easy to forget just how much the crew of the Discovery has been through, how much they have lost, but the episode takes the time to give us a scene between Tilly and Michael in which Tilly grieves the loss of her family and friends and everything she has ever known. Tilly doesn’t wish for her life back so much as hopes for some kind of tangible connection to it, proof that it was ever there at all, and she finds it in a tree on the former grounds of Starfleet Academy. The Federation may be gone from Earth, but the tree is still there: a reminder that the Federation was once a beacon of light in the potential darkness of space and time, and that it could be again.

Additional thoughts.

The main subplot in this episode was the introduction of a new character: Adira! They’re very, very smart and, as we learn in the episode’s final moments, also happens to be carrying the Trill symbiont of Admiral Tal, the Discovery’s best lead when it comes to the mystery of the Federation, inside of them. Given the episode-ending reveal, no doubt next week’s episode will dive further into the story of Adira.

Saru is officially captain. <3

Adira was previously announced as Star Trek‘s first non-binary character. Right now, this is character context you will have only if you have read supplementary coverage outside of the text of the show. It is potentially problematic that Adira’s non-binary identity will be conflated with their identity as a Trill, but it has yet to be addressed in the show itself. For now, I reserve judgment.

Still smiling about that reunion hug scene.

As we learn from Michael’s opening montage monologue, 700 years after Discovery jumped through a wormhole, dilithium dried up. The Federation tried alternative warp drive designs, but none of them worked out. The Burn was what followed, and is still an unsolved mystery: in an instant, all dilithium went inert and any ship with an active warp core detonated. It’s hard to imagine the scope of this tragedy, though Michael does tell the crew that millions died.

“Cake is eternal.”

Directed by Jonathan Frakes! Good job, sir. This season continues to be beautiful.

Book and Michael? Yeah, I ship it.

Continuing to side-eye Grudge. (But don’t tell Book.)

Playing fast and loose with the spore drive. Allows Discovery to move across the quadrant much faster than anyone else, which makes them both a target and uniquely situated to solve the mystery of the missing Federation.

I would wear Saru’s sweater tunic.

No sign of Burnham’s mom so far in the 32nd century.

“We didn’t give everything for this version of the future, and I’ll be damned if I let it stand.”

The post Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 Episode 3 Review: People of Earth appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/34Ea1M0

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[juniperpublishers-civileng]

Optimal Pump Scheduling Considering Resetting Reservoir to Minimum Level and Rescheduling due to Pump Maintenance- Juniper Publishers

Abstract

In this paper we consider two pumping stations, one with three pumps that can be run individually or as combinations and the other with one pump as well as daily maximum volume restriction on water to be pumped out. Night electricity tariffs are lower than day tariffs. Each hour has its constant demand except the 7th hour where demand varies, 7th hour demand variation notice is sent a day before by the water customer. Water from these pumping stations is pumped to a high point service reservoir so that pressure level can be maintained on taps. Service reservoir has a capacity of 10000m3 and the water level should not go below 40% full in order to safeguard supplies in the event of burst water and to meet sudden demands such as firefighting. Linear programming is used to determine which pump combination is to be used during which hour as well as developing optimal schedules when any pump is under maintenance

Keywords: Scheduling; Linear programming; Water pumps; Pump maintenance

Abbreviations: IP: Integer Programming; MOEA: Multi-objective Evolutionary Algorithms

Introduction

Significant percentage of energy consumption in the world is used for pumping purposes as a result there is need for pump scheduling with objective of minimizing electricity consumption. Ordan et al. [1] developed a new methodology for optimized real-time operation of a water distribution. The methodology is based on the integration of three models, namely the real-time demand forecasting model, the hydraulic simulation model, and the optimization model. The optimization process is driven by the cost minimization of the energy used for pumping and the maximization of operational reliability. Optimal pump schedules were generated by using a multi-algorithm-genetically-adaptive- method (AMALGAM), they also performed hydraulic simulations using the EPANET2 model. Lansey and Awumah [2] presented a methodology for determining optimal pump operation schedules for water-distribution systems. In addition to minimizing the energy-consumption cost, their model includes a constraint to limit the number of pumps that are switched on during the planning period. They also adopted a two-level approach whereby the system hydraulics are analyzed in an off-line mode to generate simplified hydraulic and cost functions for an on-line model. These functions developed for each pump combination allow for rapid evaluation within a dynamic programming optimization algorithm.

Racca et al. [3] presented a new optimal pumping scheduling model that integrates the evaporation losses from the reservoirs into the optimization algorithm and provides the optimal pumping policy that minimizes both pumping and water costs. Multi-objective Evolutionary Algorithms (MOEAs) were considered to solve an optimal pump-scheduling problem with four objectives to be minimized, thus electric energy cost, maintenance cost, maximum power peak, and level variation in a reservoir [4]. Wang et al. [5] enhanced genetic algorithm for bi-objective pump scheduling in water supply. Hyeong-Seok et al. [6] applied a binary integer program to optimize pumping schedule of a water supply system in Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka based on the hourly water demands for the next day. The water demands were forecasted by a combined model consisting of an autoregressive integrated moving average model and an error compensation routine based on exponential smoothing technique. The result showed that the optimization system could reduce the operation cost of the WSS by minimizing electricity for water-pumping; electricity cost for pump operation could be reduced by 55%. For the past decades, a few forecasting methods have been applied to optimize pumping schedules of WSSs [7]. Genetic algorithm also has been applied for minimization of pumping cost through intermittent water pumping in a WSS [8]. Giacomello et al. considered a hybrid optimization method for effective pump scheduling. They solved the problem by a novel hybrid optimization method that uses linear programing and a greedy algorithm. Naoum-Sawaga et al. [9] proposed new approaches for water pump scheduling and pipe replacement, they also applied a knapsack based heuristic for the leak pipe replacement problem. Jowitt and Germanopolous [10] considered a method based on linear programming for determining optimal schedule of pumping on a 24 hour basis. They considered both unit and maximum demand charge, as well as efficiencies of the available pumps, the structure of the electricity tariff, the customer demand profile, and the hydraulic characteristics and optimization constraints of the network. Sakarya and Mays [11] determined optimal operation of water distribution system pumps with quality considerations. Integer programming (IP) was also applied by Kim et al. [12], Biaszczyk et al. [13] presented the optimal pump scheduling for a large scale water distribution system by applying linear programming to optimize the operating schedule of the pumping system in the Seoul Metropolitan area. They used a multiple regression model to forecast hourly water demands. Bagirov et al. [14] introduced a novel approach for modelling of explicit pump scheduling to minimize energy consumptions by pumps which uses the pump Start/ End run times or continuous variable, and binary integer variables to describe the pump status at the beginning of the scheduling period. Pasha and Lansey [15] linearized pump stations relationships using relationships among energy required, pumping flow, demand factors, tank storage or tank water  levels. They formulated a linear programming model and solved for a single tank system for the optimal pump schedule to minimize energy costs. Bragalli et al. [16] proposed a method to design optimal distribution reservoirs and their operation using non-linear programming. Price and Ostfeld [17] examined problem that includes nonlinear convex headloss, leakages and varying total head pump energy consumption constraints. Savic et al. [18] introduces multi-objective Genetic Algorithms (GAs) for pump scheduling in water supply systems. The two objectives considered were minimization of energy and maintenance costs. Pump switching were introduced as a surrogate measure of maintenance cost. The multi-objective algorithm was compared to the single objective GA, with both techniques improved by using hybridization with a local-search method.

Statement of the Problem

Distribution of potable water requires that water is pumped to reservoir at high point in the system. Pumping uses electricity which has a cost which varies through the day. Considerable saving in electricity costs can be made by choosing when pumping is done but pumping patterns are constrained by the necessity to safeguard supplies. In this case study water is obtained from three different types of source

1. Surface reservoirs,

2. Underground, and

3. Abstraction from rivers.

Water is treated in various ways to make it both safe and acceptable to drink. The treated water is pumped to the reservoir. The service reservoir is situated at high points of the distribution system so that the water pressure is maintained at the taps. Since the service reservoir is at high points of the system it is necessary to pump treated water to this reservoir. Often there are several pumps at the pumping station which are situated at the water treatment works. Various combinations of pumps can be used at the request of the operator. Pumps can be controlled either by switching them on or off. The water companies spend a lot of dollars per annum on electricity of pumping water. Table 1 gives electricity tariff which clearly shows that pumping is cheaper at night than during the day. The flow of water down a pipe is subject to some frictional force from the walls of the pipe which increases at the rate of flow of water increases. Table 2 & 3 gives the power consumption and flow rates for all possible combinations of pumps at Nyamandlovu and Sgodini pumping stations which supplies the Bulawayo reservoir. The Esigodini treatment works can only treat 2000 cubic meters of water per day. The hourly demand for water for the Bulawayo community is given in Table 4. The Bulawayo service reservoir has a capacity of 10000 cubic meters and the water level should not go below 40% full in order to safeguard supplies in the event of burst water and to meet sudden demands such as for firefighting. A pump schedule is a set of instructions to the operator as to when the pumps at a pump station must be switched on and off. A pump schedule is needed that satisfies demand at the minimum costs while satisfying constraints of the water level in the Bulawayo service reservoir. Pump reschedule is also necessary when a certain pump is under maintenance so as to optimally pump water with the available pumps.

A unit cost for every kilowatt hour energy that is used is given in the Table 1.

Sgodini Station has 1 pump (Table 2).

Nyamandlovu Station has three pumps, two of type A and one of type B pump which may be run in any combination given in Table 3 below.

Linear Programming

Linear programming model is modelled in such a way that the solution output indicates minutes in a given hour a pump or pump combination is supposed to be switched on and off during the day and night. The model output is such in a way that it can be used to draw up pump schedules as well as determining the utilization of pumps.

Linear programming model parameters

τ0 —— Hourly cost for using pump (A) during the night

τ1 Hourly cost for using pump (A) during the day

ϵ0 Hourly cost for using pump (B) during the night

ϵ1 Hourly cost for using pump (B) during the day

γ0 Hourly cost for using pump combination (A+B) during the night

γ1 Hourly cost for using pump combination (A+B) during the day

δ0Hourly cost for using pump combination (A+A) during the night

δ1Hourly cost for using pump combination (A+A) during the day

μ0Hourly cost for using pump combination (A+A+B) during the night

μ1Hourly cost for using pump combination (A+A+B) during the day

ρ0Hourly cost for using pump (SGODINI) during the night

ρ1Hourly cost for using pump (SGODINI) during the day

D;KDemand during hour K

Θ Output flow rate of pump j in cubic metres per hour, and j

= Pumps (A,B, A+B, A+A, A+A+B, SGODINI)

p (j) NNK → Pump j at Nyamandlovu, during the Night, during hour K, and j

=Pumps (A,B,A+B,A+A,A+A+B,)

p (j) NDK → Pump j at Nyamandlovu, during the Day, during hour K, and j

=Pumps (A,B,A+B,A+A,A+A+B,)

p (j) SNK → Pump j at Sgodini, during the Night, during hour K, and j=SGODINI pump

p (j) SDK → Pump j at Sgodini, during the Day, during hour K, and j=SGODINI pump

μ Reservoir capacity

® S — SGODINI pumping station capacity

℧ K — Water accumulated at hour K

Linear programming model

Constraint set number 1

Constraint set number 2

Constraint set number 3

Constraint set number 4

Constraint set number 5

Results (Table 5 & 6, Figure 1 & 2)

Table 6 shows how many minutes a pump is supposed to be switched on in any given pumping hour. It is from this table where pump utilization information is taken from. Optimal scheduling cost at different 7th hour demand scenarios are as follows: 1000 cubic meters ($110.16), 1200 cubic meters ($113.36), 1400 cubic meters ($116.56), and 1600 cubic meters ($119.76), 1800 cubic meters ($122.96), and 2000 cubic meters ($126.84).

Utilization of Pump A decreases as demand level increases, this indicates that Pump A is not economic and optimal to use for long time when demand level is high. Sgodini pump utilization level  is uniform even if demand is increasing. Pump combination (A+A) and (A+A+B) increases utilization level as demand increases, this is so because these pump combinations are able to pump high volumes of water to satisfy increasing demand levels as well as minimum reservoir content.

Pump Rescheduling

We assume that at most one pump is under maintenance in any given day. The unavailability of any given pump due to maintenance doesn't only affect the total number of pumps available, but it also reduce the total number of pump combinations to be used. In this case we want to make use of available pump combinations to optimally pump water to Bulawayo reservoir. On the other hand we should bear in mind that we are only supposed to pump water to our customer if and only if we can satisfy the 7th hour demand, thus not violating minimum reservoir level restrictions in the pumping long run.

Assuming that pump B is under maintenance

When pump B is under maintenance, we remain with three pumps to be scheduled, thus pump A, A+A, and Sgodini pump. These pumps when scheduled using linear programming the solution lies within the infeasible region when demand is above 1600 cubic meters (Table 7, Figure 3).

When pump B is under repair, we have three pump combinations to be scheduled thus, Pump A, Pump A+A, and Sgodini pump. These pumps were scheduled in such a way that minimum reservoir content was not violated as well as When Pump B is under repair or maintenance these pumps combinations can only pump a maximum 7th hour demand of 1600 cubic metres. In general when pump B is not working we cannot supply a demand above 1600 when using available pumps. Optimal scheduling cost at different 7th hour demand scenarios are as follows: 1000 cubic meters ($114.65), 1200 cubic meters ($117.85), 1400 cubic meters ($121.76), and 1600 cubic meters ($128.56) (Table 8, Figure 4).

Pump (A+A) utilization factor as demand level increases. When demand level is at 1600 cubic metres pump (A+A) has to work almost throughout the day, with 99.92% utilization, and pump A is utilized for 0.08%, and this implies that pump A is not capable, optimal or economic when demand level increases. Utilization of Sgodini pump is uniform throughout deferent demand levels (50%).

Assuming that sgodini pump is under maintenance

When Sgodini pump is under maintenance, pumps A, B, A+A, A+B, A+A+B are the ones available for rescheduling. The optimal schedule of these pumps cannot supply demand capacity above 1000 cubic meters. The optimal cost for pumping when 7th hour demand is 1000 cubic meters is $144.75 (Table 9 & 10, Figure 5 & 6).

When Sgodini pump is under maintenance we can only supply a minimum and a maximum of 1000 cubic metres. The utilization of pumps are as follows, Pump A (%0.663), Pump B (%0), Pump A+B (%0), Pump A+A (%0) and Pump A+A+B (%99.28). This indicates that Sgodini pump in important pump type when supplying levels of demand more than 1000 cubic metres. On the other hand this reveals that Pump B, Pump A+B, and Pump A+B are dependent of Sgodini pump. When Sgodini pump is under maintenance, any demand level more than 1000 cubic meters lies within the infeasible region.

Assuming that pump A is under maintenance

When pump A is under maintenance, pumps B and Sgodini are the only ones available for rescheduling. The solution for scheduling these pumps lies in the infeasible region. This implies that they are not capable of supplying the 7th hour demand levels.

Conclusion

We have significantly demonstrated how linear programming can be used to optimize pumping costs as well as scheduling 1600 pump combinations. Since we can supply a maximum of cubic meters when pump B is under maintenance, a maximum cubic metres when Sgodini pump is under maintenance, 100 of and a maximum of zero cubic meteres when pump A is under maintenance, this indicates that pump A is very useful to meet cubic meters and more. Pump B is useful 1000 demand levels of cubic metres, 1600 to supply demand level which is more than pump Sgodini is useful for supplying demand level which is more cubic metres. In general if the pumping company needs 1000 than to invest in buying new pumps it has to buy pumps of type A and Sgodini pump type. Furthermore, the results have shown that Pumps (B, A+B, A+A) are not economic or capable when Sgodini pump is under repair, this is evidenced by their utilization of .zero percent when Sgodini pump is under maintenance

For More Open Access Journals Please Click on: Juniper Publishers

Fore More Articles Please Visit: Civil Engineering Research Journal

#Juniper Publishers #Open Access Journals #Civil Engineering #Building and Construction #Composite materials

[paulrennie]

Unpacking my Library • Once Upon a Time in the West • Christopher Frayling • 2019

I can resist anything but temptation...especially in relation to interesting and beautifully designed books. Indeed, I’ve always judged a book by its cover, and I was very happy to buy a copy of Christopher Frayling’s new book about Once Upon a Time in the West. 

We listened to Christopher, a brilliant performer, speak about the film at the NFT last week. Over the years, Christopher has interviewed almost everybody involved in the making of this film, and the new book collects all of this research, along with stories and pictures, into one place. The author is also an expert in the history of the cinema western genre, and in the Italian film industry too. So, the book has both a depth of detail about the film, and a breadth of context.

Actually, that’s just like the film itself.

The book reminded me that I have a big poster for the film.

I’ve posted before about the film, back in 2011...

There are lots of films about the history of the wild west and many of those films include railway trains. Usually, the train is high-jacked or robbed, or chased by Indians. It’s unusual for the railway system to be structurally embedded in the plot; so as to draw out issues of land-grab, profiteering and social progress. This is post about Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).

The western genre has been a staple of the film industry from the very beginning. Of course, it took a view from outside Hollywood to see what “the Western” could be…

The European Western

During the 1960s, the Italian film industry re-invented the American western film. The genre was attractive for a variety of reasons. The first was that, for many Europeans and because of familiarity, the western was widely acknowledged as a quintessentially American form of film storytelling. Secondly, the pared-down circumstances of the American west allowed for a heightened, or operatic, intensity of drama. Finally, the films were attractive to producers in terms of costs because of their relative economy. These films became identified, because of their Italian origins, as spaghetti westerns.

Italian film-makers drew on their familiarity with the western genre to re-cast the western in a more cynical light than their American contemporaries. Film-makers in America had generally mythologised the west in terms of the harsh, but fair, binary moral certainties of biblical teaching.

The ironic re-invention of the genre became a global phenomenon through the success of Sergio Leone’s Dollars Trilogy. Clint Eastwood was cast as the man-with-no-name bounty hunter, Blondie, and was launched toward global superstardom.

The success of these films encouraged the producers to give the director, Sergio Leone, carte blanche for his next project. That project became Once Upon a Time in the West. In the beginning, the film was elaborated by Leone, Dario Argento and Bernardo Bertolucci. The collaboration between these three produced a story with a conceptual and philosophical sophistication that is unusual for cinema. Argento and Bertolucci both went on to have important careers as film directors.

Marx in the West

The story of Once Upon a Time is set against the land-grab associated with the building of the trans-continental railway. So the drama is played out, against the background of money (capital) and technology (the railway and guns) that provides the determining forces for their actions. The foregrounding of these powerful determinants informs the film with a historical, sociological and psychological realism.

In the 1960s, the critical understanding of human behaviour was advanced through the development of social-science methodologies. The revelation, in detail, of the complex workings of modern society was generally understood as informed by Marxist theory and the pop culture sensibility of the Frankfurt School intellectuals. So, the film provides a watershed by acknowledging and foregrounding, in part at least, the complexity of the systems that determine our behaviour.

Every child is familiar with the railway as a system of interconnected mechanical parts. The model railway layout provides for a perfect representation, in miniature and in simplified terms, of the complex original. It was entirely appropriate that the scriptwriters of Once Upon a Time in the West should focus on the railway as signifier of a specific form of social, political and economic organisation.

The Opening (The Train Arrives)

The title sequence of the film is almost half an hour long. Three men, wearing trademark dusters, await the train and form an intimidating welcoming committee. After a long wait, the train arrives. The men are surprised when no one appears. It is only as the train departs that they become aware of the visitor. After some discussion, a gunfight takes place and the newcomer rides away.

The duster coats are recognised as belonging to a local gang. In fact the agents of railway speculator, Morton, wear the coats as a form of disguise. The ruthlessness of Morton is based on a number of personalities associated with the American railway boom and its associated frauds, scandals and mayhem.

The underhand and double-dealing of the railway speculator provides the framework for a film about violence, duplicity, and revenge. 

The duster is a long, loose work coat made of canvas or linen. It was designed to be worn by horsemen and to fit over their normal clothing and to protect it from trail dust. For practical purposes the coat had an exaggerated vent that allowed the coat to be worn comfortably whilst riding. On foot, the coats had a particular flapping gait. In addition the long, loose, coats allowed a variety of guns and weapons to be concealed. Just like the poncho, the coats allowed for the ready and speedy use of firearms. So the flapping duster was associated in the popular imagination, and from its very beginning, with violent and itinerant groups of horsemen.

These specific associations help explain why the duster was rarely seen in the traditional western. The hero, individually isolated, could ride long distances without requiring special clothing except in the most difficult circumstances. Furthermore, the moral integrity of the hero would be fatally compromised by the use of a coat to hide a gun. Lastly, the action of most westerns is played out against the civilised backdrop of town and community. Even the saloon bar setting of many westerns required the protagonists to fight it out in their Sunday best.

At the same time as the first train, and the visitor, is arriving a terrible massacre is occurring. Over at the Sweetwater Ranch, Morton’s gangsters have murdered an entire family, including the children; the McBains. They are gunned down as they prepare to welcome their new stepmother to the home. The arrival of this woman into the family is a sign of better things. After years of struggle and isolation, the railway is coming and the water, at the eponymous Sweetwater, will bring people, wealth and excitement. Sweetwater will become a whole town and community. McBain’s prescience will have been vindicated.

The Ending (The Railway Arrives)

At the end of the film, the railway is shown arriving at Sweetwater. The new Mrs McBain is shown welcoming workers to a feast and with great pitchers of refreshment. So, notwithstanding all the violence and mayhem, the railway is acknowledged to be an instrument of social progress…

The film starred Charles Bronson, Jason Robards and, cast against type, Henry Fonda. The female lead was Claudia Cardinale. The film has a remarkable musical score by Ennio Morricone.

This is my all time favourite film. I’ve watched it many times and I’m still amazed by it. It’s big, and clever, and beautiful. If you watch the film and like it, give Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate (1980) a go.

Supplemental Sunday 21st August 2011

The film is routinely described as “epic.” It’s certainly got big themes played out against the big spaces of the mid-west. Amongst the cruel brutality there are passages of amazing beauty. One of these, my favourite, is the scene when Mrs McBain (Claudia Cardinale) arrives at Flagstone Station. The train pulls up, she gets off, and is a bit surprised that there is no one to meet her (she doesn’t know that the entire McBain family have been murdered). She moves along the platform and arrives at the ticket office. The camera moves vertically over the building to reveal the town beyond.

The whole scene is touched by the terrible pathos of what we know to have happened. The amazing music by Ennio Morricone adds the finishing touch.

I’ve watched the film loads of times and have payed the opening sequence over and over. Even after all these years, and notwithstanding this familiarity, the sequence of Mrs McBain arriving still amazes me. The combination of pathos, sadness, and beauty; all combined in image, movement and music, is heartbreakingly moving.