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firstelevens · 2 years

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by land, by sea, by dirigible (final chapter)

They’d had a neighbor, back when Sam and Sarah were little, who would tell them all sorts of stories when she came over to keep an eye on them: stories about New Orleans before it was New Orleans, about magic imbued in the earth and the many brinks that the city had come back from. She’d told them how New Orleans had its own protectors, always chosen in twos and more powerful than anyone would believe.

Sam wishes, in retrospect, that he’d listened just a little bit better.

Five times that Team Cap crosses paths with the Divine Pairing and one time they don’t.

----

At some point, Ty is going to have to have a word with Tandy about her definition of playing hooky. He’s pretty sure, as he examines a mint plant for damage before setting it in his cart, that this is not what anybody means when they say those words.

Spending a surprise day off picking up plants would not have been Ty’s first choice, but admittedly it’s kind of cute how invested Tandy is in the garden that the kids planned together. Besides, he’s pretty sure that she’s choosing to call this extremely responsible use of time ‘playing hooky’ so she doesn’t have to face up to the fact that she is now a responsible, law-abiding adult with a color-coded calendar. (Ty doesn’t see what’s so bad about having a color-coded calendar in the first place, but then again, he’s the one who color coded it.)

The day hasn’t been a total loss, though: when he told his mom they were going to get plants for the garden, she’d sent him the address of a garden center run by a friend of hers, almost an hour away. Immediately afterwards, she’d sent him the address of a restaurant along the way with award-winning cobbler, and Ty is smart enough to recognize good advice when it’s offered.

They’ve opted for a divide and conquer approach so they can make it to lunch sooner, which is why Tandy is inside discussing bulk discounts on gardening gloves and trowels while Ty is outside inspecting tiny potted herbs.

It’s fairly empty, given that it’s 11 AM on a weekday, which is probably why it’s so easy for Ty to pick up on the familiar voices coming from behind a row of oversized hibiscus plants.

Briefly, Ty wonders if there’s some kind of multiversal crisis happening at the Beaulac Garden Center that brought Captain America there, but then he realizes what they’re talking about.

“-doesn’t matter to me what we plant now,” Sam is saying emphatically, “as long as we don’t do zucchini in the spring. Fuck zucchini. If I never see another zucchini again, I’ll be happy. I swear someone was putting extra ones on the plant every day just to mess with me.”

( read the rest of chapter 6 on AO3 ) | ( start from the beginning )

#sambucky fanfiction #sambucky #by land by sea by dirigible #tyrandy #marvel's cloak and dagger #I FINISHED IT Y'ALL

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torpublishinggroup · 6 months

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Do you hear that??

It’s the sweet, sweet sound of gifts and the necessity of buying them for all of the humans, animals, and unidentified entities in your life. That’s a lot of pressure, but don’t sweat, because we’ve got your back, and more importantly, we’ve got a ton of increasingly niche book recommendations to get you through the holiday season! Check them out here and let us know which ones you’re grabbing in the comments.

by Rachel Taylor and a cat

Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree is for the treasured party member who’s saved your character’s life many times on TTRPG night

We all have That One Amazing Player who has pulled our butts out of the fictional fire on D&D night, and what better way to show your endless appreciation than with the gift of LITERATURE?! High fantasy, secondhand books, and first love–what more could you ask for?

━━ ˖°˖ ☾☆☽ ˖°˖ ━━━━━━━

Masters of Death by Olivie Blake is for the angsty goth who still wishes it was Halloween

So they’re in denial that it’s not Halloween anymore, but guess what?! In the unbroken face of eternity, time has no meaning! Every day is Halloween!

━━ ˖°˖ ☾☆☽ ˖°˖ ━━━━━━━

In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune is for the plucky traveler who’s got the whole world to see

There are many ways to see new and exciting worlds, and TJ Klune always provides queer and cozy adventures that you only need to pick up a book to explore. Consider picking up his latest venture for that friend who’s been bit by the travel bug!

━━ ˖°˖ ☾☆☽ ˖°˖ ━━━━━━━

Ebony Gate by Julia Vee & Ken Bebelle is for the action movie fanatic who owns a cardboard cutout of John Wick

Assassins, dragon magic, and Chinese diaspora urban fantasy set in contemporary San Francisco.

━━ ˖°˖ ☾☆☽ ˖°˖ ━━━━━━━

Book of Night by Holly Black is for the insatiable reader who has way more books to read than hands to hold them

And if you order and submit your receipt before 12/15, you can receive a Book of Night tote bag! Even Charlie Hall needs a safe sling to carry her contraband. Who’s Charlie Hall? A professional thief / bartender who pilfers shadow magic secrets! Read the book!

━━ ˖°˖ ☾☆☽ ˖°˖ ━━━━━━━

T. L. Huchu’s Edinburgh Nights series is for the Supernatural fan who’s looking to expand their fandom across the pond

Ropa dropped out of school to become a ghostalker, but she’s not just carrying messages anymore. You talk to one ghost and suddenly you’re spending late nights in the occult library, solving murders, and following trails of huskified children to their sinister spectral source.

━━ ˖°˖ ☾☆☽ ˖°˖ ━━━━━━━

The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz is for the science-enjoyer in your life who’s looking for environmentally-conscious fiction

This sweeping, uplifting, and illuminating exploration of the future from a science fiction visionary is the perfect gift to give your non-fiction loving, environmentally aware bestie who wants to dip their toe into a more fictional space.

━━ ˖°˖ ☾☆☽ ˖°˖ ━━━━━━━

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson is for fans looking for The Princess Bride vibes but just haven’t quite found them yet

Do you have a Princess Bride superfan in your life? They don’t need another fandom-y Etsy gift this year–they need a book that gives them the same emotional rush they got the first time they laid eyes on the fairytale-inspired glory that is their favorite 1987 classic.

━━ ˖°˖ ☾☆☽ ˖°˖ ━━━━━━━

Everfair by Nisi Shawl is for the history buff in your life who can’t stop thinking about other paths the world might have taken

After being purchased back from the Congo Free State’s colonizer, Everfair becomes a land of fantastic technologies—of spying cats and gulls, nuclear dirigibles buoyed by barkcloth balloons, and silent pistols that shoot poison knives. What happens when these technological advances are brought to bear against Belgian tyrant Leopold II?

That’s Everfair, and then you can read Kinning (on sale 1/23/24) for the continuation of this expansive alternate history.

━━ ˖°˖ ☾☆☽ ˖°˖ ━━━━━━━

The Fragile Threads of Power by V. E. Schwab is for people looking to put a different kind of magic into their holidays

Let’s put the magic into the holidays, shall we? V. E. Schwab returns to The Shades of Magic universe with a whole new series, perfect for readers who loved the original and new fans who want to explore magical alternate universes from in front of a cozy fireplace.

━━ ˖°˖ ☾☆☽ ˖°˖ ━━━━━━━

Shelley Parker-Chan’s Radiant Emperor Duology is for the unhinged danmei consumer who’s looking for their next great read

Do you have someone in your life that consumes danmei like candy? Are they tired of waiting for their new favorite series to be translated so they can add it to their shelves? Do we have the series for you. She Who Became the Sun and He Who Drowned the World explore a stunning reinvention of the Ming Dynasty’s founding emperor. It’s queer, it’s fantastical, and it’s complete! Snag both books in the duology for them now.

━━ ˖°˖ ☾☆☽ ˖°˖ ━━━━━━━

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher is for the friend with an ill-advised yet much-beloved Shrek 2 tattoo

“Better out than in” on the inside of the wrist, Thornhedge open in hand.

━━ ˖°˖ ☾☆☽ ˖°˖ ━━━━━━━

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow is for anyone who has never been disappointed by the combo of Mike Flanagan and a Scary House

Home is where the heart is, and really puts you in a vulnerable position when your house HATES you.

━━ ˖°˖ ☾☆☽ ˖°˖ ━━━━━━━

Starter Villain by John Scalzi is for Megamind

If you’re not Megamind, keep scrolling. Just kidding—this book is also for cat lovers and fans of Despicable Me and The Venture Brothers.

━━ ˖°˖ ☾☆☽ ˖°˖ ━━━━━━━

The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan is for people who loved Season 2 of The Wheel of Time on Amazon Prime

If you have someone in your life that got sucked into the masterpiece that was The Wheel of Time Season 2, don’t worry, you can help them relive the fun with The Great Hunt, the inspiration for the show and the second book in The Wheel of Time series!

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the-elusive-soleil · 5 months

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our tracks untraceable

For @tolkienfamilyweek Day 6: Ancestors and their legacy

All quoted lyrics from "Sons and Daughters" by The Decemberists

---

"When we arrive, sons and daughters," Elros sings under his breath, "we'll make our homes on the water…"

He nearly bumps into Maedhros, who has halted in front of him as they and Elrond and Maglor make their way through the woods. It takes a moment for Maedhros to speak. "Where did you learn that song?" he asks, a little hoarsely.

Elros, confused, says, "Nana sang it to us sometimes…before."

"Ada sang it sometimes, too," Elrond adds. "But the version he knew was in Quenya."

"That makes sense," Maglor says, sounding puzzled. "If it had been passed down through Fingolfin and Turgon… But how would Elwing have known it?"

"She said it was an old family song," Elrond says, just as confused.

***

"We'll build our walls aluminum, we'll fill our mouths with cinnamon," Elwing sings. Music is supposed to be a gift of her family, but she can barely manage this song, words promising a safe and bountiful home, when what they have is this ramshackle haven at the edge of the world.

"These currents pull us 'cross the border," a deeper voice joins in from the doorway. "Steady your boats, arms to shoulder…"

Eärendil enters the twins' room, coming up behind her to slide an arm around her shoulders. "It's a good song," he says quietly, and looks at the babies sleeping in their clumsy bassinet. "Full of hope. They're going to need that."

Then, "I didn't know the Sindar knew that song, though. I thought it was only my family."

Elwing shakes her head. "No, I remember my father singing it…I think."

***

"Take up your arms, sons and daughter," Dior sings, "we will arise from the bunkers…"

He makes sure to sing quietly, not letting his clear tenor carry. These lands are no longer as safe as they were in his own childhood. But he wants to still make this trip as cheerful for his children as possible, under the circumstances.

The circumstances being his grandfather's violent death, and Dior's taking up the kingship.

"Is that one of your Nana's songs?" Elwing asks sleepily. He's carrying her, while the twins walk with Nimloth.

He holds her a little closer. "She did sing it to me, just like this," he says. "And someone else sang it to her before that. All the best songs are like that."

***

"By land, by sea, by dirigible, we'll leave our tracks untraceable now," Lúthien sings playfully, dancing her small son around to the tune and the silly words. It's a good day. Almost every day is a good day on Tol Galen. She has her husband and her son; what more could she want?

"Nana?" Dior interrupts, nose wrinkled, "what's a dirigible?"

Lúthien frowns. "You know, I don't actually know, ion-nin."

"But you know everything. Ada says so."

"Well, that's very sweet of him, but he's not quite right," Lúthien says, tapping his nose affectionately. "It's probably just a made up word. But why don't you ask your grandfather next time you see him? He's the one who taught me the song, so if anyone would know, he would."

***

"When we arrive, sons and daughters," Thingol sings under his breath, "we'll make our lives on the water…"

"What's that song about, Ada?" Lúthien pipes up from where she's skipping at his side. "It's silly. We don't live anywhere near the Sea."

Thingol pauses a moment. He hadn't meant to sing for her to listen to, exactly - it just tends to come out of him wherever he walks a noticeable distance, as they have been this afternoon. But there's no harm in telling her. He just hasn't talked about it much since meeting Melian.

"It's a song from the Journey," he says at length. "Before I met your mother, I and my brother and our people were traveling west to go over the Sea. We sang the song then about what we would find at the end."

"Your brother who went on without you?" Lúthien says inquisitively. She's been going through a phase of being curious about other people's siblings, since she has none of her own. At Thingol's nod of confirmation, she asks, "Do you still miss him?"

His throat suddenly feels thick. "Yes. Yes, I do."

"Did he make up the song?"

"…No." Thingol shakes his head slowly. "It was a…a friend of mine."

***

"We'll build our walls aluminum, we'll fill our mouths with cinnamon…"

"Finwë, what in Arda is that song about?"

Finwë turns and spots his friend Elwë, and grins broadly. "It's to keep our people's spirits up as we travel," he explains. "To take their minds off the hardships of the journey and give them an idea of what awaits us."

Elwë appears to consider this for a moment. "That is all very well," he says, "but why would anyone want to fill their mouth with cinnamon? It is far too strong for such a thing, not to mention the waste."

"Of course it's ridiculous," Finwë agrees readily. "That's the point. There will be so much in Aman, and it will be so safe. It won't matter if we waste things every now and then, or use ridiculous building materials."

Elwë humphs. But he also, a few moments later, says, "Can you teach me the rest of it?"

Finwë can, and does, and soon enough the song rings through the wilderness as both Noldor and Teleri sing in chorus.

***

"When we arrive, sons and daughters…" Atya sings, and then trails off. Fëanáro frowns up at him, not understanding why his father has slowed and is no longer swinging their clasped hands to and fro, why he looks so troubled.

"Atya?" he asks. "What's the matter?"

For a long moment, Atya looks very far away. Then he shakes himself slightly, and looks down at Fëanáro with a smile.

"Nothing to worry about, yonya," he says. "I was just thinking that the song doesn't quite fit us, is all."

Well, of course it doesn't. Fëanáro doesn't have any brothers or sisters; he's Finwë's only son. But that's fine, and the song isn't supposed to be about them anyway - it's about the Great Journey.

"Does it need to?" he says. "We can make up a different one if we need one about us."

That makes Atya smile properly at last. "Maybe so, Náro. Maybe so. But we should find a spot for our picnic first."

***

"Till tides all pull our hull aground, making this cold harbor now home…"

Makalaurë frowns as his father sings under his breath. The song is familiar, but the tone doesn't seem to match it - it's meant to be a happy, excited song, but Atar's making it sound angry and vindictive.

That's pretty much been Atar's sole mood ever since the banishment was announced.

"There!" Atar calls out suddenly, breaking off the song and gesturing up ahead. "That is where we shall build our fortress, the envy of all in Tirion. Curufinwë, with me!"

He sounds more enthusiastic and less bitter than he has in weeks. Perhaps, Makalaurë dares to think as Atar and Curvo ride ahead, this can be a turning point for the better, for all of them.

***

"It's strange that your family would know the song, too," Elros ventures. Elrond knows what he means. They were told for the first six years of their lives that the Fëanorians were monsters, wholly other than them. This odd little point of commonality contrasts sharply with that.

He doesn't want to think too long on that right now, doesn't want to let it pull up all the complicated things between them.

Instead he says, "Perhaps since we do all know it, we can sing it together."

Maedhros looks hesitant. But Maglor, after a moment's hesitation, gives a small nod. "How does it go again? It has been years…we may not remember all of it."

"That's all right, it repeats a lot," Elros shrugs. "Here, I'll start--"

And they continue on through the woods, singing quietly so as not to attract unfriendly attention, but all in tune together.

"Hear all the bombs fade away, hear all the bombs fade away, hear all the bombs fade away…"

#tolkienfamilyweek #silmarillion #elros #elrond #maedhros #maglor #elwing #earendil #dior #luthien #thingol #finwe #feanor #songs that get passed down and reinterpreted differently in different circumstances #the family that sings together stays together #one can only hope

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sesamestreep · 1 year

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I started making a fake book cover for @firstelevens latest amazing fic sugar pie, honey bunch and then I got kind of obsessed with making book covers in Canva, so I decided to make covers for a few more of my favorite sambucky fics of hers to show my appreciation for her writing keeping me sane the last few months ♥️

by land, by sea, by dirigible [18K words, 6 chapters, complete] - Sam and Bucky team up with the dynamic duo from Marvel's Cloak & Dagger (RIP) and magic, literally, ensues. 🔮⚜️

sugar pie, honey bunch [AU, 55K words, 17 chapters, complete] - the plot of TFATWS except it's behind the scene of an all-star season of The Great British American Bake Off. Alliances are formed, conspiracy theories come to life on twitter, and whisks (and hearts!) are stolen. 🥐💖

a friend of any sort [AU, 3K words, 2 chapters, Part 1 in a series, complete] - Sam needs a fake date for Thanksgiving at his sister's and brings Bucky along to be the most unsuitable, obnoxious boyfriend ever, so his family will leave him alone about being single. Things do not go to plan. 🥧🦃

you can sing me anything [AU, 4K words, 1 chapter, Part 2 in a series, complete] - sequel to a friend of any sort, in which Bucky needs Sam to return the favor and pretend to be his boyfriend to get him out of an awkward situation (and into a better, but still kind of awkward situation). ☕😻

#not a graphic designer by ANY means #i'm paying for canva pro as part of my job hunt and i have decided to try to use it for joyous things too #and not just resume stuff which is soul sucking #anyway we like to have fun here at birdhapley incorporated and that includes making weird art for our friends #check out zainab's writing she's so talented and cool she deserves all the praise and flowers #and zainab congrats on completing the bakeoff AU it's a masterpiece and you are the GOAT #alsooooo if anyone has any snarky comments about canva book covers keep them to yourself 🥰 i'm a beginner and I'm having fun #their app is so annoying though that to download these I had to screenshot them #because when i downloaded the actual PNG files they were all fucked up #if anything looks wonky that's why #fic rec #fanart #(right?? technically??)#sambucky #tfatws #cloak and dagger #mutuals admiration society #firstelevens

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bulkyphrase · 8 months

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Gen Fic Friday

This week's rec is a very sweet story about several Lokis and Thor.

by land, by sea, by dirigible by iguessyouregonnamissthepantyraid (@iguessyouregonnamissthepantyraid) (Teen And Up Audiences, 11,820 words)

Summary: “I suppose that’s one good thing, at least.” The child’s hums mid-drink. “Hm?” “The branched timelines,” Loki clarifies. “There’s certainly one out there where he never gets pruned at all. Maybe he gets off the planet he isolated himself on, and he makes it back to… wherever his brother is.” The child scoffs. “Yeah, it’ll only take a couple thousand years.” Loki pauses. It’s not so much an idea, really, just an inkling. At least until he takes the TemPad out of his pocket, staring down at the little device and tapping his fingers against it as he thinks. He’d only brought it as a means of escape, should he ever gather his strength enough to be willing to head back to the TVA and fix any of this, but… “Well, maybe not.” (Or, Loki and Kid Loki decide to honor the old man by giving him a better future. It ends up being exactly what they both needed.)

For older gen fic recs, see the Gen Fic Friday Masterpost

#gen fic friday #loki #kid loki #classic loki #thor odinson #marvel fic rec

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urlbending · 1 year

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2022 Year End Fic Review

in the words of a very ancient internet joke, better nate than lever!!

1. What is your AO3 account?

My ao3 is lookatallthemoresigive, because that was my tumblr url at the time i created my ao3. I desperately need to change it but I'm having trouble coming up with a new one and am worried if i switch I'll lose brand recognition, which is hilarious bc my MO is to write a fic or two for a fandom and then bounce

2. How many words did you write total in 2022?

I wrote 8,487 published words, but i have at least 7k unpublished. There is a very long rangshi capture the avatar au that been languishing in my drafts for over six months that im hoping to finish up and post this year. I am not a particularly fast writer because i obsess over every word i use, but I've found that with practice im getting faster and better at writing more

3. How many fics did you publish in 2022? How many multichapters vs oneshots?

I published 4, which is about my usual (a couple of random scattered fics + yuletide). They're all oneshots of varying length. My new years resolution is to write 5 fics this year!! I'm holding myself to it. One day I'll write a complete multi-chapter fic, but it's not currently in the cards.

4. What was your longest fic? Your shortest fic?

Longest: a kyoshi novels fic about hei-ran, 바늘 구멍으로 하늘 보기

4,441 words that i agonized over, including the title. I'm super proud of this fic.

Shortest: your hair never falls in quite the same way, a locked tomb missing scene fic clocking in at 890 words.

I honestly had a pretty quick turnaround time writing this one. After i had a lovely and overwhelming response to a rangshi drabble in 2021, I've been trying to be better about posting fics regardless of their length. Sometimes, hitting 1k or even 500 words is not necessary to tell a story

5. What was your most popular fic? Your least popular fic?

Most popular: kiss you too hard and follow you west another quick turnaround, this is a rangshi fluff fic so i’m not surprised

Least popular: Shinrin-Yoku, my gen character study yuletide fic for a video game that came out in 2020. I'm not losing any sleep over it. Its currently at a 15% kudos to hits ratio which good!

6. What fic didn’t perform as well as you thought it would?

Listen, I died on some weird hills last year (the love interest’s mom needs more of a backstory!!!!), so any response is a good response. I guess I was secretly hoping your hair never falls would usher in an era of camilla/nona fics bc i was certain it was going to be a thing, but the book came out and crushed those dreams. I still maintain nona had a crush on cam!!

7. What fic performed way better than you thought it would?

바늘 구멍으로 하늘 보기 because as I mentioned above, it was a character centric fic focused on a minor character. glad the kyoshi novels fandom appreciates milfs!

8. What was your favorite fic you wrote from 2022?

This is turning into a whole arc. I love the nona fic dearly, it makes me happy every time i read it, but im so proud i pulled off that hei-ran fic. Writing a character arc is not easy or as instantly gratifying as making two characters kiss. I knew I was pouring my heart (research into ancient Korean tea ceremonies for half a scene! Politics! Asking @funnefatale to bug fandom friends for Korean sayings for me!) into a work that simply might not be received. Also, I finally came out to my mom around the time i was writing this for unrelated reasons, and this fic reminds me of that 💕

9. What was your favorite fic that somebody else wrote in 2022?

by land, by sea, by dirigible, @firstelevens' amazing c&d/tfatws fic which gave me everything i needed for BOTH shows. A two for one, can you believe!!

falling (for you) like snow on christmas, a warrior nun ava/bea hallmark au. I watched a lot of hallmark type christmas movies last year, and this fic delivered on the coziness these movies provide and the chemistry they usually don't. Also, it relased daily during the week leading up to christmas, corresponding to the days in the chapters, which was super fun to experience in real time.

10. Tag your friends to do this year-end fic review as well!

@funnefatale @isabrella and anyone else who wants to do this meme!

#thanks for the tag Zainab 💕#je converse #fic year in review #the best fic i read in 2022 was unsentimental by foxbones #so damn good #but it was published on 2021

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bobmccullochny · 10 months

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History

July 16, 1769 - San Diego was founded as the mission San Diego de Alcala by Father Junipero Serra.

July 16, 1945 - The experimental Atomic bomb "Fat Boy" was set off at 5:30 a.m. in the desert of New Mexico desert, creating a mushroom cloud rising 41,000 ft. The bomb emitted heat three times the temperature of the interior of the sun and wiped out all plant and animal life within a mile.

July 16, 1969 - The Apollo 11 Lunar landing mission began with a liftoff from Kennedy Space Center at 9:37 a.m.

July 16, 1999 - A small plane piloted by John F. Kennedy Jr. took off at 8:38 p.m. from Fairfield, New Jersey, heading toward Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. His wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and her sister Lauren were passengers on the 200 mile trip. The plane was expected to arrive about 10 p.m. but disappeared off radar at 9:40 p.m. Five days later, July 21, following an extensive search, the bodies were recovered from the plane wreckage in 116 feet of water roughly 7 miles off Martha's Vineyard. The next day, following an autopsy, the cremated remains of John F. Kennedy, 38, his wife Carolyn, 33, and her sister Lauren, 34, were scattered at sea from a U.S. Navy ship, with family members present, not far from where the plane had crashed.

Birthday - British portrait painter Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) was born in Plympton, Devon, England.

Birthday - Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910) was born near Concord, New Hampshire.

Birthday - African American journalist and anti-lynching crusader Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) was born to slaves at Holly Springs, Missouri. Following the Civil War, as lynchings became prevalent, Wells traveled extensively, founding anti-lynching societies and black women's clubs.

Birthday - Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen (1872-1928) was born near Oslo. He was the first to sail from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean via the Northwest Passage. He discovered the South Pole in 1911 and flew over the North Pole in a dirigible in 1926. In June 1928, he flew from Norway to rescue survivors of an Italian Arctic expedition, but his plane vanished.

#Todays smile

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brookstonalmanac · 10 months

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Events after 1900 7.6

1917 – World War I: Arabian troops led by T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia") and Auda ibu Tayi capture Aqaba from the Ottoman Empire during the Arab Revolt. 1919 – The British dirigible R34 lands in New York, completing the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by an airship. 1933 – The first Major League Baseball All-Star Game is played in Chicago's Comiskey Park. The American League defeated the National League 4–2. 1936 – A major breach of the Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal in England sends millions of gallons of water cascading 200 feet (61 m) into the River Irwell. 1937 – Spanish Civil War: Battle of Brunete: The battle begins with Spanish Republican troops going on the offensive against the Nationalists to relieve pressure on Madrid. 1940 – Story Bridge, a major landmark in Brisbane, as well as Australia's longest cantilever bridge is formally opened. 1941 – World War II: The German army launches its offensive to encircle several Soviet armies near Smolensk. 1942 – Anne Frank and her family go into hiding in the "Secret Annexe" above her father's office in an Amsterdam warehouse. 1944 – Jackie Robinson refuses to move to the back of a bus, leading to a court-martial. 1944 – The Hartford circus fire, one of America's worst fire disasters, kills approximately 168 people and injures over 700 in Hartford, Connecticut. 1947 – Referendum held in Sylhet to decide its fate in the Partition of India. 1947 – The AK-47 goes into production in the Soviet Union. 1957 – Althea Gibson wins the Wimbledon championships, becoming the first black athlete to do so. 1957 – John Lennon and Paul McCartney meet for the first time, as teenagers at Woolton Fete, three years before forming the Beatles. 1962 – As a part of Operation Plowshare, the Sedan nuclear test takes place. 1962 – The Late Late Show, the world's longest-running chat show by the same broadcaster, airs on RTÉ One for the first time. 1964 – Malawi declares its independence from the United Kingdom. 1966 – Malawi becomes a republic, with Hastings Banda as its first President. 1975 – The Comoros declares independence from France. 1982 – While attempting to return to Sheremetyevo International Airport, an Ilyushin Il-62 operating as Aeroflot Flight 411 crashes near Mendeleyevo, Moscow Oblast, killing all 90 people on board. 1988 – The Piper Alpha drilling platform in the North Sea is destroyed by explosions and fires. One hundred sixty-seven oil workers are killed, making it the world's worst offshore oil disaster in terms of direct loss of life. 1989 – The Tel Aviv–Jerusalem bus 405 suicide attack: Sixteen bus passengers are killed when a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad took control of the bus and drove it over a cliff. 1996 – A McDonnell Douglas MD-88 operating as Delta Air Lines Flight 1288 experiences a turbine engine failure during takeoff from Pensacola International Airport, killing two and injuring five of the 147 people on board. 1997 – The Troubles: In response to the Drumcree dispute, five days of mass protests, riots and gun battles begin in Irish nationalist districts of Northern Ireland. 1998 – Hong Kong International Airport opens in Chek Lap Kok, Hong Kong, replacing Kai Tak Airport as the city's international airport. 2003 – The 70-metre Yevpatoria Planetary Radar sends a METI message (Cosmic Call 2) to five stars: Hip 4872, HD 245409, 55 Cancri (HD 75732), HD 10307 and 47 Ursae Majoris (HD 95128). The messages will arrive to these stars in 2036, 2040, 2044, and 2049, respectively. 2006 – The Nathu La pass between India and China, sealed during the Sino-Indian War, re-opens for trade after 44 years. 2013 – At least 42 people are killed in a shooting at a school in Yobe State, Nigeria. 2013 – A Boeing 777 operating as Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashes at San Francisco International Airport, killing three and injuring 181 of the 307 people on board. 2022 – The Georgia Guidestones, a monument in the United States, are heavily damaged in a bombing, and are dismantled later the same day.

#Events

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broomclosetbrew · 1 year

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Pouring out a glass of Eagle Rare and smoking a Gurkha Heritage. .... Raising a glass to the OG Pterodactyl of the USCG. Naval aviator number 38 and Coast Guard aviator number 1, Commander Elmer F. Stone who born January 22, 1887. I know im a couple of days early. Stone developed Coast Guard Aviation. He worked with the Curtiss Flying School on experimental flying boats pioneering the use of aircraft for at-sea search-and-rescue. He flew scout and search missions for the USRC Onondaga before he attended Navy flight school. He was one of two pilots to successfully fly the NC-4, the first plane to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. He helped develop arrestor gear and catapults for use aboard aircraft carriers. He commanded a destroyer during Prohibition and USCG Aviation Unit Cape May where he was the only pilot willing to land in heavy seas in an attempt to rescue the crew of the Navy dirigible Akron. Launching into 40 knt winds and heavy seas that held back other rescue craft he landed on the open ocean to recover the bodies of two Akron crewmen. He broke the world seaplane speed record in 1934 with a speed of 191 mph. He died on duty of a heart attack while he was inspecting new aircraft as the commanding officer of USCG Air Patrol Detachment San Diego. .... "It was the least I could do" - then LCDR Elmer Stone on why he launched into a storm to attempt the rescue of the Akron. .... #cigar #CigarLover #CigarAfficionado #cigarphoto #cigarsnob #cigarlife #cigarsmoke #pssita #sailorandsticks #cigarsandwhiskey #TapThatAsh #whiskey #bourbon #eaglerare #whiskeylife #WhiskeyNeat #whiskeyphoto #whiskeygram #WhiskeyAfficionado #whiskeyandhistory #quote #quotestagram #uscg #uscoastguard #flyuscg (at Coastal San Pedro) https://www.instagram.com/p/CnqkSogr4X_/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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cuewulfir · 2 years

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lyric doodle for @moofbat : song no. 27 and jonnit!

Sons and Daughters, the Decemberists

Take up your arms Sons and daughters We will arise from the bunkers By land, by sea, by dirigible We'll leave our tracks untraceable now

[ID: fanart of jonnit from skyjacks, showing him from the waist up. he is drawn in ochre red on a black background. in front of him is a shaky pattern of interconnected golden lines that move away from him, originating at an eye that hovers in front of his forehead. he holds up one hand to the lines. the words "we leave our tracks untraceable now", a line from ‘sons and daughters’ by the decemberists, is written in gold ink on the drawing around him. end ID.]

#please ignore the fact that i got the lyrics slightly wrong :pensive:#also i went back and forth on the colours for this SO MANY TIMES #colours my beloathed and also at the same time my beloved #It's Complicated tm #skyjacks #campaign skyjacks #campaign podcast #skyjacks fanart #jonnit kessler #my art #doodle requests

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firstelevens · 2 years

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by land, by sea, by dirigible (chapter four)

Sam wishes, in retrospect, that he’d listened just a little bit better.

Five times that Team Cap crosses paths with the Divine Pairing and one time they don’t.

----

There’s still a week left before Sam can fly again and he’s feeling every second of it, energy coursing through his veins with absolutely nowhere to go. He does everything he can to keep busy: reads books, repairs porch rails, takes apart and reassembles three alarm clocks and a toaster.

When that doesn’t work as a distraction, he does a brief stint as Sarah’s prep cook, chopping vegetables and clearing away the mess so she doesn’t have to. It comes to a dramatic end when she threatens him with bodily harm if he comes anywhere near her sauce with the lemon zest that he keeps insisting it needs. Sam decides, for once, not to take the unnecessary risk and escapes into the backyard instead.

The early evening sky is comforting in its familiarity, even if it’s further out of reach than usual, and Sam tips his head back to admire the way the oranges and pinks have spread into the blue. He’s distracted enough that he doesn’t notice the soccer ball coming his way until it thwacks against his good arm.

When he turns to glare at the culprit, Bucky is looking innocently back, hands in his pockets and about three seconds from batting those eyelashes at him. Sam tries his best to look unimpressed, chips the ball up with his foot, and catches it one-handed.

“Pretty good form, for someone who offended AJ by getting Ronaldo’s name wrong yesterday,” says Bucky.

Sam’s not sure whether the warmth it brings to his cheeks is from embarrassment over yesterday’s slip-up or something else, sparked by the less than subtle once-over that Bucky gives him along with the compliment. He decides not to think too hard about it.

“Have you really got nothing better to do than hassle me?” he asks instead, throwing the soccer ball back. “I’m sure there’s some fish around here that need gutting; I could ask Sarah.”

( chapter 4 on AO3 ) | ( start from the beginning )

#turned the domestic superhero content dial to eleven and then broke it off for good measure #sambucky fanfiction #tyrandy #sambucky #marvel's cloak and dagger #by land by sea by dirigible #sam x bucky #tyrone x tandy

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thelightofthingshopedfor · 3 years

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a couple weeks ago somebody on r/MarvelFanfiction asked for IW/Endgame time-travel fix-it fics that don’t hate on Steve and/or the rest of Team Cap, and I pulled a few good ones--all Loki-centric, of course--from my bookmarks list. it only occurred to me today that hey, I might as well share them here too, plus tags if I happen to know the author’s Tumblr.

If I Could Start Again: gen, IW!Thor uses the Time Stone and wakes up in the body of his younger self, way back on the night of his botched coronation; WIP but it's already pretty long; by @taaroko

Undying: gen, Thanos kills Thor instead of Loki, obviously Loki has to fix it; by @iguessyouregonnamissthepantyraid

Revival: gen, another one where Thor uses the Time Stone

The Price: Thorki, rated E; Thor brings Loki back, but fixing everything else might mean losing him again

Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust: Frostiron, post-apocalyptic AU with a time-travel solution eventually, written in 2014 so it's not actually about IW/Endgame specifically but the general concept is actually pretty similar

by land, by sea, by dirigible: gen, takes place immediately after the Loki show; not about preventing anything, but Loki takes advantage of the brand-new multiverse to reunite at least one timeline's Thor with his Loki; also by @iguessyouregonnamissthepantyraid

Withering Away: gen; Thor agrees to help with the Time Heist on the condition that he can get the Tesseract and Loki from the Statesman; by @galaxythreads

the nine in the tree: gen; not necessarily focused on time travel as a way to fix IW/Endgame because the canon divergence starts earlier, but it does feature a bit of time travel and it has Thor and Loki taking refuge with Team Cap for a while; by @bereft-of-frogs

under bright stars burning: Steve/Loki, by me, and it...sort of qualifies? I wrote it for @veliseraptor in 2016 so it doesn't have anything to do with IW/Endgame, and the time travel was just an excuse for Steve and Loki to sorta-kinda grow up together, but it's the type of Avengers AU that could potentially prevent IW/Endgame from happening in the first place (edited to add this because it only just occurred to me and I had to make a new comment on the Reddit post whoops)

I could swear @gaslightgallows and @veliseraptor wrote at least one time-travel fix-it each as well, but I couldn’t find anything when I looked. for that matter I’m almost certain there are others I’ve read and liked that would qualify, but I guess either that was before I got smart about bookmarking every fic I liked, or they weren’t tagged “time travel” so I didn’t find them when I was specifically looking.

#fanfic #marvel cinematic universe #loki #thor #steve rogers #fic rec

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hiveswap · 2 years

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Mr Sandman Man me a sand

A c!Wilbur playlist

[Link]

1. Welly Boots - The Amazing Devil

["How could you leave me here?, " you'll scream / And louder, I'll scream back to you from that unknown / And say, "I know you're strong enough, I know you're strong enough]

3. Wires - The neighbourhood

[If he said "help me kill the president"/ I'd say he needs medicine / Sick of screaming "let us in" / The wires got the best of him]

4. For The Departed - Shayfer James

[Now I must finish what I started / oh-oh I'll write a symphony for the departed / And I have no time for second chances / So I survive on bourbon, blood, and backward glances, oh]

5. Where We belong - Shayfer James

[And on the way to our salvation, we'll be making plans / To overthrow the king and pick apart the promised lands]

6. Twin Skeletons - Fall out boy

[ Hit it never quit it I have been through the wreck But I can string enough to show my face in the light of day]

7. Welcome Home - Radical Face

[Heal the scars from off my back / I don't need them anymore / You can throw them out or keep them in your mason jars]

8. Eight - Sleeping at last

[I'm standing guard, I'm falling apart / And all I want is to trust you / Show me how to lay my sword down /For long enough to let you through]

9. I know those eyes/this man is dead - Count of Monte Cristo Musical

[This man is dead, he is no more He died a little each day Like a thief, the Château d'If has stolen him away]

10. Self Esteem -AJJ

[This place has taken all my self-esteem / And everybody is afraid of me / And I can't make eye contact with anyone I see]

11. Sons & Daughters - The decemberists

[Take up your arm Sons and daughters / We will arise from the bunkers / By land, by sea, by dirigible / We'll leave our tracks untraceable now]

12. Winter is Blue - Vashti Bunyan

[Why must I stay here / Rain comes I'm sitting here / Watching love moving / Away into yesterday]

13. The Path - Phemiec

[So when the light catches blade/ When the time comes, do not be afraid /Follow the path we've made]

14. Us - Regina Spektor

[They'll name a city after us / And later say it's all our fault / Then they'll give us a talking to / Then they'll give us a talking to / 'Cause they've got years of experience]

#dream smp #wilbur soot #l'manburg #nov 16th #jenna rambles

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aiweirdness · 4 years

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How to begin a novel

Last year for National Novel Writing Month I trained a neural net called torch-rnn on 10,096 unique ways to begin a novel. It came up with some intriguing possibilities, my personal favorite being “I am forced to write to my neighbors about the beast.” But many of its sentences used made-up words, or had such weird grammar that they were difficult to read, or meandered too erratically. (“The first day of the world was born in the year 1985, in an old side of the world, and the air of the old sky of lemon and waves and berries.”) The neural net was struggling to write more than a few words at a time.

This year, I decided to revisit this dataset with a larger, more-powerful neural net called GPT-2. Unlike most of the neural nets that came earlier, GPT-2 can write entire essays with readable sentences that stay mostly on topic (even if it has a tendency to lose its train of thought or get very weird). I trained the largest size that was easily fine-tunable via GPT-2-simple, the 355M size of GPT-2. Would a more-powerful neural net produce better first lines?

One of the parameters I can tweak when I’m getting a trained neural net to generate text is temperature - this controls whether the neural net chooses the most likely next bit of text as it writes, or whether it’s permitted to use its less-likely predictions. At a default of 0.7, a relatively conservative temperature, the neural net’s first lines not only make grammatical sense, but they even have the rhythm of a novel’s first line. This is DRAMATICALLY better than torch-rnn did.

I am, or was.

At the mid-day meal the sun began to set and the quiet dragged on.

There was once a man who lived for a very long time; perhaps three thousand years, or perhaps a thousand million years, maybe a trillion or so, depending on how the scientists look at it.

He had the heart of a lion, and the fangs of a man-eater.

"I am Eilie, and I am here to kill the world."

The old woman was sitting on a rock near the sea, smoking a pipe.

I have just been informed, that the debate over the question 'is it right or wrong to have immortal souls' has been finally brought to a conclusion.

When I was a boy, I was fond of the story of the pirate god.

He had a strange name, and he was a very big boy indeed.

The purple-haired woman came to the clearing in the plain, and without looking up from her book, said, "It's too late to be thinking about baby names."

The village of Pembrokeshire, in the county of Mersey, lies on a wide, happy plain, which, in a few years, was to become known as the "Land of the Endless Mountains."

I don’t think the neural net plagiarized any of these? They are so good that I’m suspicious. But others of the neural net’s lines are even weirder, yet in an effective way that opens with an intriguing premise.

The moon had gone out.

I was playing with my dog, Mark the brown Labrador, and I had forgotten that I was also playing with a dead man.

The black stone was aching from the rain.

The short, dirty, and dirty-looking ship that weighed three tons and was three feet in diameter landed on a desolate and green plain.

How many times have I had the misfortune to die?

The first black dog in the park had been captured alive.

Behold the Sky Rabbits!

In the belly of the great beast that was the bovine Aurore there lived, upon the right hand of the throne, the Empress Penelope; and she had, as it were, a heart of gold.

The moon stood on its own two feet.

The reeking maw of the blood-drunk ship, the enemy's flagship, was silent and empty.

The first day I met my future self, I was aboard the old dirigible that lay in wait for me on the far side of the moon.

The child of two cats, and a tiger, a clown, a horse, a bird, a ship, and a dragon, stood on either side of the threshold of the Gatehouse, watching the throng of travelers who came in from all around the world, before he had any idea what was going on.

I think it’s probably doing this accidentally, stringing likely words and phrases together without understanding what any of them really mean. It’s not that it’s good at science fiction or magical realism; it’s that it’s trying and failing to predict what would have fit in with the usual human-written stuff. Some of the neural net’s first lines really betray its lack of the understanding of the laws of physics. It really likes to describe the weather, but it doesn’t really understand how weather works. Or other things, really.

The moon was low in the sky, as though it had been shipped in from the farthest reaches of the solar system.

The first star I saw was a blue one, which became a scarlet one, and then a gold one, and green, and finally a yellow one, which for some years afterwards seemed to be an ebony one, or even a bubbling mass.

The sun rose slowly, like a mighty black cat, and then sank into a state of deep sleep.

The sea of stars was filled with the serenity of a million little birds.

The great blue field was all white, swept away by the blue-gold breeze that blew from the south.

The sky was cold and dark, and the cold wind, if it had not been for the clouds, would have lashed the children to the roof of the house.

The morning sun was shining brightly, but the sky was grey and the clouds aching.

The night that he finally made up his mind to kill the dog, the man was walking home from the store with his wife and child in the back seat.

Arthur the lion had been pretty much extinct for some time, until the time when he was petted by Abernathy the old woman, and her son, Mr. Popp.

One of the disadvantages of having a neural net that can string together a grammatical sentence is that its sentences now can begin to be terrible in a more-human sense, rather than merely incomprehensible. It ventures into the realm of the awful simile, or the mindnumbingly repetitive, and it makes a decent stab at the 19th century style of bombastic wordiness. I selected the examples above for uncomprehending brilliance but the utter tediousness below is more the norm.

The whites of my eyes shimmered, as if my mind were dancing.

I once went to a party where the dress code was as strict as a chicken coop with no leggings and no boots.

A black cloud drifted by, a mottled mass of hydrogen, a black cloud of hydrogen, with the definite characteristic of being black.

I say I am at sea, because I am standing upon the ocean, and look out across the barren, vast throng of the sea.

It is, of course, a trifling matter in the ordinary course of things, if a certain writer were to write a novel, which is a book of stories, which is a book of characters, wherein every detail of the story is stated, together with a brief description of the theme which it concerns.

There was a boy with blue eyes, with sandy hair and blue eyes that looked at all times like he had been pushed through a million compartments.

The Sun, with its rolling shaft of bright light, the brilliant blue of the distant golden sun, and the red glow of its waning corona, was shining.

The man who was not Jack the Ripper had been promoted four times in the last two years.

Felix the Paw was sitting at the table of his favorite restaurant, the "Bordeaux" in the town of Bordeaux, when his father, Cincinnata, came in to say good-by to the restaurant.

It, sir, gives me the greatest pleasure to hear that the Court be not too long in passing away: but that I may have leisure to prepare a new work for the publication of my friend and colleague, the renowned Epistemology, which is now finished; and in which I shall endeavour to show, that this very point is of the highest importance in the subject of the philosophy which I am about to treat of.

It was a rainy, drizzling day in the summer of 1869 and the people of New York, who had become accustomed to the warm, kissable air of the city, were having another bad one.

Repetitiveness is also common, especially at this conservative temperature setting. Once the neural net gets itself into a repetitive state, it doesn’t seem to rescue itself - it’s a problem that people have noticed in several versions of this algorithm. (It doesn’t help that I forgot to scrub the “title” that someone submitted to the dataset that consists of the word “sand” repeated 2,000 times)

The sky was blue and the stars were blue and the sun was blue and the water was blue and the clouds were blue and the blue sky was like a piece of glass.

At the end of the world, where the tides burst upon the drowned, there exists a land of dragons, of dragons, which is the land of the dragons.

It's the end of the world, it's the end of the world, it's the end of the world, it's the end of the world, it's the end of the world, you're dead.

There was once a land of sand, and sand, sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand

Increasing the temperature of the sampling would help the repetitiveness problem, in theory, letting the neural net venture into more interesting territory. But at a temperature of 1.0 the text tends to venture out of everyday surrealism and into wordy yet distractible incomprehensibility.

The praying mules on the top of the hills sounded the final klaxon, lifting their spiked front hoofs as they crept the last few feet of desert landscape past the crest of the enormous swathe of prehistoric sand.

In the glen of the Loch is a ladder that winds way up through a passage to a ledge with soft, moss-laden environmental standards.

Someone whipped a dead squash gibbet across the room, like some formidable war lord unleashing a heavy hunk of silver at home.

One blue eyed child stood up and cried out: "Douay, saurines, my Uncle – Fanny Pemble the loader!"

Jud - an elderly despot, or queen in emopheles, was sitting across the table from the king, looking very thoughtfully into the perplexions of the proceedings.

Oh, you're a coward little fool, as if you couldn't bear to leer at a Prunker or white-clad bodyguard quickly emerging from a shady, storm-damaged area of the city.

Hanging presently in his little bell-bottomed chamber on the landing-house, early in the morning, the iron traveler sat on a broad-blonde sandbricksannel blanket outside the gate of a vast and ancient island.

Long, glowing tongues trailed from your mouth as you listened to what was being said across this kingdom of ours, but growing a little more somber since the week that caused us to proclaim general war.

The night I first met Winnie the Pooh, I had sat in the Tasting-House and heard the Chef unpack the last of the poison upon his quiet dinnertable.

There is, of course, no perfect setting at which the neural net churns out sensible yet non-repetitive first lines. There are just varying shades of general awfulness, interspersed with accidental brilliance.

No matter how much you’re struggling with your novel, at least you can take comfort in the fact that AI is struggling even more.

I generated all the neural net sentences above using a generic “It” as the prompt that the neural net had to build on (it would usually go on to generate another 20-30 sentences at a time). But although the sentences are independent in my training data, GPT-2 is used to large blocks of text that go together. The result is if I prompt it instead with, say, a line from Harry Potter fanfic, the neural net will tend to stick with that vein for a while. I've included a few examples as bonus content for subscribers.

Update: I now have a few thousand unfiltered examples of neural net-generated first lines at the GitHub repository where I have the original crowdsourced dataset. Themes include: Harry Potter, Victorian, My Little Pony, and Ancient Gods.

My book on AI is out, and, you can now get it any of these several ways! Amazon - Barnes & Noble - Indiebound - Tattered Cover - Powell’s

#neural networks #you look like a thing #nanowrimo #gpt-2 #writing #first lines #gpt-2-355m

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eruditio-et-doctrina · 3 years

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Genghis Khan, a fierce reign, a renowned warrior

Since the dawn of mankind, numerous empires have conquered immense lands, devastated countries and their people, and acquired a name, which was synonymous of carnage and apprehension. However, none of them achieved the level of might and success such as the Mongol Empire. Indeed, during the 13th and 14th century, a ridiculously vast amount of territory was dominated by it, representing the largest contiguous land empire of all time.

Stretching from Eastern Europe, while possessing several Central Europe locations, to the Sea of Japan, one cannot help but gape in awe in front of the manpower capable of such colonization. As impressive as such military force might be, it is also important to consider the fact that the Mongol Empire did not always mean power, prestige and fear. A man, known for his irreplaceable leader qualities and ferocity, managed to start a new, revolutionary era for the Mongols. May it be by bringing together nomadic tribes and appropriating considerably large Asian and European lands, impregnating an impressive amount of women, or again by promoting religious tolerance, Genghis Khan imposed his reign like no one else before or after him. Let’s have an overview of some of the events, phenomenons and lessons that polished this fascinating man’s being and pushed him towards unprecedented success.

Power to who deserves it.

"Meritocracy" is defined by the holding of power by individuals who were chosen on the basis of their ability. In a world in which dirigeants were chosen in function of their bloodline, a Meritocratic way of organizing the government was particularly innovative. By eliminating aristocracy, while conserving hierarchy, Khan was able to develop a terrific advantage, even in comparison to European countries, where such an ideology was out of question. The emperor managed to rule his empire efficiently, by taking advantage of highly skilled people, regardless of their age, their sex, their religion, etc.

Loyalty, bravery and honour were all deemed extremely valuable attributes, and were considered fundamental qualities in the Mongolian hierarchy and politics.

A reign based on terror.

Under Genghis Khan, Mongols deployed vile psychological manipulations, that were primarily meant to force their enemies into obeying them, imposing a frighteningly inhumane way of controlling their victims. Torture was more than often used to make their foes surrender, or even end their lives.

We can notably acknowledge this phenomenon during the Mongol conquests, that happened during the 13th century, and that resulted in the annihilation and the massacre of millions of people, including their cities and villages. These massacres are documented as being the most murderous genocides of human history.

Khan established the following principle, which he was notorious for: “surrender or die". He believed in offering his enemies a chance to surrender, or a death sentence if they persisted. This Mongol tactic was proved extremely efficient, as many chose to give up, and were then guaranteed protection under the Khans.

Psychological warfare was a technique largely employed by the Mongol Empire to assert its dominance, and make itself feared among the other nations and people. Its excellence was proven, as today again, we still remember how strategic the Mongols were in the psychological manipulation of their adversaries.

A religious tolerance.

Genghis Khan offered what is called a "Religious Freedom", in which the people of a conquered nation have the right to keep and practice the religion of their choice, whether it be Buddhism, Islam, or some branches of Christianity.

Mongols, being Tengerians (a form of shamanism), could however practice other religions. Genghis Khan was particularly interested in other religions and beliefs, and as such, he realized that giving his people the liberty to choose them, he notably ensured a more submissive and agreeable Empire. Mongols were generally very tolerant of religions different to theirs, at the point where their leaders invited religions leaders to simply discuss their spiritualities and talk about their points of view concerning the religious aspect. Many of Genghis Khan’s descendants were married to spouses from different religious beliefs.

Strategic mindset.

The military strategies and organizations were known for their remarkable efficiency, as they permitted the Mongol Empire to seize almost the totality of Asia, including some European parts. Genghis Khan, his generals and successors established these tactics that took down even larger armies.

Soldiers fought in units, each unit having a name and a specific number of soldiers in them. In a higher position, we could find the Keshig unit, a group of elite soldiers being members of the imperial guard of the Mongol Empire. Subutai, a powerful general, was a notable member of this squad.

Mongol soldiers were skilled horsemen, archers, on top of being strategic warriors. Their formation was full of discipline, however without being too straining. The Mongols, along with the Chinese, used gunpowder in some of their weapons, primarily as an incendiary compound.

The Pax Mongolica.

The "Pax Mongolica", Latin for "Mongol Peace", is defined as being a period of peace and stability in Eurasia during the 13th and 14th century, under the Mongol Empire.

This period had a significantly positive impact on the Mongolian economy, as it enabled the transport of merchandise and goods between Europeans and Asians, in a pacific environment.

However, this exchange did have negative effects, as it caused a rapid propagation of the bubonic plague.

The Mongols managed to rise and build a forever legendary Empire, by cultivating a clever, insurgent hierarchy based on merit, allowing a religious freedom, establishing a remarkably efficient military organization, on top of taking advantage of psychological manipulation. An ingenious way of handling their economy and peace was another prominent factor that played a role in their immense success.

Despite his heavily controversial character, and the harshness of his ways, Genghis Khan will forever be remembered as an example of leadership.

#genghis khan #mongol empire #mongols #history #knowledge #middle ages #13th century #14th century #history of mankind #writing

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bulkyphrase · 2 years

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Gen Fic Friday Masterpost

Because the list in my pinned masterpost was getting a little long.

2024

April 26, 2024 - Just One Question by TaleWorthTelling

April 19, 2024 - You Must Remember This (otherwise forget it) by yuma (yuma_writes)

April 12, 2024 - Flashes of Time by Ninjababe

April 5, 2024 - Crash by Lise

March 29, 2024 - i fear for the calendar; its days are numbered by mariahlee

March 22, 2024 - Like Brother, Like Mother, Like Son by onward_came_the_meteors

March 15, 2024 - Coulson's Eleven by copperbadge

March 8, 2024 - on the mend by meidui

March 1, 2024 - The Ballad of Captain America's Disapproving Face by Cluegirl

February 23, 2024 - Not Exactly a Superpower by fabrega, with podfic read by sisi_rambles

February 16, 2024 - birdhunt 2k20 by bysine

February 9, 2024 - A Place to Lie Low by Sholio

February 2, 2024 - devil's backbone (i just wanna take him home) by bittlebarnes

January 26, 2024 - only cute until... by waldorph, with podfic read by sisi_rambles

January 19, 2024 - cycle through by ambivalentangst

January 12, 2024 - The Adventures of Not-So-Baby Steve and Baby Steve Adventures by catty_the_spy

January 5, 2024 - Welcome to Stark Industries by greenbergsays

2023

December 29, 2023 - The Kids Weren’t Alright by lettered

December 22, 2023 - The Only Thing I've Plenty Of by Redrikki

December 15, 2023 - and if there's life we'll see it by irnan, with podfic read by ArwenLune

December 8, 2023 - Innate Goodness by shinysylver

December 1, 2023 - Soft Skills by Lady_Ganesh

November 24, 2023 - Holding On by SummerKnight717

November 17, 2023 - A Strange New World by atop_gray_clouds

November 10, 2023 - It's Eternity in There by Ranni

November 3, 2023 - More Like Beasts than Men by Ranni

October 28, 2023 - The Lies That Contain Us by whizzy

October 20, 2023 - until next time by mothersquared

October 13, 2023 - Stark's Monster by Entwinedlove

October 6, 2023 - The house on fifth by lomku

September 29, 2023 - Anchor by sweetheart35

September 22, 2023 - Interactions by atrata

September 15, 2023 - Ironclad by Sholio

September 8, 2023 - the way a traveler knows a traveler by thedoubteriswise

September 1, 2023 - who are you to tell me how to keep myself afloat? by futuresailors

August 25, 2023 - by land, by sea, by dirigible by iguessyouregonnamissthepantyraid

August 18, 2023 - my body is a cage by nighimpossible

August 11, 2023 - dress code by JenTheSweetie

August 4, 2023 - Felis lokius by Lise

July 28, 2023 - Coulson's First Day of School by storiesfortravellers

July 21, 2023 - Good Luck and Trouble on Our Side by vain_glorious

July 14, 2023 - The Age of Accountability by Lauralot

July 7, 2023 - 5 times Rhodey had a Conversation with the New Avengers (+1 time He talked with their sponsor) by uofmdragon

June 30, 2023 - Survivor: Avengers Edition by onward_came_the_meteors

June 23, 2023 - The Speech Guy by TeamThor

June 16, 2023 - Held Together by Spiderwebs by TunaFishChris

June 9, 2023 - Super Duper Side Effects by awesomesockes, whumphoarder

June 2, 2023 - Guarding the Guards by SummerKnight717

May 26, 2023 - steve & natasha go to ikea by beatingsofabesottedheart2

May 19, 2023 - people were mean to you, but I always thought you were cool by suzukiblu, with podfic read by askmeaboutmyoctopustheory

May 12, 2023 - Battle Fatigue by bonzai_bunny

May 5, 2023 - Walking Wounded by Nefhiriel

April 28, 2023 - Malpractice by Liannabob, with podfic read by the author

April 21, 2023 - If I had a tail, I'd wag it by LovableKillerWhale

April 14, 2023 - you just wait and see by nanasekei

April 7, 2023 - Still Waters by SummerKnight717

March 31, 2023 - Chase All The Clouds From The Sky by IndigoNight, reena_jenkins

March 24, 2023 - Speak So We Can Hear Your Heart Beat by Jaune_Chat

March 17, 2023 - Swan Song by Ranni

March 10, 2023 - god loves everybody, don't remind me by napricot

March 3, 2023 - Results May Vary by tsukinofaerii

February 24, 2023 - Peace, Which Costs Nothing by JeannetteRankin

February 17, 2023 - God in the Machine: The Marachek Protocol by Mythtaken Identity (Shadowland)

February 10, 2023 - Molten Core by Ceewelsh, Chimeraspeak

February 3, 2023 - After Shawarma by Fingers_McTypo

January 27, 2023 - The Joke by Imbecamiel, with podfic read by Liannabob

January 20, 2023 - Electric Dreams by Meatball42, with podfic read by Ravin_Pods

January 13, 2023 - Wing and a Prayer by Sholio

January 6, 2023 - Protocol 1985 by hollimichele, with podfic read by sisi_rambles

2022

December 30, 2022 - All Too Familiar by 16woodsequ

December 23, 2022 - Oubliette by Kiyaar

December 16, 2022 - Snuff by Domenika Marzione (domarzione)

December 9, 2022 - User Since by rageprufrock, with podfic read by paraka

November 11, 2022 - For I Am Crystal Chrome by IamShadow21

October 28, 2022 - Core Values by AnonEhouse, with podfic read by sisi_rambles

October 21, 2022 - Autumn Ghosts by gloria_scott

October 14, 2022 - If I Was Gonna Haunt Somebody, It Would Be You by Linedragon (Sameshima_Shuzumi)

October 7, 2022 - Something Strange by enigma731

September 30, 2022 - Learning to Get Along by RavenclawAngel

September 23, 2022 - Bystander by scribblemetimbers

September 9, 2022 - Dad's Got Skeletons by kehinki

September 2, 2022 - In Case of Emergency, Break Glass by osprey_archer

August 26, 2022 - Portrait Of The Artist As A Robot by copperbadge

August 5, 2022 - That Thin Atmosphere by TiamatsChild

July 22, 2022 - In the midst of life we are in death by kateandbarrel

July 1, 2022 - Clint Barton's Guide to Friends and Ceiling Vents by NoliteTimereEos

June 24, 2022 - The Amazing Naked Avengers by vain_glorious

June 17, 2022 - Dear Clint Barton (circa age 7) by pollyrepeat

June 10, 2022 - Strawberries in Wintertime by Sholio

June 3, 2022 - Hammer's Totally Heavy-Handed and Incompetent Revenge by forgetmenotjimmy

May 20, 2022 - Chrysalid by IamShadow21

May 13, 2022 - The Old Ones Wait by Sholio

April 15, 2022 - Counterfeit and Counterpart by Frea_O

April 8, 2022 - Clockwork Souls by Not_You

April 1, 2022 - The Time With The... by donutsweeper

March 25, 2022 - Road to Nowhere by ehonauta

March 18, 2022 - The Health Benefits of Knitting by Niobium, with podfic read by reena_jenkins

March 13, 2022 - Mixed-Ages Classroom by harcourt, with podfic read by blackglass

March 4, 2022 - someone’s gonna pay for this by lazulisong, with podfic read by sisi_rambles

February 25, 2022 - Voluntary Bros. by Anonymous

February 18, 2022 - An Iron-Bound Faith written by Chimeraspeak, with podfic read by Ceewelsh

February 11, 2022 - A Life for the Living written by Chimeraspeak, with podfic read by Ceewelsh

February 4, 2022 - Fury: Fivefold by Minim Calibre

January 29, 2022 - Tentacle Monsters are Usually Bigger by MountainRose, and podfic read by synteis_records

January 21, 2022 - Amateur Theatrics by galaxysoup

January 14, 2022 - That Radium Glow by Tenebrielle

January 7, 2022 - The Truth When Captains Meet by Kimra

2021

I hit the max number of links in a tumblr post, so 2021′s recs can be found here: Gen Fic Friday Masterpost Part 2

#gen fic friday #marvel fic rec #gen fic

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