#future foundation (2019)

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Hypothetical AI election disinformation risks vs real AI harms

I'm on tour with my new novel The Bezzle! Catch me TONIGHT (Feb 27) in Portland at Powell's. Then, onto Phoenix (Changing Hands, Feb 29), Tucson (Mar 9-12), and more!

You can barely turn around these days without encountering a think-piece warning of the impending risk of AI disinformation in the coming elections. But a recent episode of This Machine Kills podcast reminds us that these are hypothetical risks, and there is no shortage of real AI harms:

https://soundcloud.com/thismachinekillspod/311-selling-pickaxes-for-the-ai-gold-rush

The algorithmic decision-making systems that increasingly run the back-ends to our lives are really, truly very bad at doing their jobs, and worse, these systems constitute a form of "empiricism-washing": if the computer says it's true, it must be true. There's no such thing as racist math, you SJW snowflake!

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/02/aoc-algorithms-racist-bias.html

Nearly 1,000 British postmasters were wrongly convicted of fraud by Horizon, the faulty AI fraud-hunting system that Fujitsu provided to the Royal Mail. They had their lives ruined by this faulty AI, many went to prison, and at least four of the AI's victims killed themselves:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Post_Office_scandal

Tenants across America have seen their rents skyrocket thanks to Realpage's landlord price-fixing algorithm, which deployed the time-honored defense: "It's not a crime if we commit it with an app":

https://www.propublica.org/article/doj-backs-tenants-price-fixing-case-big-landlords-real-estate-tech

Housing, you'll recall, is pretty foundational in the human hierarchy of needs. Losing your home – or being forced to choose between paying rent or buying groceries or gas for your car or clothes for your kid – is a non-hypothetical, widespread, urgent problem that can be traced straight to AI.

Then there's predictive policing: cities across America and the world have bought systems that purport to tell the cops where to look for crime. Of course, these systems are trained on policing data from forces that are seeking to correct racial bias in their practices by using an algorithm to create "fairness." You feed this algorithm a data-set of where the police had detected crime in previous years, and it predicts where you'll find crime in the years to come.

But you only find crime where you look for it. If the cops only ever stop-and-frisk Black and brown kids, or pull over Black and brown drivers, then every knife, baggie or gun they find in someone's trunk or pockets will be found in a Black or brown person's trunk or pocket. A predictive policing algorithm will naively ingest this data and confidently assert that future crimes can be foiled by looking for more Black and brown people and searching them and pulling them over.

Obviously, this is bad for Black and brown people in low-income neighborhoods, whose baseline risk of an encounter with a cop turning violent or even lethal. But it's also bad for affluent people in affluent neighborhoods – because they are underpoliced as a result of these algorithmic biases. For example, domestic abuse that occurs in full detached single-family homes is systematically underrepresented in crime data, because the majority of domestic abuse calls originate with neighbors who can hear the abuse take place through a shared wall.

But the majority of algorithmic harms are inflicted on poor, racialized and/or working class people. Even if you escape a predictive policing algorithm, a facial recognition algorithm may wrongly accuse you of a crime, and even if you were far away from the site of the crime, the cops will still arrest you, because computers don't lie:

https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/news/texas-macys-sunglass-hut-facial-recognition-software-wrongful-arrest-sacramento-alibi/

Trying to get a low-waged service job? Be prepared for endless, nonsensical AI "personality tests" that make Scientology look like NASA:

https://futurism.com/mandatory-ai-hiring-tests

Service workers' schedules are at the mercy of shift-allocation algorithms that assign them hours that ensure that they fall just short of qualifying for health and other benefits. These algorithms push workers into "clopening" – where you close the store after midnight and then open it again the next morning before 5AM. And if you try to unionize, another algorithm – that spies on you and your fellow workers' social media activity – targets you for reprisals and your store for closure.

If you're driving an Amazon delivery van, algorithm watches your eyeballs and tells your boss that you're a bad driver if it doesn't like what it sees. If you're working in an Amazon warehouse, an algorithm decides if you've taken too many pee-breaks and automatically dings you:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/17/revenge-of-the-chickenized-reverse-centaurs/

If this disgusts you and you're hoping to use your ballot to elect lawmakers who will take up your cause, an algorithm stands in your way again. "AI" tools for purging voter rolls are especially harmful to racialized people – for example, they assume that two "Juan Gomez"es with a shared birthday in two different states must be the same person and remove one or both from the voter rolls:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/eligible-voters-swept-up-conservative-activists-purge-voter-rolls/

Hoping to get a solid education, the sort that will keep you out of AI-supervised, precarious, low-waged work? Sorry, kiddo: the ed-tech system is riddled with algorithms. There's the grifty "remote invigilation" industry that watches you take tests via webcam and accuses you of cheating if your facial expressions fail its high-tech phrenology standards:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/16/unauthorized-paper/#cheating-anticheat

All of these are non-hypothetical, real risks from AI. The AI industry has proven itself incredibly adept at deflecting interest from real harms to hypothetical ones, like the "risk" that the spicy autocomplete will become conscious and take over the world in order to convert us all to paperclips:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/27/10-types-of-people/#taking-up-a-lot-of-space

Whenever you hear AI bosses talking about how seriously they're taking a hypothetical risk, that's the moment when you should check in on whether they're doing anything about all these longstanding, real risks. And even as AI bosses promise to fight hypothetical election disinformation, they continue to downplay or ignore the non-hypothetical, here-and-now harms of AI.

There's something unseemly – and even perverse – about worrying so much about AI and election disinformation. It plays into the narrative that kicked off in earnest in 2016, that the reason the electorate votes for manifestly unqualified candidates who run on a platform of bald-faced lies is that they are gullible and easily led astray.

But there's another explanation: the reason people accept conspiratorial accounts of how our institutions are run is because the institutions that are supposed to be defending us are corrupt and captured by actual conspiracies:

https://memex.craphound.com/2019/09/21/republic-of-lies-the-rise-of-conspiratorial-thinking-and-the-actual-conspiracies-that-fuel-it/

The party line on conspiratorial accounts is that these institutions are good, actually. Think of the rebuttal offered to anti-vaxxers who claimed that pharma giants were run by murderous sociopath billionaires who were in league with their regulators to kill us for a buck: "no, I think you'll find pharma companies are great and superbly regulated":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/05/not-that-naomi/#if-the-naomi-be-klein-youre-doing-just-fine

Institutions are profoundly important to a high-tech society. No one is capable of assessing all the life-or-death choices we make every day, from whether to trust the firmware in your car's anti-lock brakes, the alloys used in the structural members of your home, or the food-safety standards for the meal you're about to eat. We must rely on well-regulated experts to make these calls for us, and when the institutions fail us, we are thrown into a state of epistemological chaos. We must make decisions about whether to trust these technological systems, but we can't make informed choices because the one thing we're sure of is that our institutions aren't trustworthy.

Ironically, the long list of AI harms that we live with every day are the most important contributor to disinformation campaigns. It's these harms that provide the evidence for belief in conspiratorial accounts of the world, because each one is proof that the system can't be trusted. The election disinformation discourse focuses on the lies told – and not why those lies are credible.

That's because the subtext of election disinformation concerns is usually that the electorate is credulous, fools waiting to be suckered in. By refusing to contemplate the institutional failures that sit upstream of conspiracism, we can smugly locate the blame with the peddlers of lies and assume the mantle of paternalistic protectors of the easily gulled electorate.

But the group of people who are demonstrably being tricked by AI is the people who buy the horrifically flawed AI-based algorithmic systems and put them into use despite their manifest failures.

As I've written many times, "we're nowhere near a place where bots can steal your job, but we're certainly at the point where your boss can be suckered into firing you and replacing you with a bot that fails at doing your job"

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/15/passive-income-brainworms/#four-hour-work-week

The most visible victims of AI disinformation are the people who are putting AI in charge of the life-chances of millions of the rest of us. Tackle that AI disinformation and its harms, and we'll make conspiratorial claims about our institutions being corrupt far less credible.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/27/ai-conspiracies/#epistemological-collapse

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

#pluralistic #ai #disinformation #algorithmic bias #elections #election disinformation #conspiratorialism #paternalism #this machine kills #Horizon #the rents too damned high #weaponized shelter #predictive policing #fr #facial recognition #labor #union busting #union avoidance #standardized testing #hiring #employment #remote invigilation

[fras-redacted-shapes]

Time is weird within the Oldest House

Spoilers for Alan Wake 2 and slight speculation for Control 2

Alright so. According to Estevez, HQ went dark and while she gives no hint as for how long it's been like that, it's safe to assume it's been four years due to how consistent the each Remedy game has been about the years they take place on.

Besides that, nothing is ever hinted at what's going on with the FBC's headquarters.

We know now time loops and spirals inside the Dark Place and that changes done there can bleed into reality (Jesse being told by a psychiatrist Zane is a filmmaker and not a poet, as she remembered him).

From the AWE DLC we know Jesse briefly witnessed Alan meeting Zane ("The Meeting" from now on), which came full circle in AW2.

From this event it's not unreasonable to assume two things:

1. The Meeting happened back in 2019.

The AWE DLC takes place before the ending of Control's and Foundation's story. This can be seen in the reports Emily writes about the new hiss enemies introduced in each dlc.

For the one introduced in AWE her title is still Research Specialist.

For the one in Foundation, her title is Head of Research. (also she got her Doctorate, you go girl!)

If this is holds up, Alan's timeline in AW2 has been bouncing back and forth way back from 2023.

Or, if you want a headache, even farther back given his role in Tom the Poet which came out before Zane disappeared. This is the poster in the Suomi Hall in Watery.

There's no hint yet if this change/addition of Alan writing a novel that inspired the film has made it past Watery and Bright Falls into the real world or was cleared at the end of the game.

This would also mean Ahti has been on vacations for four years.

2. The Meeting happened in 2023.

At the end of AWE dlc Langston says they're receiving an AWE alert from Cauldron Lake that is set a few years into the future. But is it?

What if it's actually the present, my dear beautiful Langston?

This would be consistent with the lack of any visual indication of the passage of time during the main story. There's none. And then, the Foundation DLC ends, and we see Dylan has grown hair and a beard.

Cute. But you know, Remedy has weaponized easter eggs. So no, I don't think Mr. comatose baldy growing a beard is a cute little detail they spent resources on.

We know by the time The Meeting takes place, Alan has not gotten out of the Dark Place yet, hence the alarm has not been activated (it goes off in the FBC monitoring station as soon as Alan/Scratch is transported back to the shore where Saga meets him for the first time).

If this holds up, then the timeline is more or less like this:

Ahti lets Jesse into the Oldest House in October 29th, 2019.

While Jesse is dealing with the Hiss, Alan unlocks Investigation Sector in the elevator.

Alan Meets Zane .

Jesse gets a glimpse of The Meeting.

Ahti gives Jesse his cassette players, goes on vacation.

Alan/Scratch gets out of the Dark Place (September 13th, 2023).

The AWE alarm sounds - and the signal made it into the Oldest House (September 13th, 2023).

Jesse takes down the Projector and deals with the Nail.

Dylan has grown hair.

Between point 4 and 5 more time could've passed, otherwise those are some short vacations for Ahti, it sounds like he's been in Watery for a while.

Therefore, during Control's main story, time was halted or passed very, very slowly when compared to the world outside.

How come?

With Remedy integrating their own alternate version of Quantum Break they might as well start using some of its harder science fiction approach. Alan has already mentioned the Dark Place as Dark Matter in one of his rambling videos. And well, this seems to have been the plan all along. From the chalkboard in Quantum Break:

There's been no text about black holes or matter density affecting space-time in any game as far as I remember. However, the imagery has been there with the Dark Presence vortex and certain images looking like event horizons.

So this is pure speculation:

The Oldest House is massive, it shifts, it expands and contracts. Could it be dense enough to affect space-time? could it do this on command?

It could be so dense that to those within its walls it'd seem like little to no time has passed, while outside at least four years have gone by.

The entire story is written in present tense in the missions menu, even after a mission has been completed (and the way the collectibles/mission menu was integrated as a world-building element with the Mind Place in Alan Wake 2, I don't think this was meant to be a cute weird little detail even back then).

Something happened during or after the events in the Foundation dlc, something shifted and now time is passing more or less normally. Or at least it is showing its effects on people.

Alice was seemingly cleansed from the effects the Dark Place had over her memory as soon she was brought inside the Oldest House. It's not unreasonable to assume this effect expands to protecting those within (those that are not too far gone, like Hartman). So the Oldest House would deal with time in its own terms, while the Dark Presence could make retroactive changes to certain details in the reality outside of it, like Zane going from poet to filmmaker.

Dylan's hair growth would indicate a month or two have passed at the very least by the end of Foundation. And from the one Control 2 concept art that has been shown so far, there are orange leaves in the pavement.

So Remedy could be planning to lift he lock-down during autumn. Autumn of what year? Heh, that's gonna be a fun one to find out.

-

As a counterpoint one could point at the game cinematic shots of the Oldest House from outside, they're always set at night across the story. It's just a detail that could've easily be a result of resource constraints. Yeah, not that it implies the story could've happened within one night.

Like with the clocks! You can point out at time being weird inside the Oldest House because none of the clocks are working! Time is literally frozen teehee, static textures on 3D assets, except for uh

Darling's Office in Central Research? Is that-

IS IT

IT'S WORKING

WHY DID YOU DO THIS REMEDY?

STOP-

(WE GET IT REMEDY, YOU'VE BEEN PLANNING IT ALL ALONG AND WHEN EVERYTHING IS LAID OUT IN CANON WE'LL FEEL SILLY BECAUSE THE HINTS WHERE THERE, IN OUR FACES, ALL THIS TIME)

-

Or you know, Control 2 will deal with the main cast enduring years of lock-down and the concept art is actually the end or middle of the game, and everyone exits the building on the year Control 2 releases.

Kind of lame in my opinion, but would make sense I guess.

-

Of course, there's another possibility I don't feel like following through:

The Dark Presence succeeded in changing the entire world and only The Oldest House and those inside remained intact. I mean, Dylan's easter egg in Foundation has some images

(that better not be a frozen ocean NO)

(NO, do not tell me this is the Huotari Well omg)

Hiss/Dark Presence became besties

And maybe, count Dylan's cut Hotline call. But that's cut content so strictly speaking, not canon (imagine it gets restored between Alan Wake 2 dlcs and the next Control game haha).

-

There are some things that should be brought full circle about the AWE dlc.

Alan is already aware of the FBC thanks to Estevez and Alice.

The sound fx aspect of the Hiss chant is basically lifted from the Cult of the Tree chanting (or you know, if you want another headache, it could be the other way around). And there are hints of verses from the Hiss incantation said out loud here and there. So pre-existing elements to give shape to a dadaist poem attributed to a hostile extra-dimensional resonance complete!

Has he yet come across the information from the FBC, that Hartman became a Taken?

He also kind of knows about the general plot of Control given he wrote a screenplay for an episode of Night Springs that was never produced.

It became clearer that Alan doesn't write whole new things or realities from scratch (shut up), that he writes from "visions" and vivid "nightmares" he's had. If that screenplay is a vision of the future of the events within the Oldest House, then that could be it.

However we haven't seen him become aware or gain knowledge of Polaris or Jesse herself beyond her extremely brief appearance during The Meeting.

This information has yet to make it outside the Oldest House (as far as we know) and only Dylan and Emily know about Polaris so far. Ahti too, maybe?

Sure, Alan could've somehow glimpsed something through the Oceanview Motel, he's got a door there anyways and he's gone through the Dark Place version of it (the Hotel), but this has not been made explicit like The Meeting.

Maybe The Lake House dlc will clear up that connection.

I mean yeah, that'd be fitting.

Don't forget one of the cut pieces from Control was The Oldest House opening a passage to Ahti's cabin in Finland, so The Oldest House being able to making an opening to Cauldon Lake is in Remedy's toolbox.

(I also think it'd be fair to see more of Jesse since Alan got a whole new 3D model in Control's AWE)

-

I'm missing a lot of things here I'm sure, I put this together more or less from things off the top of my head. I haven't gone through Control in a while so there are probably a more and clearer hints regarding time shenanigans within the Oldest House.

Also, AW2 timeline needs to be put on a wall to make sense of it. It'd look like a spiral, because of course.

#oops sorry I was supposed to be doing art #alan wake 2 #alan wake 2 spoilers #spoilers #control remedy #control game #control 2019 #remedyversetxt

[luminalunii97]

Recently, 227 out of 290 members of Iran parliament voted to execute those who were arrested in the past 8 weeks of uprising. According to Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), the number of arrested protesters are more than 14,000 people. Islamic republic has a long history of mass murders. In the 1988 massacres of political prisoners, more than 30,000 people were executed. In 2019 protests, the government killed more than 1,500 protesters during the internet shutdown. They never stop their criminal ways because blood and bone is the foundation of their reign.

These people, who have the dream of freedom in mind, are going to be sentenced to death if international human rights organizations don't do something about it. We're not talking about nameless faceless people. These 14,000 lives have friends and families, pets and lovers. Let's get to know some of them:

This is Hossein Ronaghi. He is an iranian blogger and human rights activist. He's also a computer programmer and one of his activism areas is internet restrictions and how to go around them. He has a long history of political activities and since 2009 protests, he has been a political prisoner on and off. During current protests, he was called to turn himself into Evin prison or his family will be in danger, so he did that. But even though he was there voluntarily, security forces violently attacked him and beat him. Currently he's in prison with broken legs and no medical attention and a 46-day-long hunger strike. His life is in danger.

These are Elaheh Mohammadi and Niloofar Hamedi, the two journalists who covered Mahsa Amini's murder news. This is not the first time the government arrest and punish someone who spread a crime news instead of arresting those who committed said crime. Media freedom is a joke in Iran and those who speak the truth get silenced. A while ago in an interview with Shargh daily, the newspaper Niloofar works for, she addressed sexism in her field of occupation and explained: "sometimes a female journalist would think with herself maybe I should just give up this job, this job has many safety issues and the salary isn't good at all. but most of them stay. Women journalists never give up."

This is Fatemeh Sepehri, a political activist. She oppose Khamenei leadership and demands a democratic future for iran. She's a mother who lost her child custody to sexism. Her husband was a martyr of Iran-Iraq war. Her brother is also a political prisoner. She was kidnapped at the beginning of current protests and is being kept in solitary confinement.

This is Leyla Hosseinzade, former Tehran university student. She didn't believe in hijab and still doesn't. She refuse to wear hijab while in jail and that put her in a dangerous situation with security guards. She's currently on a hunger strike.

This is Faezeh Barahui, a young Baluchi girl who was arrested during protests in Zahedan, has been in prison for weeks.

This is Fetemeh Mashhadi Abbas, a professor in Shahid Beheshti university of medical sciences. She was kidnapped and is now being kept in Evin prison.

This is Toomaj Salehi, Iranian rapper who's songs are mostly protest songs aimed at the regime. He was brutally arrested and is under heavy torture at the moment.

This is Nazila Maroufian, a journalist who's in Evin prison because she interviewed with Mahsa Amini's father.

This is Marzieh Ziari, a women's rights activist in iran who was arrested and her current condition is unknown.

There are many many many more people. This is just a thin list of more known ones. According to HRANA, among all these arrested citizens, 1,941 of them have been identified and their arrests have become publicly known, 438 of them are university students. Children are among prisoners too but their number has not been reported. The wellbeing or placement of some prisoners are not known and that causes a lot of concerns.

#iran news #iran #mahsa amini #iran protests #feminism #politics #human rights #political activism #middle east politics #political prisoners #freedom of speech #media freedom #woman life freedom #middle east #muslim women #islamic republic of iran #stop executions #human rights violations #united nations #unicef #human rights watch

[voluntarysubmission]

What's happening at the Oldest House during Alan Wake 2?

(Spoilers for ALL of Control, ALL of Alan Wake 2, including Final Draft.)

LET'S SPECULATE.

From Control, we know:

The Oldest House is on lockdown until the Hiss is completely cleansed, so it can't get out.

Jesse was witness to (a version of) Alan's conversation with Zane at the Oceanview Hotel/Motel.

Alan's writing definitely affected the way things went down at the Investigations Department - but to what extent he directly caused it to happen vs just influenced things already under way is debatable.

The Investigations Department control room for monitoring stations got an alert from the Bright Falls/Cauldron Lake station, dated "from the future", aka. 2023, when AW2 is set.

We don't explicitly know how long the events of Control are in terms of Jesse's perception of time. At least a few weeks, based on the hair growth we see in Dylan after the events in the Foundation. So from the lockdown starting in 2019, they think it's been a few weeks.

This is a SUPER tenous connection, but: after completing Foundation and meeting some hidden criteria, you get a bonus scene when interacting with Dylan, and one of the images that flashes up (the frames are shown clearly at the end of the youtube video) might be a picture looking up from inside the Huotari Well.

There have been FBC agents in Bright Falls for a while, and they were aware of the events of Alan Wake 1. Agent Estevez was acknowledged as being an agent from Investigations sending reports from the site, including complaining that the researchers at the Lake House won't share findings with her.

From Alan Wake 2, we know:

The Oldest House is still "dark". The Taken sometimes say "The Oldest House has gone dark", and in the Sheriff's Station Attacked manuscript, an FBC Agent called Young praises Estevez thinking "Estevez had held it together even after the Oldest House had gone dark".

The FBC is still operating outside the Oldest House. Despite it being a few years since the start of the lockdown, they have agents in the field currently working.

There have been researchers in Bright Falls since the first AWE there. The Research crew is at a facility called the Lake House near Cauldron Lake. This facility is manned when Saga first arrives (you can press on the call box there and ask an agent to send backup, they just say "The station heads are not currently available" - given it's plural, I think they're referring to Dr Marmont and Dr Marmont, the married FBC scientists.)

The Lake House was attacked by Taken, and is considered lost by Estevez, so that happened during the events of AW2.

A project of one Dr Campbell is specifically ongoing - the children's rhymes around the place. Dr Campbell himself is present up until just before the Dark Ocean Summoning events - if you complete the rhymes, you hear things go badly for him.

Estevez says that there is no further backup - they ARE the backup, when Saga asks if more help is available.

Dr Darling, who went missing just before the Hiss invaded in 2019, as spent 665 days minimum in the Dark Place. That's about a year and 9 months, though we don't know when during his stay that the recording happened.

So what can we conclude from all this stuff?

First, the Oldest House is still in lockdown, and has been for years, from the perspective of outside the house. There are several theories about what is happening inside the house, but it seems certain that from the outside world, HQ locked up and went quiet.

My main theory about what is happening on the inside of the house, is that as soon as the house went into lockdown, the passage of time there changed relative to... uh, the normal Earth dimension. Time in the Oldest House is going very slowly.

The two points of evidence for this are the AWE alert in Investigations for Cauldron Lake - Langston says it's coming from the future, but I think it's actually coming from the present - the inside of the House just isn't aware they've been lost for years. The second point of evidence is the conversation Jesse "eavesdrops" on between Zane and Alan - the version we see in Control ihas very similar dialogue to what we see in AW2, which may imply a certain "syncing". But this is more tenuous because of course, Alan has been going through loops so who knows how many times he's had this conversation with Zane. His hair is longer in this conversation in Control than in AW1, but not as long as it is in AW2, so, meh. I still think it's evidence though. You do "see" Jesse calling out "Hello?" in the AW2 version of the scene... I swear she calls out in Control but I can't find it.

The other option is that the house is still on lockdown because it's truly taken them YEARS stuck on the inside to clear out the Hiss, which would set up Control 2 for an interesting starting point. The nature of the Oldest House is such that it's existence, and to a lesser effect by association the FBC, are imperceptible by people who aren't otherwise aware of them. It's not unfeasible that this had the effect of making field agents unlikely to try and find out what happened, even if they knew about the House. But then, while they don't directly address it in Control, the people in the House DO have limited supplies of food and drinkable water inside. People trapped in the lost department (processes and protocols office) in the Foundation were concern about supplies and went looking for food, though ultimately died due to the Astral Spike (Gibbs survived long enough to become a Hiss though? So maybe she survived... or stopped needing to eat. IDK it's the house, it's weird).

I just think the first option is more likely than the second. I think come Control 2, the lockdown will lift and the FBC will find itself years out of date with the external world, scrambling to catch up with the field agents and researchers, and all the altered items and AWEs that have occurred without them being able to properly contain things.

But this all brings me to my main point, which was the reason I wrote all this down and speculated on it to begin with.

To me, the most astounding thing to realise is the Federal Bureau of Control's payroll system is iron clad. Despite the house being in lockdown, despite no department heads to approve budgets and expenditure, all FBC agents outside the House are STILL WORKING FOR THE FBC!!!! They would NOT be doing that if the paychecks stopped (maybe some of the more obsessive scientists... but generally no). The scientists at the Lake House have up until the night of Dark Ocean Summoning still been doing research - and presumably have project budgets and expenditures. They have technicians to regularly call on to check on the monitoring station and fix it after the Koskelas break it, who also get paid. The system functions!!! Like clockwork!!!

Now idk how USA federal government payroll works. It probably is just as simple as the FBC agents are all paid from the same place that the FBI does, I imagine it's somewhat centralised. And the Oldest House's perception protection probably means the reports get stamped and the pay goes through without being paid attention to. But this is the government we're talking about here, there's fuck ups and salary freezes and system errors and database issues. But these agents have been working on their own for YEARS! They are paying their bills! They are getting their holidays! They are filing their taxes!

Now THAT'S what I call a process to admire. No matter how catastrophic the disaster affecting HQ is, these government workers WILL get their paychecks and continue just doing their jobs and filing their reports. Incredible.

#alan wake 2 #alan wake 2 spoilers #alan wake final draft #final draft #final draft spoilers #control #remedy control #remedy verse #remedy connected universe #federal bureau of control #jesse faden #thomas zane #alan wake

[akajustmerry]

Ocean Girl really was my earliest introduction to the Australian science fiction and speculative fiction genres. Twenty years later, I am a published author of Australian speculative fiction (check out This All Come Back Now). Growing up watching distinctly Australian science fiction series like Ocean Girl, Silversun and Parallax not only inspired a love of the genre, but empowered me to imagine strange new Australian futures. Sadly though, it seems mine may be the last generation to grow up with such stories. According to a new report by the Australian Children’s Television Foundation (ACTF), Aussie kids TV is in crisis, with production of original Australian kids content on free-to-air TV dropping 84% between 2019-2022. In 2020, the government lifted regulations requiring free-to-air networks to produce quotas of homegrown kids content. The result? Next to no new shows for kids.

Remembering ‘Ocean Girl’ And The Aussie Kids TV Boom Of The ’90s | Merryana Salem

#ocean girl #h2o just add water #silversun #parallax #australia #tv #writing #this ones for the ocean girl gorilies <3 #/ #share it around because i am literally on probation

[strangebiology]

How Funding Affected my Journalism Jobs

The different places I’ve worked as a journalist, and in related fields, have all had different funding. Here are my experiences at different places–and it seems to me that grant-funded stuff is the best. 

Internship at Nat Geo

Grants sponsored both of the other interns, but not me. Nat Geo makes a lot of its money through things like books at TV.

Mine was low-paid, but probably normal for an internship in 2016? LOVED the experience. Freelance at Nat Geo afterward was MUCH better paid. $14/hour part-time. IDK how much the grant-funded interns made. 2016.

Fellowship at PBS Newshour

A grant from the National Science Foundation funded me, but PBS is state-sponsored media. Interestingly, that’s a huge red flag in China and Russia, but I found the US-funded Public Broadcasting Service very fair to its subjects. Good experience, but even worse pay, at $13/hour full-time. 2016-2017

Job at Newsweek 

Their funding is from clicks. This place was crazy bad and paid garbage. Everyone hated it and almost everyone quit, unless they were being fired for making a living wage. Some people even got fired for accurately reporting on the company itself on assignment from their editors–there was no obscuring it, that was cited as their reason for termitation. Newsweek is Hellfire and damnation. I suspect the nonsense demand for 5 stories/day/person and silly demand that we make them go viral stemmed from the following: the fact that the company primarily made its money from clicks and higher-ups didn’t appear to care about the long-term reputation of the company or its reporters, and perhaps an ego-fueled refusal to try to understand what actually got clicks. $39k/year. 2017-2018

Freelance at VOX 

Funded by clicks/ads and grants at the time, but halfway through they started a contribution campaign. The difference I noticed between VOX and Newsweek was that VOX practices were smarter and they actually paid attention to analytics and sane business practices. Also, it's much easier to qualify for and get grants if you're actually doing good journalism, so I don't believe that Newsweek's policy of "lots of garbage" was actually business-savvy in any way.

Vox was a good experience, even though I wasn’t working as a journalist, but doing SEO/social media for journalists. $35/hour, then $50/hour part-time. Then I was laid off due to the pandemic. 2019-2020

Freelance at Alzheimer's Association 

Remote, not really journalism, but I liked it anyway. Nonprofit, so, funded by donations and grants. $65/hour part-time. 2021

Job at Bay Nature

My job was entirely funded by a grant. Odd situation–I got the grant and I could bring it to any legit journalism employer. Bay Nature was supposed to contribute 40% of my salary but flexibility happened and they just paid health insurance and such. They got basically no money at all from clicks, like, pennies a year. Not much from subscriptions. They have fundraisers, and at the time, there were 3 writers/editors and 2 fundraisers on staff. Later they hired another writer whose entire salary was paid by a philanthropist, and then I’m told they got another salary funded by a UC Berkeley journalism grant program. So, like half of their editorial staff was grant-funded.

Great experience, but low pay for the Bay Area. $50k/year, all from Poynter-Koch, 2021-2022.

Freelance at Politifact

A nonprofit and they probably get lots of grants. My particular position was also funded by a grant entirely. Loved it. $250/article fact check. 2022. 

Book

REALLY love it. $50k is from MIT Press, which is a not-for-profit, and it gets some grants and endowments. Then I got $56k from a grant from the Sloan Foundation on top. 

Future? 

I also got $500 (plus gas and hotels) to attend a day of learning with a program called Investing in Wyoming’s Creative Economy, and that means I’m one of 100 people eligible to apply for 10 $25k grants for future projects. The idea is to support creatives to stay in Wyoming and have sustainable businesses here. Maybe do some art that will bring in tourists. 

_____________________

Note that a grant sort of does, and sort of doesn’t, mean free money. It means money to support a project that usually has to have a mission and a public good, like educating the public. You don’t pay these back, and the org giving the grants doesn’t require a percentage of the profits or anything. But, for instance, the $50k grant from Poynter-Koch was more like a gift to Bay Nature, so they could pay me, and I worked for a year to actually have the funds. 

However, I’m not yet convinced that there is any objectively good funding model to ensure the most fair and accurate journalism. In theory, the capitalistic ones would be the best, but the public desire to read inflammatory stories about how their political enemies are evil, or a different generation is full of idiots, adversely affected the accuracy of headlines at Newsweek IMO.

You might think that the worst funding source would be Poynter-Koch, which is a program run by Poynter and funded by the Charles Koch Institute. But neither Poynter nor Koch even asked me to tell them what I was writing, let alone try to stop me from writing it. (Poynter hosted mentor-led auxiliary groups to talk about our careers/lives and such, so the topics of our articles came up sometimes if we chose to share that.) 

Anyway, I’m thinking of writing an article on how funding models affect journalism, for better and worse. There are some high-profile examples of grant funding causing harm. But for now, the above is my experience–pretty much all good, except not enough funding sometimes. 

#funding #journalism #not biology

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

Final thoughts about the visa

(I’ll keep posting anons about it but without any comment)

I am very skeptical that we’ll ever find out what visa Harry is here on and why. I’m sure the Heritage Foundation will do its damnedest to uncover that information but I don’t think it will work because it sets a court precedent that anyone can now sue to find out the status of a celebrity’s legal paperwork.

And even if we did learn what visa Harry is here on, so what? What is there to be done about it? The blame isn’t exclusively on Harry in this case; it’s on the US government, the UK government, and the BRF. How do you plan to hold them accountable?

And finally, if you’re really that angry about it and you really think his visa status needs to be disclosed, dont complain to me. I can’t do anything about it. I don’t work in the State, Homeland Security, or Justice departments snd even if I did, digging into this would be an abuse of my position. Sorry, folks. I like my job. Harry is not worth losing my livelihood and security clearance over.

What I can advise, as a fed, is this:

1. Congressional visibility is sometimes the best way for the people to hold the government accountable. Complain to your representatives and if enough people are complaining, Congress may start paying attention. Be the persistent squeaky wheel and you might find someone who can bring the thunder.

2. FOIA requests do work. That’s how this whole thing with the Heritage Foundation kicked off. But you have to be specific in your requests. You can’t just email “tell me everything about Prince Harry.” The request has to be something like “requesting records between 11/1/2019 - 4/1/2022 mentioning ‘The Duke of Sussex’ or ‘Prince Harry’.” The more specific your request, the better.

3. OIGs (Inspectors General) can also be helpful to hold agencies accountable but they’ll only work if you have specific names and specific issues to complain about. The OIGs focus on fraud, waste, and abuse within government agencies. So don’t file a complaint with “you let Prince Harry here and he’s not qualified.” A successful OIG complaint needs to include names, dates, and descriptions. And unfortunately we don’t have a lot of that right now. But we may, in the future, depending on how the Heritage Foundation lawsuit goes.

Some things to keep in mind.

[mico-evelyn2]

WHY YOU SHOULD BE A YOTES FAN! (or at least like them) (Pt 1)

Social Media admin: the yotes social media admin has lost their mind and honestly i think they're on crack

2. Our jerseys look fly as fuck a.k.a when we lose we lose in style 😎

[⚫Home, ⚪Away, 🟣Alt]

3. Clayton Keller (sean avery's opp): No. 9 is the yotes superstar. He's the unofficial-official captain and his hockey is so fun to watch (also he's a pretty white boy with dimples, you🫵will love him, you have no 🙅‍♀️ say in this) (btw i'm never getting over that second picture)

4. Travis Dermott is an amazing person🤩. The NHL banned the use of pride tape and Travis Dermott gave the league a massive middle finger (he is literally my hero) (his interview where he spoke out against the NHL) (Via The Athletic)↴

5. the future: Listen i understand we might not be in Arizona in the next 2 years but idc. I'm here to talk about our draft picks. they currently have 34 picks in the next 3 drafts with 20 of them being in the 1st 3 rounds (this is fucking insane and I cannot wait for the future)

5.5) 2022 round 1 draft: This photo isn't relevant but it is to me because I love how short Maveric Lamourex (6'7ft, 2.01m) and Conor Geekie (6'3ft, 1.93m) make Logan Cooley (5'10ft, 1.78m) look

6. like every team you need someone who looks like their mascot and arizona is no exception. Allow me to introduce No. 29 Barrett Hayton and Howeler the Coyotes

7. No. 39, Connor Ingram my precious goalie🫶. He is important to me because he's open about his struggles with OCD & past addiction. And also he's a good goalie (that saves the yotes ass a lot of times) read more here

8. @/did_the_coyotes_lose on Insta or @/didtheyoteslose (twitter) is small community of yotes fans :) and also sometime the main title card is posted by the arizona account

(usually they lose two games after and go on a horrendous losing streak. When will the yotes admin learnt that posting did_the_coyotes_lose is a curse)

9. MIKE SMITH GOALIE GOAL!! HE SCORES WITH JUST 11 SECONDS TO GO! It got in the net with 0.1 seconds remaining on the clock. Needless to say, best goal in yotes history.

10. Father a.k.a Nick Bjugstad (No. 17) and his wife Jackie have a foundation called Goals For Kids, "Provides youth from all backgrounds with the skills to be successful" <- paraphrasing what their website says

11. Travis Boyd (No. 72) he is literally just a family man. That is kinda his whole thing, it's sweet.

12. Michael Carcone (No.53) knows how to serve on and off the ice because his grandfather owned a bar and a pizza joined (but genuinely i need to know if MC53 can serve drinks, it would be great if he can)

13. Logan Cooley my goat 🐐 all you really need to know about him is that he's just a little guy and is good at hockey

14. speaking of little guys clayton keller & logan cooley are both the second shortest (michael carcone is the shortest) but i would like to bring your attention to this photo, it's beautiful 🥹

15. barrett hayton & clayton keller are in love (bromance) (to add more BH29 profile picture on insta is a picture of them)

16. Lawson Crouse (No. 67, Alt captain) his nickname is "the sheriff" because of his style of play (not important but he's ginger and i felt the need to mention this because they're a very rare breed)

17. Dylan Guenther - another little guy (he's 6'2💀) - scored THE game winning goal for Canada at world juniors in the gold medal game against czechia (it was a beautiful moment)

18. Barrrett Hayton serves cunt on and off ice (i mean look at this goofy ass hat, only someone with confidence can pull this off)

19. Harvard graduate Alexander Kerfoot (No. 15, alt captain). He did a Q&A with The Athletic in 2019 and I think it say all you need to know

20. No. 63 Matias Maccelli, oh i love this man. He looks like a teddy bear and if you squeeze him for long enough he will squeak. And also he's good at hockey and is going to beat his season high points scored (49)

21. Jack McBain (No. 22) if i'm being honest idk much about him and i couldn't find out much. But something i know is that his insta is private and i respect that🫡

22. No. 38 Liam O'Brien or Big Tuna. He's an enforcer with the most penalty minutes in the league (133) (he's a ginger, a very rare breed) also he's going to be a girl dad 🔜

23. One Step Coyotes is a program that allows adults with special needs to play hockey (@/onestepcoyotes on insta)

24. The short leash line was a line with Keller - Schmaltz - Garland in the 2020-21 season. It was nicknamed this by rick tocchet and it has got to be my favourite line name

25. this video is actually everything to me 🥹

Lawson Crouse saying, "You go baby go ahead." changed my brain chemistry.

And the Cooley repeating to himself, "don't fall, don't fall, don't fall..." 😭😭😭😭

#not making a part 2 #i'll make a part 2 when i have time 🫶 #arizona coyotes #nhl #logan cooley #clayton keller #lawson crouse #dylan guenther #yotes lb #nhl imagine #nhl hockey

[astranva]

Wikipedia Page

Planet Evans!Universe Masterlist

Word Count: 1.4k

Summary: pe!reader’s wikipedia page.

..

Y/N Y/L/N-Evans (born *birth month and day*, 1988) is a(n) *your choice of nationality* actress. The world’s highest-paid actress from 2010 to 2022, her films have grossed $9 billion worldwide to date. She appeared in Time’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2010 to 2019 and Forbes Celebrity 100 list from 2009 to 2022.

During her childhood, Y/L/N-Evans performed at local theatres until she was cast as the lead for Spy Kids at the age of 13, making the film trilogy her debut which gained her public attention. Y/L/N-Evans is an EGOT winner (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony). She is a 3-time Academy Award winner, 4-time Golden Globes winner, 1-time Grammy award winner for Best Spoken Word Album (Including Poetry, Audiobooks & Storytelling) for being the official narrator of Where The Crawdads Sing (2018) by Delia Owens, and 3-time Emmy award winner, along with multiple and numerous nominations.

Her role as the committed dancer who struggles to maintain her sanity in Black Swan as Nina, won her the Academy Award for Best Actress, making her the fourth-youngest winner at the category at the age of 23. She also won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for the same movie, along with her role as Amy Dune from Gone Girl.

Y/L/N-Evans then again won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as Tiffany from Silver Linings Playbook, and her role as Cassandra in Promising Young Woman, along with Golden Globes award for Best Actress for the same roles.

Y/L/N-Evans identifies as feminist and children’s rights activist. In 2014, she founded Wish You Well Foundation, which advocates for children’s rights, wellbeing, as well as provides foster care for abused children. 

Early life and education

Y/N Y/L/N-Evans was born on *birth month and day* in 1988, to *mom’s name*, a vet, and *dad’s name*, a trucker. She has one younger step-sister from her mother whom she constantly speaks about. Growing up, she was raised in an abusive household as it was later stated that her father was “hardly ever sober” and “physically violent” before her mother ran away with her when she was 10 years old.

Growing up, Y/L/N-Evans was fond of acting and costume design, and had often used her mother’s clothes and gave shows to her family from a very young age. She was a leading actress in her school drama plays throughout her academic journey. 

Y/L/N-Evans was 12 when she was discovered by a talent scout who had watched her perform at a local theatre, later getting the role as Carmen Cortez in the Spy Kids trilogy alongside Antonio Banderas, although the actress appeared as “tie-dye girl” in The Parent Trap (1998) when she was 10 years old.

Career

Early roles and breakthrough (2001-2005)

Y/L/N-Evans began acting in local theatres before landing the role of Carmen Cortez in Spy Kids in 2001, aged 13, making it her debut film as well as debut trilogy. The trilogy received praise and public recognition, and Y/L/-Evans was praised by critics for having “a bright future ahead.”

At the age of 16, she was cast as the voice actor of Violet Parr, the eldest child of Bob and Helen Parr from Walt Disney’s The Incredibles (2004), who is born with the superhuman ability to render herself invisible, as well as generate force fields. 

Y/L/N-Evans’s breakthrough role came in James McTeigue’s V for Vendetta (2005). The film features her as a young woman who gets involved in V’s life when he rescues her from a gang of London’s secret police. Y/L/N-Evans shaved her hair in a single take for the movie. Although the actress didn’t receive an Academy or Golden Globes award for her role, she was nominated for both and won many other awards for the role, as well as she received nothing but praise from critics and her acting wage was raised in the industry. 

Worldwide recognition (2005-2012)

In 2006, Y/L/N-Evans took the role of Andy Sachs in The Devil Wears Prada by David Frankel, alongside Meryl Streep. The movie won her public appeal, as well as went down in history of “must watch” movies to date.

At the age of only 19, she took the role of Cecilia Tallis in Atonement (2007) by Joe Wright, portraying the lead and love interest of James McAvoy.

In 2009, Y/L/N-Evans took the role of Neytiri in $2.8 billion movie, Avatar (2009) which had made her the youngest highest-paid actress in the world. 

It was in 2010, when Y/L/N-Evans, aged 22, was the talk of every critic, media platform and tabloid when she took the role of Nina Sayers in Black Swan, giving her her first Academy Award, Golden Globes Award, and BAFTA awards all for Best Actress. 

The young actress then won the same awards again the following year for her performance as a troubled young widow in the romance film Silver Linings Playbook (2012), making her the highest-grossing lead actress in the world.

Established actress (2013-present)

The actress since then starred in high-grossing movies, including Gone Girl (2014), Inside Out (2015), Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), Promising Young Woman (2020). 

Y/L/N-Evans’s directorial debut was Lady Bird (2017), starring Soarise Ronan, Timothee Chalamet, and Laurie Metcalf. She was nominated for Academy Award for Best Director.

She then later was cast as June Osborne from The Handmaid’s Tale (2017), a woman who was captured while attempting to escape to Canada with her husband, Luke, and daughter, Hannah. Because Luke is divorced, their union is considered adulterous in this new society. June is considered an adulteress and their daughter, Hannah, is deemed illegitimate. Due to June's fertility, she is made a Handmaid to Commander Fred Waterford and his wife, Serena Joy as "Offred", and later to Commander Joseph Lawrence as "Ofjoseph". Y/L/N-Evans won 2 Primetime Emmy awards of Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance.

In 2019, Y/L/N-Evans starred as Dani in Midsommar by Ari Aster, featuring a traumatized psychology student who's in a dysfunctional relationship that leads her to a midsummer festival that turns out to be that of a sinister cult. The role granted her not only praise, but public sympathy as the actress had said it was “an experience I [Y/N Y/L/N-Evans] needed to heal from.”

Personal Life

In 2007, Y/L/N-Evans was rumored to be in a relationship with a high school friend, Dean Tyler, but there was no confirmation.

From 2008 to 2011, Y/L/N-Evans was in a long-term relationship with, then, assistant director of Atonement (2007), Avi Newt. The two still follow each other.

While filming The Spectacular Now (2013) in 2012, she met Miles Teller, and the two got into a relationship which they went public with in February of 2013 when they were photographed kissing.

The couple was together from December 2012 to September of 2014, with Y/L/N-Evans confirming the breakup to a fan but saying “he’s an amazing person. It was mutual.” The two continue to be friends.

In March of 2014, Y/L/N-Evans met–now–husband, Chris Evans at Vanity Fair’s Oscars afterparty, with the latter saying in an interview that it was “a dream come true” to meet the successful actress. 

It was in November of 2014 when they met again at a private party, hosted by Christopher and Jonathan Nolan in celebration of Interstellar’s release. Sources said that they spent the entire party together and exchanged phone numbers that night.

It wasn’t until November 2015 that the couple had gotten into a relationship and a month later, went public by getting photographed holding hands, kissing, and sharing laughs.

In June 2018, Chris Evans proposed and the couple announced their engagement through Instagram. They later got married in June 2019.

In June 2022, the couple announced that they are expecting their first child.

On September 25th, the couple announced the birth of River Jude Evans and Y/L/N-Evans announced an indefinite career break and leaving Euphoria as executive producer to focus on raising their son.

Filmography

The Parent Trap (1998) - Tie-dye girl

Spy Kids (2001) - Carmen Cortez

Spy Kids 2 (2002) - Carmen Cortez

Spy Kids 3 (2003) - Carmen Cortez

The Incredibles (2004) - Violet Parr

A Cinderella Story (2004) - Samantha “Sam”

The Pacifier (2005) - Zoe Plummer

V for Vendetta (2005) - Evey Hammond

Corpse Bride (2005) - Emily the Corpse Bride

The Devil Wears Prada (2006) - Andy Sachz

Atonement (2007) - Cecilia Tallis

Avatar (2009) - Neytiri

Julie & Julia (2009) - Julie

500 Days of Summer (2009) - Summer

Tangled (2010) - Rapunzel

Black Swan (2010) - Nina Sayers

Silver Linings Playbook (2012) - Tiffany 

The Spectacular Now (2013) - Aimee Finicky

Oz: The Great and Powerful (2013) - Theodora

Gone Girl (2014) - Amy Dune

Interstellar (2014) - Brand

Inside Out (2015) - Joy 

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) - Imperator Furiosa

Hacksaw Ridge (2016) - Dorothy Scutte

Mother! (2017) - Mother

The Incredibles 2 (2018) - Violet Parr

Ocean's 8 (2018) - Daphne Kluger

Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) - Mary Austin

Little Women (2019) - Meg March

Midsommar (2019) - Dani Ardor 

Soul (2020) - 22

Promising Young Woman (2020) - Cassandra “Cassie” Thomas

Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) - Neytiri

Television

The Office (2010) - Herself

Saturday Night Live (2015) - Herself (host)

The Handmaid’s Tale (2017-2022) - June Osborne

Peaky Blinders (2013-2019) - Grace Shelby (née Grace Burgess)

Ted Lasso (2020) - Herself

Scooby Doo and Guess Who? (2021) - Herself 

Euphoria (2019-2022) - Executive Producer

Broadway

Annie (1997-1999) - Annie

My Fair Lady (2005-2007) - Aliza Doolittle

Mary Poppins (2012-2013) - Mary Poppins

Accolades

Y/L/N-Evans won three Academy Awards for Best Actress for her performance in Black Swan (2010), Silver Linings Playbook (2012) and Promising Young Woman (2020). She has won four Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress for Black Swan (2010), Silver Linings Playbook (2012), Gone Girl (2014) and Promising Young Woman (2020). She has three Primetime Emmy Awards; two for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her performance in The Handmaid's Tale in 2017 and 2021, and for Oustanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her performance in SNL (2015). Y/LN-Evans won two BAFTA awards for her role in Black Swan (2010) and Gone Girl (2014) as Best Actress in a Leading Role. She won one Tony award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical for Mary Poppins (2013). She also has won one Grammy award for Best Spoken Word Album (Including Poetry, Audiobooks & Storytelling) for being the official narrator of the bestselling book by Madeline Miller, Circe (2018). The actress has 17 People's Choice Awards, 12 MTV Movie awards, 4 Critics' Choice Awards.

#planet evans #planet evans universe #chris evans imagine #chris evans x pregnant!reader #chris evans x famous!reader #chris evans x reader #chris evans blurb

[une-sanz-pluis]

Mary de Bohun, Countess of Derby

Mary de Bohun was probably born around 22 December 1370 to Humphrey de Bohun and Joan Fitzalan, Earl and Countess of Hereford. As her father had no son, she and her elder sister, Eleanor, became the heiresses of his wealthy earldom. Eleanor married Thomas of Woodstock, the youngest son of Edward III, and according to Froissart, Woodstock intended Mary to enter a nunnery so he would inherit the entire earldom. This was not to be. In late 1380 or early 1381, Mary married John of Gaunt's son and heir, Henry Bolingbroke, the future Henry IV. The marriage appears to have happy as they shared similar interests and often spent time together. The story that Mary gave birth to a short-lived son in 1382, when she would have been only 11, is now believed to be a myth brought into being by a mistranslated text referring to her sister giving birth to a son. Mary's first child was the future Henry V, born 16 September 1386. Four more children soon followed: Thomas, Duke of Clarence (29 September 1387), John, Duke of Bedford (20 June 1389), Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester (3 October 1390) and Blanche, Electress Palatine (25 February 1392). Mary died either giving birth to her sixth and final child, Philippa, Queen of Norway, Denmark and Sweden, or from complications afterwards, on 1 July 1394, when she was only 23 years old. Mary was buried on 6 July 1394 in the Church of the Annunciation of Our Lady of the Newarke in Leicester. The church and her tomb was destroyed in the Reformation.

A little of her personality can be reconstructed. She was interested in music, playing the harp or cithara, and she bought a ruler to line parchment for musical notation, suggesting she may have also composed music.Such an interest was shared by both her husband and eldest son, one or both of whom were the 'Roy Henry' who composed two mass movements. She maintained a close contacts with other noblewomen, not only her mother and sister, but Constanza of Castile, Katherine Swynford and Margaret Bagot, suggesting that she may well have been more politically aware and involved than what is generally believed. She may have also continued the de Bohun of patronising manuscript illuminators. A number of illuminated manuscripts believed to belong to her or her sister are some of the most celebrated late medieval English manuscripts.

Mary never became Duchess of Lancaster, let alone Queen of England, but it was her family's badge of the swan that became associated with the Lancastrian kings, most famously borne by her eldest son, Henry V. One of Henry V's first acts as king was to order a copper effigy for her tomb, while in the charter of his Syon foundation, he required that the soul of "Mary … our most dear mother", among others, be prayed for in a daily divine service. Her third son, John, recorded her anniversary into his personal breviary, while her daughters may have each carried manuscripts belonging to her with them when they left England to be married. Despite the brevity of her life, Mary was remembered long after her death.

Sources: Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS Lat. 17294, Chris Given-Wilson, Henry IV (Yale University Press 2017), Ian Mortimer, The Fears of Henry IV (Vintage 2008), John Matusiak, Henry V (Routledge 2012),  Calendar of the Patent Rolls: Henry IV. Vol. I. A. D. 1399-1401, Calendar of Close Rolls 1381-1385, Rebecca Holdorph, 'My Well-Beloved Companion': Men, Women, Marriage and Power in the Earldom and Duchy of Lancaster, 1265-1399, University of Southampton, PhD Thesis, Marina Vidas, The Cophenhagen Bohun Hours: Women, Representation and Reception in Fourteenth Century England (Museum Tusculanum Press 2019)

#mary de bohun #henry iv #henry v #edits #historyedit #on this day #noblewomen

[selkienight60]

In case you too were unaware, The Batman (film) 2022 features this in the “future” section: “Key cast members had signed on for future films by November 2019. In December 2021, Pattinson said he had ideas for developing Batman's character in further films, while Clark said The Batman would lay a foundation for future films to build upon. Pattinson and Reeves expressed interest in introducing Robin and featuring the Court of Owls, Calendar Man, Mr. Freeze, or Hush as villains in a sequel.” Robin?! please! i beg u i want that so much c’mon Dick Grayson, 2025

[abwwia]

Christine Sun Kim, The Star-Spangled Banner (Third Verse), 2020, charcoal on paper, overall: 58 1⁄4 × 58 1⁄4 in. (148 × 148 cm) frame: 60 3⁄4 × 60 3⁄4 in. (154.3 × 154.3 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase and purchase through the Asian Pacific American Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center and through the Julia D. Strong Endowment, 2021.31.1, © 2020, Christine Sun Kim. Courtesy of the artist and François Ghebaly, Los Angeles

Christine Sun Kim (born 1980) is an American sound artist based in Berlin. Working predominantly in drawing, performance, and video, Kim's practice considers how sound operates in society. Musical notation, written language, American Sign Language (ASL), and the use of the body are all recurring elements in her work. Her work has been exhibited in major cultural institutions internationally, including in the Museum of Modern Art's first exhibition about sound in 2013 and the Whitney Biennial in 2019. She was named a TED Fellow in both 2013 and 2015, a Director's Fellow at MIT Media Lab in 2015, and a Ford Foundation Disability Futures Fellow in 2020. Via Wikipedia

#Christine Sun Kim #art by women #art #palianshow

[shamandrummer]

The World is Running Out of Water

The world is "running out of water," Makasa Looking Horse says, and if we don't take action soon, it will be too late. Looking Horse, from Six Nations of the Grand River in Ontario, Canada, is one of the hosts of the Ohneganos Ohnegahdę:gyo -- Let's Talk about Water podcast, which won a 2021 David Suzuki Foundation Future Ground Prize. The prize recognizes youth-led movements. It's a podcast created, the Suzuki Foundation says, to "engage Indigenous communities and disseminate research findings by facilitating meaningful discussion about water issues and climate change."

Looking Horse points to Aberfoyle, Ontario, where BlueTriton Brands, Inc., an American beverage company based in Connecticut, has permits to take 3.6 million litres of water a day out of an aquifer there. BlueTriton is the new name of the giant corporation better known as Nestlé Waters North America. The name was changed to BlueTriton Brands in 2021.

She says "they're making millions off our water and selling it. And the thing about aquifer waters that it takes 6,000 to 10,000 years for that water to filter through the ground. We'll never see that water within our lifetime again and that's why it's so important that we stop water extraction."

BlueTriton says, in a report from November 2021, that it has conducted "extensive testing and studies over the years to ensure that their operations do not diminish the availability of water for other users or the environment." The company says "permit conditions require BlueTriton to monitor the natural and pumping-related variations in groundwater and surface water levels." The permit was renewed by the Ontario government in 2021 and runs until November 2026.

Looking Horse's commitment to protecting water was passed down from her parents. Her mother is Dawn Martin-Hill, one of the founders of the Indigenous studies program at McMaster University and the winner of the University of Oklahoma's International Water Prize, for her commitment to improving water security for the people of the Six Nations of the Grand River.

Her father is Chief Arvol Looking Horse, 19th Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe. He was given the responsibility at age 12, the youngest keeper in history. Looking Horse  says her path into activism and water sovereignty didn't happen overnight. It was a long and encompassing journey full of passion for earth, prayer for water and everything on earth.

Similar to Looking Horse, the United Nations (UN) also has concerns about how much water humans can access. According to a UN report, by 2025 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two thirds of the world's population could be living under "water stressed conditions."

In June of 2019, Looking Horse hand delivered a cease and desist letter from the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council to Nestlé Waters in Aberfoyle. In 2021, the council sent another letter to BlueTriton, after the company changed its name, saying "the majority of our people at Six Nations do not have access to clean drinking water... we declare your activities to remove [aquifer] waters under our territories unpermitted and demand that you cease your activity immediately."

The fight for water sovereignty and for clean drinking water continues for Looking Horse. "The urgency worldwide is huge because the world is running out of water. This is only one example of exploitative extraction by a big corporation. This doesn't include all of the pollution and micro plastics that are living in waterways and systems across the globe," she said.

"I've been praying for water and working with water for a very long time, and that's where it started," she said. "You start to learn how valuable water is on a spiritual level, but also on a statistic level. The world is really in a water crisis. So, it's in our culture to protect the water and have a responsibility."

#water sovereignty #water is life #clean drinking water #water extraction

[velvetjune]

List of unrelated Control (2019) things I noticed on my second playthrough:

Langston (highly likely) being behind the Tennyson Report that Trench was investigating: The report loudly criticized Trench and Darling for being “anti-esoteric” by pushing the FBC in the direction of science instead of faith. Langston’s comments that Darling gets away with his strange behavior because he’s charming, disliking but giving Trench some credit for even going with the Panopticon, mentioning how altered items need to be treated better with rituals and kindness.

Langston taking a traffic light altered item to a movie

The archives having Pandora’s box (aka Hiss in a mod box) along with two astral spikes. Why. I fought so much for that extra Darling video and Threshold Kids episode (it was worth it).

Trench, Darling, and Marshall’s inner circle and close relationship that destructed with the investigation into the Ordinary AWE and Dylan. All three of them being figures of the old Bureau Jesse wishes to change (Trench being secretive about the Hiss; Darling with Heston/Polaris; Marshall with the Foundation; All about Dylan). Wish the game hinted at their connection and past more. Maybe they’ll still be in contact through the hotline.

Underhill and Darling being old friends, maybe exes (?) who still care for each other. Honestly, I love the mild one-sided animosity from Underhill for Darling’s research getting more attention (that we know is because he was committing ethical violations with Trench) while clearly having fun hating on him and working at the FBC again. Even funnier that HR was looking into their possible relationship status.

Underhill dropping her career and life in England for mold. Iconic

The sheer difference between Underhill’s shocked and sad reaction to hearing of Darling’s death versus Pope not giving a shit (and saying she’s sure he’s happy as long as he can take in his surroundings). Love Emily

The amount of drama between coworkers and departments. I’m convinced working in HR at the Oldest House would single-handedly be the most stressful job there.

There’s no way the Blessed organization/Chester Bless won’t be a part of a future Control game

Spoilers for Alan Wake 1/2: The night springs manuscript pages reflecting what happened to Trench and Darling. Incredible. But it only feeds into my belief that Alan is great at writing fun, cheesy genre stories. He was made for writing over the top sci-fi or noir mysteries (or even musicals). Let him write a Goosebumps book

Spoilers for Alan Wake: The Vivid Dreams dead letter by Bowker being a reference to the Bright Falls AWE. Being in a lake and seeing shadows that whisper phrases.

Spoilers for Alan Wake: Zane’s shoebox from Alan Wake maybe being o.o.p. that was found in Ordinary, Maine, protecting its contents from the effects of the AWE. The mention back to Samantha Wells from the House of Dreams ARG where Wells communicated with Zane in her dreams. The shoebox effects could be replicated, but it mysteriously went missing in the FBC.

Spoilers for Max Payne 2: The Flamingo altered item on the TV being the same as the logo for the Address Unknown show in Max Payne 2 (…which was a parody of Twin Peaks,, and would later become the plot of Alan Wake 1 and 2)

Spoilers for Alan Wake 2 Final Draft: The HRA video with Darling quoting Space Oddity—“Commencing countdown, Major Tom” (same song at the end of Alan Wake). 665 Neighbor of the Beast for black rock quarry in Darling’s presentation and room 665 for Zane. The Darling music video at the Oceanview Jesse finds in her dream state possibly being filmed at the Dark Place’s Oceanview Hotel. No idea of these were all fun Remedy references to itself for laughs (665 is in Max Payne too), but it truly is incredible that it led to the Zane and Darling collaboration.

#a lot of these are obvious but i was Not paying enough attention when i got into Control years ago 😭 astounding how much i missed #this is mostly for me to look back on both for theories and laughs #control 2019 #this list would’ve been longer if i remembered to take more notes in my playthrough #long post

[arowrath]

(talking to my 14 year old self) no yeah i'm you from the future-- no i know our mohawk is fucking sick isn't it we've had it since we were 17. anyway okay so they get back together publicly in 2019 and play a reunion show in california-- yup like danger days yeah. and then there's a worldwide pandemic, don't even worry about it-- yeah i had it once and i think it fucked up my body but that's not the point don't worry it's fine. so there's the pandemic and once things calm down a little bit and there's a vaccine and everything they announce they're going on a tour. and a couple days before the tour they release a new song. no i'm not fucking with you it's called the foundations of decay and it's about rising from decay and getting up and fixing your heart. and then they go on tour and gerard wears a dress onstage LOTS OF TIMES and they have a trans flag onstage one time too. people stream the shows on instagram so we got to watch and-- hm? no we didn't get to go, we almost did but we weren't able to. no i didn't kill myself about it, we'll catch 'em next time, it's okay. yeah next time. i'm so genuinely sure there will be a next time i'm not even worried about it man. do you want a monster

#text #lost&found

[rikeijo]

Today's translation #529

Otomedia + Spring 2017, Toshiharu Mizutani (Art Director) interview

Part 1.

-- Please tell us how do you feel about the work you've done, now that the anime has ended?

M: I felt that this one month passed so quickly. We had an art setting designer, Tamura Seiki-san, on the team, who worked before with Yamamoto Director on her other project. During the pre-production stage, he prepared the foundation, on which we could construct everything. I joined the team, after that foundation has already been partly there. But the pre-production, so the stage when you have to do a lot of research is the most fun. After the actual production had started, you have to do everything on schedule, but pre-production is the time, when you can get really excited, like: "I want to try to do this and this". But nowadays, I usually work on many projects at once, so I can't just take my time with preparations, as I used to do in the past.

-- You've joined the project in the middle [of pre-production], so I suppose the direction has already been decided to some degree?

M: Yes, and my team was following this direction. Normally, the role of the art director is to take part in the project from the scenario-writing stage and prepare image boards to create the world of the story - based on that more detailed art settings are created. This time, all of that was done by Tamura-san.

[Notes: I really need to finally make a nice list of all these translations, because I'm starting to lose track of what I have already translated and what not 😂 Unfortunately, right now I'm too busy with uni work do that rn😔... But in the near future!

In the meantime, another interview with the art director.

A piece of fandom history - very interesting thing about this magazine (published 2017/02) is that it contains a huge Yurio-centric article for 5 full pages, just about Yurio. Often, not even a whole show gets so many pages. This was one of the things, that made some parts of the fandom very angry, very early on (because Yuuri, the main character, never had this kind of feature about him only), and kind of made people start to notice that: "oh, they started to really promote Yurio, huh? Will the next season be about him...?". This was even before Mitsurou's biggest crime, her Welcome to the Madness manga, in addition to the Yuuri-less bonus to the last DVD.

((Just to be clear, I'm personally absolutely neutral - I like both Yurio and Yuuri&Victor together, and them separately, wouldn't mind second season about Yurio, don't mind that WttM was about Yurio etc. I simply find the history of YoI fascinating and I do think that from a perspective, it's kind of clear that the IP holders were trying to correct the direction this show went, but this attempt failed (almost empty screenings in 2019 etc.), and as a consequence, they've never made more YoI.))]

#yuri on ice #yoi translations #yuri on ice translation