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shibalen · 2 years

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♡︎ hi all! i only have two event matchups left and i was planning on finishing them. however, i think i really need to rest this weekend, seeing as i am going to a trip with my family. i will get to them, i promise! the event is still open too. thank you :D

#len's talks #len's 101

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deep-space-netwerk · 7 months

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So Venus is my favorite planet in the solar system - everything about it is just so weird.

It has this extraordinarily dense atmosphere that by all accounts shouldn't exist - Venus is close enough to the sun (and therefore hot enough) that the atmosphere should have literally evaporated away, just like Mercury's. We think Earth manages to keep its atmosphere by virtue of our magnetic field, but Venus doesn't even have that going for it. While Venus is probably volcanically active, it definitely doesn't have an internal magnetic dynamo, so whatever form of volcanism it has going on is very different from ours. And, it spins backwards! For some reason!!

But, for as many mysteries as Venus has, the United States really hasn't spent much time investigating it. The Soviet Union, on the other hand, sent no less than 16 probes to Venus between 1961 and 1984 as part of the Venera program - most of them looked like this!

The Soviet Union had a very different approach to space than the United States. NASA missions are typically extremely risk averse, and the spacecraft we launch are generally very expensive one-offs that have only one chance to succeed or fail.

It's lead to some really amazing science, but to put it into perspective, the Mars Opportunity rover only had to survive on Mars for 90 days for the mission to be declared a complete success. That thing lasted 15 years. I love the Opportunity rover as much as any self-respecting NASA engineer, but how much extra time and money did we spend that we didn't technically "need" to for it to last 60x longer than required?

Anyway, all to say, the Soviet Union took a more incremental approach, where failures were far less devastating. The Venera 9 through 14 probes were designed to land on the surface of Venus, and survive long enough to take a picture with two cameras - not an easy task, but a fairly straightforward goal compared to NASA standards. They had…mixed results.

Venera 9 managed to take a picture with one camera, but the other one's lens cap didn't deploy.

Venera 10 also managed to take a picture with one camera, but again the other lens cap didn't deploy.

Venera 11 took no pictures - neither lens cap deployed this time.

Venera 12 also took no pictures - because again, neither lens cap deployed.

Lotta problems with lens caps.

For Venera 13 and 14, in addition to the cameras they sent a device to sample the Venusian "soil". Upon landing, the arm was supposed to swing down and analyze the surface it touched - it was a simple mechanism that couldn't be re-deployed or adjusted after the first go.

This time, both lens caps FINALLY ejected perfectly, and we were treated to these marvelous, eerie pictures of the Venus landscape:

However, when the Venera 14 soil sampler arm deployed, instead of sampling the Venus surface, it managed to swing down and land perfectly on….an ejected lens cap.

#space #space history #venus #NASA #Venera #spost #I will talk all day about venus #ask me about venus floating sky cities #unpopular opinion venus > mars #this is probably my favorite space history story #the surface of venus is made of lens caps #don't try to tell me the universe doesn't have a sense of humor #well #I guess its more that people have a sense of humor and we happen to live in the universe

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the-crooked-library · 1 month

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so within the universe of Dune, gender roles abide by a rigid false dichotomy created by the bene gesserit - men lead the noble houses, while the women may join their order, and the powers of both are kept intentionally separate. at the same time, the plot demonstrates repeatedly that the role of paul atreides as a character is that of the border between the concepts juxtaposed within dichotomies: he is both an outerworlder and fremen, both harkonnen and atreides, both a duke and a disciple of the bene gesserit.

as such, it follows that within the in-universe gender structure, he occupies the roles of both male and female, thus being functionally and societally nonbinary. in this essay, i will -

#dune #paul atreides #diversity win! this aspiring space dictator is nonbinary #dune 2024 #atreides #bene gesserit #gender lens #dune meta #this is probably very obvious and already talked about but i had to get it out #i think it's also supported by the original intent behind his birth. as in he was supposed to be a girl etc #gender roles #worldbuilding

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ramshackledtrickster · 1 year

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Finding something cool and thematically rich and wanting to see what other people think abt it and all I find is shipping

#I probably should check other places before tumblr then if I want a more productive discussion abt the piece of media I guess #the movie is about war and fascism and indoctrination… can we talk abt this film thru a lens other than shippability please #cw flashing

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kindnessoverperfection · 9 months

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Please, if you can, take a moment to read and share this because I feel like I'm screaming underwater.

NPD (Narcissistic Personality Disorder) stigma is rampant right now, and seems to be getting progressively worse. Everyone is using it as a buzzword in the worst ways possible, spreading misinformation and hatred against a real disorder.

I could go on a long time about how this happened, why it's factually incorrect (and what the disorder actually IS), why it's harmful, and the changes I'd like to see. But to keep this concise, I'll simply link to a few posts under the cut for further reading.

The point of this post is a plea. Please help stop the spread of stigma. Even in mental health communities, even around others with personality disorders, in neurodivergent "safe" spaces, other communities I thought people would be supportive in (e.g. trans support groups, progressive spaces in general), it keeps coming up. So I'm willing to bet that a lot of people on this site need to see this.

Because it's so hard to exist in this world.

My disorder already makes me feel as if I'm worthless and unlovable, like there's something inherently wrong and damaged about me. And it's so much harder to fight that and heal when my daily life consists of:

Laughing and spending time with my friends, doing my utmost best to connect and stay present and focused on them, trying to let my guards down and be real and believe I'm lovable- when suddenly they throw out the word "narcissist" to describe horrible people or someone they hate, or the conversation turns to how evil "people with narcissistic personality disorder" are. (Seriously, you don't know which of your friends might have NPD and feels like shit when you say those things & now knows that you'd hate them if you knew.)

Trying to look up "mental health positivity for people with npd", "mental health positivity cluster bs", only to find a) none of that, and b) more of the same old vile shit that makes me feel terrible about myself.

Having a hard time (which is constant at this point) and trying to look up resources for myself, only to again, find the same stigma. And no resources.

Not having any clue how to help myself, because even the mental health field is spitting so much vitriol at people with DISORDERS (who they're supposed to be helping!) that there's no solid research or therapy programs for people like me.

Losing close friends when they find out, despite us having had a good relationship before, and them KNOWING me and knowing that I'm not like the trending image of pwNPD. Because now they only see me through the lens of stigma and misinformation.

Hearing the same stigma come up literally wherever I go. Clubs. Meetings. Any online space. At the bus stop. At the mall. At a restaurant. At work. Buzzword of the year that everyone loooves loudly throwing around with their friends or over the phone. Feels awesome for me, makes my day so much better/s

I could go on for a long time, but I'm scared no one will read/rb this if it gets too much longer.

So please. Stop using the word "narcissist" as a synonym for "abusive".

Stop bringing up people you hate who you believe to have NPD because of a stigmatizing article full of misinformation whenever someone with actual NPD opens their mouth. (Imagine if people did that with any other disorder! "Hey, I'm autistic." "Oh... my old roommate screamed at me whenever I made noise around him, and didn't understand my needs, which seems like sensory overload and difficulty with social cues. He was definitely autistic. But as long as you're self-aware and always restraining your innate desire to be an abusive asshole, you're okay I guess, maybe." ...See how offensive and ignorant that is?)

Stop preventing healthcare for people with a disorder just because it's trendy to use us as a scapegoat.

If you got this far, thank you for reading, and please share this if you can. Further reading is under the cut.

NPD Criteria, re-written by someone who actually has NPD

Stigma in the DSM

Common perception of the DSM criteria vs how someone may actually experience them (Keep in mind that this is the way I personally experience these symptoms, and that presentation can vary a lot between individuals)

"Idk, the stigma is right though, because I've known a lot of people with NPD who are jerks, so I'm going to continue to support the blockage of treatment for this condition."

(All of these were written by me, because I didn't want to link to other folks' posts without permission, but if you want to add your own links in reblogs or replies please feel free <3)

#actuallynpd #signal boost #actuallyautistic #mental health awareness #narcissistic personality disorder #people also need to realize that mental health professionals aren't immune from bias #(it really shouldn't come as a shock that the mental health field has a longstanding pattern of misunderstanding and mistreating ppl who ar #mentally ill or otherwise ND)#the first therapist i brought up NPD to like. literally pulled out the DSM bc she could barely remember the criteria. then said that there'#no way I have it because I have low self-esteem lmaoooooo #anyway throwback to being at work and chatting with a co-worker. and the conversation turning to mental health. and him saying that #he tries to stay informed and be aware and supportive of mental health conditions & that he doesn't want to be ignorant or spread harmful #misinformation. and then i mentioned that i do a lot of research into mental health stuff and i listed a bunch of things. which included #several personality disorders. one of which was NPD.#and after listening to my whole ass list he zeroed in on the NPD and immediately started talking about how narcissists are abusive and #he knew someone who had NPD and how the person who had it had an addiction and died from the addiction in a horrible way and he #was glad he did #fun times #or when i decided to be vulnerable and talk abt my self-criticism/self-hatred bc i knew my friends also struggled w that and i wanted to #support them by sharing my own coping methods. and they both(separately!) started picking and prodding at my npd through the lens of stigma #bc i'd recently opened up to them abt having it. they recognized self-hatred as a symptom and still jumped on me for it. despite me #trying to share hurt vulnerable parts of myself to help them and connect with them.#again..... fun times

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chubsette · 5 months

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Someday could you give us tips to draw chubby bodies?

i once put together some tips on how I draw fat for a friend so i suppose i can share those right now :) just keep in mind that these might not help everyone and that i mostly don't know what i'm talking about. it's just how i personally draw idk

and i cannot reccomend the book morpho: fat and skin folds by Michael Lauricella enough. it's an amazing resource for learning and it really changed the way i understand fat as an artist

edit: excuse all the typos on the images fml

#ask #chubsette talks #these are probably mostly useless but since you asked #also remember to look at people through a non-horny lens to practice #as in draw fat people and fat characters in other contexts too #its easier to find sfw references while you're learning and it'll help train your minds eye #the more you draw the less likely you are to relly on refs

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secretmellowblog · 6 months

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Another reason I dislike Les Mis adaptations that make Jean Valjean constantly openly angry/violent is because they miss that Jean Valjean is not allowed to be angry. The fact he is forbidden from expressing anger is, I argue, actually a very important part of his character in the novel!

One of the subtler political messages of the story is that some people are given freedom to express anger, while others are forced to be excessively meek and conciliatory in order to survive.

Wealthy conservatives like Monsieur Gillenormand can “fly into rages” every five minutes and have it treated as an endearing quirk. Poor characters like Fantine or Jean Valjean must be constantly polite and ingratiating to “their superiors” at all times, even in the face of mockery and violence, or else they will be subjected to punishment. If Gillenormand beats his child with a stick, it’s a silly quirk; if Fantine beats a man harassing her, she is sentenced to months in prison.

(Thenardier and Javert are interesting examples of this too. Thenardier acts superficially polite and ingratiating to his wealthy “superiors” while insulting them behind their backs. Javert, meanwhile, is completely earnest in his mindless bootlicking. But I could write an entire other post on this.)

The point is that….Jean Valjean has to be submissive and self-effacing, or he puts himself in danger. He can’t afford to be angry and make scenes, or he will be punished. The only barrier between himself and prison is his ability to be so “courteous” that no one bothers to pry into his past.

Jean Valjean is excessively polite to people, in the way that you’re excessively polite to an armed cop who pulls you over for speeding when you secretly have a few illegal grams of marijuana in the your car trunk. XD It’s politeness built on fear, is what I mean. It’s politeness built on a desperation to make a powerful person avoid looking too closely at you.

It’s politeness at gunpoint.

Jean Valjean has also spent nineteen years living in an environment where any expression of anger could be punished with severe violence. That trauma is reflected in the overly cautious reserved way he often speaks with people (even people who are kind and would never actually hurt him.)

So adaptations that have Jean Valjean boldly having shouting matches with people in public and beating cops half to death without worrying about the repercussions just make go like “???”

Because that’s part of what’s fascinating about Jean Valjean to me? On one hand, he is a genuinely kind compassionate person, who cares deeply about other people and behaves kindly out of altruism. But on the other hand, he was also “beaten into submission” by prison, and forced into adopting conciliatory bootlicking behaviors in order to survive. And it can sometimes be hard to tell when he is being kind vs. when he is being “polite” — when he is speaking and acting out of earnest compassion vs. when he is speaking and acting out of fear.

The TL;DR is that I think it’s important that even though Jean Valjean is very (justifiably) angry about the injustice that was inflicted on him, his anger is harshly policed at all times— by other people, and by himself. He has been told his anger is wrong/selfish so often that he believes it. His anger takes weirder more unhealthy forms because he has no safe outlet for it. His rage at society becomes a possessiveness towards Cosette and silent hatred of Marius, but primarily it becomes useless self-destructive constant hatred of himself. And while I might be phrasing this wrong, I think that’s what’s interesting about Jean Valjean’s relationship with anger— the way his justified fury at his own mistreatment gets warped into more and more unhealthy forms by the way he’s forced to constantly repress it.

#les mis #les mis letters #jean valjean #don’t mind me just Valjeanposting #you know I’m doing okay when I’m Valjeanposting #but yeah I can’t remember the first person who started talking about this concept with me #(it was years ago)#but now I think about it constantly #when you read the book looking through that lens #of certain charcaters being forced to act conciliatory and polite ‘under threat of violence’#you notice it constantly #it’s such a running Thing #and you could write tons of posts about it on www.tumblr.com

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some-pers0n · 2 months

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I think a lot of people mistake Sunny's resilience and hope in the face of a miserable and bleak scenario as childlike innocence and her not fully comprehending the danger of it all. Her optimism is a response to the pessimistic and nihilistic world around her. She truly believes in the prophecy. It has to work. That's what they've suffered all this time for. Everyone. There will be peace on Pyrrhia and it'll be delivered by her and her friends.

Her own arc in her book, about rising above the expectations placed on her and proving herself as dragon of worth, was foreshadowed a lot with how the DoD treated her. They themselves infantalized her despite being unaware of it. They believed Sunny to be weak and helpless. The little, tiny sister who needs to be protected.

Despite this, she's strong. She's smart, observant, and even Clay mentioned that she's a great fighter because she takes advantage of her small stature and people underestimating her. She isn't childish, but rather she believes that they'll pull through. That they'll bring peace. In the end? They do just that.

Sunny's optimism I feel is a nice breath of fresh air. A lot of protagonists like her go through hell and back and become a lot more jaded. Her? It's her hope for a better future that keeps her going. Even in the darkest of situations, when she should breakdown and succumb to the overwhelming misery of war and tragedy, she. keeps. going. She believes. Despite the cynicism of the DoD, even with Clay at times feeling despondent, she continues. She moves onward. She fights.

And...she wins. Peace is achieved on Pyrrhia. The prophecy came true.

#We can also talk about how Sunny's disability and how she's treated by others through a lens of ableism #But I don't think you all are ready for that conversation about you subconciouslly infantalize and babyfy disabled people #wof #wings of fire #sunny wof #sp-rambles

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forbiddennhoney · 10 months

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im gonna be so real - a lot of sapphics claim to love confident women esp confident femmes but when that confidence comes from femmes of color, fat femmes, disabled femmes, gnc &/or trans(masc or fem) femmes, or really just anyone who's not a thin cis white able bodied feminine person it's either outright ignored or treated with hostility and its kind of extremely ugly of y'all

#personal #not @ anyone just like #a trend ive noticed a bit #we're all called presumptuous or full of ourselves or literally outright ignored even in group settings #like ik its cause we live in an antiblack society that will always put whiteness (and things associated w/ white “purity”) on a pedestal #also ofc this isnt special to sapphics im just talking abt this from this lens bc im a lesbian and primarily move in these spaces

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erin-gilberts · 11 months

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I have a firm belief that the only way Yellowjackets can end is with the death of each of the remaining survivors and [redacted] was just the first (second, really) of what will be all of them in time. "The wilderness" will reclaim them one by one because they weren't supposed to leave. But also they will be swallowed up by their own darkness in their refusal to acknowledge it and that will be the great tragedy of it. All of their deaths will be preventable, but inevitable in light of the cycles they keep on repeating.

#erin is talking #yellowjackets #whichever one has the role of the storyteller is going to be the last #I think this could be Shauna (the writer) or Misty (the lens through which the others are framed - see: elevating Nat to the queen)#the historian is going to live to bear witness to each end #Lottie however is going to have to close the loop and die #think about it: Lottie has had so many instances of basically asking to be allowed to die and the others denying her that #Laura Lee kicked her out of the afterlife; Van did not allow her to be on the table for their first hunt #The thing about your Jesus figure is that eventually (s)he does have to die #Whether she wanted that role or not she has to close the loop that began with her

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namari-hime-moved · 3 months

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assorted vocaloid textpost edits

#mel talks #postposting #vocaposting #vocaloid #sorry the funny singing robots have taken over my brain #gakupo is supposed to be the 27 yr brother in the 4th one. just making that clear #okay tags time (dread)#MEIKO #KAITO #Hatsune Miku #Kagamine Rin #Kagamine Len #Gumi Megpoid #Kamui Gakupo #Lily Vocaloid #Hiyama Kiyoteru #Kaai Yuki #Vflower #AND THERE WE GO

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shibalen · 1 year

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i was messing around with the headers to try something new, now that i feel like i can write again, but lost the original in the process :') enjoy our boi Mikoshiba in the meantime~

#len's talks

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parti-poppers · 2 months

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On Twitter a lot of people are drawing their favorite characters with watermelon as a sign of solidarity with Palestine, so I decided to join in too for the strike. Everyone please do your daily click on https://arab.org and donate eSims on https://gazaesims.com if you’re able to!!