#or the period of 1994-1996

[viir-tanadhal]

if neil does hold true to ever writing a memoir or autobiography i sincerely think i would put off reading it for months

#hearing him explain the inspirations behind songs already are a lot to take in #but i dont think i could handle him going in depth about visiting chris dowell in the hospital or his funeral #or the period of 1994-1996 #or the release era. oh man. #if i think too much about 70s neil seeing bowie in a half full concert hall #absolutely mesmerized by the weirdness of it. of going to a gay club because thats where 'weird ppl' went and he felt like he didnt fit in #ok yeah i'd probably. i want so bad for him to write one #because i like his preface for his lyric book #the way its written and the little asides he does #it'd probably just be an emotional rollercoaster #like if being boring will forever be the only straight biographical thing of his life we'll ever have. it works #as he said - he's a man of mystery lol #a lot of tags sorry wldjdj #ive just been thinking about other musician's and their memoirs and autobios like the ones by the members of new order #NOT ME GETTING ALL LIKE THIS 6 DAYS BEFORE HIS BIRTHDAY SKDJDJD #i just go back and forth on it. its all still up to him. i'd read it i'd just need to emotionally prepare myself #but id like to know more about him visiting labels in the 70s. him deciding to buy a synthesizer. the whole drama surrounding jealousy #of course that comes with learning a lot of potentially depressing things as well

[centrally-unplanned]

Since I am discussing anime academia today, I was reading another paper that was equally frustrating, along a different axis:

“Do female anime fans exist?” The impact of women-exclusionary discourses on rec.arts.anime

This as a premise is a good concept; someone mining the 90's Usenet anime communities for how the fandom saw female fans back then (the article title is quoting one such thread). So of course, the opening line of this article about the anime fandom in the 90's is....sigh....a reference to Donald Trump:

Commenting on the 2016 American presidential elections, multiple news reporters noted that a relationship could be found between Donald Trump supporters and online anime fans

It of course goes on to discuss Gamergate, 8chan, online right-wing radicalization, references to the "Fascist" themes of Attack on Titan, and on and on. The obvious problem with this is that it is irrelevant; the "methodology" section involves this aside about how they pulled this data from Google Archives but Google is an advertising firm and not a replacement for a real archive and we need to Fight The System and buddy my dude that is not germane to your sample size!!! But more importantly, it is backwards. I don't need to explain the argument here in detail; the article is positing a throughline from 90's anime discourse to modern right-wing internet politics through a sort of 'lock-in' effect of built culture norms around misogyny. Which is fine, you can make that argument - but why is all this future stuff in the first section? You haven't really presented the argument yet! This isn't a book, its not the intro chapter - literally 30% of the text of this article is stating a conclusion upfront, justified not through the text itself but citations to other articles about its truth.

This is something media studies pulled from traditional science - traditional science states "established facts" up front that the paper is building on. But that is because - a thousand caveats aside - in chemistry those facts are....facts. They may be wrong facts, but they can, ostensibly, be objective descriptors. This paper cites "anime is still synonymous with far-right ideologies of white and male supremacy, and events of anti-Blackness" like its citing the covalent bond count of carbon. That is not and never will be a fact one can cite, that is an argument; and its not one that is important for understanding this analysis of Usenet groups. This structure is pulled from other sciences, but it flourishes because it lets you pad the citation count of your peers. Its embarrassing how often you can skip the first 1/3rd of a paper in this field - really the worst possible thing to copy from economics (ding!)

This paper also does the insane thing of jumping between citations from 1992 and events in the 2010's like anime culture is continuous between those time periods. Its an extremely bold claim it just does in the background... but lets set that aside.

This hyper-politicization & hyper-theorizing leads to the second issue of extreme under-analysis. This is the actual value-add of this paper:

From this search, I was able to find the discussion threads “How many females read r.a.a.?” (135 messages; opened on July 13, 1993), “Question: Girls on r.a.a?” (23 messages; opened on February 25, 1994), “Female Otakus” (221 messages; opened on June 25, 1994), “Women watching anime” (72 messages; opened on October 4, 1994), and “Female fans - Do they exist?” (61 messages; opened on October 26, 1995). While these discussions may seem like they were spaces for marginalized users to discuss their experiences, they were often started and overwhelmingly occupied by identified male users. In total, I extracted 252 messages from 1992 to 1996 that were relevant to the gendering of anime fandom, and among those, I classified them as 7 kinds of negative networking discursive practices: (e.g. Table 1. Negative networking practices on rec.arts.anime).

252 messages, five threads - later on it will name other threads, so its more than this, but you get it. It has a bunch of data. And from that data, the article quotes...less than half a dozen examples. There are no quantitative metrics, no threads are presented or discussed in detail from this data set. Some other event is discussed in detail, but again it quotes essentially one person once. The provided "Table 1", the only Table, is a list of the author's categorizations of the data; the data itself is not present. Its file format is a CSV, presumably to mock me for clicking it.

There is, from top to bottom, a complete lack of engagement with the data in question. This would fail an intro anthropology seminar; the conclusion is simply presumed from 1% of the sample size while the rest of the messages are left on read. I just don't think there is any value in that, a handful of messages from 1996 divorced from their context and stapled onto modern politics as a wrap-up. What did the people on this Usenet value? How did they think of women collectively? As anime fans, as outsiders, as romantic partners, as friends? What subfactions existed? Questions like those would presumably be the point of this investigation, but they are treated as distractions.

And this article was, in anime academic circles, a pretty well-trumpeted one. I'm not cherry-picking a bad one here, it was the "hot paper" of the month when it came out. Its just that the standards can be so low, its a field that simply lacks rigor. Which doesn't stop a ton of great work from being done btw, that isn't my point at all. My point is that the great work is not selected for; it goes unrewarded, bogged down by academic standards divorced from discovering real insights.

(I do not think the question "why are they misogynist" ever crossed the author's mind. That should be your literal thesis, and its a ghost. Just ugh.)

#anime academia

[all4aoki]

Home » Kpop Girl Groups » S.O.S (Sisterhood of Sound) Members Profile & Facts

𖦹 ₊ ⟡ ﹑ 𝓢.O.𝓢 (𝓢isterhood of 𝓢ound) Members Profile & Facts

→ 𝓢.O.𝓢, also known as 𝓢isterhood of 𝓢ound (소리의 자매단) is a South Korean project girl group under HYBE Labels. The group features the female members of the company’s co-ed teams as well as the female soloists. The group consists of soloists ﹫ Nana & Meira, ﹫ Lulu & Kilani of 𝓑TS, ﹫ Han Julie & Jiwoo of 𝓣omorrow X 𝓣ogether (TXT), and ﹫ Sangmi & YN of 𝓔nhypen. They debuted on May 27, 2022 with their debut EP ‘Sparkling’.

⎙ 𝓢.O.𝓢 (𝓢isterhood of 𝓢ound) Official Accounts

WEBSITE sisterhoodofsound.hybe / sisterhoodofsound.hybe.jp INSTAGRAM officalsosound TWITTER real_sos_hybe / real_sos_hybe_jp YOUTUBE S.O.S (Sisterhood of Sound) FACEBOOK officialsosound

MEMBER profiles & facts

𝓝ana

STAGE NAME Nana (나나) BIRTH NAME Im Jin Ah (임진아) POSITION – BIRTHDAY September 14, 1991 ZODIAC SIGN Virgo HEIGHT 171 cm (5’7”) WEIGHT – BLOOD TYPE A MBTI ESFP NATIONALITY Korean INSTAGRAM jin_a_nana GROUP Soloist, Ex After School REPRESENTATIVE EMOJI 🐘

⇵ show more NANA fun facts . . .

𝓚ilani

STAGE NAME Kilani (킬라니) BIRTH NAME Tsai Da Xia (蔡大夏) POSITION – BIRTHDAY March 11, 1994 ZODIAC SIGN Pisces HEIGHT 169 cm (5’6”) WEIGHT – BLOOD TYPE AB MBTI ISFP NATIONALITY Taiwanese-American INSTAGRAM kilaniknows GROUP BTS (방탄소년단) REPRESENTATIVE EMOJI 🌺/🐦

⇵ show more KILANI fun facts . . .

𝓛ulu

STAGE NAME Lulu (루루) BIRTH NAME Choi Hyo Son (최효손) MARRIED NAME Kim Hyo Son (김효손) POSITION – BIRTHDAY July 20, 1996 ZODIAC SIGN Cancer HEIGHT 170 cm (5’7”) WEIGHT – BLOOD TYPE A MBTI ENTJ (Her previous result was ENFP) NATIONALITY Korean INSTAGRAM hyoneybee GROUP BTS (방탄소년단) REPRESENTATIVE EMOJI 🐱/🦊

⇵ show more LULU fun facts . . .

𝓜eira

STAGE NAME Meira (메이라) BIRTH NAME Cheong Eun Ha (정은하) POSITION – BIRTHDAY August 11, 1998 ZODIAC SIGN Leo HEIGHT 147 cm (5’2″) WEIGHT – BLOOD TYPE AB MBTI ENTP NATIONALITY Korean INSTAGRAM meira.official GROUP Soloist REPRESENTATIVE EMOJI 🍓

⇵ show more MEIRA fun facts . . .

𝓙ulie

STAGE NAME Julie (쥴리) BIRTH NAME Julie Han POSITION – BIRTHDAY March 29, 2000 ZODIAC SIGN Aries HEIGHT 163 cm (5’4″) WEIGHT – BLOOD TYPE O MBTI ENFP NATIONALITY American INSTAGRAM ysjsodp_77 GROUP Tomorrow X Together (TXT) REPRESENTATIVE EMOJI 🐈‍⬛/🐰

⇵ show more JULIE fun facts . . .

𝓙iwoo

STAGE NAME Jiwoo (지우) BIRTH NAME Son Jiwoo (손지우) POSITION – BIRTHDAY October 30, 2001 ZODIAC SIGN Scorpio HEIGHT 166 cm (5’5″) WEIGHT – BLOOD TYPE A MBTI ENFP NATIONALITY Korean GROUP Tomorrow X Together (TXT) REPRESENTATIVE EMOJI 🐬

⇵ show more JIWOO fun facts . . .

𝓢angmi

STAGE NAME Sangmi (상미) BIRTH NAME Byun Sang Mi (변상미) POSITION – BIRTHDAY January 28, 2003 ZODIAC SIGN Aquarius HEIGHT 162 cm (5’4”) WEIGHT – BLOOD TYPE AB MBTI ENFP NATIONALITY Korean INSTAGRAM sarang.hoe GROUP Enhypen REPRESENTATIVE EMOJI 🐈

ꜛ show more SANGMI fun facts . . .

– Her hometown is Busan, South Korea.

– Training Period: 3 years.

– She ranked 10th in the final episode of I-LAND with 934,239 votes but was the producer’s choice to debut.

– She took English as one of her classes in high school and is now semi-fluent.

– Her nicknames are Susu, Suyangi, and 4D Insider.

– Sangmi has a plant nursery and sometimes uses the food she grows to cook.

– She was on her school’s dance team so she’s very flexible and good at tumbling.

– Her fandom name is Tailz created by fans.

– Her Hogwarts house is Gryffindor (19.09.21 vLive).

– She likes every fruit except for blueberries and grapes.

– Sangmi is very stable while dancing.

– She has one older brother.

– According to members, she’s very clumsy and they don’t let her hold a lot of things since she tends to drop them.

– Sangmi is friends with all of STAYC, Kep1er’s Dayeon, Woo!ah’s Wooyeon, aespa’s Winter & Karina, Kiss of Life’s Belle, and BOYNEXTDOOR’s Sungho.

– When she was little, her family went to Disney a lot, so she’s a huge Disney fan.

– She trained at JYP for 1 year before moving to BigHit where she trained for 2 years.

– Friends would describe her as funny, supportive, and caring.

– She has bad eyesight and is supposed to wear contacts, but they make her eyes dry so she doesn’t wear them much.

– Sangmi has a Pomeranian named Haenguni and a cat named Yangmi.

– A secret talent of hers is that she’s really good at magic tricks.

– Education: On Music Jasmin Academy, Hamlin Multi Arts School.

– She has a habit of putting keychains on her bags and pants.

– Ever since she was little she’s been very good at comforting people.

– Before gaining popularity for being a trainee, she was well known online for giving makeup advice, especially for eye makeup.

– Her favorite colors are pink and red.

– Specialty: dancing, positive attitude, performance (Self-revised Profile).

– Hobbies: playing video games, going on walks, calling her family, café-hopping (Self-revised Profile).

– Likes: watching YouTube videos, bubble tea, cats, ENHYPEN, dancing (Self-revised Profile).

– Dislikes: being sore, tomatoes, when she doesn’t understand something (Self-revised Profile).

– Charming Point: her sexy charisma, long legs, cute eyes (Self-revised Profile).

– Motto: “Vocal, dance, and rap; fall for the infinite charms of an all-rounder!”

𝓨N

STAGE NAME YN ( ) BIRTH NAME Aoki YN (青木 ) POSITION Maknae BIRTHDAY April 7, 2004 ZODIAC SIGN Aries HEIGHT 164 cm (5’4”) WEIGHT – BLOOD TYPE A MBTI INFJ NATIONALITY Japanese-Kiwi INSTAGRAM dollerina GROUP Enhypen REPRESENTATIVE EMOJI 🐑/🐰

ꜛ show more YN fun facts . . .

– She was born in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan and moved to Napier, New Zealand when she was seven.

– She has one older sister (born in 1998).

– YN performed with Sangmi & Yunjin in the first episode of I-LAND.

– She’s danced since she was two and trained at the Paris Opera Ballet for a little under two years (I-LAND ep. 1).

– Her favorite feature of herself is her eyes.

– YN can play the piano, guitar (acoustic and bass), clarinet, and violin.

– Her favorite color is any shade of pink.

– She really loves nature and being outside. Spending time outside is one of her favorite things.

– YN’s favorite season is whatever one is next (she has a small preference for summer, though).

– She used to participate in her school’s musicals, and her favorite role was Cinderella in ‘Into the Woods’.

– She wants to meet her fans and go on a trip with the members after she debuts.

– YN ranked 7th in the final episode of I-LAND with 1,072,682 votes.

– Minis is YN’s fandom name created by fans.

– Her dad is Japanese and her mom is Kiwi.

– She loves writing music and lyrics. It helps her heal and she wants to give people something to relate to so they feel less alone.

– YN’s favorite movie is Little Women (2019).

– Education: Unknown Junior School, Paris Opera Ballet, Hanlim Arts High School.

– Everyone in Enhypen has different nicknames for her, but they all call her Princess and Dolly (Self-revised Profile).

– YN’s been learning to crochet from NewJeans’s Hanni (05.19.23 vLive).

– She’s close friends with Le Sserafim’s Yunjin & Hikaru, NewJeans’s Danielle & Hanni, and IVE’s Wonyoung & Yujin.

– YN is the youngest global ambassador for luxury brands Miu Miu, Vivienne Westwood, and Cartier.

– She speaks fluent Japanese, English, Korean, French, and Chinese. She speaks basic Thai.

– Sports she participated in when she was little include dance, gymnastics, softball, skiing, and tennis.

– YN has two cats, Cinnamon and Serena (I-LAND ep. 12).

– She journals and practices gratefulness each morning (08.20.22 TMI Note).

– She loves science and if she wasn’t an idol, she would be a veterinarian.

– She also knows how to ski and swam A LOT when she was little.

– Her favorite animal is cats and otters.

– She’s written songs for Enhypen including Ditto, ParadoXXX Invasion, Polaroid Love, and more.

– She ranked 1st on TC Chandler’s Most Beautiful Faces of 2021, 2022, and 2023.

– YN really loved boba and coffee (separately).

– She has a habit of tapping her nails on things.

– Her role model is Miss A’s Suzy, BLACKPINK’s Rosé, and TWICE’s Sana.

– She likes ASMR. She watches it when she’s trying to relax before bed.

– Training Period: 1 year.

– Her favorite foods are cucumbers, bulgogi, and tiramisu.

– YN passed the auditions for SM, JYP, YG, FNC, Starship, and a few others, but chose HYBE.

– Her grandparents have a dog named Jenny.

– Specialty: Singing, dancing, face, writing music (Self-revised Profile).

– Likes: Enhypen, Sunghoon [x5], shopping, dancing, spending time with her loved ones, Ni-ki, baking, being outside, Jake (Self-revised Profile).

– Dislikes: Disrespect, slow walkers, being told to speak up (Self-revised Profile).

– Hobbies: shopping, learning new things, dancing, spending time with her loved ones, listening to music, and reading (Self-revised Profile).

– Charming Point: Round face, big eyes, full lips, her smile (Self-revised Profile).

– Motto: “Just because I’m struggling, it doesn’t mean I’m failing” (Self-revised Profile).

ʬʬ 𝓛ATEST 𝓚OREAN 𝓒OMEBACK ≋ ゛

🔗 𝓢.O.𝓢 (𝓢isterhood of 𝓢ound) ‘CHERISH’ Official M/V

#⺡aoki yn ₊ #disclaimerꜝꜝthis is FICTIONAL #enhypen 8th member #enhypen added member #enhypen female member #enhypen #enha #enha 8th member #enha female member #original character

[michaeljoncarter]

What are your alltime favorite comics? Or just comics that you would recommend? Especially stuff that someone new could pick up without too much back reading to understand? You don't have to answer this if you don't want to but I'm looking for recommendations to branch out from just Batman/Batfam and just thought I'd ask!

this is all just off the top of my head, so i'm probably leaving out some Classics on accident, but (in no particular order):

Aquaman: Andromeda

Green Lantern (1990) (from Emerald Twilight (#48) on)

Gotham by Midnight

The Man of Steel (1986)

The Death & Return of Superman (Death of Superman, Funeral for a Friend/World Without a Superman, and Reign of the Supermen)

Superman: Last Son (Action Comics #844 - 846, #851, Annual #11)

Superman: Brainiac (Action Comics #866 - 870) & The New Krypton Saga (concludes with War of the Supermen, which is for some reason not on that reading guide)

World's Finest (2009)

Green Arrow: Year One

Green Lantern/Green Arrow

Green Arrow (1988)

The New Teen Titans (1980), Tales of the Teen Titans, and The New Teen Titans (1984)

Outsiders (2003)

Arsenal (1998)

Titans (1999)

Titans (2008)

Deathstroke (2016)

Steel (1994)

Aquaman: Time & Tide

L.E.G.I.O.N.

R.E.B.E.L.S. (all good, but i especially love from #15 on for kory content)

Aquaman: Death of a Prince

Tempest (1996)

the whole war of light era of green lantern, which i have a bigass reading guide for, but Red Lanterns & Red Daughter of Krypton in particular

Convergence: The Titans

Convergence: Green Lantern/Parallax

Convergence: Green Lantern Corps

Valor (1992) (the first few issues kind of drag, but it picks up quick (after #10, specifically)! the D.O.A. arc is an all-time fave for sure, and Valor #19 might actually be my all-time favorite single comic book issue point blank period)

roy's titans era (New Titans #100 - 130)

The Trial of Superman & Reign of Doomsday (these have literally nothing to do with each other, but we're grouping them together because neither one of them is particularly good. i mean, they're not terrible or anything, but really, they're only faves because i'm a huge sucker for storylines that involve the entire superfam lol)

Superman: The Black Ring (this one is here just because i appreciate how incredibly HECTIC it is. lex 1v1s a gorilla in the middle of the jungle, meets death, becomes a space god, builds a lois sexbot that ends up having been possessed by brainiac the entire time. also slade is there for like 2 pages solely to lose his shit and run around screaming like a little girl. the best kind of comic book insanity. magnifique)

those 5 minutes pre-reboot where damian joined the titans in a way that wasn't annoying as hell (Teen Titans (2003) #88 - 91, Red Robin #20, Teen Titans (2003) #92)

Wonder Woman (1987) (post-crisis ww & superman are both all-time faves, but this is a much better standalone read because it's way more self-contained & not constantly jumping between 9 different titles. again, all good imo, but i'm much more partial to everything post-artemis's introduction in #90 <3)

Superboy (1994) (ngl, i didn't super love the majority of this book. there's a LOT of good for sure, but it is very 90s, and that's not always a good thing. it's not terrible (apart from the romance aspect), and i'd still recommend reading it for sure, but there was definitely a lot of skimming and skipping around when i read through. ~#59 is where i started to find myself skimming a lot less, so if you find yourself having a hard time getting into it, too, i'd say just start there, then go back & read the earlier issues later)

post-crisis superman in general (so good, but holy fuck is it a pain in the ass to read. there were 600 superman titles running at all times, and EVERY single arc bounced between damn near all of them. i really want to make a ridiculously long reading guide for it, too, one day, but for now, you can fight your way through using this with me, if you'd like)

i'm still just starting to break into legion comics myself, so i don't think i can really give good recs for them just yet. i'm really enjoying them so far, though, so it's worth a mention. if you enjoy just jumping right into the deep end with 0 context like i do, i just started the 90s legion halfway through via superboy & valor. no idea what the hell's going on or who anybody is half the time, but that's just part of the fun. it's like sink-or-swim style language immersion but for ridiculous comic book people who talk entirely in references i don't understand even a little

i started with the valor arc in Superboy (1994) #17 - 19, then the following the Future Tense arc, and i just kinda kept reading Legionnaires & Legion of Super-Heroes (1989) from there. also picked up The Legion (2001) with #25, where kon joins up, with zero context for anything that'd happened before in that. this is an objectively terrible way of doing things, but also very fun as long as you don't mind a learning curve

also special mentions for a couple single issues that have always stuck out to me for some reason:

Justice League of America (2006) #11 (feel the need to put like... a claustrophobia warning on this one lol? a very anxiety-inducing read! be warned!)

Superman #712 (krypto-centric issue post-kon's death in Infinite Crisis. makes me want to scream every time i think abt it <3)

and i know you probably meant dc, but tbh most of my All Time Faves are marvel, so i have to mention a few:

X-23 (there are like 3 different volumes, and they're all so incredibly 2000s. i love them all dearly)

Wolverine: Origins

Captain America (2005)

Winter Soldier: Winter Kills

Avengers/Invaders

Old Man Logan (2015) & (2016)

Black Widow (2010)

Marvels (1994)

The Torch (2008)

Gambit (2012)

Gambit & Bishop: Sons of the Atom

Rogue (2004) (not good. kind of objectively terrible, actually, but i love rogue and i love rogue & shiro's relationship AND i love the bisexual implications with blindspot, so… here we are. if you aren't a huge rogue fan already, you will almost certainly not enjoy this lol)

Dark Wolverine & Daken: Dark Wolverine (THE absolute fave. akihiro is what a good % of the batfandom thinks jason todd is/was. bisexual, evil, obsessed with his own father. check, check, and check with a weird, violently homoerotic relationship with the punisher the cherry on top. also marjorie liu stealth confirming johnny storm's bisexuality via putting him in an absurdly toxic relationship with akihiro for like 2 issues remains both incredibly iconic and absolutely hilarious to me. 10/10/10)

in terms of more recent comics, i've pretty much only been keeping up with marvel

Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty (2022) (pretty much everything else going on (esp everything with bucky) is kind of annoying, but it has my favorite steve characterization like… maybe ever)

New Mutants (2019) (yeah, everything about krakoa era x-men is just kind of inherently annoying, but this one came outta left field near the end there with some of my favorite writing for madelyne pryor in a while and the dani moonstar & madelyne pryor enemies-to-lovers arc i didn't know i needed but am now fully obsessed with)

Midnight Suns (2022) (love a good rag-tag team of characters who have no business being on a team together. substitute teacher blade is such a powerful concept, it immediately made this an all-timer for me, and logan being drawn approximately 4ft shorter than everyone around him cemented it as a 10/10)

aaand finally, i've also really been enjoying dynamite lately. Vampirella/Red Sonja (2019) is where i got onboard with them. you don't have to know jack about these characters or universe beforehand (i didn't!), and i really can't recommend it enough, especially if you're someone who loves stories with time travel and/or bisexual vampire women

this is so messy, and i'm definitely forgetting a lot here lol, but hopefully this helps & you find something you like! good luck & have fun!

#ask #anonymous #comic recs #yeehaw

[fandomsandfeminism]

1. We should reinstate the Federal Assault Weapons Ban (which expired in 2004.)

Now, studies have shown that this ban didn't have much impact on overall gun deaths (since gun deaths that only impact 1 or 2 people are so so common.) However, there is evidence that it helped prevent mass shooting events.

A 2019 DiMaggio et al. study looked at mass shooting data for 1981 to 2017 and found that mass-shooting fatalities were 70% less likely to occur during the 1994 to 2004 federal ban period. This didn't stop all mass shooting events, obviously (the spike you see in 1999 is Columbine.) But it is an improvement. You don't get to own a grenade launcher or a tank. Maybe its time we took AR 15s and the like off the table. (For cops too, for the record.)

2. Universal background checks.

In 2015, a national Public Policy Polling survey of gun owners found overwhelming support (83%) for background checks, a 2018 Gallup poll found that 95% of people supported “requiring background checks for all gun sales,” and in 2019, a Quinnipiac University poll from 2019 found that 94% of American voters supported universal background checks.

These are popular and obvious steps forward.

3. No more permitless carry.

Texas has a permitless carry law. This legislation allows individuals 21 and older to carry open or concealed handguns without a permit. This means that most Texans no longer have to undergo a background check or complete training in order to carry a handgun in public.

This is, obviously, fucking lunacy. You have to pass a test to get a driver's license. You even have to pass different tests to drive different kinds of vehicles.

The same should *obviously* apply to firearms. Just. Obviously. A test for rifles, a test for hand guns, a background check for either, you only get to buy what you have a license for.

4. Inspections

Ok, so this is the most logistically and legally complicated, so it would be the one that we would need to work up to. Yeah? But I know Japan has a similar system, and yes. We are much bigger and own a lot more guns than Japan, so I know I know. But let's talk about it.

I have to get my car inspected every year. Make sure the brakes work and the engine won't explode. Yeah? For public safety.

So, let's say every year (3 years? 5 years? I don't know the logistics here) someone from the county comes out, checks that your guns are in good working order, that your gun safe is in good repair (that you aren't stockpiling a bunch of illegal ground to air missiles and land mines)- that everything is on the up and up and safe.

5. Gun buybacks.

Gun buybacks are straight forward systems to help get excess guns out of a community in a safe and legal way. A robust and generous federal buyback, like what Australia did in 1996 and 2003 would be a simple and easy step.

I'm not saying that we ban all guns. I'm not saying that no one never has any legitimate reason to own a gun. But this wild west mutually assured destruction arms race that America is currently in against itself is eating us alive. Eating our children. And there are simple, tested, popular steps forward.

#guns #gun laws #gun regulation #gun control

[justforbooks]

With her book The Return of Martin Guerre (1983), the historian Natalie Zemon Davis, who has died aged 94, attracted a wide readership and inspired future historians. It came out of working as a historical consultant on a film of the same name released the previous year, starring Gérard Depardieu and Nathalie Baye, and directed by Daniel Vigne.

Martin Guerre, a peasant farmer in the 16th-century Pyrenees, left his wife Bertrande to go on a journey, only to have his marital role usurped by an impostor who “returned” pretending to be him. After some years of cohabitation, Bertrande denounced the impostor, her testimony seemingly confirmed by the return of the real Martin Guerre. The impostor was duly tried and executed.

The film-makers’ questions about period detail and behaviour intrigued Davis. But other aspects of the movie genre troubled her, so she went back to the archives and wrote up her own compact account of 120 pages.

A gripping narrative and a lesson in method, Davis’s book raised questions about the reliability of evidence and the motives and worldviews of peasant men and women from a faraway place and time. It is an example of a microhistory, where historians turn away from the big canvas of kings, queens and battles to understand ordinary lives, often through a highly localised case study.

The Return of Martin Guerre was one of a series of works including Society and Culture in Early Modern France (1975), Fiction in the Archives (1987), Women on the Margins (1995) and The Gift in Sixteenth-Century France (2000). Davis’s trademark was the longer essay or biographical study, often focused on marginal or misunderstood personalities, all spiced with a sharp attention to issues of religion, gender, sex, class, money and power. Historical records for her were never dull: she once described them as “a magic thread that links me to people long since dead and with situations that have crumbled to dust”.

Born in Detroit, Natalie was the daughter of Helen (nee Lamport) and Julian Zemon, a textile trader, both children of east European Jewish immigrants to the US. While studying at Smith College, Massachusetts, at the age of 19 she fell in love with Chandler Davis, a brilliant mathematician and socialist activist; they married in 1948 and went on to have a son and two daughters. Her first degree, from Smith (1949), was followed by a master’s at Radcliffe College (1950).

Her life with Davis was productive and fulfilling but also complicated her early career, as his principled stances against McCarthy-era restrictions on political expression led to both him and her being barred from a number of posts, and from travelling abroad. This she needed to do for her doctorate on 16th-century France.

After finally gaining her PhD at Michigan University in 1959, Davis went on to hold positions at Toronto, moved in 1971 to the University of California, Berkeley, where she was appointed professor, and in 1978 to Princeton, retiring in 1996. She became only the second woman to serve as president of the American Historical Association (1987), and the first to serve as Eastman professor at Oxford (1994). In 2012 she was appointed Companion of the Order of Canada, and in the US was awarded a National Humanities Medal.

Davis helped establish programmes in women’s studies and taught courses on history and film. Her AHA presidential address, History’s Two Bodies (1988), summed up her thinking about gender in history. It was also the first such address to be printed with illustrations. Her book Slaves on Screen (2002) was one of the first in-depth treatments of this topic by a professional historian.

In her last two books, Davis returned to the exploration of mixed identities. Trickster Travels (2006) was about the 16th-century scholar Leo Africanus, whose complicated Jewish and Muslim roots in North Africa she expertly unpicked. Listening to the Languages of the People (2022) focused on the 19th-century scholar Lazare Sainéan, a Romanian-Jewish folklorist and lexicographer who published one of the world’s first serious studies of Yiddish, but had to abandon his Romanian homeland for Paris in 1901.

At the time of her death, Davis was completing a study of slave families in colonial Suriname: it is hoped this will appear under the announced title of Braided Histories. In this way she continued to explore unconventional topics, going against the grain of Eurocentric history and looking instead at the boundaries of identity and belonging in very different settings.

Visiting many universities and research centres in her retirement, Davis encouraged younger scholars by conveying the potential of history to inspire empathy and hope for change. While at my own institution, the University of Amsterdam, in 2016, she made it her main aim to talk to students rather than to other professors. In 2022-23 she presented her latest work in online seminars, and wrote and corresponded actively until shortly before her death from cancer.

Chandler died in 2022. Natalie is survived by her three children, Aaron, Hannah and Simone; four grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; and a brother, Stanley.

🔔 Natalie Zemon Davis, historian, born 8 November 1928; died 21 October 2023

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

#just for books #Natalie Zemon Davis #in memoriam

[thatscarletflycatcher]

PERIOD DRAMA APPRECIATION WEEK 2022: Day 7: Free day - My Top 10 Period Drama OSTs

Little Women (1994)

War and Peace (2007)

Pride & Prejudice (2005)

Mansfield Park (1999)

North & South (2004)

Emma (2009)

Sense and Sensibility (1995)

Jane Eyre (1996)

Northanger Abbey (2007)

Emma (Miramax, 1996)

#perioddramaedit #perioddramaweek2022 #music in film #little women 1994 #War and Peace 2007 #Pride and prejudice 2005 #Mansfield Park 1999 #North and south 2004 #Emma 2009 #sense and sensibility 1995 #Jane Eyre 1996 #Northanger Abbey 2007 #Emma 1996 Miramax

[acquired-stardust]

Anime Spotlight #1: Sonic the Hedgehog OVA (1996)

Acquired Stardust's spotlights expand into the realm of anime! Join Ash as she takes a look back at 1996's Sonic the Hedgehog OVA, a fitting first entry in our anime spotlight series, bridging the gap between video games and anime.

In many ways the story of Sonic the Hedgehog mirrors that of developer Sega's due to how indelibly linked the Blue Blur's meteoric rise into pop culture relevancy is to the company at large. Sonic the Hedgehog, much like Sega, went from the cool new contender rivaling Nintendo's dominance in the early 90s to an underdog by the turn of the century, to an example of just how harsh the shift from 2D to 3D games could be to video game developers that struggled to make the transition with as much acclaim as Nintendo had, back to a beloved alternative underdog in recent years that represented a very particular style and sound that you couldn't find just anywhere else.

It's easy to see why Sonic the Hedgehog had such an impact in its initial boom period (which lasted roughly 8 years, from 1991 to 1999) with the strength of the creatives involved and inspirations evoked. Brandishing a visual and auditory edge along with its gameplay and level design that many considered on par with Nintendo's Super Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog helped propelled Japanese video game developer Sega into unprecedented heights particularly in America. Hot on the heels of 1993's Sonic CD and 1994's Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (& Knuckles)released on the Sega CD platform, 1996 saw the release of a two-episode Sonic the Hedgehog original video animation in Japan (that's OVA for those unfamiliar with anime terms, meaning a popular release method that's a sort of direct-to-video release rather than airing on television or in movie theaters). It was also compiled into a single 53-minute video and dubbed by ADV Films when it arrived in America in 1999, coinciding with the release of Sonic Adventure.

Immediately apparent is the retention of many of the elements that made Sonic so popular in this era. First you have the art style of Sonic CD, recreated faithfully by Studio Pierrot (also responsible for animating shonen anime classics Naruto, Bleach and Yu Yu Hakusho), with the even higher animation quality than the animated sequences of the then-new video game afforded by the budget of OVA format. There's also the soundtrack composed by Mitsuhiro Tada sporting an incredible blend of synthesizer, drums, keys and horns that's still stunning to this day and tragically never released in any official capacity (though an early production reel of the soundtrack, including its clever and catchy main theme sung by Riyu Konaka, was leaked in 2020 thanks to a Russian Sonic fansite). There's also the story and cast, an unthinkable (in 1996) teamup between Sonic and friends with nemesis Dr. Eggman rounded out by a few original characters such as the charmingly feral brat Sara, notably being the first instance of oddly human (or at least in this case humanimal) love interests for Sonic.

As previously mentioned, Sonic OVA nails a lot of things about the series that made it so popular at the time including the portrayal of its lead characters. Sonic has his cocky coolness, Tails lovable kid genius with plenty of vulnerability and Knuckles has both all the toughness and silliness one would expect. Aspects of all three of these characters would come to be either lost of hyperfocused on in the years to come and it's pretty great to have a piece of media capture the protagonist trio in such robust detail, with each character getting several moments to shine and their own significance in the events of the OVA as opposed to being ultimately completely beholden to Sonic to save the day.

Another retention from the video games of the time is the action and sense of speed with Studio Pierrot having done a wonderful job animating not only several sequences of traversal straight out of the Sega Genesis games complete with cameos of enemies along with several impressive fight sequences, as well as a few small instances of impressively thought out interaction between both characters and environment. In terms of the story and animation it's clear that the people involved in the project really understood the assignment and never phoned it in or lost sight of what they were doing.

While a wonderful snapshot of the series at the time, Sonic OVA also features a few interesting elements that look to the future. Planet Freedom, the world in which the characters inhabit in this particular incarnation of the series, features a distinctly New York City in post-apocalypse locale that would later come up again in 1999's Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast. Sonic OVA also positions Tails and Dr. Eggman as more direct rivals than previously seen, which would come to be a staple of the series starting again with 1999's Sonic Adventure. Sonic OVA is not entirely without its own quirks that would not be retained however, most notably referring to Knuckles as a mole and seemingly giving him the ability to outright fly as opposed to merely gliding.

Some may find the English cast to be annoying, but personally this is my favorite casting of the characters and the voices I always associate with them - they're teenage (and in the case of Tails, a child) cartoon animals after all. Regardless of which language you choose to watch in, Sonic OVA is a fantastic time and an interesting snapshot in time that effectively communicates why a lot people had so much fascination with Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog in its prime. It's also not everyday that this era of Sonic's music, largely featuring reworked compositions of Masato Nakamura's band Dreams Come True and later various songs by Michael Jackson (itself an interesting footnote of Sonic development lore), manages to feature tracks that stand up to the mainline games' quality, but Sonic OVA definitely includes a few songs that will stay with you and it's a shame that until recently the soundtrack has been almost completely ignored by Sega.

A gem hidden among the stones, Sonic the Hedgehog OVA is undoubtedly stardust.

-- Ash

#anime #retro anime #90s anime #1990s #sonic #sega #sonic the hedgehog #gaming #retro gaming #video games #studio pierrot #ADV Films #OVA #anime spotlights

[dan6085]

Top 20 F1 races that are widely considered as some of the greatest of all time, based on their historical significance, drama, and excitement:

1. 1979 French Grand Prix - this race is famous for a memorable battle between Gilles Villeneuve and René Arnoux, who exchanged positions multiple times in a thrilling duel.

2. 1984 Monaco Grand Prix - regarded as one of the greatest drives in F1 history, Ayrton Senna drove a masterful race in wet conditions to secure his first Monaco win.

3. 1985 European Grand Prix - a dramatic race that saw Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna and French driver Alain Prost battling for the championship. Senna emerged victorious after a controversial collision with Prost.

4. 1986 Mexican Grand Prix - a classic race that saw Nigel Mansell in the Williams-Honda chasing down Ayrton Senna's Lotus-Honda in the closing laps, with Mansell setting the fastest lap on the final lap of the race.

5. 1987 British Grand Prix - a thrilling race that saw Nigel Mansell win his home Grand Prix in front of an ecstatic crowd after a tense battle with his teammate, Nelson Piquet.

6. 1991 Australian Grand Prix - a dramatic race that saw Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell battle for the championship in a rain-soaked racethat was eventually red-flagged due to weather conditions. Senna was declared the winner, securing his third championship.

7. 1993 European Grand Prix - a race remembered for Ayrton Senna's stunning opening lap, where he went from fifth to first in just a few corners in the rain.

8. 1994 Australian Grand Prix - a race that marked the end of the tragic 1994 season, which saw the deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger. Damon Hill won the race and the championship, becoming the first son of a world champion to win the title himself.

9. 1996 Monaco Grand Prix - a wet race that saw Olivier Panis score his first and only F1 victory after the leading cars of Michael Schumacher, Damon Hill, and Jean Alesi all retired.

10. 1998 Belgian Grand Prix - a chaotic race that saw a multi-car pile-up at the start and a dramatic last-lap collision between Michael Schumacher and David Coulthard, with Schumacher confronting Coulthard on the track after the incident.

11. 2000 Japanese Grand Prix - a title-deciding race that saw Michael Schumacher win his first championship with Ferrari after a tense battle with Mika Hakkinen.

12. 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix - a race that saw F1 legend Michael Schumacher and up-and-coming driver Kimi Raikkonen battle it out for the win ina thrilling race that went down to the wire.

13. 2005 Japanese Grand Prix - a race that saw Fernando Alonso secure his first championship in a dramatic race that saw multiple lead changes and a late-race charge from rival Kimi Raikkonen.

14. 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix - a race that marked the end of Michael Schumacher's career, with a tense battle between the German and Fernando Alonso for the championship. Alonso ultimately won the title, while Schumacher finished his F1 career with a podium finish.

15. 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix - a race that saw Lewis Hamilton secure his first championship in a dramatic final lap, passing Timo Glock in the closing stages to finish fifth and secure the title by a single point.

16. 2011 Canadian Grand Prix - a race that saw Jenson Button score a stunning victory after battling back from last place, with multiple safety car periods and a red flag adding to the drama.

17. 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix - a race that saw Sebastian Vettel secure his third championship in a tense battle with Fernando Alonso, with Vettel finishing sixth to secure the title by just three points.

18. 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix - a race that saw Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg battle it out for the win in a thrilling wheel-to-wheel battle that went down to the wire, with Hamilton ultimately emerging as the victor.

19. 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix - a wet race that saw MaxVerstappen and Lewis Hamilton battle it out for the win in a dramatic race that saw multiple lead changes and a red flag period. Verstappen ultimately emerged as the victor.

20. 2019 German Grand Prix - a race that saw Max Verstappen secure a stunning victory in wet and treacherous conditions, with multiple drivers crashing out and a dramatic fight for the podium positions.

These races are considered among the greatest of all time due to their historical significance, the drama and excitement they provided, and the memorable moments and battles they produced. Each of these races had a unique story and left a lasting impression on F1 fans and the sport as a whole.

[mybeingthere]

Michael Raedecker (born 1963) is a Dutch artist who works in the United Kingdom.

Raedecker was born in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. From 1985 to 1990 he studied fashion design at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, and then, from 1993 to 1994, at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten there. In 1996 and 1997 he studied art at Goldsmiths College in London. After a period working as an apprentice to Martin Margiela, he began to make pictures that included textiles or embroidery as well as paint.

In 1999 Mirage, a painting incorporating sequins and thread, received first prize in the John Moores Prize Exhibition held at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool during the Liverpool Biennial. The following year, Raedecker was on the short-list for the Turner Prize.

[oh-no-eu-didnt]

The Hundred Year Darkness was a period of time in the Jedi Order’s ancient history. Also referred to as the Second Great Schism, it began as enterprising young Jedi began studying strange new Force techniques. As they began using the dark side to alter life itself, they were cast out of the Order, and began warring with the Jedi. After a century of conflict, the dark Jedi were defeated on Corbos. Gathered into colony ships and exiled, the survivors happened upon Korriban. They conquered the native Sith and began a new empire.

Source - Tales of the Jedi: The Golden Age of the Sith 2 (Art: Dario Carrasco, Jr.; 1996)

First Appearance - Tales of the Jedi: Dark Lords of the Sith 3 (1994)

Read more on Wookieepedia.

#hundred year darkness #jedi order #dark jedi #corbos #korriban #sith #sith empire #old republic #tales of the jedi #star wars comics #dark horse comics #dario carrasco jr #star wars #expanded universe #star wars canon #star wars legends

[the-heaminator]

I am an autistic stereotype

The queensland rail currently has eight models of carriages in rolling stock (aka active). The NGR700 (New Generation Rollingstock) is the most easily identifiable, mainly because they’re new (built 2015-2019) and are relatively free of graffiti, however their high backed seats and sleek exterior are also very distinctive. They have a top speed of 140km/hr and number at 75 units, making it the most common unit type. They are my current favourite for comfort and long distance travel due to their high backed chairs (no one reading over my shoulder!), cleanliness, better than average soundproofing and toilets in each carriage. I am not a fan of their accessible carriage however, as the inwards facing seats make me travel sick and I much prefer to be facing the direction of travel (or backwards if I must).

The oldest model still in use is the EMU (electric multiple unit, although I think someone had fun with the acronym to get there) and was built 1979-86 and is currently being slowly retired from active use following the introduction of the NGR, however there is no current end date for their operation. Their seats are more bench like in design, with the distinction between the two seats marked by a small rise and a seam within the fabric in the middle. The accessibility seat handles are square and set on the outer side of the top of the seats and utilise handles instead of buttons for opening doors. They are easily identifiable by these strange cage looking stalagtite like things in the middle of the carriages that are meant to be used as handles during busy periods. They have a top speed of 100km/hr, currently number at 28 active units, and are my second favourite in terms of aesthetics.

The rest of the active stock can be divided into IMU (Interurban Multiple Units) and SMU (Suburban Multiple Units) type models. Despite the names, both types of models can be seen on regional lines however IMU models are subtly different in their design, allowing for more comfort in long distance travel as they are fitted with larger seats, luggage racks and accessible toilets.

The SMU200 was built from 1994-95, has a top speed of 100km/hr and currently numbers at 12 units. They were built due to a rolling stock shortage of the EMU’s. The seats themselves are very similar to the EMU’s, bench like and with the same handle configuration.

The IMU100 was built 1996-97 and currently numbers at ten units and has a top speed of 140km/hr due to its intended purpose of interurban travel. The seats are higher backed than the SMU200’s and their seat handles are positioned on the upper corner of the seats. Post refurbishment they also have a subtle geometric purple or blue seat fabric, however the IMU105 retained the green-blue ocean themed seat fabric and I would absolutely love to travel in it one day.

The SMU220 is almost identical to the SMU200, however the aircon configuration is apparently different. They have a top speed of 100km/hr and were built 1999-2001 and currently have 30 active units.

The IMU120 I think might tie for first with the EMU as my favourite unit for aesthetics. They entered service in 2001, have a top speed of 140km/hr and only four units are in operation today! The IMU120 was one of the first units I rode in when I was starting to learn to identify the differences between units and it was both a very lucky find due to its relative rarity and distinctive design. The seats of the IMU120 are shoulder height but feature cushioned ‘head rests’ that aren’t found in any other model.

The SMU260’s and IMU160’s are almost identical in design, with separated seat cushions and seat handles that I can only describe as cat ear like, attached at the corner with a high arch. Both have a top speed of 130km/hr and finished production in 2011, however the IMU160 started production in 2006 and currently numbers at 28 units while the SMU started in 2008 and currently numbers at 36 units.

I would include a table with a summary of this information but i don’t think it’ll copy and paste well

*absorbs the information* i swear to god if i was half as good in my actual studies as i am remembering random information i would be a god.

#reference #eheheheh trains <3333333

[whysooha]

% BASICS ༘

. BIRTH NAME : Yoon Da-Eun (윤 다은)

. STAGE NAME : Sooha (수하)

. ENGLISH NAME : Roxanne Yoon

. NICKNAME : smiley, Lee Hyori biggest fangirl, eun, roxy, nation's smile...

. BIRTHDAY : 21 may, 1996

. ZODIAC SIGN : gemini

. BIRTH PLACE : Ichon-dong, Seoul

. NATIONALITY : korean

. ETHNICITY : korean

. LANGUAGE : korean ( fluent ), english ( 85% ), japanese ( 70% ), chinese ( 50% ), russian (learning)

. FAMILY : mother ( 1970 ), father ( 1972 ), older brother ( 1994 ), younger sister ( 2000 )

% PHYSICAL ༘

. HEIGHT : 164 cm ( 5'3" )

. FACE CLAIM : Dahyun ( Twice )

. BLOOD TYPE : O-

. PIERCING : three on the right ear, two on the left.

% CAREER ༘

. STAGE NAME : Sooha ( 수하 )

. FANDOM NAME : beez

. REPRESENTATIVE EMOJI : 🐝

. GROUP : GOT the beat ( sub-unit )

. AGENCY : SM ENTERTAINMENT, ONE PRODUCTION

. TRAINING PERIOD : 5 years and 4 months

. DEBUT DATE : 6 march, 2017

% PERSONALITY ༘

. MBTI : ESFP ( previously ENFJ -> ENFP )

. ENNEAGRAM : 2w3

. OVERALL : Sooha, since she can remember, had always been a big extrovert, she is always talking to everyone, starting randoms conversation with stranger or soon to be friends, not be friend with someone seems impossible to her. She love to take care of her friends, they means a lot to her. For her, life is too short to be grumpy, that's why she is rarely seen in a bad mood. In a room full of people, she'll make sure that everyone feel included.

. QUALITIES : out-going, caring, cheerful, honest, patient, optimistic.

. FLAWS : stubborn, naive, childish, idealist, impatient.

% FACTS ༘

. During her childhood, Sooha was a really big fan of Lee Hyori, her bedroom was covered with posters of the idol, she is also the reason why she wanted to become an idol.

. She almost debuted in Red Velvet, but her agency decided to make her debut as a soloist, almost three years after.

. Back in 2019, it was rumored that Woonsung ( The Rose ) and Sooha were in a relationship, their companies quickly denied it, saying that these two were only close friends.

. She is also a big fan of BOA and cried the day she met her randomly in the SM building, and was really excited when she was told that BOA was part of 'GOT the beat' with some SM femal artist, Sooha included.

. It took more than four years for Sooha to open her Instagram account, she explained that she was searching for a good username during these four years.

. Despite a big fear of commitment, she became the owner of a apartment in Gangnam, and adopted a cat at the same time, because back in SM dorms animals where not allowed.

. In 2023, she started her own variety show, 'Sooha's Tea Party', where she talks about life with others idols (mostly females idols) around a cup of tea, she decided to start it because she wanted to just seat with other idols like their where friends.

. She is an ambassador for mui mui.

more tba...

#౨ৎ ... sooha's profile ｡˚ #𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆟 𓆝 #fake kpop idol #idol oc #fake kpop oc #kpop gg #kpop icons #kpop girl #kpop group #fake kpop group

[theoutcastrogue]

I found your recent post on wine legality under Ottoman rule very interesting. I have tried to make a study of Ottoman history(I am mostly familiar with it's history from the 19th century onwards and have done deep dives into the rebellions in Greece and Egypt, I could talk all day about either Ali Pasha). Unfortunately since then I've had trouble finding good books on Ottoman history. I was excited by your mention of the book Crime and Punishment in the Ottoman Empire. I was wondering if you had any other books on Ottoman history that you could recommend?

Sure! Keeping in mind that I’m not a historian or an educator of any kind, I just read history for fun (and I’m mostly into rogues and cities, which may show), here’s what I got. Highlights in bold, links are to excerpts I’ve occasionally posted:

Caroline Finkel, Osman’s Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire (2005) [this is a decent single book, narrative and accessible; I’m a big fan of having an easy-to-read introduction that covers a large period as a starting point, and taking it from there; I’m also a big fan of wikipedia]

Halil İnalcık & Donald Quataert, An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire (1997) [this is nitty gritty but I think essential, 2 volumes, pass once and keep handy for references]

Halil İnalcık, The Ottoman Empire: Conquest, Organization and Economy (1978) [essay collection]

Halil İnalcık, The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age 1300-1600 (1973)

Suraiya Faroqhi, The Ottoman Empire and the World Around it (2007) [I like things in context; for the Ottomans you always gotta keep in mind what was going on with Venice, Persia, the Arabs, the Hapsburgs, etc]

Suraiya Faroqhi & Kate Fleet, The Ottoman Empire as a World Power, 1453–1603 (2006)

Suraiya Faroqhi, The Later Ottoman Empire, 1603-1839 (2006) [these two are volumes from the Cambridge History of Turkey]

Donald Quataert, The Ottoman Empire: 1700-1922 (2005)

M. Şükrü Hanioğlu, A Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire (2008)

David Fromkin, A Peace To End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East (1989)

The Law and lack thereof

Colin Imber, The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650: The Structure of Power (2004)

Sam White, The Climate of Rebellion in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire (2011)

Uriel Heyd, Studies in Old Ottoman Criminal Law (1973)

Karen Barkey, Bandits and Bureaucrats: The Ottoman Route to State Centralization (1996)

Erol Ozan Yilmaz, Militarizartion of Ottoman Rumelia: The Mountain Bandits (1785-1808) (2016, thesis)

“Banditry in the Ottoman Empire”

Haim Gerber, State, Society, and Law in Islam: Ottoman Law in Comparative Perspective (1994)

Joshua M. White, Piracy and Law in the Ottoman Mediterranean (2017)

Cities

John Freely, Istanbul: The Imperial City (1998) [a joy to read, not really the product of rigorous research, but written by a well-read guy who’s in love with the city, and I think that accounts for something]

Ebru Boyar & Kate Fleet, A Social History of Ottoman Istanbul (2010)

Fariba Zarinebaf, Crime and Punishment in Istanbul 1700-1800 (2010)

Zeynep Çelik, The Remaking of Istanbul: Portrait of an Ottoman City in the 19th Century (1986)

Mark Mazower, Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews 1430-1950 (2004)

Heghnar Zeitlian Watenpaugh, Image of an Ottoman City: Imperial Architecture and Urban Experience in Aleppo in the 16th and 17th Centuries (2004)

Nikolai Todorov, The Balkan City, 1400-1900 (1983) [very nitty gritty, you can’t read this for fun, but it’s got demographics and stuff you won’t find elsewhere]

Ulrike Freitag et al, The City in the Ottoman Empire: Migration and the Making of Urban Modernity (2011)

Biray Kolluoğlu & Meltem Toksöz, Cities of the Mediterranean: From the Ottomans to the Present Day (2010)

Etc

Suraiya Faroqhi et al, Living in the Ottoman Ecumenical Community (2008)

Robert Dankoff & Sooyong Kim, An Ottoman Traveller: Selections from the Book of Travels of Evliya Çelebi (2010)

Robert Dankoff, An Ottoman Mentality: The World of Evliya Çelebi (2007)

Mark Alan Epstein, The Ottoman Jewish Communities and their Role in the 15th and 16th Centuries (1980)

Dror Ze’evi, Producing Desire: Changing Sexual Discourse in the Ottoman Middle East, 1500–1900 (2006)

Stephen Ortega, Negotiating Transcultural Relations in the Early Modern Mediterranean: Ottoman-Venetian Encounters (2014)

Douglas Scott Brookes, The Concubine, the Princess, and the Teacher: Voices from the Ottoman Harem (2008)

Madeline C. Zilfi, Women and Slavery in the Ottoman Empire (2011)

Dana Sajdi, Ottoman Tulips, Ottoman Coffee: Leisure and Lifestyle in the 18th Century (2007)

Sevket Pamuk, A Monetary History of the Ottoman Empire (2007)

#books #ottomans #correspondence

[kinopioa]

Sonic OVA thoughts (Part 1)

OVA is generally beloved by the fandom as a cool piece of Sonic media in the mid 90s. What gets me is how different it was compared to typical none canon Japan Sonic media at the time

For the follow up we have; -The 1992-94 Shogakukan Nicky manga of a timid kid

-The 1992 Sonic 2 promo manga, done by some of the artists in the previous Shogakukan Manga

-199?-1995 Harmony magazine exclusive art

-The 1994 TMS animated short featuring Eggman impersonating as Sonic out of jealousy

All of these typically depict Sonic (unless drawn by Oshima) as kiddier or cutesy, typically missing his attitude, or in the case of Nicky, is completely off base. This was even noted by Naka in development of Sonic Adventure, hence the need for the 1997 Project Sonic competition to reinvigorate edge and attitude

So OVA NOT being cutsey weirdly stands out for the period*

*While Junio/Toei's work for CD also isn't cutesy, that's core from games, not alt media, despite design difference

How does OVA stand out? Well...the prior context might've been why it didn't get to accomplish its goals

The OVA was initially rental tape only available between Jan 1996-March 1996, not getting a formal home release until May 1996. This is already odd, given rumors of it being intended to be a TV series but scrapped. The OVA was split into 2 parts originally, the first half focusing on going to the Land of the Darkness and fighting Mecha Robotnik, the latter focusing on Metal Sonic and the polar ice caps. The base story is concieved by Mayori Sekijima then scripted by Masashi Kubota, both having done full series by that point. Given 1997 Naka admitted that people in Japan didn't really know Sonic by that point (which was why Jam was made alongside lack of Sonic Saturn rep)...I have a feeling this wasn't that popular, despite ads

Anyway, the movie itself

We start with a dark room with monitors and a motionless floating mech of Metal Sonic. Eggman proclaims that he needs Sonic's DNA (more loosely called lifeforce essence here) to complete Hyper Metal Sonic. Note: Hyper Metal Sonic references the new mold he had for Chaotix in games!

We then cut to aesthetic landscape expanses of the Land of the Sky. It helps give us a picture of their world. Refreshingly, not just checker spam that 2nd game devs randomly did a lot despite Sonic Team doing other types of locales. We also see the Old Man Owl flying a spluttering ship, more on that later...

We end up at Sonic's island, composing of wrecked airplanes, buses-i-is that a Star Wars ship!? Pretty interesting, I wonder if they'll tell us where it came from-

But we get interrupted with Tails showing Sonic his newest invention to try out. Sonic isn't interested, so Tails goes out to try it for himself, splashing Sonic accidentally

Note: Tails does note Sonic can't swim here

We hear Tails calling for help soon after, which Sonic coldly ignores. This is something that gets me for this feature, Sonic has attitude, but is weirdly also dismissive of his friends that already run contradictory to games at the time. Even Tails screaming bloody murder doesn't do much as Sonic loudly tells him to shut up (Eng memes aside), only changing his mind when he see the old Owl Man crash through where Sonic was

Tails checks on the blue blur to see if he's ok, which Sonic is. He notes that they should help the Old Man, but Sonic again tells him he's not interested, flat out out saying "hey, you can fly bitch, you do it!", to which Tails calls him out, then takes it upon himself to save the old man. While at first it goes well thanks to surfing, both soon realize they'll crash into the cliffside, to which he screams. At that point Sonic realizes "oh, they might die", then saves them

Speaking of, they seemingly know of this guy before this event. Who is he? How'd they meet? We'll never know!

Afterwards, Owl Man is in shock, which Sonic gets a Crabmeat (wouldn't that still have a Flicky given this period?) to pinch him, bringing him back to his senses, then rambling about how he was an expert racer in his day that got chicks. Tails reminds him that he had something important to say, and we learn that the President wants Sonic due to an emergency. Sonic and Tails then have the aesthetic plane sequence and head out, leaving the old man to watch over Sonic's...well, wreckage is more apt

We have more aesthetic shots showing the capital city of the Land of the Sky, though there's a weird lack of people here... Inside it's revealed Eggman has taken over, shooting Sonic/Tails, and having the President and his daughter held as hostage. We-

Wait, this landmass is South Island!? What's with none canon Sonic media spamming South Island, when mainline games went to different areas

Seriously, most of the STI and Aspect Ltd 8 bit games do this unlike Sonic Team. Even Fighters by Sega AM2 did. Why? Sonic is noted to exploring other locales, likewise Eggman isn't too stationary if a plan fails one spot. It's just...why?

Also epic sub typo

Anyway, Eggman explains the history of the Land of the Sky and Darkness, and how they are 2 split halves. This bores everyone, so he demands Sonic to help him stop a generator in Eggmanland that's out of control, thanks to an upsurper called Mecha Robotnik (Black Robotnik in Japan). If it isn't stopped, the generator would destroy the Land of the Darkness, which would in turn destroy the Land of the Sky. Everyone again is bored, flat out sleeping, so he stresses that someone needs to bypass his taken traps and stop the generator. Sonic dismisses it, despite Sarah and the President begging, as he believes Eggman to be lying, which takes Tails to convince him to just do it. Sonic overall is pretty unhelpful here honestly. Eggman gives Tails a navigator (which Sonic questions way too late if it's rigged AFTER they fly out), and the plot's moving...

Oh nah, we just have Eggman and Sarah playing fighting games

Contrary to popular belief, this is not a Sonic the Fighters ref. This OVA came out well before that arcade game was out

Ignoring filler, everyone's pretty lax about the kidnapping here. Sarah even threatens to stop being hostage, which...doesn't make sense. She's surrounded by a bunch of robots. We then have a mecha crash in and open its hatch, so we now know Eggman's up to something (which was obvious)

Back to Sonic/Tails

Come to think of it, this all implies Sonic never fought Eggman there before. Which gives interesting implications of Eggman only causing trouble in the Land of the Sky, then retreating after failure to Sonic

Anyway, they crash land due to turbulence, and set out on a path straight to Eggmanland

We have a montage of Sonic going through the various landscapes, with him noting how many robots (no Flickies, huh) and traps there are. Tails assures that it is the quickest path, leading directly to a warp zone (?), and the two wound up in E 44th St. in an ancient city

We don't have much explanation for this area, and Tails confirms this isn't Eggmanland yet. Sonic scours the skyscraper to get a better view on their location, and the two head towards Eggmanland, only to be stopped by...

Mecha Robotnik, who attacks and gives chase

Note, Sonic's unable to hurt him

The two dodge its attacks, hiding behind a bus to figure what to do. Sonic notes that they can't waste time fighting it, and Tails notes the direction they should go....

Only for Sonic to moronically alert Mecha where they are by taunting it. Side note: contrary to rumors, this was never censored in English

This Sonic is stupid, I'm sorry. He lacks tact Game Sonic would have

So anyway, the two are chased through the highway, reaching by a broken edge near the water. Mecha shoots by their feet, causing them to fall, and the two take advantage of the obscurity to try to trick Mecha Robotnik him into thinking they fell fully and drowned. But Mecha isn't stupid, so they get further chased. Mecha Robotnik soon shifts to shooting glue from its ass

Due to a lightning shock, Tails gets scared and freezes, which gets him trapped. Before Sonic can save him, Mecha Robotnik shoots several missiles that home in on the hedgehog, with several causing explosions throughout the city as Sonic runs away. This alerts...

Knuckles? So Angel Island doesn't exist? Just unexplained like Triple Trouble I guess...

I swear these noncanon devs never legit played Sonic outside Sonic 1-

Rant aside

While it seems hopeless for Tails, it turns out that Sonic hitched a ride on one of the missiles, redirecting it to hit Mecha Robotnik

It's a clean shot, but the blast weakens the structural integrity of the area. Worse, Sonic lands on the sticky glue from earlier, and the collapsing ground floods from the lake nearby. Mecha Robotnik wobbles back, about to shoot him, but right at the last second, Knuckles flies in to stop it, then frees Tails

Tails unfortunately can't fly to Sonic as his tails are stuck and unable to spin for approximately 10 seconds before it becomes a literal none issue

While Tails reaches the drowning hedgehog and tries to pull him out, Knux is distracting Mecha Eggman. Unfortunately he gets stuck in glue as well

Mecha, running out of bullets, decides to crush the echidna. Tails finally manages to free Sonic

Who then-

Hey, his right arm wasn't hit hit by the missile! Don't bullshit suddenly being able to cut through it

Now fully disarmed (kicks self), Mecha makes a retreat. Thanks to somehow being able to fly, Knux gets Sonic close enough to hurl him at the flying mech, leading to Mecha getting skewered and split

Sonic and co leave, revealing Eggman and Sarah in the wreckage. The doctor fumes about how Eggmanland hosts something far worse than Mecha, which Sarah calls BS

Cutting to another scene, Sonic thanks Knux, with Tails mentioning this

Yeah you guys really need a TV series to flesh this out, there are too many unexplained points for char introductions given how different this is to games, yet casually act like this is status quo. Also why is Sonic the only one shaded there?

Sonic and co realize the sun is setting, meaning that time is almost up before the generator explodes. So they head out, leaving Knux to do his own thing...for about 5 seconds

Knux joins the two, defying gravity while Sonic constantly has to deal with awkward terrain. Given he's a dick, eh

This isn't even an animation error, even bios for this OVA says he flies and not glides for some dumb reason. He's incorrectly referred directly as a mole in dub bios as well (like cuz Harimogura out of context is directly translated as "spiky mole")

But fans like his hat, so Knux is apparently excused for unexplained adaptation changes

That wraps up part 1 cuz of image limit, my thoughts

-Sonic is too douchey and dumb personality wise. His feats mask that for a lot of fans, but I don't buy it. Tails and Knux are alright though, especially with Tails copying Sonic's poses at bits, astraphobia, and his tech prowess, but Knux is just there. Eggman's good though

-The plot is messy. They needed to flesh out char origins for some, and the city

-This won't be fixed, but despite the expanse landscape, there's no fauna or other people shown. Feels weirdly empty

-I'm watching the Bandai Sub version. Eng dub there aren't major changes to plot though, and the translation error is strictly for DVD bios

-Not a fan of South Island being focus for Capital. It weirdly shrinks the world. Insert rant of how everyone is ignoring Sonic Team themselves changing locales

It's aesthetic and fun, but broken and poorly paced when looking past that. I can't fault the Eng dub

@randomthefox @darklightheart @beevean

[dear-indies]

hi there cat & mouse! could you help me find some black male faceclaims who could realistically portray a 26 year old? if they’ve got a rich or aristocratic kind of vibe that would be an extra win! resources are not super necessary!!

Lucien Laviscount (1992) Afro Antiguan / English.

Ncuti Gatwa (1992) Rwandan - is queer.

Jeremy Pope (1992) African-American - is gay.

Shane Paul McGhie (1993) Afro Jamaican.

Stephan James (1993) Afro amaican.

Omari Douglas (1994) Afro Jamaican - is gay.

Algee Smith (1994) African-American.

Kit Young (1994) Ugandan / Scottish - is in Shadow and Bone if you want fantasy resources.

Kelvin Harrison Jr. (1994) African-American - is in Chevalier if you want period resources.

Eli Goree (1994) Black Nova Scotian.

Karim Diane (1995) Mandingo.

Da'Vinchi (1995) Afro Haitian.

Trevor Jackson (1995) African-American.

Michael Evans Behling (1996) Nigerian / German.

Odiseas Georgiadis (1996) Ghanaian / Greek.

Here you go!

#fc help #rph #rpc #black fc