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petermorwood · 11 months

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Choose your words carefully...

I got anon-sent a link to an article with a provocative (?) title...

Is the Samurai Sword The Best Weapon Of All Time?

I wonder if the nonny who sent me the link had seen this post of mine from 10 (gosh!) years ago, because in its defence the article isn’t as uncritically weeb-ish as that title suggests, comparing the pros and cons of other weapons including European longsword and Japanese yari straight spear.

It even concludes - despite being a katana-selling website - that the answer to the question in the title is “No”, so kudos all round.

Here are a couple of the excellent line drawings from Ratti & Westbrook’s “Secrets of the Samurai” (1973, rev. 1991), one favouring sword, another favouring spear.

Clearly “best weapon” is whatever the hero can use with most success.

It’s so obliging when multiple opponents attack one at a time while the rest strike aggressive poses in the background - you know the sort of screen combat I mean - but far more satisfying when the writer has described a location or situation, as in these drawings, where they have to do that because they’ve got no other choice.

However the “Best” article’s title also demonstrates how the pen - or the printed word - can indeed be mightier than the sword, if words aren’t chosen with care.

The writer may have meant “best sword of all time” (though since the yari gets a good review, maybe not) but “best weapon...” means that someone with a katana can be opposed by any other weapon which, all right, might mean another sword, or an axe, or yes indeed, a spear.

But it could mean something with much longer range than a katana, like a bow, a musket, a machine-gun, a field-gun...

...Or this...

Heh. ;->

youtube

#arms and armour #the power of language #swords #japanese swords #Aliens

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besttropeveershowdown · 6 months

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The Best Trope Ever Showdown: Round 1, Side C

The Power of Language

Propaganda:

Metanarrative! Stories about stories! Characters who know they're part of a narrative and who know how to wield narratives as weapons! Characters well versed in the power of perception! While the characters don't know they're literally characters in a story, they have an awareness that the world around them is shaped by stories. On this, the THEMES AND NARRATIVES website, let's give it up for stories that use the very concept of stories themselves as a part of the plot.

The Power of Friendship

Friendship makes you stronger (no TVTropes page submitted)

Propaganda:

Its the power of friendship. Turning bonds into strength. Being fueled by the love of others. It gives great moments of everyone coming together. Or of one person getting stronger for their friends, their (found) Family! What's not to love?

#the best trope tournament #polls #tropeaganda #the power of language #the power of friendship

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littlemizzlinguistics · 5 months

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Studying linguistics is actually so wonderful because when you explain youth slang to older professors, instead of complaining about how "your generation can't speak right/ you're butchering the language" they light up and go “really? That’s so wonderful! What an innovative construction! Isn't language wonderful?"

#linguistics #gen z slang #english #as people in the reblog pointed out!#most gen z slang comes from (or was appropriated from) aave #honestly I was just excited to talk about how people in my field actually get excited about non standard uses of English #instead of ridiculing speakers #and I tagged incorrectly and didn’t point out the very real issues of language and power and appropriation inherent in modern slang #in that much of it was appropriated #and even that which experiences language change in the wider culture still originated in aave #aave is just as linguistically valid as any other English dialect because it is a proper language #and the grammar is incredible!!!#habitual be is fantastic and an excellent example of how a richer case system or a certain case can render an adverb unnecessary #and the phonology is just beautiful #anyway I’m very sorry #I fucked up

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kaibascorpse · 2 months

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some of you people are so obsessed with having an acceptable group to ‘punch up’ at that you would rather pretend a marginalized group are Basically The Oppressors™ than listen to their valid criticisms about the fact that ‘punching up’ very rarely hits the intended target, and the majority of the actual damage of that act is suffered by fellow marginalized people in your own community. there is a significant difference between venting frustrations about privileged groups and just outright attacking anyone who (you assume) experiences that axis of privilege regardless of - and in many cases outright denying - their actual lived experiences. it goes far beyond just ‘venting frustrations’ when what you’re really doing is trying to find a moral justification to bully people you don’t like, and when your own desire for catharsis and moral superiority leads to ignoring the voices of the vulnerable people you hurt. you’re not ‘punching up’ - you just like punching people for the sake of punching.

#in writing this im primarily thinking about #transandrophobia #but i kept the language vague bc really its much more widespread than this one issue #this post is about all the queer groups that get ostracized for not being oppressed enough or having ‘too much privilege’#getting lumped in w the oppressors bc we are assumed to have the same privilege and power as them even when we quite literally do not #gaining conditional privileges for not being visibly/openly queer is not the same as having systemic privilege.#at best it’s a defense mechanism that comes with the constant threat of having that privilege revoked should anyone realize you’re queer #if being ‘privileged’ requires hiding or not acknowledging part of your identity then it’s not really a privilege.#my posts

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sayitaliano · 4 months

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Valerio Minato's photo that won the Astronomy Picture of the Day Contest by NASA on December 25th, 2023.

In the picture: the moon, the Monviso Mount and the Basilica of Superga (on the Superga hill) outside Turin are all aligned. it took him 6 years to take this shot (and I take it as an example to never give up on your dreams).

#it #italians #italian things #italian stuff #not language #photography #nasa #italian #landscape #astronomy #italian places #visit italia #visit italy #torino #turin #superga #piedmont #piemonte #piemonte power

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kizzer55555 · 25 days

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DP x DC: The Most Dangerous Card Game

Ok so Danny has essentially claimed earth as his. And he is fully aware that there are constant threats to the planet. Now he can’t stop a threat that originates on earth (that’s something he’ll leave to the Justice league) but he can do something about outside threats. Doing some research on ancient spells, rituals, and artifacts, he cast a world wide barrier on the planet to protect it from hostile threats so they cannot enter. This will prevent another Pariah Dark incident. However, barriers like this come at a price. You see, there are two ways to make a barrier. Either make one powered up by your own energy and power (which would be constantly draining) or set up a barrier with rules. The way magic works is that nothing can be absolutely indestructible. It must have a weakness. The most powerful barriers weren’t the ones reinforced with layer after layer of protective charms and buffed up with power. Those could eventually be destroyed either by being overpowered, wearing them down, or by cutting off the original power source. No, the most powerful barriers were the ones with a deliberate weakness. A barrier indestructible except for one spot. A cage that can only be opened from the outside. Or that can only be passed with a key or by solving a riddle. So Danny chooses this type of barrier and does the necessary ritual and pours in enough power to make it. And he adds his condition for anyone to enter.

Now the Justice league? Find out about the barrier when Trigon attempts to attack, they were preparing after he threatened what he would do once he got to earth. How he would destroy them. The Justice league tried to take the fight to him first but were utterly destroyed, so they retreated home to tend to their injuries, and fortify earth for one. Last. Stand. Only when Trigon makes his big entrance…he’s stopped.

The Justice league watch in awe as this thin see-through barrier with beautiful green swirls and speckled white lights like stars apears blocking Trigon and his army’s advance. The barrier looks so thin and fragile yet no matter how hard the warlord hits, none of his attacks can get through and neither can he damage said barrier. That’s when Constantine and Zatanna recognizes what this barrier is. Something only a powerful entity could create. For a moment, the league is filled with hope that Trigon can’t get through yet Constantine also explains that it’s not impenetrable. And clearly Trigon knows this too for he calls out a challenge.

And that’s when, in a flash of light, a tiny glowing teenager appears. He looked absolutly minuscule compared to Trigon and yet practically glowed with power (this isn’t a King Danny AU though).

And that is when the conditions for passing the barrier are revealed. And the Justice realize that the only thing stopping Trigon and his army from decimating earth. The only way he can get through….is by beating this glowing teenager in a card game.

Not just any card game though. The most convoluted game Sam, Danny, and Tucker invented themselves. It’s like the infinite realms version of magic the gathering, combined with Pokémon, and chess. And Danny is the master. So sit down Trigon and let’s play.

(The most intense card game of the Justice league’s life).

After Danny wins, this happens a few more times with outer word beings and possibly even demons attempting to invade earth, yet none have been able to beat the mysterious teenager in a card game. Constantine might even take a crack at it and try to figure out how to play. He’s really bad though. Every time this happens, the Justice league worry that this might be the time the teenager looses. Yet every time, he wins (even if only barely).

Meanwhile, Danny, Sam, and Tucker have gotten addicted to the game and play it almost daily. Some teachers might seem them playing the game are are like ‘awww how cute’ not realizing this game is literally saving the world. Jazz is just happy they aren’t spending as much time on their screens playing Doomed.

#DPxDC #dcxdp #Danny makes a card game to save the world.#Technically he worded the ritual so that they had to ‘beat’ him as those are the most powerful barriers and most reliable.#keys can just get lost or stolen (like the one to Pariah’s Coffin)#A riddle would be useless once someone figured out the answer. Like how no one takes the sphynx seriously anymore.#(Sorry Tuck. But it’s true).#And there is NO WAY Danny is just leaving a hole open for anyone to pass through. No thank you!#So…beating him. But it’s not like Danny wanted to fight so…he edited the ritual a TINY bit. Card games are good. Much less painful too.#Danny Tucker and Sam made the most complicated card game they could imagine.#It’s based on their strategies for fighting ghosts. Capturing them in thermoses. And MUCH based on a on field battle strategy.#It often requires spontaneous thinking on the spot. So Danny? In his ELEMNT. It doubles as practice for his actual ghost battles too.#They had SO much fun making this.#Sam added an entire series of plant cards that act as traps and healing ointments and duds that just take up the field.#Tucker added legitimate hyroglyphics combined with Latin as well as English and ghost speak.#Yes. You actually have to speak that language to play. With proper pronunciation. (Amity Parker’s think the three are talking gibberish.)#I headcanon Sam and Tucker are fluent in Ghost.#Constantine WILL figure this game out SO HELP HIM!#Some of the cards also have combinations related to constellations either in name or placement on the board.#By the way the board is based on a Hexagonal summoning circle with Rhunes along the edges #And the placement of the cards on the board and on what rhune MATTERS.#Also the cards move disintegrate and have certain abilities. Think of Harry Potter Wizard Chess.#But they are normal when Danny plays at school. This is just for ✨effect✨ Against invaders.#Danny faces multiple opponents. He also halts alien invasions.#While Danny COULD stop crime on earth he’s not sure how to fight a normal human and hold back so he sticks to ghosts.#The Justice league are going crazy trying to figure out who this entity is and after deep research are convinced this is some sort of #Ancient being who has protected earth for millenia. They have paintings on ruins and everything.#Danny is not aware they think this.#Raven starts praying to Danny as if he is a god and wrangles the other Teen Titans into doing so as well. Danny is still unaware of this.#Danny is not a King or an ancient. Just a very VERY strong ghost.

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vizthedatum · 1 year

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Unethical inquiries about the "Authorization to Work in the US" before the initial phone screen or offer of employment

On the https://www.eeoc.gov/pre-employment-inquiries-and-citizenship site, the first sentence is "Most employers should not ask whether or not a job applicant is a United States citizen before making an offer of employment." So what employers do instead is they ask questions like the following:

Are you legally authorized to work in the United States?

Will you now, or in the future, require sponsorship for employment visa status (e.g. H-1B visa status)?

Or in my case (and my father's), we fill out the job application, clearly responding to the above questions as honestly as we can... we attach our resumes... please see the header of my resume:

And then I start out my cover letters with the sentence: "I'm Rose (legal name: Pritika), and I use they/them pronouns. I am a U.S. citizen living in Pittsburgh, PA." And then... inevitably, I get questioned MULTIPLE times during the same interview (or each interview in a multi-interview process):

"Say, what is your visa status?" or "Are you authorized to work in the US?" -_-

The other day, I was driving my abusive father around to his appointments, and he gets a call from a recruiter who asked him what his visa status was, and my dad literally just yelled: "CITIZEN"

(My parents and I got naturalized in 2006, by the way)

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linguist-breakaribecca · 1 year

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“Grandma’s House is not like a drop-off daycare or an immersion school where only the children learn. Through a grant from the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation, parents get paid to learn alongside and speak with their children in Ojibwe five hours a day, four days a week.

…

‘Learning Ojibwe in college and pursuing learning the language and teaching the language, I hadn't really thought about babies speaking it as their first language,’ Erdrich said.

‘It seemed like this impossible thing because of how much work it would be, how hard it would be to have a whole community and other babies to be speaking Ojibwe, but it's happening! And it's amazing because it's the peer language here so the kids are speaking Ojibwe to each other,’ she said.

…Grandma’s House is not like other college language programs. Learning a Native language in an academic setting is beneficial for language revitalization, but academic learning does not usually include learning the traditions, heritage or spirit within a Native community.

…

Although it’s common to refer to a language no longer commonly spoken as a ‘dead language,’ some people in the language revitalization movement instead refer to them as ‘asleep.’ The idea is that sleeping languages can be awakened through family and community efforts.

Waking up Native languages can also bring intergenerational healing.”

#linguistics #language #sociolinguistics #language and identity #language and culture #language and power #langblr #language learning #language acquisition #language revitalization #ojibwe #anishinaabe #minnesota #indigenous #indigenous languages

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ghostreblogging · 6 months

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Just some random ass au.

Like what if Danny's main language becomes ghost speak. So ghost speak is like a magic language. Meaning when using this language and putting intent into it you can do magic.

But still he can work around it since all he has to do is be super casual about every word he says. So it wasn't a problem

Until it comes to light that anything Danny writes becomes a magic spell, because he's in all of his half dead glory and is now a native to the language . Since Danny is writing and has an intent. Like pass this as a good essay for his class.

So like every school assignment becomes a mini magic scroll. Which every one of them is either luck magic or whatever things he had to write. Like he had to write about marine biology. And ended up with a paper that spews out water.

Even computers don't help. Since technically unknowingly he's still writing it in ghost speak just romanized. So it's a little bit better but still.

Anyway. This becomes a huge problem when a new nobody rogue tries to use his school assignments bunched together with staples as a magic tome.

In other news , when the bats finally get the powerful magic tome the new unknown was using they are faced with subfar school assignments. Like graded. The mini tsunami spell is a paper on ocean currents.

Well at least it's super easy to find the maker of the tome.

#danny phantom #dp x dc #danny fenton #danny phantom au #is this done yet?#dc x dp #dp x dc prompt #dpxdc #dc x dp prompt #okay so ghost speak is a magoic language #like its rhe native language of the realms #how can it be not magical #that's why realm ghosts are so powerful #because they're native #and can use it in their daily afterlives very easily #they like to keep their secrecy cuz realms magic is very potent #like there is a huge infinite supply of it to use #i mean others can learn it #but it tqkes many years to perfect #and at first its like when you are just starting to learn #for the written spells #all the person needs to do is like place their hands on it and will it #cuz its not like 2 sentences in most spells that make it iut of the infinite realms #its a whole paper #like 2000 words at least #so its more powerful #or precise #anyway im going to sleep

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ghostbsuter · 7 months

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Magicians way [part 1]

.・゜-: ✧ :-

It's not often that he finds himself in such position, but it does happen.

John Constantine never would have thought he'd scratch the "tied up by a cult to be used as sacrifice to summon a powerful ghost" spot on his bingo card.

He doesn't even feel threatened by the cult, hell, all he will receive from this day is pure embarrassment if the summoning circle is really the one he thinks it is.

Great, it's glowing.

Little bastard knows and is on his way here.

Shit.

"Oh all mighty King of Ghosts! We summon thee! Appear!"

If he has to listen to that badly scripted American movie summoning ritual one more word, he's gonna do some serious damage.

The circle lights up in sickly green, the ectoplasm flooding the insides of the portal as it opens.

And there he stands, the boyprince of the Infinity Realms.

"Hey, dad!" The being greets, swinging a swift fist against one of the cultist.

The rest are frozen and now that they're alone John sees the shit eating grin on the gremlins face.

"Danny." He greets back, watching as his kid swipes some invisible dust from his hat and putting it on back.

"Man, this is so embarrassing for you. Let me just—"

To make matters worse, Danny pulls out his bloody smartphone and takes a picture of him tied up.

"I'm sending this to mom." He's fiddling with the rope, smug smirk on him that John would love to flip off if his hands weren't bound.

"Useless..."

Ah, here comes the blackmail. A kids after his own heart.

The little shit.

Visual picture of Constantine being embarrassed. (Yes, he's tied up with a RED RIBBON for funnsies.)

#dcxdp #dpxdc #this is part of my au #Not mentioned but Danny is in Young Just Us!#it will he shown later on #Danny is the kid of John and Zatanna #john loves the kid #in his own cursed way #his love language are curse words #the reason dannys name isnt a family tongue twister is cuz hes trans and named himself #officially hes zatannas side kick like she was to her dad #john takes him around sometimes #just to make sure he knows how to fight demons #when a legit magician and a chimera of a occultist man have a child #hes damn powerful #+ the whole ghost king business #SHOULD constantine be suprised his kid became a death god? no he shoulndt #zatanna blames him #at least hes a carbon copy of her #shes forever smug abt that #tbf hes a prince still #cant get the throne till hes 400 smth #THIS WILL HAVE SHIPS #thinking between deadtired and superdeadtired #maybe adding bart too #at this point its just a giant polycule #I FORGOT THE ART #FOLLOW MY ART ACC ?!?!?!

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total-drama-brainrot · 2 months

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been thinking about assistant!noah using malicious compliance to get out of singing.

#yes it's that one alastor meme. i have an awful sense of humor what can i say?#this is so lazy. considering i rushed it out in about an hour and a half.#assistant!noah doing everything in his power to make chris suffer (without losing his job) is the ideal version of him #that includes regularly testing the show's language censoring department. gotta keep 'em on their toes.#is it obvious that i have no idea how comics work?#total drama #td noah #chris mclean #assistant noah #ophe doodles #memes #shitposting #tw suggestive

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yugiohz · 2 years

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“I want us both to eat well.”

#denji developing his first love language we love to see itttttt #csm #chainsaw man #denji #csm power #sketches #my art

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draakart · 3 months

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Stand in Solidarity!

As the ongoing genocide rages in Palestine, us Australians must not forget what this country was built upon.

Just as Israel is built on the stolen land and graves of the Palestinians, so too is Australia built on the stolen land and graves of the First Nations.

There is nothing to celebrate for in genocide.

Here is a list of Invasion Day Rallies. Please march in solidarity with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Peoples this Friday.

More resources below.

Always Was, Always Will Be.

Donate:

Pay The Rent

Awesome Black Box's non-comprehensive list of ways to Pay the Rent.

Learn More:

A Conspiracy of Silence, Qld's frontier killing times - Timothy Bottoms

Massacre Recollections :: Elder Stories of the Frontier Wars in FNQ

The Stolen Generation

Frontier wars

Colonial Front Massacre Map

If you have any additional resources or funds that aren't listed, let me know and I will endeavor to add them on.

#invasion day #australia #palestine #aboriginal flag #illustration #artists on tumblr #digital art #2024 #draakart #please let me know if any of the language used is incorrect or disrespectful. words are powerful #apologies if the artwork looks a bit rough or the text isn't as well written as usual #i wanted this to be out asap so that people will know how to participate

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somerandomdudelmao · 7 months

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Hi Cass! Wanted to spread the word about a video coming out on the 7th from Saberspark about RotTMNT. Lots of people are thinking that this might get the show back on Nickelodeon's radar!

I work at the studio. So I personally believe the thing that brings a show back to life is money. Not fanart or reviews. If the studio realizes that Rise can bring in money, they'll bring it back. It's simple. You want to save Rise, buy official merch and subscriptions to services that show it