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mtkay13 · 1 year

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Qi Ye cast poster!!

This had started as a sketch, waaay back as I was still reading Qi Ye. The original is pretty different from this (I considered adding it in the post but I actually don't like it anymore haha), but the plan was already to make this big spread with most of the -more or less- important cast.

I will add here some thoughts about the whole piece, and I guess, Qi Ye itself. My main goal was probably to express my deep and intense feelings for Qi Ye, its grandness, and its awesome cast-- and along with that, flesh out my mental image of each of them, their personality, their style. Here is a table with the names, so we know who is whom, and so I can add some details about my perspective on them and their design.

Jing Beiyuan has always come quite naturally. I just go for the "prettiest face" I ever came with in terms of : my own taste, and the features I find the most delicate. I'd argue he's the easiest character to draw for me across both QY and TYK. On this image, he's probably around 16 or 17. I find his expressions to be very fun to work on in general.

Ping An is also quite an easy character to draw, just for how specific Priest is when describing him.

Wu Xi's design is mainly inspired by a discussion with my friend Hanya, who talked about how, in SHL, Wu Xi more resembled a northern shaman than a southern shaman. It made me want to explore the designs and characteristics a bit more, and come up with more colourful fabrics, patterns, and darker skin color. Same goes for Ashinlae and Nuahar, to have them matching Wu Xi's aesthetic.

Ming Hua was included in this just because of the mess the mention of his name caused in the story. The two jealousy tantrums are just so delightful!!

Su Qingluan was made to resemble Jing Beiyuan, of course. What I wanted to reflect in her face was her frustration, mainly.

Ji Xiang and Hua Yue... Well. Nothing particular about their design either, but they had to be there. Of course, of course they had to be there.

Finally, an opportunity to draw Zishu with his fan and henchmen! Not mad that he kinda looks like a villain, here.

Lu Yu!! I drew him with an Ashinlae mask, since he disguises himself as Ashinlae. I included him because he matters a lot in my headcanons about Siji Manor. (it isn't specified, in Qi Ye, whether or not he's actually part of the manor, but I like to consider that he is for various reason that I may detail if I ever make a Siji Manor post)

I'll skip Jiang Xue and Liang Jiuxiao because their designs are steady for me, now.

I hesitated a lot for Helian Pei's pose, but ended up going for this one (looking bored, out of his depth, lost in the distance with his birds around him). I considered showing him with a bird in his hands, but I guess that's not the main vibe I get from him. And then, well, golden, flashy clothing, suited for an emperor.

Helian Zhao had to be in a showy armor, and I hated making it because it's so much work, haha. I took inspiration from an armor in NiF. I'm quite happy with how he came out in terms of both vibe and showiness.

I tried going full out on Helian Qi. Making him the villain that Qi Ye deserved. Dark, showy, elegant and horrible.

Helian Yi is also pretty solid for me, by now.

About the illustration itself, the main challenge was definitely to make a nice colour palette while still differenciating all the characters. I wanted to go with something intense, eerie, that could also complement the main tones I would go for (= red, purple, blue and green). I'm quite happy with how the golden tones, along with the green and reddish lights, make the whole thing come together. I struggled a little bit with the composition at first, but once I got the flow and the main figures down, it just happened quite easily. Anyway, I'm quite proud of this, and hope it conveys the love and admiration I have for Qi Ye well.

#qi ye #lord seventh #cast #meta #talk about art #七爷

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presumenothing · 10 months

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so we all know the drill, yeah? my keyboard slipped etc etc and thus i present: 吉祥纹莲花楼 aka LOTUS CASEBOOK (the novel) CHAPTER ONE: TASTER EDITION further aka "the first chapter, but minus the Case Exposition bit because wow noooope". note also that this is not as serious nor thoroughly-edited as some of my other TLs (nif fandom alumni may remember me from known, unknown aka this absolute unit/research spiral of a post-canon fic; this is Not That and also, hi!!). and now with that out of the way, enjoy! ETA: fixed some missing bits that got eaten while posting to tumblr + only maybe 30% on-topic footnotes over here

PART THE FIRST: A GHOST, MURDER, IN THE GREEN GAUZE WINDOW

Changzhou City, Xiaomian Inn.

The seventeenth of the sixth month, just around midnight.

It had been two days since Cheng Yunhe, the head convoy of Hexing Convoy Company, started escorting these sixteen boxes of precious goods. Though all had been well so far, he felt tight-strung with exhaustion, and despite having fallen asleep he woke up without quite knowing why.

Silence permeated the dark room.

Outside the window… there was singing.

Faint waves of sound, barely discernible, as if someone was singing; and apparently quite in earnest, too, but in an incredibly odd tone… just as if… someone was singing with their tongue cut out.

He opened his eyes, and looked at the window directly across from his bed.

Amidst the darkness, green flecks flickered dim and sudden across that window, now far then near, and only on this one window across from him.

Outside the window, the faraway song continued, that broken tongue singing a tragic melody that no-one living could possibly understand…

He’d already practised almost forty years of martial arts, and though his hearing and sight might not be the top in the jianghu, it could hardly be weak either, but he… could not make out the sound of anything human.

As the wind whistled through the slightly-ajar window, he stared at that window with its flickering green shadows – and for the very first time in his life, he thought of a word – ghosts?

–

ONE: LUCKY PATTERN LOTUS PARLOUR

The broad daylight of a sunny day.

Bingshan Town was not a remarkable place by any means; it had neither rare treasure nor great legends, and just like the vast majority of places in the jianghu, its denizens were a little boring, its crops a tad skinny, its rivers a tinge dirty, and its post-meal conversational topics a touch lacking… far too lacking, actually, so whenever there was something everyone had to delight in it for the longest time – not to mention how that recent happening was an odd one indeed.

The tale so far: on this day, the eighteenth of the month, when the people of Bingshan Town opened their doors to sweep their stoops, they abruptly found that their only-too-familiar main street had suddenly sprouted a two-storey wooden building. This building was hardly a short one, either, fully capable of housing people inside, and in spacious lodgings no less; it was made fully of wood, and engraved with patterns unusually fine and ornate, that even a blind person could recognise by touch – none other than lotus flowers and auspicious clouds.

After a good half-day’s worth of discussion, some eagle-eyed people recognised at last how this building had “suddenly appeared”: though its structure was that of a building, it turned out that it was not connected to the ground… at any rate, this building had been pulled by someone with a cart, here to the main street of their Bingshan Town, and put it there. Everyone expressed their amazement at this, but nobody could comprehend why anyone would bother dragging over such a large building in the dead of night just to leave it on the street, or what it could possibly be for. Perhaps as a shrine for their town god? Though speaking of which, their local shrine had indeed fallen into disrepair and gone unworshipped for many years now…

Such debate continued for three days straight, up until an express convoy working at some company who happened to be coming home was struck dumbfounded upon seeing it, screeched “The Lucky Parlour!” and there and then turned to run madly away without even returning home, still yelling “Lucky Parlour!” along the way – and thus the building abruptly became a haunted house, that would drive anyone who saw it right mad.

Only seven days later, when that express convoy suddenly brought the entire convoy company back to Bingshan Town, did the masses discover that said building was not in fact some haunted house.

Not only was it not a haunted house, it was actually an auspicious building, a super-duper auspicious building.

The “Lucky Pattern Lotus Parlour” was a medical clinic.

Its master was of surname Li, named Lianhua.

What kind of a person was Li Lianhua? As a matter of fact, nobody in the jianghu knew either. Whether his master, his background, the level of his martial arts, his age, or even the matter of his looks: all of it was unknown. Six years had passed since this person appeared in the jianghu, and in total he’d done only two things, but just these two things alone had been enough to turn the “Lucky Pattern Lotus Parlour” into the single most fascinating legend in the jianghu.

The two things Li Lianhua had done: the first was bringing back to life the martial scholar “Lifelong Learner” Shi Wenjue, who’d been buried for many days after dying from major injuries after a decisive duel. The second was bringing back to life “Ironflute Hero” He Lantie, who’d also been buried for many days with all his bones broken after dying from a cliff fall.

Just these two incidents alone had already made Li Lianhua the one figure in the jianghu that people most wanted to acquaint themselves with, but there was also the matter of his strange house that he always brought along with him – this only made Li Lianhua more of a legend amongst legends.

The head convoy of Hexing Convoy Company led every last one of his men on swift horseback to Bingshan Town, and after three days of clean baths and devout incense, finally delivered on great tenterhooks a letter of greeting to that building carved of precious softwood: Cheng Yunhe of Hexing Convoy Company wishes to consult on an important matter.

Said letter was pushed in via a window gap.

All forty-odd men of the company waited alongside Cheng Yunhe, as if it was the King of Hell inside of that building, passing judgement––

Soon after, that building that had been so silent as to seem unoccupied let out the faintest of creaking sounds. All of Hexing Convoy held their breath, and even the rubbernecking passers-by caught theirs, too, widening their eyes to better await whatever creature could possibly emerge from this building.

The door swung swiftly open, and not in the slow swing of everyone’s imagination.

A large cloud of dust burst forth with a bang, blowing all over Cheng Yunhe, and the figure in the door made a sound of dismay, saying with great apology: “I was tidying up odds and ends, and didn’t even realise I had guests, my apologies, apologies indeed.”

All of Hexing Convoy, now covered in dust and sawdust, stared in astonishment at the one who’d opened the door with a broom in one hand; the very same broom where that bright red greeting letter was now stuck on. He looked very young, no older than twenty-seven or twenty-eight, and perhaps even a little younger than that if not for the much-mended grey robes he was wearing; his skin was fair and his looks refined, but neither was he so beautifully handsome as to be unforgettable from a glance. He held the broom in his right hand and a dustpan in his left, and looked out at the dozens-strong line outside his door with a face full of apology.

Cheng Yunhe gave a heavy cough, and saluted in greeting: “I, “Thousand-Mile Crane” Cheng Yunhe, humbly greet Li-xiansheng of the Lucky Parlour; may I perhaps request that you pass a message to him that there is a matter I wish to consult him on?”

“Ah,” said the grey-robed young man. “A message?”

Cheng Yunhe spoke gravely: “I fear we must meet with Li Lianhua, Li-xiansheng himself, for there is crucial business to discuss.”

The young man set down the broom. “I am indeed Li Lianhua.”

Cheng Yunhe’s eyes widened abruptly, mouth falling open, and in that moment every last bystander wanted nothing more than to toss three or five eggs into his mouth. Very swiftly he shut it again, and gave another heavy cough. “Your good reputation precedes you, Li-xiansheng…”

And then he found himself at a loss on how to continue, for he had already detailed the ins and outs of the matter on the greeting letter, but that same letter was now stuck on Li Lianhua’s broom.

Li Lianhua said: “Apologies, apologies… my residence is covered in clutter at the moment…”

He raised a hand to invite Cheng Yunhe inside.

The Lucky Pattern Lotus Parlour was indeed covered in assorted junk; from nails to hammer, saw to axe, dustcloths to broom, sawdust and dust everywhere, and a few boxes holding who-knew-what. The front room held only one table and chair each, both made of bamboo and not worth even twenty bronze coins. Cheng Yunhe felt heavy doubt in his heart, but what with the sheer reputation of the Lucky Pattern Lotus Parlour, and this grey-robed man to be sitting in it, he dared not to suspect him to be a fake, either; and thus he was left with no choice but to sit respectfully across from Li Lianhua and recount every part of those fearsome events he’d encountered a half-month ago.

[––CASE EXPOSITION CUT FOR SANITY––]

Such was the tale of the “Green Window Ghost Murder” that had thrown the martial world into heated debate over the last half a month. Yu Mulan, heartbroken over the senseless death of his beloved daughter, flew into a rage and commanded the death of all the swordsmen who had been escorting Yu Qiushuang that night, alongside a kill order for the entirety of Hexing Convoy Company. Cheng Yunhe, pushed to his wits’ end, had been about to bring his family and disband the company for a scattered escape when he heard the news of the Lucky Parlour.

Li Lianhua could bring the dead back to life – and so Cheng Yunhe suddenly thought: if Li Lianhua could resurrect Yu Qiushuang, wouldn’t that resolve everything? Resurrection was not something he would have ever believed in, just a half-month ago, but with matters the way they were now he could only work with what he had, dead or otherwise, and since the heavens had seen fit to let him come across Li Lianhua, why not give it a try? After all… if the legends were true, all could not but be well.

But even until he’d finished recounting the “Green Window Ghost Murder” incident, he hadn’t heard any startling insights out of Li Lianhua, only an ah and a nod of his head.

After finishing his tea, Cheng Yunhe had no choice but to leave. He truly could not think of any good reason to remain any longer in that empty building of Li Lianhua’s, full of assorted junk and Li Lianhua’s expression full of gentle incomprehension.

Cheng Yunhe departed.

From the second storey of the Lucky Pattern Lotus Parlour, someone said, leisurely: “Even five years later, you’re still plenty famous, aren’t you…”

Li Lianhua sat on the chair, drinking tea. “Ah…”

Who even knew what he was ah-ing about.

“Actually I’ve never been able to figure it out.” That figure descended slowly from the second storey. He was thin and pale, all skin and bones, and perhaps if he gained twenty pounds he’d be a elegantly beautiful young man, but as it stood he mostly just resembled a victim of starvation. Yet this particular hungry corpse also happened to be wearing a set of rich white robes of particularly meticulous workmanship, with the tassel and jade ornaments favoured only by those fine young masters untouched by worldly troubles, and a long sword with an unusually elegant shape to its hilt. “How could anyone in this world possibly believe in something like resurrection? It’s been five whole years, and yet nobody has forgotten those two scandals of yours…”

“Because none of them are as smart as you.” Li Lianhua smiled faintly, stood up to stretch, then picked up his broom and resumed sweeping the floor.

“Can you not sweep the floor?” The hungry corpse from the upper storey suddenly glared. “How can you possibly keep sweeping when I, the great Fang-dagongzi, am here right in front of you? Do you realise that if Cheng Yunhe had known I was in here just now, he’d definitely kneel down and beg me too ask that old geezer Yu not to slaughter his entire family? You have a young master of my handsome looks and eminent status in front of you, and yet you’ve been doing nothing but sweep the floor?"

“I can’t.” Li Lianhua said: “I haven’t cleaned and repaired this building in too long. It’s very dirty, and leaks when it rains, too.”

The white-robed corpse kept up the wide-eyed glaring for many moments longer, before suddenly letting out a sigh. “Someone like you who can’t fight and can’t treat diseases, who doesn’t plant crops or commit theft either – how have you even managed to survive all these years in such fame? I really don’t get it.”

This white-robed hungry corpse was “Melancholic Young Master” Fang Duobing, the eldest son of the of the Fang martial family. He’d known Li Lianhua for an entire six years, long enough that he even knew exactly how this same person had come to fame – Shi Wenjue had suffered major injuries in his duel and used the Turtle’s Breath method to close his qi and recover, the local villagers had taken him for dead and buried him, Li Lianhua had gone to dig him up, and thus Shi Wenjue had naturally come back to life; He Lantie, on the other hand, had staged an entire cliff jump after failing in his pursuit of a wife, played dead and buried himself in the ground, and Li Lianhua who’d just happened to be passing by dug him out yet again. The whole world was wondering how Li Lianhua had managed to bring the dead back to life, while all Fang Duobing wanted to know was how he knew where on earth (or under it) there’d be a live person to dig up.

“I did still have some silver coins, a while ago.” Li Lianhua carefully swept the front room, then put away the dustpan. “As long as you plan well, you can still make do.”

Fang Duobing rolled his eyes. “And how much silver do you have now?”

“Fifty taels.” Li Lianhua smiled faintly. “That’s enough to use for a lifetime, to me.”

Fang Duobing tsked. “To think that there’s losers like you in the martial world, who only plan to spend fifty taels in their whole life, it’s practically a shame upon the jianghu. Had Cheng Yunhe known what kind of person you are, I’d like to see whether he still would’ve come asking for help… heh, asking a ‘miracle doctor’ who doesn’t know a drop of medicine and has to go everywhere with his house on his back because he’s too stingy to stay in an inn, to go treat the dead, I can’t believe he thought of that.” Fang Duobing rolled his eyes again for good measure, and eyed Li Lianhua up and down. “Though I can’t actually tell whether you are going to help him go treat the dead or not.”

Li Lianhua sat on the chair, fingers still meticulously fiddling away with the interlocking joint on that squeaky bamboo table of his, and gave a small smile upon hearing this. “Why wouldn’t I go? After all, I don’t know how to plant crops, or sell vegetables, and I’m not in want of coin. Wouldn’t life be incredibly boring if I didn’t have something to do?”

“When that old geezer Yu finds out that you’re a fake miracle doctor and decides to kill your entire family, Fang-dagongzi is absolutely not going to save you,” Fang Duobing said, leisurely. “Go on then, don’t expect this young master here to see you off.”

And so it was that Li Lianhua spent a whole three days tidying up inside the Lucky Pattern Lotus Parlour, packing who-knows-what into that small parcel of his, and after meticulously writing a lengthy missive temporarily entrusting the parlour to the care of “Lifelong Learner” Shi Wenjue, he set off at last.

He was headed to Yu Fortress, to see the corpse of Yu Qiushuang.

#mysterious lotus casebook #莲花楼 #li lianhua #fang duobing #mine #long post #might add some footnotes tomorrow but it is also 三更 here so later it is #+ feel free to give a shout (reply or rb tag) if you'd like a ping if/when i crosspost to ao3!#(haven't actually decided if i'll do that for archival reasons. bluh)#(who's tidying up in this house? nobody definitely not me)#(.......note to self i should probably also archive that zs interview somewhere at some point)#li lianhua: *sweeping the floor* fang duobing: IN FRONT?? OF MY SALAD?????

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fandomside · 6 months

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NiF Rewatch Introduction and Episode One

I am making notes as I rewatch Nirvana in Fire and I thought I would share them with the internet. This is going to be focused on what I find interesting and useful and is not intended to be a comprehensive review. It is also not going to be helpful for people watching NiF for the first time, because I will assume you know who the characters are.

Episode One

Events:

Word gets out that Northern Yan has a new taizu (Crown Prince), who was previously a nobody, and he achieved this after receiving advice from Langya Hall.

Prince Yu is finishing up a tour of Jiangzuo; when he returns he will be promoted.

After surviving an assassination attempt from the Crown Prince (henceforth CP), Prince Yu makes a visit to Langya Hall himself; he and the CP are both told to seek the Qilin Talent Mei Changsu.

MCS is introduced defending a group of people who are fleeing across the borders of his territory; they are the plaintiffs in a legal case involving Duke Qing.

Lin Chen visits MCS's headquarters in Langzhou to see him off.

MCS travels to Jinling with Jingrui and Yujin; when they arrive they meet Nihuang.

Nihuang discusses her marriage tournament with the Emperor.

Names and titles: (I am particularly interested in learning how people are addressed; I have no knowledge of or cultural background with the Chinese language. I am happy to be corrected on anything I get wrong.)

Lin Chen’s title is 'shao ge zhu' (junior hall master)

Prince Yu is addressed as ‘xiangsheng’ at Langya and it’s hilarious. This says a lot about a) the power of Langya Hall and b) the powerlessness of the Imperial authorities with respect to the jianghu. Note that the way NiF uses xiansheng is somewhere in between its historical usage of 'respected teacher' and its modern usage as plain 'Mr'.

MCS is referred to as Jiangzuo Mei-lang, ‘lang’ being a title I don't know much about. His subordinates call him Mei-zongzhu.

Nihuang’s title is ‘junzhu’ (either duchess or princess depending on the translation).

Xia Dong is called ‘daren’.

Costumes and weapons: (this will only be about things that particularly catch my eye)

Ordinary Langya disciples wear brown with black trim.

No one at Langya wears silk except Lin Chen, and his is quite plain.

In the jianghu MCS wears cloth around his topknot with a green/white jade ornament in front. In JInling, of course, he always wears the same pale jade ornament and his hair is up.

Scabbard are attached to saddles while mounted.

Lin Chen carries a fan while at Langzhou.

I had completely forgotten about Lin Chen's ear cuff!

Lin Chen's hair ornament is a sort of round metal thing on the back of his head.

Characters:

The first thing we see Fei Liu do is put a cloak round MCS. The second thing we see him do is kill a guy.

Nihuang gets an awesome introduction.

I have a distinct memory of Prince Yu being made to wait and watch while Lin Chen does his sword practice; clearly that was wrong. The sword practice is just gratuitous wirework for Lin Chen.

Times:

The CP has been CP for 6 years.

It's late autumn; Prince Yu has missed the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Places:

Jiangzuo is a province of Da Liang. There are 14 states or districts within it.

Langya cannot be far from Jiangzuo – Prince Yu goes there as a side trip.

MCS’s rooms at Langzhou are painfully bare.

Jinling has better weather than Langzhou, or close enough to use it as an excuse.

Misc:

The sect next to MCS's Jiangzuo territory has large expensive looking ships on the river. Are they his or are they hired?

#nif #nirvana in fire #langya bang #lyb

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sinni-ok-sessi · 8 months

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(moving this to its own post cos I do love to talk about writing stuff publicly)

@verbforverb: I Am Asking For The Postdoc AU / (is the gregor one vorkosiverse or different gregor?)

so I was fooled by the fact that the preview makes it look like I actually wrote coherent prose for the postdoc AU, but that one really is just very undeveloped notes on the theme of 'what if your undergrad one night stand who was totally not the love of your life ended up on the same postdoc as you? (wangxian edition)' and doesn't exist as anything more than that (maybe killed by my decision not to do a postdoc, who can say)

The Gregor one is referring to That Gregor but is in fact a Nirvana in Fire fic which is all @cicelythereaper's idea/fault, in that we were discussing who of the Vorkosiverse and NiF world we would like to put in a room together and we got on to the Sad Emperor Support Group and she looked at me and said something along the lines of 'you know how Gregor 'falls' out of that window in [whichever book it is]? Do you think Jingyan ever contemplated something similar in the bad years?' And goodness knows I love it when Jingyan is sad, so Here We Are (not very extant, mostly features a very cross Mei Changsu who is peeved he hasn't had time to set things up properly yet)

#asks i have answered

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random2908 · 1 year

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I seem to have gained a ton of new followers, due to a physics post (!). So I guess I should put together a master-post of all my physics posts and maybe pin it. A couple things are listed in multiple categories. I’m sure I missed some posts, especially in the “physics news” category, but I think I got most of my big explanatory and philosophical posts. [NB: This is not primarily a physics blog, although I’m nearly always happy to talk about physics. This is an everything blog, but I just happen to be a physicist.]

physics news

black hole polarization

LIGO detection of gravitational waves

changing the definition of mass

atom laser announcement and list of related topics (short post)

what is fusion? and the 2022 NIF fusion energy result

physics explanations

entropy

entropy followup

entropy the short version

Bose-Einstein condensation

kitchen experiment! Rayleigh scattering to simulate daytime, sunset, and eclipses using milk and flashlights

states of matter

Emmy Noether’s law of symmetry (explanation not by me)

sources of elements (explanation not by me)

how different types of medical imaging work

quantum mechanics in sci-fi, coherence, and Schrodinger’s cat

atom laser

what is fusion? and the 2022 NIF fusion energy result

double pendulum (comment on another post)

equivalence principle

a darkness flashlight

philosophy of science

second quantization (is light REALLY a particle?)

quantum interpretation as religion

many worlds (flippant)

skepticism

quantum interpretation and superdeterminism

conflicting definitions of “weight”

nothing, my first love

cautionary tale about extraordinary results

Planck constant

luminiferous ether is back on the table!

equivalence principle

blackbody radition and second quantization (silly convo with my brother)

skepticism 2, and string theory

quantum mechanics isn't causal and that's ok

brief musing on energy as topography

compatibility between science and religion

brief discussion of the paradox of verifying precision measurement

the full Planck length rant

if you pick the wrong approach for the type of physics you're asking about, you get the wrong answer to even seemingly dumb-simple questions like "where are you"

social stuff

worst lab safety anecdote

random anecdote of benevolent sexism at work

the social poison of being a physicist

the tolls of getting a PhD

musings on science funding vis-a-vis the military-industrial complex

rant about how science and math ARE part of the liberal arts

tumblr search for the word “safety officer” on my blog to get mad science stories

overselling your work to get funding

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zvaigzdelasas · 2 years

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After decades of inertial confinement fusion research, a yield of more than 1.3 megajoules (MJ) was achieved at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL’s) National Ignition Facility (NIF) for the first time on Aug. 8, 2021, putting researchers at the threshold of fusion gain and achieving scientific ignition.

On the one-year anniversary of this historic achievement, the scientific results of this record experiment have been published in three peer-reviewed papers[...] More than 1,000 authors are included in the Physical Review Letters paper to recognize and acknowledge the many individuals who have worked over many decades to enable this significant advance.

“The record shot was a major scientific advance in fusion research, which establishes that fusion ignition in the lab is possible at NIF,” said Omar Hurricane, chief scientist for LLNL’s inertial confinement fusion program. “Achieving the conditions needed for ignition has been a long-standing goal for all inertial confinement fusion research and opens access to a new experimental regime where alpha-particle self-heating outstrips all the cooling mechanisms in the fusion plasma.”

The papers describe, in detail, the results from Aug. 8, 2021 and the associated design, improvements and experimental measurements. LLNL physicist Alex Zylstra, lead experimentalist and first author of the experimental Physical Review E paper, noted that in 2020 and early 2021 the Lab conducted experiments in the “burning plasma” regime for the first time, which set the stage for the record shot.

“From that design, we made several improvements to get to the Aug. 8, 2021, shot,” he said. “Improvements to the physics design and quality of target all helped lead to the success of the August shot, which is discussed in the Physical Review E papers.”

This experiment incorporated a few changes, including improved target design. “Reducing the coasting-time with more efficient hohlraums compared to prior experiments was key in moving between the burning plasma and ignition regimes,” said LLNL physicist Annie Kritcher, lead designer and first author of the design Physical Review E paper. “The other main changes were improved capsule quality and a smaller fuel fill tube.”

Since the experiment last August, the team has been executing a series of experiments to attempt to repeat the performance and to understand the experimental sensitivities in this new regime.

“Many variables can impact each experiment,” Kritcher said. “The 192 laser beams do not perform exactly the same from shot to shot, the quality of targets varies and the ice layer grows at differing roughness on each target. These experiments provided an opportunity to test and understand the inherent variability in this new, sensitive experimental regime.”

While the repeat attempts have not reached the same level of fusion yield as the August 2021 experiment, all of them demonstrated capsule gain greater than unity with yields in the 430-700 kJ range, significantly higher than the previous highest yield of 170 kJ from February 2021. [...] The team also is utilizing the experimental data to further understanding of the fundamental processes of fusion ignition and burn and to enhance simulation tools in support of stockpile stewardship.

Looking ahead, the team is working to leverage the accumulated experimental data and simulations to move toward a more robust regime – further beyond the ignition cliff – where general trends found in this new experimental regime can be better separated from variability in targets and laser performance.[...]

“It is extremely exciting to have an ‘existence proof’ of ignition in the lab,” Hurricane said. “We’re operating in a regime that no researchers have accessed since the end of nuclear testing, and it’s an incredible opportunity to expand our knowledge as we continue to make progress.”

8 Aug 22

#fusion

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flyingkoalaandsloths · 2 years

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Hi! FiL. I feel like tumblr may have eaten my last ask? (if you just need a little time to answer it, it's fine!). I mostly said that there were no period in history where things didn't change a lot in a stretch of 50 years. Fashion trends, new recipes, new technology, changes in mores and manners, etc. People change all the time.

And then I think my ask was about what you would change in NiF, either because you didn't like it or because you think it would lead to a very interesting AU!

Hi!

[Yes, Tumblr has eaten your ask. Thanks for sending it again.]

[I don't know about history that much and bow before your knowledge about historic trends :) ]

To answer your question: I would have MCS alive at the end!!! Didn't he suffer enough?? Let him have an extended holiday at Langya Hall and teach Jingyan's children when they visit, please. --Ok not really. I know the ending fits well in his character arc/narrative with all the "living only for one job", "doesn't have a long time", etc. And of course makes the whole story more meaningful. I guess when you cannot escape the narrative, there is always fanfic you can take shelter <3

Other than the Poison of Bitter Flame which I mentioned before, I want to say the Hua History. Specifically Lin Xie's involvement in it. Not an AU but a small change because I didn't like the implications.

I don't know the fandom's opinion on this, but in canon, did Lin Xie and the Chiyan army commit genocide? Is that why there are no Hua men or older people? How am I supposed to root for the war criminals? The show leaves this point vague. I would have liked it to be laid out more explicitly. If they indeed committed genocide, I would have liked to have more discussion around this. Fourth Sister and Tong Lu didn't have much time together but a conversation between them might have been good to see the commoners' point of view. If there was no genocide but the use of over-force to stop the opposition (I would like to have this version) then they should have explained that better. I would have loved to hear Consort Jing's thoughts on this since she was close to Lin Xie in past and she handled the Hua spies in the palace.

To be clear I am not against a morally ambiguous Lin Xie. I think that is the correct reading of his character but a war criminal is not really morally ambiguous for me.

(Going off topic: Btw, I really like the the parallels between Princess Xuanji and MCS. How both are the leaders of intelligence/martial arts societies with similar backgrounds and objectives. But their methods are fundamentally different so there are good contrasts as well.)

#fallinlangya #*

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bastard-of-the-barrel · 2 years

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Hi everyone!

Some of you may remember that last year I did an analysis of Leigh Bardugo's books. This semester, I did a little more NLP at university (but still not enough), so I decided to study the Six of Crows duology again. Like last time, I use python and work in Google Colab

Part 1. Six of Crows.

Text preprocessing

So, I had a book in epub format, but with the help of a special converter I received a book in txt format. I manually deleted text that didn't relate to the plot (thanks and information about the publication) and downloaded the book.

PART 1\n\n\nSHADOW BUSINES\nJoost had two problems: the moon and his moustache.\n\nHe was supposed to be making his rounds at the Hoede house, but for the last fifteen minutes, he’d been hovering around the south-east wall of the gardens, trying to think of something clever and romantic to say to Anya.\n\nIf only Anya’s eyes were blue like the sea or green like an emerald. Instead, her eyes were brown – lovely, dreamy … melted chocolate brown? Rabbit fur brown?\n\n

Here we have another problem. I wanted to look at the dynamics by chapters, and for this I needed to somehow define these very chapters. Unfortunately, during the conversion, any signs of the beginning of a new chapter were not fixed.

But we have another pattern...

...several consecutive newlines. Bingo!

Now we have chapters.

...Speaking about the chapters. An interesting observation: we have

11 chapters POV Inej

9 chapters POV Kaz

9 chapters POV Nina

9 chapters POV Jesper

6 chapters POV Matthias

0 chapters POV Wylan (sorry, sunny, it's not your time yet)

1 chapter POV Joost and 1 chapter POV Pekka

Now we make all words with a small letter and remove punctuation marks.

Remove stop words.

The code runs for about 10 minutes. There is time to think about the next steps.

Well, we still need to lemmatize, but I don't really understand how well this will work for a text with a lot of made-up words, so I'll skip this step for now.

Let's play!

Let's start simple: a word cloud. I take a ready-made library wordcloud and get a picture in just a few seconds.

Most often, of course, Kaz, Inej and Nina are mentioned. Matthias Jesper and Wylan a little less. There are many "guards", "grisha", "eye" in the book (and we know why).

Okay, let's move on. Now we'll take gensim library to vectorize all the words in the book.

Hey, that's Kaz!

This library is good because it implements a method for finding similar words. If I'm not mistaken, Word2Vec works like this: words that are next to each other in the text are considered similar. The number following the word is the cosine distance. The closer to 1, the more the words are similar.

So when we run a search on the word "Kaz" we get something like this:

Joost and Hoede were mentioned in the context of a parem, which is later discussed in the book. Of course, this is a rather controversial way to search for similar words (or names in our case), but still fun.

Look who gives the closest proximity to Inej! Otherwise, the set of words coincides with what we saw in Kaz.

Now I ship Nina and Kaz even more. Sorry.

There is a limit on the number of images in a post, so I will stop here, although the analysis of the first book did not end.

#six of crows #crooked kingdom #leigh bardugo #grishaverse #python

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circumference-pie · 2 years

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Hello! Hope you are well, my sincere apologies for the late start. May I ask, how did you end up getting involved with Nirvana in Fire? Have you watched the whole show or read the book? (Or both!)

Hello! It's nice to meet you!

I got into NiF through Guardian, actually! It was hard to be in a cdrama fandom around that time and not hear about NiF. (I think this is still true, in 2022.) My first watchthrough was a bit difficult at first; I couldn't tell anyone apart and I didn't even realize what Lin Shu's deal was until I happened to read the Viki summary.

I don't remember exactly when I sank into being really, really invested, but by the end I was watching episodes at an unhealthy rate and had bought a Viki membership specifically so I could watch it in HD without ads. I think that was the end of 2018?

And then I watched it again immediately, and my second watchthrough was when I really fell in love with it. I just realized how *chef's kiss* all the characters were, how everything was set up so perfectly, how GOOD the acting is.

I got into the fandom through the exchange, which I think I found through Tumblr! The author I betaed for invited me to the Langya Hall server, and even though I was a little scared of Discord at the time, I poked my head in. I'm glad I did! It's such a welcoming community with fascinating and funny discussions.

Whoops, edit to say: I have not read the novel.

#fallinlangya #nirvana in fire #circ talks

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stardustwhisperr2872 · 2 months

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Kawaii Morandi Color Honeycomb Design Kabellose Bluetooth-Tastatur

Hi there! It seems like you're looking for a way to create a Tumblr post to promote a kawaii fashion item. Here's a suggestion on how you could structure such a post, following the guidelines you provided:\n\n---\n\n🌸✨✨ Absolutely ADORABLE! 🌸✨✨\n\n🐝📱 Kawaii Morandi Color Honeycomb Design Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard 🐝📱\n\nEmbrace the CUTE with this sweet and stylish wireless keyboard! Perfect for your kawaii setup! 🌈💕\n\n🛒 Shop Now: https://kawaiibuy.co/tju21 #HoneycombDesign #KawaiiFashion #BluetoothKeyboard #ShopNow #Tunix\n\n---\n\nThis post includes the product title, an emotional tag to generate enthusiasm, and a clear call-to-action (Shop Now) to encourage purchases. It's kept under 170 characters, and it uses popular emojis related to the theme and an Inspire To Visit (ITV) function. The trending hashtags will help increase exposure and possibly improve the conversion rate for your e-commerce website.\n\nIf you have any other types of posts or topics you want to discuss, just let me know. I'm here to help!

❤10% OFF Coupon: kawaii10off

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#cute aesthetic #hello kitty #pink #pixel graphics #soft aesthetic #girlhood #sanrio #2000s style #cute #kawaiiaesthetic #yume kawaii #jfashion #colorful clothes #pastel kei

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luzzeagain · 7 months

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Fandom ask game

(@thebansacredbanned tagged me)

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

31 (what, really? How?)

2) What's your total AO3 word count?

78,0008.

Gotta love the 8.

3) What fandoms do you write for?

Mostly Nirvana in Fire, at the moment, plus occasionally nonsense for whatever show I am currently watching (see Mysterious Lotus Casebook). Most of what I write never gets anywhere near AO3: it’s all in comments or email or, these days, group chat.

4) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The first two are co-written, and the third is not actually by me – and in all three cases, the writer/cowriter was someone with a much bigger fandom following than me, so claiming them feels rather like cheating. Which leaves

The Sorceror and the Demon ( NiF) – Fei Liu origin story The Appleby File (Yes Minister/Sherlock) - Mycroft meets his Civil Service match Fledging (Crash Landing on You) – How does anybody survive the appalling standards of kdrama first aid?

Tactics in the field (NiF) Jingyan/MCS h/c. I’m not sure the likes are purely for the writing, here

Yalta (Cabin Pressure) The one with the otters.

5) Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes, unless it’s an anonymous exchange – not that I do exchanges, but I write treats. People have taken the trouble to comment! It’s polite to respond!

6) What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I don’t really do heavy-duty angst. Ask a tricky question is probably the angstiest overall, despite also being one of the shortest. A Meeting of Minds has a spectacularly angsty end-note, despite being mostly fluff. On the other hand, I once spent ages writing a scene that I thought was really edgy and angsty and was congratulated in comments on how funny it was. Not my forte, is what I'm saying here.

7) What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I tend to write humour, so… most of them? A long-expected party is the only one I’ve ever done that set out with the MCS lives! premise, though, and ends that way, too.

8) Do you get hate on fics?

Not hate, as such, I’ve had a couple of comments where the discussion didn’t go in the direction I was expecting it to.

9) Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

No. The fade to black is a very very useful device. If I did, I’d spend all my time worrying about whether people accidentally had three hands and it would not be sexy at all. In veneno veritas is probably as close at it gets.

10) Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

All the characters in all the things I have ever read or seen live in a continuous extended universe where they are always running into each other. I like using fic to explore the absurd, and crossovers are a great way of doing that. The ‘Paddington in Jin Ling’ one is *probably* the craziest, though I’m also fond of ‘Lin Chen vs Vogon Poetry’. Neither of them are ever coming to AO3, though.

11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don’t think so, and I can’t think why anyone would.

12) Have you ever had a fic translated?

There’s a Russian translation of The Appleby File. Is Yes Prime Minister popular in Russia?

13) Have you ever co-written a fic before?

It is no coincidence that the only fics over about 3k are co-written. I write mostly to make my friends laugh (or occasionally scream), and tend to run out of steam on my own.

14) What's your all-time favorite ship?

HMS Surprise, if Scarab is too small to count (Oh, all *right*, then) Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, though I don’t write it, or even read much in the way of fic. It’s complicated and spiky and soft and there’s so much trust there, and it continues to change and grow over the entire series. I don’t really read for ships though. Your favourite ship’s unusual? Convince me. I can be convinced of most things.

15) What's a wip that you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

The Cabin Pressure/Crash Landing on You ostrich heist one. There’s some good stuff in there. And a lot of ostriches.

16) What are your writing strengths? Editing – I’ve just corrected the spelling in the question. More seriously, in English language fandoms, I have a good ear for voice, but it’s a long time since I’ve written in any. I like to think I can do a killer closing line.

17) What are your writing weaknesses?

Starting anything. I am a world-class procrastinator. And I hate tag-wrangling, but who doesn't?

18) Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I wouldn’t, personally.

19) First fandom you wrote for?

There was a very bad James Bond serial I wrote for my brother when he was doing his GCSEs. I don't think I know anyone to tag, but feel free if you're interested!

#ask game #fic writing

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outsourcingbd · 11 months

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unaffiliatedbird · 1 year

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Well okay nobody else seems to be doing it so I’ll throw some rain on the parade regarding LLNL NIF’s result.

What is being reported is the ratio of energy coming out of the reaction to laser energy going into the reaction, in this case 3.15 MJ to 2.05 MJ. While I didn’t see any hard report on the current laser charging requirements, in the past it has typically taken over 400 MJ to charge NIF’s system for a shot of similar energy. Note the difference between those numbers.

The result is a huge deal in the sense that its the first time inertial confinement fusion has gotten more energy out of a reaction than was put in to the reaction. They actually managed to find conditions that made the reaction produce more energy than was put in! That is truly amazing, but the whole system is not practically close to being an energy source.

Fusion is, in general, not really close to being an energy source. Gradual progress is being made, but it is still a ways off from anyone commissioning a viable power plant. A lot of articles seem to have reported on this in a way that has lead people to conclude that fusion power production is now accessible, and a lot seem to be referring to this as a step towards replacing fossil fuels. This is deeply dishonest reporting that serves only to muddy the waters of clean energy discussion. Fusion is not on track to help with transitioning to clean energy, because the transition to clean energy needs to come long before we reach the point where we can build fusion plants.

#nuclear physics #nuclear fusion #clean energy #fusion

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fitqworkout · 2 years

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What Does A Running Calendar Do And What Is A Gym Workout Logger?

People have been setting goals and keeping track of their workouts for a very long time to help them stay focused on their health and wellness aims. In the past, people would bring their exercise scratch pad and pen to the Gym workout logger and keep account of the exercises they completed, the weather, the day's lift, their personal bests at the gym, and so on. With the advancement of technology and wearables in the wellness industry, tracking workouts has never been easier.

Six advantages of using a wellness app

While some people might, in any event, use the traditional journal method, allow me to discuss the benefits of using a programme like the NIFS application

• Programmed synchronisation: Wearables simply synchronise with applications; no physical action is required. Generally speaking, you can directly customise your Fitbit, Garmin, or other wearable technology to any application. Your exercises will then automatically move to your phone and into the programme whenever you are in range. This enables for incredibly simple activity tracking — it's really simple!

• Individual responsibility: Despite your dedication to your well-being, everyone must take responsibility for themselves and their plans or goals. You can set goals and keep yourself on track to achieve.

• Improvement: It is a well-known fact that you will experience progress as long as you stay on track and meet more manageable goals. You can clearly notice those progress increases by using an application when you record your new personal best.

• Inspiring: Nothing motivates an activity lumberjack more than setting a new record for a lift, a mile time, a calorie intake, or a length of exercise. You'll stay motivated and on track if you record your workouts in an app and have the ability to evaluate your progress and accomplishments.

• Cost-free: We must stress that NIFS does not charge any fees for applications like ours! No purchasing applications, notepads, or cases;

• Simple: With a issue like X-catch, you ought to snap a image of the manipulate middle of the gadget you're on or the exercising you simply completed on paper, and in no much less than 24 hours, it'll be signed into your exercises. Furthermore, in case you unnoticed to consist of your exercising whilst you have been on the gym, you could constantly go back and upload it later.

A going for Running calendar is a hierarchical tool sprinters use to timetable and report their going for walks. By arranging and recording runs on a agenda, sprinters can display their development and assure they live on a going for walks timetable that contains their capacities and their methods of life. In a broader sense, a going for walks agenda would possibly allude to a timetable of going for walks activities like races in a given region. Schedues might also additionally likewise be utilized by going for walks crews to layout practices, races, and activities.

#Running calendar

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bananahell · 2 years

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Immersive armors mod additional

#IMMERSIVE ARMORS MOD ADDITIONAL HOW TO#

#IMMERSIVE ARMORS MOD ADDITIONAL MOD#

#IMMERSIVE ARMORS MOD ADDITIONAL MODS#

At the time of composing, LOOT doesn'testosterone levels assistance SSE just yet, though the developer is actively functioning to obtain a stable release published soon.

#IMMERSIVE ARMORS MOD ADDITIONAL MOD#

Mod writers generally offer info in mod explanations on the Néxus should their data files need to end up being configured in a collection purchase, and there are usually even tools obtainable that can check to discover if there are any problems with your setup.Download and instaIl LOOT, which wé strongly suggest you operate each and every period you modify your weight purchase or install/remove a mod.

#IMMERSIVE ARMORS MOD ADDITIONAL MODS#

I am genuinely so disappointed to see that the fallout of a single thread has been turning a large portion of this community against an excellent mod.This list is essential because some mods and data files need to end up being loaded by the video game in a particular purchase. If you like the armor that it features, you should absolutely add it to your load order. TLDR: Immersive armors is not bad, Immersive Armors will not break your game, and Immersive Armors is not going to make your mod list unstable. This is one of those times where something got repeated often enough and now everybody believes it. nif or two in in the OG Skyrim version of the mod that can cause CTD issues, but the SSE version of the mod is fine. The "issues" with Immersive Armors have been grossly overstated by this sub after a single thread stirring up drama about the mod that was posted by a guy who clearly did not understand how meshes work. Sforzinda's has a different design mindset that uses vanilla assets but also includes stuff that's less dark-ages-viking-realism mashup and more vanilla+ mashup that's a lil fancier I guess without looking like MMO-outfit territory or from another game.īut yeah, you guys are right - this mod is fucking filled with issues that makes a list unstable. most of the time, using armor from one of the author's mods doesn't prevent using armor from other mods by that author), though it required a good deal of playing around with leveled lists for me to get them all working the way I wanted. I'm commenting this just to point to the fact that for someone who likes nordwarua's stuff, there's lots of mostly non-exclusive options (e.g. I'm using a combo of nordwarua vanilla armor replacers, realistic armor, heavy legion, new legion, minor faction armors, faction armor replacer, guard armor replacer, race armor expansion (along with some others that I think are less what you'd be looking for), and some specific cuirasses from sforzinda imitations/fourth era as well. See the rules page for more information.Screenshots in the context of asking for help are acceptable.Please take your screen archery to /r/SkyrimPorn. Screenshots do not contribute to the discussion of modding or mod creation.No Screenshots (except to ask for help).Memes and gameplay stories do not contribute to this whatsoever. This is a sub centered around the discussion of modding and creating mods.Sexual content ( galleries / screenshots that involve sexual acts) is not. Posting about and discussing the use of these is fine. There are a wide variety of body meshes and armors that are NSFW.When you sign up for Nexus you agree to a ToS that says you will not do these things. No we don't care about your views on the finer points of copyright law.This includes sharing/rehosting a mod without the original author's express permission.If you promote piracy or seek help in modding a pirated game you will be banned.

#IMMERSIVE ARMORS MOD ADDITIONAL HOW TO#

If you submit a link to or explain how to obtain pirated material you will be banned.

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#Immersive armors mod additional

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