part of a 10th century Byzantine poem talking about ancient greek literature :')

The long passage of time has scattered texts, like flowers, everywhere about the earth. Blossoming, they did not transmit their sweet-smelling grace. But now, crowned well by them, Konstantinos plucked some and, composing melodious musical poetry, set an enchanting aroma and fragrant texts before all who partake of higher culture. Let us wreath him with our words, that lover of words.

Y'all, the world is sleeping on what NASA just pulled off with Voyager 1

The probe has been sending gibberish science data back to Earth, and scientists feared it was just the probe finally dying. You know, after working for 50 GODDAMN YEARS and LEAVING THE GODDAMN SOLAR SYSTEM and STILL CHURNING OUT GODDAMN DATA.

So they analyzed the gibberish and realized that in it was a total readout of EVERYTHING ON THE PROBE. Data, the programming, hardware specs and status, everything. They realized that one of the chips was malfunctioning.

So what do you do when your probe is 22 Billion km away and needs a fix? Why, you just REPROGRAM THAT ENTIRE GODDAMN THING. Told it to avoid the bad chip, store the data elsewhere.

Sent the new code on April 18th. Got a response on April 20th - yeah, it's so far away that it took that long just to transmit.

And the probe is working again.

From a programmer's perspective, that may be the most fucking impressive thing I have ever heard.

I have a gripe about the Star Trek mugs...

Picard's teacup is a delicate, fragile little thing held by a strip of plastic and a dream. That thin glass will break if you look at it sideways. And where do they put that ridiculous tiny cup? On the Enterprise, which is always being dragged into conflict

The DS9 raktajino mugs are hefty, wide-based things that are meant to not tip over. They're called no-spill mugs. They have a foam piece on the bottom so they don't slip. They're incredibly sturdy – meant for ships and traveling! Where do they put them? At the station, which is arguably the most stable place they could be cause DS9 rarely gets knocked about.

Far as I'm concerned, Janeway's the only one doing practical space mugs correctly. Come on, a metal travel mug that's as strong as her coffee is black? Takes a beating through 70,000 light years of bridge shakes fighting off the Borg and the Hirogen and still holds a hot drink? Now that's a space mug

Murals in a peasant's house, Saratov, Russia, 1910

This is OP.

I need a way to say this character makes me feel insane amounts of lust but not in a sexual or romantic way

[ID: an illustration of a ring-tailed lemur on a branch, facing to the left. It is gazing curiously at a small blue butterfly and reaching for it with one paw. The background is light blue with yellow spots. End.]

Ring-tailed lemur! Endemic to Madagascar. They hang out in troops of up to around 30 lemurs, grooming or sunbathing. They’re the most well adapted lemur to terrestrial movement.

Also please tell me your favorite femslash rarepairs in the tags!

something that really gets me about the doctor is that if your looking, it’s very obvious that they’re the same person across regenerations. the important things stick- the wit, the thinking under pressure, the emotional constipation, (which gets lessened over time, but that’s less on an on/off regeneration thing than you might think and more of a character arc thing so it further proves my point) their inherent love for humanity, their drama, their nonviolent tendencies.

all the obvious changes between the doctors are surface level, and if you go poking around you find that they’re all really similar to each other. I just love watching different peoples portrayals of one single character, and I think it’s really fun to see that regeneration really is mostly just changing the *body*, not the *soul*.

I understood it as the marriage to Laura lowers him in Fosco's estimation, but is important in getting the world at large to take him seriously. So when he takes Fosco's testimony to the Powers That Be, he's acting as Laura's husband (respectable), instead of her appearing to be his mistress (destroying her reputation).

Fosco has made the story briefly interesting again. Excellent villainy. Plus this bit, after learning Walter has married Laura:

I could see that I sank in his estimation as a dangerous man from that moment. He shut up the drawer at once, folded his arms over his breast, and listened to me with a smile of satirical attention.

In Fosco's mind Laura is not, herself, worthy of any consideration. She is a tool for acquiring money. I think Fosco had assumed he was dealing with Marian's champion, or perhaps even Marian's proxy, and is disappointed. Walter seems less dangerous because now Fosco equates him with Glyde.

It's the "uh-oh!" at the end that really makes it.

The International Phonetic Alphabet consonants found in English, with keywords and relevant parts of the mouth highlighted and colour-coded. (Source.) 

It's just occurred to me reading this... what was Walter's plan if Laura found any of that stuff? "Yes, dear, everyone who loves you has been lying to you, but don't worry, it's for your own good"?

I know I've gone on about this a lot, but it feels like there's a real selfishness in an action that we're presumably supposed to take to be a kindness.

"I am so useless—I am such a burden on both of you," she answered, with a weary, hopeless sigh. "You work and get money, Walter, and Marian helps you. Why is there nothing I can do? You will end in liking Marian better than you like me—you will, because I am so helpless! Oh, don't, don't, don't treat me like a child!"

Having had some health problems, and being the "unemployed" spouse, I really feel for Laura here. She isn't fully well, and there's probably not much materially that she can contribute, but I'm sure they can come up with something she can do. Maybe even add to her responsibilities as she gets stronger.

Her drawings, as she finished them, or tried to finish them, were placed in my hands. Marian took them from me and hid them carefully, and I set aside a little weekly tribute from my earnings, to be offered to her as the price paid by strangers for the poor, faint, valueless sketches, of which I was the only purchaser. It was hard sometimes to maintain our innocent deception, when she proudly brought out her purse to contribute her share towards the expenses, and wondered with serious interest, whether I or she had earned the most that week. I have all those hidden drawings in my possession still—they are my treasures beyond price—the dear remembrances that I love to keep alive—the friends in past adversity that my heart will never part from, my tenderness never forget.

Fuck you Walter. You are doing literally the one thing she asked you not to do. Fuck you, and fuck Marian for letting you. Teach Laura to sweep the floor in your little apartment, it would be better than this.

Now I want to watch a time loop musical episode. The key changes every loop. The looper's dance moves go from an awkward shuffle to full Bollywood by the end.

All types of creations (edits, gifsets, fics etc) are welcome as long as they are centered around South Asian character(s)!

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2021 TSAW / 2022 TSAW

moon snail 🌕

This is a really interesting thought.

For what it's worth, I think the Woman in White is nearer the start or even middle of asylum reform. Asylums improved in the mid-century and then got worse again; it's quite possible that the asylum Anne and Laura end up is nicer than Seward's. If anything that supports your point about childhood, though.

@vickyvicarious aw heck now I want to compare Madness in Dracula and the Woman in White, with the short version being that in WiW Madness = Childhood and in Dracula it very much does not. There's also things to be said about withholding information to avoid triggering the person in recovery.

And I guess the big thing is Dracula is written after the big Asylum reform but the Woman in White is written before.

But yeah they each have a character who is congenitally mad and beyond help and a second, younger character who is driven mad and later able to recover.

I don't have time right now but it's worth chewing on

Hahaha I just checked this and it's 141,589 words long.

if you want more Wilkie Collins, project Gutenberg is promoting The Dead Secret today. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43092

OooOOOooooh

Please tell me this is a short story though there's only so much my blood pressure can take