#in the urban North. in the 80s.
Note
I love reading your analyzing of Coyle. I wondered if you had any thoughts on his sexuality? (I mean I have a damn spread sheet myself, but you're so much better at words and really great at psychoanalyzing lol). I've described him as being "the straightest gay man I've ever seen" to a few people now and eventually the "get" it.
(CW: discussions of canon typical sexual and racial violence, slavery, internalized homophobia, domestic violence and femicide. One of the linked videos also discusses fascism using disturbing transphobic rhetoric as an example.)
Thank you for your kind words, it’s really nice to know my ramblings are resonating with someone! Discussion should be allowed to emerge naturally, but I think much of the debate that arose from the revelation of Coyle’s character was removed from the context of the oppressed groups being commented on by the text. I say that mainly in reference to people of color, since the KKK represents a cultural trauma which is inextricably attached to blackness, but the statement applies to queer people as well. That very Klan was almost extinguished in the 1870s until it was revitalized half a century later by a film, of all things: media is obviously important. There’s much more that can be, and to an extent needs to be, said about this story beyond rehashing “it is/is not okay to hornypost about this” ad nauseam.
So let’s get this out of the way: I think Coyle was deliberately being written as queer. The ethics of incorporating LGBT characters in a setting so obsessed with the grotesque are questionable (you can read more perspectives on that here and here,) but I think there was intention behind the decision to depict him this way, whether it's "good representation" or not.
One of his defining traits is that he habitually deploys lewd, effeminate language to intimidate and dehumanize his victims: “alluring piglet,” “honey,” “beautiful/sexy b*tch,” “darling,” “sweet, ripe young things" and the like. You could argue that is solely a degradation tactic rather than a direct indicator of his sexual preference, and he does seem to do it primarily to scare you. But a big part of the horror in Kill the Snitch is that Coyle is very unembarrassed about how much pleasure he gets out of subjecting you to that degradation. (“You lick my boot, maybe I let you up.”) The innuendo he taunts the Reagents with is unaffected by their gender presentation, and The Snitch is a fixed character presented as a cis man who Coyle treats with just as much aggressive leeriness. From there, it's difficult to interpret him as straight.
And since Coyle is one of the main villains of the game, I think I would be remiss if I argued that his bi/pansexuality is a thematically insignificant byproduct of his broader characterization as a sadist. That conclusion certainly presents itself: even if his queerness is loudly implied, it isn’t commented on directly by the text the way other aspects of his character are, like racism and uxoricide. The closest we get to a clear, unmistakable identification of his sexuality comes in the form of his aforementioned attitude towards The Snitch.
While the Reagents are interchangeable grunts, The Oogie Boogie Man Snitch is Coyle's own prisoner, and as such we witness him compound the usual routine of sexualized cruelty with repeated assertions of possession, calling him things like “toy” “mine” and “property” to emphasize a sense of ownership. He comes completely undone when the Reagents electrocute him to death, exploding into thwarted, miserable rage like a kid watching their sandcastle get kicked to shit (“No! FUCKING NO! He was mine!”) and throwing out all of his beliefs at once as this jumbled, fascistic mess; “anarchist pinko fucks” this and “country’s going to shit” that.
Perhaps the most telling line about their dynamic is this one: “Jesus Christ you look like my second wife, you know that? Spittin' image. Woman got me 'bout as hot as Missouri asphalt.” The only time we see how Coyle interacts with people on an even playing field is in the files, when it’s mentioned that he killed two of his fellow soldiers when serving in the army & brutalized a murkoff agent interviewing him. The social dominance he has over people like The Snitch and his wives seems to be the only way he’s capable of conducting interpersonal relationships on a vaguely emotional level. Otherization, fuckability, and the need for corrective shame/subordination are all intertwined in Coyle's head, muddling together to form his notion of natural hierarchy: one which is incoherent, self-serving, and more about appearances than anything else. (“I know what you did. I just need to hear you say it.”)
And the importance placed on appearances isn’t just something that Leland happens to believe. In the era when this game takes place, the electric chair was at peak popularity as a form of “humane” capital punishment: in reality, it was a callous technological repackaging of the methods of execution which came before it, namely the (distinctly racialized) hanging/lynching. These methods were designed to reinforce social hierarchy by staging voyeuristic displays of dehumanization, and were levied with particular barbarism against people of color. There’s a catalog of horror stories I could insert here about white supremacy and the electric chair, but that’s another post entirely. What I want to establish is that:
A. It's easy to interpret The Snitch’s execution (and the Reagent’s forced participation in it) as a symbolic enforcement of Murkoff’s construction of social dominance, akin to capital punishment or lynching/state sponsored terrorism.
B. Men like Coyle were categorically responsible for orchestrating executions like the one in the game, and the fact that he gets so angry and addled about it even though he’s ostensibly a follower of their doctrine speaks to the nature of his ideology.
Though a lot of real world topics get touched on by Coyle's dialogue, it certainly isn’t 100% down-to-earth social critique. Many of his lines invite you to laugh at him (“It's hurtful when you disrespect the badge. I have feelings, too”/”Ain't you slicker'n a can of mashed assholes”) and his crimes themselves are, at times, overblown and ridiculous. He's a caricature of institutional violence and injustice, not a straight faced example of it. No, the realistic part of Coyle’s storyline is how the power structures of 1950s America both protected him from consequences and deliberately encouraged him to degenerate. I’ve alluded to this before: it’s one of my favorite things about Trials.
He was sent to military school because of his violent tendencies and joined the marines to avoid investigation after killing his first wife, but once he had the Police Department to shield him his behavior escalated in severity so much so that it attracted the attention of an even worse organization. The process was Military School → Ku Klux Klan → Marines → Police Department → Murkoff. This facet of the story was always there, but the newly released comic really hammers in the point, that Coyle - infantile, nonsensical, vulgarly abusive and utterly unworthy of authority - was never a barely tolerated outlier or a well kept secret within the systems he budded up from. The files directly attach his klan involvement to police work even as he's described as a “good cop:” because there were no good cops in Blackwell, because good cops aren’t real. US Law Enforcement can be traced back to early southern slave patrols, they've had a handshake agreement with the Klan for decades, and you need look no further than the recent Minneapolis Police Department exposé to see how they operate in the modern world - and this game is set sixty years before 2023. Horrifying, yeah?
Understanding cops themselves to be fundamentally immoral and unjust, by the time we meet him in the game, Coyle isn’t even a competent cop in terms of his willingness to enact unjust aims. Yes he is brutal, yes he is racist, yes he clings to the childish, cowardly belief in immutable superiority found in actual modern fascists - but the ouroboros of psychosexual issues driving him to behave the way he does take precedence over his purported devotion to any belief system, to such a degree that he isn’t even acting in explicit defense of an institution anymore. That job, to defend the current institution, is what the Reagents are being trained for: the same ones he deems subhuman and, most tellingly, “perverted.”
One thing that makes Coyle’s whole presence in Kill The Snitch so surreal and disorienting is how manufactured and aimless his job as The Snitch’s defender really is. The man play acts an interrogation of someone who will never see trial, referencing vice squads, courts and elections that are nowhere to be found in the Sinyala facility - even though a different line of his mentions how they “don’t favor courts in these parts.” So, he’s directly contradicting himself. When the Snitch dies, he goes “NO! NO! I'll never... God DAMNIT,” not even finishing his own sentence about what it is he apparently needed The Snitch for.
The man obviously thinks otherwise, but he’s a make-believe cop, a test dummy for trainees to be pitted against ala shencomix’s professional hater. Though nowhere near as disenfranchised, Coyle is a puppet in Murkoff’s trials as much as the Reagents are, all his nasty, grandiose rhetoric ultimately amounting to hot air: and unlike the Reagents, this does not end with him being reborn. He lacks the overarching purpose of eventual service to a greater cause that they have.
And therein lies the self-destroying prophecy inherent to his understanding of reality. You can argue that Coyle is aware (subconsciously or otherwise) that there exists the potential for him to be otherized, and by extension subordinated, for an immutable part of himself which is directly attached to his sexuality and masculinity. I’d be surprised if he wasn't, considering how loudly the prejudices of the culture he arose from are relayed to the audience. The fear that comes from that knowledge gives birth to an obsession with categorism, shame, and “justice:” which he rationalizes as an immutable aspect of reality by connecting it with the natural phenomenon of lightning. (“I used to stand in a storm and watch the lightning strike the plains and I would think, "well there you go." That's justice. Sometimes the finger of God reaches down and touches you. But you never know which finger it is you're gonna get.”)
This leads to violence which he is constantly rewarded for: and because it’s the only viable outlet he has for exercising those very issues which he was trying to avoid confronting in the first place… he overindulges. Loses all interest in presenting the rhetoric coherently, in favor of chasing the immediate release that cruelty provides with ever-increasing vigor. (Funny how he calls the Reagents “dope addicted” too. Mr. Sony VPL strikes again!)
But in the end, Coyle is worthless. He’s a tool, designed to be overcome. It's a similarly symbolic, utilitarian role to that of The Snitch, which potentially feeds into his perverse sense of protectiveness over him, but the people who are coming out the other end of this with a job to do in the real world are the Reagents. People he looks down on, people he terrorizes, people he’s so desperate to bend to his will. He’s like... white chauvinism revealed as senseless, small and disgusting, condemned to chase its own tail & buckle under its own weight no matter how hard it shakes it's fist at the sky.
And in a series so fixated on delusion and the disintegration of the self, the nugget of reality within that was thrilling to see on screen. 10/10, would cringe at again.
#theartof-p#leland coyle#officer coyle#outlast trials#murkoff corporation#I’m feeling a need to include a “the north is awful too” caveat#but I recently found out some relatives had a cross burned on their lawn.#in the urban North. in the 80s.#so it’s probably just my own biases speaking lmao#i’m p sure it doesn’t sound like I’m singling out the rural south here but lmk if you think otherwise#lmk whatever you have to say#anyways. Long live Leland Coyle’s hideous deplorable ass!!!
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Wild Boar (Sus scrofa)
Habitat & Distribution
Originally native to north Africa, Europe, and most of Asia; while much of its original range has been restricted, it has been introduced to parts of North America, South America, and Australia
Wild boars have adapted to many environments, including deciduous and evergreen forests, grasslands, mountain ranges, wetlands, and urban environments
Physical Description
Weight: 75–100 kg (165–220 lb) for males, 60–80 kg (130–180 lb) for females
Height at shoulder: 75–80 cm (30–31 in) for males, 70 cm (28 in) for females
Both sexes are solidly built, with short legs and a thick neck; males and females also have tusks, though they're larger in males
Adults are covered in shaggy fur, the color of which can be highly variable
Behaviour
Females live in social groups called sounders, dominated by a matriarch, while adult males live alone
Adult males are extremely territorial and will drive away rivals and potential threats to the sounder
Primary predators of adults include wolves, leopards, and tigers
Wild boars are omnivorous, feeding on roots and tubers, nuts, berries, worms, rodents, eggs, reptiles, and carrion
Key Advantages
The tusks of male boars are extremely long tusks, with the exposed area alone measuring 10–12 cm (3.9–4.7 in) in length
Adult males develop a skin 2–3 cm (0.79–1.18 in) thick, which can be extremely difficult to pierce through
Wild boars can run at a top speed of 40 km/h (25 mph)
See where they stand in the May Mammal Madness Tournament here!
Photo by Jerzy Strzelecki
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Lesbian Connection submission about Minnie Bruce Pratt, March/April 2024 issue. Written by LauRose Felicity, from Ashland, OR.
I found this personally moving, and very glad it was submitted. Full plain-text transcript under the cut.
"LC's passing on MINNIE BRUCE PRATT (whom I had known as a friend since the early '80s) did not record her sex writings as clearly as I (and perhaps she) would have liked (Nov/Dec 2023). True, Minnie Bruce was a wronged mother, a staunch radical feminist and activist, an authentic Southern voice speaking about the perniciousness of racism, an anti-capitalist. But she was also a sex-positive femme who gloried in a reciprocated passion that anyone would envy. The kind of lesbian passion that, as in this case, is sometimes erased.
This passion is very clear and present in her books S/He and Magnified. In them, Minnie Bruce describes the consuming sexuality of her and Leslie's butch-femme union in a way that is still legendary today. The majority of S/He is a finger-licking, torrid account of the infinite desire of a fierce Southern femme for her urban, strap-wearing butch.
I needed to write this for Minnie Bruce, and for all of us tawdry femmes who will never be shamed into passing, or denying our driving need for our butches. Once, in our own lifetimes, our love was illegal. In my Southern state of Kentucky, our "crimes against nature" carried a 20-year sentence and for me, as an attorney, possible disbarment. In North Carolina where Minnie Bruce was living, the felony was used as justification for stealing her children. But our sexual desire was not to be denied. We risked everything for it: children, income, houses, professional stature, incarceration. And it deserves to be mentioned at our passing."
- LauRose Felicity, Ashland, OR
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Moth Of The Day #80
Shark Moth
Cucullia umbratica
From the noctuidae family. They have a wingspan of 44-59 mm. They tend to inhabit urban gardens, chalk and limestone grassland, marshes, coastal sand-dunes and shingle beaches. They are found throughtout most of the Palearctic Realm, and has recently been reported from North America.
#moth#moths#pretty moth#pretty moths#noctuidae#noctuidae moth#bugs#insects#nature#lepidopterology#lepidoptera#moth of the day#motd#shark moth#cucullia umbratica#bug#insect
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Skibidi Toilet
The skibidi toilet (Skibidus latrina) is a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusc in the family Dafuqboomidae. This species can only be found in the United States, primarily in Ohio.
The original habitats of the skibidi toilet are American public restrooms, but due to their adaptability, they have extended their range to outdoor urban areas. Scientists consider them to be an invasive species.
Skibidus latrina is usually diurnal and omnivorous, eating about 27% scrap metal and 73% human flesh. Its only natural predators are cameramen (Homo visus), speakermen (Homo amplificarus), and TV-men (Homo imaginum).
Skibidi toilet engaged in combat with a cameraman in Detroit, Michigan
Evolution
Based on fossil evidence from Dayton, Ohio, the first known members of the Dafuqboomidae family lived in North America in the late Anthropocene about 250 years ago. Similar tooth and skull structures suggest dafuqboomids and humans share a common ancestor, but molecular analysis indicates a closer relationship between skibidi toilets and snails.
A senior skibidi toilet without its shell.
Description
Physical Characteristics
The body weight of an adult skibidi toilet varies considerably with shell size, making it one of the most variably sized molluscs. It can range from 36 to 2246 kg (80 to 4952 lb), but is usually between 41 and 50 kg (90 to 110 lb). The smallest specimens live in southern Florida, while those near the northern limits of the skibidi toilet's range tend to be the largest (see Bergmann's rule). Males are usually 15% to 20% heavier than females.
Skibidi toilets have long, soft, flexible abdomens. The vulnerable abdomen is protected from predators by a salvaged empty latrine or urinal carried by the skibidi toilet, into which its whole body can retract. Multiple skibidi toilets may inhabit the same shell, especially when young.
Mature skibidi toilets develop a snail-like muscular foot that allows them to travel over hard surfaces. The large, flat foot remains attached to the surfaces over which it is crawling due to the adhesive properties of the skibidi slime it secretes to protect its soft tissues.
Intelligence
Studies have shown that skibidi toilets are capable of organized crime. Whether they know what they do is morally wrong is a topic of debate among skibidiologists.
Two male skibidi toilets lust after a female in Cincinatti, Ohio.
Behavior
Skibidi toilets are pack hunters. Typically, the largest skibidi toilet is in charge. Skibidi toilet packs readily accept new members until resources become limited. They are territorial and generally establish territories far larger than they require to survive, assuring a steady supply of prey.
Development and Reproduction
Skibidi toilets are well known for their mating call, which has a similar tune to the song "Give It To Me" by Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, and Nelly Furtado.
Female skibidi toilets lay their fertilized eggs in toilet water. The hatchlings feed on human feces and urine until they become large enough to consume humans themselves. Skibidi toilets reach sexual maturity at 6.9 years of age.
Captive skibidi toilets have been known to live for more than 80 years. However, the species' life expectancy in the wild is only 16 to 30 years, depending on local conditions such as traffic volume and hunting. Young hatched in infrequently used restrooms are vulnerable to starvation, and it is not uncommon for them to vore their own skiblings.
Young skibidi toilets share a shell with their skiblings until they are large enough to find their own.
Skibidi Toilet Syndrome
The bite of a skibidi toilet can cause Skibidi Toilet Syndrome, a serious disease that causes the infected to believe they are a skibidi toilet. Symptoms include sequestering oneself in small spaces such as laundry baskets or cardboard boxes and chanting the skibidi toilet's mating call. There is no known cure.
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youtube
Meet Miranda Gonzalez, a luminary figure at the intersection of activism and artistry. Born and raised in Chicago, her heritage blends Mexican and African-American roots, shaping a dynamic identity she proudly dubs "Blacksacan." As the visionary artistic director of Urban Theater Company, Miranda's creative journey unfolds with a commitment to social justice and inclusive storytelling. From stage to screen, her work, including the acclaimed production "Mascogos," amplifies marginalized voices and confronts societal barriers. Miranda's advocacy extends beyond the arts, advocating for equitable policies and funding. Through her multifaceted roles, Miranda Gonzalez embodies resilience, authenticity, and the transformative power of art to inspire change.
Guest: Miranda Gonzalez
Miranda’s directing, writing, and script development. a theatrical film “Back In The Day: an 80’s House Music Dancesical,” “Brujaja,” “Take Care,” “Ashes of Light,” “La Gringa,” “Crossed,” “The North/South Plays,” “DCASE,” “F.O.P.,” “Crime Scene Chicago,” “Sushi-Frito,” “50 Blind Dates,” “Ruby's World Yo,” and “Mascogos.”
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Spy Satellite Photos Reveal Hundreds of Long-Lost Roman Forts
Declassified photos captured by United States spy satellites launched during the Cold War have revealed an archaeological treasure trove: hundreds of previously unknown Roman-era forts, in what is now Iraq and Syria.
Many of those long-lost structures may be gone forever at this point, destroyed or damaged over recent decades due to agricultural expansion, urban development and war. Nevertheless, the discovery of the forts’ existence challenges a popular hypothesis established in the 1930s about the role of such fortifications along the ancient Roman Empire’s eastern border, researchers reported Wednesday in the journal Antiquity.
Based on the satellite views, the high number of forts and their widespread distribution hints that the forts may not have been erected to keep enemies out, as the decades-old theory suggested. Rather, the structures were likely built to ensure safe passage for caravans and travelers along routes that saw plenty of nonmilitary traffic. These forts, according to the study authors, were outposts and havens, not hostile barriers.
High-resolution images analyzed in the new study were taken during flyovers by multiple satellites belonging to two US military programs: the Corona Project (1960 to 1972) and Hexagon (1971 to 1986). Corona’s images were declassified in 1995, and Hexagon’s photos were released to the public in 2011.
Images from Hexagon and Corona are invaluable for archaeologists because they preserve snapshots of landscapes that have since undergone significant disruption, said lead study author Jesse Casana, an archaeologist and professor in the department of anthropology at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.
“Agriculture and urbanization have destroyed a lot of archaeological sites and features to a shocking degree,” Casana said. “This old imagery allows us to see things that are often either obscured or no longer extant today.”
Spy satellite photos vs. the Poidebard survey
Satellite images are especially helpful for searches across the northern part of the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East — from the eastern coast of the Mediterranean to western Iran — because of the area’s archaeological importance and high visibility of the ground in photos, Casana added.
The research team pored over the images for signs of Roman forts, which have a distinctive square shape and walls that usually measure about 164 to 262 feet (50 to 80 meters) long. The scientists began their search using reference maps from an aerial survey of the region conducted in the 1920s and 1930s by French archaeologist and Jesuit missionary Father Antoine Poidebard. That survey was among the first to photograph archaeological sites from the air, and in 1934 Poidebard reported finding 116 Roman forts.
It was an unprecedented achievement. But nearly a century later, mapping Poidebard’s forts to satellite photos was challenging. Because his map wasn’t large-scale, it contained numerous spatial errors, Casana said. Poidebard also did not provide names or numbers for most of the forts he found, identifying them instead by their proximity to geologic features.
Those forts were aligned north to south along what was once the easternmost boundary of the Roman Empire, according to Poidebard. This arrangement, he claimed, was surely intended to guard against invaders from the east.
But Poidebard’s survey provided only a partial view of Rome’s ancient infrastructure, the researchers found. What he overlooked — and what the satellite photos revealed — was that the north-to-south line of 116 forts was actually only a narrow sliver of a cluster spreading from east to west and containing 396 fortified structures.
The forts spanned approximately 116,000 square miles (300,000 square kilometers), “extending from Mosul, on the Tigris River in Iraq, through Ninawa province, across the Khabur and the Balikh valleys, continuing to the semi-arid plains west of the Euphrates River, leading to western Syria and the Mediterranean,” according to the study.
Oases of safety for ancient Rome
When the archaeologists performed a second survey of an image subset, they found 106 more fortlike structures, hinting that further investigations will yield many more Roman forts. Based on excavations of other Roman sites in the region, the scientists estimated that the forts were built between the second and sixth centuries.
While Poidebard’s row of forts along the Roman Empire’s eastern front looked like a military fortification, this new evidence suggested that the forts collectively served a different purpose. Rather than presenting an impassable wall on a violent frontier, they provided oases of safety and order along well-traveled Roman roads.
Borders in this world “were places of dynamic cultural exchange and movement of goods and ideas,” not barriers, Casana said. And perhaps that perspective holds a lesson for the modern era, he added.
“Historically, as an archaeologist, I can say that there have been many attempts by ancient states to build walls across borders and it has been a universal failure,” Casana said. “If there’s any way that archaeology contributes to modern discourse, I would hope it is that building giant walls to keep people out is a bad plan.”
By Mindy Weisberger.
#Spy Satellite Photos Reveal Hundreds of Long-Lost Roman Forts#unknown Roman-era forts#iraq#syria#Roman Empire’s eastern border#ancient artifacts#archeology#archeolgst#history#history news#ancient history#ancient culture#ancient civilizations#roman history#roman empire#Qasr Bshi
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make a post about the nuclear powerplant thing!
THANK YOU I FORGOR
so. theres this place in virgina, its the north anna nuclear generating station, right? it was a 4.5 star rating with 54 reviews.
pretty cool! i love nuclear power! this station powers something like half the homes in the state or some shit. pretty poggers!
now the intersting bit. again, it has 54 reviews! thats kinda a lot, especially for, yknow. a power plant. as expected, most of them are just star ratings, no text, standard, then you get the text ones, some pretty standard like this one
and this
oh people genuinely leaving good reviews and people leaving silly ones. but then, if you look, you see this
whats so special about november 15 2021?
so, while my digging hasnt been able to reveal the actual source of this, the earliest mention of this is the screenshot above though i cant get a specific date on the review bc of how google works. the other two earliest mentions, besides other reviews, are an ifunny meme
and a reddit meme on r/oddlyspecific
at this point you get a bunch of reviews like these that seem to be people gladly joining in on the joke
now obviously, the reactor did not melt down. i assume part of this is spurred by fears set into motion because of the plant shutting down for a period of time in 2011 after a 5.8 (i think) magnitude earthquake sparkes an 'unusual event' which is the lowest rating an event can have in the us for nuclear powerplants. it basically means something happened but nothing harmful, from what it seems, all the safety stuff worked as intended! the other thing that may have spurred it on is that in 2021 the plant was like, almost 50 years ago. the average lifespan for a nuclear powerplant is 40-60 years, so people were and are a little antsy that it has yet to be shut down. the plant, however, from all the stuff i read, has been licensed to stay active until its around 80 barring any incidents!
now a small event did happen around that timeframe, but it was of course, not a meltdown of any kind, and it happened on novmeber 10th. if youre curious, link here
so at this point this seems to just be people being #sillay in the reviews for fun. some just toss in november 15th as if it get it keyworked in the commonly mentioned feature, which is curious. im sure it has something to do with this strange joke about a meltdown occurring. all these reviews are kinda the same so im skipping one, but shoutout to the review that tosses in the the icecream machine worked. love the mcdonalds shade.
so then we get a new interesting one,
bro is out here writing powerplant urban legends on his own in the google reviews. so of course, other people join in
which is kinda cool!
anyways this was buckwild to me and only me, and i found this while googling virginia nuclear powerplants at work bc i was bored.
daniel, please come pick up your girlfriend, she doesnt have money for an uber.
anyways thats the end of the nuclear powerplant lore, thanks for reading.
NOTE: PLEASE DO NOT REVIEW SPAM THIS NUCLEAR POWER PLANT THANK YOU
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A TTRPG collection retrospective
And so my TTRPG in book format collection has reached 70...not books......licences.... and a lot of them are complete. I miss when I had space to tidy stuff.
So here are all my books :
The PBTA and adjacent games
The first style of games that really hooked me
Monster of the week , the first game I ever gm'd
World Wide Wrestling
Masks, my most played game this year
Urban Shadows
Dungeon World, bought because I did not have any "generic" fantasy system.
Apocalypse Keys
Blades in the dark , the game that bought me where I am, introduce me to french ttrpg content creators when I responded to an ad for a player.
Band of Blades
Brinkwood
Sig, City of Blades
City of Mist
English Import
Agon 2nd edition, still a favorite
Kids on broom
Slayers ( and a one)
Nova ( and a two)
Rune ( and a three for GilaRPGs)
DIE RPG ( really need to choose a good group to play this)
Heart the city beneath (yeah i like Rowan, Rook & Deckart)
Dragonbane ( A friend is a die hard Free League fan)
Wildsea
DotDungeon
Liminal
Tattered Magick
International Games translated in French
Mausritter
Thousand year Old Vampire
The Magus
Colostle
Warpland
Troika, my cursed game, the sessions are always canceled
Paleomythic
Vaesen
Spire, the city must fall
Genesys
Dragons conquer America
Sins of the father
Fate core
Nobilis 2nd edition, the big beautiful white book
Mage 20th
Castle Falkenstein
Cryptomancer, the 70th game
French indies ( with quick pitch)
Etoiles - a Stargate game
Aventures a Plumes/ Feathered Adventures - Play diceless Ducktales
Cités abimés / Broken Cities - 30's surrealism the game
Anime was a mistake - play every anime
Prosopopée - Mushishi the game
De mauvais reves - a cursed family in the Great North
Glorieuses - housewives in the 80's trying to escape boredom with wrestling
Temple des vents / Colosse de Grisantre - solo game of a fantasy wanderer
Les veilleurs - solo game / You are the Hero book, with Titan cults
Bois Dormant - post apocalyptic hopepunk gmless game inspired by Sleeping Beauty
Explorateur des Bruines/Libretés - Kids trying to survive an alternate dimension of murderous mermaids hiding in the rain
Les Héritiers de l'Hypogryphe Saoul - Urban fantasy where magic was just revealed to the world, along with things so old even the magicals forgot about them
Argyropée - Renaissance fantasy in a city where murder is impossible and leaving too long makes you die of depression
Speedrun - a system to speedrun TTRPG sessions and campaign
Bigger/Mainstream? French Games
Insectopia - Medfan but you are all insects
Cats la mascarade - Cats are secretly psychic
Donjons et Chatons - medfan but you're kittens and a cartoon planned for 2025
Donjon & Cie / Dungeon, Inc. - Monsters in the dungeon are just corporate employees
Terre 2 - scifi I don't really care about, i just told my parents to buy it when they saw it a -70% in a thrift shop
Nautilus - Play Jules Verne Hundred Leagues under the sea
Meute - French werewolfes with 2 souls : mortal human and immortal wolf
Rotting Christ - The Band. A ttrpg for metalheads
Knight - Epic Horror, The Arthurian Myth with mechas. It's great
Nephilim - the urban fantasy occult french game (basically The Secret World as a ttrpg)
Chroniques Oubliés Contemporain - generic system for modern adventures
Les Héritiers - All sorts of fae in 1901 dreaming of the end of the world in 1914
Ecryme - translation funded on KS, coming soon : Steampunk where the water rose, leaving only small islands, plus the water is highly acidic, melting everything except stone and steel
Les Oubliés - Korrigans & little people the size of a finger in a french city during the Religion Wars
Subabysse - sorta pulpy scifi where water rose so humanity went to live under the sea
Waiting for (dear god all the crowdfunding)
Fabula Ultima translation
Nephilim supplements
Arc Doom translation
Eat the Reich
Meute campaign
Babel, french game of book magic
Break!
Monsterhearts translation
Dragonbane bestiary
Triangle Agency
Wilderfeast
The Hidden Isle
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This is the Madison at Reynoldstown, as seen from the Beltline (just north of Memorial Drive). When it's completed this summer it will offer 116 rental apartments for families earning 80 percent of the area median income or less, with those affordable rents guaranteed for 30 years.
Additionally, 46 units of the apartments are reserved families earning up to 30 percent of area median income, providing some deep affordability for people in the lowest income group.
The $43.6-million project is a joint effort by Atlanta Housing, the City of Atlanta, Invest Atlanta, and Atlanta BeltLine Inc.
The photo is mine but the info above was sourced from a recent Urbanize Atlanta post titled "All-affordable BeltLine housing tops out along Eastside Trail."
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Excerpt from this story from the LA Times:
The California Fish and Game Commission has formally recognized the Mojave desert tortoise as endangered.
The designation, granted Thursday, is the latest in a long series of steps to try to protect the dwindling population of the desert creature, which biologists say is heading toward extinction.
The tortoise was designated as threatened under the California Endangered Species Act in 1989 and as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1990. In 2020, Defenders of Wildlife, Desert Tortoise Council and Desert Tortoise Preserve petitioned to change the tortoise’s status to endangered, which would give it higher priority and funding for conservation measures such as habitat protection and recovery efforts.
The commission then granted temporary endangered species to the desert tortoise while it considered adding it permanently to the list.
A recovery plan was created in 1994, and then revised in 2011 after there were issues implementing the recovery strategies.
Between 2001 and 2020, population densities in tortoise conservation areas went down by an average of 1% per year in the Colorado Desert and Eastern Mojave Recovery units, according to a February 2024 California Department of Fish and Wildlife report.
The minimum density for the tortoises to remain viable is 3.9 adults per square kilometer, according to the report. Only 2 out of the 10 designated tortoise conservation areas currently meet that threshold.
Sadly, California’s state reptile — formally Gopherus agassizii — is hurtling toward extinction. Vehicle strikes, urban encroachment, hungry ravens, military maneuvers, disease, drought, extreme heat, wildfires, illegal marijuana grows and development of massive solar farms are all pushing the species to the brink.
The tortoises live in the rocky foothills north and west of the Colorado River in California, Arizona, Utah and Nevada. They feed on grasses, cacti, herbs and wildflowers.
They hibernate for up to nine months each year and are most active from March to June and September to October. The sleep pays a longevity dividend — the tortoises can live for 50 to 80 years.
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NOTE: This is Billy's general and frankly MAIN universe. it is HEAVILY inspired by the works of Joe Hill and a smidge of Neil Gaiman for vibes. The Night Road is an element of Joe Hill's works and their adaptations and is first mentioned in his novel Heart Shaped Box.
Something happened to Billy all those years ago, what it was exactly he doesn’t say and no one who was around for it is either gone or conspicuously won’t talk about it. But he’s different now. Never been the same since— assuming he’s even alive. He certainly hasn’t been back there and if the people who knew him saw him, they’re not saying anything. It’s not clear if it’s because he doesn’t want to go or because he can’t go. There’s a story though, an urban myth really.
Here’s how it goes:
Back in the 80s there was this real hard glam rock kinda guy, real poster child for the whole 80s vibe— mullet, single earring, leather jacket, muscles, heavy metal, hot rod and a fuck you attitude. His name was Billy Hargrove and he was from California. His mom left him with his bastard of a dad when he was a kid then Billy got saddled him with a younger sister when he remarried. It wasn’t a good time for anyone but it was especially bad for Billy. See Mr. Hargrove was a real piece of work, he beat Billy just for looking at him wrong. Didn’t like anyone that wasn’t himself. And that made Billy mean too. When Billy was 17 things went really south and they ended up in some loser podunk midwest town to get away from the fall out. Billy got real angry after that. Drinking, fighting, sleeping around — the whole 9 yards — he really got wild. Like he had a death wish or something. And maybe he did seeing how things went.
So one night Billy had this date with some girl and he’s speeding along in his Camaro — as usual — and he doesn’t come back. It’s like he just drove into the night and got eaten up by it. Not so crazy either on those rural roads, all those trees and no street lights make it darker than dark. Most people thought he’d finally gotten into an accident somewhere or bailed out of town. But they never found a wreck and if he did skip town he’d left with nothing but the clothes on his back and a lot of very sellable shit behind — not exactly the actions of a dude who’s looking to head back to Malibu.
Only people could still hear his car roaring down the road. I mean you could NOT mistake this for anything else. Billy Hargrove was the only guy in town with a hot rod and the only one who drove like he wanted you to know he was coming for ya. His old man swore he heard it all the time, even as he had one foot out the door sayin’ he was dumping his wife and step-daughter and moving on to somewhere better. Every night he’d hear that fucking Camaro and sometimes in the day, sometimes just outside the bank where he worked as a security guard. Claimed he heard weird shit on the radio too, Billy’s heavy metal and some DJ talking about The Night Road. Said he heard screams of the damned. First he blamed the step-daughter for it but how the hell could she hack the airwaves? Finally he seemed to totally snap and said he was leaving this godless place and going somewhere better, somewhere a man like him deserved.
Never got somewhere better but he did get somewhere he deserved. He went missing one night, truck still in the driveway, headlights on and the driver’s door open. The only evidence was tire tracks. They matched Billy’s Camaro. They never found a body but his wife did get a call a few days later. It was Billy saying he’d took pops for a little bonding trip, wished her and the brat a nice life and hung up. She knew was a widow now and whatever trip they’d took it wasn’t any kind she’d ever understand. Or want to.
See whatever happened to Billy it made him different. Like some kinda fucking ghost rider or whatever. See there’s this road the NIGHT ROAD — it runs from from north to south following the I-95 but also it’s everywhere and it’s nowhere. Either way it ends in Florida cause you see it ends in HELL. And Florida’s pretty 1 for 1 on being Hell. To get on the Night Road there’s gotta be something a little dark in you, a little wrong, and once you’re on it you can get to places you never knew existed. It’s like Route 66 for the supernatural or something. And Billy? Billy’s on that road now, some kine of 80s grim reaper blaring Metallica while he comes to take someone to Hell.
He’s not Santa, he doesn’t have a naughty or nice list. No one really knows when he’s gonna show up or why most of the time. But if you piss him off or summon him well, we’ll never forget you. So if you’re ever driving on an empty road at night and suddenly there’s headlights behind you and a radio blaring, it just might be Billy Hargrove making his rounds on the Night Road. And maybe he’s there for you.
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Floods in Rio Grande do Sul: The Tragedy of Non-Resilient Cities
The world has changed, and accepting this fact is no longer a matter of choice but survival. Our rainfall patterns, periods of drought, average temperatures, sea levels—everything is in constant flux. The denialist stance of many countries, including Brazil, has led to catastrophic situations like the one we are facing now.
The floods that devastated the southern region of the country in recent days cannot be considered isolated incidents. Due to global warming, climate events like this will become increasingly frequent. In other words, unfortunately, we cannot prevent them from happening, but we can—and must—make our cities more resilient to these situations.
A total of 336 municipalities in the state of Rio Grande do Sul are currently declared disaster areas, with the tragedy claiming over 80 lives thus far. More than one million properties are without electricity. Families, stranded for a week without access to clean water, food, or medicine, are now being rescued. Volunteers from across the country are mobilizing to the south, bringing boats and kayaks to aid in search and rescue efforts for people and animals. Fundraising campaigns for money, clothing, and food are being widely promoted. It's difficult for any Brazilian to remain uninformed about this situation.
From a scientific standpoint, the war-like scenario was propelled by the massive volume of rainfall in recent weeks, a situation far from random. In just ten days, a quarter of the expected yearly rainfall poured down, a change in the precipitation regime attributed to the heatwave recorded in the central-western and southeastern regions of the country, where temperatures are about 5°C above average. This heat zone hindered the advance of cold air masses towards the north, causing a climatic imbalance in the southern region.
However, the worsening of the situation occurred not only due to the heavy rainfall but also because it fell upon cities completely unprepared in various aspects. The discussion starts with the way these urban areas are developed. Most of them grow without considering the local geography, their levels of vulnerability, and the importance of preserving nature. These settlements prioritize locations near riverbanks or lakeshores, including flat and low-lying areas. The occupation of these flood-prone areas becomes extremely harmful as it hinders their function in water drainage and subsequent flood prevention.
Continue reading.
#brazil#brazilian politics#politics#environmental justice#climate change#rio grande do sul floods 2024#urbanism#mod nise da silveira#image description in alt
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Urban Fantasy Worldbuilding [Long Post]: Underworld Tours
Route 666 Open Hell Tours Poster, 1979
As most people say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Though sometimes those good intentions can mean hurting others in the process. Route 666 was one of those intentions. Route 666 has a history of being one of the most interesting points in human and non-human relations where man was faced with an enemy that they have all known too well. Demons. Even till this day there is heavy distrust on demonic civilians and for no good reason other than heavy stereotypes perpetuated by media. Though there are some bad apples within the bunch, that doesn’t mean that all demons or demonically link species are inertly evil by nature. Mischievous maybe but, not pure evil. Some might equate their mannerisms of that of the fae. Mischievous and sometimes pesky to humans but, not vicious in anyway. Thus, this strange idea came about in the height of the distrust of humans and demons where one man wanted to bring about a new wave of peace in his own interesting way.
History
Just like how angels are one of the oldest species on the planet, demons are also very ancient. Depictions of demons can even found in early forms of writing and documents. Though modern day demons are different from their earlier counterparts the thing that remains the same are their modes of transportation. Before man made objects dug into the earth demons relayed on nature made structures and or summoning to come to the overworld as they call it. When humans started to dig mineshafts for coal in the 1880′s and oil some lucky [or unlucky] individuals found away to literally dig a hole into hell. These unofficial holes were usually abandoned by humans, however it gave demons much easier access to the overworld. Some demons even settled around these abandoned mineshafts and created unofficial settlements close to humans. These settlements were small in numbers but, were some of the first contact that humans had with demons giving us data on the infernal language they use to communicate. (1.)
The Idea
In the late 1970′s going into the 80′s there was a huge influx of xenophobia around demons and demonic entities due to recent outbreaks of demonic possession cases around North America. Most of these cases nowadays can be related to hysteria and a sort of “panic” swept the nation. However, one man decided to take this panic and change it into something more educational. Damien Adams a well known demonologist proposed an idea at a the 30th annual Worlds Fair in New York. He an a well known hotel chain runner Ernest Barkly have created an idea for a tourist trap/ Hotel underground where people can vacations in the depths of Hell! The idea was coined due to some studies showing that the fiery brimstone that most people know the underworld to be is only but, ONE of the main vibrant ecosystems that the underworld has. This push to monetize the underworld came under-fire with several groups questioning the safety of humans surviving underground. “This idea was madness!” Pastor Heath Mcnoland of the New Mages Church said to the Daily Dragon in a 1973 interview. Even though there was a very loud minority of people who did not enjoy this idea there was the other majority who sought it out as a new way to gain traffic in the tourist industry.
The “Urbanization” of Hell itself.
During the integration of demons being introduced into the overworld scientist found out that due to the limited contact with humans and other species. Demons had a different outlook on what the world was at the time. They were years behind on what humans and other species were experiencing so, in an effort to “urbanize and build the Route 666 hotel.” Damien Adams, Ernest Barkly and some other government officials agreed to the monarchy of hell at the time to bring the underworld into the modern age in turn they will grant permission to build their hotel. Damien Adams was ready to show the world that the underworld was not only scary but, also a world full of interesting and monetizable. Thus, the Route 666 Open Hell tours was open to the public despite the controversy.
#urban fantasy#urban magic#suburban fantasy#modern fantasy#Modern Magic#urban fantasy prompts#writing blurb#writing#writer#writings#fantasy writing#my writing#writeblr#writers#write#demons#Demonology#demon#demon and angel#demons and angels#angels and demons#fantasy worldbuilding#worldbuilding#urban fantasy worldbuilding#unfiction#OKAY So in this world demons are a seperate species and the underworld is where they exist in#human souls are harvested after death and are judged to be free or be grounded to earth until they are forgotten.
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Indie Box Office: A24’s ‘Talk To Me’ Tops Hereditary, Bottoms Expands – Deadline
In its second weekend in theaters, MGM and director Emma Seligman’s teen comedy Bottoms broke into the top ten films for the weekend (no. 7) on 715 screens, a major North America expansion from a 10-theater opening last week. An estimated $3 million gross for the three days, and $3.6 million for the four-day Labor Day holiday (PSA $4,206 and $5,019 respectively) means the film will continue to expand, with about 1,200 screens planned for next weekend.
[...]
Back to Bottoms: It wasn’t a slam dunk that the raunchy comedy about two queer high school girls (Rachel Sennot and Ayo Edebiri) who start a fight club would play as well as it is outside NY and LA and into the burbs. But MGM said exits continue to be well above norms with 91% in the top two boxes and an 86% definite recommend, with the film playing both suburban and urban — and young. Audiences are 80% 18-34, and 48% between 25-34. MGM says social conversation around the film ranks among the highest volume of any theatrical comedy that’s opened this decade.
#bottoms 2023#bottoms amazon prime#bottoms movie#lesbian#gay#lgbt#lgbtq#wlw#bi#girls who like girls#lgbtqia#sapphic#movies#lesbian movies
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Week 7 Short Essay Part 1 – Sex, Lies and Videotape comparison to Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
By Christian Lavarello
The films, Sex, Lies and Videotape by Director Steven Soderbergh and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai by director Jim Jarmusch are vastly different from one another. Sex, Lies and Videotape follows the intertwined lives of four individuals living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana: John Mulaney (Peter Gallagher), Ann Bishop Mulaney (Andie MacDowell), Cynthia Bishop, and Graham Dalton. John is an attorney who is having an affair with his wife Ann’s sister. Ann claims to not want sex anymore, being excessively concerned about world issues until John’s old college friend, Graham (James Spader) visits them. Graham is ‘brutally honesty,’ especially about the fact that he is impotent and the only way he can have some physical satisfaction is by videotaping women talking about sex and their sexual encounters. With his arrival, everyone’s deceptions and hypocrisies come to the surface and so does Ann’s desire to have to sex again. Director Steven Soderbergh’s groundbreaking debut shook the Indie Filmmaking scene awarding him the Palme d'Or at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival, making Soderbergh the youngest solo director to win the award.
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Almost ten years later, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai was released by director Jim Jarmusch which tells the story of an urban samurai (Forest Whitaker), a man who was saved when he was younger by Louie (John Tormey), a mafioso. Sometime later, Ghost Dog reappears before the mafioso and, in accordance with his samurai ethical code, admits he is in debt with Louie. Louie turns Ghost Dog into his own efficient, uncatchable hitman and nobody knows his "real" name and they communicate via carrier pigeon-delivered messages. Ghost Dog’s only "outside" conversations are with the French-speaking Haitian ice-cream vendor Raymond (Isaach De Baukole) and a precocious girl, Pearline (Camille Winbush), whom he meets in the park, and they share books.
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One the most prominent differences between both films is that Sex, Lies and Videotape is more of an unconventional film, whereas Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai is conventional. Alisa Perren wrote a scholarly review on Sex, Lies and Videotape and its’ impact on filmmaking and marketing of the 80s and early 90s, where she states, “On a cost-to-earnings ratio, Steven Soderbergh’s creation —with its $1.1 million dollar budget and $24 million plus in North American box office—was a better investment than Batman, which—at an investment of $50 million—returned $250 million in domestic box office”.
Chuck Stephens wrote a scholarly article on Jim Jarmusch's way of telling the Ghost Dog’s story where he states, “There are many stories within Ghost Dog, and Jarmusch rashomon-ically wants to tell - or retell - them all. The simplest of them is this: Ghost Dog lives alone in a rooftop aerie, kept company by a covey of carrier pigeons as he studies the nihilist koans of the Hagakure. Around him, the wind whistles with hiphop hybridity ("black Mafia mind De Niro") and moans with the "everything's changing," time-to- die fatalism of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, another film in which out-moded men are picked off like chickens buried to their necks in sand”. Both films are reviewed critically from very different aspects and the reviewer sees they excel and radiate different qualities that contributed to films of the 80s and 90s.
During the time of the film Sex, Lies and Videotape in 1989, the Loma Prieta earthquake hit the San Francisco Bay Area with a 6.9 magnitude, leaving behind a trail of destruction, while in 1999 during the time of the film, Ghost Dog: The way of the Samurai John F. Kennedy Jr., wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and her sister Lauren G. Bessette are lost at sea when a plane he was piloting disappears near Martha's Vineyard, off Mass. coast on July 16, 1999. Two different tragic events occur during the time of both films which affected many individuals.
Both films had great success in their own ways with Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai touching on the history of the warriors of Japan with a gangster American twist where the characters are understood and the story comes together at the end, whereas Sex, Lies and Videotape touched on more socially unacceptable topics of its’ time and sexual conversations making the audience work to resolve issues brought up in the movie. Their differences make these films unique and do cater to very different audiences, but both are great films to watch.
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