argentconflagration

[argentconflagration]

my friends are so cringe. with their “feelings” and such.

[argentconflagration]

A book with a first person narrator what describes everything with oddly specific clarifications and denials, coming completely unprompted.

"I poured myself a bowl of cereal that had no cockroaches in it."

"Her hair - which was real human hair, growing naturally from her own scalp - was brown."

"I walked to my car which I legally owned and whose rightful ownership had never been under question or dispute."

"Their dog was barking in a way that is entirely normal for a regular, full-blooded dog, and could not be mistaken for the vocalisations of a half-wolf, a jackal, or perhaps a hyena."

"My mother - who has never been convicted or imprisoned for manslaughter - emerged from the kitchen."

[argentconflagration]

really enjoying this series

[argentconflagration]

It's kind of insane how so many people still think of nonbinary people as "trans lite" when study after study shows that nonbinary people experience comparable or greater rates of transphobic victimization than binary trans people. For example, ~theyfabs~ experience the highest rates of sexual assault in the trans community (all of these rates being much higher than for cis women):

Sometimes it feels like y’all just make up nonbinary people to get mad at . “Super misogynistic nonbinary theyfab person named Sock who doesnt understand the REAL trans experience bc they look like a cis women” like okay yeah your words mean nothing to me

#sorry i made it serious again #it was funny! it was funny #trans #transphobia #sexual assault #exorsexism #sj

[argentconflagration]

not to be a chauvinist but why are we spending all this time and money curing cancer and shit for mice. like i love mice but maybe those researchers could try to cure human diseases instead

#science

[argentconflagration]

congratulations to birds for winning the war on birds

[argentconflagration]

it's sort of ironic but i have a bad trigger that's something i actually want people to talk *more* about, because the shame and secrecy around the topic (and the dynamics enabled by that shame and secrecy) are what caused the bad, traumatic situation that is why the topic is a trigger for me.

so it's like. please talk about this. not near me tho.

#loquacious lex

[argentconflagration]

daily self-affirmations 💕

my podium is clean and not covered in spaghetti

i know that the 87th element on the periodic table is Francium

i am not trapped in the time loop

i know how to fix the ElectroBobbleWobble QZ

i am not trapped in the time loop

i have a sufficient number of boxes to reach the shelf of ducks

the wenis is a dance

i am not trapped in the time loop

the wenis is a dance

i am not trapped in the time loop

[argentconflagration]

Statement of Shobhan Thompson regarding the creature pretending to be her coworker, Grant O'Brien.

#i think it's 'siobhan'

[argentconflagration]

last fictional character in ur camera roll just adopted u

(Yes I did do this only because I want him to adopt me. Fuck off)

tags: @cryptidwithaninternetconnection @reggie-the-inferi @gingerbreadeel24 @pickupstyx

and whoever the fuck sees this

#bi martin?? #bi martin???? #sorry i know there's a whole tag game and stuff going on here i just saw a bi martin and hit reblog

[argentconflagration]

please help me- i used to be pretty smart but i’m having so much trouble grasping the concept of diegetic vs non-diegetic bdsm!

gfkjldghfd okay first of all I'm sorry for the confusion, if you're not finding anything on the phrase it's because I made it up and absolutely nobody but me ever uses it, but I haven't found a better way to express what I'm trying to say so I keep using it. but now you've given me an excuse to ramble on about some shit that is only relevant to me and my deeply inefficient way of talking and by god I'm going to take it.

SO. the way diegetic and non-diegetic are normally used is to talk about music and sound design in movies/tv shows. in case you aren't familiar with that concept, here's a rundown:

diegetic sound is sound that happens within the world of the movie/show and can be acknowledged by the characters, like a song playing on the stereo during a driving scene, or sung on stage in Phantom of the Opera. it's also most other sounds that happen in a movie, like the sounds of traffic in a city scene, or a thunderclap, or a marching band passing by. or one of the three stock horse sounds they use in every movie with a horse in it even though horses don't really vocalize much in real life, but that's beside the point, the horse is supposed to be actually making that noise within the movie's world and the characters can hear it whinnying.

non-diegetic sound is any sound that doesn't exist in the world of the movie/show and can't be perceived by the characters. this includes things like laugh tracks and most soundtrack music. when Duel of Fates plays in Star Wars during the lightsaber fight for dramatic effect, that's non-diegetic. it exists to the audience, but the characters don't know their fight is being backed by sick ass music and, sadly, can't hear it.

the lines can get blurry between the two, you've probably seen the film trope where the clearly non-diegetic music in the title sequence fades out to the same music, now diegetic and playing from the character's car stereo. and then there are things like Phantom of the Opera as mentioned above, where the soundtrack is also part of the plot, but Phantom of the Opera does also have segments of non-diegetic music: the Phantom probably does not have an entire orchestra and some guy with an electric guitar hiding down in his sewer just waiting for someone to break into song, but both of those show up in the songs they sing down there.

now, on to how I apply this to bdsm in fiction.

if I'm referring to diegetic bdsm what I mean is that the bdsm is acknowledged for what it is in-world. the characters themselves are roleplaying whatever scenarios their scenes involve and are operating with knowledge of real life rules/safety practices. if there's cnc depicted, it will be apparent at some point, usually right away, that both characters actually are fully consenting and it's all just a planned scene, and you'll often see on-screen negotiation and aftercare, and elements of the story may involve the kink community wherever the characters are. Love and Leashes is a great example of this, 50 Shades and Bonding are terrible examples of this, but they all feature characters that know they're doing bdsm and are intentional about it.

if I'm talking about non-diegetic bdsm, I'm referring to a story that portrays certain kinks without the direct acknowledgement that the characters are doing bdsm. this would be something like Captive Prince, or Phantom of the Opera again, or the vast majority of bodice ripper type stories where an innocent woman is kidnapped by a pirate king or something and totally doesn't want to be ravished but then it turns out he's so cool and sexy and good at ravishing that she decides she's into it and becomes his pirate consort or whatever it is that happens at the end of those books. the characters don't know they're playing out a cnc or D/s fantasy, and in-universe it's often straight up noncon or dubcon rather than cnc at all. the thing about entirely non-diegetic bdsm is that it's almost always Problematic™ in some way if you're not willing to meet the story where it's at, but as long as you're not judging it by the standards of diegetic bdsm, it's just providing the reader the same thing that a partner in a scene would: the illusion of whatever risk or taboo floats your boat, sometimes to extremes that can't be replicated in real life due to safety, practicality, physics, the law, vampires not being real, etc. it's consensual by default because it's already pretend; the characters are vehicles for the story and not actually people who can be hurt, and the reader chose to pick up the book and is aware that nothing in it is real, so it's all good.

this difference is where people tend to get hung up in the discourse, from what I've observed. which is why I started using this phrasing, because I think it's very crucial to be able to differentiate which one you're talking about if you try to have a conversation with someone about the portrayal of bdsm in media. it would also, frankly, be useful for tagging, because sometimes when you're in the mood for non-diegetic bodice ripper shit you'd call the police over in real life, it can get really annoying to read paragraphs of negotiation and check-ins that break the illusion of the scene and so on, and the opposite can be jarring too.

it's very possible to blur these together the same way Phantom of the Opera blurs its diegetic and non-diegetic music as well. this leaves you even more open to being misunderstood by people reading in bad faith, but it can also be really fun to play with. @not-poignant writes fantastic fanfic, novels, and original serials on ao3 that pull this off really well, if you're okay with some dark shit in your fiction I would highly recommend their work. some of it does get really fucking dark in places though, just like. be advised. read the tags and all that.

but yeah, spontaneous writer plug aside, that's what I mean.

[argentconflagration]

yeah yeah domming someone who usually doms is cool but what goes really hard is caregiving someone who’s usually a caregiver like you just sit there and watch your show while i grab you a juice box do you want me to make you some mac and cheese or should i order you a pizza? mac and cheese? ok it’ll be ready in 20 minutes that’s one episode of your show now you just sit tight and don’t worry about anything

[argentconflagration]

i had a joke about orpheus and eurydice but looking back it wasn't a good idea

[argentconflagration]

here is a sweet story for you all:

the first time I saw my grandmother after coming out and starting HRT she said “here he comes” as I stepped out of the car and then started jumping up and down saying “he! he!! I’m going to remember!!” I started to say hello and she goes “oh! your voice!! wait, let me hear you say something” I say “hi grandmother” and she smiles really big and says “oh… that is a miracle :-)”

the moral of the story is that sometimes coming out is awesome and my grandmother rules. happy pride ✨

#trans

[argentconflagration]

Do you think you ever know what another person means when they speak? How often do you feel you've pierced the veil of subjectivity and nebulous interpretation to truly understand the exact message conveyed by another?

neverrrrrrrrrrrr i talk to shadows on the cave wall while the heat of the sun at my back torments me 😂

[argentconflagration]

do chemists ever, like. get extremely fixated on this One Weird Molecule That Will Go Great With EVERYTHING

& then they totter around their lab trying to figure out every possible weird way this molecule can react with other stuff

& eventually they run out of all the obvious candidates, so they start working themselves into a tizzy, b/c what the fuck do you MEAN xeon won't react with my cool molecule. fuck YOU noble gases. i'll show YOU who's boss

& then they waste SO much time and energy pioneering bizarre new techniques to make this reaction kinda sorta work, but in circumstances that ONLY exist in a lab but never ever in nature in a million years

...because i feel like this is my general approach to what is known as "shipping" in fandom circles

[argentconflagration]

Since the 1960s, the world has seen a spike in the number of natural disasters, largely due to rising sea levels and an ever gradually increasing global surface temperature.

The good news? We’re getting better at helping each other when disasters strike.

According to a recent study from Our World In Data, the global toll from natural disasters has dramatically dropped in the last century.

“Low-frequency, high-impact events such as earthquakes and tsunamis are not preventable, but such high losses of human life are,” wrote lead authors Hannah Ritchie and Pablo Rosado.

To conduct their research, Ritchie and Rosado gathered data from all geophysical, meteorological, and climate-related disasters since 1900. That includes earthquakes, volcanic activity, landslides, drought, wildfires, severe storms, and mass floods. 

In the early-to-mid 20th century, the average annual death toll from disasters was very high, often climbing to over a million. 

For example, the study cites that in 1931, 2.7 million people died from the Yangtze–Huai River floods. In 1943, 1.9 million died from the Bangladeshi famine of 1943. Even low-frequency events had extreme death tolls. 

“In recent decades we have seen a substantial decline in deaths,” Ritchie and Rosado observed. “Even in peak years with high-impact events, the death toll has not exceeded 500,000 since the mid-1960s.”

Why has the global death toll from disasters dropped? 

There are a number of factors at play in the improvement of disaster aid, but the leading component is that human beings are getting better at predicting and preparing for natural disasters. 

“We know from historical data that the world has seen a significant reduction in disaster deaths through earlier prediction, more resilient infrastructure, emergency preparedness, and response systems,” Ritchie and Rosado explained in their study. 

On April 6, [2024],a 7.2 magnitude earthquake rocked the city of Hualien in Taiwan. Days later, as search and rescue continues, the death toll currently rests at 16. 

Experts have praised Taiwan for their speedy response and recovery, and attributed the low death toll to the measures that Taiwan implemented after an earthquake of similar strength hit the city 25 years earlier. Sadly, on that day in 1999, 2,400 people died and 11,000 were injured. 

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Wang Yu — assistant professor at National Taiwan University — said that event, known as the Chi-Chi earthquake, revolutionized the way Taiwan approached natural disasters. 

“There were lots of lessons we learned, including the improvement of building codes, understanding earthquake warning signs, the development and implementation of earthquake early warning (EEW) systems and earthquake education,” said Wang. 

Those same sensors and monitoring systems allowed authorities to create “shakemaps” during Hualien’s latest earthquake, which helped them direct rescue teams to the regions that were hit the hardest. 

This, in conjunction with stronger building codes, regular earthquake drills, and public education campaigns, played a huge role in reducing the number of deaths from the event. 

And Taiwan’s safeguards on April 6 are just one example of recent measures against disasters. Similar models in strengthening prediction, preparedness, and recovery time have been employed around the world when it comes to rescuing victims of floods, wildfires, tornados, and so on. 

What else can we learn from this study?

When concluding the findings from their study, Ritchie and Rosado emphasized the importance of increasing safety measures for everyone.

Currently, there is still a divide between populations with high gross national income and populations living in extreme poverty.

Even low-income countries that infrequently have natural disasters have a much higher death rate  because they are vulnerable to collapse, displacement, and disrepair. 

“Those at low incomes are often the most vulnerable to disaster events; improving living standards, infrastructure, and response systems in these regions will be key to preventing deaths from natural disasters in the coming decades,” surmised Ritchie and Rosado.

“Overall development, poverty alleviation, and knowledge-sharing of how to increase resilience to natural disasters will therefore be key to reducing the toll of disasters in the decades to come."

-via GoodGoodGood, April 11, 2024