#Ca. 200 AD.

[blueiskewl]

LARGE ROMAN MARBLE FIGURE OF CUPID HOLDING GRAPES Ca. 200 AD. L:700mm / W:260mm (with stand) ; 37.35kg.

#LARGE ROMAN MARBLE FIGURE OF CUPID HOLDING GRAPES #Ca. 200 AD. #marble #marble statue #roman statue #ancient artifacts #archeology #archeolgst #history #history news #ancient history #ancient culture #ancient civilizations #ancient rome #roman history #roman empire #roman art

[a-sculpture-a-day]

Menelaus Carrying the Body of Patroclus or Ajax Carrying the Body of Achilles, 1st century AD, Roman copy after a Hellenestic bronze (ca. 200-150 BC), with modern restorations, marble, Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence.

#sculpture #art history #patroclus #achilles #menelaus #ajax #mythology #greek mythology #greek art #ancient greece #roman art #marble #florence

[starcrossed-sky]

Hey Twitter(/Reddit) alternative seekers

Okay, fandom. Everyone's all worked all the time about this or that new alternative to Twitter and how it's either awesome or it sucks. I'm here to tell you about an OLD alternative: Plurk.

(Note that this was originally formatted for Twitter so forgive the jank thread paragraphing)

Disclaimer: This information is specifically aimed at people who use Twitter for fandom purposes; it is not intended to cover the exhaustive list of things that people use Twitter for (professional networking, art/photography promotion world news, etc). It's friend-centric rather than follow-centric, at least as the existing site culture goes.

So what is Plurk? It's a threaded microblogging platform dating back to 2008 that has only ever seen extremely niche use in English-language use. (Its primary userbase is Chinese-speaking.) It has a purely chronological timeline and a lot of privacy features that you haven't seen since the LJ era (assuming you're old enough to remember that).

Plurk functions through an exclusively-chronological timeline on your homepage (desktop) or in the app. Algorithmically sourced content? We ain't got it! (There is a different page for viewing top content but you have to go there specifically.) Instead, your timeline shows your own content and the content of other plurkers you friend or follow, and the occasional ad (MUCH more occasional than Twitter).

Each top-level plurk can be replied to, and this creates a chain of replies that can be used for conversation. Unlike Twitter and Reddit, replies don't form branching threads; each plurk is only one stream of conversation. Plurks with unread replies will be lit up as unread; however, they can be "muted" to stop them from giving you notifications.

(Two small caveats: You cannot mute your own plurks, and there is actually a cap of around 200 muted plurks. Mutes will fall off from the oldest, so you'll sometimes see an ancient plurk pop back up on your timeline if someone comes back to it. You can just mute it again.)

Your plurk timeline has a global privacy control. If your timeline is set to private, only people you have friended can see what you say on there. If your timeline is public, then anyone who comes to you page can see what you've posted, AND logged-in users can share your post on their own timeline with the "replurk" function (works just like a normal retweet), as well as reply to it.

There is also an "anonymous" option, which anonymizes you and also the names of everyone who replies (it randomly generates names like "lemon354" and "libra262" for repliers to differentiate them). Anonymous plurks will stay within your timeline if your plurk is set to private, but can be replurked if it's public.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE, because individual plurks can also be given specific privacy levels: -> Friends only (if your timeline is public but you don't want this one getting around) -> Private to "cliques," which are Twitter circles but you can have more than one -> Individual users (including those not on your friends list - this is plurk's equivalent of DMs)

Your own plurk homepage is also insanely customizable, if you want to break out the CSS or even just have a custom background. You can also alter your display name (though the character cap is VERY short), and your display name color, as well as the standard avatar change. Usernames cannot be changed as a free user, but can be changed by paid users (more on paid options in a second).

Plurk also has its own image hosting, and a pastebin-alike plaintext called Plurk Paste that has no character limit. (The character limit for top-level plurks is longer than Twitter's.)

It also has CUSTOM EMOTES in addition to its (somewhat wild) default selection. They're similar to Discord's customs, except that you can use GIFs from the get go; what's restricted is the number of slots you have as a free user. (And size is capped at 48x48 px.)

Plurk has ads, but they're mostly unobtrusive (and can be clocked entirely with ad blockers, but I didn't say that). Plurk keeps the lights on through a subscription model called Plurk Coin, which is very cheap (under $2.50 USD/month) and can be gifted to other users. Coin gives you a number of benefits including the "Except" privacy option, more username colors, response editing, and a bunch more custom emote slots.

Concerned about harassment? Plurk has one of the most robust blocking systems in social media that I've ever seen. You block someone, and they can't see you (even by going to your profile) and you can't see them. That's it, done. Full no-contact.

NSFW/18+ content is allowed. There's a specific flag for it when you first post a plurk. Plurk does expect you to use that tag when appropriate, but is otherwise very forgiving of NSFW content, at least in my experience. (Again, though, English plurk is a very small community ATM).

The thing to remember about Plurk is that it is very much a remnant of an older internet, from the days before algorithms. Like Tumblr, it's a social media where you won't see anything if you don't reach out to follow and friend people. It predates "going viral" as a goal of internet usage. The goal is to talk to people.

As an aside: Since I originally wrote this up, I've seen rumors about Japanese fanartists moving to plurk and even seen one or two mentions of it in the wild on my Twitter timeline as people talk about following those artists. Fantastic! If that's you, then I hope you find this slightly more in-depth guide to features helpful.

If this sounds up your alley, I've made a public plurk specifically for Twitter refugees to come meet people and get more information on how plurk works! You can find it here.

Twitter version: [link]

Please replurk to spread this information about!

#plurk #social media #twitter exodus #reddit exodus #twitter

[mapsontheweb]

Cities by Impressiveness of Mountain Backdrop / Rut

by u/Gigitoe

After seeing the recent posts Cities with a better mountain backdrop than LA? ( u/odi3luck ) and This is a response to the LA mountain backdrop ( u/sam_woke ), I realized that I had the exact tools to answer a particularly niche but interesting question:

How do we quantify how impressive a city's mountain backdrop is?

To answer this question, we use rut, an indicator I developed back in the days to quantify how sharply or impressively the surroundings of a location rise above the location. (my research paper if you're interested)

Roughly speaking, rut works as follows:

The higher the mountains rise above a city, the more impressive they are, and the higher the rut.

The steeper the mountains rise above a city, the more impressive they are, and the higher the rut.

In the map shown, I measured the rut of every city with a population of over 100,000. Here's some cities in each tier and their corresponding rut values:

S tier - rut > 500 m (world-class, would visit for mountain views alone) -

Pokhara, Nepal (1358 m) | Chamonix, France (1336 m) [not on map; population too low] | Zermatt, Switzerland (904 m) [not on map] | Yosemite Valley, CA (617 m) [not on map] | Innsbruck, Austria (584 m)

A tier - rut between 200 to 500 m (impressive, but probably wouldn't visit just for mountain views)

Kathmandu, Nepal (482 m) | Almaty, Kazakhstan (478 m) | Santiago, Chile (469 m) | Provo, UT (429 m) | Tehran, Iran (349 m) | Lhasa, Tibet (325 m) | Monterrey, Mexico (268 m) | Tacoma, WA (245 m) | Kabul, Afghanistan (232 m)

B tier - rut between 100 and 200 m (mountains in close proximity, or big mountains further away)

Salt Lake City, UT (180 m) | Reno, NV (151 m) | Tucson, AZ (141 m) | Seattle, WA (137 m) | Vancouver, Canada (136 m) | Los Angeles, CA (117 m) | Milan, Italy (100 m)

C tier (glorified hills nearby, or distant mountains, or very distant big mountains) - rut between 25 and 100 m

Denver, CO (99 m; if only it had one more meter) | Tokyo, Japan (94 m) | Hong Kong (75 m) | Seoul, Korea (56 m) | Rome, Italy (48 m) | Knoxville, TN (39 m) | Beijing, China (37 m) | Sacramento, CA (30 m)

D tier (hills nearby, or glorified hills in the distance, or very distant mountains) - rut between 10 and 25 m

Istanbul, Turkey (24 m) | Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (23 m) | San Francisco, CA (22 m) | Quebec, Canada (17 m) | Mumbai, India (15 m) | Brisbane, Australia (12 m) | Pittsburgh, PA (10 m)

F tier (flat tier) - rut between 0 and 10 m

Syracuse, NY (7.4 m) | Birmingham, AL (5.2 m) | Dubai, UAE (5.0 m) | Columbus, OH (3.2 m) | Washington, DC (2.6 m) | Shanghai, China (2.4) | Paris, France (2.1 m) | London, UK (1.6 m) | New York City (0.7 m) | Chicago, IL (0.4 m)

So to answer the question, what cities have a better mountain backdrop than Los Angeles? Quite a lot... quite a lot.

Here's the data spreadsheet that was used to generate this map!

Edits: switched Vancouver to downtown measurement, added more cities, switched to steepness explanation instead of proximity explanation.

----------------

Note: rut measurements only consider rise above surroundings (relative height differences and steepness). They do not consider absolute elevation, nor the "aesthetics" of a mountain, nor visibility (or lack thereof) due to weather or smog.

This visualization was made possible with Google Earth Engine, MERIT DEM, and GeoNames.

If you like rut, you'll probably like its older brother jut even more. Jut is an indicator of  how impressive, spectacular, or badass a mountain is—considering both its height above surroundings and steepness. If you want to find the most impressive mountains near you or worldwide, you may find the link above to be useful.

Let us know if you have any questions or comments—I'm happy to address them!

#maps #Gigitoe #cities #mountains

[simaddix]

Poll - Guide to Acceptable Polycounts for TS3

I'm not entirely sure how to broadcast this, but the polycount issue has blown up my feed spectacularly - and I've found the discussion interesting for a number of reasons.

Mainly that there has been no specific answer on what is expected to be a reasonable polycount and what's not outside of common sense. So I would like to take a poll of sorts to see where everyone's mind is at on the current issue.

So... who's up to take a vote? I think the easiest way would be to comment your answers below so they can be collected in one place. If you decide to reblog it to carry it to a bigger audience, tag me so I can see it and average/correct the numbers after a certain point of time.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm going to attempt to fill this in where I can... please feel free to tell me I'm nuts or way off track and reply your own thoughts. I put the not acceptable/photo-use as extreme cases so they're all higher than the high poly tier.

I am by no means an expert on this matter, I am just trying to collect data. So take that into consideration when you're reading through this.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CAS -

Low/Mid poly [# 0 - 10K ]

Mid/High Poly [# 10K - 20K ]

Photo-use Only / Not acceptable for gameplay [# 30K+ ]

BUILD OBJECTS -

Low/Mid poly [# 0 - 2K]

Mid/High Poly [# 2K - 4K]

Photo-use Only / Not acceptable for gameplay [# 6K+ ]

DECOR OBJECTS -

Low/Mid poly [# 0 - 2K ]

Mid/High Poly [# 2K - 4K]

Photo-use Only / Not acceptable for gameplay [# 6K+ ]

FUNCTIONAL OBJECTS -

Low/Mid poly [# 0 - 3K]

Mid/High Poly [# 3K - 6K ]

Photo-use Only / Not acceptable for gameplay [# 8K+ ]

Rabbitholes - Buildings - Major Landmarks (This may vary considering most major landmarks will only be used a limited number of times - if not once - in a world. In my very limited experience rabbit holes from EA can vary from 10k to 30k depending on how many details the building carries. This also applies to things such as distant terrains, etc).

Low/Mid poly [# 0 - 15K]

Mid/High Poly [# 15K - 30K ]

Photo-use Only / Not acceptable for gameplay [# 40K+ ]

Speedtree / Plants (This might be complicated, as SPT files aren't able to be decimated or lowered, as far as I've found it comes down to a ridiculous amount of tweaking and luck. Because a SPT plant can have 3000 leaves or 200 and have the same damn polycount. It makes no sense).

Low/Mid poly [# 0 - 2K]

Mid/High Poly [# 2K - 4K]

Photo-use Only / Not acceptable for gameplay [# 6K+ ]

WORLD OBJECTS / Minor Landmarks- (Rocks, Windmills, etc)

Low/Mid poly [# 0 - 3K ]

Mid/High Poly [# 3K - 6K ]

Photo-use Only / Not acceptable for gameplay [# 8K+ ]

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please let me know your thoughts on this.

One other thing I would add to the creators/convertors to start adding to their creations is to add the polycount/Photo-use-only warning in the description of their packages so you can see it in game, as well as the download itself. Because most of us have so much crap we will never remember once it's in there.

#ts3 #ts3vote #ts3poll

[simmister]

sim dump | vladislaus straud

download (sfs, no ads)

important info and some added lore for extra spice below the cut!

cc is included. he will not look the same if you don’t use these specific files, as i’ve recategorized a lot of them. also be aware that all of the files have been renamed, so they might override or be overridden if you already have that cc in your folder

all outfits have been picked, although i haven’t put as much thought into some of them since i don’t imagine he would ever use them

comes with revamped skills, vampire powers/weaknesses, reputation etc. to match my vision of him better

also comes with a bunch of likes and dislikes, although you will require unlimited likes and dislikes for all of them to take effect; otherwise the game will just take a selection of them. i also covered his likes and dislikes for preferencesplus

if you have more traits in cas along with 100 base game traits, he will have two additional traits

______________________________________________________________

vladislaus is a very territorial vampire who resides in his manor in the small secluded town of forgotten hollow that he founded 200 years ago. throughout these centuries, the town has grown to hold vladislaus in high regard, as he has honed his powers to be able to keep all residents in a constant trance where they obey anything and question nothing.

because of this, along with the fact that he never interacts with normal human civilization, vladislaus spends almost all of his time in his dark form. seeking out a spellcaster for a potion to maintain a human appearance is not only costly, but most of all bothersome and not worth his trouble.

as a grand master vampire, vladislaus holds a seat in the council, where he from time to time will grumble about maintaining conservative values for vampire society, although not to much avail. he shows up to council gatherings mostly to remind everyone that he is supposedly the oldest and wisest, but when it comes down to it, he doesn’t much care for vampire society as there was no such thing during his first many decades as a child of the night. the other grand masters on the council allow him to continue his ways in forgotten hollow, so that he in turn leaves the rest of it to them.

#simblr #ts4 #ts4cc #s4cc #ts4 townie makeover #ts4 townies #townie makeover #vladislaus straud #ts4 sim dump #sim dump #download #*

[slaviclore]

"Standard Rosół" recipe from interwar Poland (1925)

from Polska Kuchnia. Skawina : H. Francka Synowie, [ca 1925].

Standard Rosół

2.5 liters water, 20 decagrams vegetables*, 1 kilogram beef with bones (taken from lower grade pieces from the front part of the animal), 5 decagrams liver, 2.5 decagrams butter.

Rinsed meat is cut into small pieces and placed in the water, adding vegetables* after boiling; part of the vegetables should be omitted and cut into strips, stew these in butter with the liver and add to the cooking broth one hour after boiling; add salt 1.5 hours after boiling. Simmer for 2-3 hours from the moment of starting.

*włoszczyzna, literally "Italian stuff", is a mix of vegetables from which stock can be made. This modern recipe uses carrots, parsley roots, celery roots, and leek (which is similar to what my mom uses).

2.5 liters is about 10.5 cups, 20 decagrams is 200 grams or ~ 7 ounces, 1 kg is ~2.2 lbs, 5 decagrams is 50 grams or ~1.8 ounces, 2.5 decagrams is 25 grams or ~0.9 ounces.

Here are some sweet fruit soups I translated previously from this same book.

#history #my translations #pls correct me if i messed anything up i'm practicing translating #food #poland #polish cookbook

[prpfs]

Please be 21+ to interact!!! ❤️

21+. She/Her. Looking for some various fandom roleplays. I'm only interested in canon x canon pairings. I have a strong preference for MxM ships, but I'm willing to do some FxF and MxF too. I like canon/canon divergent plots and write on Discord (third person, past tense, 200-400 words on average). I'm a sucker for romantic relationships and don't mind/encourage writing smut but with a healthy does of plot. I'll be sharing my strongest muses (the name on the left) for each and my greatest ship desires for them (the names on the right). I do have other muses, and I'm willing to discuss other ships. But, if you want me at my most enthusiastic, what I have listed is what I'm most interested in.

Doctor Who:

Eleventh Doctor - Jack, Rory, Clara

Fifth Doctor - Turlough, Ainley!Master

Fourteenth Doctor - Jack

Sixth Doctor - Ainley!Master

Tenth Doctor - Jack, Simm!Master

Fantastic Beasts Franchise:

Albus Dumbledore - Grindelwald, Theseus, Newt, Jacob

Theseus Scamander - Dumbledore, Grindelwald

Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon:

Beric Dondarrion - Thoros

Daemon Targaryen - Laenor, Criston, Otto, Rhaenyra (preferably before the 10-year time jump), Laena

Daenerys Targaryen - Margaery, Jaime, Jorah

Jaime Lannister - Bronn, Dany, Sansa

Margaery Tyrell - Dany, Sansa, Stannis, Joffrey

Petyr Baelish - Renly, Sansa

Roose Bolton - Stannis, Tywin, Sansa

Stannis Baratheon - Roose, Davos

Thoros - Beric

Tywin Lannister - Roose, Aerys II

Marvel:

Benjamin Poindexter - Ray, Matt, Karen

Bruce Banner - Tony, Natasha

Bucky Barnes - Zemo, Tony

Carol Danvers - Valkyrie

Eddie Brock - Venom, Wade, Andrew!Peter, Dan

Loki Laufeyson - Thor, Mobius, Grandmaster

Nathan Summers - Wade

Andrew!Peter Parker - Dane!Harry, Matt, Wade, Eddie, Tobey!Peter, Gwen

Ray Nadeem - Dex, Matt

Tony Stark - Bucky, Dr. Strange, Tom!Peter, Bruce

Wade Wilson - Eddie, Cable, Andrew!Peter, Comics!Peter, Dopinder, Colossus, Wolverine

Supernatural:

Arthur Ketch - Dean, Mick

Azazel - Sam, John

Chuck Shurley - Sam, Dean

Crowley - Dean, Bobby, Cas

Dean Winchester - Ketch, Crowley, Chuck, Benny, Lucifer, Garth

Lucifer - Dean, Sam, Nick

Mick Davies - Ketch, Sam

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Franchise:

Drayton Sawyer - Open to discussing whatever

Johnny Sawyer - Leland, Sonny, Julie

Nubbins Sawyer - Danny, Maria

Tex Sawyer - Open to discussing whatever

If you'd like to work something out, please message me (HIGHLY preferred) or like this post and I'll message you.

In either case, in your first message, please tell me about your writing style, what fandom(s) you were interested, and what ships you might be interested in or characters you were interested in writing against. I WILL NOT be responding to simple "I was interested in your ad" messages and other ones of that nature. 99% of the people who don't say much tend to eventually ghost me.

like if you're interested and op will reach out

#doctor who rp #fantastic beasts rp #tcm rp #got rp #supernatural rp #marvel rp #fandom rp #fandom roleplay

[mrslittletall]

Can we see the recipe for noodle shrimp gratin? Asking for a me. 🤤

Of course ^^ Just for reference, I am using vegan cream for it, but you can also use dairy. I simply have a more quiet tummy if the cream I use is vegan. So, this is a recipe for two people (if you eat it alone, you have leftovers for later). One package of cocktail shrimps (ca. 100 to 125 g) 250 g of noodles (I like to use the corkscrew shaped ones) Frozen spinach (as much as you like) 200 ml of cream 250 g of shredded cheese Seasonings: Salt, Pepper, Dill You can add whatever else you like in this. I added boiled eggs to it for example and carrots. Be creative. Make sure to seasons the cocktail shrimps and then fry them shortly in a pan (for one or two minutes). I fry them in oil, but you can also fry them in butter. Put them away for later. Unfreeze the spinach. That should be done way in advance of course ^^ Cook the noodles. It is enough if they spent five minutes in the cooking water. Now prepare a casserole dish. Put half of the noodles into it, then half of the shrimps, then half of the spinach. Season it. Do the same with the rest of the ingredients and season those too. Now put your cream over the whole thing. Make sure that everything is moist. Now put the shredded cheese on top of it all. Put the gratin into the oven by 180 C (whatever it is called on English, the hot air setting) and let it bake for 30 minutes. The dish normally comes out a little charred at the sides, but that is normal. The rest is perfect and will taste really good ^^ Enjoy your self cooked easy and quick meal!

#ask answered #thank you for the ask #my own recipe

[blueiskewl]

ROMAN GARNET INTAGLIO IN GOLD RING Ca. 1-200 AD

#ROMAN GARNET INTAGLIO IN GOLD RING #Ca. 1-200 AD #gold #gold jewelry #roman jewelry #ancient jewelry #ancient artifacts #archeology #archeolgst #history #history news #ancient history #ancient culture #ancient civilizations #ancient rome #roman history #roman empire #roman art

[silezukuk]

A portion of a mosaic floor depicting the head of a boxer, from the exedra of the palaestrae of the baths of Caracalla, ca. AD 200, National Museum of Rome / [***]

#palaestrae #baths #λουτρά #caracalla #παλαιστής #2nd century #rome #roman #boxer #head #mosaic #floor

[eucanthos]

Apollonius the Athenian   (active 1st c. BC)

_

Boxer at Rest / Seated Boxer / Terme Boxer, 330 to 50 BCE. Greek bronze with copper inlays, 140 × 64 × 115 cm. Εxcavated in Herculaneum (Rome) in 1885, collection of the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, National Museum of Rome.

Pankration, an ancient Greek sports event that combined wrestling and boxing (the only recognized fouls were biting and gouging) was introduced at the XXXIII Olympiad (648 BC). The word derived from the Greek words παν and κράτος, which means complete power and control [over]. There weren’t weight divisions and the fight ended with one of the combatants knocked out or signaled surrender by raising his index finger. 

Due to the often deaths inside the arena, after ca. 200 BC, the judges had the right to stop a contest if the life of the athletes was in danger.

According to Andreas Georgiou (historian and writer of “Pankration–An Olympic Combat Sport”), pankration wasn’t only an Olympic sport, but a technique that both Spartan hoplites and Alexander the Great’s Macedonian phalanx used in battle.

The Romans adopted pankration, called pancratium in Latin. But in 393 AD, this ancient martial art, along with gladiatorial combat and all pagan festivals, was abolished by the Christian Byzantine emperor Theodosius I.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxer_at_Rest

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Thermae_boxer_Massimo_Inv1055.jpg

https://brewminate.com/ancient-greek-boxing-legends-and-history/

https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-ancient-traditions/pankration-deadly-martial-art-form-ancient-greece-005221

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/ancient-mediterranean-ap/greece-etruria-rome/v/apollonius-boxer-at-rest-c-100-b-c-e

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Apollonius-the-Athenian

Sep 24, 2020 previous eucanthos’ post

#Apollonius the Athenian #sculpture #bronze #gr #ancient #fight #technique #Pankration #Andreas Georgiou #research #history #box #wound

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

* * * * *

Meanwhile, the struggle in the House of Representatives today looked like a preview of the 2024 election. 

Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH), a staunch supporter of former president Trump and a key figure in the attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, is pushing hard for election as speaker, emphasizing how imperative it is for the House Republicans to enable the House to get back to business. As Karoun Demirjian outlined in the New York Times, Jordan and his allies have deployed a pressure campaign against those Republicans opposed to him, as she puts it, “working to unleash the rage of the party’s base voters against any lawmaker standing in his way.” 

This is the same tactic that the extremists have used for decades to move the Republican Party to the right. But there is a different dynamic at play in this speakership crisis. Jordan and his allies created the crisis in the first place by supporting Trump’s demands to shut down the government, tossing out former speaker Kevin McCarthy because he would not agree to shut down the government, and refusing to abide by the vote of the Republican conference to accept the choice of the majority: first McCarthy and then Representative Steve Scalise (R-LA).

There is another way in which this moment is different. Jordan is a flamethrower who was one of the original organizers of the right-wing Freedom Caucus. Republicans saw McCarthy, who was an excellent fundraiser, as a pro-business Republican who worked with the far right, but Jordan is the real deal: a far-right extremist. Republican donors have already suggested they are not enthusiastic about working with him to fund Republican candidates.

The third way this moment is different is that putting Jordan in the speaker’s chair makes him, along with Trump, the face of the Republican Party going into the 2024 election. Representative Pete Aguilar (D-CA) previewed the many downsides of Jordan as speaker when he nominated Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) for the speaker’s chair. Aguilar blamed extremism and partisanship for the unprecedented chaos of the House and urged the Republicans to embrace bipartisanship to do the work the American people had sent them to Washington, D.C., to conduct. 

Aguilar noted that Jordan was “the architect of a nationwide abortion ban, a vocal election denier, and an insurrection inciter.” He has “spent his entire career trying to hold our country back, putting our national security in danger, attempting government shutdown after government shutdown, wasting taxpayer dollars on baseless investigations with dead ends, authoring the very bill that would ban abortion nationwide without exceptions, and inciting violence on this chamber. Even leaders of his own party have called him ‘a legislative terrorist.’” 

Aguilar pointed out Jordan’s opposition to disaster relief, veterans’ relief, support for Ukraine, and military aid to our allies, including Israel, and added: “This body is debating elevating a speaker nominee who has not passed a single bill in 16 years. These are not the actions of someone interested in governing or bettering the lives of everyday Americans.” Jordan as speaker would mean the Republican Party would “continue taking marching orders from a twice-impeached former president with more than 90 pending felony charges.”

Even without mentioning Jordan’s involvement with the cover-up of a sexual assault scandal at Ohio State, Aguilar put Republicans on notice that placing Jordan at the head of the party would have brutal consequences in Democratic campaign ads. 

When House members voted for speaker, the Democrats were unified behind Jeffries, who won all 212 of their votes. Jordan won only 200 of the 217 votes necessary to become speaker, with 20 Republicans voting for someone else. His allies initially said they would call a second vote tonight but changed their minds, apparently realizing that another loss would weaken his candidacy significantly. They say they will hold another vote tomorrow.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#clown car #Marshall ramsey #Jim “Gym” Jordan #dysfunctional GOP #Letters From An American #US House of Representatives #the people's business #GOP extremism #women's rights #human rights #MAGA extremism

[cas-coding]

Can I get a random headcannon?

literally anything

saw this scrolling through pinterest earlier (yes im like an old man pls leave me be) and kind of took it and made it my own a bit !!

cas plays candy crush soooo much like he's on level 40000 or something. he's spent like $200 on the game to get rid of ads and get more hearts and power ups and different themes, icons, etc. HE IS SO BAD AT CANDY CRUSH. if he's stuck on a level he will WAKE DEAN UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT and be like hey babe can u pass this for me pls ?? and dean is always a salty bitch about it but he'll get the level first try. btw instead of sleeping cas just lets dean sleep on him and plays candy crush onehanded.

i hope you enjoyed it :)) i love love love writing my hcs down here but i always forget to so i love when people ask me this stuff :) worst case scenario i don't have one and i'll google until i find something cute, so it's a win win :3

#asks #castiel #destiel

[darkrpfinder]

Please be 21+ to interact!!!

21+. She/Her. Looking for some various fandom roleplays. I'm only interested in canon x canon pairings. I have a strong preference for MxM ships, but I'm willing to do some FxF and MxF too. I like canon/canon divergent plots and write on Discord (third person, past tense, 200-400 words on average). I'm a sucker for romantic relationships and don't mind/encourage writing smut but with a healthy does of plot. I'll be sharing my strongest muses (the name on the left) for each and my greatest ship desires for them (the names on the right). I do have other muses, and I'm willing to discuss other ships. But, if you want me at my most enthusiastic, what I have listed is what I'm most interested in.

Doctor Who:

Eleventh Doctor - Jack, Rory, Clara

Fifth Doctor - Turlough, Ainley!Master

Fourteenth Doctor - Jack

Sixth Doctor - Ainley!Master

Tenth Doctor - Jack, Simm!Master

Fantastic Beasts Franchise:

Albus Dumbledore - Grindelwald, Theseus, Newt, Jacob

Theseus Scamander - Dumbledore, Grindelwald

Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon:

Beric Dondarrion - Thoros

Daemon Targaryen - Laenor, Criston, Otto, Rhaenyra (preferably before the 10-year time jump), Laena

Daenerys Targaryen - Margaery, Jaime, Jorah

Jaime Lannister - Bronn, Dany, Sansa

Margaery Tyrell - Dany, Sansa, Stannis, Joffrey

Petyr Baelish - Renly, Sansa

Roose Bolton - Stannis, Tywin, Sansa

Stannis Baratheon - Roose, Davos

Thoros - Beric

Tywin Lannister - Roose, Aerys II

Marvel:

Benjamin Poindexter - Ray, Matt, Karen

Bruce Banner - Tony, Natasha

Bucky Barnes - Zemo, Tony

Carol Danvers - Valkyrie

Eddie Brock - Venom, Wade, Andrew!Peter, Dan

Loki Laufeyson - Thor, Mobius, Grandmaster

Nathan Summers - Wade

Andrew!Peter Parker - Dane!Harry, Matt, Wade, Eddie, Tobey!Peter, Gwen

Ray Nadeem - Dex, Matt

Tony Stark - Bucky, Dr. Strange, Tom!Peter, Bruce

Wade Wilson - Eddie, Cable, Andrew!Peter, Comics!Peter, Dopinder, Colossus, Wolverine

Supernatural:

Arthur Ketch - Dean, Mick

Azazel - Sam, John

Chuck Shurley - Sam, Dean

Crowley - Dean, Bobby, Cas

Dean Winchester - Ketch, Crowley, Chuck, Benny, Lucifer, Garth

Lucifer - Dean, Sam, Nick

Mick Davies - Ketch, Sam

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Franchise:

Drayton Sawyer - Open to discussing whatever

Johnny Sawyer - Leland, Sonny, Julie

Nubbins Sawyer - Danny, Maria

Tex Sawyer - Open to discussing whatever

If you'd like to work something out, please message me (HIGHLY preferred) or like this post and I'll message you.

In either case, in your first message, please tell me about your writing style, what fandom(s) you were interested, and what ships you might be interested in or characters you were interested in writing against. I WILL NOT be responding to simple "I was interested in your ad" messages and other ones of that nature. 99% of the people who don't say much tend to eventually ghost me.

.

#doctor who roleplay #doctor who rp #fantastic beasts roleplay #fantastic beasts rp #game of thrones roleplay #game of thrones rp #got roleplay #got rp #house of the dragon roleplay #house of the dragon rp #hotd roleplay #hotd rp #marvel roleplay #marvel rp #mcu roleplay #mcu rp #supernatural roleplay #supernatural rp #texas chainsaw massacre rp #texas chainsaw massacre roleplay #mxm #fxf #mxf #rp search #dark roleplay #dark rp #spicy rp #18+ mun

[quantummindclassicalheart]

There's a claim in this post that I wanted to unpack a bit, so I'm making my own post so OP doesn't feel obligated to respond.

I've also seen people saying that deaths are where they were in 2021-2022, and that we're still at "a 9/11 a week" of excess deaths and friends, I'm not seeing great evidence for any of these claims.

Deaths definitely aren't where they were in 2021-2022, but the latter claim doesn't seem unreasonable to me. Maybe the issue is in the definition of "excess deaths", which have always been hard to track-- I'm going to work with "confirmed deaths", which is better-defined (see e.g. the definition here).

About 3000 people died in 9/11-- the WHO's COVID dashboard still reports about a thousand COVID deaths a week in the US as of March 2024, as do the CDC's data. The Slate article linked in that post also mentions that "Death counts are robust because it’s quite rare that a death caused by the disease is not recorded as such."

ABC News reported in January 2024 (based on the CDC data) that "1,500 Americans [were] still dying from COVID every week." So about a third or a half of a 9/11 a week, by that standard.

The NY data linked in that post had about 100-200 deaths a week in the peak of winter, while the CA state tracker reported around 30 COVID deaths a day (so about 200 a week) during that same peak. The CDC data for New York is consistent with the NY state data, and the CDC data for California is consistent with the CA state data.

The NY Times disaggregates this (CDC) data: for the week from December 31, 2023 to January 6, 2023, there were 2,446 deaths from COVID. Of these, the largest numbers were 215 in CA, 180 in NY, 137 in Ohio, 129 in Texas, 128 in Pennsylvania, and 121 in Florida. Adding up these six states gets you a total of 910 deaths, so it's entirely plausible that during the winter surge, over a thousand people died of COVID in a week.

These are definitely not 2021-2022 numbers (that was thousands of deaths every day), but I would suggest that a) CDC and WHO are reputable national sources (and in particular agree with the state numbers well!) and b) these sources say that the death numbers in the US really are still in the thousands a week, which is simultaneously much lower than peak pandemic and yet also much higher than most people realize.

Ultimately, people do need to make their own informed decisions about how to manage risk, and they need to have reliable information to do it. Deaths isn't the only number to track, obviously, and hospitalizations and case numbers are only part of the story.

But I thought it was worth addressing where these "thousands of deaths a week" claims are coming from-- if you believe the CDC and WHO numbers (or the state numbers, which agree with them), I think there is good evidence that there are still over a thousand COVID deaths a week in the US as of March 2024.

#covid-19 #covid #if there are methodological issues with this data i'm happy to hear them! #but i wanted to a) use OP's own sources to make the claim and b) make it on my own post so they don't feel obligated to respond #truly. 100% not looking for an internet fight. just trying to talk about some data and cite some sources