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dizzydancingdreamer · 3 years

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Cast your mutuals Greek Goddess edition 😌 (finally Dizzy’s expensive semesters are paying off)

@imdreamingwiththestars

Lottie you’re Hecate— you’re so many things all at once that picking any other goddess just wouldn’t make sense at all. Maiden, Mother, Crone— beautiful, protective, wise. The goddess of magic, goddess of the moon, of witchcraft, necromancy, and ghosts. Of crossroads. We became friends when I was at this weird place in my life— I was going through so many things and you were this constant. Thank you. Hecate is worshiped in the entrance of homes to protect from evil forces— I can’t think of a more protective person. She was called upon to put the dead to rest because her vengeance was worse than the dead’s. Yeah— that’s you lol. She’s dark, she’s dangerous, she’s powerful, and yet she protects humans. She doesn’t have to but she does. Thank you.

@hellotvshowtrash

You are my Aphrodite, Ash. Aphrodite is one of my deities so I don’t give this title lightly. I often find myself talking to her when I need someone to listen, someone who will remind me of all the things that I forget I am. In the same way I turn to you. Aphrodite is the goddess of beauty and love. She was so beautiful she caused wars among the gods— most importantly Ares, the literal god of war. Aphrodite brought the toughest god to his knees— I think that says a lot about what I think of you. She’s depicted as soft in appearance— she’s the goddess of beauty and yet she goes against all beauty standards. You don’t have to fit into the harsh standards of today— Aphrodite didn’t and she was worshipped more than any other goddess. Standards are for the people who will fight over you, all you need to do is love yourself. Troy will fall for you, I guarantee it.

@elijahs-wife

You are Selene and I’ll die on this hill, Tay. I always say you’re a goddess and I’m never lying. Selene is the goddess of the moon, otherwise known as ‘the mother of vampires’. Yeah, that fits lol. She appears in the sky when and how she pleases. Chthonic in nature and origin, she is raw energy and passion. Selene is not just a Hellenistic goddess, she exists through every mythology because of how important she is. She was the sibling of Helios, the sun, and she balanced his fire. You’re like the glue of this group, you balance us. Selene is known to have cults to this day of followers, though it’s partially hidden. People were and are drawn to her. She merges with Artemis at times to become the goddess of the hunt as well but she will always first and foremost be the moon goddess.

@imaginearyparties

I was going to give you Athena because she’s one of my highest revered goddesses and you deserve that title but I can’t bring myself to do it knowing that Calliope exists and that you are the embodiment of her. The muses are overlooked as goddesses— kind of how like you’re one of my favourite authors on this hellsite and are overlooked— and it’s a shame considering at one point in history they were called upon to bless every story and meal and event. They were the most powerful, the daughters of Zeus, revered. Calliope is the must of epic poetry— the wisest of all the muses. She was called upon by Zeus to govern disputes between other goddesses because her opinion and judgment was so clear. You are a wonderful writer, an amazing friend, and I would go to you for guidance before a lot of other people. Calliope is overlooked but I see you. You are poetry embodied, remember that.

@thatweirdoleigh

Clotho. Leigh you are Clotho. In Greek mythology the notion fate is one of the most important things and at the helm of fate there are three sister goddesses— Clotho is the youngest of them. The metaphor used was of cloth— one would spin, one would measure, one would cut. Clotho spun the cloth— she was in charge of spinning the life of humans— every little detail decided by her to her will and precise detail. She was the one to decide which gods and mortals were to be saved and which were to die. Even the likes of the biggest gods and goddesses could not disarm her— she chose destiny, the other gods only enforced it. I like to think of you as her because I think you’ve touched all our stories in one way or another— your thoughts are always welcome and insightful. You’re a leader.

@dumble-daddy

Eris. Without a doubt in my mind Al you would be Eris. She’s the goddess of chaos and discord. I think that gets taken badly sometimes— the word chaos has so many negative connotations and it shouldn’t. Chaos isn’t inherently bad— it’s wonderful and beautiful and without it where would the fun be? You bring the fun, Al. Eris doesn’t strive to hurt people but she’s not going to sit back and take it now is she? She is the true reason that Troy fell— not Helen. The gods refused to treat her with respect so she made Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite fight over an apple— a damn Apple! And she laughed as Troy fell because the fairest goddesses couldn’t share. And they call her bad. What a joke. Chaos is beautiful— remember that.

@xxwritemeastoryxx

Dom you’re Nyx and nothing could sway me in this decision. I’ve been saving her in my back pocket because she’s special— I couldn’t just use her freely. Nyx is the goddess of night. Note— not darkness. That was her husband. Darkness and night are not the same— night is persistent, steadfast, reliable. With or without darkness, the night is inevitable. She’s a primordial goddess— she was there before the beginning and will be there long after the end. She’s older than Zeus— she’s the only goddess that he fears. She’s the reason he gave the chthonic deities respect— the older, earthier, passionate, destructive deities. Nyx isn’t a central figure but she’s present in every tale whether acknowledged or not. You’re always present, and I hope you know that I respect you immensely.

#dizzy casts her mutuals #cym #cast your mutuals #I loved this #finally my knowledge #comes in handy #I love you all #I hope you like this 💕

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my-soul-sings · 3 years

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This Is Everything I Never Wanted: Chapter 1

Fandom: Wannabe Challenge Characters: Everyone! Mainly Taehee VS. Yooha (but not TaeheexYooha) because I’m here for the drama and tea 👀☕️

Summary: An alternative account of events in which Taehee was the one who summoned Yooha from the scroll instead of MC.

A/N: I live for Taehee and Yooha's brawling in the game. This idea popped into my head last night and I went ham on it, enjoy this crack-fic, I hope it makes you smile/laugh. :)

Now up on AO3!

***

It all started the day Biho came home with a scroll painting. Frankly, it looked weird. There was a man with long, silver hair on it, and Taehee didn’t like the weird aura coming from the scroll. Or maybe it was just the man’s face he didn’t like. Something about it pissed him off—probably that annoying, arrogant smirk on his face.

But Taehee couldn’t object to Biho hanging it up on the wall in the living room, especially not when he looked so mesmerised by the picture of the sea in the background. The younger man had always been fascinated by the sea, so Taehee decided to leave it alone. MC also seemed to like it too, and if the house owner herself had no complaints, who was he to protest?

On hindsight, he should have said something. Insisted on his way—something he rarely did and would probably be easily forgiven for.

At first, Taehee kept noticing the painting, unnerved by the feeling that the man’s eyes were following him, watching his every move. He swore it wasn’t his own imagination, and he felt goosebumps rise on his skin whenever he walked past it. He couldn’t ask Biho to put it in his own room though; the wall in their room already looked messy enough because of Hansol, who had a compulsive need to buy posters of his favourite musicians.

With little options at his disposal, Taehee tried to brush it off. Ignore it, pretend it wasn’t there.

It took a few days, but soon enough he practically forgot that the painting even existed, for the most part. And life went on, as per normal.

That is, until Cleaning Day.

It was his favourite day of the year, as excruciating as it could get at times. No matter how clear or detailed his instructions were, his housemates never seemed to understand how to clean properly. That, or they simply didn’t care, which Taehee didn’t understand.

It was easy enough to be patient when it came to MC. After all, she was probably just tired. He could manage doing part of her share of the work.

But Biho and Hansol? Those two hardly ever performed up to par. Hansol would say that he had finished wiping the shelves, and Taehee would swipe a finger on the underside of the wood, and there would be a sheet of dust coating the pad of his finger.

Biho was no better. After making a towering stack of his books and simply leaving them in the corner of the room, he would find a place to sleep, even if it meant hiding under the bed to avoid Taehee’s attention. Or wrath.

After a full three hours of back-breaking work that day, Taehee had neared his limit. The breaking point came when he just finished washing the toilets, and he arrived in the living room to the sight of all three of his housemates knocked out blissfully on the couch.

“You... haa...” He had no words. He was exhausted too, but the kitchen had yet to be touched. And yet the three of them were already resting as if they had accomplished a lot over the past three hours compared to him.

In his mind, the list of chores still unfinished gnawed away at the remaining strands of his sanity. That wasn’t even including the things that he’d probably have to re-do, courtesy of his housemates’ terrible cleaning standards.

The thought of the work left undone was enough to draw another long sigh from him as he deflated a little, a frown appearing on his face. Taking care of his house was a huge weight on his shoulders. In fact, it started getting a little too heavy for his shoulders to bear.

It took Taehee a hot minute to realise that the weight was no longer metaphorical.

“Ew. I’m finally out of the damn scroll after so long and the first thing I see is a guy’s sweaty back? What the hell?”

He heard a foreign voice in his ear. A man’s voice. And then he realised there were arms wrapped around him, as well as a pair of legs and unfamiliar shoes behind him.

Shoes. In the house. That he just mopped. Twice.

Taehee turned around, about to let loose a string of curses at whoever it was, when he realised just what exactly he was looking at.

It was a man he didn’t know, dressed in some traditional cosplay, his curious grey eyes scanning the house around him.

Instinctively he jumped back, confused and alarmed by the presence of a stranger whom he didn’t recall letting in. Where could he have come from? The doors had been locked and the windows were open but they certainly weren’t big enough for a man this size to crawl through easily.

But wait... there was something familiar about him. Taehee couldn’t quite place his finger on it just yet, but he didn’t like the feeling of deja vu washing over him. Or the sense that this guy wasn’t just an ordinary man—if he was even human at all.

“Hey.” Taehee’s attention snapped to the man who was now looking at him. He bristled, for some reason already disliking the guy and his narrow eyes.

“Were you the one who summoned me?” the stranger questioned.

“What?” Taehee had to be dreaming. Or hallucinating. Or both. It was probably from being overworked, which he blamed his housemates wholeheartedly for (except for MC).

"Do you not speak Korean?” the stranger prodded when Taehee went silent for a tad too long.

“O-Of course I do,” he replied, not sure why he felt the need to be polite with this intruder.

Wait. He didn’t.

“How did you get in the house? I can call the police on you, this is trespassing.”

“You’re asking me?” the strange man sputtered, raising his hands. “You’re the one who summoned me! You called my name!”

He could at least come up with a more reasonable-sounding excuse. Taehee didn’t know who he was, let alone his name, for goodness’ sake.

“I didn’t call your name. I don’t know who the hell you are, but explain yourself. Who are you and how did you get in here? I’m not joking when I said I will call the police,” Taehee warned, holding up the used toilet brush in his hand as a makeshift weapon. Even if it didn’t do much physical damage it would at least disgust the guy enough to make him go far away.

“Hey, hey, I think there’s been a bit of a misunderstanding here. I, need you, to explain to me where the hell I am. What year is it anyway? You guys have some interesting clothes,” he said, his eyes trailing over to the three sleeping housemates. How they were sleeping through this was beyond Taehee, but he felt alarm bells go off in his head when he noticed the man’s gaze lingering on MC’s sleeping form.

Before he could attack with the toilet brush though, suddenly a blinding white light engulfed the man, and Taehee had to squeeze his eyes shit.

When he opened them again, the light had vanished and the man now sported a shorter haircut, his silver wavy locks styled in a more modern way. His costume had also disappeared, now replaced by a blue silk shirt, a silver necklace hanging around his neck and a pair of long black slacks. Thankfully, the shoes were gone.

“There. Much better.” He walked casually over to the television to check out his appearance reflected on the blank screen. “Not bad,” the narcissist muttered to himself.

“What did you just do?”

“Changed into something more appropriate. You sure your brain is alright?”

Taehee ignored the insult. “You still haven’t explained yourself properly.”

“I told you. You summoned me here by calling my name.”

He was quite persistent with this ridiculous story. Deciding to play along in case he could get more information out of him, Taehee asked, “What’s your name?”

The stranger stared at him like he was stupid, but Taehee maintained his frown long enough that the intruder finally relented begrudgingly with a dragged-out sigh. “It’s Yooha.”

Yoo-ha. Yooha? Taehee didn’t know anyone by that weird name, much less said it out loud for no reason.

Unless...

“You... haa....”

Could it be... it was all because of that resigned sigh that had escaped his lips when he stepped into the living room just now?

The realisation struck Taehee like a bucket of ice cold water being poured no him. That counted? Seriously?

“What’s your name?" Yooha asked.

“Taehee,” he replied thoughtlessly, before biting down on his tongue. This was hardly the time for introductions. “Now tell me, what are you? Where did you come from?”

In response, Yooha gestured casually to the wall by the television. More specifically, the painting that Biho had bought the other day, except now it looked ostensibly different:

The man in it was no longer there.

“I was trapped in that painting, but you called my name so I was finally released,” he explained, the nonchalance in his drawl grating on Taehee’s nerves. Was this a joke to him?

But... the more Taehee thought about it, the more he realised there was no other way to make sense of this bizarre situation. Yooha’s explanation seemed to be the only logical one, even if impossible. Unless, of course, he was dreaming. But a quick pinch to his arm and the sting that followed indicated that he wasn’t, quite unfortunately.

There was a groan, and Taehee glanced in Yooha’s direction. “What.”

“It’s just...” he scratched his head, his face contorting with a perplexed expression. “I’m not happy about this... but since you’re the one who summoned me out of the scroll, I’m now bound to you as a servant.”

“Come again?” Taehee gawked, which earned him an exasperated sigh.

“Of all things, I had to be bound to a mere goblin...” he grumbled to himself. Then, raising his head, he gave Taehee a hard look. “You’re not very smart, are you?”

“I’m a doctor. And wait- are you by any chance... a seon-ho?”

“Finally saying something sensible, are we?” the man scoffed with an eye roll. Taehee had to purse his lips into a thin line to keep from making a sharp remark. There was no need to prove himself to this complete stranger who was now calling him his... servant? The hell?

“So what,” Taehee began, “I’m your... master now?”

“Ugh, it sucks when you say it out loud, but yes. That’s right.” Yooha plopped onto an empty chair, stretching his limbs and settling into a comfortable position. He sort of resembled a cat.

“And who are they?” Yooha jabbed a finger at the pile of sloths as well as MC on the couch, who were still asleep.

“The people I live with,” Taehee replied, eyes narrowing at him.

“Three guys and a girl? What’s up with that?”

“None of your business.”

“Ooh. Master is feisty.” He paused, a devious smirk playing on his lips. “Is it because of the girl?”

“Shut up,” Taehee snapped quite uncharacteristically. It had been less than fifteen minutes and already this guy was seriously wearing his patience thin. “And stop calling me ‘Master’. It’s gross.”

"Yeah, I will. I almost threw up after saying that.”

A moment of silence passed, neither knowing what to say. This was a weird situation, to say the least, and Taehee wasn’t sure if he had fully processed it yet. A lot had happened today and he just wanted to take a nice, hot shower and go to bed. Screw dinner, he was too tired to cook. Maybe when he woke up, this would all go away, including this pesky nuisance, and everything would go back to normal.

“So...” Yooha spoke up, unceremoniously interrupting Taehee’s attempt to comfort himself. “What now?”

Taehee shrugged, but before he could say anything, he heard a voice.

“Taehee...” MC mumbled. Her sweet voice usually made his heart flutter, but right then, it made his entire body go rigid.

“Who’s that?”

#wannabe challenge #wannabe challenge fanfiction #wannabe challenge fanfic #kim taehee #yooha #kang biho #yoo hansol #my writing

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imgnaf · 4 years

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tinker tailor

been seeing this movie again, again, again in various kinds of post work funk, to the point that I've washed the feeling out of it. but I think I understand some things better:

1. the fact that the film adaptation made ricki tarr into a sex icon rather than a tool and brute changed something basic about the story: it forces you to accept the way tarr conflates his "love" for irina (which you can't take seriously in the book) with his hunger for her secret. the love interest is the same as the target, she is what she knows-- the secret is taken for selfhood.

it's especially remarkable that bill haydon in the novel actually says something to that effect in a political context: that the secret service is the only true expression of a nation's character. I think le carre put this in haydon's mouth to repudiate it (he has said as much in interviews) and I can understand how he finds this thought horrific- his picture of what intelligence agencies do is amoral and often antithetical to the domestic rule of law that they ostensibly protect. thank god a country's darkest inner workings don't constitute its character. but transpose that idea to the individual and there is something quite touchingly naive about the way haydon cherishes this idea of the private self.

I think the filmmakers see a kind of warped glamour in haydon's belief. which is why irina's onscreen beauty becomes this incandescent expression of her secret knowledge, where knowledge is not learnedness but a piece of information. intelligence in the sense of espionage, not in the sense of an individual mind. this is a little insiduous because it makes her into the goose killed for the golden eggs, and we're just supposed to feel bad for ricki tarr because boohoo his tragic lost love!

I kinda see the charm in what bill haydon believes but I think the movie perverts it, or reveals it to be as perverse as le carre thinks it is.

2. I think I finally get the thing with the owl. sure, in the novel it's a plot device to make sure you don't miss the bit where jim breaks bill's neck for him, and maybe hint at mercy as a motive (bit skeptical about that one). but in the film that little scene in the classroom has a different resonance, and I think it comes from the little hunted-animal glance jim casts over his shoulder at the sound of the owl shrieking. because jim is an animal with a hurt wing, and yet when he puts the owl out of its misery the brutality of the act is what you see first, the kindness something that you have to read in later. it's painful to watch him do that to a creature he understands.

3. I'd guess that kind of weird substitution of selves happens a lot in the book/novel. one bit that stuck out was the close-up of smiley narrating his interrogation with karla-- "we have spent our lifetimes looking for the weaknesses in each other's systems", etc. I don't feel like gary oldman's character is talking in my face, as though I am karla. I feel like gary oldman's face onscreen is as close to me as I've seen my own face in a mirror, and in a way I'm looking at myself and he's speaking to a version of himself that only he sees at the same time. it's spooky, and maybe also the point of the speech.

4. back to my favourite subject, friend jim. I think the magical thing that makes the whole portrayal come alive is this quickness of expression and gesture that seems to speak of a shrewdness that began in skittishness, even shyness. it's there in the little corrective glance away from bill haydon's chess piece, the deft, proprietary way he holds out his glass for clinking at party scene #1, the jerk away from the gun once it's fired to regard again what he has done. the way he was watching haydon while his hands were moving on the gun struck me as truer than even what le carre managed to say about him. he's a guy whose mind moves with his hands, he judged and understood the consequences of his judgement in the moment he acted on it. and yet all this is at odds with his heart. his hands say one thing, his eyes unsay it.

5. in the movie the owl is bill, and the owl is also jim. if there was mercy in his killing of haydon it is a mercy that jim was denied, and love has led them to opposite actions. jim killed bill to end his life, which was in effect over anyway, and yet bill couldn't do that for jim, had to get him back alive having lived through torture, injury, the loss of his vocation and any friends he had, and the sure knowledge he's been betrayed. I think this is a just outcome, and le carre seems like the type who believes it is ridiculous to not want to live anyway (I sympathise)-- but still a brutal one.

6. one of the things the film withholds is the bit of confirmatory stalking jim does in the tv series & novel, i.e. we miss the moment where he accepts that bill is the traitor. there's enough in the narrative to make the gunshot scene follow, but the logic is a lot different: after smiley conveniently says aloud that jim "knew all along", we get jim in the trailer rejecting bill roach, bill haydon at the party rejecting jim (though not without regret), and then jim's marching on in a quite military way with the rifle on his shoulder.

I think unlike the book/tv series, the moment jim realises bill's perfidy-- of his country, and of jim in allowing him to be captured and tortured-- is assimilated into bill's private renunciation of him. many images in the movie strike me as more associative than linear, and I think bill's turn away from jim at the party is a metaphor of sorts for the irrevocable moment when he chooses his espionage plot over the people who are loyal to him and the one person who loves him most. irrevocable because final, but also because unknowable: le carre withholds this moment from his story likely because no single incident will satisfy. likely such events never exist in linear time, and they are conceptualised only because they are longed for. but the human desire to know them persists and so the film chooses correctly to present us with an image of pure yearning.

#tinker tailor soldier spy #john le carre

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lorenasworkbook · 4 years

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Lecture 1: A drawing Lesson & The Smart City

Why did I talk for so long about sketching in my previous post? I wanted to eventually get here:

This was one of the first slides presented to us. I was happy that the first lecture was dedicated to drawing. We’ve watched Kentridge’s video showing the way he creates his animated films. These are constructed by filming a drawing, making erasures and changes, and filming it again. It somehow reminds me of the flip book animations as it can be seen in the following gif I found on Google Images:

I did not know about him before.

While he was talking about the limitation imposed by the canvas my mind wondered to Picasso’s quote “Everything you can imagine is real”. I might’ve thought about it due to the horse ink sketch on the wall, or maybe as he was talking about limitations.

You might have to connect the links as I haven’t explained it very well but to be fair, I am not even sure why my mind made that connection anyway. Maybe because even though the canvas is limiting in some ways, it actually is open for our imagination and even though it is a limitation it is also a challenge!

I quickly searched more of his artworks and found some that I like even more, but this time they made me think about Francis Bacon’s work, one of my favourite artists, yes, the painter, not the philosopher.

Bacon also examined Picassso’s work in his career. I had the chance to visit Picasso museum in Barcelona about this time last year and I really enjoyed it. Bacons’ canvases communicate powerful emotions, his subjects were always portrayed as violently distorted, almost slabs of raw meat, that are isolated souls imprisoned and tormented by existential dilemmas.

I felt that William’s Kentridge’s paintings have a similar feeling - people are presented as uncertain, divided and chaotic, living in a world with much the same characteristics. It’s quite contemporary considering the way the world is going lately.

Through his paintings I also found one drawing with a man and a rock. Does it ring a bell? The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus. Sisyphus is condemned by the gods for eternity to repeatedly roll a boulder up a hill only to have it roll down again once he got it to the top, as a metaphor for the individual's persistent struggle against the essential absurdity of life – my presumption of the existentialism theme was confirmed. Sisif was not giving up. However, again I made an assumption, this time that is connected to Sisif while it might not be, I did not go as far in searching to see if there is any meaning he discussed about related to the rock and maybe it is just learning to live with the burdens in your life, while the rock is a physical interpretation.

As initially I just searched other artworks, now I wanted to know more about his approach on philosophical themes. I discovered that in one of his lessons he focuses on indeterminacy, represented by emergence of the occupiers of Plato's cave and their problems with "the light" and the "reality" of what they had seen previously only as shadows. Kentridge is concerned with the way we are wired to impose structure (and meaning) to fluid experience.

Much of this he gathers in the 6th (final) lecture:

"This is the artist's project: needing the fragments, even delighting in them, in the process of wresting meaning from them. The meaning is always a construction, a projection, not an edifice--something to be made, not simply found. There is always a radical incoherence and a radical instability. All certainties can only be held together by a text, a threat, an army, a fatwa, a sermon--that holds the fragments in an iron grip"

The Smart City Introduction

As cities get smarter, they are becoming more liveable and more responsive—and today we are seeing only a preview of what technology could eventually do in the urban environment.

Top down and bottom up approaches:

Top down or technology centric approaches are associated with pre-defined offerings. Cities adopting this approach become smart by integrating data gathered from different kinds of censors (smart meters and CCTV cameras amongst others) into a single virtual platform in order to manage city operations more efficiently, often working with technology companies to take advantage of already developed products or software

The bottom up approach emphasises the use of new technologies (for example, social media, websites, mobile applications or censoring technologies) and new data (becoming available mainly through open data platforms or censors) as a means to enable citizens to devise solutions, acquire new skills through online learning and improve their interaction with public authorities. Such initiatives include open data platforms that allow the development of new mobile applications or online crowdfunding platforms to fund innovative projects.10 By making citizens more engaged in civic life through online platforms, it is also argued that bottom up initiatives can encourage a “more direct form of local democracy” as David Willets, the Minister of State for Universities and Science recently stated

My instinct was to read more definitions to familiarise myself better with the subject, however I just started thinking about all the tech noir, cyberpunk movies and series I saw with futuristic cities and also games I played with a similar theme.

Tech noir presents technology as a destructive and dystopian force that threatens every aspect of our reality.

“They often expose the temporal nature of concepts of identity and society: rather than being fixed aspects of a permanent and indestructible ‘nature,’ these concepts, like nature itself, are shown as mere parts of a larger simulacrum that is subject to change, exploitation, and even annihilation. Yet, even as tech-noir films present the mirror that reveals us to be as expendable and replaceable as any consumer product, they simultaneously affirm conventional beliefs and values - as do all popular genres.“

James Cameron coined the term in The Terminator (1984), using it as the name of a nightclub, but also to invoke associations with both the film noir genre and with futuristic sci-fi.

At home I later created a list with all the things that crossed my mind and from which I did get some inspiration.

Movies:

Blade Runner, Blade Runner 2049, Ghost in the Shell Animated, Ghost in the Shell Movie, The Matrix, 12 Monkeys, Ex Machina, Children of Men, Minority Report, Upgrade, Strange Days, The Terminator, Gattaca, Alphaville, Minority Report, Back to the future 1,2,3

TV Series:

Person of Interest, Almost Human, Mr. Robot, Westworld, Altered Carbon, Alter Carbon Resleeved, Love, Death & Robots, Rick and Morty, The Rain, Travelers, Black Mirror, Humans, Kiss me first, Orphan Black, Greyzone, (Dark, FlashForward, Counterpart)

Games:

Deus Ex, Watch Dogs, Mirror’s Edge & and I absolutely cannot wait for CYBERPUNK 2077 <3 to be launched this year, hopefully and also Death Stranding PC version as I do not own a PS4.

(I was considering adding images for them too but I realised it will be a never ending post if I were to do it)

After the brief was presented, it was the time to create the groups!

We needed to put ourselves in only one category and I am a very undecided person! I had to choose through exclusion. All of us have all of these traits more or less, but which one is the most recognisable? I knew I am not a word smith, even though I have a sales job, so this choice was the first one out. While I really enjoy making things, I identified the most with the People Watchers.

I am observing people everywhere I am. Since I came to London watching people it’s one of my favourite activities. I find myself staring at people in the underground and try to remind myself it’s not polite, but oh, the diversity is fascinating! I am endlessly curious about what they do and why they do it, trying to work out what makes them tick, what do they do for living, what music they like? etc.

After we created our groups, we needed to decide on the rules to run the group by and we wrote them down:

How will we communicate in a way that values each others’ contribution?

How will we listen to each other?

How will we own/share ownership of the work?

When will we meet in person?

How will we communicate otherwise?

How will we distribute work?

The synergy between members was great from the first meet, we created our principles and we were excited to start working on the project. We decided to go home and for the next time we meet to research and write down areas important for us and that we want to focus on further. I did not have an idea yet, I just knew I want people to have a great experience, especially in these times of uncertainty and make thinks easier for people in London.

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smartphone-science · 5 years

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Some days I sit and think, “what will I write…?” What do you say when you get to 1000 posts? Maybe you just start where you are, diverge to where this all began, then offer a collection of reader’s favourite posts, and a few of your own? (And throw in a few pictures.)

Slow to fall

This piece started a long time ago at a café table in Melaka, the laptop in front of me with a sweet kopi susu[1] carefully placed to one side.

The book is, Biopunk dystopias: genetic engineering, society, and science fiction, by Lars Schmeink. Who can resist a title like that? This photo is from Kuching (not Melaka), taken from outside the cafe, looking out over the lake. It’s a favourite place for me in this town. ©Grant Jacobs, 2019-.

I ponder my next move, watching a guard patrolling the entrance of the building. He reaches up and waves both hands at the birds sitting on an arch above the entrance. Plucky, stubborn or daft, one refuses to go.

It’s an avian-human standoff. The guard looks up at the bird, and bird down at the guard. It shuffles its feet, then settles. I imagine later he’ll poop on the forecourt. The bird, not the guard. Pigeon’s revenge. Or whatever it is to a dinosaurian mind.

Source: Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). This has nothing to do with anything, I just like ancient marginalia![2]

Birds are evolutionary remnants of the dinosaurs. My mind wanders and I imagine them holding subconscious existential angst at that they were once (mostly) giants when our ancestors were insignificant little nocturnal rodents. Maybe a few modern birds sit there and think, “I’m higher up than you”…

The recalcitrant pigeon prompts memories of Guillermo Mordillo’s sweet, thoughtful takes on life. Gentle stubbornness was one of his themes. His posters muffled the bland walls of my graduate student bedsit.[3] One poster I liked, but never bought, featured a gardener standing next to pile of leaves and a large tree. The gardener is clutching a rake and, like the guard, he looks up. High in the branches a solitary leaf clings on, defying the gardener from completing his task.

Writing, interrupted

Attacks on two mosques in Christchurch brought early attempts at this post to a stop. It didn’t feel right to write about something trivial so I didn’t. This state persisted while I travelled and tended to other things.

By then I was in Kuching, Sarawak. All around me were Muslims, alongside Sarawak’s wider ensemble of ethnic groups: Iban, Chinese, Hindi, and others.

Sarawakians are a cheerful and friendly lot. At Pustaka Negri Sarawak—the base for their state library—a lovely café looks over the lake in front of the building. In the early morning light joggers tread the paths that circumnavigate the shores. Late in the afternoon the pumping throb of dance aerobics fills the atrium adjacent to the café. They’re an enthusiastic bunch, dressed in a wide range of garb: loose-fitting or tights, hijab[4] or not.[5] They wave hello as you pass by.

It was upsetting to imagine anyone wanting to hurt them.

Evening aerobics in the Sarawak State library atrium. ©Grant Jacobs, 2019-.

The average person is just someone living under a different code for life,[6] mostly doing the things we all do. Jogging, moving to the beat of music, driving to work, getting through the day.

Late afternoon, Sarawak State library, looking back towards the atrium. ©Grant Jacobs, 2019-.

One thing not getting done as much as I wanted was writing. I began writing Code for life ten years ago. It hasn’t—yet—lead to what I would it like to.[7] Still, I’m still here and maybe one day it’ll fall into place.

Sciblogs and blogging: beginnings

My blogging started before Sciblogs from Alison holding up one of my essay-length comments and inviting me to write it as a guest post. Alison was part of the group that started Sciblogs. I was invited as one of the founding writers.

Scilblogs, 23-May-2010, taken from the Wayback Machine. Sciblogs started in October 2009.

We were an interactive lot, trading notes on the backchannel, commenting on each other’s blogs and generally solving the world’s problems. Or at least those touching on science communication.

Not all of our chatting was about science. Topical issues were fair game and we aired some of our concerns about pretty much anything. SMC staff, especially Peter Griffin, asked our opinion on science communication matters. Pioneers of a new venture, we were finding our way forward.

In one of the early years I set out to write every day, and did. It’s a bigger effort than many might think; around 2–4 hours a day, every day. Around that time I asked a couple of New Zealand editors about writing for their outlets and was was advised to not bother. They wanted ‘New Zealand only’ stories or zip. Long-form science writing was something they took from syndicated international feeds at the price of a one-off cost per year. Science-writers in NZ? Yeah, nah.

Part of Goodread’s list of science communication books. These are ones I have not read. At ~$150 I won’t be buying the Oxford Handbook any time soon.

On top of reading ‘the literature’ (scientific research), I studied science writing, also touching on journalism and editing.[8] Scientists are by nature self-learners. When we want to learn something new, we just get on with it. Alongside the reading a big influence for me was ScienceOnline, then a very active forum of scientists, editors, writers and everything in between. They were open to honest criticism to do better.[9] Their community offered a path towards paid long-form science writing for the few keen to move in that direction. The idea of running science writing alongside my scientific consultancy appealed. Unfortunately the organisation fell apart as I felt doors were starting to open.

Back on Sciblogs

On Sciblogs correspondence was vigorous too. Some threads covered over a hundred replies. Thoughts ranged from useful to a few who wrote directly to the authors that their intention was to harass. (They did that too.)

Topics covered a wide range and some of our articles were featured at the NZ Herald. The list of these near the end of a Nature Soapbox article I wrote gives a bit of a feel for the range of topics at the time, and who was writing then –

(You’ll need to use the article to link to the pieces.)

A feature of blogs is readers have more-or-less direct access to the writer and in the case of science blogs, to people with specialist knowledge. It can be a mixed blessing for contentious topics, but it lets readers ask questions of people with a background in the area, something that’s not common online.

I haven’t lived in this village for a long time now, but have never found time to change the banner. The three topic themes are still mostly true, though.

Code for life mostly draws from genetics and molecular biology. It’s also mostly for general readers, so it doesn’t feature much computational biology (my field) these days. My work starts from genetics and molecular biology, but the hands-on stuff is computational, drawing from theoretical biology. It’s hard to relate that to non-scientists. It cuts a bit: like most scientists there’s a lot I’d say about my own lot.

Occasionally I offer criticism of efforts to present science to a general audience.[9] (Expect more of that.) Conveying risk, for example, might seem a dry topic at first, but it’s body and soul to a lot of science writing. There’s the use of language, too. Metaphors for example. They’re widely used and encouraged, but I often prefer something closer to direct explanation.

Speaking of language, finding the featured image was interesting. Searching for images of ‘monk writing’ you get a lot of writing by monks, rather than monks, writing.

Like software mangling parsing language, people misread your words too. Some seem determined to find ‘other’ meanings – especially those with committed views on contentious topics. Some of it will just be ordinary rushed reading, but even so at times it’s as if your words are being filtered and morphed into something they wish were there. That, too, is a mixed blessing. It can be quite unsettling to read alien ‘re-interpretations’ of what you’ve written.

A peek inside a cell. Molecular model of E. coli cytoplasm. Source: PLoS Computational Biology; image credits: Elcock. I’ve wrote about this simulation in Friday picture: molecular modelling of the cytoplasm.

I’ve covered a lot of contentious topics, mostly out of a perhaps misplaced sense of duty. There’s satisfaction in helping, and a need for better coverage of some topics. I enjoy exploring corners of genetics and molecular life more. A hidden world inside our cells is being visualised. There are some fantastic practical applications. It’s the same fascination that carried me into my corner of science after all, and I get to share a little of it with others. That’s a privilege, although at times I think one more easily held by those with a salaried income.

Science communication is also an opportunity for writers to explore corners away from their immediate research interests. It gives them a chance to tackle topical issues in a way they can’t easily within an academic setting. For those of us at it for a long time, it sometimes feels like a saga, one where the hero battles their way through thickets, past strange new beasts and lands, sharing with the reader their exploration of new places.

Reader’s favourites

With this little rumination this I’ve landed my 1000th post. A milestone of some sort that has been in no hurry to drop. Hopefully it’s more a colourful autumn leaf than damp splat of milky excrement. The gardener can get on with his next job – the guard can call in the cleaner! (Or get the mop out himself.)

Participants in a science competition in Sarawak. ©Grant Jacobs, 2019-.

Looking back some articles were read by more people than others. My favourites are not necessarily these.

How many people have visited a post is a clumsy proxy for how much readers liked it, but it’ll have to do. I’m also a bit wary of the statistics. Although they’re nominally visits from 2009, what ranks high feels closer to, or skewed to, what I’d expect for visits since Sciblogs shifted to using Google Stats. (Earlier we used StatCounter. For example, none of the Christchurch earthquake posts rank well but I recall them being very well-followed.)

Popularity counts can reflect where the articles are shared. The most popular two at least, I think, draw in reader through being shared on very popular sites. Here are the ‘top’ three –

How to spot a badly drawn DNA helix (July 2013). A guide for artists to artists to get them right. It’s amazing how many are badly wrong for something so iconic. (This issue has recently recurred with a prominent research journal featuring a left-handed DNA helix on their cover.)

The world’s largest bacteria (November 2011). The largest, smallest, longest, etc. factoids are often popular.

The Impossible burger is not genetically engineered (July 2018). This was put up to counter local media fuss.

Vaccine-related posts regularly draw a fair number of readers:

Faking an HPV vaccine claim in more ways than one (June 2018)

Vaccines and risk on Auckland motorway billboard (October 2018)

Vaxxed at University of Otago: venues should be able to decline (April 2017)

Bad science: baking soda, fungi, cancer, nuclear fallout, rosacea (September 2012)

Please don’t share vaccine concern posts (April 2017)

Vaccine battles (November 2017)

A few vaccine resources (April 2017; I’d like to present an updated take on this sometime)

Vaccine rates in NZ and what do those that delay infant immunisation think (April 2013; this one is relevant to the current measles outbreak. My impression is mainstream media (MSM) have been largely aware of these studies.)

For new parents of parents-to-be facing vaccine information (January 2019)

‘Fake author’ papers opposing HPV vaccine retracted, editor’s defence (May 2018)

Science writing is a topic I’ve covered quite a bit – we all like to think about that thing we do:

Science writing vs science journalism (January 2010; my views on this have shifted – I’d like to revisit this at some point)

How long do you take to review a research paper? (September 2013)

A few a miscellaneous pieces fared well, too –

Scientific paper has a face in a turd. Who could it be? (December 2018)

From science PhD to careers outside academia: what might help? (January 2013)

What use now is handwriting? (November 2011)

What motivated you to become a scientist? (February 2015)

GMOs and glyphosate are topics I’ll return to –

Is GM corn really different to non-GM corn? (December 2016)

USA Court ruling on glyphosate— the role of IARC and Eugenie Sage’s call (August 2018)

Glyphosate and TIME magazine: writer employed by advocacy group a dubious choice (November 2018)

Regulating GMOs: time to move forward (November 2017)

Thankfully at least a few are articles exploring corners of biology in the top 30 or so –

What does a chromosome look like? (November 2013)

Temperature-induced hearing loss (July 2010)

The sheep-leaf nudibranch (March 2015)

Deleting a gene can turn an ovary into a testis in adult mammals (January 2010)

The origin of a false claim: projecting demons (October 2018)

Haemophilia – towards a cure using genetic engineering (July 2011)

A few favourites

My favourites are those I enjoyed writing or researching. They’re not examples of my “best writing”! Besides, it’s impossible to please everyone; each reader’s tastes differs. Some might prefer pseudoscience smack-downs over quirky corners of genetics.

Then there’s that I can’t even review all 1000 of my posts.

(For some older posts the formatting is less than ideal. These have been affected by updates to WordPress or Sciblogs. It’s too much work to fix these without access to the server.)

General stuff

C’s founder is no more Explaining to non-geeks why Kernigan’s passing means a lot to those in computer science and computing industries.

Honey’s antibiotic properties found? One research group played off different compounds found in honey to determine the contributions of each to antibiotic effect and the strength of combinations.

Rubella, not a benign disease if experienced during early pregnancy As a ‘rubella kid’ this topic is close to my heart in its own way.

Monday potpourri: maps, malaria in the USA, cholera in Dunedin and vaccines Three very short pieces chained in a line of thought.

Autistic children and blood mercury levels Where we get mercury from.

GMOs and the plants we eat: neither are ‘natural’ An attempt to point out that, among other things, both our ‘natural’ foods and GMOs are not really ‘natural’.

Aww, crap Some pitcher plants have adapted to be tree-shrew toilets…

Book sales, frumpy readers, and mental rotation of book titles While at the famous-in-Dunedin 24-hour book sale I wondered if there was a ‘right’ orientation to scan rows of books. (Nominated by a reader for OpenLaboratory 2010.)

Preserving endangered species — of gut microbes A interesting idea – new to me – that we should not only conserve rare species of animals but also microbes in our gut that reflect now-rare diets.

Genetics

Bengkala A mix of travelogue and genetics. I visited Bali to meet a village with a genetic deafness where everyone used sign language.

Monkey business, or is my uncle also my Dad? For male pygmy marmosets, their genetic father could be their uncle. Confused? I still get regular visits to this early effort.

Deleting a gene can turn an ovary into a testis in adult mammals I was startled to learn that ovaries may not be permanently defined to be ovaries in some adult mammals.

The inheritance of face recognition (should you blame your parents if you can’t recognise faces?) Prosopagnosia is surprisingly common and has fascinated me for years.

Epigenetics, a confused muddle in the media My biological research interests involve some aspects of epigenetics: here I make a gentle prod at epigenetics being oversold in media.

I remember because my DNA was methylated Epigenetics meets neural systems, meets memories. I get a little lyrical in the beginning, which I confess I enjoyed.

Boney lumps, linkage analysis and whole genome sequencing Looking for the basis of inherited bone spurs.

Temperature-induced hearing loss This was a surprise to learn: a few rare individuals have lose their hearing when they have a high body temperature.

Loops to tie a knot in proteins? How proteins fold is an interest from my Ph.D. student days. A few proteins do more than just collapse on themselves in folding: they tie knots, threading the chain through itself.

Coiling bacterial DNA DNA in cells is rarely ‘naked’, it is packaged with proteins. This article presents a new model for bacterial DNA packaging.

Finding platypus venom Researchers cleverly did not extract the venom, but created possible venoms by comparing the platypus genome with known venomous proteins and expressing the genes that matched.

Genetic tests and personalised medicine

Autism – looking for parent-of-origin effects Some genes are expressed in a way that depends on what parent the gene was from. I report on a study looking at autism this way.

Doggie ERVs We have in our genomes endogenous retroviruses, ERVs. Turns out that man shares ERVs with his (her) best friend.

Haemophilia – towards a cure using genetic engineering Using ‘designer’ zinc finger proteins to insert a working copy of a missing gene.

Kumara are transgenic They’re natural GMOs and serve as an illustration of how arbitrary calling something a GMO is.

Map shows New Zealand with lowest death rate on earth in 1856, over 11 in 1000 dying Maps are great. Zooming in on this old map, it claims NZ had the lowest death rate at the time. (It may not be true, but it’s a fun thing to have spotted.)

Let’s finish with a few more recent efforts –

Regulating GMOs: time to move forward Something New Zealand needs to move forward on.

Go voyage the great beyond (A little lyrical; fun stuff to write)

Cow farts Sometimes just getting the basics right is what is needed

A gene drive in mice – but only for females There’s a call for discussion about gene editing and gene drives in NZ. I hope to add to this.

Scientific paper has a face in a turd. Who could it be? Already featured earlier, but writing this was fun…

A foil to the populist scourge: towards a Science Commission for New Zealand? Not for the writing, but this is an issue I’d like to see addressed.

USA Court ruling on glyphosate— the role of IARC and Eugenie Sage’s call I hope to return to this; there was terrible coverage on this in TVNZ 1 News earlier this year – their reporter seems to have simply copied popular opinion rather than investigate.

Upcoming

Before I tell you these, a confession: I don’t want to hold myself to these! Things change. By the time I get to them, other news might want attention. That said, in my notes I have stuff on:

a letter by young scientists calling out the Green Party for the GMO policy. (I have a post on this in draft.)

the recent TVNZ report on the Christchurch City Council struggling to implement their ‘ban’ on glyphosate

Science journalism, especially ‘critique not criticism’

gene drives

vaccines for parents (yes this is an on-going thing, unfortunately)

gene therapies (lots of great stuff to cover)

human gene editing

a random collection of biology-related things that just interest me, and might interest others

There’s a long backlog of ideas. The list above barely scratches what there is. (More are list in a blogimmuniqué from the close of last year.)

Evolution is a tinkerer,[9] maybe I’ll tweak the form a little too.

Maybe I should explain this one day – a cover illustration showing prediction of functional (DNA-binding) residues from my PhD student research. Way back in 1992! What was top-end molecular graphics then is ordinary now. The picture shows looking straight down the DNA, as if we’d chopped it like a salami. Or a cucumber, if you’re a vegetarian. (Copyright, EMBO J.)

I could touch a little on computing. (As a computational biologist, I have a ‘tech reporter’ side too.) I may trial short posts offering very brief takes on recent research. Short takes aren’t suited to critical coverage, but they’ll let me get something out, and you get something to read. I don’t like not offering critique—to me it’s a central part of science writing—but doing that can take a substantial amount of time. In the same vein, I may explore a molecule or mutation (or allele) of the week.

Away from the blog I explore other writing styles and genres. Blogs favour the writer’s voice, something usually avoided in mainstream media or longer form work. Similarly, a fair bit of what I write here is pitched at slightly geekier level than I would for, say, a magazine. (There’s more of my thinking, and fewer ‘story’ pieces.) As a result most of what I write here doesn’t resemble what I’d offer editors. I may tinker around that space, too.

Last thoughts

I hope you can forgive a little doggerel, milestone pieces are excuses for this sort of thing… (my apologies to Tolkien & Finn),

I’ve started on this little journey. Where the road leads, I do not know. I go where it takes me, to revel in unfamiliar places. Do I dare to live each moment free from the last? I’ve come a long way, but I’m not yet done. I look around each corner, hoping there may wait a new road or a secret gate.[10]

I’ll be continuing on, obviously. The story’s hero has more places to explore.

Speaking of roads I’ve been out in the world a bit. Four months cycling through north Germany, Denmark, Sweden (including Gotland), Estonia, Lativa and down to Austria. Then London, Cyprus, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and more recently Malaysia (especially Sarawak, Borneo). There will be more of those roads, too, but also exploring new lines of writing.

Acknowledgements

I’d like to thank those who gave me an opportunity to write at Sciblogs. Forgive me for not naming everyone! Alison deserves especial thanks for the getting me onto this science writing thing.

Thanks to Sarah-Jane, the current Sciblogs editor, for statistics of my blog (unfortunately I still can’t access my Google Stats!)

Footnotes

Lest anyone be misled, this post only touches on the writing part of what I do, not the science.

1. A very sweet Malaysian coffee. Roughly, it’s perhaps 1cm of condensed sweetened milk with coffee poured on top. When served it usually has a layered appearance—deep brown coffee sitting on off-white condensed milk until you stir the milk in. (Pro travel tip: kopi susu can be a very effective laxative if needed!)

2. I’ve no idea if the illustrated marginalia were executed by the scriveners themselves or added later by artists. They’re easily found online, but one sampler of more bizarre examples might be this article at i09.

3. There’s a commercial website of Mordillo’s present-day stuff. Click and drag to move the sky around (up, down, sideway). It’s excellent, a lovely website. If you click on each topic (at the bottom), the sky will move! Don’t miss the mini-golf asteroid or the man in space bubble. Or the flag planting on the balloon moon. And, oddly, a flying space super-cow, complete with bell. (Some of the pages aren’t loading as I write; this might be browser-specific.)

Mordillo died in late June this year. Some of the obits point at his postcards (I have a few), but he did much more.

4. I’m writing hijab as it’s a generic term, and one most people will be familiar with. Locally the covering is called a tudong (or kerudong). I’m hardly an expert on woman’s head coverings, but there are many different styles. These two women dressed for an engagement party are on the more elaborate end of the scale, but it’ll give you some idea. You’ll commonly see something similar to this photograph of a schoolgirl wearing an al-Amira. It’s uncommon to see nijab, and rare to see burqa or similar. (In the latter case, I suspect they may be visitors from the Arabic states.)

5. How prevalent Muslims are depends on where you. They’re more noticeable near the library, I suspect because the state mosque is just across the way and many visitors are students. In upmarket malls, the dress code swings more Western. The Muslim dress code is varied, and you get the clear impression that hiding the “form” of the body is optional. Classically Muslim dress covers both the skin and hides ones body shape. One young woman—teenage rebel and all—who occasionally comes to the library wears heels, skin-tight jeans, a lingerie-style top, push-up bra (common in Asia), all topped with a hijab.[4] It’s not exactly modest. The other extreme are what I take to be visitors from Saudi Arabia covered from head to toe bar a viewing slit for the eyes. By contrast modest for Sarakawians would be relaxed clothes with an al-Amira-style head covering. Even then many can’t help but wear bright colours. It’s a much more relaxed feel than, say, Northern Pakistan when I visited there around year 2000.

6. If you think there’s irony with the name of this blog, it’s actually one of the reasons for the name.

7. I try track where at least some of my pieces get to using an occasional hunt online. It’s gratifying to see the number of places that have linked to my efforts, and people seem to like carefully thought-out discussions of a topic, but it’s hard to put in the sort of effort these pieces take without some sort of return. Some of the sites linking to my pieces draw a lot traffic. A few pieces sit next to media reports (e.g. at the Evening Report and elsewhere.)

I miss the ClustrMaps that showed a world map with red dots representing where my readers were from.

8. Editing is something I’ve looked into before. Many years ago I applied for and got offered a job as an editor at university press, but ended up declining as the same week I was offered a research position.

9. There’s an essay I could write on this. TL;DR version: in my opinion if you’re involved in specialist writing, you ought to be open to criticism. It’s a hard line, perhaps, but to me you ought to be able to hold up to what you’ve presented, and how you presented it. I’m a fan of the idea that, given opportunity, science writers should stick to the broad field they understand.

Like a novelist breaking down other’s work to understand better what works (and what doesn’t!), I find critiquing science pieces and author’s approaches instructive. Likewise you can try to understand and critique “the system” (editors, publishing outlets, etc), too!

9. A very famous science quote from a near-namesake, Francois Jacob, is “evolution is a tinkerer, not an engineer.” Life evolves with continual (random) tinkering on existing life forms. His biography is excellent, but the one lecture I heard of his was disappointing.

10. For those not familiar with The Lord of the Rings, my lines borrow, merge (and mangle) a few of the poems in Tolkien’s novel, and the Finns’ All I Ask. Hey, what can a guy do?

Some readers wish wish there fewer less poetry and songs in LOTR, but The road goes ever on expresses an over-arching theme. You can’t leave that out! (It’s a novel, not a trilogy – a very large book of six parts, not to mention several appendices, published in three volumes.)

An aside: a few years ago I came up with a fun idea for a short science(ish!)-based LOTR sequel, and toyed with the idea as a writing exercise. A little research lead to the LOTR fan fiction archive. It currently has over 57,000 stories…… Yeah, you read that right. 57,000. Rightfully or wrongly that put me off. How do you even compete with that? Why bother? Also: how does one zealous fan read even a fraction of all of that?! (I’m not that kind of fan, either. A bit of a problem for writing what would basically be fan fiction as you’re unlikely to succeed unless you know the score inside and out.)

There’s some discussion about the poems at Wikipedia, and more that you could read on the many fan sites, but here are parts of I’m playing off –

The Road goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow, if I can,

Pursuing it with eager feet,

Until it joins some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet.

And whither then? I cannot say.

Also:

Still round the corner there may wait

A new road or a secret gate,

And though we pass them by today,

Tomorrow we may come this way

And take the hidden paths that run

Towards the Moon or to the Sun.

Images and copyright

Hanging in the margins is a cropped version of a public domain illustration featured in this Atlas Obscura article. All photographs are from the author’s collection (copyright, with all rights reserved). The EMBO J cover illustration is copyright EMBO J. (I have my own collection of variations on the basic theme, but it’d be an effort to relocate them.) The screenshots are, of course, public domain.

Editors and writers, please note my blog contents are copyrighted. I’m available for writing or editing work; feel free to ask. (While writing this, I found yet another website that has ‘scraped’ a copy of one of my stories. I’m happy to help where it’s reasonable to, but please don’t just take my work!)

Featured image

This image is a favourite of mine that I have used before. I love old art work with details of working tools or daily life. Call it a different form of travelling if you like.

It’s a portrait of Jean Miélot,“secretary, copyist and translator to Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy”, which Wikimedia adds, “NOTE: NOT IN FACT A MONK AT ALL, though a canon of Lille Cathedral.” Ha. He cut it both ways. What you get for being a favourite of the Duke, perhaps?

via Science Blogs

#IFTTT #Science Blogs

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