#with modern surgery? very survivable

[abbeyofcyn]

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles AUs

Phantom Pain

Donnie was finally back to normal. At least.... he was no longer feral. But months of being infected takes its toll and Leo has lost a lot to get him back. It's not easy having two idiots who can't deal with emotions as brothers for Mikey.

Start reading here

Hiatus

CW: nightmares, amputation

Tags: #phantom pain comic

Krang infection sequel

We're not Kappa!

When a rat turns a 1000 years old they become a Kyūsu. They grow large like a cat and have been known to take care of orphan kittens, but this old rat found four turtles in strange green ooze. The Kyūsu did not expect the second physical change in his long life nor did he expect to raise four not-quite kappa in modern Japan.

Tag: #we're not kappa! au

CW: none

Wretched Little Pests

Draxum, Splinter, April. All dead. Shredder won, the Krang won. The brothers must survive and will fight to protect each other no matter the cost.

Collaboration AU

Read the comics here

CW: death, injuries, murder, savage mode

Tag: #wretched little pests au

Krang Infection

Two years after the invasion, Donnie feels sick and his gut instinct tells him it's very different from the rat flu.

Start reading here

Completed

CW: minor body horror, implied amputation, non graphic brain surgery

Tags: #krangified Donnie #Krang infection comic

False Memory

All the brothers have had nightmares from the Apocalypse pop up and ruining their sleep. Casey confirmed that what they've dreamt actually happened to their counterparts in his timeline. They refer to it as 'false memories'. Leo wakes up to the worst 'memory' he's had thus far.

Start reading here

Completed

CW: death

Brains and Brawn Apocalypse

Donnie and Raph lost their brothers during the apocalypse when they were only in their twenties. Now, in their thirties, there's not much hope left for them to win this war.

Several one shots: overview

Completed

CW: death

Great, what's next...

A poll based adventure with Donnie as the main character

Start reading here

Discontinued

CW: none

#AU overview #brains and brawn Apocalypse au #krang infection comic #wretched little pests au #we're not kappa! au #false memories #rottmnt #no tcest #wip going to add links please be patient

[chrysopoeias]

💀 for FMA, if you don't mind! Thanks!

I said Riza last night, but actually I will take it back. If she had died that late in the game we would all be writing like feminist critiques about how her death was only added as fuel for Roy’s manpain and that there were no episodes left to properly deal with the impact.

But she really did survive with plot armour and the power of love. Once in a blue moon in freak accidents ice skaters get this neck injury. Even when rushed to the hospital for immediate surgery and blood transfusion with modern tools, those who survive it are very, very lucky. All Riza got was the alchemical equivalent of a bandage and she kept walking. The blood transfusion and possible repair surgery was later (manga only). Especially in the anime they make it look like she lost so much blood. How was she not in hypovolemic shock dying from organ failure? Luckily fiction does not need to be realistic and has the power of love and friendship :)

Idunno who else to pick. Maybe Selim? He’s a homunculus fused with a human like Bradley, who has been fused with the baby for much longer than Bradley has been alive. Yet Bradley dies dead and Selim could be separated and lived... why 🤔

#ask #the statistic that the avarage human has 15 liters of blood is a lie #Lieutenant bloodbank hawkeye is a statistical outlier and should not have been counted #Riza: it’s just a scratch #Riza: im a women this happens every month #Riza: rip to maes hughes but i’m different

[thepastisalreadywritten]

By Simmone Shah

29 February 2024

While Catherine Middleton has been absent from royal duties for two months due to a “planned abdominal surgery,” the British public has been full of speculation about what's going on with their future Queen Consort.

But the royal family has always held a fine line between balancing private health matters with disclosure to the public they serve.

“You could argue that details about a head of state are in the public interest,” says Richard Fitzwilliams, an expert on the royal family.

“But on the other hand, to what extent does a public figure have a right to privacy?”

Catherine's absence fits into a long and evolving history of how royals have chosen to handle health issues.

Past generations often shrouded them in secrecy. Perhaps most famously, in the 1950s, the British public was not told when King George VI had lung cancer.

In 1951, he had his left lung removed because of what was vaguely described as “structural abnormalities," and cancer was not mentioned in his death announcement.

Occasionally, past generations would be more open about less significant problems.

Once in 1982, when Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, had to visit the hospital after nearly choking to death on a fishbone, she issued a statement to the press, joking, “It was only the salmon getting its own back."

“The fishbone is quite revealing because they tended to be more open about minor instances,” says Gareth Russell, a historian and author who focuses on the British royal family.

“Britain was a much more reserved society in the 20th century, and in families across the land and across the social spectrum, cancer or fatal illnesses often weren't discussed.”

Catherine and William’s approach has proved to be starkly different, as they’ve addressed private matters with far more candor.

“Catherine and William are members of a different generation, so they feel no shame in being open about challenges,” says Clare McHugh, a royal historian and author.

Neither Catherine or William have shied away in the past from speaking out about health matters.

Prince William has spoken extensively about the importance of mental health, and Catherine spoke about the difficult morning sickness she faced during her pregnancies.

She also revealed her postpartum baby bump in photos hours after giving birth to her son, Prince George.

In part, it’s a necessary tactic for the internet age in which secrets are much harder to keep.

“I think they do recognize that in order to survive and flourish in a modern era they need to be honest about what is going on with them,” says McHugh.

“It’s better for them to be candid up front rather than let internet rumors fly.”

That they have previously been somewhat transparent only makes their current silence stand out, experts say.

“That’s why William and Catherine’s reticence about what's going on with them is odd,” says McHugh.

As Kathryn Lamontagne, a lecturer in Social Science at Boston University says, sometimes saying nothing causes more of a stir than addressing the problem head on, a lesson the Royal Family learned when Queen Elizabeth II missed parts of a major event in the months before her death.

“For Royal followers, her absence from the Platinum Jubilee celebrations in 2022 was a glaring sign of how unwell she was and a clear indicator of a serious issue on the horizon,” Lamontagne said in an email.

Still, despite her candor in the past, in many ways the Duchess of Cambridge’s silence is simply following tradition.

“This dance between private and public information nudges the line of medical privacy and a public clamoring for details, but it still follows the pattern of giving very few medical details of a certain kind to the public,” says Lamontagne.

“‘Never complain, never explain,’ in the words of the late Queen.”

#Princess of Wales #Catherine Princess of Wales #Catherine Middleton #Kate Middleton #British Royal Family #health issues #abdominal surgery #right to privacy #King George VI #Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother #Prince William #Prince of Wales #Queen Elizabeth II #medical privacy

[variousqueerthings]

Some stuff about queer culture in Weimar Berlin 

Note: Das Institut für Sexualwissenschaft does not have a definitively used translation from what I see -- have seen Institute of Sexology (my preferred translation), Sexual Science, Sexual Research, Sexual Knowledge etc. It’s all the same place.

any further suggestions, feel very welcome to add!

*

ONLINE:

the wikipedia for the institute: yeah, yeah it’s wikipedia, but get some groundwork done here if you know nothing at all, so the next set of recommendations don’t overwhelm you

Remembering Dora Richter, One of the First Women to receive Gender-Affirming Surgery: good introduction to the Institute of Sexology, with a focus on one of the women who lived, worked, and received care there

On the Clinics and Bars of Weimar Berlin: a more in-depth article about the institute, some of the people who sought to get support via it, and the surrounding culture of the time

The Magnus Hirschfeld Society: a lot of their work is published online, in German, French, and English. Hours of fun.

Interview with the author Laurie Marhoefer: discussing his book (mentioned below) Sex and the Weimar Republic, which focuses on various fronts to sexual liberation in the Weimar Republic, including the limitations of assimilationist approaches*

*Marhoefer is currently working on their third book centred on queer persecution during the Third Reich, which “centrally analyzes racism as a vector of persecution,” so that’s something to keep an eye out for too

The Asian Canadian gay activist whose theories on sexuality were decades ahead of their time: an article about Li Shiu Tong, by Marhoefer, who also wrote a book about him (see below). The title really says it all

The Transvestite Magazine of Weimar Berlin: a series of magazines that were published until 1933 when the crackdown on queer rights resulted in the destruction of the Institute of Sexology, featuring examples of voices almost completely overlooked -- transvestites who were simply living their lives

The Institute for Sexualwissenschaft: this blog post goes into something I’ve been thinking as well -- the parallels between the anti-queer/anti-trans violence perpetuated by the German government before, during, and after the Nazis and the anti-queer/anti-trans rhetoric and violence today. Where would we be if all that research had survived? (and luckily, some of it has!)

*

BOOKS

Der Liebe und Dem Leid: Das Institut für Sexualwissenschaft 1919-1933: a recent German historical account of the institute of Sexology that I desperately want to get my hands on

Sex and the Weimar Republic: German Homosexual Emancipation and the Rise of the Nazis: explores intersectional fights for queer emancipation during the Weimar Republic and its limitations

Racism and the Making of Gay Rights: A Sexologist, His Student, and the Empire of Queer Love: goes deeper into the story of Li Shiu Tong, who was an impressive researcher at the institute and whose contribution to sexual and gender philosophies is being reconsidered at the moment!

Magnus Hirschfeld: The Origins of the Gay Liberation Movement: a biography of Magnus Hirschfeld and his central role in the queer liberation movement of the time

The Masculine Woman in Weimar Germany: looks at the depictions of women who didn’t conform to standard gendered and sexual expectations from 1918-1933 and explores their role to understand gendered lives and experiences at this point in German history

The Hirschfeld Archives: Violence, Death, and Modern Queer Culture: a book I desperately want to read on anti-queer violence in the early 20th century, focusing on the Institute of Sexology and its destruction, which has gathered archival material from “over a hundred published and unpublished books, articles, films and photographs.”

Gay Berlin: Birthplace of a Modern Identity: another broader book about Berlin. I’m interested in the subtitle “birthplace of a modern identity” as potentially exploring the ways Berlin was the centre of explorations that despite the Nazis best efforts are still alive and -- with setbacks -- remembered today

Queer Identities and Politics in Germany: A History, 1880-1945: Idk what to tellya it’s about queer identities and politics in Germany between 1880-1945

*

ISHERWOOD

British author Christopher Isherwood spent some time in Berlin, notably including a stay at the Institute of Sexology. This time resulted in “The Berlin Stories,” as well as a section in “Christopher and his Kind” (his autobiography). 

These stories were turned into the play+film “I Am A Camera” and the musical+movie “Cabaret”

The 1993 Alan Cumming and Jane Horrocks Cabaret (one of my favourite things in the world)

Opening of the 1972 movie 

(according to a 1977 biography of Isherwood, he denounced the Berlin Stories in a 1956 essay: “He regretted depicting many persons as "monsters" and noted they were "ordinary human beings prosaically engaged in getting their living through illegal methods. The only genuine monster was the young foreigner who passed gaily through these scenes of desolation, misinterpreting them to suit his childish fantasy."” -- that being said, the people in those books are still very, very interesting and -- despite Isherwood’s initial limitations/biases -- beautiful in their realities)

*

OTHER MOVIES

Anders als die Andern and Laws of Love -- two movies produced via the institute exploring same-sex relationship rights. I haven’t seen the latter yet (it was only restored in 2021, nearly a hundred years after it was released), but it was heavily censored. The former (with the famous German actor Conrad Veidt as a lead) is considered the first movie to overtly show homosexuality. They’re both on the Internet Archive

The Einstein of Sex: Life and Work of Dr. M. Hirschfeld: by cult film-maker Rosa von Praunheim that explores the opening of the institute up until the 30s. I haven’t seen it yet, but very excited! EDIT: currently watching and it’s definitely On A Budget, but a good rundown of Hirschfeld’s life. On youtube with english subs. EDIT 2: having finished it, am interested in how it portrayed Dora Richter (that it had her in it at all was great) -- not completely accurate, but a labour of love

Paragraph 175: a 2000 movie documenting some of the gay men who experienced the violence of the law under Nazi regime and afterwards. This film is simply made, and there aren’t many men featured in it -- it feels like it’s trying to get the story told before they lost their chance completely. The stories are very brutal. It starts pre-war. One of the men talking is the French author Pierre Seel, who lived until 2005 and received recognition as a holocaust survivor in 2003, in part due to this film and his own memoir

Great Freedom: this actually takes place post-war, but another insight into what Paragraph 175 was. the main character was in a concentration camp, but it’s not depicted. I simply think it’s good, although it’s mildly off-topic. 

*

MISC

this has focused a lot on the Institute of Sexology, but I’d like to read some works on Helene Stöcker and the World League for Sexual Reform

#resources #queer stuff #queer resources #weimar berlin #magnus hirschfeld #li shiu tong #laurie marhoefer #heike bauer #paragraph 175 #die institut für sexualwissenschaft #weimar germany #cabaret #christopher isherwood #queer history #queer germany #germany #queer literature #queer non-fiction #queer cinema

[wangxianficfinder]

Hey huns!👋 So I have 2 first for the finder if that is alright:

1) The first is a shorter story (i think, been a while). It's about WWX being a "retired" assassin and LWJ being a thief (?). They're together, but both don't know the other occupation. The ending is when the Wens take LWJ hostage and use him as bait. Legit, remember one line being "You kidnapped the Yilling Patriarch's boyfriend!?" Which I think was Wen Xu asking Wen Chao. Just finally got an Ao3 account and wanted to bookmark it as it's one of my favorites to go back to, and my mobile bookmarks got deleted.

2) WWX and LWJ are stuck in the 🐢 cave and then they do the "devils tango". WWX ends up pregnant and goes through the entire buring of lotus Pier, Golden core, burial grounds, and the beginnings of the war with that knowledge. I remember WQ telling him the baby may not last during the surgery. I also remember WWX thinking that the baby didn't survive after the 3 month hell and him being surprised when the doctors (could be WQ) at the camp telling him he's pregnant and the baby is still alive. I have no idea if it's a A/b/o or just random vodoo Magick that the author wrote. But I do remember the VERY first chapter was them in the cave and WWX asking if LWJ was alright and wanting to just have...the devils tango.

I have tried finding 1 through the usual tags of assassin and heist and thief or even the name "Yilling Patriarch's Boyfriend" but didn't work. 2 has been done a lot, and I've ready as many as I can to refind it, but I have no idea how far I'm looking or the word count. Help me please and thank yous in advance!

Hello! I remember someone else asking about a very similar fic for number 1 which I think was this one?

FOUND! all the problems we could solve by Stratisphyre (T, 20k, wangxian, modern, getting together, fluff, humor, violence, meet-cute, identity porn, thieves au)

As for the second one, that sounds like this one but I could be wrong ☺️

FOUND! Impermanence, Transience, Permanence by Best Bepsy (BepsyGray) (E, 39k, wangxian, canon divergence, unplanned pregnancy, mpreg, gore, sunshot campaign, assumed miscarriage, medical procedures, childbirth, golden core reveal)

Let me know if they are wrong and I will add this to a FF!

- Mod C

#mod c #answers #wangxian fic finder

[howtofightwrite]

How realistic is it for someone to survive getting jumped with sticks, and surviving with a finger fracture, that is later treated with surgery. What sequence of events would allow this to happen ? Setting is XVIIIth century France, and the character's hair is long, thick, curled and pomaded and powdered, which means his skull would get some cushioning.

So, this a whole set of different components, and taken together there are some issues.

The two most unrealistic details are probably surviving surgery, and their wig remaining on their head through the attack.

It's pretty reasonable for someone to survive getting jumped by attackers armed with sticks. There's a lot of ways this can go, and it's not a good situation to be in, but this isn't certain death unless the attackers really know how to get the most out of their weapons.

Even if the fight goes badly, if they survive without serious internal injuries, they could probably recover.

I'll admit that I have a modern bias, but surgery in the 1700s was a horror show. A large part of this was because of bacterial contamination wasn't understood until the the mid-19th century. Even while observing the best practices of the time, minor surgery, such as repairing a fractured finger were significantly more dangerous. In fact, with this scenario, it's quite plausible that they'd simply end up with a permanently mangled finger after the attack. If they did seek surgical assistance, there would be a very real risk of bacterial infection and death.

That leaves us with the hair or wig. The eighteenth century is near the end of the peruke (the powdered wig) as a fashion accessory in French culture. Popular culture (especially films) tend to dramatically over-represent the peruke and its ubiquity. These could be quite expensive and fragile. While some have survived, they are quite difficult to preserve. These were most often seen among the nobility, and courtiers, later filtering down into the merchant class. These wigs were not something that everyone wore. More than, the tradition of the powdered wig in France effectively died as a result of the French Revolution, because it was heavily associated with the aristocracy.

The peruke was easy to dislodge during strenuous physical activity. So, if your character was actually wearing a wig, then that would probably be lost (and potentially damaged) during the scuffle. Your character may be able to retrieve it after the fight if their attackers leave them there. For what it's worth, I think this is a good detail to be aware of and consider, just for the verisimilitude of your fight scenes. Lose articles of clothes or other carried items might be lost or damaged during combat, and it can help ground the fight as an actual event in your story rather than a disconnected interlude.

There was a practice of wearing powder directly in one's hair rather than on the wig. Again, in France, this was tied to the aristocracy, and the practice died with the French Revolution. In England it went out  of fashion with the 1795 Guinea tax on hair powder, and by that point powdered hair had connotations of callous wealth.

All of that said, I don't see a powdered wig, or powered hair, offering much protection from blunt force trauma. As anyone who has ever run their head into a solid object can attest, your hair makes for poor armor. It's great as thermal protection, and this was also true of the peruke, but it's not going to save you from a club to the head.

So, how realistic is it? That's really hard to say. There's some parts of this that aren't at issue, and others that are a little questionable. Could it happen? Sure. Can you get away with writing it? That depends on how well you can sell the chain of events. Ultimately, the realism will depend on how believable you can make the chain of events.

-Starke

This blog is supported through Patreon. Patrons get access to new posts three days early, and direct access to us through Discord. If you're already a Patron, thank you. If you’d like to support us, please consider becoming a Patron.

#howtofightwrite #Starke answers #writing advice #writing reference #writing tips #Starke is not a real doctor

[alpaca-clouds]

Medicine in Castlevania

Had a talk about this topic with @autumnmobile12 and promised I was gonna write a bit about it.

There is the big question, what kind of medicine the vampires have available in the Netflix version of Castlevania. After all Lisa goes to Dracula to learn about medicine and does so. And we know that the knowledge available is far ahead of the time that the series is set (mainly 1475 and 1476).

We see a lot of chemical equipment in Dracula's laboratory, but of course we cannot say, what it does.

The one thing we know is that they know about antibiotics. This is based on Lisa giving the old woman in the village a medication for her cough made from mold. Which is fairly certainly penicillin.

Given how penicillin in the real world was discovered, we can assume two more things from this. In the real world it was discovered, by some spores from a certain kind of mold (one, that primarily grows on melons and sometime on citrus fruits) getting on a petri dish, where they were cultivating bacteria cultures, and then killing the bacteria. Hence, them knowing about penicillin does imply that they know about how to grow bacteria cultures - and hence know about bacteria. After all you would not give someone antibiotics without knowing about bacteria!

Another thing we know is, that Lisa in her own laboratory in Lupu has a centrifuge. Usually centrifuges are used either in some chemical processes, but more likely is, that it is used in blood tests. Which would make it clear that they have some knowledge of the components of blood. This also does imply that they can draw blood in a somewhat orderly manner.

So, in the real world penicillin was discovered in 1928, while blood tests go back to the 18th century.

Some other stuff that was discovered medically in the early 20th century would be insulin (which originally was made from the organs of animals, which I absolutely could see to be something that the vampires in Castlevania have figured out) and vitamins and their importance for the human body.

In the about 100 years before that, other important stuff was discovered. Aspirin being one such thing, as it was originally made from the bark of willow and I very much assume that they have already access to. X-Rays, too, being such a thing. Though I am not entirely certain about these, because while they do have electricity, I am not entirely certain how much they understand about electricity. Something I am rather certain about is general anesthesia, which was discovered in 1849 in the real world.

Vaccines were discovered technically in 1799, but it took until 1890s, until they figured out to prepare dead vaccines, that would just train your immune system, instead of giving your a minor infection. But yes, I am fairly certain that they do know about vaccines.

Some other discoveries, that would be around in the 1920s, are kinda dependend on how well the understanding of electricity is. Because the only electricity we see is in electric light. So, it is hard to say whether they have electro cardiography for example. Though obviously it would help with the survivability of surgery.

I am not entirely certain, whether they might have some other medications that need modern chemical equipment.

Another thing I am fairly certain they have, is proper microscopes, given that those go back really far back and even in the middle ages they had some good ones and they probably have access to much better ones in this world.

But just to imagine, how much the knowledge of bacteria, fungi and maybe viruses would help survivability. Just knowing to desinfect hands before a surgery (something we see Lisa do) and such would do a lot. Heck, antibiotics would greatly help the survivability of the black death and of course vaccines would do so much more. So, if they really end up sharing that knowledge in the end of the series, the next few centuries would have a very different outcome.

(I might also ramble a bit about technology in that world, if anyone is interested.)

Tagging @udaberriwrites and @lena-hills, too, because they might be interested.

#castlevania #castlevania netflix #history #history of medicine #worldbuilding #medicine #headcanon #castlevania headcanon #antibiotics #pain killers #interesting

[mariana-oconnor]

The Empty House pt 1

Now, in the hour of our greatest need, a hero rises to answer the call. Our dear friend John Watson provides food for our reading appetites and bravely returns to write the tales of his dearly departed* partner, Sherlock Holmes.

*all facts correct at time of writing

You may be forgiven for assuming that my silence indicated that ‘The Final Problem’ truly was the end of my association with Sherlock Holmes, and indeed of the man himself. The passage of time and many subsequent tellings of the tale has not diminished me joy in saying that it was not so.

WHAT??!

No, seriously though, the fact that Letters from Watson is going with the conceit that Watson knew when he sent the email that Holmes wasn't dead and then just went radio silent for three weeks is fucking hilarious. It's what Holmes would have wanted. I mean, he's not dead, but even so. I love the dramatic bitch energy here.

It was in the spring of the year 1894

I feel like this is as definite and accurate a date as we're ever going to get in these stories.

Also, I have definitely read this one before, multiple times. Partially for my own enjoyment when I was younger, but also during my Sherlock fandom phase where I needed to verify some original canon so I could mutate it terribly for my own personal amusement.

I definitely remember whodunnit and how this time, but I'm not sure if that's actually going to be the mystery.

Only now, at the end of nearly ten years,

So this is a story set in 1894, written in 1903, read by us in 2023.

I should have considered it my first duty to have done so had I not been barred by a positive prohibition from his own lips, which was only withdrawn upon the third of last month.

So Holmes stayed 'dead' officially for 13 years? I mean, I guess this is also sort of ACD saying 'please stop sending me death threats. Here it is. He was never really dead. I surrender I surrender.'

As I read the evidence at the inquest, which led up to a verdict of wilful murder against some person or persons unknown

Totally read this wrong at first as though the murder was against the person or persons unknown. 'We know a murder has taken place, but we don't know who, or even if it was only one person or multiple. But it was definitely murder.' But no, it's the verdict that's against them, not the murder.

There were points about this strange business which would, I was sure, have specially appealed to him, and the efforts of the police would have been supplemented, or more probably anticipated, by the trained observation and the alert mind of the first criminal agent in Europe.

It is pretty tragic to think of Watson reading the paper and sighing to himself as he thinks of how Holmes could have helped. But then also casually throwing shade at the police officers, also in tribute to Holmes' memory.

Adair's mother had returned from Australia to undergo the operation for cataract

Health tourism has a long and varied history. In a time before aeroplanes that's a long way to go and a long time to take for surgery. Did Australia really not have any opthalmologists worth their salt at this time? I mean, I don't know how good even the surgeons in London would have been with that sort of surgery, it's a little more finesse than amputations and they had enough difficulty with them. Got to assume that if you're going to take that long travelling for the surgery, there's got to be a reasonable improvement in your chances for survival.

OK, wow, the history of cataract surgery is long and I do not advise you to look it up if you are in any way squeamish about or squicked out by eye stuff. But apparently the earliest cataract surgeries known are in the 5th century BC, although modern surgery methods didn't seem to really get good until around the 1950s. Basically yes, infection was very possible and her vision would never be the same again.

That was very educational and quite unpleasant.

Ronald Adair was fond of cards, playing continually, but never for such stakes as would hurt him. He was a member of the Baldwin, the Cavendish, and the Bagatelle card clubs. It was shown that after dinner on the day of his death he had played a rubber of whist at the latter club.

I know it says that he never played for stakes that would hurt him, but I feel like being a member of three different clubs is a sign of something. Also, the fact that he recently broke up with his fiancee really needs to be relevant later because I cannot imagine why it would be included if not. At least as a red herring.

Mr. Murray, Sir John Hardy, and Colonel Moran

I wonder which of them is important? Clearly it must be Mr Murray. Absolutely could not be Colonel Moran, who is a colonel and therefore a respectable member of society who would never be associated with any crimes.

I stg ACD had some sort of beef with a colonel at some point in time. That's the only possible explanation. OTHER RANKS ARE AVAILABLE.

She had lit a fire there, and as it smoked she had opened the window.

They need their chimneys checked. Where are the chimney sweeps? I was under the impression that Victorian London was full of chimney sweeps. Was I lied to? Shove a small child up that chimney at once!

The door was locked on the inside, and no answer could be got to their cries and knocking. Help was obtained and the door forced. The unfortunate young man was found lying near the table. His head had been horribly mutilated by an expanding revolver bullet, but no weapon of any sort was to be found in the room.

Locked room mystery! Locked room mystery! Locked room mystery!

The window is open, but this is the second floor, and it's worth noting for any American readers, that in the UK the second floor is one higher than you think. We have ground floor, first floor, then second floor. So that's a pretty high window to reach.

(Unless there was already a small child lying in wait up the chimney...)

A minute examination of the circumstances served only to make the case more complex. In the first place, no reason could be given why the young man should have fastened the door upon the inside.

Sometimes people just lock doors. I automatically lock doors behind me sometimes. My brain is just like 'ooh, lock!' I made my flatmate at university think I hated her because I used to lock myself into my room, but I just... be like that.

There was the possibility that the murderer had done this and had afterwards escaped by the window. The drop was at least twenty feet, however, and a bed of crocuses in full bloom lay beneath. Neither the flowers nor the earth showed any sign of having been disturbed, nor were there any marks upon the narrow strip of grass which separated the house from the road.

So I know how this goes, but I feel there is a very real alternative solution to this puzzle that involves a circus troupe, an archer and a tightrope walker. Not sure how they'd get the tightrope back, but that can be sorted out in editing.

Again, Park Lane is a frequented thoroughfare, and there is a cab-stand within a hundred yards of the house.

Fine, people would probably notice the tightrope walking clown...

^ This guy could do it, is all I'm saying. (Although he would definitely use more than one bullet...)

since, as I have said, young Adair was not known to have any enemy, and no attempt had been made to remove the money or valuables in the room.

No one who gambles that much and consistently wins can be entirely enemy-free, that seems unlikely.

As I did so I struck against an elderly deformed man, who had been behind me, and I knocked down several books which he was carrying. [...] With a snarl of contempt he turned upon his heel, and I saw his curved back and white side-whiskers disappear among the throng.

Oh hai, Holmes. I'm not 100% that this is Holmes but lbr, this is Holmes. The snarl of contempt and abrupt about turn is totally to conceal his identity. Also I want to read The Origins of Tree Worship is it a real book? I feel like it has the potential to be the basis for a decent fantasy book.

but the window was entirely inaccessible, since there was no water-pipe or anything which could help the most active man to climb it.

I had not been in my study five minutes when the maid entered to say that a person desired to see me.

Drum roll please

I moved my head to look at the cabinet behind me. When I turned again Sherlock Holmes was standing smiling at me across my study table.

Certainly a grey mist swirled before my eyes, and when it cleared I found my collar-ends undone and the tingling after-taste of brandy upon my lips. Holmes was bending over my chair, his flask in his hand.

This surprise reveal brought to you by:

Brandy!

If Brandy doesn't save you, at least you'll die drunk!

“My dear Watson,” said the well-remembered voice, “I owe you a thousand apologies. I had no idea that you would be so affected.”

No.

Shit.

Sherlock.

Yeah, totally unbelievable that your bff who has thought you were dead for two years and probably blames himself at least somewhat for falling for the obvious ruse and leaving you alone on the cliffside to face your demise, might POSSIBLY be A LITTLE BIT affected by YOU RISING FROM THE DEAD BEFORE HIS EYES.

You are such a dramatic little chaos gremlin and it's great, but a truly spectacular lack of forethought here.

"Now, my dear fellow, in the matter of these explanations we have, if I may ask for your co-operation, a hard and dangerous night's work in front of us. Perhaps it would be better if I gave you an account of the whole situation when that work is finished.”

Casually rolls back into town, greets bff. 'Like, I could tell you how come I'm not dead, but instead we could both risk our lives first... what do you think?'

"I had no serious difficulty in getting out of it, for the very simple reason that I never was in it.”

A cliffhanger - literally??

Disappointed we only got two synonyms for the falls though: "awful abyss" and "dreadful chasm" I was hoping for some other ones. "merciless maw", "terrible void", "cruel crevasse", "fell fall", "godawful gap". Hopefully some more can be shoehorned into the next bit.

#Letters from Watson #Sherlock Holmes #The Empty House #long post

[jinxed-sinner]

Analyzing Niffty Receiving A Lobotomy Because This Is Actually A Lot More Interesting Than People Realize

Alright so I've seen a lot of people theorize that Niffty suffered a lobotomy before she died and I'm here to add onto it because this is actually really interesting to analyze, to the point I hope Niffty canonically had a lobotomy because it just makes everything about Niffty make a hell of a lot more sense.

First of all, some trigger warnings.

Obviously, we're talking about lobotomies. If medical malpractice and abuse bother you, I would not recommend reading this post. Additionally, Rosemary Kennedy is used as an example of the effects lobotomies have; if you don't know Rosemary's story, it's frankly horrific and the details of her lobotomy is not for the faint of heart. Proceed with caution.

Now let's do some analysis. (putting the rest of this under a read more cut because lobotomies are absolutely horrific)

First of all, what is a lobotomy?

A lobotomy is a medical procedure that was introduced in the United States in 1935. It involves severing connections in the prefrontal cortex, usually by drilling a hole in the skull (although a technique that involved going underneath the eyelid, known as a transorbital lobotomy, was introduced in 1946). Multiple techniques existed. Lobotomies were used to treat violent tendencies, psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations, and depression, among other things.

When lobotomies weren't fatal (and it's worth noting that in the 1940s, the mortality rate of a lobotomy was 5%; the average mortality rate* for modern brain tumor removal is approximately 2.3% for comparison), a person who received one usually had their emotions and cognitive and intellectual abilities stunted to that of a young child.

*Average because it depends on the type of tumor you're having removed, as well as how bad the tumor is

Rosemary Kennedy

The most well-known lobotomy victim is probably Rosemary Kennedy, who experienced seizures and violent mood swings. She received a lobotomy at the age of 23 in 1941 in response to these problems, which left her unable to take care of herself, and permanently at the mental capacity of a 2-year-old. Her lobotomy is described as follows:

After Rosemary was mildly sedated, "We went through the top of the head," Dr. Watts recalled. "I think she was awake. She had a mild tranquilizer. I made a surgical incision in the brain through the skull. It was near the front. It was on both sides. We just made a small incision, no more than an inch." The instrument Dr. Watts used looked like a butter knife. He swung it up and down to cut brain tissue. "We put an instrument inside", he said. As Dr. Watts cut, Dr. Freeman asked Rosemary, for example, to recite the Lord's Prayer or sing "God Bless America" or count backwards;... "We tried to estimate thus, how far to further cut, based on how Rosemary responded." When she began incoherent, they ceased cutting.

I want to point out that even in modern neurosurgery, keeping someone conscious during the surgery isn't uncommon. The brain doesn't have pain receptors, and therefore you don't feel pain on your brain. Keeping someone conscious, as suggested above, is an important part of making sure you're making the right incisions and not cutting into something you shouldn't.

What happened to Rosemary Kennedy is disgusting. I need to emphasize that. I'm not bringing up Rosemary Kennedy in my Hazbin analysis post just because; I'm bringing her up because she's the most notable case of what can happen when you survive a lobotomy (in my mind at least), and I think if you're going to discuss the theory that Niffty was lobotomized in depth, it's important to know what you're talking about.

Now let's discuss Niffty's behaviors.

Niffty

In my opinion, Niffty's most clear trait is her violent tendencies. Additionally, a lot her behavior is reminiscent of OCD. Niffty's behavior is also very childlike, which brings me to an interesting conclusion: as a demon, Niffty's personality and behavior are a combination of her pre-lobotomy self and her post-lobotomy self (violent tendencies and OCD that led to her lobotomy combined with the post-lobotomy personality of being more child-like and socially unaware). In addition to both of these, when I see her design I think of a transorbital lobotomy gone wrong.

Like her behavior feels like someone who got a lobotomy but eventually gained a form where they weren't as affected by that lobotomy. It's really interesting to me and it makes me kinda sad that I haven't seen anyone really analyze the theory that Niffty was a lobotomy victim beyond just "Niffty got a lobotomy when she was alive" because it just explains too much for that to not be the intention. Like I don't think it's a coincidence that she died when lobotomies were happening left and right and her personality fits a combination of pre- and post-lobotomy personalities.

Makes me excited to learn more about her honestly.

#hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel analysis #hazbin hotel niffty #tw medical malpractice #tw lobotomy #tw abuse #if i said anything wrong or weird pls let me know

[limetimo]

RAB FICS I READ (June pt 1)

With a thief to the gallows by zvzam james and regulus conspire to get regulus out, james wants regulus to come too

the golden king by maladaptivewriting my god so good, regulus wakes up in 1991 as an 11 yeard old and wows to protect harry. oh and also he's pretending to be sirius' son from france

this thing was a masterpiece by mraudersmoon wolfstar with background jegulus

Of Lies and Cowards by ItsYlva

I'll keep you safe by Fenrir13 regulus gets chomped by grayback, here comes Werewolf Tutor Moony! This one is SO. GOOD.

Hogwarts Knows Better, Brother Knows Best by ItsYlva hogwarts and regulus prevent sirius suicide

Leaving And Growing Up by Engie_Ivy some fuckery gets explained and wolfstar is good to sail again

You’re Not On Your Own, Kid by rsbarelle

Mauvais jour de cheveux by Xo_flower Minnie McG can't deal with the black brothers' spats today. somebody has to, tho.

and the memories were lost long ago (but at least you have beautiful ghosts) by effing_potato (Kingdom01) ghost regulus helps remus destroy horcruxes, raise harry and clear sirius' name. very good.

Thinking Of You by aithusarosekiller regulus/remus

what is dead may never die by sisyphusss kreacher saves regulus and takes him to wolfstar

It Might Have Been A Nightmare by AQuietThinker sirius finds out about regulus' sacrifice

Nadir by Ceruleanembers regulus refuses to die

The Filth by ScreamingFae roseStarChaserKiller office sexy times

The Gryffindor Sweater by Trex_patronus in the afterlife, everyone makes fun out of REgulus for wearing Sirius' gryffindor sweater to the cave

tell them i was happy (and my heart is broken) by BlueSundayCake regulus dies for a bit but has to deal with the consequences of his own actions. unfair

 Thing Like Stars in the Dark by toliveinthesky reguulus survives the cave but he's pretty chomped on and bedridden on sirus and remus' sofa. and there's also the matter of his muggleborn french girlfriend who just found out he's been using a fake name the whole time...

Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy by TakeSwimmingLessons pretty much your typical regulus runs away to alphard jegulus ensues fic

Nothing Fades Like the Light by Rollercoasterwords 1980s cowboys zombie outbreak jegulus wolfstar au. the angst is real and so delicious, happy ending.

Ice by soliloquy_dawn too hot for sex jegulily smut

Declared False Start by Wanderingdonut swimmer regulus

Dial Drunk by Wanderingdonut modern times brotherly angst

Maybe This Time (alternatively: once more, with feeling!) by ghostregulusfest, Wanderingdonut this is AMAZEBALLS!!!!! REGULUS BOSSES THE INFERI AND STARTS A TRAVELLING ACTING COMPANY

Pretty boy by soliloquy_dawn jegulus smut ft top reg in skirt

Dance of the Bacchantes by soliloquy_dawn aboverse sexy times

A Life Like This by ImpishTubist sirius, james and remus said bye-bye to the war and lived peacefully ever after. 23 years later they find out that Sirius' parents did the nasty and got him a much much much younger younger brother, who then nearly single-handedly ended the war and now he's here and wants to make friends. age diff Jegulus

Some Things Never Change by JBlackMalfoyRosier PWP sirius/regulus

This Spark Of Black That I Seem To Love by JBlackMalfoyRosier jegulus, rosekiller, starcahserrosekiller, sexy times and also some plot?

Aftercare by JBlackMalfoyRosier Regulus comes home from his top surgery and his bfs make him feel better

What Master Wants by odysseushatepage Kreacher/REgulus crack

Kreacher's glow-up by fr0gfairy1 Kreacher/REgulus crack

Sweet Dreams Are Made of This by Anonymous Kreacher/regulus getting married

Professor Black (WIP) by CLBoden AU where Snape is replaced with REgulus, it changes some things mostly general attitude

birch trees loom by AllLivesMatter CRYING SCREAMING LYING ON THE FLOOR Avengers/HP crossover, from Avengers 1 to Endgame, Refulus is Black Widow, Evan is captain america James is the hulk ect ect, prepate tissues and selfcare supplies before going it ♥♥♥♥♥

in the boughs of the fir-tree by AllLivesMatter more Evan's POV of the above re: his and reg's unfullfilled potential

Hurtin’ by Bunny17 sad jegulus cuddles

Regulus Black's Dating Guide for Beginners by altaiswrites fake-date your crush to real-dating, by Regulus Black, Regulus/Severus

t Runs in the Family by altaiswrites uncle alphard visiting the black brothers

Inescapable, I'm not even gonna try (And if I get burned, at least we were electrified) by RegulusBlackKinnieBecauseITooFearWater remus sirus and james having consensual kinky fun with regulus PWP

beg for divinity (in my breath) by grimstars jegulus PWP

Cruel Winds by BlueSundayCake regulus recruits severus for horcrux hunting

Innocence by SkyFireForever

Crownless King   by SigynNightmare this was a good one

Shattered sanctuary by Coriaria *DE mission goes wrong* Refulus and Severus: well fuck. maybe lily will save our bollocks? I think it was a good one but it's been a month

Brighten the Dark by skeptique for onbeinganangel regulus is bakk and harry has hots for him

#fic rec #regulus black #tired ill do the rest later

[truthseeker-blogger]

My Faith is being tested again...first the deck collapse, then almost losing my husband during surgery, now a medical situation has occurred with my husband.

Moving in with friends in the 11th hour to be able to keep our beloved dog and cat.

Selling all we own to survive. Hubby going back to work and he's still not seeing an income because we owe back Blue Cross medical payments.

I had two job interviews today because the school year ends next week, and we have no other income.

So very grateful for the unselfishness of someone donating to us recently to try to stay afloat and meet our basic needs.

I am reaching deep into the Word of God to give me the strength I need. I feel like the modern version of Job.

Satan thinks I can be broken, but he is very, very wrong.

We are weak, but HE is strong.

@skippyv20 I know you are overwhelmed in your own life and still concern yourself with others, please if I may, please add us to your prayer list again?

Thank you ever so much! 🙏❤

[lendmyboyfriendahand]

more in my Silmaril Saga of Scholomance

The first problem is the people on horses pointing swords at them.

The second problem is that the language they speak is totally unfamiliar.

And the soldier-cosplayers don't speak English. Or Swahili, or Spanish, or any other language Elrond speaks.

(The third problem is that Elros has now picked up how to say "I'm sorry, we're very lost. Do you have a phone to call our parents?" in half a dozen languages. He hopes the Scholomance doesn't give him spells in all of them - though at least Elrond will be there to help him out.)

It's still very clear that the people with swords are suspicious of Elros and Elrond.

They initially gesture for the twins to dump their bags right there on the muddy path.

Elros mimes losing things in the grass, and then gestures at the castle. He gestures dumping the bags.

There's a bit of conversation among the people with swords, but they eventually nod, and agree that the twins can empty the bags at the castle.

It's not as good as getting to actually keep their possessions, but it gives them a chance of recovering the things they'll desperately need to survive.

(Although Elrond has never heard of an induction happening late. They might not get the Scholomance at all, just living with the Feanorians for four more years, hoping that they aren't such alluring bait for mals that Caranthir refuses to let them share a house with his son.)

(And it won't even help if their mother sends the Silmaril, in a house that's very well warded but far from the Void. They'll have the mana they earn, and as much protection as the Feanorians wish to give them. No more.)

Elrond and Elros continue up the hill, surrounded by strangers on horses pointing swords at them.

Elrond tries to be polite, and introduce himself. Even Amras had looked at Elrond less as dead weight when he started calling him by name, rather than just "one of Elwing's brats".

"Elrond." He taps his chest.

The nearest soldier laughs, but the leader looks tense.

Elrond hopes his name just sounds like a swear word in this language, not a threat or insult. He tries again. "Elrond, my name is Elrond. My brother's name is Elros." He taps Elros's chest, then points at the one who laughed - though he keeps his finger very firmly in his own personal space, far from the sword at the man's hip. "What's your name?"

"Cirmacin." And then the man shook his head and said a long sentence containing Elrond and Elros's names, and a sideways gesture that Elrond couldn't interpret but was unsettlingly near to the height of his neck.

If introducing himself was already leading to death threats, Elrond ought to keep quiet.

That just gave him more time to worry though. He tried sending messages to Elros through their rings, but then he stumbled and lost track of the dots and dashes.

Besides, there was no real way to plan, not until they knew why these people were so offended by them.

Elros's message of "Amish but older and swords" was one guess as to what was happening, but incomplete. Elrond had just replied "ears", as the idea of a cult eschewing all modern technology except plastic surgery was even stranger.

The walk to the castle was only a mile, but it took far too long. Especially as neither twin had eaten breakfast or drank water that morning.

Elrond tried etymologies to pass the time. Cirmacin didn't speak Latin, but maybe his name was in it? Or Greek?

He nearly fell over when he realized it. This man with a sword was named in the conlang that Feanor invented - named "sharp edge", even!

Had the Feanorians been teaching everyone except the twins their father's secret language? Including a band of historical reenactors with bad tempers? It made no sense!

Still, Elrond wanted his twin to know. "Name is Feanor's conlang."

Both Elrond and Elros spoke it, but Elros had studiously avoided the habit of guessing a word's root language. The number of loanwords in English made it too great a risk.

Elrond was not expecting his brother to act on the information, they just tried not to keep secrets, and two heads were better than one to figure out what was going on.

Elrond was certainly not expecting Elros to immediately ask, "I still intend to go to the castle, but can anyone understand me?" in the language the two of them had been told for years was as great a secret as the Silmaril itself.

Nor was he expecting the leader of the soldiers to draw his sword and command a halt in the same language.

"How long were you planning to keep the naive act up, little spies?"

#silm #silmaril saga of scholomance #kidnap dads #my fic #my writing #silmarillion #spoiler: the gesture at Elrond's neck height is not a threat the behead him #it's a reference to the height of the Elrond that Cirmacin knows already

[diet-comet-soda]

I sometimes think of a video I watched from a former cop, talking about the way even the “good” people going into the job are eventually conditioned to view human life as having weighted value, to view minorities and the unhoused and people suffering from addiction as being inherently worth less. To a degree, all civilians become lesser, their world becomes split into cops and non-cops, “sheep-dogs” and “sheep”. And then I look to what zionists say about Palestinians, a people undeniably undergoing—live on-camera—one of the most horrific occupations that a people can be put through. An entirely preventable genocide at the hands of the Israeli army funded by governments and the wealthy around the world. Thousands of people that seemingly have no qualms with what they're enabling, who don't see it as “that bad”.

And I think to myself, why was the human psyche even built to be capable of such dehumanization? What purpose can it possibly serve, when all my life I have only watched as it has wrought pain and destruction?

This isn't a new observation, but I guess it really is just a coping mechanism. It's a way to reserve our capacity to care and our energy to act, so we can focus it most on those who are dear to us or who are actually within our power to save. It is the same mechanism that causes proximity to often dictate our empathetic reaction stronger than logic, why we may risk our lives to save a stranger standing a few feet away from us in a fire, but may not donate a couple thousand dollars when asked to fund a stranger's life-saving surgery half a world away.

This prevents us from being exhausted by the world. It allows us to exist in the face of the sheer scale of human suffering, suffering that no individual could ever hope to stop or control on their own. From an evolutionary perspective, it is an instinct to protect our in-group from out-group members when resources are limited; if only some can survive, we want us and our loved ones to be the ones that do.

But we don't live in tiny little communities anymore. We're basically one global society now (or at least we have the potential to be). And our ability to produce the necessities of life has advanced to a point where it is almost completely feasible for every person to live a decent and well-provided-for life at no cost to another, if only we spread our wealth evenly and indiscriminately.

In this modern day world, this protective mechanism to dehumanize has molded into a dysfunction of the human condition. Now, the ability to separate and dissociate from other peoples has become the catalyst through which much of the death and destruction it blocks out is actually caused. What was once our shield against the cold unavoidable nature of often harsh reality, now is a sword that perpetuates its own necessity by creating that very “harsh reality” for which it is needed.

We can't purge this instinct from our minds entirely, it's simply not possible, it's built-in. And if you think you can, then you’re more than likely just ignorant to the ways you fall victim to it, which only makes you more susceptible. But the fact we can't totally overwrite it isn't an excuse to give into it either, to stop caring and choose to only ever fend for yourself.

Don't let it rule you. Don't let it make you forget what it means to be human.

Free Gaza. Free Palestine.

#acab #palestine #gaza #free palestine #free gaza #all eyes on rafah #save rafah #politics #giada says words

[reikiajakoiranruohoja]

PSN: Some parental HCs

Because I dig thinking of character backgrounds that include family lines, here's Loboto's dysfunctional family.

WARNING: Ableism in both literal and metaphorical senses, parental abuse and medical abuse. Discussions of dystopic countries and war.

Father: Dr Cesare Loboto- Cesare claims he comes from a well-established merchant family in Italy. Only one of those things is true. His family came from a small fishing village that has survived for generations despite everything else going around them. A big reason for this is a long line of hydrokinetic and zoolepathic psychics. Naturally, the Loboto family hails from this line, though Cesare's parents were already second-generation immigrants.

Cesare doesn't as much hate psychics as he considers their existence just a genetic malformation that modern science can fix. This mentality meant Cesare's family has cut nearly all ties to him, as they still remember the old stories and consider psychics a blessing.

For all his ignorance and cruelty, Cesare has many regrets regarding his son. He knows the lobotomy and the further surgeries all but destroyed Caligosto as a person. As much as Cesare tries to tell himself he did what he had to, he knows deep down that he is responsible for Caligosto becoming a monster.

Mother: Sylvia Loboto (nee. Gresache)- Sylvia's family emigrated to America soon after the Grulovian War. It was a desperate move to escape the Gzar's reign and the monster that he used as his attack dog. Grulovians already had a dim view of psychics but Lucrecia Mux was the last straw for many.

Sylvia grew up hearing horror stories from her mother. Of psychic monsters and of their loyalty to dictators.

As such, Sylvia does not have a son. She never had a son. The thing that walks around carrying her eye colour is nothing more than a demon that pretended to be her son until it was banished. It still tries to pretend to be her son, but Sylvia knows better. This is how she justifies to herself the mental disconnect between her sweet Caligosto and the monsters her mother told her about.

General HCs:

- Though Cesare did not put much resistance against the surgery, Sylvia was the one who pushed for it the most. She hoped her husband was right and it was just a malformation. When Caligosto did not improve but degraded, Sylvia concluded that a psychic was always going to be rotten to their core and could not change.

-If Cesare had been the sole parent, it is very likely he would have never even noticed Caligosto was a psychic, let alone sent him to the surgery. While he saw being a psychic as a flaw, he never feared them. This does not mean Caligosto would have had an easy time and would have likely been dumped into an orphanage. -Caligosto doesn't know much about his family history, nor has he met any relatives outside his parents. Though he has more important things to think about, he does at times ponder where he comes from. -Other psychics from the Loboto-line are running about on American soil and in Italy. Caligosto has somehow not run into any of them yet and they would not know he was related to them. -It should come as no surprise that most psychics of the Loboto-line are fishermen or sailors, though some are pirates or marine biologists. Historically, the family was often associated with privateers and whalers.

-  The Gresache line is essentially dead, Sylvia was her mother's only child and any relatives drowned in the Deluge. This means Sylvia clings to what her mother brought from Grulovia.

- A lot of Caligosto's anti-psychic mentality came from the time his maternal grandmother died and he helped his mother pack up her things. Sylvia spent hours just ranting about how awful psychics were. Caligosto did not connect the dots between his powers and the horrid psychics his mother spoke of until the spoon incident.

-Grulovia does not have any changeling myths, Sylvia is just deep in denial. Because Cesare cut off his family and was in turn cut off, she has no idea where the psychic blood came from.

#caligosto loboto #dr loboto #dadboto #momboto #psychonauts #medical abuse // #child abuse //

[demi-shoggoth]

2022 Reading Log pt. 21

101. The Rise and Reign of the Mammals by Steve Brusatte. This book covers mammalian evolution throughout synapsid history, starting in the Carboniferous and ending in the present day. There’s a lot of good information in here, both about the species themselves and the history of their discovery and discoverers. But I found the authorial voice consistently off-putting. Brusatte writes about evolution alternately like a war or a poker game, and there are constant references to dominating, beating or tricking other lineages, particularly dinosaurs. After crowing about how mammals survived and thrived in the Mesozoic by exploiting small body sizes and niches like eating seeds and insects, he dismisses all of bird evolution (which in the Cenozoic did the same thing) in a paragraph, and never talks about Cenozoic animals other than mammals at all. What’s weird is I don’t remember his previous book, The Rise and Fall of Dinosaurs, being so mercilessly jingoistic about its focus clade. Maybe the publisher told him to write more enthusiastically about a “less exciting” group; maybe it’s the zeal of the newly converted (Brusatte was primarily a dinosaur paleontologist until relatively recently); maybe the first book was this annoyingly written and I have forgotten.

102. The Accidental Ecosystem by Peter S. Alagona. This book is a short overview about how wild animals have moved into American cities, why American cities developed into places where animals can thrive, how humans are reacting to these and how we should in the future. The tone is generally optimistic but realistic—that cities can serve as oases of biodiversity during climate change and extinction events, but a world with only rats, crows and sparrows would be a depauperate one. Most of the book is organized around an incident of some charismatic megafauna making the news (like Pedals the bipedal bear of New Jersey, or a nesting pair of bald eagles blithely feeding their chicks fresh kitten), and then talking about that species in greater context. I’ve read several other books recently about human/animal interactions, and this one did the best job at being inclusive, talking about how parks can and have been used as agents of gentrification, the impact of economic decisions on the fate of cities and animals alike, and existing biases within ecology and evolutionary studies. Highly recommended.

103. Travels to the Otherworld and other Fantastic Realms, edited by Claude and Corinne Lecouteux, translated by Jon E. Graham. This is a collection of medieval European fantastic literature, although not all of it is necessarily fantasy in the modern sense. Some are religious visions, others historical fantasies, others excerpts from novels and folk tales. All of them are wild. Both as a look into the medieval mindset and for their various bizarre creatures and occurrences. Some highlights include multiple versions of the adventures of Alexander the Great, the Vision of Tundale, a German journey through Hell that’s much gnarlier than anything in Dante, and the adventures of Marcolf, the Sherlock Holmes to King Solomon’s Watson (!). Also highly recommended; this might be the most fun I’ve had with a book this year.

104. Empire of the Scalpel: The History of Surgery by Ira Rutkow. Just what it says on the cover. The book starts with trepanations of cavemen and progresses to the modern era. Rutkow follows the Great Man school of history, and many of the chapters are biographical sketches of a surgeon who was important in developing the field. It feels somewhat incomplete—not only are non-surgical advances in medicine basically ignored, the development of the modern American insurance state is glossed over, even as the book discusses how hospitals became prestigious institutions and surgeons very wealthy. The book also uses weird kennings, as if it were written by an Icelandic skald—surgeons are “scalpel wielders” or “students of the knife”, etc, as often as they’re just surgeons. I definitely learned stuff from this book (like the quack “orifical surgery”, which posed that all diseases could be cured by cutting out irregular shapes from the mouth, nose, anus and genital openings!), but found the book rather less than the sum of its parts.

105. Monster Anthropology, edited by Yasmine Musharbash and GH Presterudstuen. This is a collection of academic essays about monsters as cultural signifiers and participants. After a very good introduction (the Works Cited of which will keep me busy a long while), the bulk of the book looks at particular cultures and particular monsters. The book was published in Australia, and several of the essays are on the same group of Indigenous Australians, the Warlpiri, and their monsters (most of which have not penetrated Western consciousness, but the pankarlangu is starting to make some inroads). One minor note I found interesting—there’s an actual folkloric monster that fits the D&D concept of a rakshasa! The tepun of the Eastern Penan people in Borneo is a shapeshifting hedonist that has aspects of humans and tigers.

106. Scent: A Natural History of Fragrance by Elise Vernon Pearlstine. Gave up on 50 pages in. The book purports to be a natural history—what molecules are made by what plants, why, and how those plants live. The actual contents contain some of that, but much more cultural histories. I’ve read and enjoyed several books about the cultural history of plants recently, so I’m not inherently opposed to the concept. But the book is incredibly poorly organized. The narrative skips back and forth through time and space and species, words are used and then defined several pages later as if it’s the first time we’re seeing them, concepts will be repeated multiple times to the point of redundancy, and the preface and introduction contain the exact same sentences, twice! The fact that this book was published in this state is frankly embarrassing.

#reading log #bad books #botany #cultural history #paleontology #stem mammals #prehistoric mammals #anthropology #monster books #surgery #medical history #european folklore #medieval folklore #ecology #urban ecology

[solciencialuna]

Why French Bulldogs (and Their Owners) Are the Worst: A Rant

"So not only are overall health, quality of life, and mobility sacrificed to get these modern marvels distinctive enough to flatter the owner’s self-image and impress passersby, so is the ability to behave as real dogs. Deduct right off the top the many weeks or months the French and English bulls that I, personally, have known to spend in ICU isolation attached to oxygen tanks for pneumonia. Add the very common multiple surgeries to correct their show-standard mouths, noses, eyes, skin, legs, and spines. Then add the recovery time, assuming there will be full recovery in immunocompromised breeds prone to infections, and not much is left for getting to know other dogs and learning basic social skills. Disabled pets may help improve their owners’ social chances, but they’re dealt a bum hand for dealing with their own kind. Poor performance in puppy mixer groups is par for the course."

"Assuming Frenchies survive puppyhood — and the owners don’t dump them — they’ll never be able to use normal body language to communicate with other dogs because their bodies are so warped. “Correct” appearance as per their breed standard may say something about the owners’ financial condition and discriminating taste, but those weird alien eyes, the frozen glare and exposed teeth, the endless coughing, wheezing, and cartoon gurgling that fans find so cute and entertaining, give other dogs they pass on sidewalks good reason to be alarmed and on their guard. Nature’s basic repertoire of expressions and vocalizations has been perverted by human meddling, and if the owners aren’t smart enough to know the gene pool is being threatened by these weak and tragic specimens, other dogs are. Humped backs distort posture and intent. Dwarfed legs prevent play bowing and invite aggression. Short curly tails can’t wag or warn to signal as they should. Deliberate mutations multiply misunderstandings and explain the constant brawls Frenchies are famous for getting into at the local dog park, even amongst each other because they’re startled by what they see in the mirror."

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