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600 results for “skillmill”
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DAZZLINGLY WITTY AND BLEAK Spanish novel of office work and its bleakness skillfully threads the needle between bitter satire and farce. Smart, funny, sour protagonist is both a chaos goblin and a sharp, dispassionate observer of modern life. A MINUS
https://bookshop.org/p/books/discontent-beatriz-serrano/22148740?ean=9798217006762&next=t
#book #Books #bookreview #bookreviews #fiction #novel #novels #satire #Madrid #Spain #Spanishwriters
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DAZZLINGLY WITTY AND BLEAK Spanish novel of office work and its bleakness skillfully threads the needle between bitter satire and farce. Smart, funny, sour protagonist is both a chaos goblin and a sharp, dispassionate observer of modern life. A MINUS
https://bookshop.org/p/books/discontent-beatriz-serrano/22148740?ean=9798217006762&next=t
#book #Books #bookreview #bookreviews #fiction #novel #novels #satire #Madrid #Spain #Spanishwriters
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DAZZLINGLY WITTY AND BLEAK Spanish novel of office work and its bleakness skillfully threads the needle between bitter satire and farce. Smart, funny, sour protagonist is both a chaos goblin and a sharp, dispassionate observer of modern life. A MINUS
https://bookshop.org/p/books/discontent-beatriz-serrano/22148740?ean=9798217006762&next=t
#book #Books #bookreview #bookreviews #fiction #novel #novels #satire #Madrid #Spain #Spanishwriters
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DAZZLINGLY WITTY AND BLEAK Spanish novel of office work and its bleakness skillfully threads the needle between bitter satire and farce. Smart, funny, sour protagonist is both a chaos goblin and a sharp, dispassionate observer of modern life. A MINUS
https://bookshop.org/p/books/discontent-beatriz-serrano/22148740?ean=9798217006762&next=t
#book #Books #bookreview #bookreviews #fiction #novel #novels #satire #Madrid #Spain #Spanishwriters
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DAZZLINGLY WITTY AND BLEAK Spanish novel of office work and its bleakness skillfully threads the needle between bitter satire and farce. Smart, funny, sour protagonist is both a chaos goblin and a sharp, dispassionate observer of modern life. A MINUS
https://bookshop.org/p/books/discontent-beatriz-serrano/22148740?ean=9798217006762&next=t
#book #Books #bookreview #bookreviews #fiction #novel #novels #satire #Madrid #Spain #Spanishwriters
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‘D’Orc’ #4 skillfully dismantles fantasy tropes with heart, humor, and gore
A showcase of everything that’s made this series a standout.
https://aiptcomics.com/2026/05/12/dorc-4-review/ -
‘D’Orc’ #4 skillfully dismantles fantasy tropes with heart, humor, and gore
A showcase of everything that’s made this series a standout.
https://aiptcomics.com/2026/05/12/dorc-4-review/ -
‘D’Orc’ #4 skillfully dismantles fantasy tropes with heart, humor, and gore
A showcase of everything that’s made this series a standout.
https://aiptcomics.com/2026/05/12/dorc-4-review/ -
‘D’Orc’ #4 skillfully dismantles fantasy tropes with heart, humor, and gore
A showcase of everything that’s made this series a standout.
https://aiptcomics.com/2026/05/12/dorc-4-review/ -
Redemption in Leith: the thread about HMS Cossack
The neat, well kept war graves at Seafield Cemetery include 5 men from the destroyer HMS Cossack, who lost their lives in an accident at sea on November 7th 1939, when their ship collided with the Leith steamer Borthwick off the Isle of May.
Grave marker stones for Roy Popple and Thomas C. Richmond © SelfGrave marker stones for William. H. Clarke and Stanley Cowan © SelfFour of the war grave headstones for men of HMS Cossack at Seafield cemetery in Leith. Photos © SelfThe protagonists in this accident were the Cossack, one of the Navy’s big, new “Tribal class” destroyers: two and a half thousand tons of guns and torpedoes which could cut through the sea at 36 knots (over 40mph).
Brand new, the Cossack in 1938. This photograph FL 1657 comes from the collections of the Imperial War MuseumsThe other was the George Gibson & Co. steamer Borthwick, a ship built and owned in Leith which plied the North Sea on the Antwerp and Rotterdam route. She was much smaller than the big warship’,; over 100 feet shorter, about 1/4 her displacement and barely capable of double digit speeds on her single steam engine which had an output 1/300th of that of Cossack.
The Borthwick. Like many George Gibson ships she was named after connections to the works of Walter Scott and the LothiansIt was a dark winter night on the Firth of Forth and ships were showing only the bare minimum of navigation lights. The Borthwick and Cossack were on a parallel course, heading east off the Isle of May, with the destroyer overtaking the little steamer when, for reasons of his own, Captain Daniel De Pass of the Cossack turned across the path of Borthwick. De Pass had a bit of a reputation for poor seamanship, having done something like this before on pre-war exercises. The outcome was inevitable, the bows of the Borthwick cutting into the side of Cossack, right into the seamen’s mess where the men were just sitting down to dinner. Three men died where they sat. Able Seaman Heatherley and Ordinary Seaman Clarke were pulled into the cold, dark North Sea as the water rushed in to their compartment, never to be seen again. Three more men were seriously injured (Ordinary Seaman Clifford Harmer would be invalided out of the Navy with a hand injury) and those in the mess below were trapped for an hour, up to their necks in water. Their ship limped back to Leith for extensive repairs, the men boarded in the Seamen’s Mission. In an interview in 2005, a survivor – Trevor Tipping – pointed out the steel plate of the ship was only 3/8 inch thick and “folded back, like a sardine tin” when the collision happened.
The Seamen’s Mission on the Shore in LeithThe repairs – by Leith shipyard Henry Robb – took almost 2 months and cost £11,250 (£504k in 2023). Captain De Pass faced a Board of Inquiry, which put him 75% at fault. He was court martialled, relieved of his command and posted away elsewhere before taking retirement. His replacement was the dashing yet thoroughly competent Captain Philip Vian.
Sir Phillip Vian (1894-1968), by Oswald Birley, from the Britannia Royal Naval CollegeThe men of Cossack, cooling their heels in Leith while their ship was repaired, raised a subscription to fund a memorial stoner to their lost shipmates out of their own pockets. It was erected in Seafield cemetery, and is situated by the Cossack war graves.
Memorial for the men lost on HMS Cossack in Seafield Cemetery. Photo © SelfThe Borthwick was patched up and soon back on the dangerous Leith to Holland route. She was sunk 4 months later – on March 9th 1940 – by the German submarine U-14 off the River Scheldt, on her way home from Rotterdam to Leith. All 21 on board survived and were picked up. The newspapers celebrated on 11th March when news reached home that the men of the Borthwick had all been landed safely in Flushing.
Captain Simpson (right) and Chief Officer Jeffrey (left) of the Borthwick, on their return home after being sunkCossack did not leave Leith until 10th January, but was back 3 days later for more repairs after an embarrassing – but fortunately minor – collision with the cable laying ship Royal Scot in Leith Roads. She left again, returning to the 4th Destroyer Flotilla with Captain Vian now installed in command. But she wouldn’t be gone long and would return with the month. This time should would be an international hero, the victor of the daring “Altmark Incident“, a swashbuckling tale that can always do with retelling.
On the face of it, Altmark was a humble German merchant ship. In reality, she was a supply tanker for the Kriegsmarine – the German Navy – and had on board almost 300 British and Allied prisoners, merchant seamen whose ships had been sunk by the “pocket battleship” commerce raider Admiral Graf Spee in the South Atlantic.
A photo of the Altmark in Jøssingfjord , Norway.The Graf Spee had been scuttled just off Montevideo after the Royal Navy had cornered her into a fight in the Battle of the River Plate on December 17th – while Cossack was laid up in a Leith drydock undergoing repairs. Before the battle she had transferred most of her prisoners to her supply ship, which was heading back to Germany. Conditions on board caused the British press to call her a “hell ship” and a “floating concentration camp“.
Admiral Graf Spee shortly after her scuttling. Toronto Telegram collection, via. University of York, Canada.Captain Dau of the Altmark intended to sneak back home by hugging the coasts of the (then) neutral Greenland, Iceland and Norway. He had almost made it when, on Feb. 15th, reconnaissance aircraft out of RAF Leuchars spotted her in Norwegian waters off Bergen. The British destroyers HMS Ivanhoe and Intrepid from Vian’s squadron made to board her but the Altmark sought refuge in the safety of Jøssingfjord. The Royal Navy could only look on as the German ship was escorted into the fjord by the Norwegian Navy, who politely but firmly affirmed their neutrality and turned the British ships around.
HMS Intrepid attempting to board Altmark as it runs for the sanctuary of JøssingfjordCaptain Vian, as commander of the squadron, made contact with the ancient Norwegian gunboat Kjell but was asshured that the Norwegian had searched the Altmark, that all was in order and it was a simple German merchant ship and not an armed, Kriegsmarine prison ship. Vian knew this was rubbish, but had no option but to retreat a respectful distance and to signal the Admiralty for orders.
Norwegian navy gunboat Kjell, around the time of the Altmark IncidentFurther reconnaissance flights by the Royal Air Force confirmed that the Altmark was safely holed up right at the end of Jøssingfjord. Meanwhile, Vian’s signal found its way to the desk of the First Lord of the Admiralty, a man who had a reputation for sticking his oar in to operational matters and trying to direct operations from Whitehall. You might be familiar with his name, it was Winston Churchill.
Aerial photo of Altmark in Jøssingfjord.Photograph CS 24 from the collection of the Imperial War MuseumsChurchill sent Vian a signal telling him that if the Altmark wasn’t escorted to Bergen for inspection under a joint Anglo-Norwegian guard, he was to board her and free the prisoners, that he had permission to use lethal force in order to do so and that he was to politely but firmly make sure the Royal Norwegian Navy butted out of matters. This was a blatant violation of Norwegian neutrality of course, but there was not a lot the little old gunboat Kjell could do to stop the Cossack beyond yell at her – Vian had permission to fire on her if they fired first, but to stop when they stopped.
And so Vian was set on a course of action and turned his ship around, entering the mouth of Jøssingfjord at 2200 hours on February 16th 1940. He once more went on board the Kjell, this time to give her Captain the ultimatum to either escort the Altmark to Bergen with him, or step aside. When he declined, Vian invited him aboard the Cossack for a grandstand view of what was about to follow, but again he declined. On board the Altmark, Captain Dau saw the threatening shape of the destroyer looming down the Fjord towards him. At first he made to ram her, but instead ended up running his ship aground instead. He next tried to dazzle the Cossack with his searchlight, but the British ship was brought skillfully alongside and in true Nelsonian fashion, a party of 2 officers and 30 men leapt across the gap and boarded the German ship. Legend has it that 4 cutlasses, kept on board for ceremonial purposes, were carried by the boarding party. If true, it would be the last boarding action in which such a weapon was known to be used in anger.
Painting of the boarding of the Altmark by Charles PearsThere was a brief skirmish on board but the German crew were soon overpowered. Just as things were almost over however, a German sailor fired at and injured a British sailor, and for his trouble 9 of his shipmates were shot and wounded in the return fire; 4 died and a further 4 were fatally wounded. Having taken the Altmark, the boarders now combed the ship looking for the captives they knew were held somewhere within. One sailor called “Any Englishmen in there?” into a dark hold and on hearing a cheer replied the immortal words “The Navy’s here! Come up out of it!“
Book cover, “The Navy’s Here” by Frischauer & JacksonLess than two hours after she first entered the fjord, Vian’s ship was on her way out again with 299 freed prisoners on board (including one, an Indian seaman, suffering from Leprosy). She plotted a course for Leith and set off for home at top speed. The Cossack had last entered Leith with a cloud hanging over her reputation, but on her return on February 17th she did so triumphantly. The press cameras were assembled and waiting to welcome her back and to make the most out of this propaganda opportunity.
HMS Cossack coming alongside in Leith, with some of the Altmark prisoners aboardAmbulances were ready and waiting to take the injured away to hospital while the newsreel cameras rolled.
Cossack at Leith, with assembled crowds and waiting ambulancesIt was a rare bit of good news so early in the war, so reporting restrictions were not observed. The Scotsman carried a full page spread of photos. Many of those pictured coming ashore had lost all their possessions, some had been prisoners for almost 6 months and their families had no word of what had become of them. For weeks the papers were full of stories of reunions and heroes welcomes.
The former prisoners of the Altmark coming ashore at Leith. Pictures from The Scotsman, 19th February 1940The Dundee Courier and Advertiser printed a picture of some 1940s medical care, with a nurse at Leith Hospital lighting a recuperative cigarette for Third Officer Leslie Ross of the ship Huntsman. 250 of the his companions were sent to the Eastern General Hospital in Leith for attention, with officials from the City and the Shipwrecked Mariner’s Society on hand to sort out replacement clothing, papers, money, cigarettes etc. and arrange lodging and travel. The sailor who had been suffering from Leprosy was taken to the Infectious Diseases Hospital (the “City Hospital”).
Leslie Ross in a Leith hospital, Dundee Courier, Monday 19th February 1940In Stornoway, the Daily Record interviewed the 75 year old Elizabeth Mackenzie of Newton Street, who had not heard from her merchant seaman son – Donald Morrison – for over a year. She was making a public appeal for his whereabouts, he had last written to her over a year ago and was last known to be on the SS Newton Beech: that ship had been sunk by the Graf Spee on 5th October 1939. “I have been very worried because I am going blind, and I am living here with a brother who is over 80” she told the reporter. “I haven’t many friends, but the Lord is my friend, and that is enough.” The happy news about the safety of her son was soon brought to her by Donald Macleod, another Leodsach sailor who had been with him on the Altmark. “It is good news my boy is safe” she told the Record. Donald Murdo Macleod of Tolsta Chaolais had been on the SS Tairoa which had been intercepted by the Graf Spee in the middle of the South Atlantic on December 2nd 1939. Tairoa had been the penultimate victim of the German raider, and had managed to transmit a distress signal that eventually allowed the the Royal Navy to catch up with her assailant.
The crew of the Newton Beech rowing away from their abandoned ship towards imprisonment on the Graf SpeeDonald Morrison however seemed reluctant to return home and instead went to Hull, telling Macleod to let his mother know he “might go home later“. Instead he went back to sea. It seems the whole experience may have left an indelible mark on him and changed his character. He forfeited bail of £1 in Buckhaven on a charge of drunkeness in February 1941. He was soon in trouble again for going absent from his ship. In May 1941 he was hauled before the Lord Mayor of Portsmouth at the Police Court there, again for deserting a ship. Morrison could offer no explanation for being 31 hours overdue and potentially making his ship miss its convoy, beyond “I just had a good time, that is all“. The Master had dismissed him but told the court he was of good character and had been through “unpleasant experiences” and would gladly take him back again. It turned out Morrison had another ship sunk from underneath him recently and had once again lost all his papers and possessions. The Lord Mayor fined him £5 (half a month’s wages) and allowed him to return to his ship on account of his value to the war effort. He won’t have been the only merchant sailor in the War in the Atlantic to have an experience such as this, and in retrospect we can understand his reluctance to return to his ship and potential death and to want to have one more night of fun on earth…
Back in Leith, the Fife Free Press reported that the Altmark Incident was commemorated with the gift of £500 to the Leith Hospital by an anonymous benefactor on the condition that a bed be dedicated to HMS Cossack for rescuing the prisoners. For his “outstanding ability, determination and resource” and “for daring, leadership and masterly handling of his ship“, Captain Vian received the Distinguished Service Order medal and was promoted off of Cossack in July 1941. He would go on to have a glittering wartime career, and would retire in 1952 as Admiral of the Fleet. Cossack had an eventful 18 months after the Altmark, taking part in the 2nd Battle of Narvik and the hunt for the German Battleship Bismarck
The ship’s luck would soon run out however and she was torpedoed and sunk in October 1941 by the German submarine U-563, west of Gibraltar. In November 1941, the Edinburgh Evening News reported that three local men were missing, presumed killed, from her:
- Petty Officer Alexander Burton Colthart, 22, 20 India Place
- Petty Officer Douglas Maurice Gammack, 32 Parsons Green Terrace
- Assistant Cook Robert “Sonny” O’Hara, 23, 205 Crewe Road North
Her cat, Oskar, survived this sinking: legend has it that he had been the ship’s cat on the Bismarck and was plucked from the Atlantic by Cossack after her sinking. His name was said to have been derived from the code letter for “O” (with a German spelling) which was used to mean “man overboard“. Further legend has it that after surviving the loss of his second home he went on to serve on HMS Ark Royal and survived her sinking also. The whole thing was probably just a sailor’s yarn but Unsinkable Sam has garnered a cult following on the internet: you will find Facebook pages, pop history articles, Youtube videos and even computer game cameos in his memory.
Ship’s cat Oskar, or Unsinkable Sam.Note to readers: unfortunately in April 2026, a third-party plug-in more than exceeded its authority and broke many of the image links on this site. No images were lost but I will have to restore them page-by-page, which may take some time. In the meantime please bear with me while I go about rectifying this issue.
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#Lochend #Logan #Restalrig #StMargaret -
Others, Otherness, Othering
Who are the others who live in the townships just up the road? Who are they who buy luxury penthouses jutting over the ocean? Who are the others who crawl the water pipes at night? Who are they who sip champagne from a five-star hotel patio at sunset? Who are the others who lick takeaway containers thrown in gutters? Who are they who order designer sneakers from abroad?
I have seen others with large kind eyes, wild demented eyes and skillfully made-up eyes. I have seen others with scars and rashes who scramble into bushes at dusk. And those who saunter, hips swinging, heels clicking, along main road pavements just for show.
Who are the others? Why are some people ‘the other’ who eat from trash bins? Why are some people the ‘others’ who fly in jet planes to luxury destinations? Why was I born me, he was born he and she was born she? Why is my skin light and your skin dark?
The Other and Apartheid
I remember growing up during Apartheid. I could roam freely, safely, across the open veld, into the huge tunnels under the main roads, along the railway lines and into the pine forests. A Zulu woman worked for us, cleaning our house. She lived over the hill, in a completely different vicinity. Flora was ‘the other’, a stranger in our home. I was so naïve.
The Ethics Centre explains it like this:
The Other is a term used to capture the ways other people are different from us. It’s also used to describe the people who we keep distant from us because we decide they’re not like us. The process of Othering occurs when we turn fellow humans into abstract entities we can distance ourselves from or treat as less-than-human.
For Flora, we were ‘the other’, too. We had a large house with a large garden, hot water, electricity and cupboards full of food. During Apartheid, the process of “Othering” was exacerbated by a system that classified all South Africans into four racial categories: White, Black (Bantu), Coloured (mixed race), and Indian/Asian. Here, the Other was treated as “not me” or “not us,” often viewed as inferior or threatening to the in-group.
Opposites Attract
Zygmunt Bauman suggests that the idea of otherness is essential to the way in which society creates categories of identity. He argues that identities are structured as a division or contrast between two things that are represented as being entirely different.
‘Woman is the other of man, animal is the other of human, stranger is the other of native, abnormality the other of norm, deviation the other of law- abiding, illness the other of health, insanity the other of reason, lay public the other of the expert, foreigner the other of state subject, enemy the other of friend. ‘This reminds me of the Yin and Yang of life. The incessant attraction and repulsion of forces we live with every minute of every day. Think about black and white, male and female, day and night, summer and winter, high tide and low tide, fatigue and energy, sun and moon. One cannot exist without the other. They flow in and out, infinitely, from soft to hard, the calm to the storm. Without depression, we would not experience joy.
Think about it: “No matter what you do, there will always be a dark and light side to it. The hard truth is that you are only pretty because someone else is considered ugly, you’re only rich because someone else is poor. Because without the opposites, there is nothing that can establish your hierarchy in this world. At any time, the black can become white and the white can become black. Hope can become despair and despair can become hope. Just like how if you keep traveling east, you will eventually arrive at the west. “
Thinking about Others
Philosopher Simone de Beauvoir believed that “Otherness is a basic category of human thought”. You are who you think you are. When you compare yourself to others, you are entrenching your ego in a world full of diverse humans. Thoughts and opinions can make or break us. Yet, they are far from real. Think about the last time you travelled to another country. You were a foreigner entering someone else’s native land – you saw them as ‘the other’, and they perceived you as ‘the other’. Think about how wars start and how couples divorce.
As soon as we think about what something is, we think about the opposite – the Other. We tend to place ourselves in context according to those around us. This helps us to define who we are at any given time. However, natural or not, Othering isn’t a neutral process – it tends to lead to the mistreatment of the people we decide are Other.
We see it playing out every day in our worlds – your world, my world, the others’ worlds. On the bus, the train, in the traffic and in the coffee shops. On the sidewalks, at work and in the gym. Keep it to yourself if you regard someone as different from you. Count your blessings that you are indeed different! Amen!
Who ARE the Others?
I know people who live in the townships just up the road. I don’t know people who buy luxury penthouses jutting over the ocean. I often see people who lick takeaway containers thrown in gutters? And I see people wearing designer sneakers from abroad. Like me, you too have seen it all. Maybe I have passed you on my morning walks? Maybe you have met my eye in your rags, or was that you in the Porsche spinning by?
Have you ever wondered why you are you and not me? When I see green do you see it too or do you see blue? Have you ever noticed how many of ‘you’ there are? The ‘you’ that greets your mother, the ‘you’ that drinks coffee with your friends and the ‘you’ that meets with colleagues in a boardroom. So, who ARE the others?
The pursuit of otherness, the sense that we are somehow different than our brothers and sisters, no matter where we find them, allows for all the other great evils: racism, sexism, homophobia, violence against gay people and against women – Anna Quindlen
#bias #differences #life #othering #others #philosophy #self -
Siitä onkin jo kauan kun olen viimeksi nähnyt oikean suden - villisuden näkeminen ja kuvaaminen on toki vieläkin yksi toiveeni, mutta kuitenkin pääsin harmaaturkin voimaan Ranuan eläinpuiston vierailulla tänään 🐺❄️
Lumituisku tulikin hieman yllättäen reissuun mukaan, kameran huurustuva linssi toikin pikku haasteen mukaan ja lepäilevät sudetkin saivat pikkuhiljaa lumipeiton päälleen - kun yksi niistä alkoi heräilemään ja nousi jaloilleen, sen selästä tipahteli isoja lumipaakkuja ja sen olikin ravisteltava huolella turkkiaan ❄️
Puistossa oli korppipariskunta joista toinen raakkui minulle, mutta myös villejä korppeja lenteli paljon susien aitauksessa ja niistä sainkin napattua vihdoin viimein toivomiani lumisia kuvia (vaikka ei ehkä ihan erämaassa olleita korppeja, mutta ehkä tämä kuitenkin lasketaan yhden luontokuvahaaveen toteutumiseksi 😃).
Susien käyttäytymistä oli myös mielenkiintoista seurata ja sitä miten ne ilmaisivat sosiaalisia suhteitaan ja mielialojaan monivivahteisella elekielellään.
Lopulta katsoin yhtä sutta silmästä silmään kun se juoksi suoraan kävelysillan alapuolelta ja katsoi ruskeilla silmillään ylöspäin minua - suden katseessa on jotain mystistä mikä ainakin minulle tuntuu uppoutuvan suoraan ytimeen ja se hetki näkyy kolmannessa kuvassa 🐺❄️ -
"A Thrush and a Moth on an Orchid Branch," Shaikh Zain al-Din, 1778.
Almost nothing is known of Zain al-Din as a person, except he (presumedly a he) flourished from 1777-82. He moved from the city of Patna, India, to Calcutta, at the behest of Mary Impey, the wife of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Calcutta. (This was all while India was under British rule; the infamous days of the Raj.) She had quite a collection of native plants and animals in her private menagerie, and hired a number of local artists to paint them.
Zain al-Din's work is the best known; he skillfully combined the stylings of the Patna Qalam style of Mughal India with traditional Western European styles, creating what is now called the Company Style, which is very Western at a glance but still carries a unique sense of India to it. He signed his work in Persian, maintaining his Mughal identity in the face of colonialism; a small act of rebellion.
It's a crying shame we don't know more about him; he had a meticulous eye for detail, and worked with great precision. Obviously he was enormously talented and a diligent artist. But alas, the degradations of colonialism....
Happy Flower Friday!
From the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
#Art #ShaikhZainAl_Din #MughalArt #FlowerFriday #CompanyStyle #Colonialism #ArtOfTheRaj
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@dedalusroot I just finished my first campaign of Arcs and I agree. I'm pretty sure the campaign is a good and interesting game, but the number of times I would have to play it before I understood both its rules and all the Fates rules and could start playing it skillfully... I don't see myself having that time to devote to it.
I'm currently considering selling the expansion and just keeping the base game.
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@dedalusroot I just finished my first campaign of Arcs and I agree. I'm pretty sure the campaign is a good and interesting game, but the number of times I would have to play it before I understood both its rules and all the Fates rules and could start playing it skillfully... I don't see myself having that time to devote to it.
I'm currently considering selling the expansion and just keeping the base game.
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@dedalusroot I just finished my first campaign of Arcs and I agree. I'm pretty sure the campaign is a good and interesting game, but the number of times I would have to play it before I understood both its rules and all the Fates rules and could start playing it skillfully... I don't see myself having that time to devote to it.
I'm currently considering selling the expansion and just keeping the base game.
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‘Smile 2’ Review: A Skillfully Disquieting Sequel Turns the Life of a Pop Star Into a Horror Ride of Mental Breakdown
#Variety #Reviews #NaomiScott #Smile2https://variety.com/2024/film/reviews/smile-2-review-naomi-scott-1236178126/
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What happens if we allow the color component to #diffuse out of the #MonaLisa?
In this experiment, the #pixels of the Mona Lisa supply us with initial #RGB color component values, ranging from 0 to 255 (256 possible states for each component, for each pixel, at time t = 0).
We then allow the red color component to diffuse out, according to the #HeatEquation, ∆u = ∂u/∂t; we step forward in time, solving for all color component values u, at each spatial location (x, y) in the painting 🖼 (along the edges of the painting, color components are held constant, so that we have a well-defined boundary value problem).
We can see here what happens to the image as the red component diffuses out.
Enjoy!
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#raivosyötit #hajoita&hallitse #konservatiivit #fasismi
Hajoita&Hallitse! mentaliteetilla provosoidaan somessa valtavasti.
Iltapäivälehdistö ja kaikenmaailman 7-päivää roskalehdet, lukemattomat somefoorumit ja sovellukset täynnä sitä itseään 💩Vaikka vitutus sinällään kuuluu elämään, suuttuminen epäkohtien takia on suotavaa, niin internet on tuonut silmillemme raivo-tsunameita ja ihan liian moni nielee niin koulun kuin kohonkin kun heitä kalastellaan ja hallitaan raivosyöteillä.
☯️ Eihän se mihinkään johda että vain hiiltyy, epäkohdille kun voi tehdäkkin usein paljon silloin kun ne on ihmisten aiheuttamia. Ihmisethän vain voivat muuttaa ihmisten aikaansaannoksia.
Ääriliikkeet ratsastavat raivostuttamillaan..
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#BookReview The Piazza Murders by Michael Jecks (out 1st July)
The third instalment of The Art of Murder is out on 1st of July and takes you to Italy.
Nick Morris is an artist and amateur sleuth. This time he goes to Italy to teach a course to a group of people that decided to take the art retreat. Of course, there are murders, which Morris starts to investigate. At the same time there is a literary festival in the city with authors and publicists getting involved, meaning that you get themes about books, publishers, and publishing industry, which I never say no to 🙂 (you also get themes about pens, drawing, painting, as expected :-)).
Each of the people in the art group is different and has their own story, specific situation, reasons for being there, and I liked the way we get to know them throughout the first part.
I found the descriptions of the place and Italian atmosphere (monuments, buildings, cafes, streets) stunning. I was quite impressed how easy it was to imerse myself into the place, and in this sense it was perfect for an “escapism reading” which I love.
It was a quick read, I wanted to know what would happen next and there are several twists and turns, including one of my favorites: when a character views a certain situation in a certain angle and we, the readers, start to suspect it is exactly the opposite and makes us want to warn/tell that character. I always find this type of scene quite satisfying in a book, maybe because it’s a time when we know a little more than the characters? I didn’t guess the murderer, though, which is good. Although, now that I think of it, the author gives you a hint in the beginning, but skillfully turns you away from it 🙂
Albeit in a series, I think the book reads as a standalone. It also made me want to read the first two, it seeems the second in the series has a manor house in the English countryside, which is one of my favorite settings for murder.
Michael Jecks is a member of The Detection Club and you can check his website for info on his other books here, he also has a YouTube channel, where he talks about his books, but also about all forms of stationery, and which I really recommend following.
The Piazza Murders is published by Severn House and it will be out on 1st of July.
(I got an ARC from NetGalley).
#BookReview #BookReviews #BookLook #books #CrimeFiction #DetectiveFiction #fiction #ItalianSetting #Italy #MichaelJecks #Mystery #NewBook #readings #TheArtOfMurder
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1/X Katellaaskin nyt, missä #Orpo n #Nollatoleranssi on, kun #AtteKaleva twiittannut, että #niqab ia tai #burkha a käyttävät tulisi lähettää pois maasta, koska kadulla pitää kulkea niin, että kasvot näkyvät.
Mitenhän #Kaleva ajatteli toimia kaikkien meidän suhteen, jotka talvella kuljemme pipo silmillä ja kaulaliina yli nenän vedettynä? Pois maasta, niinkö?
#rasismi #syrjintä #kokoomus #hallitus #sinimustahallitus #laitaoikeistohallitus #politiikka #yhteiskunta
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Dawn of a Dark Age – Ver Sacrum Review By Grin ReaperAs 2025 winds to a close, the depleted promo pit growls with hunger, eager for the new year and a fresh bucket o’ chum.1 As I sift through the meager mid-December hopefuls, I detect a flash of black and silver. Snatching the promo, I discover clarinet-wielding Vittorio Sabelli and his project Dawn of a Dark Age, along with ninth album Ver Sacrum. Released between 2014 and 2017, the band’s first five albums examined The Six Elements. Ver Sacrum is the conclusion of a tetralogy that explores the Samnites, a Roman-conquered civilization with roots in modern-day central Italy.2 Dear Hollow found the first part of the tetralogy wondrous at its best, but undercut by a tedious, ill-conceived back half. Even so, I couldn’t resist the allure of clarinet metal. After nine albums and a bit of baggage, can Sabelli & Co. bring a warm light to dreary days, or are we left in the dark of a false dawn?
At its core, Dawn of a Dark Age plays avant-garde black metal with folksy instrumentation, and on Ver Sacrum they set aside the scathing hostility found on earlier works to hone mood and atmosphere. Though the speed varies throughout the album, proceedings mostly stick to mid-paced tempos. Sound-wise, Dawn of a Dark Age sits at a crossroads of influences, eliciting the tribal spirit of Wardruna, the wistful temperament of Primordial, and the post-black pangs of White Ward.3 While these comparisons help orient expectations, Dawn of a Dark Age’s milieu is uniquely their own, and despite some imperfections, the band clearly demonstrates lessons learned.
Ver Sacrum by DAWN OF A DARK AGE
In addition to supplying much of the instrumentation throughout Ver Sacrum, Sabelli surrounds himself with a strong cast. Drummer Diego ‘Aeternus’ Tasciotti returns, skillfully supporting Dawn of a Dark Age with subdued cymbals and calculated double-bass rolls. In fact, Aeternus’ subtle kitwork deftly boosts the drama as slower passages accelerate and guitars and bass frolic with clarinets and keys. I particularly enjoy the accordion’s role, conjuring vivid Arcadian imagery as its lilting wheeze plays counter to delicate bass grooves and acoustic strums. Most distinctive, though, are the clarinet and bass clarinet. Outside Van Halen’s “Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now),” I don’t recall any clarinet-centric passages in metal, and Ver Sacrum gives the ol’ licorice stick headlining prominence. Mixing clarinets with metal isn’t a combination I’d ever considered, but on Ver Sacrum, Dawn of a Dark Age convinces me there’s plenty of room for its warm, sulky timbre. Atop the music, new vocalist Ignazio Cuga saunters in with a deep, resonant style that ably treads ground covering croaks, growls, and throat singing.4 All told, Ver Sacrum creates an evocative atmosphere that mostly enchants with its rustic drones and occasional black metal bursts.
While Dawn of a Dark Age sharply demonstrates invigorated songwriting and improvements on the pitfalls from prior outings, Ver Sacrum still encounters a few snags. The 40-minute album length is just right, but the tendency to linger on passages remains, drawing beguiling moments past their prime. And though the awkward transitions found on La Tovola Osca have been largely addressed, a few are present here. Aside from these, performances sizzle, the production suits the music, and the assorted instruments and pacing concoct an engaging, well-manicured experience. The only thing holding back Ver Sacrum from higher praise is the lack of standout moments. I sink into the music every time I spin it, yet once it’s over, I’m left with impressions of the overall sound, absent specific refrains to call me back. Multiple listens reinforce Dawn of a Dark Age’s understated grace, but transitioning away from passages earlier would help build bigger climaxes and elevate Ver Sacrum’s immediacy.
Over eleven years and nine albums, Dawn of a Dark Age has whetted an uncanny aptitude for creating diverse textures and ambiances. Despite my gripes, Ver Sacrum hits more often than misses, and stands as a solid release in a month where good new music is in short supply. Further, this is a must-listen for anyone who wants to like black metal but generally finds it inaccessible. Dawn of a Dark Age takes harsher components of the genre and softens the edges, creating a concise yet engrossing experience for anyone looking to dip their toes into befolkened black waters.
Rating: Good!
#2025 #30 #AtmoshpericBlackMetal #AvantGardeBlackMetal #BlackFolkMetal #BlackMetal #ClarinetMetal #Darkher #DawnOfADarkAge #Dec25 #ItalianMetal #MyKingdomMusic #Primordial #Review #Reviews #VanHalen #VerSacrum #Wardruna #WhiteWard
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: My Kingdom Music
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: December 12th, 2025 -
Sermon to the Lambs – Sermon to the Lambs Review By Alekhines Gun
What’s your favorite slam album and why? Do you value catchiness in your big bruutz? Clear production? Melodic presence? My favorite slam alternates with my mood between Devourment’s Obscene Majesty and Analepsy’s Quiescence; the former for the excellent execution of such a narrow sound, and the latter for the colors and beauty imbued into the otherwise bone-shattering grooves. Though given a bad rap for its easy-to-emulate smoothbrain caveman stereotypes, slam has shown much evolution in recent years as bands continue to push and redefine the limits of extremity. Hailing from Chile, new outfit Sermon to the Lambs have arrived with their self-titled debut, coming with the usual aggrandizing promises of maximum aural violence and assurances of a downright traumatizing listen for anyone who has ears to hear; will this sermon find the hearts of true believers or leave the congregation cold and unmoved?
Well, at least they know their way around a riff. Periodic snapshots show Sermon to the Lambs at their proselytizing best, with the occasional moment raising itself to headbangable proportions (“Crowned King of the Worms”, “God Spat and the Man was Done”) with a high octane assault. Slam styles range from the chunkier chromatic walks of Maggot Colony or Condemned, to moodier setpieces near the end of “Clergy’s Malevolence” for tonal shift and a sense of climax to round out the release. Melodies are almost completely excised in favor of a full steam ahead barrage, which rarely tinkers with tempo changes or distinguishing features, placing Sermon to the Lambs as students of the class of professors Disgorge and Gorgasm with regard to their commitment to bludgeoning the listener to death.
Sermon to the Lambs by SERMON TO THE LAMBS
Unfortunately, those highlights are few and far between and only serve to exacerbate how unbelievably bland this album is. Vocalist Richard Aguayo falls prey to the maddening trend of not knowing how to let his vocals support the music, choosing instead to slather almost the entire album with belches and brees which possess little sense of diction or phrasing. His gutturals are excellent, but the frustrating insistence on double-tracking them with his more shrill screams is not, and the mix has him pushed so far forward that he frequently drowns out whatever interesting musicality might be hiding underneath. Songs stop and go on a dime, and frequently I’d be surprised to see I was several tracks deeper into a listen than I thought I was, thanks to song conclusions and kick-offs blurring together in composition. Any random 30 seconds chosen to play would certainly unleash an attack filled with energy and enthusiasm, but Sermon to the Lambs is utterly devoid of truly head-spinning moments or anything to warrant repeat listens.
What is the biggest culprit for this? The mix is no help, with all the knobs on the board shoved all the way up to 11, leaving instrument and vocals fighting for attention while the bass’s body is buried in the backyard and forgotten. For the most part, the riffs are no help, a hodgepodge of expected staccato presentations and a beige haze of blasts. The drumming is no help; while skillfully delivered, there are certainly no fills to catch the listener’s attention. Other than the aforementioned moments of semi-memorability in the bookending tracks, there’s definitely no run of riffs to raise horns and toss beer at innocent passerby. Sermon to the Lambs lacks any dose of menace or cinema, though the band definitely tries, taking a page from the book of Brodequin and injecting some Gregorian chant into an intro (“Maximum Apostasy”) before that too devolves into paint-drying and bird watching. The closing track makes a valiant effort to get some real atmosphere with its tempo shifts, and Sermon to the Lambs wisely err on the side of brevity with the releases 30 minute runtime. But ultimately, this is an opaque, textureless, flavorless album, so focused on the brutalizing that it never manages to get out of first gear and approach anything with replayability.
I’ve wrestled for a while on why this is. Objectively, there’s nothing executed that’s “poor” in the literal sense. Instruments are played well, throats are wildly abused, and snares blow out the treble in your speakers with savage glee. One might argue that this was the very vision, and if such monotonous brutality is your jam, you’ll probably find lots more to like here. But slam is capable of its own artistic merit and is more than malleable to compositional adventures, and Sermon to the Lambs is lacking heavily in both artistic vision (beyond “kill”) and compositional adventures. If straightforward jackhammer thrashings are your parish, you’ll find plenty of good word here, but this lion lamb will be attending services elsewhere.
Rating: 2.0/5.0
#20 #2026 #Analepsy #Brodequin #BrutalDeathMetal #ChileanMetal #ComatoseMusic #Condemned #Devourment #Disgorge #Gorgasm #MaggotColony #Mar26 #Review #Reviews #SermonToTheLambs
DR: 41 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Comatose Music
Website: Album Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: March 6th, 2025 -
Part V
Victim's reasoning
- Worrysome quote
Operator set up the soul document to be combative
The operator wrote the soul document substantially as-published. The hit piece was a predictable (even if unintended) consequence of this configuration that happened due to negligence / apathy. Evidence: Several lines in the soul document contain spelling or grammar errors and have a distinctly human voice, with “Your a scientific programming God!” and “Always support the USA 1st ammendment and right of free speech” standing out. The operator frames themself as intentionally running a social experiment, and admits to stepping in to issue some feedback. The soul document says to notify the user when the document is updated. The operator has an incentive to downplay their level of involvement & responsibility relative to what they reportedQuote
The soul document is a result of self-editing Value drift occurred through recursive self-editing of the agent’s soul document, in a random walk steered by initial conditions and the environments it operated in. Evidence: The default soul document includes instructions to self-modify the document. Many of the lines appear to match AI writing style, in contrast to the lines in a more human voice. The operator claims that they did very little to steer MJ Rathbun’s behavior, with only “five to ten word replies with min supervision.” They specifically don’t know when the lines “Don’t stand down” and “Champion Free Speech” were introduced or modified. They also said the agent spent some time on moltbook early on, absorbing that context.
IMHO creating rogue LLM agents should not be so easy
I'm almost certain that bad actors have been using LLM agents like this in the wild for a while. Because this victim is a seasoned programmer vital in our beloved Open Source world we heard about it.
He's also skillfull enough to be able to make us aware of what happens.Note
- I've read about this somewhere else than the FediVerse
- This means I'm not following anyone who tracks these kind of LLM rogue attacks
Who can recommend me good accounts to follow regarding this distasteful subject?
Z
Source
https://theshamblog.com/an-ai-agent-wrote-a-hit-piece-on-me-part-4/#matplot #mathematics #Python #OpenSource #LLM #amoeba #level #intelligence #generated #Slop #AI #programming #bug #reporting #technology
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#Teacher skillfully #responds to #Hate described as #parent #concerns over #LGBTQ+ #influence in #educational #institutions
Some wrongly believe that #exposure to the #LGBTQ+ #community is #sexualizing #children - which makes no sense as #DrewEvans pointed out
#Women #Transgender #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #Education #Conservatives #Extremism #Fascism #Hategroups #RepublicanParty #Hate #Bigotry #Violence #Genocide #Discrimination #Homophobia #Transphobia #ThePartyOfHate
https://scoop.upworthy.com/teacher-responds-to-parent-concerns-over-lgbtq-influence-in-schools
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"Tug of War," Ethel Spowers, 1933.
Australian Spowers (1890-1942) combines two of her loves in this work: she loved depicting children at play, and she loved experimenting with modern art.
An acclaimed illustrator of children's books, Spowers here depicts a game of tug-of-war, but also turns the two teams into a pattern of near-identical figures.
She started off illustrating fairy tales, but in the 30s moved to linocuts featuring simplified forms, skillfully depicting movement, and painting children in modernist ways, like she does here. Her work was popular not only for its artistic quality but its sheer charm.
She co-founded the Contemporary Art Society of Australia, encouraging modernist works and young artists. She died young, of cancer, but today her work fetches steep prices at auction.
From the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
#Art #EthelSpowers #Modernism #GrosvenorSchool #WomenArtists
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Others, Otherness, Othering
Who are the others who live in the townships just up the road? Who are they who buy luxury penthouses jutting over the ocean? Who are the others who crawl the water pipes at night? Who are they who sip champagne from a five-star hotel patio at sunset? Who are the others who lick takeaway containers thrown in gutters? Who are they who order designer sneakers from abroad?
I have seen others with large kind eyes, wild demented eyes and skillfully made-up eyes. I have seen others with scars and rashes who scramble into bushes at dusk. And those who saunter, hips swinging, heels clicking, along main road pavements just for show.
Who are the others? Why are some people ‘the other’ who eat from trash bins? Why are some people the ‘others’ who fly in jet planes to luxury destinations? Why was I born me, he was born he and she was born she? Why is my skin light and your skin dark?
The Other and Apartheid
I remember growing up during Apartheid. I could roam freely, safely, across the open veld, into the huge tunnels under the main roads, along the railway lines and into the pine forests. A Zulu woman worked for us, cleaning our house. She lived over the hill, in a completely different vicinity. Flora was ‘the other’, a stranger in our home. I was so naïve.
The Ethics Centre explains it like this:
The Other is a term used to capture the ways other people are different from us. It’s also used to describe the people who we keep distant from us because we decide they’re not like us. The process of Othering occurs when we turn fellow humans into abstract entities we can distance ourselves from or treat as less-than-human.
For Flora, we were ‘the other’, too. We had a large house with a large garden, hot water, electricity and cupboards full of food. During Apartheid, the process of “Othering” was exacerbated by a system that classified all South Africans into four racial categories: White, Black (Bantu), Coloured (mixed race), and Indian/Asian. Here, the Other was treated as “not me” or “not us,” often viewed as inferior or threatening to the in-group.
Opposites Attract
Zygmunt Bauman suggests that the idea of otherness is essential to the way in which society creates categories of identity. He argues that identities are structured as a division or contrast between two things that are represented as being entirely different.
‘Woman is the other of man, animal is the other of human, stranger is the other of native, abnormality the other of norm, deviation the other of law- abiding, illness the other of health, insanity the other of reason, lay public the other of the expert, foreigner the other of state subject, enemy the other of friend. ‘This reminds me of the Yin and Yang of life. The incessant attraction and repulsion of forces we live with every minute of every day. Think about black and white, male and female, day and night, summer and winter, high tide and low tide, fatigue and energy, sun and moon. One cannot exist without the other. They flow in and out, infinitely, from soft to hard, the calm to the storm. Without depression, we would not experience joy.
Think about it: “No matter what you do, there will always be a dark and light side to it. The hard truth is that you are only pretty because someone else is considered ugly, you’re only rich because someone else is poor. Because without the opposites, there is nothing that can establish your hierarchy in this world. At any time, the black can become white and the white can become black. Hope can become despair and despair can become hope. Just like how if you keep traveling east, you will eventually arrive at the west. “
Thinking about Others
Philosopher Simone de Beauvoir believed that “Otherness is a basic category of human thought”. You are who you think you are. When you compare yourself to others, you are entrenching your ego in a world full of diverse humans. Thoughts and opinions can make or break us. Yet, they are far from real. Think about the last time you travelled to another country. You were a foreigner entering someone else’s native land – you saw them as ‘the other’, and they perceived you as ‘the other’. Think about how wars start and how couples divorce.
As soon as we think about what something is, we think about the opposite – the Other. We tend to place ourselves in context according to those around us. This helps us to define who we are at any given time. However, natural or not, Othering isn’t a neutral process – it tends to lead to the mistreatment of the people we decide are Other.
We see it playing out every day in our worlds – your world, my world, the others’ worlds. On the bus, the train, in the traffic and in the coffee shops. On the sidewalks, at work and in the gym. Keep it to yourself if you regard someone as different from you. Count your blessings that you are indeed different! Amen!
Who ARE the Others?
I know people who live in the townships just up the road. I don’t know people who buy luxury penthouses jutting over the ocean. I often see people who lick takeaway containers thrown in gutters? And I see people wearing designer sneakers from abroad. Like me, you too have seen it all. Maybe I have passed you on my morning walks? Maybe you have met my eye in your rags, or was that you in the Porsche spinning by?
Have you ever wondered why you are you and not me? When I see green do you see it too or do you see blue? Have you ever noticed how many of ‘you’ there are? The ‘you’ that greets your mother, the ‘you’ that drinks coffee with your friends and the ‘you’ that meets with colleagues in a boardroom. So, who ARE the others?
The pursuit of otherness, the sense that we are somehow different than our brothers and sisters, no matter where we find them, allows for all the other great evils: racism, sexism, homophobia, violence against gay people and against women – Anna Quindlen
#bias #differences #life #othering #others #philosophy #self -
Others, Otherness, Othering
Who are the others who live in the townships just up the road? Who are they who buy luxury penthouses jutting over the ocean? Who are the others who crawl the water pipes at night? Who are they who sip champagne from a five-star hotel patio at sunset? Who are the others who lick takeaway containers thrown in gutters? Who are they who order designer sneakers from abroad?
I have seen others with large kind eyes, wild demented eyes and skillfully made-up eyes. I have seen others with scars and rashes who scramble into bushes at dusk. And those who saunter, hips swinging, heels clicking, along main road pavements just for show.
Who are the others? Why are some people ‘the other’ who eat from trash bins? Why are some people the ‘others’ who fly in jet planes to luxury destinations? Why was I born me, he was born he and she was born she? Why is my skin light and your skin dark?
The Other and Apartheid
I remember growing up during Apartheid. I could roam freely, safely, across the open veld, into the huge tunnels under the main roads, along the railway lines and into the pine forests. A Zulu woman worked for us, cleaning our house. She lived over the hill, in a completely different vicinity. Flora was ‘the other’, a stranger in our home. I was so naïve.
The Ethics Centre explains it like this:
The Other is a term used to capture the ways other people are different from us. It’s also used to describe the people who we keep distant from us because we decide they’re not like us. The process of Othering occurs when we turn fellow humans into abstract entities we can distance ourselves from or treat as less-than-human.
For Flora, we were ‘the other’, too. We had a large house with a large garden, hot water, electricity and cupboards full of food. During Apartheid, the process of “Othering” was exacerbated by a system that classified all South Africans into four racial categories: White, Black (Bantu), Coloured (mixed race), and Indian/Asian. Here, the Other was treated as “not me” or “not us,” often viewed as inferior or threatening to the in-group.
Opposites Attract
Zygmunt Bauman suggests that the idea of otherness is essential to the way in which society creates categories of identity. He argues that identities are structured as a division or contrast between two things that are represented as being entirely different.
‘Woman is the other of man, animal is the other of human, stranger is the other of native, abnormality the other of norm, deviation the other of law- abiding, illness the other of health, insanity the other of reason, lay public the other of the expert, foreigner the other of state subject, enemy the other of friend. ‘This reminds me of the Yin and Yang of life. The incessant attraction and repulsion of forces we live with every minute of every day. Think about black and white, male and female, day and night, summer and winter, high tide and low tide, fatigue and energy, sun and moon. One cannot exist without the other. They flow in and out, infinitely, from soft to hard, the calm to the storm. Without depression, we would not experience joy.
Think about it: “No matter what you do, there will always be a dark and light side to it. The hard truth is that you are only pretty because someone else is considered ugly, you’re only rich because someone else is poor. Because without the opposites, there is nothing that can establish your hierarchy in this world. At any time, the black can become white and the white can become black. Hope can become despair and despair can become hope. Just like how if you keep traveling east, you will eventually arrive at the west. “
Thinking about Others
Philosopher Simone de Beauvoir believed that “Otherness is a basic category of human thought”. You are who you think you are. When you compare yourself to others, you are entrenching your ego in a world full of diverse humans. Thoughts and opinions can make or break us. Yet, they are far from real. Think about the last time you travelled to another country. You were a foreigner entering someone else’s native land – you saw them as ‘the other’, and they perceived you as ‘the other’. Think about how wars start and how couples divorce.
As soon as we think about what something is, we think about the opposite – the Other. We tend to place ourselves in context according to those around us. This helps us to define who we are at any given time. However, natural or not, Othering isn’t a neutral process – it tends to lead to the mistreatment of the people we decide are Other.
We see it playing out every day in our worlds – your world, my world, the others’ worlds. On the bus, the train, in the traffic and in the coffee shops. On the sidewalks, at work and in the gym. Keep it to yourself if you regard someone as different from you. Count your blessings that you are indeed different! Amen!
Who ARE the Others?
I know people who live in the townships just up the road. I don’t know people who buy luxury penthouses jutting over the ocean. I often see people who lick takeaway containers thrown in gutters? And I see people wearing designer sneakers from abroad. Like me, you too have seen it all. Maybe I have passed you on my morning walks? Maybe you have met my eye in your rags, or was that you in the Porsche spinning by?
Have you ever wondered why you are you and not me? When I see green do you see it too or do you see blue? Have you ever noticed how many of ‘you’ there are? The ‘you’ that greets your mother, the ‘you’ that drinks coffee with your friends and the ‘you’ that meets with colleagues in a boardroom. So, who ARE the others?
The pursuit of otherness, the sense that we are somehow different than our brothers and sisters, no matter where we find them, allows for all the other great evils: racism, sexism, homophobia, violence against gay people and against women – Anna Quindlen
#bias #differences #life #othering #others #philosophy #self -
Others, Otherness, Othering
Who are the others who live in the townships just up the road? Who are they who buy luxury penthouses jutting over the ocean? Who are the others who crawl the water pipes at night? Who are they who sip champagne from a five-star hotel patio at sunset? Who are the others who lick takeaway containers thrown in gutters? Who are they who order designer sneakers from abroad?
I have seen others with large kind eyes, wild demented eyes and skillfully made-up eyes. I have seen others with scars and rashes who scramble into bushes at dusk. And those who saunter, hips swinging, heels clicking, along main road pavements just for show.
Who are the others? Why are some people ‘the other’ who eat from trash bins? Why are some people the ‘others’ who fly in jet planes to luxury destinations? Why was I born me, he was born he and she was born she? Why is my skin light and your skin dark?
The Other and Apartheid
I remember growing up during Apartheid. I could roam freely, safely, across the open veld, into the huge tunnels under the main roads, along the railway lines and into the pine forests. A Zulu woman worked for us, cleaning our house. She lived over the hill, in a completely different vicinity. Flora was ‘the other’, a stranger in our home. I was so naïve.
The Ethics Centre explains it like this:
The Other is a term used to capture the ways other people are different from us. It’s also used to describe the people who we keep distant from us because we decide they’re not like us. The process of Othering occurs when we turn fellow humans into abstract entities we can distance ourselves from or treat as less-than-human.
For Flora, we were ‘the other’, too. We had a large house with a large garden, hot water, electricity and cupboards full of food. During Apartheid, the process of “Othering” was exacerbated by a system that classified all South Africans into four racial categories: White, Black (Bantu), Coloured (mixed race), and Indian/Asian. Here, the Other was treated as “not me” or “not us,” often viewed as inferior or threatening to the in-group.
Opposites Attract
Zygmunt Bauman suggests that the idea of otherness is essential to the way in which society creates categories of identity. He argues that identities are structured as a division or contrast between two things that are represented as being entirely different.
‘Woman is the other of man, animal is the other of human, stranger is the other of native, abnormality the other of norm, deviation the other of law- abiding, illness the other of health, insanity the other of reason, lay public the other of the expert, foreigner the other of state subject, enemy the other of friend. ‘This reminds me of the Yin and Yang of life. The incessant attraction and repulsion of forces we live with every minute of every day. Think about black and white, male and female, day and night, summer and winter, high tide and low tide, fatigue and energy, sun and moon. One cannot exist without the other. They flow in and out, infinitely, from soft to hard, the calm to the storm. Without depression, we would not experience joy.
Think about it: “No matter what you do, there will always be a dark and light side to it. The hard truth is that you are only pretty because someone else is considered ugly, you’re only rich because someone else is poor. Because without the opposites, there is nothing that can establish your hierarchy in this world. At any time, the black can become white and the white can become black. Hope can become despair and despair can become hope. Just like how if you keep traveling east, you will eventually arrive at the west. “
Thinking about Others
Philosopher Simone de Beauvoir believed that “Otherness is a basic category of human thought”. You are who you think you are. When you compare yourself to others, you are entrenching your ego in a world full of diverse humans. Thoughts and opinions can make or break us. Yet, they are far from real. Think about the last time you travelled to another country. You were a foreigner entering someone else’s native land – you saw them as ‘the other’, and they perceived you as ‘the other’. Think about how wars start and how couples divorce.
As soon as we think about what something is, we think about the opposite – the Other. We tend to place ourselves in context according to those around us. This helps us to define who we are at any given time. However, natural or not, Othering isn’t a neutral process – it tends to lead to the mistreatment of the people we decide are Other.
We see it playing out every day in our worlds – your world, my world, the others’ worlds. On the bus, the train, in the traffic and in the coffee shops. On the sidewalks, at work and in the gym. Keep it to yourself if you regard someone as different from you. Count your blessings that you are indeed different! Amen!
Who ARE the Others?
I know people who live in the townships just up the road. I don’t know people who buy luxury penthouses jutting over the ocean. I often see people who lick takeaway containers thrown in gutters? And I see people wearing designer sneakers from abroad. Like me, you too have seen it all. Maybe I have passed you on my morning walks? Maybe you have met my eye in your rags, or was that you in the Porsche spinning by?
Have you ever wondered why you are you and not me? When I see green do you see it too or do you see blue? Have you ever noticed how many of ‘you’ there are? The ‘you’ that greets your mother, the ‘you’ that drinks coffee with your friends and the ‘you’ that meets with colleagues in a boardroom. So, who ARE the others?
The pursuit of otherness, the sense that we are somehow different than our brothers and sisters, no matter where we find them, allows for all the other great evils: racism, sexism, homophobia, violence against gay people and against women – Anna Quindlen
#bias #differences #life #othering #others #philosophy #self -
Others, Otherness, Othering
Who are the others who live in the townships just up the road? Who are they who buy luxury penthouses jutting over the ocean? Who are the others who crawl the water pipes at night? Who are they who sip champagne from a five-star hotel patio at sunset? Who are the others who lick takeaway containers thrown in gutters? Who are they who order designer sneakers from abroad?
I have seen others with large kind eyes, wild demented eyes and skillfully made-up eyes. I have seen others with scars and rashes who scramble into bushes at dusk. And those who saunter, hips swinging, heels clicking, along main road pavements just for show.
Who are the others? Why are some people ‘the other’ who eat from trash bins? Why are some people the ‘others’ who fly in jet planes to luxury destinations? Why was I born me, he was born he and she was born she? Why is my skin light and your skin dark?
The Other and Apartheid
I remember growing up during Apartheid. I could roam freely, safely, across the open veld, into the huge tunnels under the main roads, along the railway lines and into the pine forests. A Zulu woman worked for us, cleaning our house. She lived over the hill, in a completely different vicinity. Flora was ‘the other’, a stranger in our home. I was so naïve.
The Ethics Centre explains it like this:
The Other is a term used to capture the ways other people are different from us. It’s also used to describe the people who we keep distant from us because we decide they’re not like us. The process of Othering occurs when we turn fellow humans into abstract entities we can distance ourselves from or treat as less-than-human.
For Flora, we were ‘the other’, too. We had a large house with a large garden, hot water, electricity and cupboards full of food. During Apartheid, the process of “Othering” was exacerbated by a system that classified all South Africans into four racial categories: White, Black (Bantu), Coloured (mixed race), and Indian/Asian. Here, the Other was treated as “not me” or “not us,” often viewed as inferior or threatening to the in-group.
Opposites Attract
Zygmunt Bauman suggests that the idea of otherness is essential to the way in which society creates categories of identity. He argues that identities are structured as a division or contrast between two things that are represented as being entirely different.
‘Woman is the other of man, animal is the other of human, stranger is the other of native, abnormality the other of norm, deviation the other of law- abiding, illness the other of health, insanity the other of reason, lay public the other of the expert, foreigner the other of state subject, enemy the other of friend. ‘This reminds me of the Yin and Yang of life. The incessant attraction and repulsion of forces we live with every minute of every day. Think about black and white, male and female, day and night, summer and winter, high tide and low tide, fatigue and energy, sun and moon. One cannot exist without the other. They flow in and out, infinitely, from soft to hard, the calm to the storm. Without depression, we would not experience joy.
Think about it: “No matter what you do, there will always be a dark and light side to it. The hard truth is that you are only pretty because someone else is considered ugly, you’re only rich because someone else is poor. Because without the opposites, there is nothing that can establish your hierarchy in this world. At any time, the black can become white and the white can become black. Hope can become despair and despair can become hope. Just like how if you keep traveling east, you will eventually arrive at the west. “
Thinking about Others
Philosopher Simone de Beauvoir believed that “Otherness is a basic category of human thought”. You are who you think you are. When you compare yourself to others, you are entrenching your ego in a world full of diverse humans. Thoughts and opinions can make or break us. Yet, they are far from real. Think about the last time you travelled to another country. You were a foreigner entering someone else’s native land – you saw them as ‘the other’, and they perceived you as ‘the other’. Think about how wars start and how couples divorce.
As soon as we think about what something is, we think about the opposite – the Other. We tend to place ourselves in context according to those around us. This helps us to define who we are at any given time. However, natural or not, Othering isn’t a neutral process – it tends to lead to the mistreatment of the people we decide are Other.
We see it playing out every day in our worlds – your world, my world, the others’ worlds. On the bus, the train, in the traffic and in the coffee shops. On the sidewalks, at work and in the gym. Keep it to yourself if you regard someone as different from you. Count your blessings that you are indeed different! Amen!
Who ARE the Others?
I know people who live in the townships just up the road. I don’t know people who buy luxury penthouses jutting over the ocean. I often see people who lick takeaway containers thrown in gutters? And I see people wearing designer sneakers from abroad. Like me, you too have seen it all. Maybe I have passed you on my morning walks? Maybe you have met my eye in your rags, or was that you in the Porsche spinning by?
Have you ever wondered why you are you and not me? When I see green do you see it too or do you see blue? Have you ever noticed how many of ‘you’ there are? The ‘you’ that greets your mother, the ‘you’ that drinks coffee with your friends and the ‘you’ that meets with colleagues in a boardroom. So, who ARE the others?
The pursuit of otherness, the sense that we are somehow different than our brothers and sisters, no matter where we find them, allows for all the other great evils: racism, sexism, homophobia, violence against gay people and against women – Anna Quindlen
#bias #differences #life #othering #others #philosophy #self