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scans_daily2025-09-23 10:28 pmJay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men reaches episode #500
For those unaware of it, it is, in it's own words a look at "The ins, the outs, and the retcons of comics greatest superhero soap-opera" which started at the dawn of the Silver Age and has only just reached the end of the 90's. So the Morrison run awaits.
Hosts Jay Edidin and Miles Stokes have, IMHO, a great presenting and bantering style and between Mile's enthusiasm, Jay's critical analsyis (though each have aspects of the other) and the queer prism they bring to look at the media through, plus the sheer amount of research they must do, this has been one of my go-to podcasts for pretty much a decade (Plus they share my affection for the OG New Mutants, and a certain omnilinguist and his technorganic soulmate in particular, so how could I not be a fan? :) )
They've also had some excellent guests over the years, including Kurt Busiek, Chris Claremont and Louise Simonson.
The Anniversary episode is great fun. They bring in a professional expert on the industrial applications of magnets to discuss just how much of Magneto's infinitely varied magnetic powers might be based in reality (Answer: More than you might think, but not necessarily in the way you might think), then are themselved interviewed about the podcast itself, which is fascinating.
Anyhoo, well worth a listen if you fancy some affectionately, if sometimes slightly snarky, X-discussion and analysis.
(Look, this podcast managed to make me even vaguely invested in parts of 90's X-Force, and you have NO idea the barriers it was working against there... well, actually you might, but that doesn't make it less impressive)
case) wrote in fandomsecrets2025-09-23 06:24 pm[ SECRET POST #6836 ]
⌈ Secret Post #6836 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
01.
( More! )
Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 29 secrets from Secret Submission Post #976.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
mrkinch) wrote2025-09-23 11:04 am9/23/2025 Inspiration Trail
It was getting hot by 9 am (I'm glad I don't live out there!) and I was, for a change, reasonably happy to go home.
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bbcnewsworld_feed) wrote2025-09-23 09:38 pmRecognition of statehood 'rewards Palestinian people' says Iraqi president
tielan) wrote2025-09-23 09:55 pmitaly: brief
Right now, my roomie is using a fan, and I suspect plans to use it all night. On the plus side, at least I don't have to deal with the full-bore air-conditioning. They don't have that here in the UK in most places.
bbcnewsworld_feed) wrote2025-09-23 09:01 pmThe Gen Z uprising in Asia shows social media is a double-edged sword
bbcnewsworld_feed) wrote2025-09-24 10:26 amKyiv can win all of Ukraine back from Russia, Trump says
bbcnewsworld_feed) wrote2025-09-23 08:22 pmMacron calls Trump after motorcade blocks his car
bbcnewsworld_feed) wrote2025-09-23 07:51 pmSix years ago Trump's UN audience laughed, this year they were silent
bbcnewsworld_feed) wrote2025-09-23 05:21 pmFrom escalators to teleprompters, Trump piles on criticism at the UN
bbcnewsworld_feed) wrote2025-09-23 01:46 pmSecret Service disrupts telecom threat near UN General Assembly
bbcnewsworld_feed) wrote2025-09-23 12:57 pmEswatini says it has repatriated US deportee to Jamaica
redbird) wrote2025-09-23 04:49 pmlunch with friends of Adrian's
adrian_turtle's comrades from the hav invited the three of us to have lunch in their yard today, after Rosh Hashanah services. We all had a good time--I hadn't met either R or their partner Peter before, and I liked them both, as did cattitude (as did Adrian, of course). We sat and talked for a couple of hours: the three of us brought a vegetable frittata and an apple cake, both of which Adrian made yesterday; R. and Peter contributed salad, challah, and of course the location. It was the right amount of food for five people; we took home 1/6 of the frittata, and gave them the last slice of cake, since we have more at home.R and Peter live in Allston, near the Packard's Corner T stop, so not in walking distance, but easy by transit. The conversation wandered, as good conversations will. We were there for a couple of hours, longer than I'd expected, and I didn't notice the time until we got home and I looked at the clock on our stove.
eff_feed) wrote2025-09-23 08:26 pmGovernor Newsom Should Make it Easier to Exercise Our Privacy Rights
California has one of the nation’s most comprehensive consumer data privacy laws. But it’s not always easy for people to exercise those privacy rights. That’s why we supported Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal’s A.B. 566 throughout the legislative session and are now asking California Governor Gavin Newsom to sign it into law.
The easier it is to exercise your rights, the more power you have.
A.B. 566 does a very simple thing. It directs browsers—such as Google’s Chrome, Apple’s Safari, Microsoft’s Edge or Mozilla’s Firefox—to give all their users the option to tell companies they don't want companies to to sell or share personal information that’s collected about them on the internet. In other words: it makes it easy for Californians to tell companies what they want to happen with their own information.
By making it easy to use tools that allow you to send these sorts of signals to companies’ websites, A.B. 566 makes the California Consumer Privacy Act more user-friendly. And the easier it is to exercise your rights, the more power you have.
This is a necessary step, because even though the CCPA gives all people in California the right to tell companies not to sell or share their personal information, companies have not made it easy to exercise this right. Right now, someone who wants to make these requests has to go through the processes set up by each company that may collect their information individually. Companies have also often made it pretty hard to make, or even find out how to make, these requests. Giving people the option for an easier way to communicate how they want companies to treat their personal information helps rebalance the often-lopsided relationship between the two.
Industry groups who want to keep the scales tipped firmly in the favor of corporations have lobbied heavily against A.B. 566. But we urge Gov. Newsom not to listen to those who want to it to remain difficult for people to exercise their CCPA rights. EFF’s technologists, lawyers, and advocates think A.B. 566 empowers consumers without imposing regulations that would limit innovation. We think Californians should have easy tools to tell companies how to deal with their information, and urge Gov. Newsom to sign this bill.
twocents_feed) wrote2025-09-23 07:00 pmThis Is the ‘Right’ Temperature for Turning on Your Heat This Fall
Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding my work at Lifehacker as a preferred source.
As fall creeps toward winter, we know we’ll have to turn on the heat. But when is the right time? If you’re arguing with your partner or roommate about the thermostat, we’re happy to be able to end that argument for you. (They’ll probably never admit they’re wrong, though.)
The easiest answer, which is not necessarily the correct answer, is to look for nighttime lows falling below 55 degrees Fahrenheit. That said, neither the calendar nor the weather forecast can give you very good advice here. The temperature inside your house is what matters. If your house occupies a sunny spot in a warm climate, you may be able to delay turning on your heat until it’s nearly the dead of winter. On the other hand, if your house is poorly insulated, sits in a shady area, or your local climate is on the chilly side, you may need to turn it on sooner.
So while you can ask your neighbors what date or what outdoor temperature they usually use as their guideline, you’ll need to look at your own thermostat to know when it’s time.
Keep the indoor temperature above 64 degrees for your health
A report from the World Health Organization points out that temperatures below 18 degrees Celsius (about 64 Fahrenheit) may cause issues for smokers, people with asthma, and people with cardiovascular disease. Warmer temperatures are associated with better lung function and better blood pressure in these people. They conclude that 64 is a good minimum for most of us, but that people with these conditions—and people who are 65 or older—should be especially sure to keep their house at 64 degrees or warmer.
That said, if you’re under 65 years old and don’t have lung or heart conditions, the WHO is fine with you putting on a sweater and dealing with it. They say lower temperatures aren’t a health risk for healthy people who are moving around enough to generate plenty of body heat. You can also safely use clothing, bedding, or heating devices to stay warm at those lower temperatures—say, snuggling up in flannel pajamas with a hot water bottle under a warm duvet.
Set your programmable thermostat to turn on the heat when the temperature drops
So that’s the general rule, but what if you have a thermostat that lets you program different temperatures for different times of day?
Energy Star suggests setting your thermostat to kick on the heat when the temperature drops to 70 degrees in the morning or evening. If you have a programmable thermostat, you can set a “setback” to allow the house to cool down a bit at night and when you’re not home.
An eight-degree setback is recommended for when you’re out of the house during the day (at the office, for example) and then again for nighttime, since cool temperatures help us sleep, and we can use blankets if we’re too cold. That eight-degree setback would give us an indoor temperature that could fall as low as 62 degrees. Try that and see how the house feels. If it’s too cold, consider bumping up to at least 64.
If you want to wait as long as possible, at least do a test run
No matter what I say here, I know that some of you will want to wait as long as possible to turn on the heat for the first time. Just do yourself a favor: Turn on the heat at some point in the early fall just to make sure everything is working OK. When it finally gets too cold to go without the heat, you don't want that day to be the day you learn something isn't working properly.
frayadjacent) wrote2025-09-23 08:53 pmDear Festividder 2025
I love all sorts of vids: character studies, vids that explore themes, vids that make visual or emotional connections across disparate aspects of a source, campy comedy vids, experimental vids, and probably things I'm forgetting.
In terms of audio, I like vids to a wide range of music, including music I wouldn't normally listen to, as well as to audio other than music (for example, spoken word, sound effects). Country is a bit risky, and I hate Tom Petty. My all time favourite artists are Beyoncé, the Indigo Girls, and Stevie Wonder. Other artists I like include SZA, Little Simz, Kendrick Lamar, Sleater-Kinney, Team Dresch, Joni Mitchell, Cat/Jusuf Stevens, Cyndi Lauper, Neko Case, The Magnetic Fields, Doechii, Whitney Houston, Elton John, Stromae, and ADG7.
I think using a few lines of source dialogue in a vid can solidify a vid's thesis, and I love when dialogue from separate moments in the source interact with each other in a vid to create new meaning. I also love how sound effects/diagetic sound from the soure material can amplify the feeling of a vid. So please do feel free to use these elements if you want to! That said, I don't like there to be too much overlap between dialogue and vocals, and I am most accustomed to vids with no dialogue, so if that's not your jam it's totally fine with me.
I am visually distracted by text on screen so I prefer minimal or no stylistic song-lyrics unless the visuals are very simple. I'm happy to have music in languages other than English and don't require translated subtitles unless you think they're important for the vid (I will understand a bit of French, nothing else). I don't hear song lyrics readily so vids that rely heavily on connections to lyrics don't always work for me, though having some connections to lyrics can anchor the meaning of the vid or have great comedic effect.
Triggers and subtitles requests
I've become a bit sensitive to strongly flashing/strobing lights as a migraine trigger/amplifier. Some is OK but I'd rather not have more than a second or two at a time, or have it be very high dark/light contrast (total black to bright white). I don't have any other physical triggers but I would like you to warn for them as indicated in the festivids guidelines.
Please don't include depictions of sexual assault or like, Game of Thrones-level violence and gore in your vid for me. Anything else is fine but please warn for emotional triggers which are also described in the guidelines for the exchange.
Lots of people benefit from subtitles so if you are up for making them then I think soft subtitles are great. I don't require them and would prefer if they weren't burned into the video unless you think they're important for the vid, e.g. to communicate the central point of the vid with non-English audio.
Now onto the specific fandoms!
Indigo Girls
The Indigo Girls are the musical act I've loved the longest and were central to my queer awakening back in the late 90s/early 2000s. I remember when "Shame on You" was big on the radio -- I was 16 years old and didn't care for it. But I went to Lilith Fair the next year and saw them perform live, and they were so energetic and charismatic I fell in love and have never stopped. To this day I find Amy Ray incredibly appealing. When I nominated this I wrote RPF because I'm happy to have RPF content in addition to performances, but I'd love for music videos and live performances to be included as well. During covid lockdown I treasured their livestream performances and would enjoy having snippets of those included in a vid, though they are not all that visually exciting so I wouldn't expect lots of them.
Music-wise, anything by the IG is obviously great. My unpopular Indigo Girls opinion is that the 2000s were their best decade and Become You, All That We Let In, and Poseidon and the Bitter Bug are my favourite albums of theirs. I weirdly don't listen to that much other music in their genre, but I'd be very happy for you to vid them to a different indie-folk-rock act. I have enjoyed Amy Ray's solo excursions into post-punk and country music, and back in the day I listened to the Butchies, who collaborated with Amy Ray, as much as the Indigo Girls. I think rock or blues music as well as folk or folk-rock would suit them well.
There is loads of source material to use, including stuff on their official youtube channel. Last year a documentary about the Indigo Girls was released and it is a treasure trove of archival footage -- it would be possible to make an IG vid from this documentary alone.I have uploaded a DVD rip of this doc -- it's called It's Only Life After All -- which you can get from
bingeling .Maggie Cheung Films
Maggie Cheung is one of my very favourite actors, and I particularly enjoy that she excels at so many types of performances, including but not limited to: sombre character role, cultural avatar, bounty-hunter with a heart of gold, and adorable snake-woman. My favourite performances of hers are in As Tears Go By, In the Mood for Love, Green Snake, The Heroic Trio, and The New Dragon Gate Inn. One idea -- you can take this or leave it -- would be to choose a song with a big tonal contrast between verse and chorus, and to use her more serious roles for one and her over-the-top roles for the other. But please feel free to take this wherever you like, and if you want to focus on one type of performance that is also fine!
Hacks (TV 2021)
I only recently started watching this despite it being on my list since it started airing. I've watched to early S3 as of writing and will fully catch up well before go-live. I love it! It's so good! The performances are incredible -- there are so many good comedic actors on that show, it's just astonishing. Also that budget? The cinematography is excellent! The sets look so good! I could go on. I love Deborah and Ava's relationship and would enjoy a vid focusing on that -- or on either of them individually -- but I also enjoy the side characters, especially Kiki, Kayla, and Jimmy (mostly I love Jimmy when he's exasperated with Kayla). I'd also really enjoy a Deborah character vid. As of yet I don't, like, super ship Deborah and Ava but I'm also not opposed to the ship at all, and I definitely enjoy their dynamic and how important they are to each other.
I love the music on the show and I think a vid to something disco or disco-y could be really fun. Or "Sweet Love" by Anita Baker!
Novels and Short Stories by Ursula K. Le Guin
Le Guin is my favourite fiction writer and I've read almost everything in this category that she's written -- the main exceptions being City of Exile/Illusions and the Orsinia stories. Central to my love of Le Guin's fiction is the longing for a more expansive view of what our world could be, for freedom, and for authentic community and connection. I love her Hainish cycle and Earthsea series and would be happy with a vid that only focuses on one of them, or on her other work, or some combination thereof. My favourite works of hers are The Dispossessed, Always Coming Home, The Wind's Twelve Quarters, and The Compass Rose. On the night she died I re-read "The Day Before the Revolution", and it lives close in my heart.
In terms of existing adaptations of Le Guin's work: I don't care for either Earthsea adaptation, though I suspect the Studio Ghibli one would be easier to use than the Sci-Fi one (I don't want white Ged). I only learned that the A&E adaptation of The Lathe of Heaven exists when doing research for this letter, but I do quite like the PBS adapatation from 1980, and I recall seeing it existed in full on YouTube a few years ago.
Speaking of adaptations, her musical collaborations could offer some cool options for vid audio: https://www.ursulakleguin.com/adaptations (it's at the bottom of the page).
Many of my favourite works of hers are short stories and I could see a vid that funcions like a short story collection, with itty bitty vidlets featuring dancing ants, an Australian housewife finding a UFO crash site, a darkness box, and creepy trees (these are just random examples of semi-remembered stories).
But please go in any direction you like with this -- book vids are an absolute feat and I have no interest in constraining you, only offering suggestions if they're useful.
Babel -- R.F. Kuang
I loved this novel so much. The way that Robin is torn between criticizing the way that academia is intertwined with systems of power and oppression on one hand, and reveling in (at times) genuine freedom and life-of-the-mind that it affords him, at least at first. I was really moved by this aspect of the story and it resonated strongly with me. I also loved that the story involved genuine collective action and coalition-building among people with different lives but connected interests. I loved that it dealt seriously with the question of violence as a strategic and moral question -- this is all too rare in western fiction, which IME either revels in violence or takes an ill-examined "you're just as bad as the oppressor" position. I also loved the way the world-building used the idea of things being lost in translation as the source of magic. I disagree with people who complain that the book is preachy.
As with all my book vid requests, I'm happy for you to take this any direction that suits you. I think if there were ways to depict the magic system, that would be really cool.
Steerswoman Series -- Rosemary Kirstein
I love this series so much. I ship Rowan/Bel but I don't require a shippy vid by any means. My favourite book in the series is The Outskirters Secret, because of said ship, because I love stories where groups of people travel across a landscape on a quest, and last but not least because it is easily the best, most accurate atmospheric science I've encountered in any fiction (I am an expert). A vid about Rowan inventing the field of dynamical meteorology would be the absolute shit. No pressure, lol.
It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over -- Anne de Marken
Surprise surprise, I also love this book! The text is gorgeous and I love the sense of place as the character wanders across what seems to be the pacific northwest US in the post-apocalypse and remembers the life she lived there. Please go mad, though I would prefer a light touch on the beheading scene if you choose to include it somehow.
Nickel Boys (2024 Film) [SAFETY]
This movie was beautiful. I appreciated how it managed the difficult task of showing horrific racist violence without objectifying the victims. I was skeptical of the first-person POV in the film going in, but after a few minutes I completely forgot about it. It worked so well. I loved all the interstitial shots which I think lend themselves to a lot of different uses and interpretations.
東方三俠 | The Heroic Trio [SAFETY]
This movie is bananas but I love it. I especially love Maggie Cheung's character, what an absolute scene-stealer in a cast of scene-stealers! Also Michelle Yeoh's hair. And Michelle Yeoh's coat. And Michelle Yeoh's strut. Not a fan of the child harm and the beheading cage, or the professor. The final fight scene makes me cackle with joy.负负得正 | Land of Broken Hearts [SAFETY]
This movie is so cool! The last half hour or so was pure dopamine for me. Go in any direction, I love it all. Also Zhu Yilong is so attractive, gosh. Just a general comment.
spikedluv) wrote2025-09-23 03:52 pmTV Talk: Hudson & Rex 8.01 Into the Wilds (aka, probably the last H&R ep I will ever watch)
abyss_valkyrie) wrote2025-09-23 10:49 pmThe Untamed cupcakes-made a long time ago!
Ahahaha! Yes, yes, I know I've posted this before on
theuntamed_mdzs . I just got hit by nostalgia because I haven't done anything like this in years after I made these. Recently this got a lot of love, thanks to
full_metal_ox linking this on fancake The full post with all the cupcakes can be found here.