I think William de Worde gets underrated as a Discworld protagonist. His book is great but it's not as riotously funny as some of the others. Moist basically replaced him as the not a Watchman Ankh-Morpork protagonist. The Truth often gets lumped in with Moist's books as "the industrial revolution series".
William is basically the opposite of Vimes. Vimes and his family clawed and scraped for everything they ever had. He's seen first hand what it means for the little people when the rich thinks the rules don't apply to them. That's why he does what he does. Vimes makes the law an equaliser, rather than a tool of tyranny.
But William is a pompous, arrogant, entitled, privileged little twit. At first, he hates it and tries desperately to be his father's opposite. He's the well meaning liberal. He knows racism is bad and abhors it, but he still treats trolls and dwarfs and vampires with kid gloves so he doesn't accidentally offend them. He doesn't stop to think about the food he's taking off of people's plates when he doesn't get his engravings done. He just sort of assumes the dwarfs at the press work for him rather than with him. Multiple characters called him out in this throughout the story, and he never really has a answer for them.
But like Otto says, he tries, and trying is how you get there. And William does get there, not by overcoming these flaws, but by using his privilege as a weapon against the rich and corrupt, like Vimes uses the law.
He takes the jewels, basically buys the dwarfs' loyalty with them. (Attempts) to blackmail his dad with them. Does blackmail Slant. Uses his little notebook to protect free speech against people like Vimes and Slant. Backs Vetinari into ensuring Harry King's daughter has a wedding overflowing with the rich and powerful, ensuring Harry will supply him with paper out of gratitude. His first response to a problem to either annoy it into leaving him alone or offering it a job.
William doesn't become a hero of the working class, not really. But he uses his pompous twittery to give them chances. To get a job, sure. But also to learn the truth. To help draw the lines that the rich can't just cross without fear of reprisal. To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.
At some point my brain decided based on the word knee that body parts beginning with a n sound should have a silent k (particularly the word neck) so I am against gnipples wholeheartedly, it should clearly be knipples!
And God said, "Behold! I have created the fourth primordial force: the weak interaction!"
And the angels all clapped and nodded politely, and there was a long silence; and finally Verchiel, the Angel of Grace, spoke up and asked, "Er, what exactly does it do, O Fashioner?"
And God said, "What do you mean, 'what does it do?' It's the fourth fundamental force of the universe."
And Verchiel said, "You mentioned that. Um. But it's just that the other three sort of have a brand, you know? Gravity helps build large-scale structures, acts over vast cosmic distances, shapes time and space. The strong force is secret, hidden, binding together quarks and all that. Electromagnetism, very cool stuff, somewhere in between. We're all big fans of the whole magnetic monopole double bluff, very clever. But, er. What does this 'weak interaction' do?"
And God said, "It mediates radioactive decay. Sort of."
And Verchiel said, "Radioactive decay? All radioactive decay?"
And God said, "No. Just some kinds."
And Zephaniel, the Chief of the Ishim spoke, and he said, "A whole independent force just to mediate some kinds of radioactive decay?"
And God said, "Well. Not totally independent. Technically it's related to electromagnetism."
And Zephaniel said, "Wait, it's not even a real force?"
And God said, "It's totally a real force. It's just that it's one aspect of a combined electromagnetic and weak force. An electro-weak force, if you will."
And Metatron, the Celestial Scribe, scratched his head at this, but said nothing.
And Cambiel, the Angel of Transformation, said, "Maybe you can walk us through it from the top."
And God Sighed an immense Sigh, and said, "All right, fine.
"So the way it works is that all of space and time is permeated by a field that has imaginary mass."
And Cambiel said, "Imaginary mass, O Generous Provider?"
And God said, "Yes, imaginary mass. It's tachyonic, d'you see?"
And Sarathiel, the Angel of Discipline, said, "Wait a minute, I thought we agreed nothing was going to travel faster than light? All that 'c' business and the whole Lorentz transformation thing. What's happening with that?"
And God said, "Let me finish. The field is tachyonic. The particles in the field all move slower than light."
And Sarathiel had to think about this for a second.
And God said, "The point is, a field with imaginary mass has a non-zero vacuum expectation value."
And this really gave Sarathiel trouble, since he had never been very good at math.
And God, seeing this, went back to explain. "Most fields, like the electromagnetic field, have no effect when they are at their lowest energy state. It's like they're not there at all. If you give a field imaginary mass, then it vanishes only when it's at a very high energy state, and at a low energy state, it has a nonzero value everywhere."
And Sarathiel nodded, but he was confused, because he didn't understand why God would create such a thing.
But Verchiel thought he saw where God was going with this, and he was amazed.
"Truly, you are cunning beyond measure, O Only One Certainly Sound and Genuine in Truth! Only now do I understand your design! For in order to make the universe homogenous and isotropic, it is necessary that all large-scale fluctuations in temperature and mass must be evened out early in the history of the cosmos; and therefore, you have designed a field which will rapidly expand space after the Big Bang, many orders of magnitude in brief moments, and then swiftly and spontaneously decay as it gives up the energy it began with, giving rise to radiation and particles of all kinds as it does, which will condense into the material universe! It is a wonder to behold."
And God said, "What? No. I mean I did, but this isn't the inflaton field I'm talking about. This is something else."
And Verchiel said, "Wait, it's not?"
And God said, "No, I'm going to use a different field to drive cosmic inflation. The properties of this field are totally different."
And now Verchiel was also confused, and lapsed into silence.
And God said, "Like I was saying, this field is a scalar field with imaginary mass, and it does spontaneously decay to a ground state with a non-zero value. But it's not the inflaton field. Instead it combines with the W1, W2, W3, and B bosons."
And Metatron began to flip back through the pages of the Heavenly Record trying to figure out where he'd lost the thread.
And Zephaniel said, "The what bosons?"
And God said, "The W1, W2, W3, and B bosons. I'm sure I mentioned them. You know, the massless bosons?"
And Zephaniel said, "I'm pretty sure we only talked about the W+, W-, and Z0 bosons. All of which you said were going to have mass, O Owner of All Sovereignty."
And God said, "Yes, but this is how they get them, you see. Once this field acquires a nonzero value everywhere, the massless bosons interact with it and get mass. Well, some of them do. They turn into the W+, W-, and Z0 boson. And the photon."
And Zephaniel said, "…and the photon, O Accepter of Invocation?"
And God said, "Well, I did say I was going to unify the electromagnetic force and the weak interaction, didn't I? This is how. Above the critical temperature--right now I'm thinking 10^15 K, but I'm open to feedback on that one--electromagnetism and the weak force act as a single unifying force. Below that temperature, the field gets a nonzero value, you get three massive bosons to mediate the weak interaction, and the photon pops out seperately."
And Zephaniel said, "That seems… a bit overly complicated, doesn't it, O Reinstater Who Brings Back All?"
And God said, "No, it's exactly what we need. Look, that way the W and Z bosons have something to do, but the weak interaction still only travels short distances. Gravity is still the star of the show on cosmic scales, as it were. But now quarks and leptons can swap their flavor!"
And Zephaniel said, rather weakly, "Their… flavor, O Source of Good?"
And God said, "It's this new quantum number I'm trying out, to give the three generations of matter more unique identities."
And Cambiel said, "Three generations of matter? Now I'm really confused."
And God said, "I'm sure I mentioned this. You've got the lightest quarks and leptons, and then two heavier versions of each that can decay into the lighter versions."
And Cambiel said, "What do they do? New kinds of chemistry, is it?"
And God said, "Well, no. Mostly they just decay in a couple microseconds. Or even faster."
And Zephaniel began to rub his temples, and Cambiel sniffed.
And Cambiel said, "This all seems a bit ad hoc to me. Not really the stuff of an elegant and obviously ordered Creation. Why not have four generations of matter? Why not a trillion?"
And God began to grow irritable, and said, "Well, that's not really up to you, now is it? We're going to have three generations of matter, and the electroweak force, and that's that!"
And Zephaniel said, "As long as we are unifying fundamental forces, perhaps we could somehow also unify the electroweak interaction with the strong interaction, or even gravity."
And God hesitated saying, "Well, I haven't decided about that yet. I'm not sure I want gravity to be quantized, you know? Seems to take some of the geometric elegance out of general relativity."
And now it was Zephaniel's turn to sigh, and he bowed his head. "As you wish, O Possessor of Authority of Decisions and Judgement."
okay I'm gonna need you to explain what "thawing" a cheese means to you. is it bringing a cheese out lf the fridge and wait for it to be room temperature? is it heating it up so it's gooey and soft? i need to understand
No the cheese isn't frozen or cold. I don't know what other way to describe it as other than thawing? It makes a noise occasionally and when it stops it's usually done thawing
What process are you doing to thaw cheese. where do you keep the cheese such that it's not thawed. Which physical properties of the cheese change between thawed and unthawed
no no no i refuse to let this rest until i fully understand
so you. FREEZE the cheese? and then when you want to use it you. THAW it. that's what I'm getting from this conversation. is this correct??
also this might be important: what type of cheese are we talking about. cottage cheese? hard cheese? fake cheese (cheddar)? because i think i might be picturing the wrong type of cheese
What I don't understand is the PROCESS. like what is the ORIGINAL STATE OF THE CHEESE. is it just the state it is in when you buy it in the store. or is it cold. or is it room temperature. or is it warm.
and what is the exact process?? microwaving?? warm water??? just leaving it outside in room temp?????
please I seriously need to understand the PROCESS the cheese undergoes. if step-by-step instructions need to be spelt out then so be it but i really REALLY wanna know what's going on
Unfortunately I can't. I'm at work right now, and I'm heading out on a trip in 2 days so I already cleared out my fridge so nothing'll spoil while I'm gone. But trust me I'd absolutely do that if I could. This is really frustrating and I GUARANTEE if you all saw it you'd immediately recognize what thawing cheese is. I seriously think I'm just unintentionally using a niche regional name for it which is causing all this confusion
ill have you all know that the entire time I was gone i couldnt stop thinking about this so im DETERMINED to show you all not only WHAT thawing cheese is, but also what the SOUND is so i can FINALLY have an answer to my ORIGINAL GOD DAMN POLL
i have nothing in my fridge and im tired rn from driving 6 hours so instead of going to the store i'm just gonna swing by my aunt's place and see if she has any cheese that needs thawing
Have you heard that apparently the dinosaurs didn't die out from the meteor impact, but rather from a form of continuous volcanic eruption from the deccan traps?
Do you know if there's any merit to this theory?
that theory has been largely discounted because the Deccan Traps erupted around a million years before the meteor hit, and yet we see no decrease in fossil diversity in this period like we would expect if this caused the great extinction. Chicxulub is still the reigning champ of abrupt end-times, I'm afraid.
but this is probably because, unlike the Siberian Traps that accelerated the end-Permian Great Dying, the Deccan Traps were relatively slow! they did release absolutely staggering amounts of magma, but spread out over a period of like 800,000 years or so. life more or less just went on around it, presumably dodging the enormous surface pools of lava and plumes of toxic gas.
however there is a significantly more terrifying theory out there now that suggests that the Deccan Traps DID play into the end-cretaceous extinction event.... because the Chicxulub Impactor rattled the entire planet so hard that it caused almost every volcano on earth to erupt at the same time, including the Traps.
What the fuck do you mean that's a quilt??? Round 2
All quilts are contest winners from the quilt show Road to California, 2022. You can see these quilts and the other winners from that year here.
Best of Show Quilt
Title: Harlequinade
Maker: Rebecca Prior
Quilter: Jackie Brown
Design Basis: Maker's Original Design
"Harlequinade" is a theatrical quilt filled with visual clues guiding viewers to discover a hidden story. Inspired by Venetian Carnival masks and commedia del'arte characters, the quilt features the antics of Harlequin, the trickster, who has his own ideas about freedom and fun!
Director's Choice
Title: Welcome Home
Maker: David Taylor
Quilter: David Taylor
Design Basis: Original image by Margo Clabo, used with permission
I first saw this image from friend Margo Clabo more than a decade ago. It took years to convince her to let me adapt her photo into a quilt. The image it depicts is especially sentimental for her. The challenge for myself was to create a pieced pictorial background and recreate a traditionally pieced quilt by using my hand appliqué technique. The project size was overwhelming, but I'm thrilled with the finished quilt. So is Margo. Time to exhale.
Note: To be clear, that is not a photo with a quilt in it, that WHOLE THING is a quilt.
Best Machine Stationary Quilting
Title: Emerald labyrinth
Maker: Kumiko Frydl
Quilter: Kumiko Frydl
Design Basis: Maker's Original Design
As a starting point I used an image from the entrance to the EL Barkookeyeh Mosque in Cairo. Thinking of an elegant and intricate garden I added bursts of natural color and filled the area between the large elements of the design with finer ornament inspired by butterflies and plants. I set the circular image in a rectangular frame with a subdued complimentary design of rippled reflective pools.
1st Place: Animal
Title: Woodland Wilds
Maker: Ann Horton
Quilter: Ann Horton
Design Basis: Maker's Original Design
My morning hikes in the woodland hills of our northern California home inspired this quilt. The rabbits are always alert for danger. This machine appliqued, thread painted and embroidered view through a window is surrounded by wild flowers on hand dyed silk and again surrounded by other wild birds and animals. I love my wilds things in the woods!
1st Place: Human Image
Title: The Memories That Remain
Maker: Lynn Czaban
Quilter: Lynn Czaban
Design Basis: Library of Congress Photos - LC-USF33-006183MI and LC-USF33-0061
I am fascinated by the human face and our ability to communicate without uttering a single word. The Portuguese word 'saudade' meaning a deep emotional state of nostalgic or profound melancholic longing for something or someone that one cares for and loves. Moreover, it often carries a repressed knowledge that the object of longing might never be had again.
1st Place: Naturescape
Title: Desert In Spring
Maker: Andrea Brokenshire
Quilter: Andrea Brokenshire
Design Basis: Maker's Original Design
My Mom and I embarked on an epic travel trip we named our "Thelma and Louise Adventure" In Palm Springs, CA we visited the Living Desert Botanical Garden. This quilt is inspired by one of the photographs I took that spring day of a Prickly Pear Cactus in full bloom. I loved the leathery texture of the cactus leaves (paddles) and the almost translucent citron yellow blossoms.
2nd Place: Animal
itle: Not Today
Maker: Kestrel Michaud
Quilter: Kestrel Michaud
Design Basis: Maker's Original Design
The chase is on! The Roadrunner is after his next meal, chasing a Common Collared Lizard through a steampunk junkyard. The desert is a favored dumping ground for the detritus of progress, even in a fantasy world. A steam-powered industrial revolution creates iron refuse and pieces of broken machinery have been left to decay in dry desert air. That doesn’t bother these critters. To them, this is home. Will that lizard wind up as dinner? Not today!
2nd Place: Human Image
Title: Declaration of Independence - Voices of Freedom
Maker: Nancy Prince
Quilter: Terri Taylor
Design Basis: Reproduction of John Trumbull's Painting
The quilt is a reproduction of John Trumbull's painting which depicts the moment in history when the first draft of the Declaration of Independence was presented to the Second Continental Congress on June 28, 1776. The quilt front and back were created in Photoshop and custom printed on fabric. Four thousand hours over 4 years was necessary to create the quilt. The back captures the story of the Declaration and its signers.
Note: I'm not at all patriotic. But credit where credit is due. That's a fucking quilt.
3rd Place: Animal
Title: Midnight Flight
Maker: Joanne Baeth
Quilter: Joanne Baeth
Design Basis: Maker's Original Design
Several years ago we had an injured Great Horned Owl roosting in our willow tree during the day. I took several pictures and was inspired to create him in fabric. The background features a painted sky, old buildings, melting snow and a rabbit on the run The foreground is the swooping owl which was constructed by painting and inking each feather and thread painting over fabrics and needle punched wool rovings
3rd Place: Naturescape
Title: Day Into Night
Maker: Deb Deaton
Quilter: Deb Deaton
Design Basis: Maker's Original Design
Inspired from photo by Robert Murray with his permission. When the Arizona sun begins to set, the sky comes alive. I saw this photo and knew the splendor of this landscape needed to be captured with fiber! Sky is hand painted. Raw edge applique. Mixed media used: oil pastels, color pencils, inks to enhance the fabrics and create more dimension. Cheesecloth: painted to create spikes of cactus. Tulle used to capture the sunrays. Machine quilted.
[ID: An illustration of a mermaid with pale skin and long brown curls with a green tail, reaching out to a fish with the same color scales as her. She is seated on some rocks growing kelp and the branches of some underwater plants span out behind her.]
origamiaround
janainaart
jbbartram-illu
gummygunk
turnnoffyourmind
germansingergirl
jacobvanloon
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blakekathryn
