Hey,
Sometimes I draw concepts for Funko pops aswell as other things, but when I draw I often use black for the outline. That’s ok but it doesn’t look very much like a Funko pop then as they do not have a black outline around them of course.
Any advice?

Animal exploitation, as it is outlined by deontological vegans, does not always entail suffering, yet is wrong nonetheless. For example, using an animal’s manure for fertilization is considered exploitation yet doesn’t entail any more suffering than not collecting the manure from the animal.
It is an arbitrary deontological claim that exploitation is inherently wrong, and has about the same weight as a religious nut job saying shit like “being gay/trans is wrong.” Neither claim has any basis in reality. The “badness” exists purely in the deontologist’s imagination in both examples. It is manufactured.
But let’s say exploitation is wrong regardless of whether or not it causes suffering. If exploitation is wrong whether or not it causes suffering, then why isn’t exploiting plants for food, clothing, etc. wrong? It certainly is exploitation, after all.
“Because plants can’t suffer, but animals can?”
First of all, that would imply that the root of veganism is suffering prevention, which deontological vegans are for some reason deathly afraid of admitting.
Second of all, it’s the same argument that carnists use to justify animal suffering. “An animal isn’t intelligent, therefore it’s suffering is okay.” But animals can suffer, regardless of how intelligent they are. “A plant can’t suffer, therefore it’s exploitation is okay.” And plants can be exploited, regardless of whether they can suffer or not. That is the inherent flaw with both of these arguments, which makes them prone to “name the trait.” The fact that they draw arbitrary links between suffering and some other completely unrelated variable.
Ultimately suffering is the only thing that is objectively wrong. The badness of suffering doesn’t exist purely in the imagination, it is very real. Animal suffering is not bad just because I declare it to be. It’s bad because the animals feel bad when they suffer.
The only assumption I have to make is that animals’ feelings are just as real as my own. But I’m not willing to debate a solipsist on that.

John Domingo, the Night Man

"Was it the right thing? I had to go with what felt right--because from where I sit, seeing what I see--It's all free-form improv in the dark…!"

John Domingo was working as a professional saxophone player in San Francisco under the stage name Johnny Domino when he was struck by a piece shrapnel from a cable car that had been struck by the Jumpstart, a burst of energy from an alien on the moon meant to create superpowered people known as Ultras. Gifted powers by the Jumpstart, Domingo became the superhero Night Man, a street-level vigilante who can hear evil thoughts.
Source Key:
The Night Man (1993) Issue # = NM#
The Night Man (1995) Issue # = TN#
Freex (1993) Issue # = FX#
Break-Thru (1993) Issue # = BT#
The Solution (1993) Issue # = TS#
Firearm (1993) Issue # = FA#
The Night Man/Gambit (1996) Issue # = NG#
The Night Man: The Pilgrim Conundrum Saga (1995) = NP
The Strangers: The Pilgrim Conundrum Saga (1995) = SP
The Night Man vs. Wolverine (1995) = NW
Phoenix Resurrection: Genesis (1995) = PG
Phoenix Resurrection: Revelations (1995) = PR

Physicals

Strength

Striking

• Hits Tyrannosaur between two girders with a metal pole hard enough to warp one girder^NM11
• Shatters city hall's front door^NM15
• Punches a werewolf through a window^NM7
• Punches out the same werewolf^TN2
• Punches Rhiannon back hard enough to break a wood pole^NM4
• Beats up some robbers^NM7

Other

• Flings Tyrannosaur into machinery hard enough to smash it^NM11
• Breaks a man's neck^NM14
• Breaks off a lock with a piece of pipe^NW

Durability

Blunt

• Thrown aside by Loki^NM22
• Takes a punch from Mangle, who tears apart scaffolding with one arm^NM2
  • Takes more hits from Mangle, including getting hit into a giant sign's letter hard enough to break it off^NM2
• Takes hits from Tyrannosaur^NM6
  • Tyrannosaur breaks robots and destroys/warps steel girders with blows^NM6
• Takes a punch from bone claws Wolverine^NW
• Takes hits from a duplicate of himself^NM23
• Takes hits from Chalk^NM21
• Takes hits from Drop Kick^TS13
• Takes hits from Torso^NM6
• Takes a hit from Anything^FX6
• Rhiannon hits him with a wood pole hard enough to break it^NM4
• Takes a punch from a werewolf^NM7
• Hit in the head with a mace^TN3
• Ok after falling off of a small cliff^NM1
• Falls off of a building^NM1
• Falls from high in the air into the water^NM20

Piercing

• Adds kevlar to his costume, rendering a werewolf's claws ineffective^NM8
  • The werewolf can easily slices apart people^NM8
• Blocks a knife with his armored elbow^NM1
• Smashes through a window^NM7

Brain Weirdness

• Because of the shrapnel in his brain, Neurone, who's got the power to shut down brains, can't affect him^NM6
• His brain also makes him more resistant to Generator X's emotion manipulation^NP
• A blast from Pilgrim stuns the Strangers but not him thanks to his brain^SP

Other

• While being magically made feral, takes one of Gambit's kinetic cards^NG2
• Blasted by Pressure's steam attack^FX6
  • Pressure's steam can smash stone^{Godwheel 1}
• Rhiannon turns his taser on him^NM13
  • After this, he makes his suit completely insulated^NP
    • An electrified whip doesn't harm him^NP
    • Unharmed by an electrified maintenance hatch^NW
• Made his costume fireproof^TN3

Speed/Agility

Reaction/Dodging

• Dodges machine guns^NM6
  • Again^TS13
• Dodges more gunfire^NM14
• Dodges some pistol shots^NM16
• Blocks a shuriken after noticing it only inches from his head^NM14
• Dodges Gambit's cards^NG1
• Dodges a cannonball^NM5
• Dodges Naiad's water blast^NM6
• Dodges Lord Pumpkin's fire blast^TN4
• Dodges Anything's attack^NM3
• Dodges a punch from Mangle^NM2
• Dodges Teknight II's punch^NM11
• Dodges a swing from Teknight^NM9
• Repositions a man's arm to block his knife swing^NM1
• Dodges a werewolf throwing a vial of acid at him^NM7

MovementAgility

• Draws his gun and shoots a robber before he can draw his own gun^NM1
• Bounds up a building^FX6
• Bounds up a ferris wheel^NM19
• Swings from a rope off of a building onto another building's roof then jumps off down to his motorcycle in the alley^NM2
• Scales a building up to an office on the 49th floor^NM2
• Leaps off of his motorcycle over a crowd then lands back on the motorcycle^FX6
• Jumps off of a train onto the platform^NM12
• Jumps off of a building and swings from a rope to reach the ground^NM13
• Swings on a pole to reach the bottom level of a boat^NM18

Rope Swings

• Swings on a rope from a rooftop down to his motorcycle^NM16
• Wraps his rope around a flagpole to swing to safety while falling^NM17
• Wraps his grappling hook around a railing to swing to safety while falling^NM20

Skill/Misc

Enhanced Eyesight

• Can see in the dark^NM4
• Shoots through a gap in Mangle's bulletproof exoskeleton^NM3

Combat

• Trained in aikido^NM1
• Fights off a group of armed goons for 8 minutes after already having been cut open^NM14
• Defeats three of the Celtic god Cernunnos to prove himself worthy of attaining Celtic magick^TN∞

Throwing Accuracy

• Throws his mask so that it disarms his dad then hits him in the face^TN∞
• Throws a spiked knuckleduster to take down a gunman^NM14
• Grabs a knife out of the air and throws it to disarm a gunman^NM21
• Throws his dagger to cut a power line^TN4

Stealth

• Sneaks up on Gambit^NG1
• Sneaks up on Mangle from out of the shadows^FX6
• Sneaks up on Firearm in his hotel room^FA15
• Sneaks onto J.D. Hunt's plane^NM12
• Disappears from the Freex's sight^FX16

Rope Control

• Lassos Rhiannon's hand before she can operate some machinery^NM4
• Lassos a flagpole to fling himself into the air and hogtie Bloodfly^NM17
• Ties up Teknight with his rope to cell bars so it couldn't get any leverage^NM9
• Wraps up Neuronne with rope so she can't use her powers on him^NM14
• Lassos a skylight and pulls it down on Bloodfly^NM20
• Lassos a turret and turns it to take out some more turrets^NW

General

• No longer needs to sleep and can't be sleep deprived^NM2
• Deduces that the villain Pilgrim is the superhero Atom Bob^SP
• Uses Torso's fear of dismemberment to make him faint^NM6
• Tricks Pilgrim into thinking an evil thought to find where he's hiding^SP
• Sets up a trap to capture a werewolf^NM8
• Disarms a bomb^NP

GeaPowers

Gear

Costume

• Infrared lenses in his mask, one of which is telescoping^NM1
  • Reads writing on a photo from across the room with the telescoping lens^NM2
    • Reads a brochure next to a corpse from a distance^NM5
    • Watches Rhiannon from across the street^NM13
  • Sees through fog^NM6
• Records what he sees^NM8
• His cape is kevlar^NM15

Tasers

• Has tasers built into his gloves^NM4
• Shocks Anything^NM3
• Electrifies a rope to shock Rhiannon^NM5
• Electrifies Naiad's water stream^NM6
• Shocks a werewolf that grabbed his hand^NM7
• Electrifies a stream^NM8
• Shocks a werewolf in the back and solar plexus to knock him out^NM8
• Zaps a man^NM16
• Knocks out Spectral^NP
• Zaps one of Arcade's little devil dinosaurs^NW

Other Weapons

• A gun^NM2
• A knife^NM5
• Knockout gas^NM23
• Glue bombs^NM20
• Ultrasonic emitter^NM17

Misc

• Grappling gun^BT2
• Rope^NM4
  • He says his rope is unbreakable but Teknight breaks it^NM9
• Smoke bomb^NM12
• Laser torch^NM20
  • Burns Chalk's outline^NM21
  • Cuts through window bars^TN1
• Lockpick^NM20
• Carries numerous gadgets in the pouches hidden all over his costume^NM12

Telepathy

Night Man has the ability to telepathically hear the evil thoughts of others

Combat

• Hears a man think that he's going to shoot, allowing him to draw his own gun first^NM1
• Hears someone's intent to attack him^NM1
• Hears the thoughts of some people sneaking up on him^NM6
• Hears a sniper about to shoot^NM14

Non-Combat

• Hears a man think that he's going to kill someone later^NM1
• Hears a man about to attack a kid^NM2
• Senses Rhiannon watching him but can tell she's not doing so with evil intent^NM1
• Hears Rhiannon's thoughts as she's about to operate on some women^NM4
• Hears Naiad's thoughts^NM6
• Hears an evil thought in a nearby building^NM7
• Tracks a werewolf through the forest via evil thoughts^NM8
• Finds a man setting up a bomb^NP
• Hears some gangbangers planning to attack a woman as he's leaving her apartment^NM10
• Hears a man think about bribery^NM17
• Hears Bloodfly's intent to kill^NM17
• Loki's evil is louder than any other he's heard^NM22

Limits

• He can't sense any evil in Guy Hunt because Guy was raised to believe his actions weren't evil^NM3

Celtic Magick

After the sorceress Rhiannon magically empowered him, Night Man gained several extra abilities.

General

• His new powers include shooting blasts of electricity from his hands, controlling his rope with his mind, the ability to become nearly invisible by merging with shadows, and a knife that he can mystically track that only he can remove once he stabs it into something^TN1
  • Evades a werewolf by merging into shadow^TN1
• As payment for his magick, Night Man has to consume human organs every few months^TN1

Aura

• He also now sees an evil aura around evil people instead of hearing their evil thoughts^TN1
• Sees demon auras^TN2
• Sees the residual energy of the demons^TN3

Skean Dhu

• Summons a skean dhu dagger^TN∞
• Stabs a werewolf with his knife, which the werewolf can't remove^TN1
• Cuts rope^TN2
• Cuts open a portal to another dimension^TN3
• Cuts open a portal in San Francisco^PG and steps through to New York^PR
• Throws it to cut a power line^TN4
• Forms a connection to a magick crow, allowing him to talk to it^TN4

Electricity

• Shoots a blast of electricity at a werewolf^TN1
• Breaks a plexiglass tank full of water without shocking himself^TN1
• Incinerates demons^TN2
• Matches a blast of magick fire from Lord Pumpkin^TN3
• Zaps some knights^TN3

Rope

• Wraps up a werewolf with his rope^TN1
• Grabs Lord Pumpkin's candle out of his head^TN3
• Ties Lord Pumpkin's arm to his head^TN4

Respect Threads for scaling:

• Loki
• Gambit

I found this thread (https://www.reddit.com/AskWomen/comments/7p9jg9/domestic_abuse_situations_are_often_characterized/) through an online search on the problems platonic relationships pose for romantic ones, and while there's much to agree with here viz. abusive men, I've found no parallel here (nor anywhere else) for the abusive relationship that I find myself in (to my thinking at least). As this is an 'AskWomen' section of Reddit I would like to do just that -- because I am a man.
I met my partner ~ 11 yrs ago when I came to France for work -- she was, it seems, still involved with her ex (the father of her children) when we met, but I didn't know at first as they didn't live together. She also has this odious little character she keeps around who is a very old friend and effectively a second father to her kids. She has these other men in her life but I find that she makes the time for that other by taking that time from ours. She says that I'm being abusive, jealous, and controlling in this set-up and I contend the opposite; certainly my "odious" phrasing above might seem to lend credence to her POV, but let me outline some details of why I said this as I would very much like a female perspective here. The trouble started as soon as this character got wind of her new relationship with me -- swearing at her young kids, refusing to leave his room whenever I was in the house, engaging in grand-gestures (taking a taxi back to the airport and flying back to the UK, only to be beseeched back by telephone by my girlfriend's kids in floods ot tears two-days later), etc. This emotional blackmail had its desired effect -- her children stopped speaking to me and started hating me (blanking me whenever he was here, stealing from me, telling me they "wish I was dead", etc.), and my gf (understandably, I suppose) unconsciously sided with her children and it formed a wedge between us. When I stated my unhappiness about this situation and her effective sanctioning of his behaviour -- she said that told him that he couldn't come here anymore if this persisted, and he had agreed to stop -- that he loved her and her kids and only reacted the way he did because of what he thought he would lose, and she told me and that the responsibility to "build bridges" was mine. I hardly need describe what I thought about this, the damage already done, my only crime to start a relationship with someone new.
If that was all there was to it I could easily have looked past it (I'm never been the jealous type), but I found his presence to be wearing as he was here for the best part of six-months of every year (he's a retired pensioner): every breakfast, every lunch, every dinner, every day (pre-Brexit -- and thank heavens for Brexit in this one respect!) and I began to notice that my gf was increasingly only available to me in his company. She spent her summers going on holidays with him/her kids, telling me that I had her for the rest of the year (the cold, dark, part of the year where she is miserable, seasonal-affective disorder personified). I also began to see how she seemed intent on revalidating him by diminishing me in his presence or putting on a show for his benefit (shouting at me, being critical of me, being short with me in conversation, or just ignoring me altogether) and I started to withdraw from this. She told me I was being jealous, and that he was a part of her life that I would have to accept. I told her she was abusive and passive-agressive, which didn't help!
Neither is he the only problem, and I describe the following as symptomatic of a part of my gf's behaviour -- that she is too fond of the attention of other men. Perhaps you may conclude otherwise. You see, there's her ex- too (the father of her children) and he's also "part of her life" too. Does anyone other than me regard it is inappropriate and unacceptable that her ex- comes down for lunch every weekend? How about three days a week (to see his kids)? How about every single 5ucking week for the past 11 years?! She always sits facing him and I am left to one side. They only talk to each other and if I don't speak to her the entire meal for me passes in silence . When I initially questioned this continual attendance she said he only came to see his kids and so I put up with it until they left home -- which they did years ago and still he comes, every week (last time I raised this she tried to be jocular by highlighting his handyman abilities), but she never Ever allows him to see me close to her (or us kiss) and always keeps her distance from me in company when he is here -- another 'partner' validated at the expense of her actual partner. She takes him out to dinner alone on his birthday, whenever his family have any sort of event I am always excluded (although the platonic character is always taken), and I can't remember the number ot times that I've walked into our kitchen to find she and her ex- swiftly moving apart from a tete-a-tete (that she would never have with me if he were in the house). When I question any of this I get the same spiel, the asserted jealousy, or that I aggressive and unreasonable. My gf has just spent the past two weeks in the company of her platonic other-half when I hardly saw her at all despite us living in the same house, taking more time off work to garden with him in that time than she's taken off on my account in the last six-years, and the day after he goes she make herself unavailable again and when I go to find her to ask if she didn't think that it would be politic to spend half-an-hour of that evening with me given how little I've seen of her for the past fortnight I am presented with excuses and we have a blazing row. I have never, in 40+ years of dating, encountered a situation like this, a gf whose raison d'etre seems to be bending over backwards for every other man (and whom I am apparently supposed to take on trust she is not bending over for forwards as well); am I being unreasonable and controlling in finding such behaviour unacceptable and an abuse of her relationship with me? We've stopped having sex weekend-mornings (and now almost altogether) as it gets in the way of the cooking necessary for entertaining her ex, and in this sexual context she even told me the previous time that her platonic partner was here (he just left again after another two-week stay) that we couldn't have some planned daytime bedroom-fun because "...what would he think if we just went up to our bedroom during the day"! My reaction to this statement was as verbally explosive as one might imagine.
And that's just her platonic partner and her ex-partner. Now let me describe the situation with her boss. My gf has an outfit that she looks very fetching in and I have expressed no amount of admiration for her in it (indeed, the booties were purchased on my recommendation), so much so that we regularly used to engage in a particular sexual act with her wearing it. I soon noticed, however, that whenever she wore that outfit to work she would always come home with a description of how her lecherous boss had come back to the office that day and blah, blah, blah... I held my tongue to be certain about what I thought I was seeing but after 10 or 20 times of this I was forced into the obvious connection -- she was seeking to appeal to him physically. Nothing so wrong there I suppose, this is still a baldy-patriarchal world and a gal has to get along if she wants to get ahead professionally, but in the context of her other behaviours viz. other men I was less minded to be sanguine here. The last (two) straw(s) came recently when she was going away on a business trip with said fat-boss -- smiling as Messenger messages from him pinged while we were still in the bed in the morning, sitting grinning at her phone on the train while I stood there like a lemon on the platform waiting for her train to depart, and a long email to me at midnight describing the wonderful meal he took her for and the film at the cinema they went to, completely forgetting to ask me about the results of my cancer-remission test that day. Then when my birthday came around a couple of weeks later and she asked me what she should wear and suggested the outfit that I liked she was crass enough to tell me that was her boss' favourite outfit too, apparently unaware that I was already aware of what he liked her to wear and what she liked to wear for his benefit. Again I reacted negatively to this statement and, extraordinarily, she told me that he sexually assaulted her years ago -- it was all that I could do not to say that I was not surprised that a lecherous boss would do so as she seemed to be giving him all the signals he would expect of someone receptive to an approach. Ladies, who goes out to dinner alone with a man who sexually assaulted them previously (and that this was apparently reported on)? Who goes to a dark cinema alone with that man? Who continues to dress to appeal to that man post-assault (and then tells her partner what that man likes her to wear?!)?
I find all of this behaviour sickening frankly, and when I raise any of it with her I'm told that I'm being jealous, controlling, etc., and she even gaslights me now by saying that I imagine all of it. I always know when some bloke is coming around our house as she always dolls herself up for every tradesman's visit (apparently you only get the best price with a man if you "make yourself look attractive first"), but is happy to look like she slept in a hedge when it's just me and her. I don't mind the latter in the least and never need her made-up or dressed-up -- I find her attractive as-is, I just ask why she is only ever interested in making that effort for other men (cue tight-jeans and two different lipstick shades in as many hours). There's hundreds of other things too: she never fails to put me aside to answer the phone or the door -- even during sex -- in case it's an emergency (her mother "might have fallen down the stairs"), she regularly takes a call from family at lunchtime and talks the entire way through our meal (doing it once at a restaurant on my birthday -- although she did complain to me about her mother interrupting when she was at the retaurant with her ex- for his birthday), whenever in company she is voluble in her answers to statements from others but if I speak to her she'll either ignore me, offer a grunt, or a one-word Y/N answer (but if I speak to anyone else she'll quickly interject to negate or disagree with what I've said), she absolutely never lets me finish a sentence and immediately cuts me off, when we sit alone at a table (home, bar, restaurant) she looks to one-side or over my shoulder and if I ask her to attend she tells me she's "looking at her roses" or goes into her "...I can't just sit here looking into your eyes for hours-on-end" tirade. Last year when she was studiously staring over the top of my head in the restaurant I asked her if there was something wrong with my hair (she is invariably critical of my appearance) and she told me that she was looking at the waiter -- I asked if she could perhaps focus on the person taking her to lunch rather than the person serving it and she told me not to "be so rude". It feels very much like she's making clear to all concerned (and even those whose business our relationship is not) how little consequence I am relative to them, emulating the blanking behaviour that that little POS enforced on her kids by sticking his nose in our relationship. When I wanted to do something about the latter early on she would have none of it and he is now happy as Larry as he is validated in his position of being appended to our relationship -- the personal side of which she has effectively given away. She'll make endless excuses for not engaging verbally, tactilely, or physically in bed, swearing at me if I speak to her before she's ready to rouse, excusing herself once she is awake by saying that she can't stay if I try to cuddle her, putting her hand over her genitals if I put my hands on her body. Yet when I cease bothering and just go downstairs when I wake she lies there for hours saying she was waiting for me to come back. I have to ask her for sex ("it's too cold", "it's too bright", "I'm too tired", "I'm not a morning person", "I've got weeding to do"), I have to ask her for her company of an evening ("I can spare you ten minutes", "I haven't got long", "can't you wait?", "I've got to get this email finished", "I've got to go to my son's restaurant", etc.), taking time from our time together to get all of her chores done so that she can then spend hours, days, and weeks in the company of her other gentleman-friends tp give them her full attention, unencumbered. Then, when they've gone, she's unavailable to me again because she has to catch up with all the things she couldn't do while entertaining them or attending to her family's many needs. If I question any of this it's because I don't understand and am not close with my family (I did my time with them already), or don't have children, or don't have friends of the closeness that she does (not true -- I just don't impose those friendships on my relationships and recognise all of the dividing lines therein). If I try and spend time with her she's refractory and regards it as a chore and is largely mute, yet when I walk away she gets all offended, moist-eyed, and passive. I worked out out that I spend ~ 98% of every week in our relationship alone. There's a chicken-and-egg element to this sorry tale, as she says that she would be more invested in our relationship if there was more affection and if I loved her like her platonic partner does and I tell her that she is confusing effect with cause and that I never fell in love with her because of having to compete with a panoply of other blokes for access to my own girlfriend.
Am I jealous, needy, cntstruck, lovelorn, or needlessly dramatic? I don't think so -- I have long regarded infidelity in the physical sense as an odd, modern construct: if my gf saw a breathtakingly attractive man who propositioned her for a quickie that she took him up on it would not be the end of the world. We should no more want to experience just one person's body in life than one person's cooking (= never going to any restaurants), but personal fidelity is another matter. Even if I saw the most amazingly attractive female who I knew wanted me whilst I was in the company of my partner (this actually happened to me on two occasions long ago with a gf's sister and a gf's 'best-friend'), I would never, ever marginalise that partner or make her question her standing in that situation as that would be absolutely beyond the pale. Yet my gf purposely marginalises me in company all the time. It's cheap, nasty, and ultimately why I know that she and I have no future together. Her need to sideline her partner for the attention of other men is what brought us together so I shouldn't be surprised that is what took us apart. Many men (whose input I really don't want -- please) would regard her as a slattern, but I do not. But having never encountered such aberrant behaviour before I don't really know what to think.
If you've read this far then you must think that I'm a colossal, desperate 5ucking idiot who can't see the obvious in all of this. But I'm not, and I'm perfectly aware of what it all means -- this is a dead relationship with someone I should perhaps never have started one with (but one that I choose to stay within because of other entities that we both share and that neither is willing to be parted from). Neither am I simply venting as I am resigned to the hopelessness of the situation (I know all about facing reality from my experience with cancer, which disease my gf also kindly once advised me also was not her fault). No, what I want is to try to understand what this behaviour means and to have an external female view of whether I am to blame for any of it. And that's what I would like from you dear ladies (please don't read a patronising tone in that phrase), and input from as many of you as possible so that whatever conclusion I draw is as robust as possible. If I get enough useful responses I may even show this thread to her, not because I can't articulate any of this myself (which I have, ad nauseum), but because I would like her to see what other women / someone other than me thinks of the behaviour that I describe. I don't believe that I'm at fault but am perfectly ready to hear any reasonable argument that I am because it might give me closure and show that perhaps I had a hand in creating my own misery. It might even make me feel a little better about who I am. When I met this woman (she was 51, I 48) I was on the rebound from a long-term relationship with a much-younger partner, and I thought that I had found heaven on Earth. The years that followed showed that I had instead found the opposite. I have never been so unhappy.
Please help me to understand.

It's Wednesday and you would be surprised how long it took me to realize that the majority of watches released yesterday were actually Swatch Group. That Tissot has me spending money.

What's new

1/
Tissot Releases The Best Summer Watch Of The Year, The Forged Carbon Sideral
The late 60s and 70s are arguably the golden age of watch design. It’s the time when watches stopped being elegant personal timekeeping devices and became tools. Or, at least, gave the illusion of being a tool watch so you could look like a badass on the beach. It gave us luxury sports watches like the Nautilus and Royal Oak, gorgeous chronographs from Heuer and dive watches from the likes of Blancpain and Rolex. It was also the the time of experimenting with materials and Tissot used their Sideral to do so. Since it’s supremely cool today to revive funky vintage watches, Tissot is now bringing back the Sideral, also experimenting with new materials, but this time with forged carbon.
The late 60s version of the Sideral was the first watch to ever use a monobloc fibreglass case. Two years later, the Sideral S was introduced, a sportier take on the concept with a now famous yellow rubber strap and different fastening system.
The new version retains a lot of the aspects of the original, but updating it for the age it’s made in. It retains the barrel shape of the case made of forged carbon fibre and stainless steel that measures 41mm in width and 46.5mm in length. You can get the watch in three colors, and while the black & yellow and black & grey models show the natural colours and pattern of the forged carbon fibre, the black & blue one comes with blue flakes embedded into the material. The unidirectional rotating bezel on top is fitted with a black insert and a graduated regatta scale in white. The screw-down crown ensures it is water-resistant to 300m.
The dial is predominantly black, with either a grey, blue or yellow minute track. This segmented track is accompanied by a green and red regatta countdown section between 12 and 2 o’clock. Tissot is a Swatch company, so it’s just natural that it gets the Powermatic 80 automatic movement. This is Swatch Group’s go-to automatic for several brands and is essentially a heavily modified ETA 2824 which has gotten decent reviews and has an 80 hour power reserve.
The watch comes on three perforated rubber straps in yellow, red or blue, inspired by the original yellow one. Additional coloured straps are said to be available too.
Each of the watches, available now, will retail for EUR 1,075. Looks like Tissot has another hit on their hands.
2/
The New Certina DS Action Diver 43mm Is Pitch Black
Cartina has had a long stretch of being neglected by owners and undermined by the public. But boy, are they back. In the past couple of years they have regrouped and boy, are they on a bender. Vintage reissues, fantastic affordable divers… they even have a modular watch system which is… meh. However, the latest release form the Swiss watchmaker is not meh. In fact, it’s pretty bold. The new Certina DS Action Diver is super black.
It’s a big diver, there’s no denying it. 43mm wide, 51mm lug-to-lug and 13.1mm thick. It’s a stainless steel case with a matte black PVD coating, as well as a matte black ceramic insert within the coin-edge bezel. The blackness of the insert is broken up with a single bright white lume pip at 12. The NATO strap it comes on is also black and made out of recycled plastic. The one downside of the case is the fact that it has a 21mm lug width, so good luck finding a different strap.
The dial is just as black, with contrasting crisp white makers that glow like crazy. The triangles at the quarters and the arrowhead hour hand do help to lend an extra sense of aggression to the dial. There’s a date window at three o’clock. Certina, like Tissot, is owned by the Swatch group, so no surprises on what’s inside - it’s the Powermatic 80.
The Certina DS Action Diver in black is now available from all Certina authorised retailers. Price: CHF895
3/
Mido Introduces Stylish Multifort Powerwind Collection
Here’s another brand from the Swatch Group that has been kicking ass in the past few years - Mido. It might be controversial, but the Mido Ocean Star Decompression Worldtimer is one of my favorite watches of the past few years. Mido does vintage fantastically, just like they did last year when they introduced a limited edition, COSC-certified, revival of the 1954 Multifort Powerwind. Now, Mido is introducing three new variations of the Multifort Powerwind that will be part of the brand’s permanent collection.
The Multifort is Mido’s most important watch. Born in the 1930s, this automatic, anti-magnetic, water-and shock-resistant watch has become its bestseller. The concept was drastically updated in 1954 with an innovative automatic movement and renamed the Powerwind. Developed in collaboration with partner A. Schild SA, the automatic part of the movement reduced the components from the standard 16 to just seven, making it easier to build and service while enhancing durability and reliability.
The new models retain the same elegantly designed case with its thin, twisted lugs, box-shaped sapphire crystal and overall retro style as the limited edition released last year. Compared to the 1954 watch, it has grown quite a bit and is now 40mm wide and 12mm thick. What changes most regarding the design, compared to the limited edition of last year, are the dials.
The permanent collection is no longer a day-date model, but rather just a time and date watch, with reworked markers that are a combination of applied triangular indices and printed Arabic numerals. You can get it in three versions: steel with black dial, steel with blue dial, yellow gold PVD-coated steel with champagne dial.
Perhaps the biggest change happens on the inside - while the limited edition last year had a chronometer-certified ETA 2836-2 movement, the permanent collection gets, you guessed it, the Powermatic 80, here named the Caliber 80. The watch comes on a 3-link stainless steel bracelet with a folding clasp and quick-release spring bars.
You can get the watches now, priced at EUR 970 (black and blue) or EUR 1,160 (PVD gold).
4/
Rado Adds Three Ceramic Watches to their Great Gardens of the World Series
Rado is a polarizing brand. Some love it, others almost detest it. But there’s no denying that Rado has done impressive things with the use of ceramic, be it their retro sports watches in the Captain Cook line, the super minimalist watches in the Designer line or the dressier models like the True Thinline. This is Rado’s slim ceramic watch intorduced in 2011 that is now getting three new models with textured dials inspired by endangered plant species in partnership with the Great Gardens o the World organisation.
This is not the first time that Rado is working with Great Gardens of the World, a network of gardens across 20 countries. They have made seven watches prior, making these Chapters 8 through 10. All three of the new watches have the same 40mm high-tech ceramic monobloc case that’s only 9mm thick, with ceramic bracelets that have a triple-folding titanium clasp. Inside the watch is the Rado 766 movement, based on the ETA 2892.
The major differences of the three come from the looks of the watches. Chapter 8 is housed in a black polished ceramic case, with the dial recreating the pleated leaves of the Hawaiian Luolu lelo palm tree. The hands and brand name are golden coloured. Chapter 9 is dedicated to the Chilean Araucaria, or monkey puzzle tree, and comes in a glossy, white high-tech ceramic case. The sharp, scale-like leaves of the tree are replicated on the dial with a composition of engraved triangles in opalescent mother-of-pearl. Chapter 10 is dedicated to the Dragon Blood Tree in a grey ceramic case and a two layer dial. The top layer is a skeletonised plate cut out in organic shapes to evoke the thick, entangled branches of the Dragon Blood Tree, revealing the lower layer in a pink gold colour.
The trilogy – Chapters 8, 9 and 10 of the Rado True Thinline Great Gardens of the World – is available in a collector’s box, limited to 99 units. Alternatively, each model can be purchased individually for EUR 2,900.
5/
The New Edox SkyDiver 38 Date Automatic Is A Vintage Inspired Skin Diver For You If You Want A Smaller Watch
The Edox SkyDiver has an interesting story. The brand claims that a mysterious drawing was found in their archives which turned out to be “the sketch of a long-lost timepiece, the SkyDiver”. Along with the sketch, there was a scrawled note reading: 1973. Special production in strictly limited edition“ According to a retired Edox watchmaker, the SkyDiver was rumoured to be a secret project for a mysterious, wealthy Swiss colonel. The anonymous colonel wanted an exclusive timepiece for elite mountain paratroopers under his command. It had to combine the no-nonsense functionality of a dive watch with the style and aesthetics of a precision pilot’s watch.
So Edox took these sketches and remade it in modern times with a bronze version that followed. In 2021, the SkyDiver was entirely revamped with new looks and upgraded materials, yet a solid vintage touch, in a case of 42mm. To fix the biggest complaint they got, they are now releasing a new version - the 38mm SkyDiver.
It’s basically the same watch, but smaller. It’s a traditional skin-diver watch, with a straight case, unprotected oversized crown, rather slim case profile topped by a heavily domed crystal. The screw down crown gives you 300m of water resistance and the domed crystal brings the thickness to 13.7mm. You can have it with two dial colors - black or blue, with a matching ceramic insert on the bezel, and it has a glossy vintage finish with applied markers with orange highlights.
Inside is the Selita SW200-1 automatic movement with 4Hz frequency and 38h power reserve. Both colors come on a 3-link brushed and polished steel bracelet closed by a triple folding clasp.
The watch is available now and is priced at EUR 1,575 (excl. taxes).
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On hand - a selection of reviews

1/
Hands on with the Q Timex Three Time Zone Chronograph
2/
A review of the updated mint green Rolex Sky-Dweller
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Watch Worthy - A look at an offbeat, less known watch you might actually like

How time shaped the Type 20 chronograph, and the brands that keep the legend alive
Watches and military history have an unbreakable bond. You only need to think back to the very beginnings of the wristwatch as a tool. During the Anglo-Burma War and First Boer War, soldiers began to strap pocket watch cases with primitive soldered lugs to their wrists, which opened the door for a new market. Fast-forward some 70 years, and you’ll find yourself in a new world, free from the shackles of World War II. Despite it being a time of peace, the French government found itself in need of accurate, reliable timepieces, resulting in the Type 20 chronograph that took inspiration from the designs of German pilot’s chronographs of the 1930s and 1940s, and applied it to the set of regulations outlined by the French. Today, original Type 20 pieces remain highly sought-after, spawning many re-editions and homages, with one brand in particular making the most of the design.
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Dear mods this is the height of non credible- I have no knowledge of warfare and have been staring at a map for 3 minutes. I’ve been thinking in my armchair a lot about the upcoming counteroffensive and how Ukraine can perform a successful counteroffensive. Yeah think my final thesis could be quite a game changer and having war gamed it on risk twice I’m convinced that this will be the most successful strategy. (As in most funny)
Before we begin it is important to outline the three or four most important objectives for the counteroffensive.

1. There must be visible success- this will allow Ukraine to maintain western support.
   
2. The success should not result in Russia being able to regain territory rapidly once Ukraine had lost troops and weaponry in the assault.
   
3. Therefore Ukraine need to both damage the Russian army physically and psychologically enough that they cannot respond, whilst also sustaining as minimal damage to their own troops, weapons and supplies as possible.
   
4. Ukraine must be careful not to lose their moral superiority. Essentially the western world have dictated the rules that Ukraine play under. Shaping operations must be directed towards the western opinions on the rules they play under as much as against Russian supplies.
   

Now that we have established these aims let’s look at the map again. Now prior to May all the focus was on a thrust south towards Mariupol. This would split the Russian forces in two, mass encirclements and effectively suffocating crimea. The problem is that this was very obvious to the Russians too and we’ve seen massive defensive work taking place to make this impenetrable. Despite this, it is still theorised that this could be where the thrust comes, with potential attacks to the east drawing Russian forces away.
The problem is this plan runs into issues with my key objectives 1 and 3. Ukraine runs the risk of not managing to penetrate the lines, and also even if they do, losing huge numbers of troops in the process. So although I like the theory, I think it needs discounting at the moment.
More recently we’ve seen multiple attacks inside Russia both from drones, missiles, and troops. I argue that not only are these shaping operations, knocking out important supplies to the Russian frontlines and reminding the Russian population that they are in a war, they also are successfully shaping the western rule book to allow Ukrainian troops to move through Russian territory to achieve objectives. Indeed the UK and Germany both have now stated this.
So suppose Ukraine actually began the offensive with a thrust towards Valuyki? Imagine the panic in Moscow, then swept south sweeping along and just behind Russian positions? The attacks in Belgorod demonstrated how slow the Russians are to such incursions. Ukraine could race down to Mariupol almost unopposed for the first day and likely much of the second. Thiswould result in the encirclement of much of the Northern forces should they reach Mariupol then they could theoretically surround almost the entire Russian army. But even if it was just the northernmost armies that were encircled this would be a huge statement of the ability of Ukraine and the state of the war. Anyway that’s my plan and when it happens you heard it here first.

When it comes to architectural design, structural integrity is of utmost importance. And one of the key elements that ensure the strength and stability of a building is the effective utilization of structural steel. Steel detailing plays a crucial role in transforming architectural plans into precise and accurate construction drawings. In this blog post, we will explore the significance of steel detailing in architectural design and understand how steel detailing companies provide essential services for successful construction projects.
What is Structural Steel Detailing?
Structural steel detailing involves the creation of detailed drawings and models that outline the specifications, dimensions, and connections of steel components within a building structure.
TO READ THE FULL BLOG CLICK HERE

Naturally, this isn’t a fool proof way to find type. The main purpose of this is to gather new perspectives to aid my own evaluation. I will be happy with comments that outline any impression you may have about my personality, even if you don’t point out a specific perceiving axis. Order: Si, Se, Ne, Ni
Si
Affirmative:

• · I tended to buy the same stationery as studygram accounts and top students to help motivate myself. Seeing the stationery would remind me of these role models.
• · I tend to fixate on details when focused on something I want to turn out well, such as in writing, drawing, etc.
• · I tend to go to the same places to eat and listen to the same song over and over again.
• · I am very aware of how sleep affects my physicality. I cannot function with anything less than 8 hours of sleep.

Negative:

• · Nostalgia is a foreign concept - once the moment has passed, it loses its colour and literally disappears into the abyss lol.
• · I don’t compare new sensory experiences to ones I remember so I could develop a personalised meaning from it.
• · I only learnt about the things I described earlier when studying functions lololol

Se
Affirmative:

• · Experiences are always the most vivid in the moment.
• · I navigate the world in a flow state – often, I may do things in the spur of the moment that weren’t planned beforehand.
• · I consider aesthetics in a depersonalised manner that prioritises the concrete qualities of the object. The bread tastes like …bread.
• · I tend to develop addictions easily. Phone screen time, junk food, and gacha machines. Thankfully, I haven’t ventured into other ones that you may have initially thought of.

(Negative)

• · I am not good at fast paced high stimuli environments like working in fast food where I would have to act reflexively.
• · I don’t have to experience something in order to get energised from it. I was literally in the supermarket looking at food and the thought of eating all these delicious things was enough to satisfy me so I didn’t feel compelled to buy anything.
• · I tend to be caught up in my mind and miss details right in front of me. I also lose stuff easily.

Ne:
Affirmative

• · When ideating, I am comfortable starting from scratch and writing down whatever comes to mind, as long as I have a general gist of what I want to say. This doesn’t apply to talking.
• · I can make unconventional connections between ideas that originate from physical stimuli. Example: Blue book with yellow font in front of me –> navy ship -> sailor’s outfit -> anime girls -> fried chicken???
• · I like hearing from multiple perspectives, especially ones that I haven’t considered before, to help me arrive at “the truth of the matter”, which is what I am doing here.
• · I get feedback that I am very open minded, willing to listen to perspectives that are so different to my own and finding their merits and valid points even if I disagree.

Negative:

• · I tend to get annoyed when people get off topic if I become invested in a particular idea and want to discuss it in further depth.
• · I may forget to look outside the box at times and reframe my outlook when I become so focused on one possibility.
• · Stereotypical, but I don’t see the humour in puns. Even when I understand the logic behind them, they aren’t funny.

Ni:
Affirmative:

• · If this is an indicator, I’m the most scared of explaining this function lololol.
• · I’ve always been good with interpreting the underlying message of a literary text and framing it in the context of its overarching themes. I want to peer deeper and deeper, often never satisfied with the level I already have.
• · In terms of my “predictions,” I just knew that Covid would be a big thing back in early January of 2020. I didn’t have any reasoning for it but I was compelled by a sense of inner knowing.
• · I am a visual thinker who views concepts with images in my mind. It’s automatic. Though, this could just as well be Ti.

Negative:

• · I perceive time with a present first mentality. The past has disappeared into the abyss and I create vague image impressions of my ideal future.
• · I tend to consider myself as a bit thoughtless and random. When I play games, I tend to rely on luck rather than strategy.
• · I often abandon long term goals for hedonistic pleasures

What is Rock, Paper, Shotgun?
Rock, Paper, Shotgun (RPS) is a PC-gaming focused site based in the UK that was started in 2007. It has the usual gaming site content – Top 5/10/50/100 lists, publisher or developer press releases dressed up as news, reviews, previews, press event reports, a podcast, and – important to this story – a comment section below articles where gamers and capital-G Gamers, left-wing and right-wing alike, can find unity in complaining that their favourite was inappropriately placed in the aforementioned Top 5/10/50/100 lists.
(Fun fact: one of the co-founders of RPS was Kieron Gillen, who has since worked on Uncanny X-Men, Young Avengers, Marvel’s Darth Vader, and co-created Doctor Aphra.)
Of note, RPS bucks the generally apolitical nature of gaming sites by being quite openly left-wing. Though it generally isn’t a feature of many articles, it does show up on occasion, and not always in the best light. For instance, this article that has an unusual bone to pick with Rainbow Six Siege having a female hostage in the E3 demo. Despite Tom Clancy himself having a reputation as a conservative, and that’s pretty evident in his fiction, the Rainbow Six series has been unusually progressive in having women fighting terrorists alongside the men since the inception, and Siege was no exception. It was actually quite rare in the ‘90s that a woman not named Lara Croft was involved in the action alongside the boys, so it does seem like an article about Rainbow Six’s treatment of women is more about having a bone to pick.
(Editorial note: I do not believe a person’s identity is political. Some people do. There’s a saying that applies to capital-G Gamers – “There are two genders: male and political.” Often when they decry keeping politics out of video games, it’s directed at any sort of inclusion. So, the political slant on this is just to point out that left-wing people are generally pro-trans and right-wing people are generally not. Spoiler alert, this is a discussion about trans people.)
What is wargaming?
Within gaming, there are genres. Wargaming is one of them, and quite niche. Within the genre, there’s a diverse spectrum of passion. Some would consider themselves wargaming fans if they played and liked the Total War series. More hardcore wargamers would vehemently disagree and look down their nose at a game that has giant men standing on a world map; in their minds, wargaming is the domain of the chit and NATO symbology – a whole other language where a rectangular with an X through it represents an infantry unit, and the number of Xs or Is above the rectangle represents its size from XXXXX being army group, XX being division, II as battalion or I as company. (Give me hexes or give me death!) But in general, it’s operational (think the Italian campaign of WWII), strategic (the invasion of Sicily the Allies), or tactical (taking a specific town in Sicily with a regiment), and generally turn-based but occasionally real-time. You won’t find Age Of Empires in this genre, for instance.
Wargaming is not exclusive to the digital space either, and it’s just as likely to be played around an enormous table with intricate landscapes, pushing 8mm, 15mm or bigger pieces, usually hand-painted, and rolling dice. They’ll have a hefty rulebook in hand to consult how many dice you roll and what sort of success you need in order for your British mortar team to successfully knock out the German machine gun nest on the rooftop. Warhammer 40K is the most famous example, but that’s a single guy per base; the deeper wargames have a single base representing a squad or platoon stuck together to move as a group.
(The more hardcore have taken on the moniker grognards, a reference to old soldiers and specifically the original Imperial Guard that fought under Napoleon at Waterloo.)
What’s The Flare Path?
Among the contributors to RPS was one named Tim Stone, who started writing for the site as soon as it was founded. (I cannot use anonymity, so the usual sub rules apply about leaving people alone; Tim’s still writing and in order to engage with this drama, we have to link articles that clearly have his name on them.) There’s a distinction between staff and contributors; staff were full-time employees of the business, whereas contributors are just freelancers who pop in and out. He was not a run-of-the-mill writer who would guzzy up press releases, Tim only had one ongoing feature called The Flare Path with a supplemental Friday Foxer. Though he started out doing little comics under the title Strafe Left, he moved on to reviews and features before creating the regular feature The Flare Path in 2011.
The title The Flare Path is a reference to the lights that outline runways, allowing aircraft to take off or land at night. And that is a pretty good summation of the feature, because Tim’s focus was exclusively on wargaming and simulations, which could mean directing squadrons of aircraft to take off for a mission, or yourself piloting a plane to a gentle landing guided by the flare path. Every Friday, you would just as likely find an article about a game where you drive a train in rural England as you would a wargame where you command Roman legions in that very same countryside. Among the regular features were A2Z articles, where Tim would have short snippets for each letter of the alphabet, with Q often necessarily “Quick tea break” due to the infrequency of that letter showing up. For instance, a new ARMA game might be A, then teasing a review of Battle Brothers is B, and so on, just a fun way to wrap up a lot of short bits of news that don’t have enough meat for a full article.
Another article type would see Tim break out of his usual Friday containment and run communal games, typically Combat Mission. Combat Mission is a WWII/Cold War turn-based tactics game where you’d queue up orders to your units that would then be executed for 60 seconds, during which the other side would be executing their own orders and you’d simply have to watch how your planning and preparation plays out. And it turns out, this is surprisingly adaptable to a group game – Tim would grid the map, lay out a scenario, identify the units and the objectives, and then people would comment below the article to give instructions. You could only move one unit in a turn and you had to be the first to claim that unit, but you’d say, for example, “I’d like to move 1st Squad to H3 and try to suppress the machine gun,” and Tim would take your comment and play it out. The next day, he’d do a little narrative report on who did what, where, and when, and what the enemy did in response, in a fun narrative way, even naming characters who pulled off particularly heroic or cowardly feats. Then he’d update the map, and the next turn begins.
Alongside his regular article, he’d also post a Friday Foxer. He’d have a variety of different games in the Foxer genre, and often rewarded correct answers with prizes – usually codes for games that developers gave him. One type was giving clues to a location and the readers would have to deduce where Tim was “standing” that fit all the criteria. Others were Catchphrase-like messages hidden in images that you’d need to decode, or a series of seemingly-unrelated images which had a theme that you’d need to identify.
I go on these tangents to emphasize that Tim had built himself a little community on RPS. While contributors did reply to reader comments in articles, Tim was often playing a game with readers, which endeared him to some people. Not only that, if you were interested in wargaming or simulations, any article on RPS about those genres was typically Tim’s domain. For a certain group, Tim was the only regular source of news on two niche genres, and the only reason to read RPS if the newest action game or looter-shooter didn’t appeal to you. There was and (spoilers) is nothing like The Flare Path and the Foxers on RPS, as far as actual engagement with the article itself through community wargames or puzzles.
Equally important, wargaming itself is niche enough that there are few others who do what Tim does. Wargaming.net is actually the name of the company who makes World Of Tanks, World Of Warships and others – ironically, none of which would qualify as wargames and would barely pass musters as simulations either. Wargamer has infrequent articles. The best podcast on the subject is Three Moves Ahead (which originally launched as the podcast for the now-defunct Flash Of Steel website), but the podcast is infrequent as well, is primarily focused on a single game per episode (though with comparisons made by the host or guests to other games), and has a bit too much focus on Total War or every single new Paradox DLC for Crusader Kings at the exclusion of more niche titles.
On a weekly schedule, Tim became a stable pair of hands, and was directing his community to support all sorts of up-and-comers who were otherwise ignored or neglected or just invisible to wider gaming press.
I also want to point out that there’s an often-unspoken ethical question at the core of wargaming as a hobby. To his credit, Tim often wrote about it, and would even avoid wargaming topics as a matter of sensitivity to significant dates. As players in this hobby, we are moving chits around that represent thousands of people and though nobody obviously dies, wargaming frequently deals with historical events and it’s something we need to be aware of. Tim would frequently muse in his articles or bring it up in interviews with developers – to paraphrase, what we’re doing for “fun” is essentially turning some very dark times in human history into entertainment, and to what extent should we be aware of that? Should we want to simulate “playing” as Germany to conquer Europe, which in the real world resulted in tens of millions of innocent and not-so-innocent people dying? It’s a tough conversation to have and Tim chose to engage with it, which probably put him offside with some of his readers, because it’s a topic that actually genuinely is bringing politics into gaming, unlike a lot of the gaming discourse.
A journalist is booted off a fictional radio for being a bit TERFy, resulting in a journalist being booted off a website for being a bit TERFy.
The inciting incident for this drama is an article posted in 2020 about a UK journalist who was one of several used by game developer Ubisoft to provide voiceovers for the video game Watch Dogs Legion. In the article, it is revealed that this journalist had in the past posted a 2017 The Times article titled “A man can’t just say he has turned into a woman.”
What is TERF? Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist, which probably spiked the Google charts more recently with The Author Who Shall Not Be Named. I will add this disclaimer, I am inferring things about Tim when I call him a TERF, and maybe I’m giving too much credit. I don’t know if Tim Stone is a feminist, so I’m giving the benefit of the doubt, and I wear that. The author of The Times article is a self-proclaimed feminist, and does claim to support trans right, but according to the RPS article, “(She) uses familiar hand-wringing about biological sex, transgender identification as a trend, and people with penises in women's changing rooms.” I’ll leave it up to your judgement whether you think either is an actual TERF or not.
In an unusual move, one Tim Stone showed up in the comments of the above article, and that’s the meat of this drama.
The Alamo but with TERFs.
The comments, as you can imagine, were completely chill since obviously “censoring” a “journalist” in a “video game” for “anti-trans views” outside of the game itself is just the perfect intersection of everything political on an internet forum possible. (The voiceover in the game was scripted by Ubisoft and was itself not an issue; they were choosing to remove the voiceover to remove association with the journalist based on their views.)
One user wrote:

there are diverse voices within RPS when it comes to games, genres, preferences etc but I would say (and i’d be prepared to be challenged on this) there is zero diversity in respect of political views and arguable groupthink and alignment particularly around trans issues.

To which Tim opined:

There's at least one regular RPS contributor who'd like to see the site show a little more respect for the gender critical position in the trans rights debate. Me.

He proceeded to link several articles, saying,

I agree with all those arguing for more constructive discussion and less name-calling in this debate.

And we’re off to the races.
One commenter wrote:

never mind 'gender critical' being an obvious dogwhistle, it boggles the mind that you think "trans rights debate" is an acceptable string of words in 2020
trans rights are human rights, this shit isn't a debate

And significantly, it wasn’t just site users who were chiming in. Another writer for RPS came in guns blazing:

The "gender critical position" is tired snivelling cowardice hiding behind Very Real Concerns while throwing shit at the people whose lives are routinely treated like an intellectual excercise. [sic]
I am frankly embarrassed [sic] to see you repeating such dogwhistling bullshit. The obviously lying "I am cancelling my subscription!!!" oafs in here are one thing, but this is just sad.

What the writer was alluding to was the typical capital-G Gamer response to anything political (and often something is only “political” if they don’t like it), namely “Get your politics out of my video games.” Often the corollary of that was “..or I’m getting out of your website.”
The inciting article is itself tame. Incredibly tame. As referenced earlier, it has the usual games journalism scent of just dressing up a press release. At the most judgemental, they referenced that the voiceover-providing journalist had “some pretty ugly opinions about transgender people” and “that’s decidedly not neat,” which is just the lovely understatement you get from British people. “This is a bit bothersome” was, I believe, repeatedly uttered during the Blitz.
I won’t bore with copying over more comments, but it gets quite heated – although Tim seems to remain quite collected in the comments, which does have an air that he isn’t aware of what kind of hornet’s nest he’s kicked. The most noteworthy exchange is between a user and Tim, where the user writes:

It is distressing that you think my rights as a trans person are subject to some sort of "trans rights debate," and that "gender critical" is anything but a dog whistle for the same transphobic rhetoric as I've always been subject to, but now behind a veneer of intellectualism and civil discourse.
This isn't a matter of left and right, it's a matter of respect for other human beings. Good to know at least one RPS writer has none for me.

And Tim’s response:

I have profound respect for you and your life choices.
I also believe that questions like "Should trans women be allowed to compete in female sports?" and "Should male-bodied trans women be housed in womens' prisons?" are worthy of debate.
To forbid all debate on "trans rights" and to seek to silence and cancel people who don't unquestioningly support one side of the argument seems horribly totalitarian to me.

If you were to take an unfriendly view of Tim, this might be it – calling a person’s transition a “life choice”, and then putting the question of trans rights up for debate, calling the desire not to debate someone’s human rights “totalitarian.”
In all, Tim would comment eight times, with his last being:

Some proposed trans rights clash with women's rights in certain areas. It is not bigoted to point this out or advocate debate so that compromises can be reached.

Overrunning the drop zone.
Five days later, the RPS Twitter account posts this tweet.

Trans rights are human rights. We strive to create an inclusive space for all people. Earlier this week, a freelancer used the RPS comments section to express views that failed in that goal. We will no longer be working with this freelancer or publishing their column.

And just like that, the flares are snuffed and Tim’s time at RPS comes to an abrupt end after 13 years of service.
The responses, I’m sure you can imagine, are the usual volleys from the usual battle lines. Left-wing and trans rights people are chuffed to bits, believing that an insidious TERF has been weeded out from RPS. They view his comments about bathrooms and sports as the usual dogwhistle, typical of the alt-right where the goal is to draw increasingly smaller circles to exclude trans people from one thing after another until they ultimately cannot exist in society. Gamers with a right-wing focus and wargamers (and those are not mutually exclusive) try to cancel culture RPS, many declaring that they’d never return to the site for this grave injustice. And for wargamers, that’s pretty easy; Tim was the only one catering to their genre appetite, and there literally was no reason to return without Tim. The most vanilla response was those who didn’t care about the comment section conflict at all and just wanted their dang wargaming news.
(The wargaming audience was not exclusively on the right-wing - the creator of one of the biggest wargaming podcasts showed up in the comments too, and took a distinctly anti-Tim and pro-trans stance.)
The last (spoilers, not really) article posted by Tim was a typical A2Z column, and became somewhat of a shrine to him. Of note, the very user to whom Tim gave his perhaps most damning response showed up:

Please don't assume Tim is a TERF. I was involved, and indeed in lots of was responsible for what happened on the other forum which i am devastated by.
I am trans and Tim replied in support of a view that i expressed! He shared some views and links to articles (including one from a trans blogger) that many people (including many trans people) would agree with. And even if they didn't, and Alison below articulates the position better than i could, its not like he went on an alt right tirade. This is a reasonable person making reasonable views very politely and and commenter whether they agreed with those or not has gained nothing from what happened subsequently, and we have all collectively lost something.

Flare Path fans were somewhat split. The most mild responses were critical of RPS for how they booted Tim out the door without a second chance; some were concerned that it’s not a great way to win allies and convince people. Throw in the usual snippets: “cancel culture” and references to “The Inquisition”, and a number of people saying their farewells to RPS. In an odd way – and I did it myself by calling this a shrine – the comment section really does feel like the man died, with some outright coming to, quote, “pay their respects”.
Of particular note, a user named hms_pepperpot shows up, and it looks like it’s Tim. I have no evidence to the contrary and the phrasing is close enough that I’m willing to believe it. But wait, Tim was posting as Tim Stone in the inflamed comment section, right? Yep, the divorce was so swift and decisive that they even blocked his access to his old username, or deleted it entirely – either way, he was in the comments to say goodbye under an alias.

Leaving RPS without being able to say a proper goodbye to you, the readers who have made my job such a joy this past thirteen years, has been one of the most depressing aspects of the last few days. Your enthusiasm was as important to The Flare Path's modest success as the complete creative freedom Graham afforded me. Thank you for making possible the happiest years of my working life.
While the Flare Path name is destined for the scrap heap, the concept and spirit of the column will hopefully live on. I'm planning to pick up pretty much where I left off early in the new year. An article devoted to the FP game jam entries will be amongst the first pieces I post. Of course, there will be foxers too.
To readers hurt by my words last weekend, all I can say is a heartfelt sorry - I didn't set out to wound and have no wish whatsoever to make the lives of trans people more difficult. To readers baffled by the comments that ended up costing me my job, I strongly recommend reading a thoughtful essay written by Sam Smethers, the CEO of respected British women's rights charity The Fawcett Society. Google 'Sex and Gender Indentity: Finding a Way Forward' and you should find it.
See you in 2021 I hope. Tim.

Of note, HMS Pepperpot is a reference to warship HMS Penelope. With Tim’s penchant for riddles and puzzles, it is not likely a coincidence that:

On wartime service with Force K, she was holed so many times by bomb fragments that she acquired the nickname "HMS Pepperpot".

Though Tim had some in agreement with his views in the inciting comment section, he was undoubtedly outnumbered and taking a lot of flak.
Napoleon’s exile on Elba.
Some time later, Tim would resurface on a new site of his own creation, Tally-Ho Corner. Very much The Flare Path with a new coat of paint, he would carry on with his regular columns on a weekly basis. The Foxers returned, as did A2Z and communal wargaming. RPS, for their part, did not seem to fight to keep the column to themselves. There was a small exodus as RPS had once been a PC gaming site with a wargaming/simulation column, to just a PC gaming site. Those with only an interest in those genres left; there was nothing for them anymore. An unknown number followed Tim to his new endeavour and made themselves known over there. Striking out on his own has costs, however, and Tim sells membership and banner space to those who wish to help out. He has made follow-up requests since Tally-Ho Corner started which would indicate that it isn’t a profitable venture; he says he only wants enough to support the site, and seems to be happy to continue for the love of the hobby. He has alluded to the site not breaking even, so you can infer from that what you want about the size of the Flare Path exodus. Like I said, it’s a very niche hobby, so even 100% of Flare Path readers might not constitute a large number. One of the posts with the most engagements is a community vote on the best PC wargames; two years old, it has 144 comments and a closed comment section, so you could probably extrapolate a rough guess on readers versus commenters to see how popular the site is.
Tim would make the occasional comment about his past misadventure, but generally seemed to just carry on. Others would fight for or against him in other corners of the internet, but publicly, Tim seemed done with the whole thing and happy to just get back to writing about games.
The most blatant reference was an A2Z at the start of this year. No longer than any other entry (remember, he’s filling out 26 entries in a week, they’re usually just snippets), the entry “P is for Pointless provocation” in its entirety:

If, after my bruising departure from RPS in 2020, I had decided to start work on a “cathartic” retro FPS about gunning down dogmatic ‘trans allies’, I hope someone – a friend, colleague, or family member – would have taken me to one side and said “Tim, WTF are you doing?”. Unfortunately, no-one seems to have urged Norwegian coder Sandra Moen to think again. If they had perhaps the nasty Terfenstein 3D wouldn’t have made it onto Steam.

Tim’s back, baby! But it’s not him! But it is!
In a strange, quite dickish move, an RPS writer recycled an old Flare Path to come up with “The 25 best simulation games on PC”, with the writer credited… even though it was copied from Tim’s 2015 article. Tim called it out in an A2Z, as “H is for Hire a new sim correspondent, you cheapskates”, and that really sums it up – they were not rewriting the list, rearranging it, or updating it, they were literally copying the original list over and slapping a new author’s name on it.
If you click the above link, you’ll see that the article now has Tim as the author, changed retroactively (again). That in itself added a new element of drama, as readers who showed up after the edit were surprised by a new article from Mr Flare Path himself. Though it says “updated” in 2022, the giveaway is that the comments are predominantly from 7 years ago, when it was originally posted. One commenter, who I’ll take at their word, seemed to be witnessing the Stalin-esque rewriting of history in real time:

Wow, I just saw that Tim Stone's name has been removed. He was there as author when I first saw it this morning, with a note about it being updated by someone else. Now his name has been fully removed as the original author. I don't know what to say, but it feels icky to rewrite history like that, very 1984.
Update - now it says article by Holly, Additional Contributions by Tim Stone. Still not accurate (seems to be the reverse or reality) but at least the original author's name is in there somewhere again.

(Not calling anyone over there a tyrant or communist or anything, merely referencing that infamous photo where people are removed one by one as they fall afoul of the Stalin regime. In this instance, taking Tim’s work and crediting to someone else, then crediting Tim in addition to the new writer, then finally just calling it a Tim article.)
People noticed that the “updated” tag was the last attempt to hide in plain sight, since there was nothing updated about the list. It was identical to the one posted by Tim in 2015. And the clue was that, according to RPS, no simulation game had managed to crack the list since 2015; the “youngest” game on the list was 7 years old (now 8), a title shared by Farming Simulator 15 and Train Simulator 15.
15, of course, being the year both games released and the year Tim wrote the list.
An odd move to dig up the bones of the past, both the article and Tim’s involvement with RPS, for a single cheap parlour trick. Needless to say, if you search for Tim Stone contributions on RPS now, his “shrine” – a pretty typical A2Z Flare Path – is not his most recent contribution to the site. Instead, it’s “The 25 best simulation games on PC” from 8 years ago.
Fittingly, in the comment section below, the most recent post is by someone seemingly oblivious to the drama surrounding Tim Stone, RPS and trans rights. They’re instead complaining that two other motor racing games were left off the list. And really, there’s probably no better tribute to the community.

Hi, we are looking on line at tickets and I’m confused by the Fridabus. It says the tickets for the bus include entry to both the Frida and the Diego Rivera museum and they are waaaaay cheaper than just the entry to the Frida museum. However…..you have to go to the museum to buy them? How does this work if you need to reserve a ticket in advance for the Frida museum? Thanks for any help!

Welcome to the "Essay Help by Pros" community group! Writing a great essay can be challenging, but with the right approach, anyone can produce a high-quality piece. Here are some points to follow to write a great essay:

1. Understand the assignment: Before you start writing, make sure you understand the requirements of the essay. Read the instructions carefully, and take note of the topic, format, word count, and any specific guidelines that are provided.
2. Choose a topic: Select a topic that interests you (if this is an option given) and that you have some knowledge about. You'll be more motivated to write, and you'll be able to draw on your existing knowledge to develop your ideas.
3. Research your topic: Conduct thorough research on your topic, using a range of sources. Take notes on your findings and make sure you keep track of your sources so you can properly cite them later.
4. Develop a thesis statement: Your thesis statement is the central idea of your essay. It should be a clear and concise statement that summarizes the main point you want to make in your essay.
5. Create an outline: An outline is a roadmap that helps you organize your thoughts and ideas. It should include an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion, and each section should have a clear focus.
6. Write your essay: Use your outline to guide your writing. Make sure each paragraph has a clear topic sentence, and that all your ideas are well-supported with evidence.
7. Edit and proofread: Once you've completed your essay, take the time to edit and proofread it. Check for spelling and grammar errors, and make sure your writing is clear and concise.

By following these points, you'll be well on your way to writing a great essay. If you have any questions or need further assistance, feel free to reach out to the community for help!

I've always had issues with drawing linearts for things. Maybe I'm still more of a beginner artist given how seldom I actually draw something. Nevertheless, I struggle with things like the shape of the eyes and position of the mouth and eyes in relation to the sides of the head and to eachother. Other things like posing and what not are easier. They just take time as I'm not sure how to do it usually. I tend to just go for it and hope it looks good and it usually looks fine. But can't quite get it right usually. How long does it take to get to the point where you can draw art that can be passed off as decent?
All i really struggle to make proper curves as well; such as the jawline or neck. Another difficult one is the feet or hands, but those tend to come more with experience.
The main issue is that my lines are shaky even with pen stabilization. I fine that having leeway for my arm to move freely helps, because swift and smooth strokes make much straighter lines. However, it's very difficult to make them line up with eachother. For example, making the cheek meet at the base of the ear, or making the chin aligned with the mouth and both sides of the face.
What can I do to improve on these things? Or is it as simple as painful, excrutiating, dissapointing and unfulfilling repetition for excessive amounts of time?
Is it all in experience? Or am I doing something wrong?
I understand most drawings take between 5 and 10 hours. But I may be wrong on that. I'm tired of just sitting there and being unable to make something line up or be proportionate with everything else.
I'm better with pencil on paper but I've moved to digital recently, which is a lot newer to me and is the place where most issues are presenting themselves. I'm using the free version of Ibis Paint X on a Samsung tablet.
On another note, what might be the proper way to get the base outline down? Specifically the part where you draw a circle with a cross in the center for the head and draw a skeleton of the limbs and what not from there. How do I do so for the snout? And what might be the best way to draw eyes and ears?

My original post is here
I thought I would write a follow up as I have had an awful lot of DMs from people in the same position and wanting to know what happened to me. Just a note about the original post - quite a few people didn't understand what an annotated bibliography was. We were given several texts to read, analyse and link together. I did not use AI to make up references, we already had the references. I used AI to help me analyse some of the text, find links and draw conclusions. I will also point out that I was absolutely not in my right mind when I used AI to help me.
From the beginning:
Before our assignment marks were released I was informed that there was an issue with mine and was therefore scored a 0. I was invited to a preliminary meeting to discuss the assignment. It was informal and friendly, they began to ask how I structure assignments, what did I think of this particular assignment etc. On the screen I saw Feedback Studio and the AI score. I immediately had a bit of a breakdown and admitted to using AI. The next step was if there was a case to be heard - and of course there was because I straight up admitted to it. I received a letter at this point outlining this and that it was major academic misconduct, often referred to as a stage 2. A panel was set up and prior to this I submitted a statement admitting to the accusation and outlining mitigating circumstances. At this point it was out of my tutor and programme leaders hands.
I won't go into detail here, but I am a mature student with childcare responsibilities and there was an awful lot happening in my life around that time. In my statement I only asked that they consider my circumstances, as they were absolutely not an excuse for essentially cheating. I tried to be as factual as possible whilst also emphasising how sincerely sorry and ashamed I was, and outlined what I should have done and what I will do in the future if I again face difficulty. I did not attend the panel and informed them of this in good time why I could not. I was not penalised for being unable to attend.
In a shocking turn of events the panel decision was that there was not enough evidence for the case to be considered, and my assignment will be marked as normal. I feel I am very lucky in this respect because I admitted to it, so I absolutely do not understand their decision. A lot of people will see this as a win, but honestly it doesn't feel like it. I am embarrassed and actually I wanted the opportunity to re-do the work so it was all my own. Prior to this I was averaging a first, and now it feels tainted.
I do think the fact that I was open and honest from the beginning helped my case, but if someone on the other side of panels could shed any light on this decision I would be interested to hear from them.

What tips would you guys say to a beginner in real estate video? I’m about to shoot one and I got a basic idea like wide shots of the room/ walking into the room/ detail shots. I’ll be shooting with a Sony a7iii and a dji gimbal. Any help would be appreciated. Planning to draw the outline of the house and planning my shooting line from there.