Happy Star Wars Day! May The Force Be With You!

mein Pitch für den nächsten deutschen ESC-Beitrag:

1. in der NDR-Kantine wird eine große Deutschlandkarte aufgestellt

2. Peter Urban darf zum Abschied und zum Dank für all die Jahre einen Dartpfeil darauf abwerfen

3. in der so ausgewählten Gemeinde wird in der örtlichen Musikschule die Gruppe der musikalischen Früherziehung damit beauftragt, einen Marsch zu komponieren

4. durch ein weiteres deutschlandweites Zufallsverfahren wird ein Spielmannszug ausgewählt (aus einer Ortschaft mit max. 3000 Einw.), der zum ESC nach Stockholm reist

5. die Noten des Marschs werden 5 Minuten vor dem Auftritt erstmals an die Mitglieder des Spielmannszugs ausgehändigt (während der Proben spielt der Spielmannszug den Helenenmarsch)

6. zum Auftritt wird in der gesamten Veranstaltungshalle das Putzlicht eingeschaltet, alle Monitore/LED-Wände bleiben ausgeschaltet

7. der Spielmannszug marschiert innerhalb der drei Minuten einmal von links nach rechts über die Bühne, Uniform/Trachten/Banner werden wie nach Tradition üblich getragen

8. der amtierende Schützenkönig trägt auf die Marschmelodie Auszüge aus der Satzung eines ebenfalls zufällig ausgewählten deutschen Kleingartenvereins vor

9. der im Heimatort des Spielmannszuges ansässige Metzger (sofern nicht im Spielmannszug oder amtierender Schützenkönig, in diesen Fällen hat er für adäquate Vertretung zu sorgen) verkauft während des Auftritts am Bühnenrand frische Bratwürste vom Holzkohlegrill an die Hallengäste

Frodo: Sam hates Gollum, but that is what I shall become once I have lost myself to the ring… he’ll despise me… 

Sam if Frodo did turn into a Gollum: That’s a very nice fish you caught with your bare hands, Mr. Frodo, and its very smart of you to eat it raw, saves us the trouble of starting a fire. I knitted you a sweater in case you get cold running around in that loincloth of yours. Is the sun hurting your eyes? I’ll kill it if it’s bothering you. I’ll kill the sun

At this point I think some fantasy author should just bite the bullet and write a novel where a teenager protagonist lives as a secret magic-user in our world and tries to master their skills in a magic school, but it is explicitly not an English or American protagonist, and the more they start to understand the world they live in, they more they realise that globally magic practicioners are being heavily scrutinisied and supressed by an anglo-american hegemony, which was established during England’s imperial years and has survived to this day as the “global magical hegemony” where England has an unfair advantage over all others because they stole almost all powerful magical artefacts and now refuse to give them back.

And as the protagonist gets more involved in the ways magic outside of anglo-saxon cultural sphere is being supressed, the more the reader will realise that we are referencing Harry Potter here. People will talk about “That English school” where most hegemony enforcers are alumni from. People will share urban legends that they still allow segrecation and slavery in England, and no one will believe them “because come one, we live in the 21st century” but that one character who worked with the English keeps unnervingly quiet. And there are references to a dangerous high-level enforcer with green eyes who is also a war veteran, who isn’t an evil guy, but from the point of view of the story is very much an antagonist.

And the world is built in such a way that it slots seamlessly into Rowling’s canon, but at the same time not a single Harry Potter related thing is actually named. And obviously there should be a lot of friction regarding the fact that a lot of magic traditions around the world are built around the assumption that Gender-noncomformity and crossdressing and gender-identities outside from the “mundane” two sex system are signs of magical identity, expect for the Anglo-saxon hegemony which very agressively will stamp down on those traditions.

And now that I’m stream-of-consciousness writing all this down, I realise that the story should obviously climax with a heist, where a group misfits try to break into the hidden magical floor of the British Museum and steal back some artefacts.

And the story should be an anthology between several different writers from different countries, all disillusioned HP fans.

Slutshaming women is not ok Slutshaming Alexander Hamilton is totally ok Tumblr logic

kept teasing to a minimum ^ best friend ^ vllt muss das nochmal ein paar von den heutigen ddf autoren gezeigt werden

had an idea last night

“It’s literally impossible to be a woman.

You are so beautiful, and so smart, and it kills me that you don't think you're good enough. Like, we have to always be extraordinary, but somehow, we're always doing it wrong?

You have to be thin, but not too thin, and you can never say you wanna be thin. You have to say you wanna be healthy, but also, you have to BE THIN.

You have to have money, but you can't ask for money because that's crass.

You have to be a boss, but you can't be mean.

You have to lead, but you can't squash other people's ideas.

You're supposed to love being a mother, but don't talk about your kids all the damn time.

You have to be a career woman, but also, always be looking out for other people.

You have to answer for men's bad behavior, which is INSANE, but if you point that out, you're accused of complaining!

You're supposed to stay pretty for men, but not so pretty that you tempt them too much or that you threaten other women because you're supposed to be a part of the sisterhood, but ALWAYS STAND OUT and ALWAYS BE GRATEFUL. But never forget that the system is rigged, so find a way to acknowledge that but ALSO, always be grateful!

You have to never get old. Never be rude. Never show off. Never be selfish. Never fall down. Never fail. Never show fear. Never get OUT OF LINE. It's too hard! It's too contradictory, and nobody gives you a medal or says 'thank you!' And it turns out, in fact, that not only are you doing everything wrong, but also, everything is your fault.

I'm just so tired of watching myself, and every single other woman tie herself into knots, so that people will like us.

And if all of that, is also true for a doll just representing a woman, then I don't even know." -Gloria the barbie movie

this is it. this is exactly it oh my god.

Help

I’ve seen some posts going around about how only dummies think nuclear power is dangerous, so I want to just put it out there, in the hope that maybe I’ll create a bit of understanding:

Provided storage space is adequate, I’m not afraid of nuclear power.

I’m afraid of THE COMPANIES THAT PRODUCE nuclear power.

Let me explain.

I know new nuclear power plants have more failsafes than there are stars in the sky. And that’s great…as long as they were designed correctly, the pieces were all manufactured correctly, and nobody lied.

I know nuclear power plants are subject to strenuous inspections. And that’s great…as long as the inspectors actually check everything regularly as scheduled and nobody lies.

I know nuclear storage barrels are safety-tested. And that’s great…as long as they’re manufactured correctly, buried where they’re supposed to be, and nobody lies.

Because here’s the thing. I’ve watched a pretty fair amount of videos on nuclear disasters both power plant-related and otherwise. And every single one, every single one, can be traced back to the same source: someone lied in order to save money.

Plant maintenance is neglected to save money.

Plant inspections are neglected to save money.

Plants that say “dear Company That Produces This Critical Part Of Our Infrastructure, this piece keeps failing even though we’re using it correctly, please advise” will get ignored or accused of lying/user error, so The Company That Produces Etc. can save money. One case I saw involved a piece of cancer-radiation machinery that was shooting people (seemingly) at random with lethal doses of radiation, and the production company went “we investigated ourselves and found nothing wrong, are you sure you’re not just stupid?” Turns out they’d never even included a user manual with a piece of lifesaving-but-also-potentially-lethal machinery…to save money. And there were many, MANY things wrong with the machine, actually, as was discovered when an outside agency did an investigation.

This is not a problem unique to nuclear power. But if a wind turbine is seated wrong, it can be dismantled and reseated elsewhere (expensive but not unfixable). If a coal plant catches fire (heaven forbid), the result is absolutely Really Not Good but the worst of it can be fixed in just a couple of years, and we understand the potential related health problems enough to treat them. If a hydro plant isn’t working right, it’s not going to fry the entire ocean.

But if a nuclear plant blows because—and again, I stress this is what has happened IN EVERY NUCLEAR DISASTER IN HISTORY—a company lied to save money, that’s 26,000 years the affected land may be uninhabitable. You can cover your face with a mask or shirt to get away from coal ash while you evacuate. There is absolutely nothing the average civilian can do to protect themselves from nuclear fallout while they evacuate. And unlike coal ash, just a few minutes of that initial radioactive exposure can be enough to kill you. There’s no going back, either—lungs can be flushed, but mutated or even shredded DNA can’t be fixed.

Let me be clear, I DO NOT want coal power forever. (To me, the future is solar.) I think it’s wasteful, environmentally toxic, inefficient, ecologically devastating and unsustainable. But I question if nuclear is the way forward not because of the dangers inherent in what’s in a nuclear reactor—I question if nuclear is the way forward because there are too many greedy people with too much to gain from pinching lifesaving pennies.