Author: m1k3y

learntobeinvisible:

Mora’dum – the application of Terror

“Minbari rite and exercise used by the Anla’shok in the training of all Rangers.

Roughly translated into English as “the application of terror”, the rite itself is designed to test a Ranger’s ability to recognise, withstand and overcome their own fear while at the same time learning to apply terror against an adversary. The exact circumstances of the test can vary as it may be tailored to suit each individual”

From the episode Learning Curve (S05e05):

Captain Elizabeth Lochley: So, what kind of terror are we talking about here, Delenn?

Delenn: The kind that cripples; the kind that destroys. Not from without, but from within. As soon as he can stand, whether he is fully healed or not, Tennier will prepare to face his terror. Those who harmed him now have power over him. He must take back that power or he will never be whole again. We will go with him, and bring him to the point of his terror. And then, he will face it.

Captain Elizabeth Lochley: But if he isn’t fully healed, he could die in the effort.

Delenn: As Anla’shok, we choose to do that which frightens us, knowing that there are no guarantees. He may lose; we cannot help him.

Captain Elizabeth Lochley: Then he will stand alone.

Delenn: At the end, Captain, we all stand alone.

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spaceplasma:

Successful start to China’s fifth human spaceflight

Three Chinese astronauts, led by a veteran of a previous space mission, soared into orbit Tuesday to begin a 15-day voyage to China’s Tiangong 1 space lab, a flight officials say will expand the capabilities of the country’s manned space program.

The 191-foot-tall Long March 2F rocket, powered by 1.4 million pounds of thrust, lifted off at 0938 GMT (5:38 a.m. EDT; 5:38 p.m. Beijing time) from the Jiuquan space base in northwest China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

Less than 10 minutes later, after a dazzling launch broadcast on Chinese state television, the 8.5-ton Shenzhou 10 capsule arrived in orbit. A few moments later, the spacecraft extended its two solar array wings to generate electricity.

These images were taken from the official CCTV broadcast of the launch, showing views from cameras from both the ground and on-board the rocket. The images show liftoff, separation of the launcher’s emergency escape tower, jettison of the Long March’s first stage and four liquid-fueled boosters, and deployment of the solar arrays.

Photo credit: CCTV/Spaceflight Now

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matociquala:

Reblogged for this woman being a total badass.

seppin:

seppin:

An Iranian channel ran a story about how a certain kind of martial arts is enjoying increasing popularity among Iranian women. This means that a) Iranian women have rights, b) Iranian women can access the public sphere, c) Iranian women participate in organized, public sports, and d) an Iranian government news channel has no problem with any of this.

Faced with these facts, the Western media panicked: some news agencies resorted to the stereotype of Iranian women as veiled, militant fanatics; others opted for infantilizing portrayals of suffering women using martial arts as their only escape. Can you imagine any self-respecting Western reporter writing a story that explained, unprovoked, the popularity of karate among girls in suburban Los Angeles by citing America’s high rates of sexual assault? Additionally, few bothered to mention that recently it has been Western sports organizations that have prevented Iranian women from playing, for example in 2011 forcing the Iranian women’s soccer team to forfeit hope of reaching the Olympics because they wore sports hijabs on the field.

Narratives of weak or militant Iranian women are not just dishonest; they also fuel a political narrative whereby Islamism is equated with backwardness and the ability of women to reconcile Islamic ideals with feminist goals is entirely obfuscated. Both Western conservatives and many secular feminists often participate in this obfuscation, effectively trying to either hide Iranian women’s successes in order to demonize Iran or by ignoring the ideologies of liberation they have formulated in order to preserve the status of secular feminism as the only path to women’s liberation.

Read the entire article. You can follow ajammc on tumblr here. 

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spanglypants-mcfuckyou:

staceythinx:

These were part of a series of Klein bottles created for the Science Museum in London by Alan Bennett.

About the Klein bottles:

A Klein bottle is a surface which has no edges, no outside or inside and cannot properly be constructed in three dimensions. In the series Alan Bennett made Klein bottles analogous to Mobius strips with odd numbers of twists greater than one.

I want them as internal organs.

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thenewenlightenmentage:

It’s Time to Tackle Interstellar Spaceflight, Experts Say

If humanity is serious about traveling to other star star systems in the foreseeable future, it needs to get the ball rolling now, say experts who have organized an upcoming conference on the subject.

Pulling off our species’ first interstellar spaceflight will require many decades of hard work by some of the planet’s best minds. Some scientists and engineers are pushing for that work to begin now.

Continue Reading

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BR: Kuwait is a crazy mix: a super-affluent country, yet basically a welfare state, though with a super neo-liberal consumer economy.

FQ: We consume vast amounts of everything. Instagram businesses are a big thing in Kuwait.

BR: What’s an Instagram business?

FQ: If you have an Instagram account, you can slap a price tag on anything, take a picture of it, and sell it. For instance, you could take this can of San Pellegrino, paint it pink, put a heart on it, call it yours, and declare it for sale. Even my grandmother has an Instagram business! She sells dried fruit. A friend’s cousin is selling weird potted plants that use Astroturf. People are creating, you know, hacked products.

magazine / issue / Fatima Al Qadiri & Lauren Boyle | MOUSSE CONTEMPORARY ART MAGAZINE (via new-aesthetic)
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