Aspiring To Be Belle

Genuinely, what the fuck is Nicola Sturgeon doing taking part in this?

Nobody knows who the mysterious translator was but they did a hysterical job. Their insane translation essentially created a new universe, new characters, and new plotline. Even names and titles weren't safe as evidenced by how "Revenge of the Sith" became "Backstroke of the West." Seemingly, even Disney agrees it is no longer Star Wars as Backstroke of the West has been dubbed and is free on youtube. This is the place most are familiar with it from.

So you can watch it there. The voices are surprisingly accurate to the original actors and it is a fun time. For reading, it does have a tv tropes page explaining it and somebody created a unfinished novelization on Ao3. I enjoy these as it is very funny to make sense of Backstroke's odd interpretation of star wars.

The dialogue is seemingly random in it's wrongness but consistently applies that wrongness anyway. This is what makes Backstoke so fun to think about as it almost broaches coherency. Calling Anakin an ineffectual warmonger? R2D2 is Darth Plaguies? This is the analysis we are forced to take from the crazy lines we are given.

Several characters change gender. Luke is a girl. Leia and Rey are guys. There is also a transgendered sandcrawler and a living space cruiser. Jyn Erso is not only related to the Emperor (he's her dad), but known as Piano Prince. There are a lot more references to sex. R2 is C3PO's wife.

There are a lot of crossovers. Among the characters mentioned in the movies are Gollum, Snoopy (who abused power), Cinderella (a Rebel general), Spock, and Chun-Li (Who works for the First Order). This is in addition to Jimmy Kimmel, "Jeb!" Bush, Angela Merkel, Saddam Hussein, and Chairman Mao. They also have product placement, including from Pantene, Chevron, Kellogg's, Ogilvy and Mather, Rolls-Royce, and Ford (who makes the podracers).

There may be more sex and more strong language, but there is also more religion. Apparently, the Jedi may be Presbyterians, but they also worship in Mosques, and may have cantors involved. (They don't believe in Total depravity, as Ratio Tile remarked, "Apparently I depraved" to Allah Gold, and greeted Space General with "Everybody is good.") The most interesting bit is that the difference between the Hopeless Situation Presbyterian Church and the Black Influence is that the first group worships the Trinity, while the latter worships a Quaternity (or as Walt Whitman called it a "square deific"). Reaching the West of Reaches (aka Darth Vader) commented, "I became the Father, the Driver, and the Wild Goose with the Son." This has all three members of the Trinity (The Wild Goose was a Celtic term for the Holy Spirit), plus a fourth. Combine this with Ratio Tile's comment "Our faith believes in our religion, but is not to believe in a certain person," as well as Yoda's comments of a Dark side area on Dagobah as "the Devil's domain" and warning that Luke could become "an agent of the Devil".

Posted by The Library of Congress on Facebook:

Once more, due to annual popular demand, we like to share Rosa Parks’ pancake recipe on National Pancake Day. Jotted down on an envelope, it came to the Library along with the rest of her papers, a gift made possible by the generosity of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation in 2016. Learn more about the Rosa Parks Collection: https://www.loc.gov/.../rosa.../about-this-collection/...

Here is the Library of Congress page for the recipe!

And the full transcription (text) of the envelope!

And the recipe itself:

Featherlite Pancakes Sift together:

1 C flour

2 T B. Powder [presumably baking powder]

1/2 t salt

2 T sugar

Mix:

1 egg

1 1/4 C Milk

1/3 C peanut butter melted

1 T shorting or oil

Combine with dry ingredients Cook at 275° on griddle

-----

Revelation kills the case for $63 billion fossil fuel and nuclear expansion; regulator decries corporate focus on profits over public, calls for pause on new data centers

Statement from NC Warn Executive Director Jim Warren

DURHAM, N.C. – In a regulatory hearing this week, Duke Energy’s top executives admitted that they recruit the very data centers used to justify a $63 billion expansion of fossil fuels and nuclear power plants in the Carolinas. Today, NC WARN declares that the case for that expansion is dead, and that existing coal- and gas-fired power plants can be rapidly and inexpensively phased out by the far cheaper solar and battery storage that Duke Energy has blocked for years. 

Duke Energy CEO Harry Sideris recently boasted to corporate investors, “We have a [recruiting] team in place that their goal, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, is how do we get these things signed quicker?” Duke’s North Carolina president Kendal Bowman confirmed (1:03:00) during the hearing that this same aggressive recruiting of energy-guzzling data centers is in use in NC.

Duke conceded that use of electricity has fallen over the long term despite huge population growth, and that it has consistently and grossly exaggerated future projections for years while arguing it must build a huge number of new power plants for electricity usage that ultimately never materializes. 

Now, they’ve been caught admitting that they’re actively recruiting new large customers to try to justify the largest expansion of fossil fuels and experimental nuclear plants in the nation. 

This is a scandal and crime being perpetrated against the people of North Carolina who are already struggling with soaring power bills, repeated devastation by storms and assaults on their communities by massive data center developers who provide almost no jobs after initial construction. It is outrageous that a state-sanctioned monopoly should be allowed to drive even higher profits by gouging the public with constant rate hikes year after year.

A witness for the Utilities Commission’s Public Staff stated (1:42:55) that Duke is acting in the interest of shareholders over ratepayers by overzealously signing new large load customers. The Public Staff now recommends (4:03:15) that the Commission impose a 1-year pause on new data centers and scrutinize new contracts for any future data centers. 

NC WARN’s expert witness, engineer Bill Powers, provided evidence in the proceeding that local solar-plus-storage (SPS) can rapidly replace existing coal- and gas-fired power plants and avoid any new ones. Powers shows that the massive potential for local SPS in North Carolina makes it the fastest, cheapest, most equitable tool to move the state off its course toward climate and social chaos.

NC WARN is calling on Governor Josh Stein and Attorney General Jeff Jackson to cut through the years of scandal and deception and stop the criminal behavior by this giant corporation run by a gang of millionaires. We cannot wait for a ruling in six months and hope the Utilities Commission will remedy this scandalous behavior by Duke Energy executives. 

Related Articles

An Environmental Analysis of Data Centers

N.C. Town Opts not to Appeal in Climate Deception Lawsuit, Calls on Governor Stein to Rein in Duke Energy

Resolution Calls for NC Governor Josh Stein to Stop Duke Energy’s Expansion of Fossil Fuels and Suppression of Climate Solutions

Statewide Ads Criticize NC Governor Stein for Promoting Duke Energy Deception and Expansion of Fossil Fuels

Duke Energy Lies – Lessons from the Fracking Fields of West Virginia Reveal the True Cost of Natural Gas

Elected Leaders, Faith Groups, Others Press N.C. Governor to Stop Duke Energy’s Fossil Fuel Expansion

NC WARN: Duke Energy Recruits Data Centers to N.C. Using Millions of Customer Dollars Each Year

Lenoir Moves into Stage 2 Mandatory Drought Restrictions with North Carolina in Extreme Drought

About NC Warn

Now in its 38th year, NC WARN is building people power in the climate and energy justice movement to persuade or require Charlotte-based Duke Energy – one of the world’s largest climate polluters – to make a quick transition to renewable, affordable power generation and energy efficiency in order to avert climate tipping points and ongoing rate hikes. 

twelve episodes, twelve contestants - a mix of annoying middle aged sci fi authors, fan fic authors and random people off the street

a variety of against the clock writing tasks, big finish scripts, ability to interact with actors without shouting at them and challenges where you have no budget or doctor for an episode

judged by solely by christopher eccleston

An earthship is a building that's built out of recycled materials (glass bottles, old tires, cans, etc..) and mostly Cob walls with solarpanels, wind turbines, greenhouses, and large water capture system to ensure all you need within the walls. All these components help regulate the temp for both plants and you creating a proper oasis from all of itnall

Here's a good dissection of one to give you an idea

The most famous one, and one of the first ones ever made back in the 1970s by a small off grid group working together is The Phoenix which was built as the model for how cool these guys could be its now a place you can take tours or rent-

But now there is so many different styles and cool ideas for it! Now some of these are merely concepts

But you can adapt them to any weather for your particular light/weather/energy conditions.

June 15, 2026 7:00 pm CET

By Jonas Loesel

Hungarian lawmakers on Monday passed a constitutional amendment that would ban Viktor Orbán from returning to power.

The amendment, approved by 135 votes in favor and 50 against, would limit prime ministers to just eight years in office if it becomes law. The amendment is written to apply retroactively, meaning that Viktor Orbán could not return as Hungary’s prime minister. Orbán served as prime minister for a total of 20 years.

“The restoration of the rule of law will not be born from a single law, but every true democratic reconstruction has symbolic and constitutional pillars. This proposal aims to be such a pillar,” the amendment’s sponsor, MP Márton Melléthei-Barna, said when the law was first proposed.

With a two-thirds majority in Hungary’s parliament, Prime Minister Peter Magyar has been racing to cement the changes he promised during his campaign, which he dubbed a crusade for “regime change.” The two-thirds majority in parliament allows him to push through constitutional amendments, paving the way for major changes in Budapest.

Tisza’s first constitutional amendment could effectively end Orbán’s chances of returning as prime minister, just days after he was reelected as party chair of Fidesz over the weekend. At the same time, the move would be a significant limit on Magyar’s own power, as he vows to restore liberal democracy in Hungary.

But some critics have suggested that the amendment cannot apply to prime ministers who were in office before it was passed, meaning that Orbán could still run for Hungary’s top job.

Then, in 2007, it was discovered that various telecommunications companies were giving information to the government to use for searches and wiretaps. This broke the law. However, Congress, rather than hold the companies accountable, passed a retroactive immunity law immunizing the companies from prosecution and lawsuits. The companies got off scot free- and nobody treated this ex post facto law as illegal.

Now, much like the ex post facto laws' sister provision, the Bill of Attainder*, this ancient terror is making a comeback, not just domestically, but across the globe. And the world risks slipping back into the days of despotisms past.

Another participant, Dr. James Dobson, encouraged other religious leaders to view pornography for "research", and insisted on parents taking an active role in shaping their child's sexuality. (At least one leader he mentored on the subject, Bill Hybels followed his advice, and later resigned after groping and harassing an employee.)

This resource exists, and it's organisational and personnel, not some other kind. But even there, it takes six months to a year for the changes to take effect. Considering the current war is being waged to keep everything as is, it won't be used.

"The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."

—James Madison

Let me get this straight. So, from James Madison's perspective, 250 years after Americans rebelled from British tyranny, we are living under home-grown "tyranny" because in the second Trump administration, "all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary" are "in the same [MAGA GOP] hands"?

Furthermore, "all powers" might remain in MAGA GOP hands for years to come if Trump and his sycophants succeed in "rigging" the 2026 midterms (e.g., using gerrymandering, voter suppression & intimidation, etc.).

James Madison must be turning in his grave.

"The biggest wagon is the empty wagon is the noisiest.

The consul, a horse.