Office of the Confidante

The new religious figure whose sermons are taking the world by storm? Love that guy--fuck, its Neoth

The new king uniting the warring tribes of [land] under a single banner? How invigorating--fuck, its Neoth

The new scientist whose brilliant innovative contributions to medical technology have been dramatically improving mankinds quality of life? So inspiring--fucK IT'S NEOTH

It'd be like dating a celebrity, having a bad breakup and then having to see their face plastered everywhere, but instead you KEEP accidentally admiring them every 100 years and it goes on FOREVER

Over fifty years of data show a peak in PFAS (also known as "forever chemicals") content in seabird eggs in the 90s, followed by a decrease as regulations went into effect. The most recent findings show a 70% decrease of most common PFAS.

We are making genuine progress! Producers are dramatically altering how much they use PFAS and how much gets released in effluent, but also there's a lot better understanding of how to remove PFAS from the environment!

Part 1 - here

Terry Pratchett: "!" said the stranger.

The depressed people were far more accurate in estimating how much influence their actions had on the outcome of the game compared to their nondepressed counterparts, who consistently overestimated the effects of their own choices on their chances of winning.

Then I remember this other study (CW animal testing) where they put rats in a bucket of water that they couldn’t get out of, so they’d have to swim. There was a fairly consistent point at which the swimming rat would falter, and stop swimming, fated to drown.

Except that that’s when the researchers would pull the rat out of the bucket, give it a nice rest warmth and a meal.

When those SAME rats who had been rescued before were put in the same situation again, they swam much LONGER than they had before.

Why? The risk was the same either way- drowning. You’d have thought that the fear of drowning would keep them swimming to their maximum length no matter what.

The researchers conclusion was that the rescued rats had something they hadn’t had the first time- they had more hope. A miraculous rescue could come, and that let them swim for longer, just in case.

REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.

"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"

YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

"So we can believe the big ones?"

YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

"They're not the same at all!"

YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.

"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"

MY POINT EXACTLY.”

Severe little spoon energy coming from this man

Version with background under the cut

Even then, Constantin was willing to implement the blood games even if he hated the man who the idea came from, and gave Russ genuinely well meant advice, called him friend, and joked around with Jaghatai.

The custodes were even the peace makers more often that the primarchs - Valdor refused to argue against Dorn and countermand his (dreadfully idiotic, which Dorn himself realized) orders in magisterium solely because he didn’t want there to be even more division in the imperium. One might argue that Aquillon’s, the oculi imperator,biggest weakness was his continued patience with Lorgar and his unwillingness to perceive hostility against *him* as hostility against the Emperor.

The custodes lost their faith in the primarchs and the space marines as an institution only during the Horus heresy, and one has to wonder whether they sometimes missed their dreams of unity as well.

Rant under the cut.

Lion makes the mistake of entrusting a secret to a brother. Word gets around.. Be it through "comparing notes" like sanguinius would put it, a "slip of the tongue" with Magnus, a paranoid accusation from Perturabo, gossip during a boys' night with fulgrim and ferrus, or "investigative journalism" like Corvus thinks of it,