004, Reporting for Duty. {HIATUS, SORRY :( }

i love you

be safe

take care of yourself

do not be ashamed of grieving or crying or any of the reactions you have to the horrible awful news.  do not be ashamed of how long it takes to do any of the grieving or crying that it takes to process the horrible news

you are not weak if you feel afraid.  your fear is valid.

don’t lose hope.  we are not alone and we are going take care of each other and build a better world.  how is a technical question we can figure out past this night and maybe even this week, but we’ll figure it out.  we’re too tired and scared to tolerate this shit anymore, and that’s going to be a good thing.  

this is not the end of the world. there are too many people out there to let that happen.

“Intelligence work has one moral law—it is justified by results.”

-John Le Carre, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. (10)

Spying is a difficult business. Writing about spies with any accuracy is also an incredibly difficult business; this is why the foundational giants of the genre from Ian Fleming to John Le Carre have been ex-intelligence. Without that background, it can be easy to misunderstand that the ability to be a spy comes from the tradecraft and the training. It’s common among writers to build the character first, then give them their skill set. While this will work for a vast number of different character archetypes, functional spies require a fairly specific outlook and it is developed by a specific type of background though that comes from a generic set of circumstances.

Spies can’t be good people and that’s okay, because good people can’t be spies.

There’s no such thing as the unknown,

                               only things temporarily hidden,

                                                        temporarily not understood.

Get ready, because Wednesday July 20 is 007 Fest’s POC Characters Day! A time for celebrating all the characters who are people of color in Bond fandom! You could do this in a lot of ways, such as:

fanworks centered around characters who are people of color, either from canon (like Felix and Moneypenny!) or awesome OCs like members of Q’s staff or other 00s

recs for fanworks with POC characters

POC character fanwork round-up posts

POC character headcanons

POC character meta  

any other Bond fandom celebrations related to Bond characters who are people of color!  

Remember to tag 007 fest so we can find your POC characters post and reblog it!

How are you today?

What is your name?

Have any nicknames?

How old are you?

What gender are you?

What is your sexual orientation?

What country are you from?

How would you describe yourself to a stranger?

Are you attending school?

Do you have a job?

Are you single or taken?

What is your best friend like?

When did you start roleplaying?

What are your favorite subjects/genres to roleplay?

What fandoms are you in?

Have you ever been to convention?

How many muses do you currently have?

Do you relate to your muse?

Do you think you and your muse would be friends?

How would you feel if you met your muse’s faceclaim?

Would you ever consider cosplaying as your muse?

What do you think are your roleplaying strengths and weaknesses?

Is roleplaying more of a job or a hobby to you?

Are you a jealous roleplay partner?

How do you feel about others who have the same muse as you?

What’s a song that could be your theme song?

Name something that’s a favorite of yours?

Any advice for other roleplayers?

Tell us a story about yourself?

The military has created some sexy new stealth motorcycles 

Back in 2014, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency gave out grants to build virtually silent electric bikes that could trek far distances without refueling. Now those bikes are here, and their capabilities are incredible.

A new oil painting has just arrived in what may be the world’s most clandestine art gallery — the fine arts collection at the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency.

This commissioned work isn’t your typical still life; the tableau is a busy clutter of gear — photos, blueprints, weapons and ammunition.

CIA museum director Toni Hiley says this painting — the 21st in the collection — is purposely complex. A Contingency for Every Action shows artifacts from major covert actions going back to World War II. “It’s what we call an Easter egg painting,” Hiley says. She calls it an “Easter egg,” because nestled within are little hints from missions that are still classified.

Unless you’re a CIA officer, you’ll probably never get to see the painting in person. Which might make you wonder: Why does the CIA have an art gallery at all?

A Peek Into The CIA Art Gallery Reveals [REDACTED]

主料为暗红色金鱼戏藻紋提花绸，衬里为纯棉与织锦缎拼接。(提花绸，是用提花机使经纬线交错点织成各种花纹图案的绸缎，是绸缎中的一个大类， 是与绸面印上花纹的印花绸大类不同的一个类别。现在一般指提花化纤布料）

面料厚度：适中

面料特点：光泽度好，耐磨损，易打理，机洗手洗均可（缺点：反光，夏天穿略热）

推荐季节：春秋

推荐场合：本款圆领袍为箭袖，可作为常服穿着

Slavery is taught but that’s about it. And even then the focus is on “We stopped it”, often leaving out the part about profiting from it for 200 years. 

The crimes in Ireland are only taught at A Level history, meaning that most of the public is truly ignorant of British colonialism in Ireland. A huge portion of the English public voted Cromwell to be one of the greatest Britons ever, and he committed horrific acts against Ireland and Scotland. 

There’s little mention of any imperialism in Africa. When it was revealed the Mau Mau’s would be getting a memorial statue funded by the UK, people were outraged and basically denied that we ever did anything wrong. The Boer and Zulu wars are forgotten, especially the bit about the concentration camps.

There’s absolutely 0 public discussion regarding British imperialism in India. People’s knowledge seems to go as far as “We gave them trains so they should be grateful”. The British tied mutineers to cannons and blew them up. The Indian economy shrank under British rule more than any other nation in the modern era. From about 20% of global GDP (Similar to China and Europe) at the start, to about 1% at independence. 

And that’s not even mentioning the Native Americans. Long before someone ever dreamt up the idea of  United States, the European colonists were quite happy killing, abusing, and conning the natives.