Wrench in the Machinery

It can also be found on Google Drive here and on Bluesky here.

Toa Ahkmou. I wanted to reference all his previous forms, so he has a McToran disk, waist swivel, and a kanoka launcher.

Kanohi Great Rau, Mask of Translation. No language barrier can stop Ahkmou from attempting to smooth-talk his way out of potential conflicts. Surprisingly, he shares an amenable relationship with several Vorox packs. Able to decipher their crude language with his mask, he's known to trade food and water with them in exchange for safe passage through the Great Barren.

He seems to be carrying a spare mask secured to his hip.

Disk Launcher Ahkmou expected the launcher to feel clumsy in his hands. Instead, it was familiar, and he quickly became a crack shot. He still has no memories from his life in Metru Nui, but playing akilini for millennia left him with an unshakable muscle memory for the weapon.

Comet Flail Acts of bioterrorism aside, Ahkmou's kolhii balls were crafted with expert precision. Perfectly balanced in shape and weight, a well-placed kick could easily send them soaring across the field. Overzealous players had to be careful not to overdo it; they could very well injure or even shatter the masks of their opponents if they struck the ball with full force.

Imagine the type of damage a Comet could do when charged with the power of elemental stone.

Avita's Twilight Break was the main source of inspiration behind this guy. Check it out, it's pretty kino.👌

BigPhan's Great Rau printed/painted by Buryu. Noble Raus are resin casts from 0m3g4. Sir Fangar cape from Capes4Minifigs.

1. if you feel judged and hurt by others, try sleeping

2. if you feel judgmental and resentful of others, try eating (the classics)

3. if you feel uncomfortable, try showering

4. if you feel directionless and afraid, go sit outside for a bit and maybe then you'll calm down. maybe even a walk if youre feelin crazy

Take a moment and ask yourself, a project like this requires a lot of time, money and dedication of resources, why would scientists dedicate that time to something that could just be done by a tree?

The answer is they wouldn't. So that means this claim requires further investigation!

This project is called LIQUID 3, and it's not meant for cities with wide open spaces, it's meant for cities like Belgrade in Serbia. These cities are densely populated and heavily polluted, to the point where pollution actually chokes out current trees and makes creating green spaces difficult.

Liquid 3 was a PhD scientists answer to these problems. The microalgae tank is intended for spaces where you either:

Don't have enough space to plant full trees, or

Don't have enough time to plant trees and wait for them to grow up.

The tank is extremely efficient when you consider the amount of space needed compared to the amount of CO2 turned into oxygen. The tank can operate throughout the winter. And most importantly, it can be quickly set up in areas that desperately need relief from air pollution NOW not in 10 years when trees are done growing. Children currently suffocating on polluted air can't wait for trees to grow, they need to be taken care of now, and Liquid 3 is one of the ways to take care of them. Depending on the species of microalgea used, a number have shown a pretty amazing capacity to pull heavy metals out of the air which is something trees can get choked up by.

The tanks aren't just tanks either! Liquid 3 have solar panels placed on top, they have lighting and mobile phone charging, and they work as public benches. The designers of it want to encourage green spaces where there's room, but where there isn't room or time, Liquid 3 can step in. Realistically, this isn't a replacement for trees. It's replacing boring metal city benches with new, cooler benches that also clean the air (and have at least some heating during the winter).

Not only that, but the microalgea that grows is native to Serbia and all that microalgea has a ton of great uses! It makes for great fertilizer, compost, wastewater treatment, cleaner biofuels and even for helping create new tanks for further air purification. They only require a quick algae divide once a month, and the produced algae can be carted off to where ever it's needed. This makes them effective solutions for areas that can't sustain complex installations.

mushroom: can you feel your heart burning? can you feel the struggle within? the fear within me is beyond anything your soul can make. you cannot kill me in a way that matters

1977: Star Wars is released, featuring, of course, Darth Vader

(Pictured: Darth Vader)

1984: Director Todd Durham releases his Star Wars parody movie, Hyperspace, featuring Darth Vader inspired villain Lord Buckethead.

(Pictured: Hyperspace poster featuring two Jawa-esque aliens flying through space in a shopping trolley.)

1987: Hyperspace is released on video in the UK, under the new title Gremloids.

(Pictured: Gremloids cover in the style of the original Star Wars poster, featuring Lord Buckethead.)

To promote the film, Mike Lee, the owner of the distributing company, ran for parliament as Lord Buckethead. He ran in Margaret Thatcher's constituency, Finchley, in order to get on TV. Lord Buckethead was representing the Gremloids party.

(Pictured: Lord Buckethead on TV with Margaret Thatcher.)

1992: Gremloids is re-released. Lord Buckethead rides again, this time against prime minister John Major in Huntingdon. (Here's a fun fact about Huntingdon: I was born there! :D) 87/92 Buckethead seems to have leaned pretty hard into the space supervillain thing, with campaign promises including 'demolish Birmingham to build a spaceport'.

(Pictured: Lord Buckethead on TV with John Major. Other notable candidates include Screaming Lord Sutch of the Monster Raving Loony Party.)

2017: comedian Jon Harvey, having recently watched Gremloids and learned of Lord Buckethead's candidacy for parliament, decides it's a great bit. He runs against Theresa May in Maidenhead. 2017 Buckethead seems to have a wackier and also more political approach, with campaign promises ranging from nonsense like 'nationalise Adele' to gesturing at actually sensible policies with stuff like 'lower the voting age to 16 and restrict voting after age 80'.

He also made an appearance on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. As with his previous incarnation, he was a member of the Gremloids party.

(Pictured: Lord Buckethead dabbing on stage with Theresa May.)

2018: Director Todd Durham asserts his legal ownership of Lord Buckethead. Jon Harvey opted not to go to court over Buckethead and handed over the reins. Todd Durham extended an invitation to anyone who wanted to be the 'authorised' Lord Buckethead.

(Pictured: the new Lord Buckethead.)

2019: Lord Buckethead, now played by journalist David Hughes, stood against Boris Johnson in Uxbridge and South Ruislip. He ran for the Monster Raving Loony Party, the UK's pre-existing gag candidate party. He ran with a similarly silly manifesto as the 2017 incarnation, but with a bit less of a political edge. His promises included 'All doorways to be increased by 1 foot (30 cm) in height' and 'Nigel Farage to be sold for parts'.

(Pictured: Lord Buckethead and Count Binface square up.)

Meanwhile, Jon Harvey in his new persona Count Binface, also ran against Boris Johnson. Buckethead and Binface face off! Binface ran as an independent with a manifesto once again blending silly and semi-serious promises such as 'nationalising model railways' and 'giving £1 trillion a week to the NHS'. This was also I believe the debut of his promise to 'move the hand dryer in the men's toilet at Uxbridge's Crown and Treaty pub to a more sensible position'.

(Pictured: Count Binface presenting the offending hand dryer, inconveniently close to both the sink and the urinals.)

He has a point.

2021: Count Binface runs for the position of Mayor of London for the first time, with promises such as 'London to join the European Union'. He notably finished ahead of far right party UKIP.

2023: Count Binface runs in the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election following Boris Johnson's resignation. He once again gets more votes than UKIP.

May 2024: Count Binface once again runs to be Mayor of London, debuting his now iconic 'build at least one affordable house' promise. Notably, he finished ahead of far right party Britain First.

(Pictured: Count Binface with Rishi Sunak. Also pictured: Monster Raving Loony Party candidate Sir Archibald Stanton with a ventriloquist's dummy.)

July 2024: Count Binface stands in the general election, running in Richmond and Northallerton against prime minister Rishi Sunak. He debuts his promise to cap the price of 99p flakes at 99p. This is his most successful election to date with 308 votes.

(Pictured: Count Binface with Andy Burnham. Also pictured: independent candidate Robert Pownell, dressed as a fox for his own reasons.)

June 2026: Count Binface stands in the Makerfield by-election against Andy Burnham, (recently) former Mayor of Manchester running for parliament with the intention of standing in the Labour Party leadership contest.

(Pictured: Count Binface on BBC's Newsnight.)

i don't care about old social media posts that have coincidentally and mysteriously "resurfaced" following the outrage of transmisogynist fans. you clearly missed the part of this where Jax is reflective of Goose's past behavior of using edgy and harmful humor to play the bad guy and push people away in order to cover up the fact that she is a trans woman. you missed the part where Gooseworx has explicitly grown past that kind of behavior and Jax is an exercise in extending empathy to a past version of herself who was trying everything in her power to be uworthy of love and care. you fundamentally do not understand the art you are a fan of.

One of my favourite things to do is take a character and work backwards.

What would have to happen to a person for them to become this?

For instance, Gavla is easy. She's a smart-mouthed, vicious little peacock who felt more at home lording over the other Matoran as the Makuta's lackey than she ever did among her own.

The most likely story there is that she was never really accepted among the Av-Matoran. They might have tried to, but something about her personality or the way she did things just rubbed them the wrong way, and even if they were trying not to show it, she could tell. It wound its way through every interaction until she grew to deeply resent them all. But the same thing that kept her siblings at arms length was accepted and encouraged among the Makuta, add in that she was allowed to take her out frustrations properly now, and of course she would end up like that.

Krika's a self-fulfilling, self-loathing, self-defeating prophesy, so he's not hard either. He never thought he could be good, so he never really tried, and envies people who are or do to the point of violence.

That's the result of an environment that constantly told him there was something inherently wrong with him- probably the other Makuta too- and an internally grown jealousy problem that never got addressed because that would require admitting that he could improve, and his only comfort in being the way he is, is that it's not his fault. At some point, he probably lashed out and hurt someone very badly, no one around him was surprised, and this worldview was cemented as a way to defend himself from both of these things.

A challenge, is Gorast.

fully plausible to me that most people who don't live on Coruscant (or another planet w a Jedi temple on it) could very easily go through their whole lives without ever meeting a Jedi. less likely that they'd never run into anyone force sensitive but again 'force sensitive' could just mean 'weirdly intuitive' in practice

this is why it's not that implausible to me that as of the original trilogy a lot of people don't believe the Force is a real thing - even when the Jedi were relatively abundant i can believe that a lot of people were like 'oh there's a religious order who believe they have magical mind powers? that's neat I guess'. add in some imperial propaganda about how the Jedi and yeah sure. i can buy that within 20 years everyone's just pivoted away from believing in the force

1) The word translated as “forbidden” is “toevah.” While that translation isn’t … wrong, it’s sort of like saying “McMansion” means “really big house.” There are a lot of connotations in that word. The specific issue with toevah is that we … sort of … don’t know anymore exactly what it meant. Based on context, it seems likely that the word referred to something ritually forbidden. This part of Torah was written not only as a guide for future generations, but also to say “so, look around, see your neighbors? DON’T DO THAT.“ Thus, if we interpret “toevah” to mean something that’s forbidden to do as a ritual before G-d, then the verse says nothing whatsoever about Adam and Steve and their two kids and their dog–it’s saying you shouldn’t have sex with another man in the Temple as a sacrifice.

2) Following the same “this is ritually forbidden” logic of toevah, this verse may also be interpreted as “don’t do sex magic,” which was a thing in. Like. A lot of fucking cultures at the time.

3) Hebrew is a highly gendered language, and the grammatical gender in this verse is really really weird. One of the “men” in this verse is given female grammar. Why? Who fucking knows, man, this isn’t the only grammatical oddity in Torah. (There are also places where G-d is referred to as plural, and also as female.) One suggestion is that this is a way of creating a diminutive–that is, that the verse should be read as “a man should not lie with a boy.” Now, it’s worth noting that modern secular scholarship has concluded the written Torah was written down around the 6th century BCE, and most non-Orthodox Jewish scholars are like “yeah, all things considered, that sounds pretty legit.”

Do you know what else was happening around the 6th century BCE? What laypeople tend to mean when they say “ancient Greece” was happening.

Do you know what happened a lot in that time period in Greece? Dudes forming relationships with younger boys, like ages 10-15, and using them for sex in exchange for financial gifts, mentorship, etc. While we don’t know just how young some of these younger boys may have been, we do know some were prepubescent. In light of this, and also something I mentioned under the first point–”see your neighbors? DON’T DO THAT,” if this verse is interpreted to say “a man should not lie with a boy,” then it’s pretty clearly “my dudes, my fellows, my lads, don’t be fucking pedophiles.”

4) Because of the grammar I mentioned in #3, it’s also possible that “should not lie with a man as with a woman” is actually referring to a place, not an abstract personhood: a man shouldn’t have sex with another man in a woman’s bed. In the time period, a woman’s bed was sort of like–that was her place, her safe sanctuary. It was also a ritually holy place where babies were made. By having sex in her bed, you’re violating her safe space (and also introducing a man who may not be a male relative, thus forcing her into breaking the laws of modesty). If this verse is read this way, then it should be taken to mean “don’t sexually violate a woman’s safety and modesty.” 5) And as an offshoot of #4, this may be a second verse relating to infidelity. Which woman’s bed is any random dude in 600 BCE most likely to have access to? His wife’s. But laws were administered differently based on whether the person they pertained to was slave or free, male or female, and so on–thus, a man committing adultery with a woman would be treated differently than man committing adultery with a man (especially because the latter would carry no chance of an illegitimate pregnancy).

It’s like, I’ve seen the homophobic thing twice maybe, by the time you reach Joshua’s book? And like 100 times god reminds the israelites to be kind to the foreigner, because they were foreigners in Egypt and were treated harshly.

So: Hebrew is an alphanumeric language. Each letter of the alphabet corresponds to a number. This is deeply important in Kabbalah, and you’ll see echoes of it in Jewish culture that have nothing to do with the Tanakh at all! Plus, there are a ton of puns and things that only make sense in Hebrew because the alphanumeric values do not translate (for example: the alphanumeric values for “man” and “woman” add up to the alphanumeric value of the name of G-d). So:

The numeric value of “chai,” or “life” (as a sidenote: it’s not pronounced like the Indian tea, it’s pronounced like you’re clearing your throat while saying hello), is 18. You’ll often see Jews give money in multiples of 18 for this reason. 36, or “double chai,” is considered a huge blessing.

How does this relate to your comment? Because “be kind to the stranger among you” is the most repeated command in the Torah, and it doesn’t appear 100 times (although it certainly feels like it)—it appears 36 times.

Or, with numerology applied:

To be kind to the stranger is to receive life.

The official propertarian arguments (debunked) masterpost. This post also contains resources for anyone wishing to learn about these topics.

1. “Capitalism is inherently ethical/not exploitive because it’s voluntary.” 

People engage in market exchange because it is the only way for them to get access to the resources they need to survive (’work or starve’). Capitalism did not develop because people found commodity-exchange to be beneficial. Rather, people were forced to engage in commodity-exchange by enclosures, debt, and taxes. Here’s an excerpt from ‘What Is Anarchism’ that touches points on voluntarism under capitalism:

If I should steal something from you, you can call a policeman and have me arrested. The law will punish the thief, and the government will return to you the stolen property, if possible, because the law forbids stealing. It says that no one has a right to take anything from you without your consent.

But your employer takes from you what you produce. The whole wealth produced by labor is taken by the capitalists and kept by them as their property.

The law says that your employer does not steal anything from you, because it is done with your consent. You have agreed to work for your boss for certain pay, he to have all that you produce. Because you consented to it, the law says that he does not steal anything from you. But did you really consent?

When the highwayman holds his gun to your head, you turn your valuables over to him. You ‘consent’ all right, but you do so because you cannot help yourself, because you are compelled by his gun.

Are you not compelled to work for an employer? Your need compels you, just as the highwayman’s gun. You must live, and so must your wife and children. You can’t work for yourself, under the capitalist industrial system you must work for an employer. The factories, machinery, and tools belong to the employing class, so you must hire yourself out to that class in order to work and live. Whatever you work at, whoever your employer may be, it always comes to the same: you must work for him. You can’t help yourself. You are compelled.

In this way the whole working class is compelled to work for the capitalist class. In this manner the workers are compelled to give up all the wealth they produce. The employers keep that wealth as their profit, while the worker gets only a wage, just enough to live on, so he can go on producing more wealth for his employer. Is that not cheating, robbery?

The law says it is a ‘free agreement’. Just as well might the highwayman say that you ‘agreed’ to give up your valuables. The only difference is that the highwayman’s way is called stealing and robbery, and is forbidden by law. While the capitalist way is called business, industry, profit making, and is protected by law.

But whether it is done in the highwayman’s way or in the capitalist way, you know that you are robbed.

Recommended reading:

The Origin of Capitalism: A Longer View

Value, Price, and Profit

2. “If the state would back out, capitalism would be truly free”

This is an ahistorical argument. The interests of the ruling class (maximizing profits while minimizing the cost of labor) conflict those of the working class. Unsafe working conditions, use of child labor, little pay, and abuse are some examples. Now, another argument might be, “well yeah, that’s the past, capitalism allowed us to end this era”. That is, again, ahistorical. It has been working class resistance–protests, strikes, etc–that have pushed capitalists to do away with a lot of their unjust practices. State intervention, and worker resistance, is a result of capitalism. Nothing exists in a vacuum.

Oh yeah, and let’s not stop at history. What you may assume is a thing of the past actually occurs today in third world countries exploited by wealthy countries and multinational corporations–and it gets worse:

Coca-Cola use of paramilitary groups targeting union leaders and political activists, polluting groundwater above limits, other abuses

Apple use of sweatshops, combatting workplace suicides with “suicide nets”

Indigenous people left poor as tech world rushes for lithium

Corporations engage in land grabbing: violence, suppression of activism, worsening climate change 

Qatar exploitation of migrant workers 

Garment industry use of sweatshops, exploitation leading to workplace deaths

Recommended documentaries on corporate exploitation and crime:

The New Rulers of the World (54 minutes) - Corporate exploitation and imperialism in Indonesia by Western countries.

The Corporation (2 hours 24 minutes) - History of corporations and capitalism, crimes by corporations.

Casino Jack and the United States of Money (3 hours) - How Reagan-Era propaganda helped cover up lobbying scandals and spread a false ‘free market’ agenda (focuses on Jack Abramoff scandal).

3. “That’s not real capitalism, it’s corporatism/crony capitalism.”

Corporatism, or crony capitalism, simply late capitalism. The wealthy amass large amounts of money at the expense of the masses and use it in exchange for state power benefiting them. This can be seen in a lot of areas. Legislation and regulations, legal permits, government grants, special tax breaks, and state forces defending corporate interests, such as militarized police at protests and unjust arrests. Also, as I mentioned in argument #2, state intervention is a result of exploitation under capitalism.

4. “While working conditions under US corporations in third world countries can be quite terrible, at least those workers aren’t starving.” 

This is a ridiculous and saddening argument. Corporations engaging in these practices making billions of dollars while paying hardworking peoples starvation wages and keeping them in very bad working conditions. None of this is necessary, it is wrong in every way, and a direct result of exploitation under capitalism. In the 21st century we have abundant resources and wealth, but thanks to capitalism only eight people own as much money as the poorest 3.6 billion people in the world.

Let’s play the biggest game of kick the can on the internet.