S&shrew13

In Super Mario 64, throwing King Bob-omb down this slope in Bob-omb Battlefield will cause him to slowly slide down the length of the slope before jumping back up to the arena, as shown in the footage.

From Lustige Blätter, 1906.

Here’s my seasonal collection of vintage (mostly weird) fashion.

In Super Mario 64, the main foyer of Peach’s Castle normally only allows very specific camera angles to be used: the regular middle-distance Lakitu camera, the close-up Mario camera, and the first-person camera (used to access the Tower of the Wing Cap course). From these, the one used at almost all times is the regular Lakitu camera, which positions the viewpoint next to the main entrance. If the player attempts to zoom out the camera or switch to fixed camera, an error sound plays.

However, there is a way to unlock an additional camera angle for the foyer due to an oversight. If the player enters one of the side rooms, switches to the Mario camera with R, and presses C-Down to zoom it out, then returns to the foyer, the zoomed-out Mario camera will remain enabled in the foyer despite not actually being accessible if the player had tried to activate it in the foyer itself.

This allows the foyer to be viewed with a drastically different camera angle as seen in the screenshot, providing a view that most players would never experience.

You may wonder what this whole Awesome Coffee Club thing is all about. Today I was reminded what it’s all about:

In 2019, the unpaid intern who runs this tumblr account visited Sierra Leone’s Kono District. Kono is the among the most impoverished communities in the world due to a long history of enslavement, colonialism, and civil war. A decade ago, Kono’s healthcare system was in a state of collapse–clinics had no running water or electricity or paid staff, and inconsistent supplies of medications and other necessities.

As a result, Kono was the epicenter of the global maternal mortality crisis: One out of every seventeen women could expect to die in childbirth. Over 10% of children died before the age of five. 

Beginning in 2014, Partners in Health began working with Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Health to bring change. This started with the basics at the region’s hospital, Koidu Government Hospital: running water, 24-hour electricity, and hiring nurses, community healthworkers, cooks, facilities management staff, and so much more. 

At the time, KGH’s maternity ward had a dirt floor. Many people were dying for want of an emergency C-section or a blood transfusion. By 2019, this was getting better–two functioning operating rooms were able to perform C-sections, and a blood bank could address postpartum hemorrhaging. But it was still inadequate, and maternal and child mortality were horrifyingly routine.

To address the crisis, PIH Sierra Leone directors Jon Lascher and Dr. Baillor Barrie wanted to build a world-class maternal and child health center that could save thousands of lives yearly while also serving as a teaching hospital to train the next generation of Sierra Leonean healthcare workers. They told us they needed $25,000,000 to break ground, and would probably eventually need another $25,000,000 to support the hospital’s operation over its first few years.

I am, as unpaid interns go, doing quite well, but not THAT well. So our family committed what we could and asked others to join us, and within two years, we passed that $25,000,000 goal. Together, we’ve now raised close to $40,000,000. 

Today, I visited the site of the Maternal Center of Excellence, the first wards of which will hopefully open next year. Nearly all of the construction team are from Kono, and 65% of them are women–they work as welders, engineers, planners, laborers, and so much more. You see three of them above. I had the privilege of talking with them about this project. The young woman to the right, Success, told me that her dream is to work for the hospital her whole life, helping to maintain and support it. One of the other women told me, “We are passionate about this work because it is the future of our country. And we know that we and our friends will someday give birth here.” I am so proud that our projects support their training and livelihood, and so grateful to have them as colleagues in this work.

The hospital–which will include over 100 maternal beds, a NICU, and enough operating suites to perform over 10 emergency C-sections per day, will also require ongoing funding for staff, stuff, systems, maintenance, and more. Our hope is that open-ended projects like the Awesome Coffee Club and Awesome Socks Club can help provide that funding, although the most efficient way to support this project is to donate directly! 

Pacifism

Without warriors there can be no war.

Pokemon Mini Painting ~ #046 Paras  

A 1996 Super Mario 64 manga suggests as a joke that the reason Mario is able to surf on water using Koopa shells in that game is because a Koopa Troopa is inside, propelling the shell forward by paddling.

In Super Mario Odyssey, there are large turnips in the Luncheon Kingdom that Mario can pluck from the ground and carry around. If a turnip is placed in a precise position next to a Hammer Bro’s respawn point so that, immediately after respawning, the Hammer Bro will land on it when Mario hits him with Cappy, a glitch will occur.

The moment the Hammer Bro touches the turnip, he will slowly begin ascending into the sky. He will ascend indefinitely, as shown in the footage on the bottom.