XCU-57 Combat Unit "Artemis"

Cambridge professor of sociology Jason Arday is accused of plagiarism by another academic

the accuser is a "race realist" who believes that in a true meritocracy all university professors would be white. this is somehow not acknowledged much during the entire ordeal

this leads to several days of media coverage demanding an investigation, or that Arday is expelled from his post immediately

somehow this accusation that has no effect on the lives of 99.99% of the population becomes FRONT PAGE NEWS in all the newspapers for multiple days, above anything else happening in the UK or the world at large

following intense media scrutiny, Arday resigns his post as a Cambridge professor

today, august 14th, days after resigning, Arday is found dead at his home in Battersea

Courtesy of @flaskoflethe, we had the wonderful opportunity to experiment with knapping sapphire!

We started with this lovely piece of synthetic sapphire from Tom's Box of Rocks, although it started too round and needed to be thinned and flatenned before I could knap it.

After grinding, it was time to start flaking. I was not remotely prepared for how difficult this would be, the first flake took 6 attempts with the full force of my body to drive even a small little chip, and the sapphire fought me just as much for every next flake.

After hours of exhausting work, I was finally able to create a knapped edge across the entire piece. I could not manage to drive flakes all the way to the center, but both my tools and body had taken enough of a beating that I decided to declare the piece finished after polishing up the frosted center a little.

This was an amazing project, and I'm really thankful I finally had the opportunity to try out sapphire. I want to experiment with the material more, but I think for now and more pieces made in ruby or sapphire will be case by case commissions, as I cannot justify the cost, labor hours, and recovery time without a client paying upfront. Once I can get some more specialized tools like a lapidary saw I'm hopeful it'll be a more practical material to work with.

Feel free to ask any questions about this project! It was easily the most difficult material I have ever worked, and I'm excited to talk about it more to those curious.

-hallucinate

-cry over what seems to be small things

-become furiously angry over what seems to be small things

-hit a self destruct button over and over again

-lose all sense of reality

-becoming straight up unable to communicate

-view every situation as life or death

-experience delusions/become vulnerable to irrational worldviews

-perceive hostility where none exists

-become extremely nauseous and/or throw up

-stop engaging in sleeping/eating/basic hygiene

-stop processing sensory input

-process way too much sensory input all at once

-lash out at others/themselves

-and more!