Paranoid0peach

Omelas = Paradiese/Heaven???

The only chronological element of the work is that it begins by describing the first day of summer in Omelas, a shimmering city of unbelievable happiness and delight. In Omelas, the summer solstice is celebrated with a glorious festival and a race featuring children on horseback. The vibrant festival atmosphere, however, seems to be an everyday characteristic of the blissful community, whose citizens, though limited in their advanced technology to communal (rather than private) resources, are still intelligent, sophisticated, and cultured. Omelas has no kings, soldiers, priests, or slaves. The specific socio-politico-economic setup of the community is not mentioned, but the narrator merely explains that the reader cannot be sure of every particular.

Self-admittedly, the narrator reflects that “Omelas sounds in my words like a city in a fairy tale, long ago and far away, once upon a time. Perhaps it would be best if you imagined it as your own fancy bids, assuming it will rise to the occasion, for certainly I cannot suit you all.” The narrator even suggests that, if necessary, the reader may include an orgy in their mental picture of Omelas.

Everything about Omelas is so abundantly pleasing that the narrator decides the reader is not yet truly convinced of its existence and so elaborates upon one final element of the city: its one atrocity. The city’s constant state of serenity and splendor requires that a single unfortunate child be kept in perpetual filth, darkness, and misery.

Once citizens are old enough to know the truth, most, though initially shocked and disgusted, ultimately acquiesce with that one injustice which secures the happiness of the rest of the city. However, a few citizens, young and old, silently walk away from the city, and no one knows where they go. The story ends with “The place they go towards is a place even less imaginable to most of us than the city of happiness. I cannot describe it at all. It is possible it does not exist. But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.”

Saturn’s atmosphere exhibits a banded pattern similar to Jupiter’s, but Saturn’s bands are much fainter and are much wider near the equator. The nomenclature used to describe these bands is the same as on Jupiter. Saturn’s finer cloud patterns were not observed until the flybys of the Voyager spacecraft during the 1980s. Since then, Earth-based telescopy has improved to the point where regular observations can be made. The composition of the clouds varies with depth and increasing pressure.

The winds on Saturn are the second fastest among the Solar System’s planets, after Neptune’s. Voyager data indicate peak easterly winds of 500 m/s (1,800 km/h).

Thermography has shown that Saturn’s south pole has a warm polar vortex, the only known example of such a phenomenon in the Solar System. Whereas temperatures on Saturn are normally −185 °C, temperatures on the vortex often reach as high as −122 °C, suspected to be the warmest spot on Saturn.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute and Kevin M. Gill

Palazzo Reale, Naples, Italy

Massimo Listri Photography

The furthest orbiting moon in our solar system is Neso, a moon of Neptune.

witches weeds - jimsonweed datura stramonium, hemlock conium maculatum, enchanter’s nightshade circaea lutetiana, deadly nightshade atropa belladona, henbane hyoscyamus niger, moonflower datura innoxia, wolsfbane aconitum napellus

i’ve come across the concept of witches weeds a few times in my botanical wanderings, above are a few of my favorites. a word of warning - every plant above except for enchanter’s nightshade are poisonous plants. please do not go foraging for these plants, some of them can even create symptoms just by touching or breathing in near the plant. 

instagram / twitter

The love that was gifted to me was too much

Too much to handle

So I settled for less

Not knowing it wouldn't be enough

                                               Bluer than Blue

Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto in 1930.

Spring Day Theory (Sewol tragedy)

After reading some people’s comments saying that it is a tribute to the people who died in the Sewol ferry accident. I feel that this makes the most sense and I have so much more respect for BTS for doing this (if this is true). Here are some of my thoughts on it, hope it somewhat makes sense.

The pile of clothes This would be a representation of life, memories - of the victims of the Sewol tragedy - together with death. This takes on same idea as Christian Boltanski’s art exhibition called ‘Personnes’. Also presented in a mountain of clothes, representing the memories and identities that the dead has left behind, in his case it’s the victims of the Holocaust.

Omelas This is a utopian society where everyone is happy without any worries but to preserve this happiness, a child’s happiness and life is being sacrificed - in this case, it’s the people who died in the tragedy - this symbolises (perhaps is criticising) how people in Korea and the Korean government choose to turn a blind eye and consider it taboo. (There are articles about how the government is to blame for this tragedy that could’ve been prevented)

Essentially, I believe (one of the) underlying messages BTS is trying to convey is that we must confront and talk about these 'taboo’ issues in order to move on and so that history does not repeat itself. Thus, linking in with the book: we must all leave Omelas together and not indulge in this feigned happiness that is only preserved because of someone else’s suffering.

Ah there, it’s good to get this off of my chest lol

By Amidstsilence

Schloss Augustusburg, Brühl, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany,

Photography: Mark Wohlrab