This Is So Cute. And Tony With His Tech. Would Be Cool To See All Of Them

Wow. The most accurate CW Steve meta. Thank you thank you thank you

“We don’t trade lives”- Captain Steven Grant Rogers

TEAM CAPTAIN AMERICA LOOKS SO MUCH BETTER…

Steve Rogers + the ‘Captain America" fandom

Just to put this out there for other Cap fans, this week (8/16/2017) Marvel is re-releasing the first ever Captain America comic and the Cap story from Tales of Suspense #63 in honor of what would have been Jack Kirby’s 100th birthday this year…

As we all know Jack Kirby, aka the King of Comics, was Cap’s co-creator and also a real-life Captain America who fought in WW2 in the Army in Company F of the 11th Infantry Regiment and served as a scout, it was while scouting that he found and helped to liberate a concentration camp. During his service he, unfortunately, came down with severe frostbite and almost lost both legs. Afterwards he was honorably discharged as a Private First Class and was awarded a Combat Infantryman Badge and a Bronze Star Medal.

The price of this comic honoring Kirby and one of his greatest creations is $1.00 for anyone interested in acquiring it.

On Sharon Carter

First of all, ugh. Second, whyyyyyyy?

I am a huge fan of strong women being portrayed strong and independent in movies. Seriously, we need more of those women. What I absolutely hate is people believing a woman has to be a perfect know-it-all in order to be strong. Just, no. In writing, mainly fanfiction, this is called a “Mary Sue”. For those who don’t know, a Mary Sue is a character that is perfect. She knows everything, can do everything, is super brave and loved and wanted by literally everyone.

Now, the reason I’m putting this first is that so far I feel like Sharon Carter is going to be a Mary Sue. Not in the actual sense of course, because in fanfiction a Mary Sue is most of the time the author in a much more perfected version, but in a larger, a little modified sense.

Sharon’s been bugging me since her very first appearance in Return Of The First Avenger which is fascinating since she has really little screentime. So allow me to explain myself a little further.

As of now what we’ve seen of Sharon is:

her being super nice

apparently Nat approving of her since when on the Lemurian Star she asks Steve if maybe he wants to ask out the nurse who lives across the hall from him and at the end of the movie she asks Steve to call her because “she’s nice” (and honestly Nat is not exactly the person to approve of people easily)

her being super brave since she speaks up against Sitwell and demands to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. should be hunting Steve and later on she stands up against Brock Rumlow to stop the launch of the Helicarriers

her being a perfect shot when she practices shooting at the CIA shooting range

I know she didn’t have much screentime yet but everything we’ve seen so far puts her into a pretty perfect light. I’m also taking the one short moment from Civil War we’ve already seen into consideration where she apparently goes up against Bucky which is something no person in their right mind would do because HIGHLY TRAINED AND PROFESSIONAL KILLER.

This is a no-no in my eyes. It couldn’t have been that hard to just have her keep her mouth shut when Sitwell demands S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to hunt Captain America. It also wouldn’t have killed anyone to have her miss a few shots on that shooting range, she’s no Hawkeye after all.

As of now, she just seems too perfect in my eyes. I am of course always up for being proven wrong but everything just looks a little to peachy at the moment. A character with flaws who actually can’t do whatever he wants and get it right at the first try is much more interesting.

Something I’m also having a problem with: they seem to try to turn her into another Black Widow. Outfit-wise. When I looked at those new promo pictures I had to take a second look to realises I wasn’t looking at two Black Widows but in fact Natasha and Sharon. It looks a little like they took Nat’s outfit and photoshopped Sharon’s head on it. No. Just no. That’s not how we do it. If you want Sharon to be a super badass and respectable character make her a unique on and don’t copy something that’s already there.

But major difference character-wise: Nat has flaws. She struggles. Things go wrong for her. She has a heart-wrenching past, that thing with Bruce didn’t work out entirely as planned. She’s stubborn. She makes mistake. As far as we know Sharon is pretty perfect overall. Badass fighter, brave woman, she gets Captain America (come on, we can still turn this around and pretend it won’t and never will be a thing… please). Seems pretty great to me. But this is a character I don’t want to see. I want and need characters I can identify with, not a perfect Miss Plastic.

One more thing about this matter and then I shut up: Steve doesn’t need a love interest. Honestly. In my eyes it would be amazing to let a character like Steve Rogers stay single. For one because he doesn’t need it. Second, it would be amazingly representative. There are so many young people out there who still believe they need to be in a relationship to be happy or have some kind of worth. Seeing a man like Captain freaking America not be in a relationship would be incredibly reassuring and soothing.

I mean, just think about it. That man looks like a god and has a great personality (though even Captain America has his flaws). Everyone would expect him to be in a relationship. So take the chance, surprise everyone and let him stay single. Because yes, he’s basically perfect but that doesn’t mean everyone will immediately fall into his arms.

Okay, I think I’m done now. I’ll make an additional post if more comes to mind.

Chechnya is holding gay men in concentration camps

Gay men are being held in “camps” in the Chechen Republic where they are subjected to torture and beatings, human rights campaigners have claimed.

More terrible, deeply triggering news from Chechnya in Russia: Reports indicate that gay men are not only being abducted, but held in concentration camps, where they are being tortured and a few have been killed.

The claims follow reports last week that 100 gay men had been rounded up and imprisoned in Chechnya, with at least three people allegedly murdered. The allegations were made by a Russian newspaper and human rights campaigners. “In Chechnya, the command was given for a ‘prophylactic sweep’ and it went as far as real murders,” independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta claimed. […]

Speaking to the MailOnline, Svetlana Zakharova from the Russian LGBT network, said:  “Gay people have been detained and rounded up and we are working to evacuate people from the camps and some have now left the region.

“Those who have escaped said they are detained in the same room and people are kept altogether, around 30 or 40. They are tortured with electric currents and heavily beaten, sometimes to death.”

I don’t have words. Amnesty International is circulating a petition seeking justice. Hold these people in your hearts. Truly, I’m speechless. 

“The most difficult thing I had to achieve in this film was creating the fabric for the Captain America Stealth Suit.  The Russos were very specific that they wanted a suit that was made of textured, woven, hard fabric like a Kevlar and not a printed stretch suit like you see over and over again in these films. But in reality it needed to be made of a stretch fabric that would allow movement and comfort, as well as the ability to be constructed into a more realistic military type trouser and protective top. I went through many incarnations of printed textures on stretch which then posed a whole new set of challenges and problems.  The HD cameras made raised textures strobe or moiré.  So finding the right one became a trial.  Then the printing ink would shine like plastic, which I disliked.  It took four months of research and development to create a texture that seems so simple and was yet, so complicated.” - Judianna Makovsky

So, today, Marvel published issues of comics revealing that in fact the Nazis were always supposed to win World War 2, and the Allies invented the Cosmic Cube to rewrite history to prevent that from happening. 

That was released today. April 19th.

The anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the largest Jewish revolt during World War 2, the first urban uprising in Nazi-occupied Europe, begun when the Nazis decided to completely wipe out the Warsaw Jews on Passover eve. Instead, the Jews held out for nearly a month, with whatever they could fight with. They’re honored to this day. 

And Marvel published their Nazi-stanning dumpster fire of a retcon today. 

Cassini Spacecraft: Top Discoveries

Our Cassini spacecraft has been exploring Saturn, its stunning rings and its strange and beautiful moons for more than a decade.

Having expended almost every bit of the rocket propellant it carried to Saturn, operators are deliberately plunging Cassini into the planet to ensure Saturn’s moons will remain pristine for future exploration – in particular, the ice-covered, ocean-bearing moon Enceladus, but also Titan, with its intriguing pre-biotic chemistry.

Let’s take a look back at some of Cassini’s top discoveries:  

Titan

Under its shroud of haze, Saturn’s planet-sized moon Titan hides dunes, mountains of water ice and rivers and seas of liquid methane. Of the hundreds of moons in our solar system, Titan is the only one with a dense atmosphere and large liquid reservoirs on its surface, making it in some ways more like a terrestrial planet.

Both Earth and Titan have nitrogen-dominated atmospheres – over 95% nitrogen in Titan’s case. However, unlike Earth, Titan has very little oxygen; the rest of the atmosphere is mostly methane and traced amounts of other gases, including ethane.

There are three large seas, all located close to the moon’s north pole, surrounded by numerous smaller lakes in the northern hemisphere. Just one large lake has been found in the southern hemisphere.

Enceladus

The moon Enceladus conceals a global ocean of salty liquid water beneath its icy surface. Some of that water even shoots out into space, creating an immense plume!

For decades, scientists didn’t know why Enceladus was the brightest world in the solar system, or how it related to Saturn’s E ring. Cassini found that both the fresh coating on its surface, and icy material in the E ring originate from vents connected to a global subsurface saltwater ocean that might host hydrothermal vents.

With its global ocean, unique chemistry and internal heat, Enceladus has become a promising lead in our search for worlds where life could exist.

Iapetus

Saturn’s two-toned moon Iapetus gets its odd coloring from reddish dust in its orbital path that is swept up and lands on the leading face of the moon.

The most unique, and perhaps most remarkable feature discovered on Iapetus in Cassini images is a topographic ridge that coincides almost exactly with the geographic equator. The physical origin of the ridge has yet to be explained…

It is not yet year whether the ridge is a mountain belt that has folded upward, or an extensional crack in the surface through which material from inside Iapetus erupted onto the surface and accumulated locally.

Saturn’s Rings

Saturn’s rings are made of countless particles of ice and dust, which Saturn’s moons push and tug, creating gaps and waves.

Scientists have never before studied the size, temperature, composition and distribution of Saturn’s rings from Saturn obit. Cassini has captured extraordinary ring-moon interactions, observed the lowest ring-temperature ever recorded at Saturn, discovered that the moon Enceladus is the source for Saturn’s E ring, and viewed the rings at equinox when sunlight strikes the rings edge-on, revealing never-before-seen ring features and details.

Cassini also studied features in Saturn’s rings called “spokes,” which can be longer than the diameter of Earth. Scientists think they’re made of thin icy particles that are lifted by an electrostatic charge and only last a few hours.  

Auroras

The powerful magnetic field that permeates Saturn is strange because it lines up with the planet’s poles. But just like Earth’s field, it all creates shimmering auroras.

Auroras on Saturn occur in a process similar to Earth’s northern and southern lights. Particles from the solar wind are channeled by Saturn’s magnetic field toward the planet’s poles, where they interact with electrically charged gas (plasma) in the upper atmosphere and emit light.  

Turbulent Atmosphere

Saturn’s turbulent atmosphere churns with immense storms and a striking, six-sided jet stream near its north pole.

Saturn’s north and south poles are also each beautifully (and violently) decorated by a colossal swirling storm. Cassini got an up-close look at the north polar storm and scientists found that the storm’s eye was about 50 times wider than an Earth hurricane’s eye.

Unlike the Earth hurricanes that are driven by warm ocean waters, Saturn’s polar vortexes aren’t actually hurricanes. They’re hurricane-like though, and even contain lightning. Cassini’s instruments have ‘heard’ lightning ever since entering Saturn orbit in 2004, in the form of radio waves. But it wasn’t until 2009 that Cassini’s cameras captured images of Saturnian lighting for the first time.

Cassini scientists assembled a short video of it, the first video of lightning discharging on a planet other than Earth.

Cassini’s adventure will end soon because it’s almost out of fuel. So to avoid possibly ever contaminating moons like Enceladus or Titan, on Sept. 15 it will intentionally dive into Saturn’s atmosphere.

The spacecraft is expected to lose radio contact with Earth within about one to two minutes after beginning its decent into Saturn’s upper atmosphere. But on the way down, before contact is lost, eight of Cassini’s 12 science instruments will be operating! More details on the spacecraft’s final decent can be found HERE.

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Am I seeing things or they have... claws???

Infinity War