A drop of water falls in an endless, still lake. The ripple spreads out, leaving a circular wave spreading out endlessly. Tiny disturbances create their own ripples; one side travelling with the main ripple, causing wonderful interactions in the wavefront; but the main ripple grows faster than these disturbances spread across it.
The beings of the ripple look across the main ripple, seeing the disturbances as their interactions propagate across the main ripple. Looking back far enough to the earliest disturbances, one thing becomes clear; the entire ripple comes from one drop, and most of the ripple is moving away faster than a disturbance can propagate.
An expanding universe where every point of the universe started from the middle is pretty easy to conceptualize with the right analogy.
I do love weaponized autism.
I just yell at them in a bizarre mix of English, Latin, and random archaic Germanic words. I’ve been told I sound like a Icelander with issues when I do that.
Well… Are you?
No I’m of Scots, Irish, English, Norwegian, and High German descent. Sure I may share some common ancestoral kinship with some Icelanders but that’s going back a thousand years minimum.
Disclaimer: drinking alone in Reykjavik at the moment
You might be surprised! There is a non-trivial amount of Scottish ancestry in Iceland. When Iceland was being settled by the Norse, they stopped off adding the way in Shetland, Orkney, and Caithness to gather supplies and… Well… Slaves. But there is a lot of cross over between the two areas. I suppose it depends on where in Scotland your ancestry lies.
I’m a Stewart and my ancestors were primarily focused on merchantry before and after leaving Scotland for New Hampshire so… Highland and lowland I guess. It becomes real fucking blurry outside of our oral history that our cadet branch was created by one of the Stewart Kings for merchantry specifically to prevent a stupid succession squabble. Beyond that fuck if I know.
Sadly phone scams are the 3rd most profitable bussinesses in the world. They aren’t going anywhere unless we give up having a phone or our phone carriers do their fucking job on actual scam prevention
Just romance scams out of SE asia by chinese gangs using forced labor/slaves lured to their compounds are estimated to bring in 40 billion a year. I got on a dating site, and had 3 of said romance scams on me, the pig butchering ones wasting a significant amount of time as they play a long game and don’t give away their game until a week or so into it, they ease you into how they make money on some investment to get you hooked to milk you and show you fake returns on it but you need money to get your money and more and more and then when you are out of money or refuse to give more fuck you, we scammed you.
It’s mostly dudes they have captive they beat, it’s not even a woman you are talking to in these pig butchering scams. And the migrant laborers that get lured there from other countries oftentimes, like India, if they don’t speak english well enough they might sell them to Palm Oil Plantations, which is another level of slavery hell.
And we keep doing business with those countries.
I literally would if I could. Text and Internet only. I already never answer my phone because of these fucking people.
Right now they are calling my entire family with their scam lies.
Just wait till they call your family with a AI clone of your voice. “You” are in trouble and need cash now!
While they do make a lot of money i dont think they are even close he third most profitable businesses in the world.
For people who think they’re winning by fucking with scammers, unless you are tying up hours of their time, you are doing the opposite by engaging with them. And even if you tie up hours, they aren’t really losing.
Obviously, falling for the scam is their ideal outcome, but ANY engagement beyond silence, a generic VM, or a disconnected/fax line marks your number as ‘active’ which can then be sold to other scammers.
So they still get a profit, and your number winds up on more scamming lists.
We are also getting close to the point where it won’t even be an actual human you’re talking to, it’ll just be some AI, making engagement even more useless.
If you get a call from an unknown number and you don’t have call screening, answer and SAY NOTHING! Not hello, not “may I ask whose calling”, mute your phone so they don’t even get background noise. The only numbers they can’t get anything out of are the ones that are brick walls.
Then why do scammers get so angry? This doesn’t even make sense, except for the AI part.
As scummy as it is, it’s still how they make their living. Not at all taking their side, but I get pissed when someone wastes my time at work too. No idea how their pay structure is, but if it’s commission based, yea, more anger for having time wasted make sense
Just because tying them up doesn’t hurt or stop the overall operation, you still wasted that one guys time and probably hurt his metrics 🤷♂️
Still not worth it to me
Is this what you say to scammers when they call you?
Surely, if they’re selling your numbers to other scammers, other scammers are losing that same amount of money?
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Answer the phone like you are a business receptionist.
“Hello, this is Fronz Frunickal with Yogurt O’ Try-it Froyo, how can I serve you?”
It’s funny listening to them silently process what they just heard before hanging up.
The only good weaponization of science.
Retired moderator on Encyclopedia Titanica here. Whaddaya wanna know?
What draws you to the Titanic?
That’s an interesting question! I think it’s a combination of things. Firstly, the ship sank on an even keel, and took 2 hours 40 minutes to sink. Most shipwrecks of the time listed badly and sank quickly: for example, the Empress of Ireland, which sank in 1914 with a greater loss of passenger life, went down on her side in 18 minutes. The Titanic’s stability and longevity allowed many dramas to play out, and the (relatively) large number of survivors allowed the stories to be told.
Then there’s the Greek tragedy element. If only they had have seen the 'berg 30 seconds sooner or 30 seconds later. If only one less watertight compartment had been breached. If only the ‘Mystery Ship’ (likely the SS Californian) had come to their aid - although in all fairness, it may not have made a huge difference. If only the ice field hadn’t have stretched so far south that year. If only the radio messages warning of ice had been heeded. If only the Californian’s radio operator hadn’t switched off his set and gone to bed, just before the collision. If only Captain Smith had turned ‘the Corner’ half an hour later, to put the ship on a more southerly track. If only … you get the idea.
Then there’s the conspiracy theories and the associated mysteries. Was the Mystery Ship really the Californian? Was the Titanic swapped for RMS Olympic and sank in an insurance scam? (No.) Was a cursed Egyptian Mummy in the hold? (No.) Did she hit the ice along the side of the hull or the keel? Or both? What about the book ‘Futility’ published years earlier that seemed to predict the disaster? Did an Officer really shoot a passenger? (Very doubtful.) Why did Lightoller insist on women and children ONLY in the lifeboats rather than woman and children FIRST? Is the the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám on the wreck and can it be retrieved?
Then there’s the historical elements. The Marconi radio set is the only one left in the world - why can’t we be allowed to salvage it? Few photographs were taken of Titanic: most extant photos are of the RMS Olympic, one of her sisters. How many blades are on the central turbine propeller? How does the ship differ in design from her sisters? Why did so few Third Class passengers attempt escape before the lifeboats were launched? What songs did the band actually play? (It probably wasn’t Nearer My God To Thee.) Is the swimming pool still full of water? etc. etc.
Then there’s the people: the last of the Gilded Age billionaires and socialites, thrown together with the Second Class ‘ordinary’ folk and the Third Class immigrants from all of Europe. How did they act and react? Who accepted their fate with dignity and tried to help their fellow passengers? Why did J. Bruce Ismay get into a lifeboat knowing full well how he’d be treated if he survived? Were the crew of Boat #1 actually bribed by the Duff-Gordons not to fish out survivors? And so on.
I’ll stop here before I get carried away.
Edit: typos.
My great grandfather died on the Titannic. He was engine-room crew.
The Engineers were exceptionally heroic that night working to keep the power on, allowing the pumps, lights and radio to function. Their counter-flooding kept the ship on a fairly even keel, allowing the lifeboats to be launched from both sides of the ship. Joseph Bell was the Chief Engineer Officer on the ship, along with 24 engineers, 6 electrical engineers, two boilermakers, a plumber and a clerk. None survived. They have a memorial in Southampton.
My great grandfather’s body was recovered and is buried at the Fairview Lawn Cemetery in Halifax, Novia Scotia. His wife was never told his body had been recovered and my sister was the first member of the family to ever visit his grave.
Was the Titanic pretty cool?
In all senses, yes. The water temperature was -2°C or 28°F and she was a triumph of design and aesthetics.
When I was in graduate school, I used to call the 700 Club’s prayer hotline and talk about my dissertation. To their credit, those people were remarkably patient and would only occasionally attempt to steer the conversation back in the direction of Jesus and his need to have some of my money. “Oh, I don’t have any money. Anyway, it turns out that there’s a perfect correlation between the giving of dowries and engagement in plow-based agriculture.” Completely true but for some reason they didn’t really care.
I want to hear more about relationships in plow-based agriculture.
I do love the idea of educating scammy christians while they’re doing scammy shit.
This would be a great way to learn how to debate as well. The phone people wouldn’t know what hit them.
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One of the 5 animals believed to have the capacity for sentience? I think you mean consciousness?
The entire mammal kingdom is widely considered sentient. As are many other groups like fish and insects.
Even with consciousness it’s stretching it is very conservative to estimate just 5 species.
Afaik the terms are sentience vs sapience, which get constantly confused by everyone including me.
“Sentience has broader and narrower senses. In a broad sense, it refers to any capacity for conscious experience. […] In a narrower sense, it refers to the capacity to have valenced experiences: experiences that feel bad or feel good to the subject, such as experiences of pain and pleasure”.
Taken from https://academic.oup.com/book/57949/chapter/475703402
Also, here is an article about the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness that strongly supports the claim that sentience is a trait shared by most, if not all, of the animal kingdom.
https://www.animal-ethics.org/10th-anniversary-of-the-cambridge-declaration-on-consciousness/
one of the 5 animals believed to have the capacity for sentience
I’m taking a guess and saying Dogs, dolphins, an great apes… No idea that the last one could be.
Am I on the right track?
Close! They are chimps, elephants, dolphins, octopus, and crows
First of all parrots are smarter than the lot, orcas, some dogs like border collies too, it’s a lot bigger than you are giving it credit for.
What, why dogs? They are dumber than cats, just good at understanding humans.
You forgot corvids.
I’d put Octopuses way higher on the list than a dog.
Dogs aren’t more intelligent than cats or cows.
My list would be great apes, octopuses, dolphins, corvids, elephantsOctopuses are right next to God on the list.
Border collies have made the list of the smartest animals before. There are different types of intelligence too, national geographic had dolphins, orcas, ravens/crows, parrots, border collies/dogs, chimpanzees. I feel like I’m forgetting one too.
Orca, corvid, octopus, apes, elephant?
I’d guess parrots or crows over dogs.
Ravens
capacity for sentience
Aren’t most animals sentient? Wiktionary says that it means “Experiencing sensation, thought, or feeling”. Even simple animals like flies are capable of “sensation”, and most complex animals experience all three. I would say “sapient” (“possessing intelligence or a high degree of self-awareness”) in this context.
You’re the scientist, what is the scientifically correct/used/accepted meaning of “sentient”? Or has it been found that most animals do not, or at least do not consciously in the way humans do, sense, think, or feel? Correct me if any of what I’m saying is wrong.
Of course animals are sentient. The arrogance of people to think we are the only animal capable of sentience, or intelligence of any kind. We have evolved to be better at some things than other animals, but they are all smarter than we are in ways. Dogs know more about smells than we do, remember a smell for life. They have a better sense of direction, as many wild animals do, and are better at remembering landscapes and vast wild areas.
You get into cold blooded animals and it changes somewhat, but all warm blooded animals are capable of more than we give them credit for. Cold blooded probably too but in a different way.
I can only info dump when I’m prompted to start talking about something now. I have special interests, but I have no interest in talking about them with people that I can feel aren’t really engaged. And the only people who ever engage eventually do get worn down after a while, or they’re more knowledgeable than me about something and that makes me fall in infatuation with them.
So if anyone wants to talk about modding video games and get married, hmu. Modding specifically is my special interest, and the games I mod include:
Elder Scrolls series (primarily Oblivion/ Skyrim but I have played some modded morrowind within the last 5 years)
Fallout series (all of them! Ok, I haven’t played 2 or the offshoots, but… shut up. New Vegas is my favorite :3)
Stardew Valley (I have 2700 hours in stardew :3 burnt out rn tho lowkey)
Dark Souls 1/3, Elden Ring
Baldurs Gate 3
Dragon Age (mostly origins, it continuously went downhill from there for me. I have done a couple modded replays of inquistion tho)
Minecraft
If you were to ask me what I could go on for the longest about? Probably New Vegas? Especially since I recently put in a fresh 200 hours. I finally got into TTW (a mod for new vegas that utilizes your copy of Fallout 3 goty to combine both games into a single experience) and installed it alongside some modernization modlists and HOLY SHIT.
I hadn’t played since 2021, an era that seemed like New Vegas was dying. People had long moved onto Fallout 4, quest mods weren’t coming out at the same frequency, etc
There was a total renaissance right after I left. If you haven’t played new vegas in a while: consider coming back and finding a guide or using a program like wabbajack to mod your game.
I personally followed the Viva New Vegas guide, then after deciding to jump into TTW, I found that the VNV people have a guide for a TTW list called TBoT (The Best of Times). Both of these lists are,'in my experience, more stable than the base game. A lot of important performance and configuration mods came out.
Then, there’s another list called WSG that I followed (wasteland survival guide), which added new content to the game and made it more hardcore.
If you made it this far and you really want to hear more, ask me a question. :3
Have you dabbled in game design of your own?
Sir, this is a Burger King.
Can I get uh… chimken numget?
Go for the chicken fries, my dude!
If you like modding new Vegas, you should totally get into CP2077.
I also want to get into fallout 3. I’m so very tempted to set up ttw but my copy of 3 is on EGS and fnv is on steam.
Yeah man, I know I need to give cyberpunk a try sometime, but there is truly such a back log! On your recc, I’ll definitely move it up in priority tho.
TTW has been so good because Fallout 3 was my first Fallout game and New Vegas is my favorite.
It’s awesome. But yeah, the installation I think is more complex when you have it like that.
Something I noticed after replaying Fallout 3 for the first time in like 10 years, also, was how bad the voice direction in the game was. Like it isn’t always bad but it is obvious that the voice actors weren’t given much to work with at all.
There was a huge mod release the other day called DLC 2. It has so much stuff now.
I’m playing the game for the 4th time.
Is this the weaponized autism I keep hearing about?
It is weaponized autism (positive). Weaponized autism (negative) is like charlie kirk shit.
Having to bad english for this what the hell that post says ?
When person who wrote that post was a child, they liked talking about “chambered nautiluses” (which are basically, ocean snails). Also, their mom used to get scam calls. Their mom made their child (which is the person who wrote the post) talk to the scammers about these nautiluses so that their time was wasted.
Ohhhokay got it thanks
I am into old back-of-the-archive Korean historical dramas. They’re lost? Even better. I’ve been scouring old newspapers for plots of old dramas (mostly dailies because they were the popular format in 70s SK) and plying them on an equally old forum dedicated to the topic. I’ve also been cataloguing them and trying to identify the oldest ones (TV guides between 1964 to 1970 didn’t always list the name of the program, sometimes they’d just list it as “historical drama”). So far it seems I have the plots to most of the 70s historicals, which then opens new realizations that a lot of the more popular 80s shows are remakes of the 70s dramas. And those 80s dramas were then remade into 90s/2000s dramas and the occasional 2010s drama (there’s been a major artistic shift starting from the Korean wave in 2003 that’s stopped this cycle in TV dramas though). I can post the plots to a lot of these dramas and even started subtitling the ones that are more complete.
If you ask, I’ll post a plotline here!
Edit: I didn’t realize this was a science lemmy, might just delete soon lolDon’t delete. :(
If you delete this I’ll cry pls share a plotline i love it when people infodump
Since you asked, I’ll share another one! This one’s from TBC’s 1976 daily drama “Lady of the Side Chamber,” an adaptation of the Joseon novel “Legend of Lady Park”. The show itself was Season 6 of a 14 part anthology on famous women real and fictional from the Joseon Dynasty. Only two episodes of this season remain.
Plot:
Deep in Mt Geumkang there lived a Taoist Master named Master Yujeom and his daughter Lady Park. Yujeom was best friends with Court official Lee Deuk Chun, and they swore to marry their children together. One day, Deuk Chun takes his son Shi Baek to Yujeom’s house, but Shi Baek nearly dies on the mountain. He’s saved by a mysterious woman in a black veil, and falls in love with her immediately. Upon reaching Yujeom’s house, Shi Baek finds out the veiled woman is his bride to be, but becomes afraid of her veil that she can never take off (it’s because she’s really ugly), and won’t enter the bridal chamber with her.
After marrying, Shi Baek, Deuk Chun return to their mansion, named the Chwihee Hall, and her new in-laws are frightened by how ugly Lady Park is, so they avoid her. Lee Shi Baek distances himself from his wife and stays with a courtesan named Sanwol, whom he loved since before getting married. Sanwol lives in a tavern with her mother Kang Shim. Shi Baek’s mother Lady Kang and his aunt pressure Lady Park to get divorced and go back to her family. Only Lee Shi Hwa, Shi Baek’s sister, befriends Lady Park and frequents Chwihee Hall.
As time goes along, Shi Baek treats Lady Park even more coldly, while the other in-laws scorn and bully her even more, to the point that she begs them to build a side chamber where nobody can see her. They name it the Pihwa Pavilion, a really insulting name as it means “avoiding disaster”. Lee Shi Hwa suggests wearing a white veil instead of a black one, and Lady Park agrees. Lady Kang, Sanwol and Sanwol’s mother Kang Shim are eager to chase her out, and scheme to get Sanwol into Chwihee Hall as Shi Baek’s concubine. Kang Shim finds an extraordinary fortuneteller and curses Lady Park, but Lady Park uses her powers of endurance to overcome it.
One day, Lady Park thinks of a way to make money for her father-in-law and spends $300 on a sick horse in the marketplace that’s worth $7. She asks her father-in-law to feed it everyday with sesame seed rice porridge. Aware of her abilities, Lee Deuk Chun does as she asks, and after three years, it becomes an excellent horse with supple skin and sheeny hair. She sells the horse to a Ming emissary for $38,000. As Lady Park expected, the money from the horse startles the Lee family.
Three years into their marriage, Lee Shi Baek’s civil examination approaches and Lady Park has an unusual dream, where her husband gets first place after touching a special set of brushes, paper and inkstone that she sent him. The theme of the civil exam was denoted in the shadow of the inkstone. Lee Shi Baek is inspired and regrets his actions towards her. He passes the civil exam, but finds out Lady Park promised his mother to kill herself if he passes. Fortunately, Lady Park’s father Master Yujeom visits and uses magic to fix her face, which is now as beautiful as a fairy’s. Lady Park’s marital chemistry with Lee Shi Baek has improved, but Lady Kang’s fear changes to jealousy, and continues to find fault with her. Even so, Lady Park treats Lady Kang with sincerity. When she gets pregnant, Lady Kang is moved and begins to treat Lady Park with love. From then on, the family begins to get along. Lady Park gives birth to twins, now served by new servants Gyehwa and Gil Bo. Lee Shi Hwa also marries her fiance Ju Il, to the joy of the entire family.
Meanwhile to the North, the Manchu nation of Later Jin is growing more powerful, and the clouds of war begin to hang. Lee Shi Baek, who’s just come back from Later Jin as an emissary, prepares for an attack and petitions the Court to reinforce national defense, but the Court officials oppose and King Injo doesn’t believe Later Jin will attack. Lady Park is frustrated and uses her supernatural powers to appear in the King’s dreams. She speaks to him of the situation and lets him know that Later Jin will change their name to Qing and attack. She suggests that he think of a countermeasure. Soon after Injo awakens he summons the Court officials and asks Lee Shi Baek in detail about what he saw in Later Jin, but the Court officials still oppose.
Some time later, a beautiful courtesan named Seoljungmae appears at Kang Shim’s winehouse and entrances Lee Shi Baek. Lady Park is anxious over these news and invites Seoljungmae to meet her herself. She finds out that Seoljungmae is secretly a Qing Princess here to assassinate Lee Shi Baek, and then scolds Seoljungmae before sending her back. At the same time, she tells Injo that the Qing troops will be here soon, so he should urgently avoid disaster. The King sentences her to capital punishment, and the Court requests in unison to kill both her and Lee Shi Baek.
Over in Qing, Hong Taiji leads Tatara Inguldai (Long Gu Da/Yong Gol Dae) and his brother Long Hu Da/Yong Hol Dae to begin their attack on Joseon. As the Qing army of 100,000 approaches, Injo escapes to Namhan Mountain Fortress. Inguldai chases Injo to the fortress while Long Hu Da attacks and plunders the people. Long Hu Da’s soldiers break into the side chamber at Pihwa Pavilion but Lady Park slits their throats with her magic and locks the door.
King Injo finds out Namhan Fortress only has provisions for 50 days, and regrets not listening to Lee Shi Baek. A heated debate arises when he suggests a surrender, saying Lady Park represents Heaven’s will and that they must surrender to Hong Taiji. He writes a correspondence and takes the Crown Prince with him in common clothes to go kneel before Qing.
After the Manchu Invasions, Lee Deuk Chun becomes Chief State Councilor, Lee Shi Baek becomes the Crown Prince’s mentor, and Lady Park becomes Lady Jeonggyeong (First Class Noblelady, highest rank a non-Royal woman can attain) for repelling Inguldai and Long Hu Da with her magic. The family gets a Gate of Loyalty and a Pavilion tiled with Palace tiles.
Master Yujeom’s dying day approaches and so he praises all of his daughter’s achievements, visiting one more time to see her twins. Master Yujeom looks at their faces and predicts that they and their children will become State Councilors one day. Then, he chooses his day to die. Lady Park is extremely sad.
The King joyfully spends his time in the new Pavilion, calling Lady Park and Gyehwa to compliment them. 14 years later, King Injo dies and his son Hyojong comes to the Throne. Hyojong, who spent years as a hostage in Qing after Injo’s surrender, is resentful against the new Chinese dynasty and plans the Northern Conquest, a military plan to conquer the Qing Dynasty. Lee Shi Baek is now Chief State Councilor, busy with State affairs. He and Lady Park have sown resentment in their hearts and are impatient to one day conquer the North, but both know their time is coming soon. They both find a corner of their mansion and spend their last moments together, leaving behind one words as advice to the family: Loyalty [to the nation].
Historically the Northern Conquest was doomed at inception because Joseon simply had no money or resources to prepare for something like that after 4 invasions in 60 years. Hyojong died without realizing his plan, and his son Hyeonjong disbanded it upon ascension.
With no insult to you, what the fuck
Too much?
Not at all its just a wild plot
Don’t delete, give us your
favoriteweirdest plotline!Hm, not the longest but definitely the weirdest - this one’s a daily historical called Oknyeo (1978) from channel MBC (who’s still around today), a remake of a 1970 weekly drama of the same name from channel TBC. TBC was the biggest SK terrestrial channel of the 70s, abruptly ended when Jeon Du Hwan’s military dictatorship shut them down in 1980 and incorporated them into government channel KBS. TBC’s corpse remains today as KBS2, while a cable channel jTBC started in 2011 as a resurrection by the original channel owners, the Joongang Group.
The original plot was:
Lee Gil Jae (Geungjae in some episodes, probably a mix-up with the male love interest from competing drama My Lady), a nobleman, loves Heo Oknyeo, a fallen noblewoman from a different political faction, but his parents arrange his marriage to Yihwa, a noblewoman from their political faction. Gil Jae tries to run off with Oknyeo, but they are caught by Kim Yun (don’t know his relation to anyone). Unable to do anything, Gil Jae marries Yihwa in despair, and promises to build a future with Oknyeo one day. Oknyeo becomes Yihwa’s servant, and is greatly favored by the sickly Yihwa. Gil Jae has secret meetings with Oknyeo, which lead to a murder attempt by a certain Scholar Song (don’t know his relation to anyone). Unaware of the whole situation, Yihwa misunderstands and believes Oknyeo is having an affair with another scholar Park (don’t know his relation to anyone). Oknyeo gets pregnant with Gil Jae’s child, making Yihwa extremely jealous, and Oknyeo’s father Secretary Heo, formerly presumed dead, reappears as a beggar. Court strife comes between Oknyeo and Gil Jae, as their families are from different factions, and they are forever unable to attain happiness. Oknyeo dies at the end.
Pretty tame. But then 8 years later MBC extended the plot to (I’m including the marketing catchphrases and description from the newspaper ads because wow tv marketing sure has changed)
“Mother, what do we do about Oknyeo? The Young Master’s love moves one to tears. His father hates her to death. But there’s nothing Oknyeo can do!” “The tragic story of one woman of the Lee Dynasty, wandering in search of her lover, determined by a fate that transcends time and space!”
Plot:
During Prince Gwanghae’s reign in Joseon Korea (1608-1623), Yun Sang Heon’s only daughter Oknyeo dies of illness. During her funeral, Oknyeo climbs out of her coffin to everyone’s surprise. Her prospective fiancee Kim Shijin backs out of their future marriage after this, and all chances of her getting married are broken after he finds out Oknyeo can now predict the future by looking into her mirror. Rumors spread to Kim Gae Shi (Gwanghae’s closest confidante and the most powerful Court lady in the Palace, more powerful than the Queen) who invites her into the Palace to act as her fortuneteller. Oknyeo becomes famous and acts as Gae Shi’s helper for a while. One day, Oknyeo sees the ghost of her mother Lady An, who predicts that her true love is ex-suitor Lee Se Young, son of Lee Myeong Ha. Seyoung is set to marry a maiden named In Shil, but he’s still very much in love with Oknyeo, and confirms it before the official engagement arrives.
Suddenly, Oknyeo and her father are caught in conspiracy, and by Kim Gae Shi and Lee Myeong Ha’s schemes, Yun Sang Heon is ordered poisoned. Oknyeo too, but she manages to escape punishment. This enrages Lee Myeong Ha, who lies to Kim Gae Shi and tells her they’re both dead. Oknyeo runs to Mount Dobong, Lee Myeong Ha at her heels. She dresses as a man and hides out at the house of a woman named Suwon. Oknyeo uses her shamanic powers to exorcise Suwon’s husband, who is haunted by the ghost of her sister-in-law, but Suwon sells her out to Lee Myeong Ha anyway. When the officers arrive, Oknyeo has already disappeared.
Seyoung and Inshil are about to be married, but Seyoung gets a shock when Inshil’s maid Gyehwa turns out to be Oknyeo. Seyoung loses his mind for like a week, then gets locked up because everyone thinks he’s faking. Oknyeo begs Inshil to be Seyoung’s concubine. Inshil gets married to Seyoung, to Oknyeo’s frustration. She looks to her mirror again, wondering if Seyoung and her are truly destined to be with each other. However Seyoung leaves the bridal chamber after the wedding and goes straight to Oknyeo, getting her pregnant. Oknyeo then predicts Prince Neungchang (Prince Gwanghae’s distant relative who is a threat to his legitimacy as King)'s death, which starts more chaos. Somehow Seyoung gets himself involved and Inshil ends up protesting outside her own house on a mat, refusing to eat. Queen Yu (Prince Gwanghae’s wife), who’s been working with Kim Gae Shi the whole time, reveals Oknyeo’s identity.
Meanwhile in Court, Court officials Kim Yu and Jeong In Hong try to kill Lee Myeong Ha, who is still out for blood. Oknyeo hides in Jeong In Hong’s house and tries to kill herself, but her suicide attempt is foiled when she realizes Kim Yu switched out her poison for baby medicine. In Hong dreams of Lee Myeong Ha killing Oknyeo with poison, but Oknyeo ends up trying to poison someone named Song Sa Cheon because he found out who she really is. Song Sa Cheon reports to Kim Gae Shi, and pressures Lee Myeong Ha to prove if Oknyeo can really see the future.
Now everyone’s on the run for Oknyeo, including Lee Myeong Ha, Queen Yu, Kim Gae Shi and Song Sa Cheon. Oknyeo hides with Suwon again and everyone’s about to find her when… the issue of deposing Queen Inmok suddenly comes up and everyone in Court gets distracted. Kim Gae Shi starts the chase again when she needs to know if she’ll be successful in deposing Queen Inmok, and with nowhere left to run, all chances of leaving the Capital dashed due to her imminent delivery, Oknyeo gives birth at the same time Lee Myeong Ha coincidentally dies, and then kills herself. Queen Inmok is then deposed (but that’s its own story)
Edit: come to think of it there’s one more I think is crazier than this but it’s based on a novel
Woah, intense! Thanks for sharing. Random fact I learned while traveling: Iranian TV plays a lot of Korean soap operas, I think they’re almost all period dramas.
Twice we got scammed. Well once for real, I caught the second one. I only realized the first one after my parents were already gone. My brother went on a solo psycho-journey when I was like 14, trans-Siberian railway through Russia and Mongolia, ended up in China. He was perhaps 19 at the time. A couple months in we got a call from China. Chinese embassy say my brother is in trouble. They read back his information, everything on the passport, is this him? Yes, it is. Keep in mind this was in the 90’s when international calls to the other side of the planet cost actual money by the minute.
My parents spoke very broken English, and I was too young to speak properly to handle something like this, so there was a bunch of back and forth over several days, but it was clear to all of us that he was in trouble, and needed us to send money to get him out of whatever it was. China, ffs. I don’t remember, shit I don’t know even how much they ultimately sent, but it was likely by my estimates around $1500- a very solid chunk of change for our not necessarily struggling but not exactly thriving family either.
He came back a year later or so, and I don’t know why but the whole debacle kind of never came up at the dinner table, until just like a year or so before my mom and dad both passed. We were all sitting after dinner, drinking and telling the usual family stories, and it came up, and we all laughed about how crazy that shit was to deal with back home when he was on his crazy first trip of his life and had to send money to China. He didn’t laugh. He hadn’t any clue what the fuck we were talking about, and nervously laughed it off.
At the time I just shook my head, of course he wouldn’t remember when someone else bailed him out and saved his ass, narcissistic piece of shit as he is. Only after they passed did I realize, oh shit. There was no embassy, there was no emergency. Some entrepreneurial Chinese hostel manager just took down his info, somehow tracked down our parents (likely he had just straight up given them their contact information, just in case), and scammed us out of a decent amount of money.
My parents were hard working, we never wanted for anything, and they never let on we were actually not particularly well off and struggled at times. If they were alive, I still don’t know if I would tell them. What was, was. What good is that heartbreak gonna do anybody thirty years after the fact? Anyway, that moment has passed either way, and well, we survived anyway, but damn it stings being the only one knowing this such a long time afterwards. My brother stayed a piece of shit and our remaining family have all gone no-contact with him, so even he doesn’t know, it’s just me.
The second time was possibly even more heart-breaking, but at least nobody lost any money. My parents, my father specifically, I mean both of them but this concerns my father- they grew up in a war torn country. My father had three brothers. He was youngest. When he was three years old, war broke out. The big one, number two, and in the worst possible place. He loved his brothers, and the eldest one got drafted, the story is unclear and lost to time, but joined the airforce somewhere abroad. The second one, I can’t even recall, but he disappeared somewhere, sometime, somehow, and none of dad’s family ever heard anything from him again- MIA, basically.
It was a big thing for my father, my grandmother too, she lived with us for years in the new country after the war, and just like in the story above, it’s first after I got up in years and some that I realized what that haunted look was on her face as she zoned out and pulled her fingernails along the armseat of the leather chair that was hers, as the family watched TV together. Dad used to say, “Grama! Stop scritching!”, it was a thing and we all laughed at it because grama scritched. She was thinking of her two lost sons- one of them went into the airforce but was also never heard from again, the other, who knows. Nothing good, probably. But they never knew.
Dad was like her, he just never got over it. He had kind of reconciled the fact that his eldest brother either died fighting, or after the war just relocated somewhere in another country and couldn’t find his family back home again. But the other brother, it just itched him until the day he died, he used to light a candle every Christmas and make the table for one person extra, just so that in case he happened to come knocking, the table would be set for him to sit down and have Christmas dinner with us. We didn’t think much of it, only, again, in my older years did I understand what emotional luggage was being brought out and put on display on that one night every year.
Sorry for being long-winded, but it kind of matters- decades go by, no more grama, parents getting old, and one day there is a letter. Dear so-and-so, it has come to our attention that a lost relative of yours, by the name so-and-so, has been trying to get in touch with you. Disclosed are his personal information, we are reaching out to you to make sure that you are actually related to this person, and would you want to accept his communication? If so, please get back to us by sending $100 to the following address for verification purposes, and he will be passed along your contact information.
My dad called me at work, “Something amazing has happened, get over here straight away after work”. So, of course, I did. By then I was coming up on 40 working IT, I’d been around. I took one look at that letter and just laughed at it, “dad, this is a classic scam. Like, do you mind if I keep this? I have never seen an actual printed Nigerian Prince letter with stamps and all, like, they really went the extra mile with this one!”, and he looked at me with despair, and I will never forgive myself for not being quicker on my feet and realizing the trauma I was casually laughing off, and said, “are you sure? His name is in there, and all, and our name is too, this is clearly real!”.
He wanted so badly for it to be real, my mom sat by him, they both started arguing with me, like, clearly it was real, and that is when I knew for sure that it wasn’t, because they weren’t arguing with me, they were arguing with reality, or god himself, pleading for it to be real. I just shook my head, ever the bitter cold rationalist, “no, this is a very classic trick, and your long lost brother is not trying to contact you”.
I don’t know how I should have handled it, to me it was just another Nigerian scam letter, I was just overcome with the novelty of having a physical copy in my hand, but to my father, and to my mother, it was the one tiny spark of hope they had been waiting for, for decades.
That is the type of sorrow and grief that scammers prey on, and cause. Fuck them all to pieces.
worst place possible to be at the start of WWII? setting up an extra plate at the Christmas table?
your dad was either dedicating this polish tradition to his new intention, or reinvented it from scratch just for him
