Siarah - Siarah

Skip Google for Research

As Google has worked to overtake the internet, its search algorithm has not just gotten worse.  It has been designed to prioritize advertisers and popular pages often times excluding pages and content that better matches your search terms 

As a writer in need of information for my stories, I find this unacceptable.  As a proponent of availability of information so the populace can actually educate itself, it is unforgivable.

Below is a concise list of useful research sites compiled by Edward Clark over on Facebook. I was familiar with some, but not all of these.

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Google is so powerful that it “hides” other search systems from us. We just don’t know the existence of most of them. Meanwhile, there are still a huge number of excellent searchers in the world who specialize in books, science, other smart information. Keep a list of sites you never heard of.

www.refseek.com - Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.

www.worldcat.org - a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.

https://link.springer.com - access to more than 10 million scientific documents: books, articles, research protocols.

www.bioline.org.br is a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.

http://repec.org - volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.

www.science.gov is an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.

www.pdfdrive.com is the largest website for free download of books in PDF format. Claiming over 225 million names.

www.base-search.net is one of the most powerful researches on academic studies texts. More than 100 million scientific documents, 70% of them are free

Y'all remember that scene in phase 1 where Val aknowledges that the thing that most sets her apart from other people her age isn't magic but knowing what she wants to do with her life?

That shit hits way too close home.

I'm about to graduate amd I have like no idea what I wanna do... it's kinda scary. Like how am I supposed to chose sth to do for the rest of my life when I can't even remember the last thing that actually made me happy

@sierralafontaine said he looked soft on my to do board and it fueled me to draw him again!

STAR WARS CELEBRATION 2020 ART SHOW | Premonitions “Leia, away from the busyness of court at the capital city of Alderaan, has taken the Tantive IV to the Royal family’s country chateau. This ancient, stately residence was made centuries before the capital city’s construction. Although the ancient stones show many years of wear, it remains a place of strength, peace, and solace for the princess. And yet, Leia has a sense of danger and melancholy in her heart as she looks at the setting sun descending behind the towering cliffs. Perhaps it is because this is indeed the last time the princess will look upon her beloved homeworld.” — Jerry Vanderstelt

i found it really endearing at the end of spx when skulduggery just calls xena “dog”. my grandfather does the exact same thing

Valkyrie: I can take care of myself.

Kenspeckle: You don’t always have to.

That probably actually happened, because let´s face it, Knespeckle is the only f*cking responsible adult in Val´s life

This is amazing!! Thank you :) I really love the idea of Leia realizing she misses Han pestering her and then interrupting his work for a change

Since you asked for a number that might or might not be for a fic prompt: How about 7?

Ah, the last of the ficlets! I'm sorry for taking so long on this (and...honestly, I'm unsure of the quality here, but...you know, these are mainly exercises, so).

Number 7 on this list was "visiting them at their place of work", so here you are!

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

She didn’t want to invite trouble merely by acknowledging it, but the Command Center had been painfully quiet for her entire shift, and Leia needed something to happen. Not a disaster, mind; they already experienced those on a regular enough basis, and it wasn’t like she was looking for an adrenaline rush. No, she just hadn’t seen anyone except the staff on duty, which was…strange.

Strange? It’s strange that the only people I’ve seen today are the ones I’m sharing a shift with?

It was, though. Her day was usually interrupted by a number of beings, from a single smuggler to an entire squadron of pilots, all of whom thought their own concerns more important than anything she could possibly be busy with. The complete lack of contact from any of them was unnerving.

Well, the Rogues were out on a mission, so the lack of contact from them was to be expected. Han and Chewie weren’t, though. They weren’t due to leave for another run for several days, and Leia was certain she had heard loud cursing in Basic, Corellian, and Shyriiwook emanate from a nearby hangar when she had grabbed lunch from the mess.

The fact that she had even had to get lunch herself was strange. It shouldn’t have been — it shouldn’t have been — but the number of times she missed the lunch window only to have Han or Chewie or Luke show up with her midday meal probably outnumbered the times she had sat down and had a proper lunch without interruption.

Leia’s shift had ended a solid half hour ago, but she found herself waiting in the Command Center for…something. Someone? She rarely had so much time to devote to thoughts of her own movements and often relied on outside indications that she should be somewhere: an alarm, a meeting alert, someone stopping by on their way to dinner…

Someone.

Right. Han almost always annoyed her until she gave in and ate dinner in the mess when he was planetside. When he wasn’t…well, she was usually too busy to notice until her stomach growled, at which point she ate a ration bar or two.

I wonder where he is. It was a silly thought; they had no agreement, no contract demanding that he irritate her into eating away from her desk, but she had apparently started relying on that outside cue more than any other.

Leia walked to the mess. She heard loud banging, followed by Han shouting to Chewie as she passed the hangar where the Falcon was housed. What is wrong with that disaster of a ship now? she wondered.

As she entered the dinner line, a thought occurred to her: Han hadn’t bothered her about dinner. He might have gone with just Chewie — it was possible they were in a hurry and couldn’t bother with going to get her — but she wanted to be sure. Leia caught the attention of the ensign spooning a brilliant orange mystery grain into containers. “Have Captain Solo or Chewbacca come through yet?”

The ensign shook his head. “No, ma’am. Haven’t seen ‘em.”

Leia checked her chrono. The dinner line was minutes away from closing, and Han and Chewie had certainly sounded preoccupied. She asked the ensign for three meals and carried the stack out of the mess hall toward the hangar.

The area surrounding the Falcon looked as if the ship had been sick. Parts — old, new, refurbished, destroyed — were strewn everywhere, and Leia couldn’t discern any meaningful order just by looking at them.

Han hung upside down from the belly of the ship, his legs completely consumed by the Falcon’s hull, while Chewie handed him a tool of some kind. Before the smuggler disappeared entirely into the ship, he caught sight of Leia and scowled.

“No time for whatever you’ve got for us, Worship. We’re workin’ on a deadline and we’ve gotta—”

“Dinner?” she interrupted, lifting the boxed meals emphatically. “One of the guys on dinner duty mentioned you two hadn’t been through yet, and you’ve seemed busy all day, so I thought…” She shrugged.

Han blinked, checked his chrono, and shook his head once. “Didn’t realize it was so late.”

Leia nodded. “I figured as much.” She set the boxes on the lid of a nearby crate. “I’ll leave these here. You may want to get to them pretty quick; whatever grain they served looked half-congealed by the time I went through the line.”

[Thank you, Princess,] Chewie said.

Leia nodded. “You’re welcome.” She turned and took a step away from the Falcon, intending to eat…she wasn’t sure. Maybe her quarters, or back at her desk just so she wouldn’t be completely alone.

“Hey, Leia?” Han called. She turned to look in his direction right as he freed himself from the guts of the ship and twisted just enough to land on his feet. He took a few steps toward her. “You wanna eat here with us?”

Leia nodded and walked back toward Han and Chewie. “Yes,” she said with a smile. “That’d be nice.”

Skulduggery headcanons that I love and need to share 

- Dexter giving Valkyrie piggie back rides, when Sulduggery doesn’t oblige to do it - “DExter, you undermine my auThorITY!”  - “What authority?” - Tanith and Dexter are punch line people who sit in the back and high five each other whenever they say one - Ghastly once got super drunk because of the whole Tanith situation and Skulduggery accompanied him, listened to his sorrow and afterwards drove him home and tugged him in. He’s a friend like that.  - Dexter Vex is ticklish af  - Valkyrie first sees him get tickled by Saracen and she finds it adorable especially bc Dexter is like the most flawless looking guy on the team - Skulduggery actually adores hugging and cuddling Valkyrie, but he is self conscious bc of his bones - China and Saracen are the only ones who have absolutely no doubts about Dexter’s sexuality  - Everyone else keeps wondering  - “He never tells us anything!” “Well, maybe, he doesn’t want to!” “Ghastly, that’s not the point! We’re his friends.” “What if he has a thing for… monsters.. and aliens?”  - Saracen laughing nervously in the back after he’d just spent night #120053 with Dexter  - China remembering that moment she’d realized Dexter was like the only person in existence who doesn’t crush on her in the slightest bit and sighing  - on Dexter’s and Saracen’s wedding Dexter slowdances with Tanith and she cries bc for some reason it reminds her of Ghastly and of all she was robbed of  - Skulduggery and Valkyrie watching crappy TV and Skulduggery tugging her in afterwards when she fell asleep  - Ghastly gives the best hugs and Valkyrie keeps stealing them, especially when a mission took an extra toll on her  - “Val, I’m a very respectful member of the Elders…” “I respect and cuddle you!”  - He can’t help loving it even tho he keeps making a show of how big of an exception this is it’s not  - Dexter gets tired when drunk, Ghastly gets mad, Saracen gets funny and Valkyrie causes riots - we don’t talk about tanith, she rarely drinks for good reasons  - Saracen is basically Valkyrie’s mom when Melissa isn’t around  - “have you had any breakfast yet?” “are you alright?” “should we call a doctor?” “write me a message when you got home safely.” skulduggery: “I’m literally driving her to the front door!!!” Saracen: “I’m painfully aware!!”  - tanith and saracen have this amazing vibe that only people who used to have a thing going on but mutually decided it doesn’t work out have: they wear sunglasses and judge others and it only takes one meaningful look for them to communicate  - it drives Dexter crazy  - “What are you guys telling each other???” 

penny, after several shots: fuck the feds! eat the rich!

jj, glancing towards emily: i’m trying pen