Annie Knapp

Specifically those in the Video Game world…

One of the only known photos ever taken of British Queen Victoria smiling, 1897. Despite her reputation as a serious, humorless monarch (epitomized by the apocryphal quote ‘We are not amused’) those close to her considered the Queen to have quite a sense of humor. For most of her reign, she was portrayed as the embodiment of strict dignity and solemn duty—an image reinforced by her widowhood after the death of Prince Albert in 1861. Victoria spent decades dressed in mourning black, and her perceived sternness became part of her legend, symbolized by the famous phrase “We are not amused,” which may not have actually been her words. Yet those who knew her personally often described her as warm, witty, and capable of laughter. She enjoyed music, sketching, and the company of close friends and family, especially her many children and grandchildren. Court diaries and correspondence reveal a woman who delighted in playful moments, teasing, and even practical jokes. The rarity of this smiling photograph is due less to Victoria’s temperament and more to the photographic practices of the 19th century. Early portrait photography required subjects to sit motionless for long exposures, making neutral or stern expressions more common. This image, captured near the end of her reign, humanizes one of Britain’s most iconic monarchs—showing not just the “Grandmother of Europe,” but a woman who found joy in private, even if history often remembered only her solemn mask. © Historical Photos #archaeohistories

Using high-resolution photographs and modern image-analysis techniques, a chemical engineer has reexamined the Shroud of Turin and concluded that its faint body image is best explained by a short, intense burst of radiation, rather than paint, scorching, or natural decay. The research, published in June 2025 in the International Journal of Archaeology, analyzed both visible-light and ultraviolet images and found that the image’s pixel intensity naturally encodes real three-dimensional depth information. This is the same effect first observed in 1976 when a NASA-developed image analyzer produced a lifelike relief of the body from the shroud’s data. When the image data is mathematically processed, it forms a coherent height-relief map of a human body that exists only at the outermost surface of the linen fibers, penetrating just micrometers into the cloth. According to the paper, radiation is the only known mechanism capable of producing both the shroud’s grayscale image and its intrinsic 3D information without saturating the fabric. The study does not claim proof of a miracle and does not directly challenge the medieval carbon-dating results. Instead, it argues that whatever formed the image behaved like an energetic radiation event, and that direct testing of the cloth is now the only way to determine its exact nature. If the image wasn’t painted, burned, or caused by slow decay, what kind of event could realistically leave a radiation-like imprint on linen 2,000 years ago? #archaeohistories

Game industry: these are the things we need to be talking about. youtu.be/9aBpVCf0Sh0?si…

RE: Video Game Industry Layoffs

I hope all CEOs are being visited by three ghosts tonight

When I finally told my wife that I worked on Horizon Forbidden West last night, she completely froze, covered her mouth, and started crying because she was so excited. She got legitimately more emotional than she did at my actual marriage proposal. 😂🤣 It was beautiful.

@HunterHaag This is 100% something my sister would do…but she would’ve charged so much more 😂

Someone come get my sister 🤦🏼‍♀️ lmfao

Happy International Mermaid Day!!! I miss swimming in the sea with this mermaid!

Ever wonder what filming with the most wonderful team looks like? See more BTS moments when you get a Digital copy of #WW84, out today! @WonderWomanFilm

Did #CelebratingAmerica just outdo #Disney in firework shows?! 😱#Inauguration2021

This sounds familiar...lol #theoffice #Cyberpunk2077 #PS4share store.playstation.com/#!/tid=CUSA165…

We're thrilled to share Splash Mountain at @Disneyland & @WaltDisneyWorld will be completely reimagined with a new story inspired by an all-time favorite Disney Animation film, “The Princess & The Frog.” Learn about what Imagineers have in development: bit.ly/3hUY0Gq

We need to fix the fundamental problem of how we vote. youtu.be/MykMQfmLIro

Winner-take-all voting is at the heart of so many of our political problems. #NowStreaming

The tiniest state is moving toward shortening its official name — Rhode Island and Providence Plantations — due to connotations of slavery. The latter phrase will be removed from state documents under an executive order by the governor. trib.al/hBitMfu

@BritainV It helps me survive my work day! ...work if you’re reading this, you know I still get all my shit done in a day. It actually improves my productivity...

I married a person who listens to NPR all day long and constantly texts me about what she’s learning. 😊 God I love her. @missnapp

Former President Jimmy Carter said this past week that "silence can be as deadly as violence," and called on Americans in positions of "power, privilege, and moral conscience" to fight racial discrimination, reacting to the unrest over George Floyd's death cnn.it/2AdMu7Y

A 9-year-old Kenyan boy who made a wooden hand washing machine to limit the spread of Covid-19 received a presidential award cnn.it/3f46Bod