#but all they did was lower the girl to the appropriate wage which. fair and again i feel bad for her but WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT ABOUT

[hella1975]

i got a bonus + raise and ive only been working like 3 months im soso excited sorry i just wanted to tell someone

AH THAT'S SO EXCITING! im so happy for you bestie <3

#WHEN IS IT MY TURN! #did i tell you guys that there's a waitress at work who not only is younger than me BUT has only been there like 2 months #and me and one of the OG waitresses (she's been there even longer than i have and there's a real solidarity amongst the OG crowd now) #were talking to this waitress and she goes 'oh yeah i get paid £10.18 an hour lol. DONT tell anyone' #and to contextualise this england has minimum wages that differ based on age brackets #where it's like £5 for under 18s. £7.49 for 18-20 (my bracket) and then it jumps to £10.18 when you turn 21 #so this 19 YEAR OLD NEW WAITRESS was getting paid the wrong minimum wage bracket that baso saw her earning £3 extra an HOUR #than us. which is an insane amount to build up over a long time like ik it doesn't sound like much but TRUST ME it is #and i felt a bit bad for her bc she's new to waitressing and generally quite naive and it SHOWS #like if they put ME on the wrong pay bracket id take that shit to my grave i would NOT risk that being taken from me #but she was just joking with us clearly expecting a PLATONIC social interaction and not a WORKPLACE interaction #like at the end of the day im friends with the people i work with and i not only like this girl but hold nothing against her #BUT NOT ENOUGH FOR IT TO AFFECT MY LITERAL WAGES!!!! I NEED THAT MONEY!!!!! #so yeah me and the other waitress fully snitched and i kinda hoped management might give us some sort of hush bonus #but all they did was lower the girl to the appropriate wage which. fair and again i feel bad for her but WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT ABOUT #so yeah thats MY luck with wages anonstie lmao ur thriving in comparison <3 #ask

[kpopnlockit]

Royal Counsel (Part 5)

Part 4: https://kpopnlockit.tumblr.com/post/177602418857/royal-counsel-part-4

Part 6: https://kpopnlockit.tumblr.com/post/185318143677/royal-counsel-part-6

     The trip had been very different from previous ones you had been on. Rather than sleeping in the carriage, tents were pitched outside in the evening. A fire was lit and dinner and tea were served as if the outing was recreational. There were no stops at inns or restaurants. It was purely self-sufficient. Water was collected from freshwater streams and the men washed up there as well. You and the princess were only able to wash your faces and relieve yourselves in each other’s presence. The men of course still stood guard out of immediate earshot.

    It was surprising. You had expected that you would accompany the princess but you did not expect her to go along with you when you needed distance from the group to take care of things. Without asking, she quietly rose when you did. She did not speak once to you but body language alone was enough for a small bond to be formed. Previously, you had not known much about her but in the few days you spent together you could tell that under the facade of primness was a girl from humble roots with a kind sensibility.

    The soldiers, King Ravi, and the advisor gathered together when there was downtime and chatted while tending to the horses or did light exercise. They made sure not to speak of topics of importance. Instead they engaged in small talk and discussed the troopers’ families or other matters of insignificance. Noticeably, King Ravi and the royal counselor did not speak about their families or lives at all. Also, you overheard the King call his advisor by the moniker “N”. The name was foreign to you but it may have been normal in Vixx. You and the princess did not participate in these conversations. Though you had gained insight on the princess, you learned nothing more about King Ravi other than seeing firsthand the habits that could not be shaken from his commoner childhood.

    Much in contrast to that was the Exo castle. Extravagant was not even the word to describe the magnificence that was the former fort. The sheer size of it was imposing enough to inspire awe but the gold gilding shimmering in the morning sun always made the palace seem like a mirage no matter how many times you saw it. As usual, the caravan rode up the paved road to the front entrance. There were maids and butlers who immediately started unloading the cart.

    King Ravi stood first. As he neared the carriage door it opened; one of his soldiers held it ajar and stood off to the side with his held head high. As proud and ceremonious as it was intended to be, to you it clearly appeared as a show of new money. However, that was fine. There was no one near that would be able to see through the farce.

    King Ravi gently disembarked, followed by N. Again they needed no assistance, easily and elegantly making the drop from carriage to ground. The soldier gingerly aided the princess, being sure to help her as much as possible while minimizing physical contact. It was quite the feat but they managed fairly. When it came to your turn, you noticeably hesitated. You were not sure if you could make it on your own. During your pause the guard held his hand out for you. You took it knowing that he had no choice but to assist you with so many eyes watching. He carried most of your weight so that you could land softly. His only thanks was a nod from you. Though you were a peasant by birth, being a royal counselor had earned you enough rank to tarnish by thanking the help.

    You fell into line a step behind N. The princess and the King walked two steps in front of him. The group had not made it even a fourth of the way down the path to the entrance of the castle before one of King Suho’s advisors was headed towards you. Unmistakably it was Counselor Chanyeol and not Advisor Xiumin. Xiumin was the eldest of the Exo royal advisors and held the highest ranking of head advisor. Chanyeol was younger and held the less esteemed title of Counselor. Though less important, you felt that Counselor Chanyeol was a more appropriate fit for greeting guests. He had a jovial disposition and often radiated hospitality. He had youthful tendencies and was not known to adhere to formal decorum. However, he was at all times very respectful. As expected, his welcome was tasteful and gave a sense of comfort. A wise choice by King Suho, but he already new that.

    Counselor Chanyeol made no indication of having recognized you. That was a fair move on his part. He was keeping his nose out of other’s affairs. You were not sure how the move would affect you yet. There was a chance that it had harmed your value as a liaison. There was also the possibility that King Ravi and N had noticed the pointed ignorance, which would increase your worth. It would indicate that the lower level advisors knew who you were. Though, they were in front of you so there was no way of knowing. Counselor Chanyeol led the pack.

    Just as you had recalled, the castle was massive. The ceilings were high and the corridors wide. Everything was white, making everything seem even larger. Portraits and historical artifacts lined the walkways. All of them were intricate, heavily detailed, and likely worth more than five times your life. You would usually try to at least take a look at them but there were more concerning things on your mind.

    The sound of your shoes clicking on concrete filled your ears. The echo mixed with the loud pulsing of your blood vessels in your head and you could no longer hear Counselor Chanyeol highlighting various busts and paintings and giving a brief history on them. Again, the fear of death filled your lungs and made each breath feel like you were inhaling lead. Knowing your anxiety was bubbling up and about to boil over, you held your breath and focused on clearing your mind.

    Once you had calmed down, you realized that N was not translating for King Ravi and King Ravi was distinctly not speaking. He did not understand and in the spirit of keeping up appearances, no one was making it obvious that he was blindly following. Maybe you were the only one who could see through the farce. King Ravi expertly walked with his hands clasped behind his back with a mildly interested expression on his face. It appeared as if he was listening with some focus.

    You vaguely wondered what the point was. The whole reason for the international gathering was that man strolling around as if he were mute. He had scared the world single-handedly. He did not need to pretend that he knew something that he did not. It was widely known that he was not born a noble and would not have access to higher education. He rose to power using force and wit. Vixx could easily and swiftly conquer any country at this point. The facade was unnecessary.

    It was a bit endearing in a way though. They wanted to ensure that Vixx did not appear lesser than. With limited resources and a non-existent gentry class, it was a nation easy to look down upon. King Ravi was protecting his country from that. He was blatantly trying to build a reputation for Vixx. You had to respect that. It was very similar to you having to prove yourself worthy of your position. This was just on a much grander scale. He had to establish international recognition, or at least he felt he had to. And so, he was led by the Exo counselor and received a lengthy lecture on Exo art and history on the way to King Suho’s reception room.

    As expected the Exo palace’s reception area was far more decadent than Vixx’s. Firstly, it was larger with lofty ceilings and equally tall windows. The throne on the platform was wrought out of heavy metal, coated in gold, and encrusted with precious jewels. The navy fabric upholstered on the seat was plush and matched the drapes. The pillars and pedestal were made of marble. You had arrived in the morning so the sunlight was filtering beautifully through the crystal-clear glass and the whiteness of the room allowed it to appear bright and warm. The gold accents sprinkled throughout the place, namely the frames around the portraits of former Kings, glittered in the light.

    King Suho sat on his throne and Advisor Xiumin stood by his right side. Both were dressed in simple finery that almost had the look of military dress uniforms. However the soft shiny cloth and the tanzanite embedded into the buttons gave away the fact that it was fake. The look was intended to command attention and suggest authority and it worked decently.

    They were finishing up hearing the concerns of the last villager for that morning when your party entered. The dark blue aisle runner that the townsman stood upon led to the platform and was flanked by six guards in two rows of three. They were dressed in proper uniform. However, the smaller details of their attire suggested luxury as well. You guessed that was to be expected as they were the castle’s security and were not actually in the field. All in all you could tell that there was a huge gap in wealth between Exo and Vixx. That made Vixx all the more fearsome. They did not have the financing to wage a war but yet they were successfully toppling countries. To people hailing from generations of royalty it was inconceivable and that is what made them vulnerable. Exo had numbers but Vixx had skill. They also had nothing to lose, which made them even more dangerous.

    King Suho dismissed the man after he finished giving his promises of aid and turned his attention to the Vixx group. “Welcome,” he said with an alarmingly charming smile.

    A sinking feeling dropped into your belly like an anvil. This was the beginning of the end.

#vixx #vixx ravi #vixx fanfic #vixx ravi fanfic #wonshik #vixx wonshik #ravi #kim wonshik

[edivupage]

120 Debate Topics for High and Middle School Students

Are you looking for debate topics for your middle and high school students? Well, you have come to the right place. Check out our list of 120 debate topics for middle and high school students.

General Debate Topics 

Should we ban homework: does homework promote learning?

How essential is a college education?

Banning mobile devices (cell phones, smartphones) at schools: yes or no?

Is it appropriate to allow students to create their own curricula?

Is abortion murder?

Are violent video games appropriate entertainment for teenagers?

Does social media contribute to teenage suicide?

Does modern social media make people less socially active?

How should modern society respond to teenage pregnancies?

Is higher education a necessary prerequisite for an individual’s financial success in the future?

Topics Related to Education

Are private schools better than public schools?

Should education be privatized entirely?

Are student loans exploitative?

Does the traditional classroom address contemporary society’s needs?

Is allowing teachers to carry guns on campuses a good idea?

Does the contemporary grading system work?

Should college education be compulsory?

Is it appropriate to teach religion in schools?

Is homeschooling better than a public or private school education?

Is it fair to require that all students learn at least one foreign language?

Social Debate Topics

Does the contemporary policing of marginalized communities in the United States contribute to the criminalization of youth?

Should the death penalty be abolished in the United States?

Is it ethical to have an abortion in the early stages of pregnancy?

Does peer pressure absolve deliquent teens from cupabilty?

Will electronic databases fully substitute brick and mortar libraries?

Is cloning ethically acceptable?

Is the legalization of marijuana a food idea?

Should euthanasia be legalized?

Is there any reason to raise minimum wages?

Drug addicts: Do they need help or punishment?

Is nationalism beneficial or dangerous in the context of globalization?

Environmental Issues

Is climate change already irreversible?

Banning plastic bags and packaging: yes or no?

Are genetically modified foods a viable solution?

Banning zoos: yes or no?

How does tourism affect the environment?

Should there be more national parks in the United States?

Is banning fracking a good idea?

All people should become vegetarian.

What is organic farming’s role in agriculture’s future?

Are live animal exports ethically acceptable?

Political Debate Topics

Political campaigns should not be allowed to accept money from.

Democracy is the best form of government.

Is it appropriate for governments to limit their citizens’ freedom of speech?

Are taxes that increase at accelerating rates fair?

Limiting terms for U.S. senators and representatives brings more harm than good.

Former offenders should preserve their voting rights.

Modern patterns of incarceration that affect minorities more than whites contribute to racial inequality in the US.

Is it necessary for a political leader to be active on social media?

Is the US Constitution a living document?

Should the Supreme Court judges be appointed for predetermined fixed periods?

Debate Topics Related to Parenting

Should children use smartphones without parental supervision?

Teenage girls having access to birth control without parental supervision: yes or no?

Should parents decide which career their children will pursue?

Parents always treat their children fairly: yes or no?

Is it ethically permissible for parents to  pick the genders of their future children?

Gay couples are adopting children: pros and cons.

Should parents control their children’s activities on social media?

Is parental supervision the same as parental control?

Teenage children and completely autonomous decision-making: should parents allow this?

Is parental support essential for the future success of children?

Technology Topics

Will technology make people smarter?

Is artificial intelligence dangerous?

Will robots increase people’s quality of life?

How do technological advances influence us?

Will humans colonize another planet soon?

Can all cars become electric?

Does technology intensify human communication?

Recent developments in technology transform people’s interests: yes or no?

Can people save nature using technology (or destroy it)?

Do laws effectively keep up with changes in technology?

Healthcare Topics

Justifying the legalization of recreational marijuana: yes or no?

Is mandatory vaccination constitutional?

Alternative medicine and its impact on the future of healthcare.

Does technology promote our health?

Modern healthcare and antibiotics.

Is drug legalization a good idea?

Does globalization promote universal healthcare?

Should healthcare services for all citizens be fully funded by the government?

Should the government be allowed to force parents to take their sick children to the hospital?

Can competition improve the quality of healthcare services?

Debate Topics Related to Leisure

Is a summer vacation better than a winter vacation?

Encouraging teenagers to read books: are the outcomes encouraging?

Has technology changed the way young people spend their leisure time?

Has social media taken over our leisure time?

Can daily leisure time be a substitute for a yearly vacation?

Is leisure time essential for workplace effectiveness?

Playing video games during leisure time: pros and cons.

Has work-life balance changed with the advent of technology?

Has globalization and our increased mobility changed the way we view vacations?

Women spend their leisure time differently than men.

Debating Financial and Policy Matters

Can the U.S. government ensure the country’s financial stability?

How secure is mobile banking?

Does the credit industry promote or hinder economic development?

Is there any economic justification for wars?

Should wealthy people pay higher taxes than the poor?

How would lowering the voting age impact America’s future?

Mass incarceration and its impact on U.S. politics.

Mandatory financial education: pros and cons.

Should online financial advice be available for every citizen?

Can high profitability alone justify environmentally hazardous practices?

Debating Historical Matters

History is an important subject that all students should learn: yes or no?.

Is King Arthur a real historical figure or myth?

Knowledge of history enriches one’s worldview: yes or no?

What role did Britain play during the First World War?

How have different historians interpreted World War Two?

Was there any justification for the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the US?

How shoudl we interpret the Revolutionary War?

Ancient Roman culture versus contemporary culture.

History & its impact on the future.

Modern interracial conflicts evaluated from a historical perspective.

Topics for Fun Filled Debates

Are men stronger than women?

Daydreaming versus dreaming at night: which is better?

Communication between the sexes: do men and women have different approaches?

Choosing the best pizza topping: healthy versus tasty.

Do fairy tales affect children’s perception of reality?

Is living together before marriage appropriate nowadays?

Should teenagers get after-school jobs?

Gender and life expectancy: what factors explain life expectancy gaps?

From a historical perspective, are women smarter than men?

The post 120 Debate Topics for High and Middle School Students appeared first on The Edvocate.

120 Debate Topics for High and Middle School Students published first on https://sapsnkra.tumblr.com

[apsbicepstraining]

Maternity: Cooperative Paradise Or Conflict-Driven Battle Between Mother And Child?

Pregnancy sounds like the ultimate formation of animal partnership moms share their own bodies to grow and support their childrens prenatal development. But in reality, embryos usage every manoeuvre in the book to take more than their fair share. Mothers, in turn, marshal the most appropriate defensive tactics.

Ultimately, its an evolutionary forearms race. Offspring constantly advance strategies to steal sources, while moms derive strategies to defend their resources. Natural pick will favor embryo that are able to steal resources, but this will prescribe overheads on the mother.

My colleagues and I are interested in how the pertinent terms and conditions of this battle could have derived. We lately probed some differences between closely related swine that carry their young and others that lay eggs to figure out how hormones advanced to be expressed in the placenta. By understanding the processes that support conflict, we can identify how conflict situations arose, and potential impacts that it might hold for human health.

Placenta as a combat zone

The placenta lets father and fetu to exchange assets. Gray’s Anatomy of the Human Body

During pregnancy, mothers support their offspring by providing nourishment across a placenta. Organized from both the embryos and fathers tissue, this organ facilitates the exchange of materials between the two. The placenta is a matter of conveying oxygen and nutrients to the baby, while taking away waste products like carbon dioxide and urea.

By exuding hormone signals across the placenta to be received by the mothers mas, embryos can reform the amount of meat theyre catered. In a truly cooperative world-wide, offspring would release these gimme more! hormones only if they were undernourished. But embryos actually create these hormones asking more of the mother almost constantly throughout pregnancy.

Mothers’ organizations fend off these hormonal necessitates with securities including the development of physical obstacles between the fetu and the maternal blood furnish, and the production of enzymes that they are able break down excessive high levels of embryo-produced hormones.

But where did the tools fetu use to wage this battle “re coming out”? Thats the issues to my colleagues and I lately investigated.

Embryo of a southern grass skink, a live-bearing reptile. Oliver Griffith, CC BY-ND

Hunting for the roots of the conflict

Placentas are not limited to mammals. Theyre likewise found in reptiles and fishes like the seahorse.

In recent investigate published in the periodical General and Comparative Endocrinology , my traitors and I aimed to identify how an animal species advances a placenta.

We know that live-bearing swine evolve from egg-laying ones, but we were curious about the role of parent-offspring conflict in this process. Did placental power of maternity advance via novel hormones? Or did it rely on genes that were already present in the ancestral populations?

Our first step was examining the hormones produced by the placental tissue of three animal species: the pony, the southern grass skink lizard and a live-bearing person of the southeastern slider lizard.

We know each of these groups evolved maternity independently, because each is more closely related to an egg-laying species than they are to each other. For sample, the first mammals were egg-laying and some of them are still around today Australias platypus, for example. Similarly, each of the live-bearing lizard species we analyzed has closely related egg-laying relatives.

By analyse both the live-bearing and egg-laying relatives of these swine we can understand the things that are necessary for the transition.

The southeastern slider has live-bearing and egg-laying hodgepodges. Jordan de Jong, CC BY-ND

We likened the roll of hormones produced by these animals’ placental tissues to a same tissue from two egg-laying swine: the chicken and an egg-laying population of the southeastern slider lizard. These species dont have placentas because they lay eggs rather than carrying their unborn young internally. But placentas derived from a tissue that strings the internal face of developing eggs. This embryonic membrane supports the exchange of gasses between the embryo and the world outside its egg.

When we compared the genes found in the embryonic membrane of species with and without a placenta, the inventories primarily paired. This finding shows that the hormones used by embryos to manipulate their babies advanced long ago, in an ancestor of both reptiles and mammals. When pregnancy evolved, the existing mechanism to establish contradictions between the mother and fetu were already in place.

While we dont know the function of these hormones in egg-laying species, we are in a position theorize. The embryonic membrane be the first time that living level of contact between human embryos and the outside world. These hormones may vary the developing fetu in response to some environmental stimulus, such as temperature or disease.

Mom vs. dad at the placenta battlefield

Why are the women and embryos at odds, anyway?

After all, animals have two major evolutionary purposes: to survive and to raise fertile offspring to spread their genes. Mortals maximize the fitness of their genes by producing as many healthy offspring as they can over their lifetime. So it seems reasonable that moms would want to support their offspring to give them the best luck of survival as long as it doesnt threw mom herself at risk.

But remember, offspring contain genes from both parents. If a papa can adjust the development of his offspring in a way that allows it to enjoy the benefits of the mother, even if it imposes a cost on her, it would give him and his genes a fitness advantage.

This is particularly critical when girls mate with multiple males. In this case, a papa may be the mother of exactly one or a few of the many offspring a female creates over her lifetime. He misses his offspring to have an rim over others papa by competitors.

In this room, the aims of the papas genes may not overlap with the goals of the mothers. Its the differences among the goals of the moms and pops genes that are the ultimate crusade of mother-embryo conflict during pregnancy.

Pregnant southern grass skink, area of mother-embryo conflict. Jacquie Herbert, CC BY-ND

Ways to restraint improvement beyond genes

As a result of the ongoing engagement across the placenta, some swine have advanced strategies to affect the developing their children in ways that do not include changes to the genes they pass on.

For instance, males and females can mark the genes of their seman and eggs in different ways so the impact of the gene depends on which mother extended it on. Scientists announce this phenomenon when a genes outcome in an individual depends on whether it was inherited from the mother or papa genomic imprinting.

Genomic imprinting is one device by which the placenta battle can be waged.

The gene that produces insulin like growth part two( IGF2) is a fine example. It restrains placental growth: more of the hormone decisions in a bigger placenta and more nutrients being transferred to the offspring, while lower yield causes in smaller offspring.

When the mother establishes egg cells, she modifies the IGF2 gene by including molecules that is likely change the structure of DNA. With this alteration, the genes encoded by the DNA cannot be expressed. So in normal progeny, the maternal copy of this gene isnt expressed, while the paternal print is. Mom works to make sure the fetu doesnt greedily take more resources than it needs, while Dad is happy to see the embryo garner more than strictly necessary.

My research group wanted to identify whether genomic imprinting is present in the reptiles that have a placenta. In study published in the periodical Development Genes and Evolution , we looked at the genes that are imprinted in the placenta of mammals, and checked for imprinting of those same genes in the southern grass skink.

It turned out none of the mammalian imprinted genes are imprinted in this lizard, intimating certain fundamental differences between the role of conflict in mammalian and reptile pregnancy. The battle in mammal placentas is waged use genomic imprinting, where as in reptiles, it appears that mothers and papas must use other tools.

Female southern grass skink giving birth. After give, the mother can be ingesting the placental tissues.

Together our subjects suggest that the genes responsible for conflict in animals that exhibit pregnancy were present in the embryonic membranes of recent developments common ancestor of mammals and reptiles, which lived more than 300 million years ago. It looks like contradictions between mom and child is cooked into species, and is likely to occur anytime maternity evolves in animals.

While the relevant procedures that underpin conflict are well understood, many questions abide. How does the process of conflict contribute to the evolution of a complex organ like a placenta? Im interested in how this internal conflict interacts with the environmental issues in natural ecosystems. For example, how does the availability of resources feign how the mother adds those resources to her offspring? My ongoing research seeks to understand how resource availability affects what embryos receive through the placenta, and the genetics that underpin this organs function.

Oliver Griffith, Postdoctoral Associate in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University

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[ethicallysourcedhumanmeat]

Practically Impractical

[Previous][First][Next][Masterpost]

 Part 9

“You’re certain that there’s nothing we should be worrying about,” Jumin asks in the car.

“It’s fine,” she responds sharply. “It’s a totally innocent security gig, he’s not even hacking he’s just writing a security system and he has to make sure it’s implemented properly. Saeren went with to help him field test it once it’s live. They’ll be home the end of the week.”

“And you’re certain you want to consider staying in that bunker alone until then?”

“I’m not alone, remember there’s a whole small person living with me?”

“You and Max could stay with me while Saeyoung is away.”

“You know that’s not a great idea right now Jumin, maybe if Max was with her Dad. You are welcome to stay with us though.”

“Your home is not appropriately cat proofed.”

“I want you to remember you said that,” she laughs.

She appreciates that he is inviting her and Max both to stay, she knows that is a big step for him but the gossip sites had been particularly well informed lately and more than once they both had thought they’d seen the woman who’d posed as a reporter. Jumin had chalked it up to paparazzi but Callie wasn’t so sure.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to argue,” Jumin sighs. “I really did want to take Max shopping, I just feel uncomfortable when I know you’re alone.”

Jumin had long since giving up trying to take her shopping but she could never say no to letting him spoil Max, and the child did love to shop. He knew they had nothing planned so he’d shown up unannounced and invited them to go shopping and then perhaps the park. Max had literally dropped what she was doing to change while her mother had given him what he could now tell was a warning look but she’d also gone to change after cleaning up the box of legos Max had dropped.

She cheered up slowly as they shopped. It was hard to frown when Max would come running over to them with a shirt or a dress asking her mother what size she wore; Callie would smile, thank her for thinking of her, and send her off to find something from the children’s section. In the end Jumin had whispered her sizes to the world’s smallest personal shopper and told her to pick something out for her mother.

Max picked out an entire outfit, shoes and jacket included.

“It’s only fair,” she whispered to Jumin when she called him over, since he was buying her a five piece suit, that he buy her mother at least five things.

“Alright, show me what you’ve found, quick before she comes back.”

Max holds out a flowing gauzy tunic with a pair of skinny jeans and runs off to retrieve the rest. She comes back with a leather bike jacket and a tall pair of black boots with a heel that could have doubled as a weapon, and when he takes those she presents to him, like the cherry on top of the perfect outfit, a large amber pendent.

“It’s her favorite,” she whispers conspiratorially to him.

He nods and winks at her, and as he catches sight of Callie’s hair coming around the corner, he sends Max to stall and finds someone to take their things to the counter until they’re done.

“Max, I told you no toys today, not until you go through the ones at home you don’t use.”

“Fine,” Max chirps glancing back to Jumin.

“Did you find what you were looking for?” Jumin asks.

“No,” she shrugs. “I don’t know what I was looking for to be honest.”

“I suppose I should pay then?” Jumin smiles and her eyes narrow.

“And then the park?” Max asks.

“Yep,” they say together.

The girls wait by the doors. Callie appreciates that Jumin seems to enjoy buying things for Max but she has an aversion to seeing the number on the register increase.

“Don’t think I don’t know that that is too many bags for what my daughter picked out.”

“I swear on my life,” he smiles at her, “that your daughter personally picked every item in these bags.”

“Mmhmm,” she nods unconvinced.

Jumin is relieved that there are not many people at the park. He found the chaos of the play structures overwhelming at times. Today it seemed that most of the children were elsewhere, only two or three were playing on the big plastic structure that Max took off running towards. Callie had walked to the picnic table with him taking off her boots and tucking them under the seat.

He watches her run to catch up, and then chase Max up the slide. They play together for a while before Max seems to strike up with one of the other children. He watches Callie talk to Max and her new friend from the Monkey bars, he watches her ‘skin the cat’ then back again. The girls laugh when the floppy collar of her shirt falls on her face and she stops upside down to pretend to fight with it.

He doesn’t notice the man walk up to him until he’s leaning against the table.

“Kind of overdressed for a playground,” the man says in broken Korean

“Am I?” Jumin answers in English. He looks at the man beside him, a wide shouldered American in a hoody with the word ARMY across the chest and a ball cap. There was something familiar about him and Jumin tries to remember where they’d met. Normally he had no problem but this man’s name was escaping him.

“She traded up I guess?” He grunts. “Kid probably couldn’t afford her.”

“I’m sorry?” Jumin turns to the man as it hits him. This is Max’s father.

“She always did like to spend other people’s money.”

“T,” she says sharply, suddenly beside him. “What are you doing here? What did you say to Mr. Han?”

“Nothing he doesn’t know.”

Jumin glances back to the play structure where Max is scaling the rope bridge. The way she says his name, formally as if this is just business, he can’t stand it.

“Toby I know you’re leaving soon please try to be an adult about this for once in your life.”

“When you get to act like a petulant teenager.”

“When, T? When do I get to act like a petulant teenager? When do I have time for that?”

“You spend all day playing video games and singing to yourself.”

“Doing my job, that’s my job T. Remember when your child support payments were lowered because I have a job?”

“You couldn’t have gotten a job when we were married though, right Amy?”

“At what studio, Toby, we were in the middle of nowhere, I got a job when we split because I moved where the work was, and my job sent me here.”

“Lucky break you got there with this rich idiot footing your bills, Amy.”

“Holy shit T, Jumin is my friend but he’s also my fucking Boss.”

“Friend huh, is that what you tell that kid you live with?”

“Are you done?”

“I’m sorry I’m not sure what you’re implying,” Jumin says. “Amelia is paid a fair wage for an above board job, which she appears to excel at.”

“Yeah, you pay Amy for some kinda job,” he grunts. “I got plenty of pictures Amy.”

“I fucking knew it.”

Both men look at her.

“Of course you have pictures, I knew that chick was following me.”

“Oh sure,” Toby rolls his eyes.

“T tell your PI that she’d be less conspicuous if she didn’t act like the entire world was a film noir.”

“Who fucking cares she says she’s got all I need.”

Jumin watches two of the three kids leave the play structure with their mothers. Amelia and her ex-husband speak in low voices but at the rate the conversation is deteriorating he’s not sure they won’t be yelling at one another very shortly.

“What do you need? What do you think she has? Pictures of Jumin and I eating together, or at work functions? Pictures of Luciel and I getting groceries, of Max with me and my friends, healthy, happy and cared for? Are you trying to build a case to take her back with you? You’ve got shit.”

He folds his arms in front of his chest and gives her a look that would have normally had her bending over backwards to make amends but she’s sick of this.

“Our daughter is not a pawn in some game you’re playing,” she practically spits at him.

“Take your own advice.”

“I’m not going to defend myself. I’ve never said a negative thing to her about you, I’ve excused your absences, I’ve defended you when she’s upset about the way you talk about my friends and myself.” She throws her hands up. “T, if you feel like you need to put Max through this again I can’t stop you. If that’s the route you wanna take? But honestly you know who that is over there, and my fiancé, the guy you keep calling kid isn’t far behind him? They fucking love Max, as much as I do. If you think Luciel or Jumin are going to just let me fight you alone or let you take her you’ve lost your mind.”

“Are you threatening me.”

“Do I look like I am? Listen you can get your military appointed attorney and have them contact me, Jumin has already offered to have his lawyers go over our agreement. Or you can go over there and plan something with your daughter before your exercise is over.”

She watches her ex-husband stomp towards the play structure and looks around for Jumin. It’s not until Max jumps into her father’s arms that Callie see’s Jumin stand up from inside the big plastic submarine. She holds her breath, when had he walked away? When had the other children left? Had Max heard them arguing.

She watches Max take a few steps away from Toby and glance at Jumin. Jumin shrugs and smiles and she steps back towards her Dad. Callie watches Jumin standing with Max and she wants to go over. Stand with him, lean on him, bury her face in his neck but she can’t. Not just because they’re in public but because her heart is pounding and she’s trying to catch her breath.

She watches Max’s smiling face and inhales shallow through her nose. Toby leans down and hugs Max and Callie exhales the breath she was holding. She wants to sit under the table, the world feels too big suddenly, but Toby is walking away and Max is barreling full force towards her. She takes a few more shallow breaths and braces for impact.

Jumin makes eye contact with her as he walks towards them and Max chatters excitedly about all the things she’d going to do at her Dad’s. Max’s excitement overflows during the drive home, a whole week with her Dad, she can’t wait. She makes lists of things to pack, and Callie does her best to keep breathing until finally they’re home and Max has disappeared into her room to pack.

Callie drops to the couch and slides onto the floor in the tight space between the couch and the table. She throws her hands over her head and buries her face in her knees. Jumin listens to her take ragged gasping breaths.

“Are you ok?”

She shakes her head no.

“Can I do something?”

Another no.

He reaches out for her and stops, she may not want to be touched and he doesn’t want to make this worse. He looks towards Max’s room but she doesn’t appear to be coming out anytime soon. He sits on the couch near her and after a moment she moves closer to him, and soon enough her face is buried in his neck her arms are at her sides and he holds her as tight as he can.

Eventually the gasping breaths turn shallow and then deep. Jumin pulls her into his lap and runs his fingers through her hair until quite suddenly, red eyed and wet faced she stands up.

“You want a drink? I’m getting a drink, would you like something.”

“Are you ok?” He asks again.

She waves him off. “Wine? Tea? A bathtub full of bourbon?”

“Would you like to talk about it.”

Her eyes narrow and then she turns towards Max’s room. “Not right now.”

As if on cue the wild haired 8 year old bursts out of her room, three backpacks hanging off of her. “Mr. Han we forgot something!”

“You’re right,” Jumin smiles remembering the bags in the trunk of his car. He extends a finger towards Max and texts Driver Kim to be sure he is still outside.

The co-conspirators leave Callie alone for a moment while they gather the bags from their shopping trip. When they come back in she’s sitting at the kitchen table behind a glass of wine, she’s pale but she looks better.

Max shoves a wrapped box onto the table in front of her and almost knocks her glass over. Callie looks at Jumin and he shrugs.

“Mr. Han let me pick out an outfit for you!” She smiles.

Callie frowns at Jumin. “Did you just use my daughter as a loophole.”

“I saw an opportunity and I seized it.”

She opens the box and coos over its contents. Max beams and it seems that all is well. Max disappears into her room to finish packing.

“I should call a taxi and take her to her Dad’s.”

“Amelia I can have Driver Kim take you.”

“No,” she sighs.

“Will you be alright, would you like me to come.”

She snorts. “Yeah, but no. I don’t know. No.”

They don’t speak for a while. Callie tries on the jacket and the boots as something to do, to avoid talking about it and then looks back at Jumin who doesn’t appear to have moved.

“Would it be wrong to just say goodbye to her here and have Driver Kim take her to her father’s?”

“You have done that before.”

“It’s stupid and malicious, and maybe I am just a petulant teenager.”

“I could accompany her and then come back here.”

“Wouldn’t that just be fucking perfect.”

“Is he going to be a problem?”

She takes a deep breath and opens her mouth as if she’s about to speak, but then she shrugs and breaths out. “I don’t know. He talks big and he did hire someone to stalk me but there’s no way she has any photo’s that are even a little worrisome, it’s not like anyone can get past the gate without me or a Choi twin and there’s a zero percent chance she got close enough to the penthouse to get anything even remotely useful for him. He could make me travel back to the states more than I can afford to while trying to do my job, but I don’t think he really has a chance unless he plans to retire but even then,” she shrugs. “He’s probably just trying to scare me; I don’t usually take the bait.”

“You’re human,” Jumin takes her hand. “It was very difficult not to step in. I did not want to escalate the situation.”

“Jesus no Jumin, I appreciate you keeping Max away from that. I lost control, it’s not fair for me to do that in front of her or you, thanks.”

“It wasn’t fair for your ex-husband to provoke you,” Jumin adds. “You’ll do better next time.”

“Next time?”

“We’ll drop Max off together,” Jumin smiles, “and if he attempts to provoke you again I will give him my attorney’s card.”

She hadn’t really wanted to leave the bunker, but he’d convinced her. He was not normally given to haranguing her into doing anything but he had never seen her as shaken as she’d been when they’d gotten back from the park. He’d considered leaving it and suggesting Assistant Kang invite herself over, but he knew that both women would have something to say about that.

After they’d dropped Max off at her father’s without incident she’d sat as far from him in the car as she could and he worried that he’d crossed a line somewhere. He watched her reflection in the window, she looked tired and pale. He considered contacting his doctor when they got to the penthouse when he heard her sniff.

He sat very still in his seat and watched her wipe away a tear with her thumb. He had never seen her cry until today, he’d not seen her emotions get the better of her. Even after everything she’d been through with Mint Eye she’d only raised her voice once. He’d considered comforting her but it was not something he was particularly skilled with. Perhaps he should contact Saeyoung, he always seemed capable of making her smile.

She rests her head against the glass and he makes eye contact with her reflection.

“Hey,” she smiles at him weakly.

“Amelia,” he starts but she looks away.

“Can you not call me that tonight?”

“I’m sorry,” Jumin says.

“No it’s just every time you say Amelia I hear him calling me Amy and I just,” she exhales, “I can’t.” She doesn’t look at him but she reaches out and brushes her fingers over his before squeezing his hand.

He squeezes back. “Calliope,” he starts and she looks at him, a small genuine smile forming on her lips. “If you really would rather not come with me that is alright.”

“No you’re right,” she twists her mouth and frowns. “I’m probably better off not being alone for now.”

#practically impractical #Callie Miller #mystic messenger

[apsbicepstraining]

Maternity: Cooperative Paradise Or Conflict-Driven Battle Between Mother And Child?

Pregnancy sounds like the ultimate formation of animal partnership moms share their own bodies to grow and support their childrens prenatal development. But in reality, embryos usage every manoeuvre in the book to take more than their fair share. Mothers, in turn, marshal the most appropriate defensive tactics.

Ultimately, its an evolutionary forearms race. Offspring constantly advance strategies to steal sources, while moms derive strategies to defend their resources. Natural pick will favor embryo that are able to steal resources, but this will prescribe overheads on the mother.

My colleagues and I are interested in how the pertinent terms and conditions of this battle could have derived. We lately probed some differences between closely related swine that carry their young and others that lay eggs to figure out how hormones advanced to be expressed in the placenta. By understanding the processes that support conflict, we can identify how conflict situations arose, and potential impacts that it might hold for human health.

Placenta as a combat zone

The placenta lets father and fetu to exchange assets. Gray’s Anatomy of the Human Body

During pregnancy, mothers support their offspring by providing nourishment across a placenta. Organized from both the embryos and fathers tissue, this organ facilitates the exchange of materials between the two. The placenta is a matter of conveying oxygen and nutrients to the baby, while taking away waste products like carbon dioxide and urea.

By exuding hormone signals across the placenta to be received by the mothers mas, embryos can reform the amount of meat theyre catered. In a truly cooperative world-wide, offspring would release these gimme more! hormones only if they were undernourished. But embryos actually create these hormones asking more of the mother almost constantly throughout pregnancy.

Mothers’ organizations fend off these hormonal necessitates with securities including the development of physical obstacles between the fetu and the maternal blood furnish, and the production of enzymes that they are able break down excessive high levels of embryo-produced hormones.

But where did the tools fetu use to wage this battle “re coming out”? Thats the issues to my colleagues and I lately investigated.

Embryo of a southern grass skink, a live-bearing reptile. Oliver Griffith, CC BY-ND

Hunting for the roots of the conflict

Placentas are not limited to mammals. Theyre likewise found in reptiles and fishes like the seahorse.

In recent investigate published in the periodical General and Comparative Endocrinology , my traitors and I aimed to identify how an animal species advances a placenta.

We know that live-bearing swine evolve from egg-laying ones, but we were curious about the role of parent-offspring conflict in this process. Did placental power of maternity advance via novel hormones? Or did it rely on genes that were already present in the ancestral populations?

Our first step was examining the hormones produced by the placental tissue of three animal species: the pony, the southern grass skink lizard and a live-bearing person of the southeastern slider lizard.

We know each of these groups evolved maternity independently, because each is more closely related to an egg-laying species than they are to each other. For sample, the first mammals were egg-laying and some of them are still around today Australias platypus, for example. Similarly, each of the live-bearing lizard species we analyzed has closely related egg-laying relatives.

By analyse both the live-bearing and egg-laying relatives of these swine we can understand the things that are necessary for the transition.

The southeastern slider has live-bearing and egg-laying hodgepodges. Jordan de Jong, CC BY-ND

We likened the roll of hormones produced by these animals’ placental tissues to a same tissue from two egg-laying swine: the chicken and an egg-laying population of the southeastern slider lizard. These species dont have placentas because they lay eggs rather than carrying their unborn young internally. But placentas derived from a tissue that strings the internal face of developing eggs. This embryonic membrane supports the exchange of gasses between the embryo and the world outside its egg.

When we compared the genes found in the embryonic membrane of species with and without a placenta, the inventories primarily paired. This finding shows that the hormones used by embryos to manipulate their babies advanced long ago, in an ancestor of both reptiles and mammals. When pregnancy evolved, the existing mechanism to establish contradictions between the mother and fetu were already in place.

While we dont know the function of these hormones in egg-laying species, we are in a position theorize. The embryonic membrane be the first time that living level of contact between human embryos and the outside world. These hormones may vary the developing fetu in response to some environmental stimulus, such as temperature or disease.

Mom vs. dad at the placenta battlefield

Why are the women and embryos at odds, anyway?

After all, animals have two major evolutionary purposes: to survive and to raise fertile offspring to spread their genes. Mortals maximize the fitness of their genes by producing as many healthy offspring as they can over their lifetime. So it seems reasonable that moms would want to support their offspring to give them the best luck of survival as long as it doesnt threw mom herself at risk.

But remember, offspring contain genes from both parents. If a papa can adjust the development of his offspring in a way that allows it to enjoy the benefits of the mother, even if it imposes a cost on her, it would give him and his genes a fitness advantage.

This is particularly critical when girls mate with multiple males. In this case, a papa may be the mother of exactly one or a few of the many offspring a female creates over her lifetime. He misses his offspring to have an rim over others papa by competitors.

In this room, the aims of the papas genes may not overlap with the goals of the mothers. Its the differences among the goals of the moms and pops genes that are the ultimate crusade of mother-embryo conflict during pregnancy.

Pregnant southern grass skink, area of mother-embryo conflict. Jacquie Herbert, CC BY-ND

Ways to restraint improvement beyond genes

As a result of the ongoing engagement across the placenta, some swine have advanced strategies to affect the developing their children in ways that do not include changes to the genes they pass on.

For instance, males and females can mark the genes of their seman and eggs in different ways so the impact of the gene depends on which mother extended it on. Scientists announce this phenomenon when a genes outcome in an individual depends on whether it was inherited from the mother or papa genomic imprinting.

Genomic imprinting is one device by which the placenta battle can be waged.

The gene that produces insulin like growth part two( IGF2) is a fine example. It restrains placental growth: more of the hormone decisions in a bigger placenta and more nutrients being transferred to the offspring, while lower yield causes in smaller offspring.

When the mother establishes egg cells, she modifies the IGF2 gene by including molecules that is likely change the structure of DNA. With this alteration, the genes encoded by the DNA cannot be expressed. So in normal progeny, the maternal copy of this gene isnt expressed, while the paternal print is. Mom works to make sure the fetu doesnt greedily take more resources than it needs, while Dad is happy to see the embryo garner more than strictly necessary.

My research group wanted to identify whether genomic imprinting is present in the reptiles that have a placenta. In study published in the periodical Development Genes and Evolution , we looked at the genes that are imprinted in the placenta of mammals, and checked for imprinting of those same genes in the southern grass skink.

It turned out none of the mammalian imprinted genes are imprinted in this lizard, intimating certain fundamental differences between the role of conflict in mammalian and reptile pregnancy. The battle in mammal placentas is waged use genomic imprinting, where as in reptiles, it appears that mothers and papas must use other tools.

Female southern grass skink giving birth. After give, the mother can be ingesting the placental tissues.

Together our subjects suggest that the genes responsible for conflict in animals that exhibit pregnancy were present in the embryonic membranes of recent developments common ancestor of mammals and reptiles, which lived more than 300 million years ago. It looks like contradictions between mom and child is cooked into species, and is likely to occur anytime maternity evolves in animals.

While the relevant procedures that underpin conflict are well understood, many questions abide. How does the process of conflict contribute to the evolution of a complex organ like a placenta? Im interested in how this internal conflict interacts with the environmental issues in natural ecosystems. For example, how does the availability of resources feign how the mother adds those resources to her offspring? My ongoing research seeks to understand how resource availability affects what embryos receive through the placenta, and the genetics that underpin this organs function.

Oliver Griffith, Postdoctoral Associate in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University

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