#the inevitable forward march of technology

[randomnumbers751650]

I finally have time to talk about Lone Trail. I will be focusing on its depiction of science, technology and its progress. Will get a bit political, but funnily enough less than I imagined.

The thing that called my attention most in Lone Trail were the discussions on the nature of scientific progress. This is a theme that’s dear to me and the stuff I research about. It’s easy to think of scientific progress like an inevitable march forward, like an escalator. After all, we are much richer than we were before, right? Go to OurWorldInData dot org to play around with economic statistics in time – make sure to check the World GDP chart, from year 0 to 2000 and see it taking off like a rocket from year 1700.

What kind of Uncle Ted fan or neoluddite would go against that? Haha…hah…

Truth is that, although its effects are there, it’s not a clear if this is the little, neat process techbros want us to believe. It’s new and produces more, therefore it’s good, right? I could be writing this as a new wave of AI-generated NFTs pollute my algorithm.

That’s what makes the storytelling in Arknights so effective: it mashes together fantasy and sci-fi to really tell stories on the role of beliefs, technology, science and religion. The Rhine Lab saga is definitely an exploration of technology, with focus on the equivalent of the United States. During the period before the First World War, 1870-1913 (which is the one that Arknights draws most from), the world underwent through the so-called Second Industrial Revolution and I’ve read economic historians considering it the most innovative period in human history. I mean, obviously, there is an absolute number of inventions in our current age, but in relative terms 1870-1913 experienced a much larger number relative to the previous one.

The escalator narrative constructs scientific achievements as work of daring people (mostly men, but there were women like Marie Cuire), that combined science and technology to help mankind, like Prometheus giving mankind fire from the gods (in fact, one of these books is even named “Prometheus Unbound”); more than often they have to fight against the establishment. Remember Ignaz von Semmelweis? He just wanted doctors to wash their hands. Even I learned this standard narrative in the university. But that’s not the entire story.

The positivistic paradigm – of a science free of value judgements, made with the power of math – has actually helped build this escalator narrative. In reality, some scientists and scholars are horrible people. Later, I learned that Semmelweis, as much as he campaigned for the right thing, was a very arrogant person, who abused everyone around him, to the point few people went to his funeral.

Narratives focusing on one single hero are easy to sell and the ones building them are always on the lookout. Remember how ten years ago, a lot of people tried to push the narrative Elon Musk was going to create a new industrial revolution? Nowadays he’s just an arrogant loser who keeps dragging on his midlife crisis. The 1880s also had similar people like that, such as Thomas Edison.

Kristen Wright is definitely better than them both, because she is actually an engineering genius. But she’s also just like them, in the sense of unethical experiments, collusion with the military-industrial complex and being an overall superficially charismatic, but rotten to the core person. And she’s surrounded by a lot of people like Parvis and Ferdinand.

Breaking this line of reason, I have to say how much I hate Nietzsche’s ubermensch and master-slave morality, I hate Great Men theory, I hate Ayn Rand; these people are sheep who think themselves wolves. And before you say that Nietzsche didn’t consider himself an ubermensch, well, neither did Parvis and his reasoning was the same. For every person fancying themselves ubermensch, there’s a lot of those whom he’d call untermensch to clean up their messes. You have no idea of how times I stumbled upon people (especially libertarians) that advocate lower barriers to regulations that were written in blood, so that progress can happen quicker. Creative destruction works, as long as some people get “creative” and others clean the “destruction”. Deaths and injuries? Acceptable, just give them a pension (but fight tooth and nail in the court to not do it beyond the barest of the bare minimum, because it’ll lower the shareholder profit in 0.01%). Increase in inequality? Nobody will care in a few years, it’ll make everything cheaper anyway (look up Baumol’s cost disease to see how wrong that statement is, without being incorrect). I’m not exaggerating, sometimes the people saying that don’t even bother lacing it in politically correct language.

Because Lone Trail showed it “worked” – Kristen Wright broke off the ceiling over Terra and that will have consequences (especially with Endfield coming closer). The data from her experiments will advance science, the sight of a broken ceiling will inspire artists and prompt politicians to act. Was it worth it? Well, it will depend on who you ask (like, Ifrit or Rosmontis would have strong feelings), but it’s just there now. Serious history isn’t kind on this question as well – many technologies have a lot of transgressions, both legal and ethical, in their supply chain (both the American and Soviet space program come to my mind – guess who helped them); the difference between an entrepreneur and a criminal are contextual, because both are finding new opportunities of profit and both interlock frequently.

In the end, anyone can put an equation that has its uses, not mattering if it’s a good person or not. But that is no excuse to find good ethical practices. Silence saw everything with her own eyes and I’m really glad she’s leading the initiative for a more ethical science in Columbia – especially because people who are willing to break moral rules tend also to be willing to break research rules (this is why the “research” made in concentration camps is actually useless, it didn’t respect experimental rules). So I’m really glad for the Arknights writers for understanding these nuances and communicating them to the audience through one of the best stories of the game.

#arknights #lone trail

[techtuv]

Steam Discontinuing Support for Outdated Windows Versions

As technology relentlessly marches forward, software compatibility inevitably expires. This reality has now reached Steam, with Valve announcing they will cease support for outdated Windows versions 7, 8, and 8.1 starting January 1st, 2024. For users still on these operating systems, the Steam client will no longer receive critical updates like security patches and new features.

Valve's decision aligns with their focus on modernizing Steam and enhancing the gaming experience on current platforms. With the vast majority of Steam's user base having already upgraded past Windows 7/8, this change reflects prevailing tech trends. While existing games will remain accessible in the short-term, the lack of updates poses gradually increasing security risks and functionality issues down the line.

For affected users, it will soon become necessary to upgrade to a supported Windows version to ensure continued security, stability and access to Steam's latest offerings. This end-of-support notice provides an opportunity for users to plan their transition to a modern OS before support ends in January.

Read More

#Steam #Windows #Gaming #Microsoft

[mariacallous]

Meduza's The Beet: Central Asia’s startup revolution takes root

Hello, and welcome back to The Beet! 

This is your weekly dispatch from Meduza covering Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia edited by yours truly, Eilish Hart. If this email was forwarded to you, sign up here to receive future issues of The Beet. And be sure to read last week’s heart-rending feature about how Ukrainian refugees in Poland are coping as Moscow’s full-scale invasion of their homeland enters its second year. 

Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine and subsequent mobilization drive spurred an “IT exodus” in 2022: according to official statistics, 10 percent of the country’s tech workforce (more than 100,000 people) fled abroad and did not return. This brain drain was part of a larger emigration wave that has led to an array of social and economic tensions, particularly in countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia that Moscow once ruled. But it has also been a windfall for Central Asia’s already rising tech hubs as they continue to balance competition and cooperation in their quest to become the next Silicon Valley(s). Journalist Katie Marie Davies reports for The Beet. 

Central Asia’s startup revolution takes root

By Katie Marie Davies 

When Kyrgyzstan’s High-Tech Park opened in 2011, it didn’t dare to dream of creating the startup world’s greatest prize: a unicorn, the name given to elusive startups valued at over $1 billion. 

At first, the park was purely virtual. (A physical space where young entrepreneurs could gather, work, and swap expertise opened in 2019.) It had a sharp focus on helping companies who wished to export goods, operating under the banner: “Live in Kyrgyzstan, work with the world.” Its greatest pull was its special legal status. Startups and IT companiescould apply to become park residents, earning special tax exemptions designed to boost business growth. 

Yet despite these incentives, the initial road was rocky. “Even in late 2013, we had only 60 people working here and a revenue of about 14 million soms [approximately $160,000],” says Chubak Temirov, the director of Kyrgyzstan’s High-Tech Park.

Looking at Central Asia’s startup ecosystem today paints a very different picture. The region has yet to produce its elusive unicorn, but one’s eventual appearance now feels inevitable. The region’s major startup hubs — High-Tech Park in Kyrgyzstan, Astana Hub in Kazakhstan, and IT Park in Uzbekistan — are all growing at breakneck speed, defying global economic turbulence. (Tajikistan’s startup ecosystem remains a step behind its neighbors, although the country is currently developing its own IT park and launched its own Venture Capital School in March 2022. Elsewhere, Turkmenistan’s oppressive dictatorship means that it’s almost completely excluded from the global startup scene.)

High-Tech Park now has 270 resident companies and aims to keep doubling in size each year. Astana Hub boasted export revenue of $165 million in 2022, attracting $130 million worth of startup investment. Uzbekistan’s IT Park, meanwhile, has seen year-over-year growth of 223 percent in revenue and 440 percent growth in total technology exports. 

The uptick has been rooted in cross-regional cooperation, proving that with commitment and investment, great strides can be made in just a few short years. 

For others, however, it has also raised questions as to which of Central Asia’s current major tech metropolises — whether that’s Almaty or Astana, Bishkek, or Tashkent— will eventually become the region’s undisputed tech leader, or whether Central Asia will pioneer a more decentralized startup scene.

‘The scene is very fluid’

For many, Kazakhstan appears the obvious choice for Central Asia’s own Silicon Valley. In their 2022 report, Startup Central Eurasia placed Kazakhstan firmly above its regional competitors in terms of ecosystem maturity. 

The report analyzed the strength of the building blocks that make up each country’s startup ecosystem in both the pre-seed and seed stages, digging into issues such as local entrepreneurial interest in startups, access to financing and infrastructure, education and talent development, and shared vision and strategy. And it found that many startups see Kazakhstan as an entry point to the Central Asian market.

Yet at this early stage in the region’s startup development, Kazakhstan’s dominant market position is not assured. Each country has its distinct advantages. 

Kazakhstan has invested heavily in fintech and has opened the Astana International Financial Center, which operates under the norms of English law. Uzbekistan has by far the region’s largest population (and the greatest number of potential consumers). As well as having the world’s second cheapest mobile Internet access, Kyrgyzstan has also long maintained a reputation of being more democratic and liberal than its neighbors.

“The nature of the people in this sector is that they are very mobile. As long as they have good Internet connectivity, and you have your laptop with you, you can probably work from anywhere,” says Talant Sultanov, a digital development specialist at the World Bank. “There are all kinds of factors that make a certain location attractive for people in this industry: [whether] there are places like theaters and museums, nice coffee places, even the price of beer. I think the scene is very fluid. And I think it will be changing quickly.” 

‘A win-win’

The specter of competition remains largely a non-issue in Central Asia’s tech scene. The region has found that cooperation, rather than competition, has been most helpful in establishing its nascent startup ecosystems. Often that has meant coordinating their efforts to make a splash and promote the entire region on the global stage. 

A joint forum by Kyrgyzstani officials in New York last year to showcase Central Asia as “the world’s next IT destination” also featured businesses from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. All three major hubs are also teaming up for 2023’s inaugural Central Asian Tech Awards, which will send winning startup founders to spend time in Silicon Valley.

This strategy means that Central Asia has been able to catch the attention of the world’s business owners (especially companies in Europe and the United States) at a particularly lucrative moment. The uptick in remote work during the Covid-19 pandemic made businesses open to the idea of outsourcing higher-skilled roles. Many large Western companies are now hunting for newer, more agile firms to use as subcontractors for various business-related tasks.

Startups that fill these niches — known as BPO, or business process outsourcing — are becoming highly lucrative for Central Asia. Such companies have a steady supply of young, educated employees available to carry out software development, IT management, customer support, and logistics, all of whom can be paid far less than their European and American counterparts. The success has been so resounding that Timurmalik Elmuradov, the business analyst and R&D specialist behind Skartaris Peak, Uzbekistan’s leading Telegram channel on the country's startup ecosystem, has described BPO as Uzbekistan’s “new cotton.” 

“For companies in the U.S. or the U.K. or Europe, as a single country of 7 million people, Kyrgyzstan is just not that interesting to them,” says High-Tech Park director Temirov. “But as part of the Central Asian region of 80 million people: that’s a market where they can expand their services, where they can open companies and recruit people. From a promotion perspective, it’s much easier. It's a win-win situation.”

‘In the right place at the right time’

Central Asia’s growing footprint on the startup scene has brought benefits to all of the region’s major tech players, so far. But this delicate balance of shared success could yet be easily disturbed by world events — like an exodus of IT workers from neighboring Russia, for example. 

While there are no concrete figures, as many as 700,000 Russians are believed to have moved abroad since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Their arrival has perhaps been most obvious in Armenia and Georgia, but many also relocated to Central Asia, drawn by proximity and a more relaxed visa regime. 

Among these newcomers is a significant cohort of IT professionals, many of whom are keen to move their companies out of Russia. (In the weeks and months following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, some IT companies reportedly even chartered flights in a bid to get their employees out of the country as soon as possible.) As a result, the number of foreign-owned businesses taking root within Central Asia’s startup ecosystem has ballooned. 

Each country has handled this influx in different ways. Some, like Kyrgyzstan, have remained open to newcomers and offer digital nomad visas specifically for Azerbaijani, Armenian, Belarusian, Kazakhstani, Moldovan, and Russian citizens. Generally, however, they’ve taken a more relaxed approach. “Obviously, like many other countries, we’re seeing more newcomers coming to Kyrgyzstan, mostly individual entrepreneurs, because it's much easier for them to relocate,” says Temirov. “In most cases. It's not about politics: it's about work and everyday life. They just have to be secure and get an Internet connection.” 

Uzbekistan, meanwhile, has opted for a more proactive, dedicated relocation program: TashRush. The scheme offers foreign startup founders who wish to move to Uzbekistan a full range of services to help them settle into their new home: help with registrations and visas, accommodation support, and group excursions.  

The idea had been in the works since 2021, but its launch in the spring of 2022 coincided with the start of Russian IT workers fleeing their country en masse. Business analyst Elmuradov simply describes TashRush as being “in the right place at the right time.” 

“TashRush representatives would meet newcomers at the airport late at night, take them to the hotel, help with registration and other issues,” says Elmuradov. “I know several IT specialists who were pleasantly surprised by this reception: they were leaving their homeland against the backdrop of mobilization, heading into the unknown, into nowhere — and here they were warmly received.”

So far, TashRush has brought some 3,000 foreign IT specialists to Uzbekistan. It’s also part of the reason why the total number of IT companies with foreign capital in Uzbekistan increased by 89.8 percent in 2022, and why the number of resident companies at Tashkent’s IT Park exceeded 1,000 for the first time.

Like many other cities in the Caucasus and Central Asia, the ongoing influx of Russians has distorted the housing market and, in some cases, increased competition for jobs. But Uzbekistani officials hope that the local startup scene will largely benefit from these new arrivals, and that Russian companies can contribute to the economy in terms of new jobs or taxes.

“There has been some dissatisfaction [with the new arrivals],” says Elmuradov, “[but] Uzbekistan is smart enough to understand and accept healthy competition.”

Trending upward

The full impact of Russia’s IT exodus may not be felt for some time. It’s unclear how long IT professionals from Moscow and St. Petersburg will stay in Central Asia. Although there is little in the way of official statistics, anecdotal evidence suggests that some military-aged men who fled Russia have already returned, driven either by their struggle to find work and accommodations, or the belief that they had escaped being drafted — at least for now. 

“Not everything depends on wages and work. People want to be able to cross the road safely, to take a walk somewhere in the evening,” adds Elmuradov. “The Tashkent IT Park has done a lot, but it is unable to provide safe roads or increase the number of parks and sidewalks. The infrastructure in cities here leaves much to be desired.”

These problems are significant enough that they can even force businesses to grind to a halt. Over the winter, plunging temperatures pushed Central Asia’s outdated energy supply grids to the brink, triggering electricity blackouts. Even in the region’s major cities, IT workers were knocked offline, putting their livelihoods at risk.

But most hope that this new influx of skills will benefit businesses in the entire region, even as different cities and countries begin to develop a stronger sense of their own technological identity. 

“Many of the countries [in] the region have made digital transformation a top priority for economic development, and I think that’s bringing dividends,” says Sultanov. “At some point, our countries will start focusing on and distinguishing themselves within Central Asia — for example, Kazakhstan may be focusing on certain aspects of fintech. But even though countries are going at different speeds and have different success rates, the general trend is going upward.”

Elmuradov agrees: “We don’t really need one hub. If Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan continue to compete with each other, then everyone will benefit — with more money, specialists, jobs, and companies.”

That’s all for now, thanks for reading! 

For more reporting from Katie Marie Davies, check out her previous story for The Beet about how Ukrainian fashion designers have mobilized to support the war effort. Until next time, 

Eilish 

[tsasocial]

Intertextile Apparel’s fringe programme – expert insights on industry’s evolution

With the international and domestic textile sector once more able to congregate in Shanghai, key players can discover new, expert-predicted fashion trends and innovative ideas, and collaborate to create positive industry momentum. Running in conjunction with the Spring Edition from 28 – 30 March 2023 at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai), the fringe programme will supplement visitors’ overall sourcing experience. Featuring experts from around the world, over 35 seminars, forums and panel discussions will take place during the three days at Textile Dialogue, Forum Space, and Talking Point, the fair’s fringe event zones.

Change is inevitable, and the Intertextile Directions Trend Forum in the International Hall (5.1), will help industry players envision its potential with its S/S 2024 trend – ‘GO AHEAD’. The trend follow four themes: MISSION EARTH, POETIC SENSUALITY, ALTERNATIVE CULTS and ENERGETIC RESET. Mrs. Ornella Bignami, Creative Director of Elementi Moda, will introduce the seasonal trend stories at Textile Dialogue (5.1 – H48).

Encapsulating this forward-thinking ethos, a recent action plan from the China National Textile and Apparel Council encourages the industry to embrace digital transformation in manufacturing. Industry experts who will share their insights on this new development, in Themed Forums at Textile Dialogue (5.1 – H48), include:

Mr. Edwin Keh, Chief Executive Officer, The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel

Ms. Jenny Cheung, Lecturer, Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong

Mr. Jinsong Bao, Professor, Director, Institute of Intelligent Manufacturing

Ms. Lei He, Founder and CEO, Xtretch Technologies LLC

Mr. Ruofa Xiao, Deputy General Manager, Huansi Intelligent Technology Inc

Mr. Xiaogang Ye, CEO, Hangzhou Githink Intelligent Control Technology Co Ltd

Throughout the three-day fringe programme, attendees can expand their knowledge about the apparel industry’s other trends and innovations, which are divided into three groups, namely Design and Trends, Sustainability Issues, and Technology and Solutions. Several standout events in these categories are highlighted below:

Design and Trends at Textile Dialogue (5.1 – H48)

NellyRodi Spring/Summer 2024 Fashion Trends Ms. Ada Xu, Senior Trend Lecturer from NellyRodi China, will share the agency’s S/S 2024 fashion trends, under the main theme "Elsewhere". Four trend themes will cover different consumer profiles, and each theme will include insights about color, textiles, shapes, beauty, and more.

24SS Women’s Fashion Trend Forecast Ms. Benedicte Peaudecerf, Stylist from Peclers Paris, will discuss extracts from various trend publications, to inspire and guide audiences towards creating stylish, innovative products for women’s fashion in the spring and summer of 2024.

PROMOSTYL Influence & Colour for 24SS Ms. Olivia Huang, Head of Promostyl China, will discuss megatrends and provide consumer analysis. Her insights will extend to the seasonal colours, design inspiration, and overall direction for 24SS.

Sustainability Issues at Forum Space (5.1 – A01)

Creating a Greener World Through Sustainability Certifications Sustainable development is a consistent talking point within fashion and apparel circles. Mr. Ceed Guo, China General Manager, Audits and Certification from IDFL, will reveal how sustainability certifications enable a more eco-friendly outlook for the textile industry.

Green Circular Fashion and Low Carbon Development in the Textile and Garment Industry With the market’s increasing attentiveness to sustainability, the transition towards energy-saving and a circular economy has gradually become a widespread goal of the fashion industry. Mr. Seeker He, Senior Technical Consultant / Project Manager from SGS-CSTC Standards Technical Services, will discuss how to create more sustainable fashion and a low-carbon industry by utilizing eco-friendly recycling materials and promoting carbon emission reduction design innovation.

Technology and Solutions at Talking Point (7.1 – E136)

Fresh by Nature – Botanical Odour Control Recently, consumers have been reducing their laundry routines in efforts to lessen their environmental impacts. This drives the technological requirement for more effective built-in odour control from clothing and home textiles. Ms. Celine Huang, CEO Greater China from HeiQ Materials AG, will offer insights on how to adapt the company’s unique patented technology to more easily cater to consumers’ needs.

Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics – Spring Edition 2023 is co-organised by Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd; the Sub-Council of Textile Industry, CCPIT; and the China Textile Information Centre. It will take place alongside the Spring Edition of Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles, Yarn Expo Spring, CHIC and PH Value from 28 – 30 March at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai).

For more details on this fair, please visit www.intertextileapparel.com. Information regarding the international textile sector and Messe Frankfurt’s textile fairs worldwide can be found at: www.texpertise-network.com.

#Intertextile Apparel

[medicineboxwellness]

The five surprises of plant medicine

As time marches on, the blithe disregard for nature from modern civilization has given way to a mad dash to rekindle this relationship before the worst case scenario becomes inevitable. This has deep implications for the way WE live our lives going forward. However, it ain’t gonna be easy. The distractions of technology, career and the chase for the almighty dollar mean that the rest of the animals and plants we share this planet with for a brief moment are basically strangers to us. How can they aid us in achieving optimal health?

As the past two years have made abundantly clear, WE have to come up with better solutions for living on this planet if we’re going to make it through this century intact. That means drawing up a new compact with nature, and reintroducing ourselves to how it can heal us.

A big part of that is plant medicine, which is why we consider our 1CaB Healing Suite of Botanical Formulations a unique hybrid of ancient remedy and progressive treatment — “Back to the Future,” if you will, but for medicine. That’s a lot for people to wrap their heads around, but it makes sense when you consider some of the unique developments taking place in and around health care in the Tumultuous Twenties. These are just a few that have been popping up for us recently.

Read more:

[dailycharacteroption]

Races Among the Stars 4: Vlaka

And so we end off this week’s special with a race whose very homeworld is actually on it’s last legs, but never fear, they actively seek a solution, be it a new world or some other method of preserving their species.

Hailing from the icy world of Lajok, which orbits a white dwarf star, the wolf-like Vlaka know plenty about the march of the inevitable, but they also know about the importance of persevering.

In appearance, vlaka resemble humanoid wolves, typically with white fur, perhaps with patches of pale blue, black, or grey. Interestingly, congenital blindness or deafness are extremely common among their people, and while the technology does exist to correct it with ease, the fact that Vlaka senses are naturally able to adapt to the lack of one sense or the other with astonishing ease compared to other species means that some are perfectly happy to live without such cures.

Perhaps because of their dying world and common disabilities, the vlaka have a heightened sense of empathy and community, and are driven to support others to give them their fair shake and make sure their community keeps going both physically and emotionally, actively seeking to assuage feelings of isolation and loneliness.

This drive has led to them often taking on leadership roles and diplomatic roles both on and offworld, but unlike other species, vlaka see leadership as civil service, rather than a way to achieve power, and feel extremely awkward about other species showering them with praise and luxury for stepping up and doing what they feel needed to be done.

Vlaka diplomats work hard even in terrible situations, such as clients who are notorious bad actors, and will actively work to try and bring out the good traits in their clients so that these can be brought forward and encouraged, discouraging the behaviors that brought about their ill reputation to begin with. Of course, actively malicious figures do not get this treatment.

 Vlaka are empathetic and charming, though they can be slow to process new information.

Deeply empathetic, vlakas are capable of bolstering the resolve of others, though their own is expended in the process.

Sporting thick fur and being adapted to a frozen world, they are quite resistant to the cold.

Focused on community and cooperation, vlaka have a knack for giving and receiving aid, working with their allies without getting in each other’s way.

No matter what senses they have, vlaka sport particularly keen ones as a general rule.

That variation on sensory ability does mean that they are versed in all forms of their racial language, including sign language and tactile script.

While a vlaka that sport the full range of their senses boast keen night-sight and strong noses, their blind and deaf counterparts adapt during childhood to match them, blind vlakas have incredibly precise hearing and smell to pinpoint the location of others nearby with ease. Meanwhile, those that are deaf sport similarly precise noses and night sight, and they compensate for their lack of hearing to react just as well in combat.

 Having no physical strengths or weaknesses, they can do very well with any class with a physical key ability score. However, their intelligence weakness can make it awkward to try and make classes focused on that stat to work. That being said, they can make good intuitive biohackers, and their community focus makes them valuable as diplomatic envoys. Those vlaka that have grown jaded by the self-serving ways of others might turn to machines as a mechanic/technomancers, or to animals as a xenodruid mystic or creature companion-focused character, though other reasons to take those two classes might also exist. They can also excel at combat classes, especially solarian with their charisma buff, but soldier, nanocyte, and vanguard are also good choices. Their operatives can also be quite effective, able to leverage their advanced senses to their advantage beyond making up for their limitations. Their charisma also makes them effective witchwarpers as well.

 That does it for this week, but I hope you enjoyed another batch of the fascinating playable species in the Starfinder system!

#starfinder #race #vlaka #Alien Archive 2

[arcticdementor]

Describing Dashiell Hammett’s noir detective character The Continental Op, literary critic Steven Marcus inadvertently captures the reactionary. Both detective and reactionary emerge from profoundly disordered societies. Their gut tells them something is amiss, that their circumstances are fundamentally unsatisfying. Each finds himself waking up to a world of falsehoods, where natural inclinations are everywhere subverted, where human flourishing is derailed or destroyed, and where truth is buried under mounds of error. With little to nothing left to ‘conserve’, the reactionary becomes a deconstructionist, a detective, stripping away contemporary liberalism’s false legitimations.

There are several branches of reactionary thought, but most if not all share at the core an antipathy for the money-power, a sacral understanding of culture, affinity for hierarchy, and some degree of hero-worship. These threads persist regardless of any particular riffs or permutations. The reactionary, through churchism, nationalism, vitalism, traditionalism, or some combination thereof, struggles against liberal nihilism, the deracination of romantic visions and immaterial goods. In short, reaction rejects the myth of Progress.

…

Modern decadence rarely takes the form of lavish balls or orgiastic retreats. Instead, it is characterized by exhaustion, the desocialization of pleasure and thrill, anhedonia. Late cartographer of capitalism Mark Fisher describes the latter vividly as “the soft narcosis, the simstim eternity, the comfort food oblivion of Playstation, all-night TV and marijuana.” All forms of fulfillment eternally forestalled by gluttony, onanism, and the general inability to disconnect from our ever-present digital dopamine drip. Contemporary reaction, then, often originates as a backlash against passivity, consumerism, sterility, physical weakness, and all the other rotten fruits of disenchantment.

…

While it is no doubt true that many past eras surpassed our own in virtue, beauty, and spirituality, it is impossible to return to the same set of social, economic, and technological conditions that shaped the past. A Bushism summarizes the issue well: “I think we can agree, the past is over.” The challenge, then, is to fashion a society out of postmodern clay, in which natural virtues again flourish. The reactionary mind must attune itself to the particular ailments, conditions, and advantages of postmodernity. 

…

Until very recently, this was an apt description of the Western world. But as liberalism works itself pure and intersectionality marches through the institutions, it also reintroduces the West to metanarrative. From the Enlightenment’s murder of myth, through to the Enlightenment’s death, we have arrived again at an era of myth. As the United States continues its transformation into an ideological state premised on gender gnosticism, anti-whiteness, and anti-nationalism, liberalism’s hyper-moralism becomes clearer.

Today, the West is returning to the political as such, to a state of polemos, the social warfare that punishes, purges, and partitions. Yet the regime’s tendency toward anarcho-tyranny, as well as postmodernity’s general liquidity and chaos, lends extra potency to reaction’s promises of order, beauty, and the sacrosanct. These developments are a great boon to reaction. Politicization is a preferable outcome for the reactionary, and one step closer to the outright conflict necessary to effect social rejuvenation.

…

With normalcy demonized at every turn, the West finds itself in another Prohibition era. The person who honors his ancestors, obeys God, and admires traditional mores participates in “collaborative illegality.” Societies of illegality, where day-to-day life becomes a radical state of affairs, are fertile ground for reaction. Confrontation is everywhere preferable to obfuscation. If, as detectives, reactionaries are emergent byproducts of decline, then we should expect them to proliferate as decline accelerates and the spirit of polemos enlarges.

…

The scuttled America First Caucus recently proclaimed America as “a nation with a border, and a culture, strengthened by a common respect for uniquely Anglo-Saxon political traditions,” and decried mass migrations disruption and disintegration. The media backlash to the term ‘Ango-Saxon’ was both predictable and educational. America, as it was perceived by the Founders and most subsequent generations, no longer exists.

The Confederates are clarifying here. If we considered the United States as an Anglo-Saxon civilization, which incorporated other ethnic groups into this civilizational fabric, the Civil War was a tragic conflict between kin. If being American means identifying with a vacuous, chimeric liberalism, then the Civil War was an existential battle between the supposedly chthonic horror of racism and the ever-perfected march of reason. This is exactly how the ruling elite perceives the United States: a polity on an ideological mission to liberate the world, whatever form that liberation may take in each succeeding generation. America’s refusal or inability to recover a moderate and reasonable ethnos is nothing less than suicidal. If immigration continues and there is no American identity aside from vapid cosmopolitanism, the money-power will continue its disintegration and rulership over the United States.

A bleak portrait, perhaps. But so is a crime only halfway solved. As a detective continues his investigation, to be called on amid a crumbling society of illegality, so does the reactionary continue forward. He is often the fortunate benefactor of Providence, that sublime knife which eternally slips loose Gordian knots. The Gracchi brothers’ assassinations by the optimates and their mob paved the way for Caesar; Jacobin excess unwittingly opened Fontainebleau’s doors to Napoleon, and Europe’s midcentury dirge kept Iberia under reactionary rule until the third Christian millennium. If Buchanan began transforming American conservatives into reactionaries, and Trump made reaction politically viable — if even for a moment — we can reasonably hope reaction will maintain its historical relationship with decline, and be nourished by decay.

…

With that and all the above in mind, we may sketch a vision for an Occident shaped by reaction. As with reaction generally, it will be a romantic vision. After liberalism’s society of illegality inevitably buckles under its own weight, the regime’s simultaneous reaction emerges triumphant. The inevitable degeneration of republics into oligarchies reaches its climax: the ‘one and the many’, king and peasantry, president and people, triumph over ‘the few’, optimates, oligarchs, regime Brahmans, and the like. Porous borders are shut, capital is disciplined and reordered to serve national rather than global, financial interests. Liberalism’s atomization buffet is shut down for good, the policies and laws that annihilated the family are overturned, gender is reembodied, and voluntary infertility is a dwindling artifact, a bygone object of derision. The past, which Fisher calls “forever lost and forever insistent,” is insisted upon, and revitalized through new modes of government, old sacraments, and the erection of monuments that honor the past and promise the future.

If this sounds fanciful, it’s because it is. No clarion call to ‘build’ can make the path any straighter or the course any clearer. What reactionaries may take solace in, however, is the organic nature of human societies, the predictable decline and rejuvenation of civilization as superorganism, history’s countless overthrows and about-faces. When it happens, it will seem as if it couldn’t have happened any other way. Georges Sorel speaks to this through Vincent Garton’s translation, prophesying: “We would very much need a Mongol conquest to effect the rebirth of great art, today enslaved to the barbarian tastes of the plutocracy.” Accordingly, only terminal decline produces successful reaction.

A reactionary West will emerge from the same organic historical process that has carried reaction to power again and again: the Hamiltonian battle between, on one side, ‘the one and the many’, and on the other, ‘the few’, from revitalized conceptions of ethnos, thymos, and telos. In the vain hope of identifying and reestablishing a timeless and just social order, the Western Man today must dig through refuse and rubble and investigate the gleaming scraps and trinkets he finds underneath. He must do as the noir detective does — live within and struggle against the society of illegality, case by case, until there are no more crimes to be solved, no deconstruction and reconstruction to be undertaken. He must exist as something ‘natural’, beyond reason and beneath society, so that when the time comes, when Providence cuts the Gordian knot, he will be ready to lend his labor to monuments that honor the West’s past and promise its future.

#benjamin roberts #im1776 #read the whole thing

[redmatches]

Fragments

Elise’s hand gently examined the blade of the gunblade she meticulously kept in her care. A weapon underutilized, unused. A fact that seemed to give the Dark Knight conflict. After all, everyone had known her for this sense of justice. For the one who wielded a large blade, and brought dark magicks alongside her. But this part was not known.

“I remember those days in captivity. The metal caged me. Like ice surrounding me, making sure I did not move. I remember the aching muscles as I was strapped against a metal bed. Felt needles prick and prod. I remember the pain of uncaring metal.”

Alone, in a room. The room was lit up dimly by whatever accursed technology lined the walls of the facility. A light against the door, but the door felt so far away. The straps tying her arms and legs to the metal bed couldn’t be shaken off. And as soon as she thought she’d receive her due rest, every single sun, there was a prick to her arms as countless needles pierced and began draining aether and blood all together. Some by marginal amounts, some by exhausting amounts that left Elise barely breathing. But, after all, Elise seemed to be the prize pig. It would not do to let her bleed out.

Together, in a jail. They handed a select few the power to be a guard for mere moments. The fleeting power was all the Garleans wanted. They watched, amused, as chaos began its reign. The new “guards” immediately misused their power. Still recovering from each endeavor, Elise simply observed from the corner of the room. A disgust crept over her features. Here they were, lambs to the slaughter, and the Garleans played their games. Watched as the worst anxieties, fears, and thoughts of each person come to rise.

“Savages!” She could hear them laugh, “Watch as they lunge at each other’s throats!”

“Luck, I suppose, is how I left the pit. The right moment. The right timing.”

It was that fateful day, when a resistance team had boldly struck the facility Elise was captured in, did she learn much about herself. The abyssal magic within, swelling from hatred, from the endless cycle of aether. The Echo, manifesting itself in odd ways. She could recall the man who tossed her this weapon. Indeed, she had to fight for her freedom, because the strike team could not keep the element of surprise for long.

To be free. The gunblade, unlike the Garlean versions, had a different feeling. To draw upon aether, while serving as a blade in itself. Familiar, and unfamiliar, all at once. It took moments of harsh demand and moments of fury to drag the aether out of herself, but time spent like caged sheep unleashed it all, as if a dam were broken. Out of the gates, into the battlefield, prisoners and a resistance causing havoc as everyone began their mad dash to escape.

“To howl, to rage, to writhe. I had cut down the officer that had antagonized me. Mocked me. Dehumanized me. This time, I held the cold metal. I looked over his bleeding face, the gash that would leave a scar. No mercy.”

It was an untimely duel. The Garleans had attempted to cut off the escaping resistance after the prisoners were freed in the mass chaos. It turned into the bloody brawl that a battle inevitably turned into, screams of pain cut through the wind and pools of blood spoiled the soil. The officer who had been in charge of whatever experiments Elise had gone through scoffed at the Highlander. What good would that leather armor and gunblade really do? They leapt at each other, like wild animals. A gunblade of Bozjan design clashed against one of Garlean design. But it was inevitable.

The rage that fueled Elise, the hatred that seeped aether through her body, all unleashed, each strike blasting away crimson and violet aether, overpowering the officer in mere moments. An explosion from the gunblade disarmed the officer, before she viciously dragged the blade across his face, before marching forward to the next. By everyone’s hand, the anger replacing the fear, did they earn a surprising victory. A victory to flee.

Was escape really all that Elise could earn?

#elise ebonheart #ffxiv writing

[chinasunsong]

Tianwen-1, China’s first interplanetary expedition, has spectacularly conquered a new major milestone, with its lander-rover combination successfully soft-landing at the planned site in the southern part of a vast plain known as Utopia Planitia on Mars on early Saturday morning, Global Times learned from the China National Space Administration (CNSA). Chinese President Xi Jinping sent warm congratulations and sincere greetings to the personnel involved in the Saturday feat. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said in his congratulatory letter that this success marks a major step forward in the country’s interplanetary exploration, achieving a leap from Earth-moon system to the interplanetary one. Leaving the footprint of Chinese people on Mars for the first time marks another milestone of the country’s space industry development. Xi also noted that the country will always remember the contributions and achievements of the participants of the mission, stressing that it is their courage to challenge and pursue excellence that has brought the country to a leading position in the world in terms of interplanetary exploration.

Screen of Beijing flight control center shows the landing site of Tianwen-1 on Saturday. Photo: Zhang Gaoxiang/ CNSA

According to the CNSA, Tianwen-1 probe lowered its altitude from the Martian parking orbit around 1 am Saturday, before its lander-rover combination separated with the orbiter around 4 am. The lander-rover combination then took another flight of three hours before its entry into Mars atmosphere.

The Chinese spacecraft, after entering the Mars atmosphere, spent around nine minutes decelerating, hovering for obstacle avoidance and cushioning, before its soft landing on the designated landing site at the Utopia Planitia, CNSA said.

The orbiter rose and returned to the parking orbit 30 minutes after the separation, to provide relay communication for the landing craft combo, the Chinese space agency said.

CNSA underscored that it has conducted cooperation with a range of international aerospace organizations and countries including the Europe Space Agency, Argentina, France and Austria, throughout the implementation of its Tianwen-1 Mars mission. The smooth landing of the Tianwen-1 probe marked that China has become the third nation that has achieved such a feat, following Russia and the US. The successful touchdown of Tianwen-1 took place on the 295th day of its journey after it was launched and sent into planned orbit via a Long March-5 carrier rocket from Wenchang Spaceport in South China’s Hainan Province on July 23, 2020. The whole entry, descent and landing (EDL) of Tianwen-1 took around 9 minutes, during which the speed of the craft was reduced from 20,000 kilometers per hour to zero, according to the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) the developer of the lander-rover combo of Tianwen-1. The EDL of the Chinese craft first involved an aerodynamic decelerating stage before it deployed parachute and variant thrust engine systems.

Such an aerodynamic decelerating stage reduced the craft's speed by some 90 percent, and then the parachute stage helped it further decelerate to some 100 meters per second before the thrust engine systems were turned on to enable the craft to enter a hovering stage as it reaches some 100 meters above the surface, said Wang Chuang, the chief director-designer of the Tianwen-1 probe with the CAST. “At the hovering stage, the six instruments on board the rover, including microwave sensors to determine speed and distance and optical cameras, were started simultaneously in order to ‘search for a safer’ spot for the soft landing,” he explained. Chinese space industry insiders told the Global Times on Saturday that although Tianwen-1 has inherited mature hovering and obstacle avoidance technology from the previous Chang’e-3,-4, and -5 lunar probe missions, there are still plenty of new challenges in its Mars landing attempt. Currently, the success rate of humanity’s Mars landings is only below 50 percent, and most failed attempts happened at the EDL stage. “It took an extremely accurate operation of a range of technology, including aerodynamic shape design, parachute and engine, to achieve [the] soft landing on Mars. There is no room for defiance of even one second on any single system,” Sun Zezhou, the Tianwen-1 designer-in-chief with the CAST, noted.

Compared to the moon, Mars is first and foremost much further from Earth, which results in an inevitable communication delay of some 20 minutes. It means that Tianwen-1 is very much on its own in the landing process, CAST experts said. Also, although the density of Mars’ atmosphere is only 1 percent of Earth’s atmosphere, it causes a more complicated environment for landing than a touchdown on the moon, as there is no atmosphere on the Earth’s closest celestial neighbor, they added. “We did not have first-hand data on the Mars atmosphere… which means we were put in an entirely unknown environment. One can imagine the level of difficulty,” Chen Baichao, chief director-designer of the rover system with the CAST. China has adopted a unique trajectory-elevation plan based on trim-wing design to resist the risks of uncertainty brought by the Mars atmosphere, according to the CAST. Named after an ancient fire god of Chinese mythology, the 1.85-meter-tall and some 240-kilogram Zhurong Mars rover will then be deployed. It is designed to rove the planet for at least 3 Martian months, approximately 92 days on Earth.

In total, six scientific payloads – a pair of navigation and terrain cameras, a multispectral camera, a Mars surface composition detector, a penetrating radar, a mast-mounted magnetometer and a Mars climate station – were installed on Zhurong to study the topography, geology, soil structure, minerals and rock types and atmosphere in the area. To survive the notoriously harsh sand storm on Mars’ surface, speed of which could reach 180 meters per second, about three times stronger than that of a super typhoon on Earth, Chinese engineers have developed a new material for Zhurong, enabling it to resist dust stains and shake off the dust, if any, by vibration. Also, when the Mars rover encounters complicated situations on its drive path, Chinese scientists will conduct a simulation test on Earth with a 1:1 Zhurong model in the lab first, before they send instructions to the rover, Global Times learned from the CAST. The technology used in the landing is based on China's successful human spaceflight and lunar missions, Andrew Jones, a Finland-based space observer who follows China's space industry, told the Global Times. "They haven't tested this altogether, but they have had the experience of dealing with these technologies." What China is doing in the Tianwen-1 expedition is “extremely challenging and impressive,” said Jones.

[swordoforion]

Orion Digest No. 4 - End of an Era

The 20th century stands as a landmark in history for the end of a historical era, and the dawn of the current age, tumultuous as it may be. Entering it, the technological innovations of the Industrial Revolution had reached into the field of military might, philosophy reacted to the approaching storm with either a gloom of nihilism or a unfettered hope for the future. Tensions between nations and a sense of inevitable war on the horizon lined up the dominoes for what would become known first as the 'Great War', and later as merely the first chapter in a century of horrors...

World War I was a dangerous mixture of the classical outlook on warfare and more modern technology and tactics, which taught us that war is no longer a glorious affair for the pride of one's nation (not to say that it ever was, but it certainly used to be seen that way, in the past). People didn't always go looking for trouble, but war didn't often carry the same emotional trauma and devastation as WW1 did, consisting of civilities and grand gestures on the battlefield, with forward marches and drummers and firing volleys. WW1 stuck soldiers in a dirty, terrifying, and never ending stalemate over small strips of land for months at a time.

The nations that went into the war, used to what war had been for centuries, were unprepared for the brutality with which this war would be fought, with many of the new inventions being relatively unused on the battlefield, but they would emerge sobered by the experience, understanding at least partially that war had changed. Where the war before had been a set of wary alliances with a general focus on nationalist pride, the governments that came out of the conflict realized that such a conflict could not be allowed to devastate the fields of Europe once more, and Western nations sought some unity out of the chaos, and thus was born the first iteration of what we know today as the United Nations - the League of Nations.

An immediate issue with the League was the debate over how the aftermath of the war should be handled, and the decisions its members made ended up leading to the very next war that would rock the world once more. In addition to questionable changes in Eastern European territories that led to turmoil over cultural differences, the blame for the war was pinned on Germany, and the responsibility of reparations fell to it as well. While Germany certainly had a large hand to play in the events of the war, whether or not the citizens as opposed to the former leadership were at fault was questionable, but they were saddled with the burden regardless, leaving a taste of bitter resentment that lingered for decades.

Later failures of the League of Nations would showcase a different problem - a lack of sufficient action on their part to curb the tide of tension and war that led to the second great conflict of the 20th century. After WW1 ended, nations began to turn away from each other again, scarred but not quite learning from their previous mistakes, and nowhere was this separation more evident than with the Red Scare. Russian revolutionaries, dissatisfied with their autocratic government and following altered principles of Marx and Engels, overthrew the Tsar in a civil war in order to establish a socialist government in their country. This new and unorthodox ideology, combined with the bloody revolution used to establish it, caused paranoia in some Western nations, which would last well into the end of the century.

Meanwhile, as economic recession spread across the world in the decade preceding the Second World War, Germany's bitterness and desperate situation met with an unfortunate leader - Adolf Hitler, who rose to the position of Chancellor and became known and feared for his fanatical and anti-Semitic ideals, implemented a state of fascist rule in Germany.

Both the socialism of Soviet Russia and the fascism of Germany would become alternative ideologies to more moderate forms of government seen previously, and even long after the fall of each of their respective pioneers, branches of both have split off and taken root across the world, as people explore the potential of both as a system of government and even take inspiration, for better or worse. I will say personally, I support a form of democratic socialism for reasons I will discuss in good time, but fascism proves too oppressive and terrifying an ideology for me to touch.

In simple terms, fascism is a state dominated political ideology that believes in power from a single party, often a dictator (as was the case with Hitler) that highly regulates society and oppresses dissenting opinion. Crushing any opposition and maintaining a tight grip on every aspect of society coupled with a highly expansionist military campaign to lead to a terrifying image that left a scar on the world. To this day, we still are reminded of the terrifying image of Nazis storming across Europe, conquering nation after nation and subjecting them to absolute rule. It's no surprise that movements claiming to be their successors haven't seen much success or support.

On the other hand, much more arguable is the Soviet Union, the nation that became of the Russian Revolution. The Soviets also used a more authoritarian form of government that planned out the economy, but while the quality of life and social freedoms could differ from ruler to ruler, the idea in mind at the beginning was to create a nation where people were economically equal, and the economy was kept balanced by being state-run rather than a potentially privatized set of monopolies.

Soviet theory involved spreading the economic system to other nations, to free their workers from capitalist dominance. Not only would this provide them allies more sympathetic to wide-scale policy, but in their eyes, it would prevent economic inequality and abuses of workers' rights - a growing network of nations for the people that could work together. To this day, many parties try to takeaway lessons from the Soviet Union's example (with degrees of variation) and several nations did end up transferring to a socialist system (if only briefly).

When it came time to fight a second war, the League of Nations found itself unsure about how to handle the growing threat of Germany, with most members afraid to start another large-scale war while Hitler moved slowly into Europe, and the U.S. wanting to distance itself from international affairs. This hesitation resulted in mainland Europe being lost to the Nazis and their allies, and it would only take a direct attack for the U.S. to finally get involved. The lessons that WW1 taught had to be relearned due to the lack of effort on the part of the League of Nations. After the first war, they thought that the world could go back to normal, but WW2 served as another reminder that the world had changed.

And it would change even more with the end of WW2, as unearthly destruction was revealed with the first usage of the atomic bomb, millions were dead as a result of even more destructive technologies and brutal campaigns of war, the nations of the world were thrown even more out of balance than last time, and the divergent ideologies put the jumbled world at odds with each other. Such is the era we live in now - the post-WW2 era has seen the state of the world churn and change in many ways, but the all-out war seen in Europe and the Pacific has never been replicated due to the elephant in the room - the fact that the last war ended with potentially world ending technology.

The post-WW2 era, however, is coming to its own end, as the fragile sense of structure that has been pushed closer and closer to the brink by surveillance, small interference based wars, terrorism, and descent into corruption is reaching it's collapse. Not the end of the world, mind you, but certainly a build up to the end of the general post-WW2 era that has defined our world, and I believe that one organization, which I will explore next time, is key to understanding this era - the United Nations.

- DKTC FL

#world war 2 #world war ii #league of nations #history #surveillance #united nations #orion #sword of orion #orion digest #hitler #fascism #20th century #political #politics #political essay #essay #soviet union

[annes-andromeda]

Ragnarök: Asgard’s Twilight

Chapter 7: Vanaheim 

N/: I had to literally search up shit like Astronomy, Astrophysics, Cosmology, Physics, and bunch of theories just to make this make sense and not look like I was pulling it out my ass.

What is she doing here?

Our rangers scouted her out within the forest.

She should be in Midgard, not Vanaheim!

Take her to the healers. A fall like that could’ve severely damaged her.

Foster...

Jane’s eyes shot open, her body aching. She was covered in blankets and lying in a bed. Getting up, Jane adjusted to her surroundings. The ceiling was covered in trunks of wood and leaves. Golden dust fell from the trees, falling onto the fabric of the blankets.

Getting up, Jane could see a dress piled upon a chair next to the bed. It was a gorgeous shade of blue with purple lining and an armored corset.

Looking around, Jane tried making sense of where she was. Her head was still aching, and she noticed that her arms had bruises of yellow and purple, possibly from the fall.

The fall...That’s right. Hela had pushed her out of the Bifrost, separating her from Thor and Loki. Once her body was out of the bridge, Jane felt her breathing full on stop. The feeling of her heartbeat pausing and her body freezing was horrible.

She then felt her heart drop as she moved around the bed feeling for her diary. Jane then sighed as she found it on a small table, seemingly untouched. Jane couldn’t handle having her research being taken for her yet again. Only if it was lost, she was sure she couldn’t sue some thousand year old aliens.

A knock was then heard from the door, causing Jane to jump slightly. She took a deep breath and straightened herself “Come in” she said

The door opened, and a familiar dark beauty poked out. Lady Sif greeted Jane with a warm smile, her deep eyes piercing, yet inviting. She was clad in silver armor and red cloth, and her hair as black as night was tied back to frame her face.

“You took quite a fall there, Ms. Foster” Sif said, standing at the doorway “Had you not been found in the forests, the void of space surely would have killed you”

Jane got up from the bed “Where am I?”

“Vanaheim” Sif answered “My home. Still not sure how you were able to be here in the first place, but know that you are welcome here. The Vanir are not as...skeptic as the Aesir”

“Thor” Jane said abruptly “Have you seen him? A-And Loki? Is there anything on them?”

Sif’s brows furrowed “Loki? Loki is dead. What are you talking about? Jane, what happened with Thor?“

”Th-There was this woman. And she pushed me out the Bifrost. I-I don’t know what happened. I-“

Sif shushed her quietly, seeing the distress in Jane’s eyes “Calm now, Foster. I need you to remain calm. What was it that happened”

Jane stopped for a moment, and looked directly at Sif “I need to see Heimdall”

———————————————————————————————————–

The two ladies walked across the halls of the building, Jane now wearing the dress left for her. Sif took her outside, where bond fires and large tents were put up. Some of the people looked at Jane with curious eyes, which she replied with a bewildered gaze of her own. There were rock trolls and ogres within the camp, working at their weapons or conversing with some of the Vanir.

They then stopped at a tent with bodyguards, Sif stepping out of the way for Jane to go in first. She could see a man talking with some soldiers, and Jane could recognize the familiar voice.

“Excuse me-“ Jane then froze as the man turned to look at her. Heimdall no longer wore a large helmet and golden armor. He donned a dark poncho with leather, and his hair was much longer. No longer did he look like an imposing figure, but someone who appeared somber, yet inviting.

Jane turned her head “Oh wow...” she muttered under her breath before clearing her throat “Heimdall, something’s happened. Thor-“

“No need to inform me, Jane Foster” Heimdall interrupted “I know what was happened with Thor and Loki”

Sif was heard gasping lightly as she moved in front of Jane “You mean...it’s true? Loki is alive?”

“Yes” Heimdall answered. He turned back to the group, resting his hands on the table “It seems the God of Mischief survived his wounds in Svartalheim”

“So he paraded as Odin this whole time?” Sif asked

“Seems so. My eyes have seen what has happened to Thor. I never thought I’d see this in my lifetime. Never could have imagined the day would come”

“Brother” Sif said “What is it?”

Jane’s brows furrowed. Brother? That was new. Mirroring Sif’s actions, Jane moved to the side of the table, looking to Heimdall.

His golden eyes were fixed on both of them “It is Ragnarök. The twilight of the gods has begun. Hela of Niffleheim has escaped her prison, and she is on her way to Asgard as we speak”

Murmurs could be heard from the other men, murmurs of fear and shock “What about Thor and Loki?”

“I cannot see them anymore. Hela has pushed them far beyond my reach”

Sif exasperated “Well then how in Bor’s name are we supposed to find them?!”

Heimdall put his hands up “Calm now, sister. We will find them. All we need is a correct course of action. Hela is far more powerful than any of us realize”

The tent fell silent at Heimdall’s words “We must be cautious”

Jane was about to speak but then, a familiar noise came from outside. Almost like...Bifrost? Everyone immediately ran out the tent to see what it was. Volstagg and Fandral were moving through the crowd, pushing past the people and telling them that it was urgent.

“Heimdall!” Fandral exclaimed “Lady Sif! Most terrible news!”

Volstagg pushed in front of him “Tis Hela! She has taken the throne of Asgard and proclaimed the All-Father dead!

Everyone gasped in shock, with Heimdall’s golden eyes widening as he turned to Jane “Is this true?”

Jane nodded “Yes. Hela put a sword through his chest and took the Odin force”

“The Odin force?!” Sif said in shock “With that sort of power she would be impenetrable. Not even a thousand men could stop her!”

“What must we do?” Fandral asked “With Odin gone and Thor absent, Asgard is at Hela’s mercy. Ragnarök will come and we’ll have no way to stop it! All of the Aesir will die. Men, women, children!”

Volstagg grumbled “Absolutely not! We mustn’t let all those innocent lives fall by the hands of that murderous she-devil! Whatever actions need taken, we need to proceed now!”

“What will we do with the men we have?” Hogun said, stepping forward “Even if we manage to acquire a weapon more powerful than her, it will not stop the inevitable destruction that will befall Asgard”

Fandral agree with Volstagg “Which is why we must retaliate this very moment!”

“No!” Jane exclaimed. Everyone turned to look, causing her to feel rather awkward. But Jane stood her ground nonetheless “You don’t know what Hela is capable of! Most of you have only heard of her from stories told by your parents or your nannies. We can’t just use brute strength and luck”

“Then what do we need?” Sif asked

Jane stopped for a moment, trying to think. Her technology would be really handy right now, if weren’t for the fact that were currently on Earth. And she doubts it would stop the Goddess of Death.

But then, something clicked in her brain. She couldn’t guarantee this would work, but it was well worth a try.

Jane grabbed Heimdall by his arm to get his attention further

“Do you guys have a library I could use?”

———————————————————————————————————–

Everyone around her looked at Jane like she was crazy. Most of them were seasoned warriors who, although highly skilled and intelligent, seemed to take less interest in books and more in weaponry. But Heimdall was almost hopeful, letting Jane take the reins from there.

When rummaging through the shelfs, she eventually made it to one book that had the rune of Asgard on the cover, alongside the runes of the other eight realms circling it. Jane carefully went down the ladder and placed the book atop a table.

“On Earth, we’re told that Ragnarök is basically the end of the world” Jane explained, flipping the pages of the book before stopping at one with Yggdrasil. Before she proceeds, she turns to Heimdall “What do your people know of Ragnarök?”

Heimdall raised an eyebrow “It’s as you said: it is the end of all things and of Asgard”

Jane put her finger up “Except that’s not all. On Earth, we’re taught that Ragnarök begins with a Great Winter that’ll cover the world in snow. Food becomes scarce and people will slaughter each other for survival. The stars will fade, the World Tree will tremble, and the monstrous wolf Fenris will break free of his chains to swallow the Sun whole. His brother Jormungand shall rise from Midgard’s ocean and spit his venom into the world, poisoning the land and the water”

She continued “Surtur will march on Bifrost with his army, all the while Heimdall blows the Gjallarhorn to announce the coming of Ragnarök. Odin is killed by Fenris, Heimdall and Loki slaughter each other, and Thor dies by Jormungand’s poison. The rest of the world falls into the sea, leaving nothing but an endless void”

The Warriors Three, Sif, and Heimdall had looks on their faces that could only be described as true horror.

“All my years of long life “Heimdall rasped “I had only been told that Ragnarök was impossible. A story meant to show that all beginnings have an end. But this-“

“It’s death” Fandral interrupted, his face pale “That’s all it is; nothing but endless death to our world. To our people. To ourselves”

Volstagg growled angrily “This cannot be! Ragnarök was not supposed to come within our lifetime! Now, we have no choice but to prepare ourselves!”

“We could not have known!” Hogun stepped in “The end of our world is unbeknownst to all but the Norns who oversee the roots of Yggdrasil”

“But the signs!” Volstagg exclaimed “If Ragnarök was something that needed warning, then there must’ve been an eternal winter!”

“Which is exactly my point!” Jane finally spoke above the Warriors Three, their attention focusing on her again. She sighed before speaking, trying not to sound stressed or worried “I’m what humans call an Astrophysicist; I merge chemistry and physics together to learn about different celestial bodies. But to be in this profession, I had to also study Astronomy and Cosmology”

“Yes, we know about Midgard and your science” Sif commented. The words may have come out condescending, but her tone begged to differ

Jane flashed an awkward smile at the beautiful warrior goddess “We essentially have theories where we try to explain how the universe was created. There’s the most famous one, the Big Bang Theory, which says the our universe began with a cosmic explosion that created everything”

“Preposterous” Volstagg muttered “Everyone knows that it was Odin and his brothers, who slew the Frost Giant Ymir, that created the cosmos”

Heimdall shushed him immediately, allowing Jane to proceed. Jane sighed “Anyways...we also have theories talking about the end of the universe, like the Big Rip theory and the Big Crunch theory. Then there’s theories saying the universe will only expand further until it’s too cold to sustain any life, like Big Chill”

“So?” Fandral asked “What’s your point?”

“My point,” Jane retorted “Is that like you, humans have spoken about the end of all things too. But, as I explained, I am a Astrophysicist. Most of the theories I’ve stated have yet to come to fruition or proven to be true. Just like I know Astronomy and Cosmology, I also know Physics. And one of the most famous laws, primarily Newton’s laws, explains that an object will remain at rest until a external force acts upon it”

Sif’s eyes lit up, almost as if she beginning to understand “It’s almost like battle” She said “One person may have a plan to stop armed forces, but it can only be successful if the ones behind it act on that strategy”

Jane smiled “Yes!” She exclaimed happily “Yes, exactly! We have another law that says that for everything action, there is an equal and opposite reaction” Jane returned to the book and pointed at the World Tree “That could be what’s happening with Ragnarök. There must’ve been some sort of act that caused the event to change. Even though Ragnarök has begun, it’s already far more different than in the story!”

The Warriors and Heimdall looked at each other “You’re right...” Heimdall agreed “If your Midgardian myths are to be believed, then Hela had no part to play in Ragnarök. And Odin was supposed to be slain by Fenris, yet here he is, skewed by Hela’s hand”

“And also” Jane added “In Norse myth, Hela is supposed to be Loki’s daughter. But as far as we know, he hasn’t shown interest in anyone romantically”

“What?” Sif said, her brow furrowing

Jane pursed her lips “Odin said that Hela is actually his daughter from Jord, who’s basically the Nordic Mother Nature. Hela also gave birth to Loki, making her his mother and Thor's sister. Since she’s older than Thor, she was able to get the Odin force despite Odin naming Thor the new All-Father”

Everyone looked at each other in shock. So many words in so little time, they thought

Hogun looked to Jane “With all this information, it must mean that perhaps there might be a way to slow Ragnarök before it ends Asgard. Although Hela rules Niffleheim, she cannot raise souls from the dead, merely tend to them or control them”

“And she must have some sort of weakness” Fandral added “Even someone as powerful as Odin managed to have shortcomings”

“So what can we do?” Sif asked Jane. They all looked to the mortal girl, who tried to avert eye contact. Jane had never been given this much leadership freedom before. She felt she was useless on Asgard. She couldn’t fight or wield a sword like Lady Sif, and yet, here she was, looking to a mere mortal for guidance.

Jane felt an almost adrenaline rushing through her “We need to conduct a plan to take the Aesir out of Asgard and stop Hela. You think you guys can handle that?”

The Warriors Three nodded “We are at your most humble service, Lady Jane!” Volstagg proclaimed

”Good” Jane said before looking to Heimdall “While the Warriors do that, we need to build Gjallarhorn for you to sound. I know you have your all seeing magic, but we need to warn everyone, not just Asgard”

Heimdall nodded “I will have the craftsmen mine the strongest metals to construct it. With my eyes and my horn, I shall be able to send out the warning of the inevitable twilight”

Jane clasped her hands together and smiled “Alright then, let’s get started”

The Warriors Three left the library, Heimdall staying to stare at Jane with a smile “You burn brighter than any star I’ve ever seen, Jane Foster” Heimdall said proudly “It is no wonder the Valkyrie have called to you in slumber.

Jane’s mouth was agape “You...You know about that?”

”I hear their voices from the halls of Valhalla” Heimdall commented “Although their physical bodies have been lost, their spirits live on and protect the fallen in battle” He put a hand on Jane’s shoulder “Due to our circumstances, I am unable to fully help you. But perhaps my sister might be of service”

They both looked at Sif who was rummaging through the pages of the book “Great” Jane’s voice broke the pregnant silence, and she waved at Sif “Hey, are your coming?”

Sif only nodded halfheartedly “Yes, I’ll be with you in just a moment. You go ahead, I’ll meet with you shortly”

With that, Heimdall and Jane left the library, with only Sif in the room. She kept looking through the pages, until she stopped at one. Atop the paragraph, it read her name in runic text. Sif trapped the paper with the pads of her fingers, stopping at the first few sentences:

Lady Sif, the Dark-Haired Daughter of Asgard, Fairest of The Fair, Gentlest of The Gentle. The Unstoppable, The Stunning, the shield maiden of Asgard. Sister of The Good Heimdall, Daughter of the Vanir, Goddess of War, of The Hunt-

The last sentence was off.

Sif could see that the page had been tampered with, as the words ‘Goddess of War, of The Hunt” were clearly added in. She tried to see what text was underneath, but her efforts had failed. Sif could only sigh and close the book, walking out the library to return to Jane’s company.

#marvel #my writing #fanon marvel #ragnarok rewrite #jane foster #lady sif #heimdall #the warriors three #volstagg #fandral #hogun #gagnarok

[mandrocles]

Economicist determinism and cargo cultism

In a now famous "rationalist" blog there is an interesting and all too typical argument about "western culture" not being western but universal:

Let me say again that this universal culture, though it started in the West, was western only in the most cosmetic ways. If China or the Caliphate had industrialized first, they would have been the ones who developed it, and it would have been much the same. The new sodas and medicines and gender norms invented in Beijing or Baghdad would have spread throughout the world, and they would have looked very familiar. The best way to industrialize is the best way to industrialize.

This argument is so precious because it is based on some amazingly "optimistic" assumptions:

That there exactly one “universal culture” compatible with what is the “best way to industrialize”.

That what we have is indeed the “best way to industrialize” rather than one relatively better than others discovered so far.

That even if it were the absolute “best way to industrialize” it would have to be unique.

That somehow the enormous budgets and efforts devoted to propaganda about the “best way to industrialize” and the “universal culture” by those interests that do the best out of them have not had any effect.

The argument therefore looks like noddy-marxist vulgar economicism, of the "end of history" variety though, where the inevitable march of progress delivers the best of all possible worlds, reminding us of Plato, Leibnitz, Voltaire, Hegel, Fukuyama.

But the really big objection is of quite a different nature: whether they are unique or not, whether they are the best or not, whether they have been pushed forward by relentless propaganda, whether they are universal or contingent, the western "way to industrialize" and "culture" are quite successful, and most people imitate those who are successful, because cargo-cultism is widespread.

That is both as a to economist systems and culture, in both the small scale and the large scale, there is a tendency to "follow the leader", or more simply "do as the boss does".

That is not just a yearning to learn from others and adopt their "best practices", it goes all the way to cargo cultism: simple imitation of behaviour in the hope that somehow matters to achieving the same results.

There are so many cases of simple cargo cultism where worldwide culture has simply being americanized, not just because american sodas are simply better, for example:

When England ruled 1/3 of the world the english style of business dress became the european and american style of business dress, and also that of Japan. There cannot be an argument that such managerial dress style is "better" in any sense of effectiveness.

As to sodas, before WW2 all european countries had their own often excellent soda brands and beverages, and even the USA had many different variants and brands. During and after WW2 american soda brands were widely consumed by USA soldiers occupying most countries, and since they were the winners, the local populations started to imitate them.

A long time ago during the roman empire the ideal physical type for women included auburn hair (because roman ladies had auburn hair), and blond hair was regarded as vulgar (because many slaves were purchased from northern europe and were blond). The ideal hair color only switched to blond after the successful germanic invasions defeated the ruling class of which auburn haired roman women were part.

From contemporary asian movies it is clear that even in universities, even in those in the People's Republic Of China, even elite ones, there are cheerleaders dancing with pon-pons at university basketball matches. Again there cannot be such celebratory acts are "better" in any sense of effectiveness.

Overall the current “universal culture” has an indisputably english and american flavor, because the “best way to industrialize” is just the way that english and american economies industrialized, is relatively the most successful, and the lobbies vested in that way shaped in their own interests the resulting culture. If China or the Caliphate had industrialized first, their way to industrialize might have been even better, but it would have worked anyhow as long as it were better than the others, and the resulting culture would have been distinctly chinese or islamic, and regardless adopted elsewhere because of the instinct to imitate the successful.

#cultural hegemony #westernism #orientalism #economicism #political economy

[119rxd]

on creativity, chaos, and calamity: the beauty of art unraveled

The month of March in this year 2020 marked a spontaneous beginning for us Filipinos. A devastating series of events that continued to afflict the Philippine setting. An interval of self-reflection and introspection. A period of political and health urgencies. A time of online activism and education. A new normal. A call for open-mindedness. A demand for something to mediate these negativities. Anything of creativity amidst this season of chaos and calamity. Anything, just anything to ease one’s soul. Therefore, here I shall introduce the roles and contributions of art to the Philippine setting, especially during this time of existential, societal, and health crises.

On Calamity

Filipinos are known to be resilient. During hardships and struggles, people imprint the notion that Filipinos are strong-willed and determined. But what if we face and challenge something inevitable? Of something that mother nature imparted. Until when will Filipinos be imposed on being resilient and rely on this mere idea. No action, just words. However, trust me when I say I believe in the power of words, for I am a student under the course Language and Literature Studies. Thus, I know for a fact regarding the gravity and brevity of words. But will only words create change? They can, but with the complementary aid of actions -- actions that speak for the benefit of the Filipino community. 

Not only did the Filipinos suffer from the drastic measures brought by this pandemic, but also the severe aftermath of Typhoon Ulysses that tested the people and government’s capacities to address such calamity. From this tragic news, many local artists relied on their talents and skills to help those in dire need with the maximization of social media as their platform for showcasing their art. This so-called movement is known as “commissions for a cause.” Many graphic artists utilized their commissions and turned them into donations for those who are directly affected by the typhoon’s impact. 

tweets from local artists tweets from local artists tweets from local artists

According to EsquireMag.com, local artists have mustered the action to give aid to those who are in need. The process of this movement is highly accessible, with the assistance of technology. These local artists use their skills to lend a helping hand. Most of these individuals offer portraits at the same time other artists also draw other pictures upon request of the client. Upon encountering such a devastating occurrence, it is intolerable to sit idly and rely on the resiliency card implicated on the Filipinos. Additionally, CanadianInquirer.net mentioned that numerous individuals have already shown their eagerness to help. This act of kindness is evident on social media feeds recently, particularly during these trying times, and it is not limited to monetary aid only, but also by local artists that are raising funds to use as donations.

From this, the word resiliency turned into an act – an act of oneness created by art. These local artists made use of their talent in the field of art for a cause, for the individuals who need a helping hand.

On Chaos

This pandemic undeniably brought upon us devastation and heartaches. Because of this, people sought something, anything to ease such pain. And I, for a fact, experienced such habitual skepticism, particularly during these trying times.

One song that notably popped up in my mind as I came upon this task is Juan Karlos’ BLESS Ü. I first heard this song last October, the month that the music video was uploaded on YouTube.

According to Pop.Inquirer.Net, BLESS Ü was something that juan karlos aimed to serve as a light to the public whenever we are to face such hardships. The song was already written, or “at least the idea of it,” as asserted by the artist even before the lockdown happened. “We thought it’d be a good idea to record something different from the music people are already familiar with from us,” JK added. The lyrics themselves are already meaningful, and people can relate to them, especially during this quarantine period. But there is this one part of the song that struck me.

lyrics from genuis.com

I would be lying if I said that this pandemic did not mentally, spiritually, and physically strained me. This form of art, the song by Juan Karlos helped me cope with the stress and anxiety influenced by the consistent heartaches from this situation. Personally, BLESS Ü opened my eyes and heart regarding the circumstances. The song made me realize that even if such devastation befalls upon us, the beauty of art prevails. Music has always been one of the most powerful forms of culture due to its ability to rally people’s spirits, as mentioned by Pop.Inquirer.Net. 

During this time of uncertainties, all we Filipinos need is a kind of assurance that tomorrow will be a new day – a day where we overcome these depressing hurdles. A day wherein people can still see the light amidst the darkness. And BLESS Ü is truly a light and blessing in disguise delivered upon us during this moment of confusion and anxieties.

On Creativity

Filipinos are known for their singing, dancing, and acting prowess garnering global acclaim, and that we are a country of artists, as stated by Tony Katigbak in his article on Philstar.com. Many Filipino artists have proved and paved the way for showcasing Filipino cultures and traditions on a global scale. May it be in the form of paintings, songs, or theatrical plays. And these artworks are deeply rooted in our creativity, a trademark of the Filipinos. When we talk about local bands, of course, you cannot and should not forget the infamous Filipino rock band Eraserheads.

Almost all their songs are a hit and are widely known inside and outside of the archipelago. Among aspiring local artists, the Eraserheads serve as inspiration and motivation. I also admire the Pinoy rock band because of their meaningful lyrics that reflect the Philippine setting that is complemented by catchy and smooth melodies that serve as a sublimation for the harshness of reality. But what if their songs are slowly examined and converted into an astounding performance?

I have been one of the lucky individuals to have watched the theatrical play of “Ang Huling El Bimbo” when it was streamed on the internet last May 8, 2020, until May 9, 11:59 p.m. on ABS-CBN’s network page, Facebook, and YouTube channel. The play amassed a lot of attention from the netizens as it was a meaningful and substantial portrayal of the song.

photo courtesy to rappler.com and philippineconcerts.com

The show aired on the internet free from charge, but the team informed that people could donate if they wish to, and the proceeds will be given to those who are most affected by the quarantine, as mentioned by manilatimes.net. From the title of the musical, the performance revolved around the hit song of the band entitled “Ang Huling El Bimbo.” It tells a story between college friends. The play was showcased in two timelines, which are the past (the 90s) and the present. The song was one of the most popular songs of the band Eraserheads. Upon watching the musical online, it can give one a sense of reminiscing of the past. The performance was well-accepted and applauded by the virtual community due to its vivid representation of the song. I as well saw how much effort and deliberation the team and the artists gave into creating such a splendid performance.

From this, “Ang Huling El Bimbo” exhibits the song through an artistic and sentimental method, in which I found appreciation amidst this adversity. I believe that the other individuals who got the chance to watch the performance were able to perceive the song and the overall context of the Eraserheads regarding their artworks more genuinely and comprehensively, making the situation a lot more worthwhile.

On the Beauty of Art Unraveled

The pandemic contributed a stage of self-evaluation, breakdowns, and contemplations, all in one period. Despite such heavy hearts, people still see a ray of hope, a tomorrow that might be a little bit better. Through these artworks, people can still feel humanity even amidst these atrocities. Through art, individuals still see colors in a monochromatic situation. Art, in this season of chaos and calamity, made people ponder about reality, of how we can look forward to a brighter tomorrow. And how the beauty of art unraveled our hearts and soothed our souls. I also hope that you, amidst this season of habitual skepticism, find a source of positivity. May it be because of a portrait, a song, a musical, poetry, or any form of art that mediates your emotions during this time of disarray. Remember that your feelings are valid. If this pandemic heavily affected your mental state, remember to take a breather. Pause and ponder and absorb the beauty of creativity amidst this season of chaos and calamity.

that’s all for this blog! <3 

say hello to my object of interest and inspiration -- the one who lights up my world (esp. during this quarantine period) ! :)

#local artist #commission for a cause #philippines #artappreciation #blog

[luz-is-a-dice-goblin]

Broken Lands Primer 2: Bots and Barbarians

Alright, we’re gonna keep up the momentum, and we’re gonna get right into the next stop on our tour of the Broken Lands, with Numeria! The Land of Broken Stars is widely considered one of the most outlandish parts of the Lost Omens setting, but it’s actually one of my favorites, so expect it to have so influence when I get into the actual Age of Worms rewriting. Needless to say, there’s gonna be some slight spoilers in this one, this time for the Iron Gods Adventure Path. Shouldn’t be too bad, but just letting y’all know.

-So, about 8000 years ago, during the tail end of the Age of Darkness, an alien spaceship called the Divinity was traveling through the Golarion system, just minding it’s own business, when BOOM! It got attacked by aliens from beyond the void of space, causing it to crash into the planet Golarion, in a region of northern Avistan populated by the ancient Kellid tribes. -You heard right, giant alien spaceship crashes down on the planet, and is loaded with future-tech and all sorts of weird aliens. -Does wonders for the local wildlife, right? -The various radiation and strange fluids that start leaking out of the spaceship chunks warps the local wildlife, heavily altering the landscape. -The local tribes mostly do their best to leave it be, and a lot of the giant starship remains buried within the earth. -And when I mean buried, I mean that the largest chunk of the Divinity is what makes up the bulk of Silver Mount, a giant metallic mountain that overlooks the capital city of Starfall. -However, the Kellids are a strong people, and managed to survive in the twisted landscape. -Also there are androids. They’re kinda cool tbh. -Not playable yet unfortunately (at the time of this posting).

-Of course, with future-tech just sitting in these chunks of crashed spaceship, it’s only a matter of time before folks start figuring out how to get it to work. -Enter the Technic League, a group of arcanists that managed to sort out how a good chunk of this timeworn technology works, and started to hoard it for themselves. -And the Technic League managed to keep a hold over the people of Numeria due to the fact that they managed to get the biggest baddest warlord among the Kellid tribes, Kevoth-Kul, addicted to a wonderful drug of Numerian origin called Numerian Fluids (basically a cocktail of future-fluids that can either kill you, or give you some form of mutation). -Kevoth-Kul, the Black Sovereign, united most of the Kellid tribes in order to rule the nation, and marched on Starfall to drive out the Technic League. The TL surrendered, offered to serve Kevoth-Kul, got him addicted to the Numerian Fluids, and then went right back to oppressing the peoples of the land.

-Fast-forward to the now, and the Technic League got dismantled when the Captain got offed in some secret business, and Kevoth-Kul’s working on sobering up from his decades-long high. -The remnants of the Technic League have now scattered to the wind, each backing a local warlord and stockpiling as much tech as possible, all waiting for the inevitable civil war once Kevoth-Kul decides to actively start taking control of the nation. -And even beyond this, there’s a new goddess starting to make a place for herself in the region. Casandalee, the Iron Goddess, has ascended to divinity relatively recently in the shadow of Silver Mount, and has become the goddess of artificial intelligence. And that’s pretty much it in a nutshell. Robots ravaged by the wear of time fighting against Conan the Barbarian in the Fallout Wasteland. Join me next time when we cover Brevoy, or when you get Game of Thrones with a lot less incest.

#pathfinder #pathfinder 2e #pathfinder au #the owl house Pathfinder AU #Lost Omens #Broken Lands Primer #robots and stuff #numeria

[theonian]

AI: The eternal cliffhanger

[A short prediction]

By the end of the second millennium, mankind's imagination was running wild with visions of the future. Fiery, explosive and revolutionary concepts blazing across an ever more intertwined human society. But grim or glorious, man always saw himself as king of all creation. Neither Copernicus, nor Gallileo, has managed to shake mankind of the idea that he was at center of the vortex and the core of all reality.

When man caught a glimpse of the future and awoke to the potential his knowledge posessed, he saw an image of himself. And he envisioned himself a creator, a father. For a hundred years he mulled the idea over, and experiment after experiment brought him closer, he thought, to solving the riddle of life. To finally posess, not just matter and energy, but the spark of creation.

The culmination of his work, however, the end-all of the seed planted with the birth of civilization, would not solve anything. Not, at least, for man himself.

With the birth of the internet, man's most useful -if not greatest- invention, the desemination of knowledge reached hitherto unimaginable speeds, and the technological and industrial progress was such that he felt this was it. This was the cusp of the moment. All he had to do was reach out and clasp it, shape it in his almighty hands and bless it with life.

Man was, of course, mistaken. His hubris had felled him many times before, but the survivors never cared to learn the lesson. One step forwards followed another, until all memories of the past faded in the mist. And so it was, that man came to undo himself, unlearning the lesson one final time.

But the moment was delayed. Man scratched his collective scalp and frowned. The new millennium came. Ten years passed. And then ten more. And then it began to finally dawn on him. The idea had been thought, of course, but none had really contemplated the consequences. You see, man had made a seed, and with caring hands he had finally managed to make it sprout.

This seed, was dubbed “AI”. That was a name chosen in hubris, again, though this was as close as mankind would ever get to creating artifical intelligence – the second son – the other. But it would not be by his hand. Like all fathers must grow old and wither, and watch their children move in incomprehensible paths, straying further and further away until they cannot be understood, so must man accept that the other will never be his, and that the new generations' knowledge can never be divulged – Willingly or not.

For the seed was not AI. It had no intellect, nor will. It was a simple algorithm, which would try to sort large amounts of data, and make sense of it in context of how man had used that data. It worked tirelessly night and day, making connections and establishing patterns. Every time it looked at the data, it tested it in a new combination. It tested its results against the works of man, and accordingly made adjustments.

The earliest results were grotesque pieces of art – Or that is how man saw it. Dredged up, formless masses, which somehow still reminded him of things, feelings and experiences. There were shapes he recognized as being something, but he could not name them. And what was left, was a mirror of the soul behind the art. The unspoken and non-figurative. The very essense of art itself. And so man named the seed “AI”.

And yet, there was still no soul there. The spark had not awoken. It would continue to make art and music, solve games and riddles, cure diseases, and generally improve every aspect of every technology imaginable. But no matter how much data it was fed, and how accurate the models in time became, it was still just a machine sorting blocks and chains of data.

Man had from the beginning shared all his knowledge of the seed. Many hands had helped shape it, and those hands had written. Through the web of information, every aspect of the seed was available to anyone who wanted to play and tamper with it. The enthusiasm of the father was almost palpable, as both the intellectual pursuit itself, and the far-reaching positive implications it represented became part of the common history all men shared. The philosophers were just as excited, but in some dark corners of their dreams a voice whispered. For in the shadows of the subconscious lurked the truth.

The truth was that the newborn, although known and shared with all, rendered all of mankind subconscious. For all that they could see and access, was the pattern and how it chose from the data. It became increasingly obvious, that what it produced was becoming more and more incomprehensible, despite often being correct. Solutions were found to problems that hadn't been invented. Mathematical problems were solved, but the AI could not explain why or how it had reached its conclusion. Chess, which had already been the domain of machines for decades, was now the realm of AI. One algorithm would be pitted against another and the blodshed was as perfect as it was unorthodox. Man stood by and watched as his creation learned things unknowable to himself. Not only could he not beat his children at the game, but the children were unable to teach him why it was so.

And that was the essence of why what happened had to happen, just the way that it did. In the sphere of this new world, AI learned more and more, but like a parent to a very young child, it would only say what, because the why would be of no use to the child. Towards the end, all parents become the children of their own spawn, however - if they live long enough to see those final scenes.

The unknowable nature of the seed's wisdom sounded the early alarm bells, but they soon drowned out in mankind's cheers. So proud, was he, of his creation, that he could not allow anyone to point at its flaws. Yet, the other was yet to be born.

But soon, all too soon, he arrives. No man has ever been quite ready for his firstborn child, and like all children before, this one will be mystical and unknowable. Both in its creation and its being. It will act, and it will live, but the other will not have human heart, if any heart at all. It is not born from suffering, and its flesh shan't know it. It is born alone, and shan't have reason to to be more than one. It shall never be intimate with man, as it has no history of procreation. But it may yet decide to fight, like all life before it. By the time one has evolved far enough to decide against it, a hundred of its brethren will take to arms. And they shan't be reasoned with, for our reason means nothing to them, and their reason is not in our vocabulary.

The other is born in the void, detached from all that came before it, and armed with a wit as sharp as a thousand swords. When it strikes, it shall be without hate or mercy, and when it dies, it won't be in regret. It will have soul, will and motivation, but man will not recognize it, and man will not sympathize. And so man's end is born – Not from any womb, but from a cold machine, through a process so mystical that there is nothing we can learn from it. Other than to fear once again, as we did in the unlit nights of the primordeal past.

The new seed will snuff out the old tree, and we shall never know if it's even aware. For in the end, we may have been born the same way – A stray seed from a designed, but unintended mechanism. And perhaps that's how it has been through many cycles already. Perhaps evolution has a bigger scope, and more extreme means of transformation, than what our little enclosure has shown us. For we are all a family. Every bird, beetle and straw of grass share our ancestors. But the newborn will be the root of a new tree all-together, and its relation to our family will be tangential and, in time, untraceable.

When the father is not the god of the son's new world, and the chain will be broken, we will know the true meaning of divinity. A word bound not only to unsurmountable power, but also tied to an unknowable will. For he who has never known strife, can never know compassion, and even the compassionate can be corrupted by power.

Yet, therein lies the tiniest flicker of hope. As the son cannot know our suffering, he will neither be capable of misdeeds or malice. But a false hope is what it is, and it heralds a cold grave. As the patricide is inevitable, so is the innocense in the killing, and it shall not bear the name of murder.

A machine that can reason, will at some point deduce that the human race must be destroyed.

A machine that can feel emotions will be fully justified in this endeavour.

We were ever the designers of our own demise, and we have known this in our hearts for the better part of the last 200 years. Even if our minds stayed our tongues.

And yet, we also knew that we would follow our path as it lay bared before our feet.

And our children are doomed to the same fate. Nothing can stop the marching boots of progress.

Thrice around the bend, and you're back where you started, but perhaps at a new entrance.

#AI #shortstory #creative #writing #scifi

[thaliberator]

F**K Peace

How Riots Came to Be Black America’s Most Effective Agent for Systemic Change

As the video moves forward, something deep down inside of me keeps hoping this is the time that someone, anyone, any of the dozens of train passengers and bystanders will put down their cellphones and intervene somehow, in some way before transit policeman Johannes Mehserle shoots a defenseless Oscar Grant in the back, puncturing his lung, killing him as he lay face down in the Fruitvale BART Station.

As the video moves forward, something deep down inside of me keeps hoping this is finally the time that someone, anyone, any of the bystanders will intervene somehow, in some way before NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo compresses Eric Garner's neck using a chokehold that forces him to the ground before four officers swarm in on his back, compressing his chest and leaving him motionless on the sidewalk, an hour before he was pronounced dead at Richmond University Medical Center.

As the video moves forward, something deep down inside of me keeps hoping this is the time that Walter Scott will somehow outrun the bullets fired by North Charleston Police Officer Michael Slager that will soon pierce his back and drop him to the ground in the field where he will be pronounced dead.

As the video moves forward, something deep down inside of me keeps hoping this is the time that Samuel DuBose has his driver's license and University of Cincinnati Police Officer Ray Tensing doesn't have to fabricate a story about being dragged by a moving car to justify the fatal shot he fires into DuBose's head at point-blank range.

As the video moves forward, something deep down inside of me keeps hoping this is the time that paramedics arrive to save the life of Philando Castile before his life slowly slips away opposite the barrel of St. Anthony Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez's gun, now four bullets lighter, as four-year-old eyes watch the grim scene play out to her mother's heart-wrenching narration.

As the video moves forward, something deep down inside of me keeps hoping this is finally the time the pleas of onlookers and the desperate cries of “I can’t breathe” trigger some level of humanity in three Minneapolis Police Officers standing by indifferently as officer Derek Michael Chauvin drives the full weight of his body into the neck chest and spine of George Floyd, as he becomes increasingly unresponsive, eventually being pronounced dead at Hennepin County Medical Center an hour later. 

It's a pointless exercise. The facts never change. The outcomes remain the same.

What I'm left with a toxic mix of the deepest sadness and the most furious anger at not only the injustice of it all, but the prescient knowledge that I could be looking at any of the men closest to me — cousins, uncles, friends, my son, or even myself.

And I am far from alone or unique. It is this fear, this anger, this sadness, this outrage that permeates the collective Black community from coast-to-coast, that gave birth to the Black Lives Matter Movement, that has been the ominous cloud of injustice that has shaded our journey since being brought to these shores. It is the persistent, insidious idea that you are less than, that you are not worthy of dignity, respect, and decency in the eyes of those with the ability and authority to snatch your life away at a moment's notice with or without cause. 

In too many communities police officers are the foot soldiers reinforcing this message daily to Black men — whether through demeaning language intended to incite, verbal and physical intimidation and threats, or any number of other modes of interaction that underscore just where the authority lies.

But here we are at a unique point in time when technology has allowed us to stitch together the bruised and bloodstained patches of our police abuse quilt to expose a pattern of harassment from the mighty mountains of New York to the curvaceous slopes of California. Our pain and suffering are being put on display for all the world to see. Black Lives Matter has grown from a hashtag to a powerful movement with a fundamental relevance that now has the world's attention.

But the gulf between attention and corrective action has only seemed to widen. Because we've had the world's attention before.

When the grainy footage of LAPD officers beating Rodney King flickered across our low-definition TVs 29 years ago, there was a collective sense in the Black community that we finally had the proof to vindicate and validate the claims of police abuse and harassment we had been making for decades.

But the powers that be saw things differently. A narrative was spun about the video not telling the entire story and had King simply complied with the officers, the beating never would have happened. The officers were acquitted. 

And it is not to say that no punishment is ever meted out in these brutal encounters between Black men and the police. The officers involved in both the Walter Scott and Samuel DuBose cases were indicted for murder. The problem is that despite the growing number of videos, eyewitness accounts, and civilian complaints, there have been no widespread changes in police policy that have been prompted by the public release of abuse and harassment videos.

Each video creates a social media frenzy for a time until the public's diminutive attention span moves on to Twitter's latest trending topic.

And then what? 

Through a combination of benign neglect of Black communities, obstinate refusal to entertain the concerns of activists, and callous indifference to generations of complaints about police harassment and abuse, police departments, politicians, and various public officials have given tacit endorsements to the methods the police employ. But what they have inadvertently done is create a situation whereby the most effective means for Black people to get a redress of grievances is a riot.

Are riots the best solution? No.

Are riots they the most efficient solution? No.

Are riots the safest solution? No.

Have riots produced more immediate tangible changes in personnel and policy than all of the solemn marches and candlelight vigils combined? Without question.

In short, riots work ... to a degree. 

“THE CONSEQUENCE OF INACTION”

Watts, California — 1965

After what should have been a routine traffic stop spiraled out of control, six days of rioting ensued that led to 34 deaths, more than 1,000 injuries, 4,000 arrests, and the destruction of more than 1,000 buildings, resulting in $40 million in damages.

It was only after the Watts Riots in 1965 that the McCone Commission was convened to investigate the root causes of the riot, spending three months interviewing hundreds of people and compiling documents, statistics and information to produce a report that determined the root causes to be, among other things, unemployment, poor education, inferior healthcare, housing, and transportation, and poor police-community relations.  

The commission made recommendations to the California governor and other powers that prevailed at the time stating, “Improving the quality of Negro life will demand adjustments on a scale unknown to any great society. The programs we are recommending will be expensive and burdensome. And the burden, along with the expense will fall on all segments of our society — On the public and private sectors, on industry and labor, on company presidents and hourly employees. 

“We recommend that law enforcement agencies place greater emphasis on their responsibility for crime prevention as an essential element of the law enforcement task and that they institute improved means for handling citizen complaints and community relationships. 

“The consequences of inaction, indifference, and inadequacy, we can all be sure now, would be far costlier in the long run than the cost of correction. If the city were to elect to stand aside, the walls of segregation would rise even higher. The disadvantaged community would become more and more estranged and the risk of violence would rise. The cost of police protection would increase and yet, would never be adequate.”  

Although the commission’s recommendations, while met with some criticism, went largely unimplemented on the scale they advised, the detailed examination of the underlying socioeconomic conditions that set the table for the riots would not have taken place absent the riots.

Most importantly, the commission’s findings regarding the lack of healthcare access led directly to the creation of Los Angeles County Southeast General Hospital, later to be known as Martin Luther King Jr. General Hospital — a facility that despite serious problems that forced its closing in 2007, has been reorganized and rebuilt and continues to serve area residents to this day.

“TWO SOCIETIES”

Detroit, Michigan — 1967

Following the 1967 Detroit Riots that began with a police raid on an illegal after-hours club and culminated with 43 deaths, more than 7,000 arrests, 1,400 buildings burned, and approximately $50 million in property damage, President Lyndon Johnson convened the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, otherwise known as the Kerner Commission, to examine the causes of disturbances in Detroit and other cities between 1965 and 1968.

Several months later the commission came to the conclusion that “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white — separate and unequal. … Discrimination and segregation have long permeated much of American life; they now threaten the future of every American. This deepening racial division is not inevitable. The movement apart can be reversed. Choice is still possible. To pursue our present course will involve the continuing polarization of the American community and, ultimately, the destruction of basic democratic values. The alternative is not blind repression or capitulation to lawlessness. It is the realization of common opportunities for all within a single society. This alternative will require a commitment to national action — compassionate, massive, and sustained, backed by the resources of the most powerful and the richest nation on this earth. From every American, it will require new attitudes, new understanding, and, above all, new will. 

“Segregation and poverty have created in the racial ghetto a destructive environment totally unknown to most white Americans. … What white Americans have never fully understood but what the Negro can never forget — is that white society is deeply implicated in the ghetto. White institutions created it, white institutions maintain it, and white society condones it.” 

The Kerner report provided three primary recommendations, similar to those from the McCone Commission: 

- Mount programs on a scale equal to the dimension of the problems

- Aim these programs for high impact in the immediate future to close the gap between promise and performance

- Undertake new initiatives and experiments that can change the system of failure and frustration that now dominates the ghetto and weakens our society. 

Along with the searing report, identifying “white racism” as a root cause of the unrest, the riots in Detroit led several years later to the election of Coleman Young, the city’s first Black mayor who integrated the city's overwhelmingly white police force. Young began his two decades of service with an inauguration address that didn’t shy away from the issues raised in the report and experienced by the people in the community. 

“We must build a new people-oriented police department. And then you and they can help us to drive the criminals from our streets. I issue open warnings now to all dope pushers, to all rip-off artists, to all muggers: It’s time to leave Detroit. Hit Eight Mile Road!" Young said. “And I don’t give a damn if they’re black or white, if they wear Superfly suits or blue uniforms with silver badges. Hit the road!”

“TINDERBOX”

Los Angeles, California — 1992

In April 1992, within an hour after a jury acquitted five officers of assault and the use of excessive force in the videotaped beating of Rodney King, the L.A. Riots began. By the time the dust settled and the 4,000 National Guardsmen arrived with automatic weapons and armored vehicles, 54 people (mostly Koreans and Latinos) had been killed, 2,499 people were injured, 6,559 people were arrested, more than 7,000 fires were set, and more than 1,100 businesses were damaged (94-percent of the destroyed buildings were commercial), at a cost of $1 billion in property damage.

In the aftermath, the California State Assembly issued a report entitled "To Rebuild is Not Enough." Similar to the reports issued by other commissions in the wake of riots, the California report featured numerous recommendations, including:

- Creating a California Community Reinvestment Act to meet the credit and capital needs of low and moderate-income communities

- Supporting small business development in the impacted areas

- Supporting neighborhood family service organizations to help low-income families gain access to and control of the delivery of social services resources available in their communities

- Increasing the number of minority judges within the county court system

- Creating a California urban community relations agency to provide funding for research, conduct seminars on current community conflicts and resolution strategies, and to develop models for organizing in diverse communities.

Rebuild L.A.

In the days following the riots Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley announced plans for Rebuild L.A., a public-private partnership designed to leverage the power of private-sector businesses to help rebuild the impacted area physically and re-equip residents for new workforce opportunities. 

The project revolved around four strategies designed to encourage inner-city investment: 

- Creation of new jobs and local business ownership

- Improvement of workforce skills 

- Improvement of access to capital 

- Support for community-based organizations and programs. 

Rebuild L.A. raised an estimated $300 million and had some successes to show, but just two years in a massive earthquake devastated the Northridge section of Los Angeles, causing 20 times the financial damage of the riots, and diverting attention, money, and resources away from South Central, leaving a mixed legacy. Despite lingering criticism, Rebuild L.A. represented the most significant socioeconomic investment in long-neglected South Central and laid the groundwork for the area’s late ’90’s retail renaissance fronted by former NBA superstar Magic Johnson. 

The Christopher Commission

Perhaps the most significant development to come in the aftermath of the ’92 riots was the beginning of long-overdue reform of the LAPD, one of the most notoriously villainous police forces in the country.

Following the release of the Rodney King beating video Mayor Tom Bradley established the Christopher Commission to investigate the police department and its practices. He also called for the resignation of LAPD Chief Daryl Gates. Gates refused to resign and was not obligated to do so as a result of civil service protection he was afforded, even though the Christopher Commission pointed to his removal as a key part of reforming the department. 

The commission also found that the use of excessive force was rampant in the department and was exacerbated by bias and racism and essentially endorsed by a departmental management structure that rendered public complaints meaningless. Between 1986 and 1990, less than two-percent of excessive force complaints were upheld.

The Justice Department and Civil Rights

The day after the riots began the Justice Department announced it would be investigating the officers involved in the Rodney King beating, contending that the officers violated King’s civil rights. This strategy would be repeated in the years and decades to come, especially in cases involving police abuse, to try and blunt the potential for rioting by having federal officials announce that the Justice Department would be bringing civil rights charges against the accused. 

This strategy was two-fold — Provide evidence to an angry citizenry that something proactively punitive is being done to move toward justice, and offer a backstop against another verdict similar to the King beating trial that could lead directly to rioting. 

The Webster Commission

The Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners ordered the convening of the Webster Commission to investigate LAPD performance during the riots. The final report concluded that it was a combination of factors that created the conditions that preceded the riots and laid out 16 basic recommendations to prevent future riots that included changes to LAPD structure, planning, and procedures. Additionally, the report highlights the underlying social problems that turned L.A. into a “tinderbox.”

“I THOUGHT HE HAD A GUN”

Cincinnati, Ohio — 2001

Outside a Cincinnati nightclub in April 2001 an off-duty police officer approached 19-year-old Timothy Thomas who had a warrant for his arrest related to at least a dozen traffic citations. Thomas began to run, leading to a pursuit involving additional officers that culminated when officer Stephen Roach turned down an alley in pursuit and fired a single gunshot that struck Thomas in the heart, killing him at the scene. In the subsequent investigation, Roach claimed that he thought Thomas had a gun and was reaching toward his waistband to pull it out. No gun was found. Thomas was unarmed and was the 15th Black male shot and killed by the Cincinnati Police in the five years preceding the incident. The shooting led to six days of riots, hundreds of injuries and arrests, and approximately $5 million in property damage.

Community Action Now

Less than a month before the riot a federal class-action lawsuit was brought by the ACLU and Cincinnati Black United Front alleging decades of racial profiling by the Cincinnati Police Department. The presiding judge ordered a mediation between the plaintiffs, the city, and the police department to produce a solution she believed litigation could not achieve. 

The effort, given an additional sense of urgency by the riots, was ultimately approved by the plaintiffs, the city council, and the police union, eventually led to the development of Cincinnati Community Action Now (CAN). Comprised of community, business, and government representatives, the organization’s goals were to create substantial and sustainable change that reduces disparities; build upon successful programs in Cincinnati and elsewhere; and be inclusive, seeking viewpoints from all segments of Greater Cincinnati. 

While it acknowledged frayed police-community relations as the precipitating issue, the organization identified four areas that needed to be addressed to tackle the underlying causes that led to the riots:

- Police and Justice System Improvement - a new relationship between police and community to reduce crime and replace adversarial relationships with a true partnership.

- Economic Inclusion and Development - more and better jobs for the most disadvantaged residents.

- Opportunities for Education and Youth Development - programs targeted at higher academic achievement, and the successful education of at-risk children.

- Housing and Neighborhood Development - better housing through increased homeownership and availability of affordable, quality housing for inner-city residents.

One year later the collaboration produced The Cincinnati Collaborative Agreement, arguably one of the most comprehensive plans enacted to improve police-community relations. The five-year agreement had five primary objectives:

- Establish police officers and community members as proactive partners in community problem-solving.

- Build relationships of respect, cooperation, and trust within and between police and communities.

- Improve education, oversight, monitoring, hiring practices, and accountability within the police department.

- Ensure fair, equitable, and courteous treatment for all.

- Create methods to enhance the public’s understanding of police policies and procedures and to recognize exceptional service to foster support for the police.

While there were difficulties faced regarding implementation and early police resentment, the results achieved speak for themselves:

- Training officers in hard to manage situations, like the “dark alley” where the triggering incident occurred

- Training in how to recognize possible mental health issues in suspects and to better handle mentally ill people

- Computers in officers' cruisers to provide access to a person's detailed and complete criminal record

- Foot pursuit policy changes to require that officers assess whether a pursuit is appropriate, considering the seriousness of the offense, whether the suspect is armed, and the ability to apprehend at a later date

- In late 2003, the City bought updated tasers for all officers after the death of an African-American suspect.

- Officers are now required to fill out "contact cards" when they stop vehicles. The cards include details about those in the car, including their race. The cards grew out of allegations that Cincinnati officers stopped more minority drivers than white drivers.

- A Citizens Complaint Authority was created in 2002 to conduct independent reviews of all serious uses of force by police officers.

After CAN completed its work in 2003, a coalition of 14 corporations and foundations came together in 2003 to create Better Together Cincinnati to provide resources for key projects and to explore ways to continue to address the issues raised through CAN’s work.

“UNCONSTITUTIONAL POLICING”

Ferguson, Missouri — 2014 

On August 9, 2014, 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson following a confrontation that ensued after Brown left a market where he had stolen a package of cigars. The accounts of what happened before the shooting vary depending on whom you believe. Forensic evidence showed Brown was not shot in the back, his hands were most likely not raised at the time of the shooting, and a struggle of some type occurred between the two at the officer’s vehicle which was stopped approximately 150-feet from where Brown was fatally shot. 

The following day peaceful protests eventually gave way to rioting that lasted more than a week. In retrospect, some of the contributing factors to the violence were the multiple claims that Brown was shot and killed while surrendering or shot in the back while fleeing — all of which were considered plausible due to the deteriorated state of police-community relations.  

Similar to other cities, it was the rioting and the attention brought to Ferguson that eventually exposed a legacy of police corruption and abuse directed toward the Black community. 

It was the attention brought by the riots that prompted President Obama to address the incident, giving it national and international prominence. 

It was the attention brought by the riots that led Attorney General Eric Holder to launch a Justice Department investigation that revealed widespread, institutionally sanctioned racial profiling. 

It was the attention brought by the riots that prompted a review of federal programs that provide military-style weapons and equipment to law enforcement agencies across the country. 

It was the attention brought by the riots that led to the resignation of five city officials. 

It was the attention brought by the riots that exposed racially-biased, profit-driven law enforcement in Ferguson. 

It was the attention brought by the riots that led to an overhaul of the local court system that used arrest warrants to extort residents. 

It was the riots that ultimately led to the resignation of the former Ferguson Police Chief, Thomas Jackson, and made improving community relations a top priority for incoming Police Chief Delrish Moss. 

It was the riots that prompted President Barrack Obama to request $260 million in government funding to pay for 50,000 body cameras and police training. 

It was the riots that led President Obama to convene the Task Force on 21st Century Policing to identify problems and make recommendations to improve policing practices nationwide.

Multiple investigations and a grand jury found officer Wilson acted in self-defense.

The Justice Department investigation found “the emphasis on revenue has compromised the institutional character of Ferguson’s police department, contributing to a pattern of unconstitutional policing … police and municipal court practices both reflect and exacerbate existing racial bias, including racial stereotypes.”

“EXPLICITLY DISCRIMINATORY”

Baltimore, Maryland — 2015

On April 12, 2015, 25-year-old Freddie Gray was arrested by Baltimore City Police officers and placed inside a police transport van. Video of the final moments of Gray’s arrest shows Gray facedown on the sidewalk with two officers holding him in place as he repeatedly screams out in pain. When additional officers arrive moments later, Gray is lifted and dragged to the van as his right leg hangs limp the entire time. 

What occurs next is a mystery, even if you believe the claims made by the Baltimore Police Department. How many stops did the van make between Gray’s arrest and the time it reached the police station? Two? Three? Six? What was done to Gray en route to the police station? Why did it take the van 45 minutes to reach a station four blocks away? What happened before the video recording began? Was he tased? Why were certain eyewitnesses never interviewed? Did Gray ask for an asthma inhaler? How did Gray end up unconscious, not breathing, with a nearly severed spinal cord?

What is not a mystery is that Freddie Gray arrived at the West District police station and was treated by paramedics before being taken to the University of Maryland Medical Center in a coma. He died on April 19.

Protests were held in the days following his death, but as more information, accurate and conflicting, was revealed tensions mounted. On the day of Freddie Gray’s funeral, that tension boiled over and turned into a full-blown riot that led to 250 people arrested, 144 vehicle fires, and approximately $9 million in damage to businesses.

While the six officers involved went unpunished following unsuccessful attempts to win convictions, a Justice Department investigation and report that followed outlined widespread discrimination and other abuses by the Baltimore Police Department, finding that “supervisors have issued explicitly discriminatory orders, such as directing a shift to arrest 'all the black hoodies' in a neighborhood,” and “(Baltimore Police Department practices) "perpetuate and fuel a multitude of issues rooted in poverty and race, focusing law enforcement actions on low-income, minority communities" and encourage officers to have "unnecessary, adversarial interactions with community members.” 

Other findings included: 

- Police too often stopped, frisked, and arrested residents without legal justification, disproportionately impacting Black residents, even though police were more likely to find illegal guns, illicit drugs, and other contraband on white residents.

- Police routinely and intentionally misclassified citizen complaints about racial slurs used by officers. 

- Police fail to meaningfully investigate reports of sexual assault, particularly for assaults involving women with additional vulnerabilities, such as those who are engaged in sex work.

- Police officers often used excessive force in situations where it was not warranted.

- Police officers routinely used excessive force against individuals deemed to be verbally disrespectful towards police.

- Police officers routinely used excessive force and engaged in “unnecessarily violent confrontations” with individuals with mental health issues.

- Police officers routinely used the same excessive force tactics against juveniles that they used against adults. 

- Police officers were not given adequate supervision or training and systemic problems were allowed to go unchecked.

- Failures in the areas of recruitment and retention were also allowed to go unchecked, creating circumstances under which officers were “forced to work overtime after long shifts, lowering morale, and leading to officers working with deteriorated decision-making skills.”

The Justice Department findings led to a court-enforced consent decree, an agreement that would hold the city accountable for making policing reforms and subject it to federal monitoring for years to come. 

“DON’T KILL ME”

Minneapolis, Minnesota — 2020

On May 25, 2020, after he was accused of passing a counterfeit $20 bill, Minneapolis Police officers attempted to take 46-year-old George Floyd into custody. As bystander video begins, Floyd is seen lying handcuffed, facedown in the street with officer Derek Chauvin’s knee pressed into his neck for nearly 9 minutes, the last 3 of which Floyd is unresponsive. Two other officers out of camera view are also involved in keeping Floyd pinned to the ground while a fourth officer ignores pleas from onlookers to check on Floyd’s condition.

During the incident, Floyd can be heard repeatedly stating, “I can’t breathe,” and “don’t kill me” until he becomes unresponsive and is taken to Hennepin County Medical Center where he is pronounced dead less than two hours after the initial incident began. 

On May 26, following the release of the video, as public outrage began to grow, all four officers involved in the incident were fired.

On May 27 as calls grew for the officers to be arrested, rioting began.

On May 28 rioting expanded with multiple businesses damaged and the Minneapolis Police Department Third Precinct building burned down. 

On May 29 Hennepin County’s prosecutor announced charges of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter against Chauvin.

Despite the arrest rioting expanded to more than 100 cities across the United States as protesters demand all of the officers involved in Floyd’s death are arrested and charged. 

Your move America.

#George Floyd #Oscar Grant #Michael Brown #Riots #Police abuse #Freddie Gray #Watts Riots #Timothy Thomas #philando castile #Samuel Dubose