#time to physically become sierra /j

[speedystarshine]

💋 Anon, so sorry but I accidentally posted instead of edited so Ur ask is gone, but luckily I took a screenshot jakwnfna-

Thank you so much for the ask! I'm in brainrot hours rn so this was a good outlet :D and I'm glad you liked the last one! I chose season one, to go down memory lane, hope that was okay! :)

Characters: Joey Graceffa, Eva Gutotowski, Oli White, Lele Pons, Timothy DeLaGhetto, Matt Haag, Sierra Furtado, GloZell Green, Justine Ezarik, Andrea Brooks, Shane Dawson

-So, I think for some reason the season one cast would be more protective of reader?

-They don’t know what happens or what is going to happen, since Joey too has no idea and can’t warn anybody.

-The minute Shane starts choking, everybody’s confused but catch on pretty quickly.

-Y'all start looking for clues, and split off into groups (scooby doo looking goofy ahh-)

-I'll leave which group reader is in to resder interpretation, but whichever you're is more likely to fall first.

-As the night progresses, you'll notice some of your time members becoming more protective of you, flanking you from each side

-You won't have a moment of peace the whole goddamn time. Someone will constantly be near you, watching you, etc.

-And then the deaths start coming :)

-Even though a lot of them are really competitive, and want to go home (with you ofc), a few of them realize that "Oh shit, I want to win but I also might actually die here" so work on protecting you instead.

-Joey would be on of the most protective ones, and nothing is too off with him other than a few offhand comments that might suggest you weaker and in need of protection. (Kinda like Amity and Willow in Labyrinth Runners tee hee)

He also won't stop following you around, never leaving your side once whereas the others sometimes go off to do something else.

-Eva would be noticeably different, acting fun and bouncy as ever but it seems strained, like kinda the way if you were to embarrass your mom in public and she can't kill you yet but like-

-Oli our beloved would be so freaking nice to you, although he can seem a bit more lost in thought and conflicted which is perfect if you wanna slip away for a second.

-Lele would.... Just kinda give you the chills ngl. Yk that scene were Eva and Lele were thirsting over one of the house owners? (I think his name was Colin or smth idek-) yeaahh that. But yandere.

-Timothy is a slimy little rat man who tries to get into your pants every second/j. But seriously, he would be one of the touchier yandere's and he definitely flirts a lot which can cause conflict in the group, so look out for that.

-Matt. Absolute simp, fool of a man. He may be the professor but Jesus Christ he forgets how to speak the second you come into his general vicinity. He'd sit in the simp pile with Eva and Lele.

-Shane is fucking dead lmao

-Sierra would be like.... A softer version of Lele. Definitely calculating and good at hiding how she feels, but a lot less sadistic and cold with reader. Probably gives a lil goofy smile every time she catches your eye.

-GloZell would be all over you, like Timothy, but whereas with Tim it was sly touches you better believe you are straight into her arms. Very touchy with you but in a more open way, so a few of the others are definitely planning against her.

-Justine (ily so much-) would be much like Matt, but actually goes up to more often instead of waiting for you to come to her. She just constantly has heart eyes around you and it shows

-Andrea would be like Timothy and GloZell, except it's always little hints instead of outright physical affection, and she's way smoother and pulling it off than those two. Probably pulls a blush out of reader once or twice (depending on how easy reader is to fluster) and the group is split between "she's next" and "teach me Ur ways" lol. It would be funny bc I imaging Matt going up to her most in a "teach me your ways" thing despite him never having the confidence to actually do it.

-All in all very chaotic. They split off into mini groups, everyone secretly plotting against the other, and a lot of squabbling. All the goddamn time. Joey and Eva are the only ones to have the sense of "THEY'RE RIGHT THERE SHUT THE FUCK UP" since the others are either too hotheaded or riled up to back down.

-lol just the mental image of Joey and Eva trying to calm people down, a whole ass bar fight happening in the middle of the room, reader, Oli, and the servants/maids of the house standing to the side like "for fucks sake-"

I'm sorry it took so long my dumbass pressed post instead of edit TWICE-

Taglist:

@112-writes

@shuble

@orangussy

#yandere escape the night #yandere escape the night x reader #escape the night #escape the night x reader #yandere harem #yandere joey graceffa x reader #yandere eva gutotowski x reader #yandere oli white x reader #yandere lele pons x reader #yandere timothy delaghetto x reader #yandere matt haag x reader #yandere sierra furtado x reader #yandere glozell green x reader #yandere justine ezarik x reader #yandere andrea brooks x reader #yandere shawn dawson x reader

[m3pad]

since i donbt have a tdi tumblr and this is mega important..

its cobdy..s birthday tommorow.. pls celebrate it with me :D

#total drama #happy birthday tdi cody #cody total drama #total drama island #total drama world tour #celebration time #time to physically become sierra /j

[vvindication]

and for jeanne bc i feel like we never talk abt her much; 3, 10, 11, 18, 19

You've Got Questions and I've Got Answers OC Edition

Ive been thinking I need to work on Jeanne more so this is perfect thank you !!

3) Do they enjoy cooking?

cooking is pretty much only a necessity to survival for her, she doesnt really have any strong feelings about it UNLESS theyre helping Nicolas cook. then its a fun bonding activity ! they’ll hand him ingredients as long as he does the actual cooking ! they have petty arguments about measurements but they both have fun with it

10) Do they have any regrets?

off the top of my head, they really regret splitting up with Nicolas to pursue Sierra Madre. it isnt her fault, and theyre both confident in each others’ ability to take care of themselves, but in this instance it ended up disastrously. both of them are physically and mentally scarred when they reunite and she cant help feeling like she made a huge mistake leaving him behind

she regrets leaving Colorado, as well. they left behind the remnants of their family and home to try and find a safer place to live in the Mojave, only to end up fighting the Legion again. she wishes theyd stayed there and either formed a community, or died trying

11) Do they have any addictions?

they stayed clean other than some habitual smoking up until getting trapped in Sierra Madre. when her face is permanently torn in an accident with the ghost people, they have no access to a doctor and very little medical supplies, so the med-x from the vending machines ends up being her best bet for pain relief. she tries her best to kick the habit after escaping, but its hard when her wound is still fairly fresh

18) How easy is it to become their enemy?

easy. she sees anyone messing with Nicolas and shes out for blood /j

Jeanne will hold a grudge for the end of time, but only if someone seriously fucks up in their book. purposefully helping the Legion, mistreating others unable to help themselves, or trying to get between them and their brother is a surefire way to get on her bad side. much less than that doesnt generally upset them

19) How easy is it to become their friend?

not as easy as it would first appear ! she doesnt go out of her way to be friendly, preferring to keep to themselves after having an unhealthy amount of fear instilled in them from the Sierra Madre. anyone trying to befriend them will - at first - give off warning signs. it will take a lot of time spent to convince her they dont want something from them

#vvin babbles #kris #cecilia graves #shout out to my computer for killing this and making me rewrite it entirely 😑

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Pisanosaurus mertii

By José Carlos Cortés 

Etymology: Pisano’s Reptile

First Described By: Casamiquela, 1967

Classification: Dinosauromorpha, Dinosauriformes, Dracohors, Silesauridae?

Status: Extinct

Time and Place: 231.4 million years ago, in the Carnian of the Late Triassic 

Pisanosaurus is known from the Cancha de Bochas Member of the Ischigualasto Formation in San Juan Argentina. 

Physical Description: If a Silesaurid - as is currently thought - Pisanosaurus would have been a small, slender, and quadrupedal animal, only about 1 meter in length. It had an open hip socket, like dinosaurs, which may point to a very interesting phylogenetic position (see the Other section below). It had very elongated bones in its hands, and its upper hips were weirdly wide as well. Beyond that, we don’t know much about with Pisanosaurus may have looked like. It seems logical to suppose it would have had a small head with a little beak in the front of the mouth - as both Silesaurids and early Ornithischians (the other hypothesis for the type of creature Pisanosaurus was) have such structures for snipping off plant material. Given its small size, Pisanosaurus - like all other early members of the group of reptiles that would later include birds (Avemetatarsalia) - would have been covered with fluff all over its body. If Pisanosaurus was an early Ornithischian and not a Silesaurid, it would have been bipedal, with short forelimbs not used in locomotion.

Diet: Either way, Pisanosaurus would have been an herbivore, eating low-lying vegetation in its densely forested home.

Behavior: As a small, lithe herbivore, Pisanosaurus would have been very skittish - running at the slightest sign of danger, making sure to avoid the many large predators it shared a home with. It probably wouldn’t have been very social - given it wasn’t very abundant! - but it may have foraged in large groups of mixed herbivores, sticking together to rely on each other in the event of danger. This reliance would have allowed bulkier herbivores to notice and react to danger quicker (since the small lithe ones like Pisanosaurus would have already been running away) - and the smaller ones would have had large, bulky roadblocks to stop the approach of predators. As an early dinosaur, it most likely partook in some sort of care of its young, though of course, we do not know what. 

(As an Ornithischian) by Michael B. H., CC BY-SA 3.0 

Ecosystem: The Ischigualasto Environment is one of the more famous ecosystems of the Late Triassic - due to it being a hotbed of early dinosaur discoveries, including some of the earliest potential members of the group. In fact, it is such an important environment that today the rock formation is considered a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was an extensive series of rivers channeling through a large floodplain, erring towards the wetter side of the scale - mud was the name of the game, and there was a wide variety of plant material present, including a dense conifer forest, ferns, and horsetails. It did experience seasonal rainfall, with possible times of extremely heavy precipitation. Occasionally, everything would be buried in volcanic ash - leading to the beautiful preservation of the environment.

Pisanosaurus wasn’t the only Silesaurid here - there was also Ignotosaurus, the slender and small Silesaurid. There were also famous early dinosaurs such as Eoraptor - the small, bipedal early Saurischian(?), Herrerasaurus and Sanjuansaurus, the large taxonomically-confusing predators, and Chromogisaurus, one of the earliest known “prosauropods.” Of course, this being the Triassic, dinosaurs were only a small part of the ecosystem. The Ischigualasto - like most places of the time period - was absolutely lousy with other archosauriformes! Non-Dinosaurian Archosauriformes were extensively diverse at this time, making up a large chunk of the “large charismatic land animal” roles. There was Aetosauroides, an Aetosaur (sort of like a cross between an ankylosaur, an ant-eater, and a crocodile), Proterochampsa and Pseudochampsa - crocodilian-like creatures that were actually equally closely related to crocodiles and dinosaurs - both frequented the rivers of the environment. Saurosuchus, a large and bulky stem-croc, would have been a huge pain in the rear for herbivores like Pisanosaurus. Sillosuchus was a weird stem-croc, bipedal and strangely dinosaur like - with even, potentially, a beak - but utterly scaly, and bulky in stature! There was also Venaticosuchus, an Ornithosuchid (one of the most basal groups of stem-crocs), and Trialestes - a fast moving stem-croc, and one of the earliest Crocodylomorphs (the group of crocodilians and their closest relatives). 

(Without Feathers) by Nobu Tamura, CC BY-SA 4.0 

It being the Triassic, this wasn’t an environment free of non-reptiles! Temnospondyls - large carnivorous amphibians - were crawling about; as were a variety of Synapsids. Small, carnivorous dog-shaped cynodonts like Chiniquodon would have directly competed with the local dinosaurs; they even grew to be quite large and fast, like in Diegocanis and Ecteninion. They also came in large, bulky herbivorous forms, like Exaeretodon. Dicynodonts were present too, with their strange pig-like appearance: Ischigualastia was a common synapsid on the floodplains of Pisanosaurus’ home. In short, Pisanosaurus was surrounded with a cast of characters showcasing some - but certainly not all - of the weirdness that the Triassic  had to offer.

Other: What Is Pisanosaurus? Back in the day, Pisanosaurus was a famous creature for being one of the earliest “Ornithischian” dinosaurs - one of two major groups of dinosaurs, famous for including such later iconic members as Stegosaurus and Triceratops. In fact, for the longest time, Pisanosaurus was… the only Ornithischian known from the Triassic. This is odd, to say the least - there are dozens of Triassic dinosaurs known, they’re just all from the other group, the Saurischians (containing such iconic later forms as Apatosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, and… all birds). So, for the longest time, Pisanosaurus stood as a focal point of dinosaur research - an important piece of the puzzle of the origin of this elusive, but important group. 

By Nix 

Except it isn’t an Ornithischian. Lately, studies have shown time and time again that Pisanosaurus actually more closely resembles the Silesaurids - a group of almost dinosaurs that were quadrupedal, active herbivores living around the world at the time of the Triassic, before going extinct at the end-Triassic extinction. This would make its appearance much different than what a “basal Ornithischian” would suggest - and, of course, the fact that Pisanosaurus is known from only a single fragmented skeleton does not make solving this problem much easier. Weirdly enough, there are some hypotheses which suggest that Silesaurids are… the earliest Ornithischians, (as per Pisanosaurus having an open hip-socket), representing a weird side-branch of the group from the Triassic. As this hypothesis gains traction, it may become increasingly true that Pisanosaurus was a Silesaurid - it was just also an early Ornithischian. Only time will tell in the solving of this mystery - for now, we must wait for more evidence.

~ By Meig Dickson

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#Pisanosaurus #Pisanosaurus mertii #Dinosauromorph #Silesaurid #Prehistoric Life #Factifle #Palaeoblr #Dinosaur #Mesozoic Monday #Triassic #South America #Herbivore #Feathered Dinosaurs #paleontology #prehistory #dinosaurs #biology #a dinosaur a day #a-dinosaur-a-day #dinosaur of the day #dinosaur-of-the-day #science #nature #factfile

[supervillain-smut]

jonathan crane fluff alphabet please? Your riddler one was so beautifully well done!

Other versions of Crane may be more romantic, but I went with more of his original appearances’ disposition.

A = Attractive (What do they find attractive about the other?)

He loves legs, all sorts. He’s not picky about physicality.

B = Baby (Do they want a family? Why/Why not?)

No. He’s never been the parental type, plus he can only imagine the sort of bullying they’d endure with him as their father.

C = Cuddle (How do they cuddle?)

Arms and legs everywhere, spooning you. He’s the big spoon, no excuses.

D = Dates (What are dates with them like?)

Few and far between, but he makes sure to make time for you at least once a month. When you do go out, it’s whatever you want to do. He doesn’t mind.

E = Everything (You are my ____ (e.g. my life, my world…))

One fear. He dreads losing you ever, to anything or anyone. It’s something that scares him to the core compared to the momentary thrill of the Bat.

F = Feelings (When did they know they were in love?)

It just kinda… Crept in? It was over a longer period time than most, around 3 years of working together.

G = Gentle (Are they gentle? If so, how?)

He’s gentle with his actions, despite his words. Sometimes he tries to get a reaction, especially during arguments.

H = Hands (How do they like to hold hands?)

He doesn’t. He doesn’t like the feeling.

I = Impression (What was their first impression?)

Another person that’s going to take one look at him and go ‘nope’.

J = Jealousy (Do they get jealous?)

Oh yes he does, particularly at the always-flirting Edward Nygma.

K = Kiss (How do they kiss? Who initiated the first kiss?)

You have to initiate the first kiss, and give him no room to misinterpret what exactly that was about. He will immediately assume someone put you up to a bet, or it’s a prank.

L = Love (Who says ‘I love you’ first?)

You, and you’re the one to say it first every time.

M = Memory (What’s their favorite memory together?)

Probably that first kiss, but a lot of firsts qualify as well.

N = Nickel (Do they spoil? Do they buy the person they love everything?)

He’s not really a spoiler, he budgets, spends every cent on his work. Only ever gives you gifts if it’s mandatory such as Christmas or your Birthday.

O = Orange (What color reminds them of their other half?)

What color are your eyes? He loves looking into them.

P = Pet names (What pet names do they use?)

He doesn’t really do pet names.

Q = Quaint (What is their favorite non-modern thing?)

Books, obviously. Lots of classics, horror novels and poetry surprisingly.

R = Rainy Day (What do they like to do on a rainy day?)

Sit inside, read a book or work. It doesn’t really change, there’s just more chance for together time.

S = Sad (How do they cheer themselves/others up?)

He is the ultimate debby downer. He calls it being realistic, if only for him. The last person you want to go to if only mildly upset, but will 100% kill whoever hurts you.

T = Talking (What do they like to talk about?)

His new scheme for the bat, what book he’s reading, the deep and dark corners of the mind.

U = Unencumbered (What helps them relax?)

Anything that isn’t his usual work environment. If you want to spend time with him, drag him out of wherever he holes himself up to work.

V = Vaunt (What do they like to show off? What are they proud of?)

He’s very proud of himself for all his achievements, you most of all. His confidence is certainly more obvious.

W = Wedding (When, how, where do they propose?)

He’s more of the person to be together for so long, they may as well be considered anyway. That sort of thing worries him to no end.

X = Xylophone (What’s their song?)

You picked Scarecrow by Alex & Sierra one time when he was becoming distant after the events of Arkham Knight. You’re more of the one to introduce him to music, he never really listened to any before.

Y = Yes (Do they ever think of getting married/proposing?)

He does, but then his anxiety creeps in and he decides against it.

Z = Zebra (If they wanted a pet, what would they get?)

He already has his birds, however a stray cat is not out of the question.

#fluff alphabet #jonathan crane #the scarecrow #scarecrow #99 luftanons

[newstfionline]

‘We Are All Accumulating Mountains of Things’

By Alana Semuels, The Atlantic, Aug. 21, 2018

It’s easier than ever to buy things online. It’s so easy that Ryan Cassata sometimes does it in his sleep. Cassata, a 24-year-old singer/songwriter and actor from Los Angeles, recently got a notification from Amazon that a package had been shipped to his apartment, but he didn’t remember buying anything. When he logged onto his account and saw that a fanny pack and some socks were on the way, he remembered: A few nights back, he had woken up in the middle of the night to browse--and apparently shop on--Amazon.

He shops when he’s awake, too, buying little gadgets like an onion chopper, discounted staples like a 240-pack of gum, and decorations like a Himalayan salt lamp. The other day, he almost bought a pizza pool float, until he remembered that he doesn’t have a pool. “I don’t really need most of the stuff,” he tells me.

Thanks to a perfect storm of factors, Americans are amassing a lot of stuff. Before the advent of the internet, we had to set aside time to go browse the aisles of a physical store, which was only open a certain number of hours a day. Now, we can shop from anywhere, anytime--while we’re at work, or exercising, or even sleeping. We can tell Alexa we need new underwear, and in a few days, it will arrive on our doorstep. And because of the globalization of manufacturing, that underwear is cheaper than ever before--so cheap that we add it to our online shopping carts without a second thought. “There’s no reason not to shop--because clothing is so cheap, you feel like, ‘why not?’ There’s nothing lost in terms of the hit on your bank account,” Elizabeth Cline, the author of Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion, told me.

Shopping online also feels good. Humans get a dopamine hit from buying stuff, according to research by Ann-Christine Duhaime, a professor of neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School. “As a general rule, your brain tweaks you to want more, more, more--indeed, more than those around you--both of ‘stuff’ and of stimulation and novelty,” Duhaime wrote in a Harvard Business Review essay last year. Online shopping allows us to get that dopamine hit, and then also experience delayed gratification when the order arrives a few days later, which may make it more physiologically rewarding than shopping in stores.

Sites like Amazon have made it especially easy to shop. In 1999, the Seattle retailer patented a one-click buying process, which allows customers to purchase something without entering their shipping address or credit card info. It launched its Prime program in 2005, and now more than 100 million people have signed on to pay $119 a year for “free” two-day shipping. As a result, most other major retailers offer free shipping too. Returning stuff is a little more difficult--shoppers usually have to print a label and then go to the post office or a UPS or FedEx site to return packages. Many wait too long, or decide the hassle isn’t worth it because the stuff was cheap anyway. A recent NPR/Marist poll found that nine in 10 consumers rarely or never return stuff they’ve bought online.

Justine Montoya, a caregiver in Los Angeles, buys all sorts of stuff online--baby formula, clothes, household goods. She estimates that she shops online twice a week. “It’s just so easy--you click a button, and it’s on its way,” she told me.

In the last few months alone, I bought an $18 smart watch from Wish.com that I will probably never use, a second Kindle because it was on sale and I am worried my first Kindle is going to die soon, an electric space heater I no longer need, and a pair of wireless earbuds that I had hoped would allow me to charge my iPhone and listen to music at the same time, but that instead just fall out of my ears whenever I put them on. I also bought, on Amazon, a (used) book about hiking in the Sierras for $1.99, only to find the exact same book in a box of my stuff in my parents’ basement. I didn’t return any of it.

In 2017, Americans spent $240 billion--twice as much as they’d spent in 2002--on goods like jewelry, watches, books, luggage, and telephones and related communication equipment, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, which adjusted those numbers for inflation. Over that time, the population grew just 13 percent. Spending on personal care products also doubled over that time period. Americans spent, on average, $971.87 on clothes last year, buying nearly 66 garments, according to the American Apparel and Footwear Association. That’s 20 percent more money than they spent in 2000. The average American bought 7.4 pairs of shoes last year, up from 6.6 pairs in 2000.

All told, “we are all accumulating mountains of things,” said Mark A. Cohen, the director of retail studies at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business. He sometimes asks his students to count the number of things they have on them in class, and once they start counting up gadgets and cords and accessories, they end up near 50. “Americans have become a society of hoarders,” Cohen said. Montoya said she has more stuff now that she has started shopping online: “It’s easier to accumulate more, and it’s easier to spend more.”

At the same time we are amassing all this stuff, Americans are taking up more space. Last year, the average size of a single-family house in America was 2,426 square feet, a 23 percent increase in size from two decades ago, according to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. The number of self-storage units is rapidly increasing too: There are around 52,000 such facilities nationally; two decades ago, there were half that number.

Of course, not everyone is a part of this hoarding revolution. There are people who can’t or don’t shop online, because they don’t have credit cards or because they are barely making ends meet. Only about 29 percent of households with incomes under $25,000 are members of Amazon Prime, according to Kantar Consulting. Some people are embracing the zero waste movement, or have followed the example of the author Ann Patchett, who published a widely-circulated op-ed in The New York Times about how she resolved to stop shopping for a year. When she ceased buying things like lip gloss and lotion and hair products, she started finding half-used versions of them under the sink, and realized she hadn’t needed new things after all. “The things we buy and buy and buy are like a thick coat of Vaseline smeared on glass,” she wrote. “We can see some shapes out there, light and dark, but in our constant craving for what we may still want, we miss life’s details.”

But most Americans are not curtailing their shopping habits. And as consumers demand cheaper clothing, electronics, and other goods, manufacturers are spending less to make them, which sometimes means they fall apart more quickly. The share of large household appliances that had to be replaced within five years grew to 13 percent in 2013, up from seven percent in 2004. Cheap clothes might lose their shape after a wash or two, or get holes after a few tumbles in the dryer; electronics become obsolete quickly and need to be replaced. While some of this stuff can be recycled or resold, often, it ends up in landfills. In 2015, the most recent year for which data is available, Americans put 16 million tons of textiles in the municipal waste stream, a 68 percent increased from 2000. We tossed 34.5 million tons of plastics, a 35 percent increase from 2000, according to data from the Environmental Protection Agency. Over that same time period, the population grew just 14 percent.

“Sometimes, people sit down and cry when they see the amount of garbage we produce in a day,” said Robert Reed, a spokesman for Recology, which handles recycling for West Coast cities like San Francisco. Centered in America’s tech capital, Recology has seen an increase in discarded electronics, including products with lithium batteries, Reed told me. In 2016, a lithium battery fire burnt down a waste management facility in San Mateo.

The 16,000 students who live in dorms at Michigan State University left behind 147,946 pounds of goods like clothing, towels, and appliances when they moved out this year, a 40 percent increase from 2016, according to Kat Cooper, a spokeswoman. The university packs up these goods and donates to them to its surplus store, so that incoming students can buy used, rather than new, stuff. In recent years, dorm cleaners have been finding so many packages of unopened food and toiletries that the university started a program to get students to donate leftover food and toiletries to local organizations like food banks when they move out. This year, it collected 900 pounds of personal care items and 4,000 pounds of nonperishable food items to donate. Pomona College has seen the volume of packages delivered grow by 325 percent in the last 12 years, according to Patricia Vest, a spokeswoman; it, too, asks students to donate unused goods to a resale program. This year, it diverted 42 tons of clothes, furniture, and office supplies.

The Internet has also made it easier to recycle some of the stuff Americans buy and no longer want. Online consignment shops like thredUP and Poshmark help people buy and sell clothes from their closets. Secondhand stores like Goodwill have moved online, too, selling the growing pile of goods they get on the Internet.

But the ability to easily get rid of stuff may be making people feel a little better about buying things they don’t need, and motivating them to buy even more. On a recent weekday, I stopped by the massive warehouse where workers from Goodwill of San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin sort donations to Bay Area stores. Some of the stuff that’s been donated has never been used. Near the front of the warehouse stands a rack of clothes with their original tags on--a $245 blue Nicole Miller cocktail dress, $88 Kit and Ace pants, a pale green J. Jill blouse. “We are seeing items that have been barely used or not used, because when people shop online, it’s a lot of work to return it,” William Rogers, the president of the Goodwill, told me. Rogers himself is guilty--when we met at the warehouse, he dropped off four wall sconces he’d bought a year ago on Amazon. He had tried to put them up, decided they didn’t look good, and brought them to donate.

Secondhand shops can’t resell all of the donations they get. Cline estimates that 85 percent of the clothing that is donated to secondhand stores ends up in landfills every year. Just nine percent of plastic that ends up in the municipal waste stream gets recycled, according to the EPA, and only 15 percent of textiles get recycled. It can be difficult to take apart clothes and re-use the fabrics, Cline said, so lots of clothing in the waste stream gets sent to the developing world, used for rags, or sent to a landfill.

Fifty years ago, the science fiction writer Philip K. Dick coined a phrase for these “useless objects” that accumulate in a house: “kipple.” In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which served as the basis for the movie Blade Runner, he theorized that “the entire universe is moving toward a state of total, absolute kippleization.” Kipple reproduced, Dick wrote, when nobody was around. The ubiquity of mobile devices and the ease of online shopping have made Dick’s prediction come true, with one small tweak: Our kipple does not just multiply on its own, every time we turn away. We grow it ourselves, buying more and more of it, because we can.

#consumerism #shopping #shopping online #online shopping

[group2english]

WOMEN’S ROLE

By: Valentina Mendez, Gabriela Mora, Danna Valeria Sierra, Sara Rios, Maria Juliana RIco.  

Women’s role has changed over the time, becoming in the present an important figure in society, which happened due to the constant fight women had to face against role stereotypes and gender inequality. But despite the great contributions' women have done, sometimes they are still underestimated within the patriarchal society, therefore some people haven't realized the importance of women in history. Throughout history, women have faced stereotypes and gender inequality among others struggles, this is what allowed things to be different nowadays.  Nevertheless, there are still problems women have to face daily in order to achieve equality.

Previously, the women’s role was totally different from today. Since before it was believed that women functions were to serve their husbands, be a mother and a homemaker. They were considered inferior to the male gender, and for this reason, they were denied to many opportunities.

In World War II, when men were recruited to war, women had the duty to keep their country's economy balanced, so they had to get jobs that had never been allowed for them before. Five million women entered to workforce between 1940-1945, which gave all women the opportunity to participate independently in their country's factories, including the aeronautical industry, which was even impossible that a woman worked there before. (Khan Academy, N.D) These are some examples of how, throughout history, women have gradually faced these stereotypes and achieved their deserved prominence in society.

Another thing that changed over time was that women did not have the right to vote. And it was until 1918 act of representation of the people, in which the vote of women was granted over the age of 30, but actually, it was New Zealand in 1893 the first country that allowed women to vote. This achievement meant a lot to women because it was their opportunity to participate in the democracy of their country, and although it seems insignificant, women had been excluded to vote since ancient Greece age! Also, according to BBC news: “Womens right to vote was only guaranteed for women over 30 years on the condition that their husband or her could accomplish some specific property requirements.” (Castedo, 2016, par 22), finally in the 20th century in 1930 women were guaranteed to vote without having a husband.

Women over the years have had to go through many struggles such as the denial of clothing, divorce, study, among other problems, this has changed over the years, unfortunately some of them got hurt by trying to get rid of the gender stereotypes.

Women used to be denied many things such as clothes, and especially when the wanted to wearing pants. One of the greatest examples that can be shown is about Luisa Capetillo since she did not care about what men said and went out to the streets of Puerto Rico using pants even though she could not, and she got arrested since pants were not allowed for women. (Castedo, 2016).  Later on, the use of pants for women was normalized until the 19th century, and nowadays women have a bunch of different clothes that can wear. (Encyclopedia britannica, nd)

Besides, the women's study right was achieved since the enactment of Title IX in 1972 federal law, where it was guaranteed the right of education free from sex discrimination. At the present, one of the objectives educations have is to close the gender gap, to reduce discrimination against women. One of the most famous feminine educational warriors is Malala, who supports the importance of education for both genders. (Christine, nd)

Some women that deserved to be the center of attention at their time are; Marie Curie founded the new science of radioactivity. Rosa Parks challenged the racial segregation that existed in parts of the United States. Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman in history to travel into space and the only one to do so alone. Amelia Earhart was the first female pilot to cross the Atlantic Ocean alone. They and many other women demonstrated their great importance throughout history. (Lara Gomez 2018)

Divorce was something that was not allowed before for women; however, the problem was that the majority of the women that wanted the divorce was due to the domestic violence, because as the BBC news magazine says: "They had to face physical abuse or adultery, or even both at the same time and they couldn't avoid to be forced to have sexual relations, and rape was considered as something irrelevant”. (Castedo, 2016, par 33) This means that women could not get divorced since men were the ones who administered their family actions and woman's economy. Fortunately, in 1973 with the matrimonial causes act of the year it was allowed the possibility of women's petition to divorce without having to prove any objective failing. (Oxley ,2017)

Nevertheless, although women have achieved lots of important things such as the guarantee of their rights, the cultural stereotypes created by men got to the point of establishing what things were for women and what were not, and this is a constant struggle that we still face.

Seeing the world from a woman's perspective is almost impossible; Society constantly gives its opinion about woman's body, criticizing that if they are very skinny they look sick, but if they are overweight, they compare them with a cow. People advice women to "Get ready, but do not overdo it so they don't think you are needy" and if they do not, they will comment that they are neglected. Wearing loose-fitting clothing has masculine features, but on the other hand wearing tight-fitting clothing puts you at risk of harassment. A daily example is the dress code that schools have, since while for a girl showing her shoulders is inappropriate, a boy can easily take off his shirt. It is the same situation; the difference is gender and social reaction. So, instead of judging women, society should be judging the popular mentality about them.

In addition, sometimes women get carried away by internalized misogyny, in which they compete with each other. The beginning of misogyny between women started at the beginning of history, where women were taught that in order to feel part of the society they had to search for a husband, but if they could not, their only alternative was to become a nun. This later became a woman’s competition to get the attention from men, persuading them with their physical aspect, which has been promoted by the Beauty industry because they support the definition of love as the physical aspect, in which women started to care more about their physical aspects than other things, beginning a constant war of looks that judge the appearance of others. (Massis, 2019).

Moreover, patriarchy have also been supported by some women, for example, some women still continue doing housework without asking their children to help, unless it is a girl, but at the same time even though they have a professional work outside the home, woman’s still continue to assume the majority of the domestic responsibilities. Also, women usually tend to protect more their daughters because they considered them more vulnerable than men which makes women more insecure about their outside environment because they feel unsafe, otherwise sons have more liberty to choose where to go and with whom, which strengthens their autonomy.  (Daros, 2014)

For last one of the biggest struggles women still face are the significant wage gabs between men and women persist nowadays, the gender wage gap it is the difference in earnings between women and men, and according to the statistics experts have realized that women earn less than men.  In the census Bureau data from 2018, women in average have earned 82 cents for every 1 dollar earned by men, this calculation demonstrates the earnings of a woman working full time, although this can vary depending on the race and ethnicity, one example happens in united states, where women teachers earn less than men teachers.  Some of the reasons that caused the gender wage gap are: First the differences in industries or jobs worked, which usually are based on gender norms and expectations, so “women's jobs” that are those were more female workforces like home health aides, child care workers etc tend to offer lower pay but on the other hand, “men's jobs” like building construction gain more. This is caused by the constant division between genders establishing what they should or not do even before they are adults, in fact human beings are categorized since they are born. Second: the gender-based pay discrimination, which has been illegal since 1963 but some people still do it, where employees fear retaliation. Summarizing, structural sexism often influences in which jobs are made by each gender, creating a wage gap between men and women. (Bleweis, 2020)

Gender inequality started due to the sexist and patriarchy mentality the society had, where it was taught that women were only useful for housework and for being a mother and wife. However, after many years of fight, many achievements were acquired, like women's right to vote or to study, but this would not have been possible without some of the woman´s work mentioned above, such as Marie Curie or Rosa Parks. Because they and many other womans demonstrated their importance in society, which nowadays allowed the aspiration of gender equality. Despite this, the struggle women are still facing is against the misogyny created by the criticism about a woman’s physical aspect. Nevertheless, as women could fight against biggest problems, this new struggle will disappear with the value of respect between women.

References:

Oxley, J. (December 13 of 2017). Divorce and women's rights, a history. Website from:..,https://vardags.com/family-law/divorce-and-womens-rights-a-history#:~:text=This%20came%20in%201937%2C%20with,or%20desertion%20to%20be%20demonstrated.

Christine, A. (nd) .The history of women in education. Website from: https://www.hepg.org/her-home/issues/harvard-educational-review-volume-67-issue-4/herarticle/the-history-of-women-in-education_202

Encyclopaedia Britannica. (nd) .When did women start wearing pants? Website from: https://www.britannica.com/story/when-did-women-start-wearing-pants

Bleiweis, R. (March 24 of 2020). Quick facts about the gender wage gap. Website..from:https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/reports/2020/03/24/482141/quick-facts-gender-wage-gap/#:~:text=The%20gender%20wage%20gap%20is%20more%20than%20just%20a%20few%20cents&text=Collectively%2C%20more%20than%2055%20million,their%20male%20counterparts%20in%202019.

Massis, D. (March 8 of 2019). We have all rejected women: men, homosexuals and women themselves, because culture is against this human truth that is vulnerability". Website from: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-47473762

Daros, W. (2014). The postmodern women and sexism. Website from: http://www.scielo.org.co/pdf/frcn/v56n162/v56n162a05.pdf

Khan academy, (nd) American women and worldwide II. Website from: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/rise-to-world-power/us-wwii/a/american-women-and-world-war-ii#:~:text=Women%20in%20the%20war,captured%20as%20prisoners%20of%20war.

Castedo, A. (November 24 of 2016). 7 things women couldn’t do 100 years ago. Website from: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-38007110

|Gómez, L. (2018) Fifteen women who have marked and changed history. Website from:..https://www.lavanguardia.com/vida/20180307/441317420277/mujeres-importantes-historia.html  

[gordonwilliamsweb]

Covid Strikes Clergy as They Comfort Pandemic’s Sick and Dying

This story also ran on The Washington Post. It can be republished for free.

The Rev. Jose Luis Garayoa survived typhoid fever, malaria, a kidnapping and the Ebola crisis as a missionary in Sierra Leone, only to die of covid-19 after tending to the people of his Texas church who were sick from the virus and the grieving family members of those who died.

Garayoa, 68, who served at El Paso’s Little Flower Catholic Church, was one of three priests living in the local home of the Roman Catholic Order of the Augustinian Recollects who contracted the disease. Garayoa died two days before Thanksgiving.

Garayoa was aware of the dangers of covid, but he could not refuse a congregant who sought comfort and prayers when that person or a loved one fought the disease, according to retired hairstylist Maria Luisa Placencia, one of the priest’s parishioners.

“He could not see someone suffering or worried about a child or a parent and not want to pray with them and show compassion,” Placencia said.

Garayoa’s death underscores the personal risks taken by spiritual leaders who comfort the sick and their families, give last rites or conduct funerals for people who have died of covid. Many also face challenges in leading congregations that are divided over the seriousness of the pandemic.

Ministering to the ill or dying is a major role of spiritual leaders in all religions. Susan Dunlap, a divinity professor at Duke University, said covid creates an even greater feeling of obligation for clergy, because many patients are isolated from family members, she said.

People near death often want to interact with God or make things right, Dunlap said, and a clergy member “can help facilitate that.”

Such spiritual work is key to the work of hospital chaplains, but it can expose them to virus being spread in the air or sometimes through touch. Jayne Barnes, a chaplain at the Billings Clinic in Montana, said she tries to avoid physical contact with covid patients, but it can be difficult to resist a brief touch, which is often the best way to convey compassion.

“It’s almost an awkward moment when you see a patient in distress, but you know you shouldn’t hold their hand or give them a hug,” Barnes said. “But that doesn’t mean that we can’t be there for them. These are people who cannot have visitors, and they have a lot they want to say. Sometimes they are angry with God, and they let me know about that. I’m there to listen.”

Still, there are times, Barnes said, that the despair is so profound she cannot help but “put on a glove and hold a patient’s hand.”

Barnes was diagnosed with covid near Thanksgiving. She has recovered and has a “better understanding” of what patients are enduring.

Dealing with so much suffering affects even the most hardened doctors and nurses, she said. Billings Clinic staffers were devastated when a beloved physician died of covid, and rallied behind a popular nurse who was seriously ill but recovered.

“We’re not only taking care of the patients; we are also there for the staff, and I think we have been an important asset,’’ she said of the hospital’s chaplains.

In Abington, Pennsylvania, Pastor Marshall Mitchell of Salem Baptist Church said he believes part of his spiritual duty is to persuade his congregation and the broader African American community to take precautions to avoid covid. That is why Mitchell allowed photographers to capture the moment in December when he received his first dose of a vaccine.

“As pastor of one of the largest churches in the Philadelphia region, it is incumbent on me to demonstrate the powers of both science and faith,” he said.

Mitchell said he might have credibility in convincing other African Americans, who have been disproportionately affected by covid, that a vaccine can save lives. Many are skeptical.

The politicization of covid precautions such as masks and social distancing has put many pastors in a difficult position.

Mitchell said he has no patience for people who refuse to wear masks.

“I keep them the hell away from me,” he said.

Jeff Wheeler, lead pastor of Central Church in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, said that his church encourages mask-wearing and that most congregants comply. However, the underlying tension is reflected in his message to members on the church’s website:

“As we move forward, we simply ask you to avoid shaming, judging or making critical comments to those wearing or not wearing masks,” it reads.

Sheikh Tarik Ata, who leads the Orange County Islamic Foundation in California, said that the Quran calls for Muslims to take actions to ensure their health and that congregants largely comply with covid guidelines

“So, our members don’t have a problem with mask mandates,” he said.

Covid has hit the Orange County Muslim population hard, Ata said. Religion has become an important source of comfort for members who have lost their jobs and struggled with illness or finding child care.

“Our faith says that no matter how difficult the situation, we always have access to God and the future will be better,” Ata said.

Adam Morris, the rabbi at Temple Micah in Denver, said he has turned to online video to meet with congregants sick with the coronavirus. When meeting with his congregation members in person, such as during graveside services, he worries that with his mask on people might miss seeing the concern and compassion he feels for their plight.

He conducts in-person graveside funerals for a small number of mourners but requires all participants to wear masks.

Observant Muslims and Jews believe it is important to bury the dead quickly after death, Morris said.

“Some traditions and rituals must go forward,” Morris said, “covid or not.”

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

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Covid Strikes Clergy as They Comfort Pandemic’s Sick and Dying published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

[ahouseoflies]

The Best Films of 2017, Part II

Part I can be found here. I should have mentioned the films I haven’t seen, which include BPM; Faces Places; The Square; Coco; Thelma; Last Flag Flying; Roman J. Israel, Esq.; Wonder Wheel; Jane; and I, Daniel Blake. Long-time AHOLs also know that I’m in the fifth year of a self-imposed five-year break from superhero culture, so I haven’t seen Logan or Thor or whatever else. With that: ENDEARING CURIOSITIES WITH BIG FLAWS 87. The Great Wall (Zhang Yimou)-  Zhang Yimou's The Great Wall has a lot in common with Wong Kar-Wai's The Grandmaster. Both are high-concept international co-productions that bear just enough of the filmmaker's signature but feel unfortunately cut to ribbons in the editing room. Computers have made us all a little worse at our jobs, Zhang included, and his spectacle is achieved despite CGI, not because of it. I liked watching a boulder's journey through the stages of being catapulted, even if it eventually landed into a physics-negligent pit of cartoon monsters. By the end, the picture is more bloodless, sexless, and simplistic than a game of toy soldiers, which makes it seem just as child-like. It's a forgettable sort of fun, but it is often fun. 86. The Ghost in the Shell (Rupert Sanders)- A bit more comprehensible than the original but far less beautiful. It's a shame that visions of future exteriors haven't improved or at least changed since Blade Runner. Big advertisements. Got it. (Also, we have telepathic walkie-talkies, but people sleep on the floor?) There are a few good ideas drizzled around. If people can basically toggle back and forth between languages, why not hire a famous actor who doesn't speak English for one of the supporting roles? Speaking of acting though, Johansson is pretty bad in this, hamstrung by the whole playing-a-robot problem. (She looks as good as she ever has though, which is saying something.) She could have taken some notes from Michael Pitt, who brings some edge and skitter to his cybernetic replicant or whatever they call it. 85. Wilson (Craig Johnson)- It hits the notes that a Daniel Clowes property usually does: misanthropy, formlessness, begrudging acceptance at the end. I laughed a few times and appreciated the huge left-turn at the two-thirds mark, but I didn't think it amounted to much. 84. Patti Cake$ (Geremy Jasper)-  Other than the Basterd character, there's nothing really broken about this movie, but I'm selling on anything with double-digit dream sequences. 

83. Colossal (Nacho Vigalondo)- The ending, both the final act and the final note, went a long way to save what was a tedious sit for me. I appreciate the big swings that everyone took with this budget and material--Sudeikis once again gets to show impressive range. But this is an hour of material stretched to an hour and forty-nine minutes. 82. Rough Night (Lucia Aniello)- Hide-the-body movies never work, but what makes this one disappointing is that there's a daring, original corrective somewhere on the margins. You can tell from the comparatively tame bachelor party or the unexpectedly positive threesome that this movie has refreshing ideas, but both the Machine and TV visuals from a TV director shaved the edge down. No one wants to hear such a thing about a sorely-needed female-driven comedy, but Paul W. Downs is the funniest thing in this. 81. Beauty and the Beast (Bill Condon)- Shout-out to the morons protesting this movie's gayness but not realizing that the original was always an allegory for AIDS. These live-action remakes are all around the same quality, but this one feels especially bloated, with really dicey CGI. Things get borderline boring in between the musical numbers, but, man, do those numbers hold up. There's the title track obviously, but songs that would be throwaways in something else--"Gaston," "Be Our Guest," "Something There"--are BANGERZ here. The real IP is the music, and Disney is just going to get each generation's Josh Gad to sing them forever. 80. Darkest Hour (Joe Wright)- This movie reminded me of The Imitation Game in the sense that it's a staid presentation with a solid structure that feels cheap whenever it zooms out beyond its back rooms. The grander version of this, which Joe Wright in some ways already made, is probably just as unsatisfying, but it wouldn't have the pinnacle of goofiness that will hereupon be known as The Underground Scene. I’m a bit bored of this type of film. Darkest Hour might be worth seeing for Oldman's performance, which is a true transformation, absent of any actory vanity but invested with some real myth-making. Churchill gets introduced with just his hat, then lit by just a match, then lit by a shock of sunlight. Oldman is very good in his scenes with Scott Thomas, so it's a shame that her character disappears for a half-hour at a time. The more troubling thing to note is that there are many men in this film who are so English that they can't pronounce their r's. If you catch it eawly, it's a weal distwacting pwoblem. 79. The Fate of the Furious (F. Gary Gray)- Since some of the dumbest stuff is some of the best stuff*, I'm not going to get caught in the web of assessing how much sense The Fate of the Furious makes. But I can say that this entry is the least intentionally funny of the series, and other than "the White girls' soccer team is the Monarchs," it loses some of the class undressing of 6 and 7. From the endless scene-setting to the overstuffed character roster, this is now more of a comic book than a movie, an exercise in being a plot without being a narrative. *- See: the "make it rain" sequence, Statham swinging the baby carrier through a gun battle, Rock redirecting the missile with his bare hands.

78. Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press (Brian Knappenberger)- The first hour, centering on the Hulk Hogan/Gawker case, is compulsively watchable, even if it doesn't shed much extra light for anyone who followed it when it happened. Terry Bollea explaining that his penis is shorter than ten inches while Hulk Hogan's, the character's, is not: That's what I signed up for. When that case veers into the bizarrely vengeful, pretty much when Peter Thiel comes in, Nobody Speak becomes something else. The final third pits the sensitive, diligent bullpen of the Las Vegas Review-Journal against billionaire liver spot Sheldon Adelson, who bought their paper to suppress it. Then, of course, the doc expands to Donald Trump's vilification of the free press. If that sounds like a straight line, it doesn't come off that way in the film. The Hogan/Gawker stuff, which takes up the majority of the running time, feels unresolved after all the tangents. 77. The Reagan Show (Sierra Pettengill, Pacho Velez)- I'm cringing for the next five years, in which I'll have to judge a movie's success based on how subtly it invokes its mandatory Donald Trump comparisons and allegories. They're coming. In general, it's kind of sad to see how much more literate people were even thirty years ago, even as they populated a medium we all agreed was low culture. This documentary feels sharp at first, understanding something essential about the way Reagan owned his own persona. With the American Right treating him like some patron saint, it's also helpful to remember how much pushback he got at the end of his second term, for something that would be, like, the fiftieth most controversial thing Donald Trump would have done already. (See?) When the doc gets to its own fascination with Reagan's Star Wars program, however, it basically loses its thesis. As lean as it is, it still sort of stumbles to the finish line. 76. Beatriz at Dinner (Miguel Arteta)- I appreciated this portrayal of a culture clash way more than I liked it. For a while the characters are highly specific. (The delivery of "It's 6:13, Kathy" made me laugh out loud.) Then the plot turns into "Oh, so we're talking about Trump's America, right?" (See?) Here's a critique that's catty every time: This film has great ideas about class and race if you've never thought about class and race before. 75. I, Tonya (Craig Gillespie)- Oscar is calling...for the fat dude playing Shawn Eckhardt and no one else. If Allison Janney wins for doing the thing she always does over Laurie Metcalf's fully realized human, then it's a huge mistake. Successful in some of its comedic goals, especially in its depiction of northwestern goons, the shame of the working class, and period detail. (I laughed out loud when I saw the Girbaud tag on Gilooly's jeans.) Unsuccessful in most of its other goals--if I'm even reading the film correctly in my assumption of those goals. The most obvious one is the slippery nature of the truth, and that idea is handled clumsily. Gillespie goes to great GoodFellas-aping lengths to grapple with perception--having characters break the fourth wall even though there are already voiceovers and to-camera interviews. That talking to the camera comes up a few times in the disturbing scenes of domestic violence, which do humanize the characters because the other elements of the film can't, but they distract the viewer with their blitheness. The most puzzling angle of the film is the Hard Copy reporter, played by Bobby Cannavale in yet another example of his agent not knowing how famous he is. It's a missed opportunity in a movie full of them. 74. It (Andy Muschietti)- I don't get why people went nuts for this. The ensemble avails itself pretty well, despite all the sitcom-y dialogue. (Dialogue that, based on the Stephen King that I've read, is probably faithful to the book.) Some of the visuals nail the distinction between surreal and unreal--my favorite is the children's TV show that sporadically drifts into the murderous. But the movie just kind of hangs there, all the way to its interminable ending, satisfied with its own literal presentation of events that seem to be metaphorical. As I understand, It--however It manifests itself--represents the death of childhood and the emergence of an adult banality of evil. But the movie engages with that level as little as possible, and maybe that's why people are going nuts for it. This is a scary movie if you're a child, and most of the moviegoing public seem to be children. 73. Before I Fall (Ry Russo-Young)- I mostly watched this because I think Zoey Deutch is a Movie Star, and if I'm going to be there for her Speed, I have to be there for her Love Potion No. 9's as well. I appreciated Before I Fall's brevity, but the premise offers a lot more fun than the film is willing to have. In the end the balance was off: It had to be either more moralistically PG-13 or go way darker. For example, just like in Groundhog Day, the character realizes that she'll live out the same day no matter what she does, and it triggers a nihilistic phase. But rather than going on a shooting spree or stealing stuff from a mall, she just, like, wears a sexier dress and talks back to her parents. Good swing, kids, but I'm waiting for the crazier version.

72. War Machine (David Michod)- There are some standout moments in War Machine, many of which are thanks to its impressive cast, but I don't think the film is cohesive enough for me to recommend. I know what Michod is against--counter-insurgency, military hubris--but it's harder to figure out what he's arguing for beyond some sort of level of transparency. The war sequence near the end feels at odds with the tone of everything else, even though it benefits from the Nick Cave and Warren Ellis score. In a similarly frustrated vein, I feel as if I know exactly who Glen McMahon is, and the script's greatest strength is how sharply it draws him, but Pitt's studied performance adds distance to it. It's as if all of the film's comedic nature is supposed to come from how people revolve around his straight man, and that expectation is too much to put on his shoulders. There's more than a little Bud Turgidson in the voice Pitt affects, but the difference is that, as mean as this sounds, I always believed George C. Scott when he played a smart person. 71. The Trip to Spain (Michael Winterbottom)- Diminishing returns. 70. Downsizing (Alexander Payne)- There's a meta-effect to the structure of Downsizing. Its characters decide to shrink themselves, finding unpredictable challenges in the process, and the film similarly gets more problematic as it focuses further into each of its four legs. The first part, the outside world, is when the film is at its most cutting and well-observed. It still lays its points on thickly--dude at the bar asking if downsized people should be able to vote, for example--but the questions are worth asking. The second part, Leisureland, the bourgeois subdivision lil' Damon lives in, is more satirical and less satisfying. (I do love that downsizing ends up being such a gauche pursuit though. Payne has always had his finger on the pulse of people with poor taste.) The third part, which takes place in the downsizing slums, is a sharp, unfunny left turn that discards characters but at least develops the protagonist further. And then the wheels come off in Norway. At least we got to hear Udo Kier say, "I do love my boat." 69. Okja (Bong Joon-Ho)- Since Okja is such a unique movie, I feel as if people will overpraise it as a way to brand themselves: Its poster is probably going to be in a lot of dorm rooms. But there's a lot that you have to look past in order to recommend it. In general, I find that Bong's English language work has a bizarre mixture of muddled themes being presented in direct ways. There is some sweetness here--most of it due to the amazingly detailed rendering of the pig--but too much of the comedy doesn't work, and the ending feels a bit easy. I liked most of the stuff with the Animal Liberation Front, and I kind of wish they had been the focal point of the movie. Can I say, as my main takeaway, that I'm worried about Jakey G? He is so big here, so out-of-tune with the rest of the film, that I blame Bong for not reining him in. At the same time, I keep making excuses for Gyllenhaal, claiming that his parts are under-written, but at a certain point, you have to point the finger at him if there's such a pattern of bad performances emerging. I didn't see Everest, but this is his fourth brick in a row. Help us, Dan Gilroy. You're our only hope. 68. The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Yorgos Lanthimos)- An interesting swing that ends up missing for me. Excepting The Lobster, Lanthimos's works seem obsessed with family dynamics, and he plays some interesting games with this family's perversions. Farrell's character's story about his father dovetails with his somnophilia, which seems to inspire the way his daughter offers herself to her object of affection. From Anna's medical past to Steven's alcoholism, these characters seem to have full lives that have been in motion long before the events of the story. But I kind of suspect I'm worshiping at the altar of auteurism, and I wouldn't have half the respect or patience I do for this film had I not known who made it. The dialogue and performances are purposefully flat and stilted, thus creating an off, eerie quality before we know why we should be unnerved. But what if the performances are just, you know, bad? The film also creates a premise that concludes in an inevitably unsatisfying way. I don't know what I would have done instead, but I'm not a genius filmmaker who gets the benefit of the doubt.

#film #lists #Movie Reviews

[jaeyloaded]

What Mr Eazi’s Father, Captain Ajibade, Has To Say About His Son

Not much is known about Captain Alexander Olukayode Ajibade who retired from the Nigerian Air Force as a Squadron leader.

But his son, Oluwatosin Oluwole Ajibade, better known as Mr. Eazi will ring a bell in the ears of many Nigerians or lovers of Afro beat. Even though being a celebrity parent has its perks, Captain Ajibade, as fondly called and his wife chose to remain off the scene as their first son, Mr Eazi swept through cities after cities with hit records, using his style of ‘Banku Music,’ touring and striking deals across the UK, US and other markets as one of the smartest African musicians alive. Two days before meeting Captain Ajibade at his Lagos home, I put up his name on Google but nothing came up, nothing linked him with the singer except during one of the music star’s video shoots, where Mr Eazi disclosed that Kpalanga, a military-themed music video was inspired by his pilot father’s absence from his family life. The video features the singer and a troupe of backing dancers dressed in camouflage fatigues, reflected the “toll” his father’s absence took on their relationship. He recalled meeting his father for the first time when he was two. As we sit down in his plush living room, I start by asking why they were not out there despite the fact that their son is arguably one of Nigeria’s most commercially successful artistes at the moment, especially in the international market. From sold-out concerts to making huge streaming revenue, Mr Eazi can be said to have successfully cracked the code on how effectively break into the international market. He has generated more than 900 million streams worldwide, including over 226 million plays on YouTube alone. From his tone, his reactions, one will definitely doubt that Captain Ajibade who hails from Ayetoro, Ogun State, once worked in the military. He is calm and cool, a rare trait to see in a military man. “I have always been a very private person, let Mr Eazi do his things and we do our things here too”, he replies before narrating a scenario to support why they chose to remain private as Mr Eazi’s parent. “I think it was in the news that Mr Eazi’s father was kidnapped, people who saw the news were trying to reach me. It was on Sunday and I got back from Church early so I was sleeping at home and my phone was off. By the time my wife got back and they called her, she said my husband is here. “So they kidnapped the wrong person,” he narrated. Upon our arrival at his home, Mr Eazi’s parents just filled up a car with cooked meals heading to somewhere in Agege to give them out to the less privileged. A week earlier, the parent through Mr Eazi’s foundation – emPawa Foundation, had donated food items to residents in Sango Ota in Ogun State, and also visited Little Saints Orphanage in Lagos to support vulnerable children with food items. Initially, Captain Ajibade did not plan to follow the family to Agege to distribute the food but when we arrived, he had to take us in his car and waited, and after we were done, we headed back to his home and there I told him about our mission. “I thought you guys will want to interview Mr Eazi not me and he’s not around right now,” he said. I told him “we are here for you for now sir.” After we settled down, he took us back to his military and religious journey as well as other things he ventured into at the same time. “I don’t believe in titles. People just refer to me as Captain Ajibade, simple. I remembered when I was in Liberia, people call me Chaplain rather than addressing me by my rank, I retired as from the Air Force as a Squadron leader, in some circles they call me reverend, some call me pastor. In fact, there is a renowned Bishop in this country that always addresses me as a prophet.” After leaving service, Captain Ajibade did not stop rendering service to his country,“And to the Glory of God, I fly more or less for fun now, training Police pilots with no charge,” he says. “I fly helicopters that are rare, that when you go round the whole of West Africa, you will only see one or two people that can fly that type of helicopter. So that’s basically the person I am. Captain Ajibade has worked with notable people in Nigeria in the aviation sector, “I retired after 19 years in service of Nigerian Air Force, since then I have worked in several places. Bristow Helicopters, Adenuga’s Southern Airlines through Chief Makanjuola who owns Caverton Helicopters because he was the one paying us. “As I said, I still fly, my dream is that one day I have my own helicopter, not necessarily because right now I’m at the retirement age of even flying but then seeing some young ones growing, doing it and I love imparting knowledge on people, whether religious knowledge, spiritualism or knowledge as per aviation because after forty-something years in the military, you know I have something to offer. Captain Ajibade was also in Sierra Leone for ECOMOG for three years, a West African peacekeeping force that was founded to stop the bloodshed and ethnic killing. “All those experiences shaped me and my perception about life,” he added. Captain Ajibade and his son had a weird relationship because of absence in his life while growing up. “I think I didn’t see him for about 12 months after he was born,” he says as I asked him about his relationship with his son. “15 months, it was 15 months,” Mr Eazi’s mother, former banker now a pastor and an entrepreneur who was sitting at the dining table observing the interview from afar chipped in. “I actually met my wife in the bank where she was working,” he had told me earlier. “Well you know women do keep accurate date and time,’’ Captain Ajibade added as he flashed back to those struggling times to serve his nation and leave his family. “I was to go to Liberia during the civil war, I only waited for some time to do the naming ceremony and I left. It was a tough time for me because he doesn’t know me, he won’t listen or speak to me,” he lamented, “it was after I retired from the service I finally found time to work on our father and son relationship.” Mr Eazi’s father is from Yewa constituency in Ogun State while his mother is from the South-South region of Nigeria. The couple met in Port Harcourt where Mr Eazi was born, but how did Ghana came into the picture? I asked Captain Ajibade. Mr Eazi’s musical root has always been traced to Ghana, the singer once told Rolling Stone Magazine that “My music started out in Ghana, moved to the U.K. and then to Nigeria. To this day, the U.K. is my Number One streaming location on Apple Music and Spotify.” Mr Eazi had his growing up years, from 15 to 22 in Ghana for his educational endeavours, enrolling in the mechanical engineering programme at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). He later proceeded to Coventry University, United Kingdom. Helping people has always been Mr Eazi’s mission, “it was during his time at KNUST, he started doing MC, DJ and booking artistes to perform at college parties using the money to help students,” says Captain Ajibade. He did not start making music to make money.” Mr Eazi would later contribute vocals to the track “My Life”, a song that gained traction and became a popular record at KNUST. It was during his time as show MC that he got his stage name. “When he is MCing at the party, he always cautioned people at the event to take it easy, easy easy je je which now becomes Mr Eazi,” Captain Ajibade reveals, adding that his name was Easy Easy Jeje at first. Mr Eazi went on to pioneer Banku music, a fusion sound he describes as a mixture of Ghanaian highlife and Nigerian chord progressions and patterns. It is a sound characterized by percolating rhythms and laid-back vocal delivered in Ghanaian Pidgin English. Expanding his community service beyond Nigeria, Mr Eazi launched a talent incubator programme ‘emPawa Africa’ in 2018, with the goal of investing in promising artists early so they could develop self-sustaining careers. Each artiste will receive a $10,000 grant to go towards a music video, along with mentorship from professional singers, producers, and video directors. Captain Ajibade, while reacting to that nodded in affirmation, “that’s how all my children were brought up. It is not that he is rich to sponsor all those artistes, he has sponsors, some people are also supporting him.” “Mr Eazi always told us the story of the $1,000 investment someone made in his career and how that made a huge difference,” E Kelly, a music producer and close collaborator, told Rolling Stone in 2019. The strategy seemed to work for singers like Joeboy, J. Derobie, and others who scored hits last year after connecting with emPawa. I asked at what point did Mr Eazi showed interest in music, the father did not give me a specific answer but disclosed that all his children have access to many musical instruments at home and they listened to records he would play for the family while having breakfast. Giving the fact that Military men are always strict, Captain Ajibade is far from strict, he’s actually the one we should be calling Mr Eazi. As a man of God, he believes people should do what they are passionate about and be fulfilled. Speaking about his kind of private lifestyle, Captain Ajibade who doesn’t always attend his son’s shows and will remain in the crowd for the once he attends, said “that’s where all the fun is actually,” while his son will announce that his father is around but won’t get him noticed because he does not take life too serious because of experience while growing up. In his words, “There are always two angles to human beings. There is spiritual and there is physical and when you have experienced both, you just know that there is nothing to it. He went on to narrate how things were hard while growing up, “I say extremely rough, right from my primary school days, I even had ulcer but reading the bible and following the scripture, it impacted on my character and my way of life.” Captain Ajibade also had a little stint in politics, he contested Federal House of Rep for three times and lost all. Prior to that, he boasted to have built more than 200 boreholes across the country as a way of giving back to the communities. While narrating how his third attempt in the National Assembly made him quit politics, he agreed that it has always been like that in Nigeria politics. “The one that I won, those who have money bought it and that’s politics,” he says “At one point I was wondering that how can I win someone in his polling unit, in his ward, in his local government and yet at the end of the day, I still lose the election?” But for someone like Captain Ajibade who believes in God, took the situation as part of the training of life, “it shows how people can go into a lot of diabolical means to win elections and what I told the man was that. I said the way the animal that went to sacrifice suffered and died, that’s the way you will end up your life, and that was what happened. He was in the House of Rep three times consecutively, but he rotten to death, I was not happy about it but there is nothing you sow in life you will reap it, whether here or hereafter.” Captain Ajibade started his political career from Alliance for Democracy, AD, and migrated to People’s Democratic Party, PDP, “and that was when Gbenga Daniel started his campaign in Ayetoro with some of my projects. I moved all my followers from AD to PDP and I have always contested under PDP, though I am not an active PDP member anymore,” he reveals. Despite his contribution to his communities and having a good plan to represent them at the National level, Captain Ajibade’s efforts were not appreciated. “In fact I stopped been active in politics after my third-time attempt. I have come to realize that people are not ready, maybe for those who believed in divine intervention, maybe we will look for divine intervention, but the attitude of the people cannot actually bring an effective change,” he concluded. Read the full article

#CaptainAjibade

[sandhyamodi]

The Best Movies on Amazon Prime Video in India

Amazon Prime Video's movie acquisitions might not have the same international depth as Netflix, but it's undoubtedly stronger and richer in its local variety, with its titles spanning the Tamil, Telugu, and the Malayalam world of filmmaking in addition to Bollywood. And that's matched with a powerful collection of American imports, to deliver a collection that can more than stand its ground against the world's biggest streaming service. It lacks with its original efforts — a few are present below, for what it's worth — but it's also a lot more affordable at Rs. 999 per year, versus Netflix's Rs. 650 a month. To pick the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, we relied on Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, and IMDb ratings to create a shortlist. The last of them was preferred for Indian films given the shortfalls of reviews aggregators in that department. Additionally, we used our own editorial judgement to add or remove a few. This list will be updated once every few months if there are any worthy additions or if some movies are removed from the service, so bookmark this page and keep checking in. Here are the best films currently available on Amazon Prime Video in India, sorted alphabetically. 12 Years a Slave (2013) Duped into slavery on the account of a job, Steve McQueen's adaptation of a free New York black man's (Chiwetel Ejiofor) 19th-century memoir is an incredible true story, and an important watch. 3 Idiots (2009) In this satire of the Indian education system's social pressures, two friends recount their college days and how their third long-lost musketeer (Aamir Khan) inspired them to think creatively and independently in a heavily-conformist world. Co-written and directed by Rajkumar Hirani, who stands accused in the #MeToo movement. Agantuk (1991) In Satyajit Ray's last film, a mysterious and world-weary explorer returns to India after 35 years to see his only surviving relative, his niece, but has trouble convincing the family who he claims to be. Aladdin (1992) Disney puts its animation flavour onto the famous folk tale of a street urchin who disguises himself as a wealthy prince after finding a genie in a magic lamp, in an attempt to impress the Sultan's daughter. Amal (2007) After a poor Delhi auto-rickshaw driver (Rupinder Nagra) is named as the sole inheritor by a local billionaire (Naseeruddin Shah) just before his death, he must decide whether to keep it. American Beauty (1999) A depressed advertising executive (Kevin Spacey) in the midst of a midlife crisis falls for his teenage daughter's best friend, in Sam Mendes' satire of American middle-class that ultimately won five Oscars including Best Picture. Anand (1971) Rajesh Khanna stars as the eponymous happy-go-lucky man, who doesn't let his diagnosis of a rare form of cancer get in the way of enjoying what's in front of him. Told from the viewpoint of his doctor friend (Amitabh Bachchan). Hrishikesh Mukherjee directs. Anbe Sivam (2003) Kamal Haasan and R. Madhavan star in this Tamil cult film, in which the two are stranded over a thousand kilometres from home after heavy rain cancels all flights and strike up an unlikely friendship on their way back. Haasan also wrote the script. Andaz Apna Apna (1994) Two slackers (Aamir Khan and Salman Khan) who belong to middle-class families vie for the affections of an heiress, and inadvertently become her protectors from a local gangster in Rajkumar Santoshi's cult comedy favourite.

Ankhon Dekhi (2014) After an eye-opening experience involving his daughter's marriage, a man in his late 50s (Sanjay Mishra) resolves that he won't believe anything he can't see, which naturally leads to some dramatic complications. Aruvi (2016) A social satire from a debutante writer-director, which follows an eponymous young woman (Aditi Balan), who going through a bout of existential crisis, decides to shine a light on the consumerist and misogynistic behaviours in her society. Back to the Future (1985) Not many films come close to the worldwide appeal and legacy left by this sci-fi entry featuring the iconic DeLorean that Michael J. Fox's character uses to (accidentally) time travel to when his parents were his age. Strange then that it didn't get the green light for years. Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015) The heavily controversial Salman Khan stars as a devout Hindu Brahmin and an ardent devotee of Hanuman, who embarks on a journey to reunite a mute six-year-old Muslim girl, lost in India, with her parents in Pakistan. Kareena Kapoor co-stars. Salman is a convicted poacher, out on bail, and accused of culpable homicide, pending appeal. A Beautiful Mind (2001) The life of John Nash, a brilliant but asocial mathematician, from his spiral into paranoid schizophrenia and working on a secret project he made up, to regaining control over his life and becoming a Nobel Laureate. The Big Sick (2017) Kumail Nanjiani stars as himself in this rom-com loosely based on his romance with his wife, in which an aspiring comedian connects with his girlfriend's parents after she falls into a mysterious coma. Blood Diamond (2006) Set during the Sierra Leone Civil War at the turn of the century, an arms smuggler (Leonardo DiCaprio) promises to help a fisherman (Djimon Hounsou) find his family in exchange for a priceless diamond the latter found in a river. Bombay (1995) Set during the 1992–93 Bombay riots, writer-director Mani Ratnam offers a look at the communal tensions that cause a strain on the relationship between a Muslim woman (Manisha Koirala) and a Hindu man (Arvind Swamy). The Bourne trilogy (2002–07) Technically not a trilogy, but the first three chapters — Identity, Supremacy, and Ultimatum — starring Matt Damon in the lead as the titular CIA assassin suffering from amnesia were so good that they changed the longest-running spy franchise of all-time: James Bond. Brazil (1985) Terry Gilliam blends social satire with his signature visual inventiveness in this dystopian sci-fi set in a retro-future world, which follows a lowly clerk who becomes an enemy of the state after trying to correct an administrative error.

Captain Fantastic (2016) After his bipolar wife suddenly dies, a single father (Viggo Mortensen), who brought up his six children living off the grid and isolated from society, must introduce them to the real world for the first time. Carol (2015) Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara star in this intimate, thoughtful and gorgeous drama about two lesbians living in polar-opposite worlds in 1950s New York, as they navigate societal customs and their own wants. Based on Patricia Highsmith's novel, The Price of Salt. Cast Away (2000) After his plane crash-lands in the Pacific, a FedEx employee (Tom Hanks) wakes up on a deserted island and must use everything at his disposal and transform himself physically to survive living alone. Catch Me If You Can (2002) Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks star in Steven Spielberg's biopic of Frank Abagnale (DiCaprio), who forged millions of dollars' worth of cheques as a teenager, while being pursued by an FBI agent (Hanks). Chak De! India (2007) Ostracised and vilified by the press and public, a former Muslim men's hockey captain (Shah Rukh Khan) plans to redeem himself by coaching the unpolished Indian women's hockey team to glory. Charade (1963) After her husband is murdered while trying to leave Paris, a young woman (Audrey Hepburn) is pursued by three men, who want a fortune he had stolen, and seeks the help of a stranger (Cary Grant). Known as “the best Hitchcock movie that Hitchcock never made”. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) Frequent collaborators Tim Burton and Johnny Depp are behind this ‘remake' of the 1971 original based on Roald Dahl's 1964 book, in which the title character — a young boy (Freddie Highmore) — wins a tour of an imaginative chocolatier's chocolate factory with four other kids. Chhoti Si Baat (1976) This remake of the 1960 British film School for Scoundrels transports the story to then-Bombay, where a meek young man (Amol Palekar) turns to life-coach Colonel (Ashok Kumar) to battle a suave, bold man for the affections of a woman. Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, and Hema Malini cameo as themselves. Basu Chatterjee directs. Chupke Chupke (1975) Hrishikesh Mukherjee's remake of the Bengali film Chhadmabeshi, in which a newly-wedded husband (Dharmendra) decides to play pranks on his wife's (Sharmila Tagore) supposedly smart brother-in-law, released in the same year as Sholay. Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan also star. Collateral (2004) Tom Cruise plays a hitman who takes a taxi driver, played by Jamie Foxx, hostage in Michael Mann's neo-noir crime thriller, in which the latter must figure out how to stop the former. The Conjuring (2013) A pair of paranormal investigators (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) are hired by a family who have been experiencing increasingly disturbing events at their farmhouse, in this effective horror from James Wan.

Crazy Rich Asians (2018) Based on the novel of the same name, a Chinese-American professor travels halfway around the world to Singapore to meet her boyfriend's extremely-rich family, where she must contend with weird relatives, jealous socialites, and the boyfriend's disapproving mother (Michelle Yeoh). A Death in the Gunj (2016) In Konkona Sen Sharma's feature-length directorial debut, a shy and sensitive Indian student (Vikrant Massey) pays a heavy price for his gentleness, while on a road trip with his conceited relatives and family friends. Ranvir Shorey, Kalki Koechlin star alongside. The Death of Stalin (2017) Veep creator Armando Iannucci approaches this momentous occasion in the history of Russia through the lens of black comedy and political satire, depicting the power struggles that ensued following the titular dictator's death in 1953. Jeffrey Tambor, who stars, stands accused in the #MeToo movement. Dil Chahta Hai (2001) Farhan Akhtar's directorial debut about three inseparable childhood friends whose wildly different approach to relationships creates a strain on their friendship remains a cult favourite. Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan, and Preity Zinta star. Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol's characters fall in love during a trip to Europe with their friends in this now iconic film — which is still playing over two decades later in a single-screen Mumbai theatre — but face hurdles as the woman's conservative father has promised her hand in marriage to someone else. Dum Laga Ke Haisha (2015) After a court order mandates a video cassette store owner and an RSS volunteer (Ayushmann Khurrana) and a plus-sized teacher-in-training (Bhumi Pednekar) to salvage their failing marriage, the two begin to put themselves in each other's shoes, before deciding to take part in a piggyback race. Won a National Award. Ee. Ma. Yau (2018) A son struggles to organise the grand burial he promised his dad in this Malayalam-language black comedy that's largely shot in natural light. Lijo Jose Pellissery directs. The Exorcist (1973) One of the greatest horror films of all time, that has left a lasting influence on the genre and beyond, is about the demonic possession of a 12-year-old girl and her mother's attempts to save her with the help of two priests who perform exorcisms. Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) Roald Dahl's children's novel about a fox who steals food from three mean and wealthy farmers gets the stop-motion treatment from Wes Anderson, featuring the voices of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, and Michael Gambon. Fight Club (1999) Brad Pitt and Edward Norton star in this cult hit from David Fincher, about a white-collared insomniac disappointed with his capitalistic lifestyle, who forms an underground fight club with a devil-may-care soapmaker, which evolves into something much more.

Forrest Gump (1994) A slow-witted but kind-hearted man (Tom Hanks) takes part in a series of defining events of the second half of the 20th century in the US, while pining for his childhood love. Forushande (2016) Oscar-winner Asghar Farhadi uses Arthur Miller's play “Death of a Salesman” as his story within a story, to depict thematic parallels with the deteriorating relationship of an Iranian couple after an assault on the wife. The husband wants to find out who the attacker is against her wishes, while she deals with post-trauma stress. Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) Inspired by the 2008 Tamil-language film Subramaniapuram, Anurag Kashyap concocts a gangster epic that blends politics, vengeance, and romance as it looks at the power struggles between three crime families in and around the Jharkhand city of Dhanbad, the epicentre of the coal mafia. Ghare Baire (1984) Based on Rabindranath Tagore's novel of the same name, and set in the chaotic aftermath of the partition of Bengal, writer-director Satyajit Ray tells the story of a woman married to a forward-thinking man whose lives are upended by the appearance of the husband's radical friend. Ghostbusters (1984) A bunch of eccentric paranormal enthusiasts start a ghost-catching business in New York, and then stumble upon a plot to wreak havoc by summoning ghosts. Gave birth to one of the most iconic song lyrics in history. Gladiator (2000) Winner of five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Russell Crowe, this Ridley Scott-directed film tells a moving story of a Roman general (Crowe) who loses everything — his family and rank —to end up as a slave and then seeks vengeance on the perpetrator (Joaquin Phoenix). The Godfather (1972) In what is considered one of the greatest films of all-time, an aging leader (Marlon Brando) of a New York mafia transfers control of his empire to his youngest son (Al Pacino), who goes from a reluctant outsider to a ruthless boss. The Godfather Part II (1974) Francis Ford Coppola's follow-up to his original, centering on Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) at the top of the pecking order while offering a look back at his father's (Robert De Niro) past, is considered by some to be better than its predecessor. Gol Maal (1979) A chartered accountant (Amol Palekar), with a knack for singing and acting, falls deep down the rabbit hole after lying to his boss that he has a twin, in this Hrishikesh Mukherjee comedy. Gone Girl (2014) Based on Gillian Flynn's best-selling novel and directed by David Fincher, a confounded husband (Ben Affleck) becomes the primary suspect in the sudden mystery disappearance of his wife (Rosamund Pike).

Gravity (2013) Two US astronauts, a first-timer (Sandra Bullock) and another on his final mission (George Clooney), are stranded in space after their shuttle is destroyed, and then must battle debris and challenging conditions to return home. Gully Boy (2019) An aspiring, young street rapper (Ranveer Singh) from the slums of Mumbai sets out to realise his dream, while dealing with the complications that arise out of his personal life and the socioeconomic strata to which he belongs. Zoya Akhtar directs, and Alia Bhatt stars alongside. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) Alfonso Cuarón stepped behind the camera for what many consider to be the best Harry Potter film, as the boy who lived enters his third year at Hogwarts, and is told that Sirus Black, an escapee from the wizarding world prison Azkaban, is after his life. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) Working off the tone set by Alfonso Cuarón, the fourth entry in the series finds the titular chosen one pulled into an inter-school magical tournament, while battling the disturbing visions and the aching pain that stem from his forehead scar. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) In this final thrilling chapter, the famous trio — Harry, Ron, and Hermione — face a race against time to find and destroy Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes, while the students and teachers of Hogwarts unite to defend the school. Heat (1995) Al Pacino and Robert De Niro star on opposite sides of the law — the former a detective, the latter a thief — in Michael Mann's stylistic crime drama, with a group of bank robbers planning a heist unaware the police are onto them. Hera Pheri (2000) Unemployed and struggling with money, a landlord and his two tenants (Paresh Rawal, Akshay Kumar, and Sunil Shetty) chance on a ransom phone call and plan to collect the ransom for themselves in this remake of the 1989 Malayalam film Ramji Rao Speaking. How to Train Your Dragon (2010) Brought up in a world where Vikings have a tradition of being dragon slayers, a young teenager becomes an unlikely friend with a young dragon and learns there may be more to the creatures than everyone thinks. The Hurt Locker (2008) Best picture winner at the Oscars, a new leader (Jeremy Renner) of a bomb disposal squad surprises his subordinates with his views and reckless approach to the job in the Iraqi capital. Kathryn Bigelow became first woman to win best director. Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Directed by Steven Spielberg off a story by George Lucas, an eponymous archaeologist (Harrison Ford) travels the world and battles a group of Nazis while looking for a mysterious artefact, in what is now often considered as one of the greatest films of all-time.

Into The Wild (2007) Based on Jon Krakauer's nonfiction book, Sean Penn goes behind the camera to direct the story of a top student and athlete who gives up all possessions and savings to charity, and hitchhikes across America to live in the Alaskan wilderness. Iruvar (1997) Aishwarya Rai made her acting debut with a dual supporting role in Mani Ratnam's biographical film, which is inspired by the real-life rivalry of 1980s Tamil Nadu political icons M.G. Ramachandran (Mohanlal) and M. Karunanidhi (Prakash Raj). Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (1983) In this satire of politics, bureaucracy, and the media, two photographers (Naseeruddin Shah and Ravi Baswani) inadvertently capture a murder while trying to expose the rich. A Mahabharata dramatisation in the third act is a renowned highlight. JFK (1991) When a New Orleans district attorney (Kevin Costner) tries to unearth the mystery and possibly conspiracy behind the assassination of former US President John Kennedy, he's faced with considerable pressure from the government. Tommy Lee Jones, Gary Oldman co-star. Oliver Stone directs. Jurassic Park (1993) It might be over 25 years old at this point but watching the very first Jurassic film from Steven Spielberg — based on Michael Crichton's novel, which he co-adapted — is a great way to remind yourself why the new series, Jurassic World, has no idea why it's doing. Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959) Guru Dutt directed and starred in what is regarded as one of the greatest films of all time, about a famous director (Dutt) who casts an unknown woman (Waheeda Rehman) in his next film, and the opposing trajectories of their careers thereon. Kannathil Muthamittal (2002) Upon learning that she is adopted, a young girl embarks on a journey across civil war-ravaged Sri Lanka to find her biological mother who is part of the revolutionaries. Mani Ratnam directs. The King of Comedy (1982) In Martin Scorsese's overlooked satire of celebrity worship and media culture, an aspiring comic (Robert De Niro) stalks his late-night talk show idol to earn a big break, and then kidnaps him when things don't work out. Kumbalangi Nights (2019) Four brothers who share a love-hate relationship stand behind one of their own in matters of the heart in this Malayalam-language family drama that explores masculinity with nuance and in detail. Directorial debut of Madhu C. Narayanan. Kung Fu Panda (2008) After an obese kung fu enthusiast panda is supposedly mistakenly chosen as the Dragon Warrior to fight an impending threat, he is unwillingly taught by an elderly master and his students who have been training for years.

L.A. Confidential (1997) As corruption brews in post-war Los Angeles, three police officers — one sordid (Kevin Spacey), one brutal (Russell Crowe) and one moralistic (Guy Pearce) — investigate a series of murders in their own way, and form an uneasy alliance. Spacey stands accused in the #MeToo movement. Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006) In this sequel to the 2003 original (also on the list), the Mumbai underworld don (Sanjay Dutt) starts to live by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi to impress a radio jockey (Vidya Balan) he's smitten with. Some felt it dumbed down Gandhism. Co-written and directed by Rajkumar Hirani, who stands accused in the #MeToo movement. The Legend of Bhagat Singh (2002) Ajay Devgn plays the titular socialist revolutionary and freedom fighter in writer-director Rajkumar Santoshi's biopic, which follows Singh — and later his associates, Shivaram Rajguru, Sukhdev Thapar, and Chandra Shekhar Azad — from the Jallianwala Bagh massacre to the bombing of Parliament House. Some did not like its treatment of Gandhi. The Lego Movie (2014) An ordinary, rules-following Lego minifigure (Chris Pratt) is mistakenly identified as the most extraordinary person and the key to saving the world from an evil tyrant, for which he is hilariously underprepared. It spawned the hit single, "Everything Is Awesome". Lipstick Under My Burkha (2016) Denied for a release for six months, this black comedy centres on four women in small town India who set out on a journey to discover freedom and happiness in a conservative society. The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-2003) Peter Jackson brought J.R.R. Tolkien's expansive Middle-Earth to life in these three three-hour epics, which charts the journey of a meek hobbit (Elijah Wood) and his various companions, as they try to stop the Dark Lord Sauron by destroying the source of his power, the One Ring. Maanagaram (2017) Crises befall a few youngsters — a cab driver, a BPO interviewee, and a hot-headed lover — whose lives are interlinked after they arrive in a big city in this Tamil-language thriller. Feature-length debut for writer-director Lokesh Kanagaraj. Manichitrathazhu (1993) In this Malayalam-language psychological thriller classic, a young wife (Shobana) is possessed by the spirit of a vengeful dancer after she opens a locked room in their new haunted mansion. To help get rid of it, the husband's psychiatrist friend (Mohanlal) suggests an unusual cure. Mean Girls (2004) Tina Fey's cult hit teen comedy follows a home-schooled 16-year-old (Lindsay Lohan) who's an instant hit with A-list girl clique at her new school, until she makes the mistake of falling for the ex-boyfriend of the clique's alpha.

Men in Black (1997) Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones star as two agents of an eponymous secret organisation, whose job is to monitor extraterrestrial life on Earth and hide their presence from humans, using neuralysers to erase memories if need be. Mera Naam Joker (1970) By far the longest film on this list with a four-hour runtime, this semi-autobiographical take on director, producer, and lead star Raj Kapoor's own life is about a circus clown (Kapoor) who must make his audience laugh no matter how unhappy he is within. Told in three chapters, it features three women — Simi Garewal, Kseniya Ryabinkina, and Padmini — who shaped his world. Negatively received upon release, it later underwent a critical revaluation. Minority Report (2002) Steven Spielberg loosely adapts Philip K. Dick's short story of a future where a special police unit can catch criminals before a crime is committed thanks to a technology, and what happens when an officer from that unit (Tom Cruise) is himself accused of a murder. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011) After the agency he works for is wrongly implicated in the bombing of the Kremlin, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and a new team are forced to go rogue and clear their employer's name in this fourth entry of the franchise. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015) With the organisation he works for disbanded and his country after him, Hunt (Cruise) races against time to prove the existence of the schemers pulling the strings in this fifth chapter. Introduced Rebecca Ferguson to the franchise. Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018) In what is arguably the best entry in the franchise yet — sixth, if you're counting — intelligence agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) & Co. set off on a globe-trotting adventure from Europe to Kashmir, to retrieve three plutonium cores from the hands of terrorists. Henry Cavill joins the fun. Moneyball (2011) Based on the true story of Oakland Athletics and manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), it follows the latter's attempts to build a competitive team by relying solely on statistical analysis, with help from a Yale graduate (Jonah Hill). Munich (2005) After a Palestinian terrorist group kills 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, the latter's government launches a secret retaliation, tasking five men to hunt and kill those responsible for the massacre. Steven Spielberg directs, based on a true story. Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. (2003) After his parents find out he has been pretending to be a doctor, a good-natured Mumbai underworld don (Sanjay Dutt) tries to redeem himself by enrolling in a medical college, where his compassion brushes up against the authoritarian dean (Boman Irani). Co-written and directed by Rajkumar Hirani, who stands accused in the #MeToo movement. Mustang (2015) Set in a remote Turkish village, this debut feature by a Turkish-French director depicts the lives of five young orphaned sisters and the challenges they face growing up in a conservative society.

Nayakan (1987) Inspired by The Godfather — though good luck getting writer-director Mani Ratnam to admit it — and the life of Bombay (now Mumbai) crime boss Varadarajan Mudaliar, it depicts and the life and death of Velu (Kamal Haasan) who becomes a gangster and builds an empire. Newton (2017) Winner of the National Award for best Hindi film, in which Rajkummar Rao stars as a government clerk who tries to run a free and fair election in the Naxal-controlled conflict-ridden jungles of India. Once Upon A Time in America (1984) Spanning four decades, Sergio Leone's final sprawling film about a kid in a Jewish slum (Robert De Niro) who rises to prominence in New York's world of organised crime remains one of the greatest gangster films of all-time. Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019) Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, and Margot Robbie lead the ensemble cast of Quentin Tarantino's “fairy tale tribute” to the waning days of Hollywood's golden age, which follows an ageing actor (DiCaprio) and his long-time friend and stunt double (Pitt) as they navigate a changing industry. Padosan (1968) Sunil Dutt, Saira Banu, Mehmood, and Kishore Kumar star in this remake of the 1952 Bengali film Pasher Bari, about a young man (Dutt) who falls in love with his new neighbour (Banu) and then enlists the help of his singer-actor friend (Kumar) to woo her away from her music teacher (Mehmood). Pariyerum Perumal (2018) An idealistic young man from a poor, oppressed caste family strikes a friendship with a much wealthier female classmate at law school in this Tamil-language film, earning him the wrath of her relatives and the society at large. Debut for writer-director Mari Selvaraj. Peranbu (2019) After his wife abandons him and their cerebral palsy daughter for another man, a single father (Mammooty) working as a cab driver in Dubai must return home and raise his only kid, while on the brink of homelessness. Pinjar (2003) Based on Amrita Pritam's Punjabi novel of the same name and set in the years before and after the Partition, a Hindu woman (Urmila Matondkar) returns to her Muslim kidnapper (Manoj Bajpayee) after she's disowned by her family upon escaping. Won a National Award. The Prestige (2006) After a tragic accident, two fellow magicians (Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale) turn bitter enemies in this thriller from Christopher Nolan, and engage in a battle to create the ultimate illusion, while sacrificing everything they have. Prisoners (2013) After his daughter and her friend are kidnapped, a father (Hugh Jackman) takes matters into his own hands while the police methodically track down multiple leads, getting himself into trouble. Jake Gyllenhaal co-stars. Pyaasa (1957) Guru Dutt directed and starred in this classic set in then-Calcutta which follows a struggling, anguished poet named Vijay (Dutt) who is unable to get recognition for his work until he meets Gulab (Waheeda Rehman), a prostitute with a heart of gold. Raazi (2018) Based on the real-life events depicted in Harinder Sikka's 2008 novel “Calling Sehmat”, Alia Bhatt stars as an undercover Kashmiri RAW agent who marries into a Pakistani military family to spy on the enemy prior to and during the 1971 Indo-Pak War. Some critics found it improbable.

The Report (2019) An idealistic government investigator (Adam Driver) uncovers shocking secrets as he dives into the CIA's post-9/11 use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” — in simpler words, torture — and faces severe pushback from those in the know. Roja (1992) Before Dil Se.. and Bombay, Mani Ratnam's exploration of human relationships against the backdrop of politics began with this Tamil-language film, about a newly-wed woman who moves to Kashmir and struggles to find her husband after he is kidnapped by Kashmiri separatists. Rosemary's Baby (1968) In this psychological horror based on Ira Levin's best-selling novel, a young pregnant woman (Mia Farrow) suspects an evil cult — involving her neighbours — wants to take her baby for use in their rituals. Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962) Based on Bimal Mitra's similarly-titled 1953 Bengali novel and set during the fall of British Raj feudalism, a part-time servant (Guru Dutt) develops a close, platonic bond with the ignored, lonely wife (Meena Kumari) of an aristocrat (Rehman). Waheeda Rehman also stars. Sankarabharanam (1980) Winner of four National Awards, a classical music legend faces ruin in this Telugu-language drama owing to changing music trends and the unexpected bond he forms with a prostitute's daughter, who is driven into exceptional circumstances. Saving Private Ryan (1998) In Steven Spielberg's World War II drama, while war rages on in Normandy, an army captain (Tom Hanks) is given the task of searching for a particular private (Matt Damon), whose three brothers have already been killed. Searching (2018) Told entirely through screens — computers and smartphones — a father (John Cho) breaks into his teenage daughter's laptop after she goes missing and detectives are unable to find a single lead. A Separation (2011) Asghar Farhadi's Oscar-winning drama follows an Iranian middle-class couple, whose 14-year-old marriage begins to dissolve after they reach a crossroads over the wife's wishes to leave the country and the husband's concerns for his elderly Alzheimer's father. Sholay (1975) Not many films have a level of prominence in popular Indian culture that is enjoyed by this fine example of “Curry Western”, which blends real-life elements with the works of Akira Kurosawa and Sergio Leone. Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Sanjeev Kumar, and Jaya Bhaduri (now Bachchan) star. Shutter Island (2010) Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese collaborate for this adaptation of Dennis Lehane's 2003 novel, about two US Marshals (DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo) investigating the disappearance of a criminally-insane patient, who was imprisoned for drowning her three children. Siddharth (2013) After a poor Delhi man's (Rajesh Tailang) 12-year-old son goes missing while away on work hundreds of kilometres away in Punjab, he sets out across the country to find him, fearing he's been trafficked.

Spider-Man 2 (2004) In what many consider the best Spider-Man movie of all-time, Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) can't catch a break. He loses his job, his powers, and the love of his life Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst). And his best friend (James Franco) is out for Spider-Man's blood to avenge the death of his father. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) Drawn with a mix of computer-generated and hand-drawn art, Miles Morales is drawn into an inter-dimensional conflict soon after he's bit by a spider and gains superpowers, pushing him to team up to save the multiverse. Set for a 2022 sequel. A Star Is Born (2018) Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga star in this latest — fourth, if you're counting — remake of the 1937 classic tale, of an alcoholic fading star (Cooper) meeting and discovering a future star (Gaga). Cooper marks his directorial debut. Star Trek (2009) J.J. Abrams reboots the Trek film franchise by taking it into an alternate reality, where the young Kirk and Spock aboard USS Enterprise must combat a determined enemy from the future, who's creating black holes to destroy planets one by one. Sully (2016) The true story of the 2009 emergency plane landing on New York's Hudson River gets the everyday-hero treatment from Clint Eastwood, focusing on the pilot's (Tom Hanks) heroics and the subsequent investigation that tried to paint him otherwise. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) Arnold Schwarzenegger returns as the android, now reprogrammed and sent back in time (again) to protect a younger version of a resistance leader, in James Cameron's sequel to the original that is considered one of the greatest films of all time. Thalapathi (1991) Mani Ratnam directs this Tamil-language crime drama loosely based on Karna and Duryodhana's friendship from Mahabharata, in which everything changes for a slum-dwelling orphan (Rajinikanth) who's taken under the wing of a local gang lord (Mammooty) with the arrival of a new district magistrate. Tumbbad (2018) While looking for a secret treasure in a village in 20th-century Maharashtra, a man and his son face the consequences of building a temple for a legendary demon who's not supposed to be worshipped in this psychological horror film. Unda (2019) Based on a true story, a nine-man Kerala police unit (Mammootty among them) must ensure peaceful elections in the Maoist-prone areas of Chhattisgarh with an insufficient number of bullets — unda is Malayalam for “bullet”. Vaastav: The Reality (1999) Loosely based on the life of Mumbai gangster Chhota Rajan, a young man (Sanjay Dutt) from the ghettos accidentally murders someone, which leads him into a life of crime where he swiftly climbs up the ladder — before launching into a spiral. Virus (2019) Set against the backdrop of the 2018 Nipah virus outbreak in the Indian state of Kerala, individuals from various walks of life come together to contain its spread in this gripping Malayalam-language thriller. Parvathy, Tovino Thomas, and Revathi star. Whiplash (2014) An ambitious young drummer (Miles Teller) is pushed to his limits and beyond by an abusive instructor (J.K. Simmons) in what became writer-director Damien Chazelle's breakthrough. The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) Leonardo DiCaprio stars as a real-life stockbroker who swindled over $100 million from buyers and scammed his way to the top, before he was caught and charged with fraud, corruption, and money laundering. Martin Scorsese directs, in ways that were accused of glorifying its protagonist's reprehensible actions. Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011) Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar, and Abhay Deol star as three childhood friends who set off on a bachelor trip across Spain, which becomes an opportunity to heal past wounds, combat their worst fears, and fall in love with life. Source link Read the full article

#aladdin #amazon #amazonindia #amazonprimevideobestmoviesindialist2020towatchhinditamilteluguenglishamazonprimevideo #backtothefuture #ghostbusters #gravity #gullyboy #harrypotter #howtotrainyourdragon #indianajones #jasonbourne #jurassicpark #kungfupanda #lordoftherings #lotr #meninblack #minorityreport #missionimpossible #onceuponatimeinhollywood #searching #spiderman #startrek #terminator #thelegomovie

[inloveandwords]

I saw this over on Sahi’s blog, My World of Books, and I thought it looked super fun!

1. What was the last book you read?

I misread this and thought it said, “what was the BEST book you read” and I almost immediately gave up on answering, because that’s impossible to answer. However, the actual question is much easier.

I reread A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer since it is FINALLY released on audio and I just finished A Heart So Fierce and Broken.

2. Was it a good one?

I loved it just as much the second time as the first.

3. What made it good?

You can read my full review here, but honestly? The characters. The subtleties, the humor, the perfect depiction of The Beast and his sorrows/guilt/regrets.

4. Would you recommend it to other people?

As always, I would recommend this to people who I think would enjoy it. For example, I forced my niece to read it because I knew she’d love it. And she did.

5. How often do you read?

Every day 🙂

6. Do you like to read?

I mean… obvi.

7. What was the last bad book you read?

Hot Doctor by Hope Ford. I read it for the KU Weekend Readathon and it was kind of the worst.

8. What made you dislike it?

All things that made romance short stories bad. No character development, no plot, no point.

9. Do you wish to be a writer?

I’d love to be a full time writer.

10. Has any book ever influenced you greatly?

As far as writing style, I love Jandy Nelson’s writing in The Sky is Everywhere. Mariana Zapata has some sports romances in which some of the characters are so badass and dedicated to their sport, it inspires me to be more active.

11. Do you read fan-fiction?

I’m not a big fan of it.

12. Do you write fan-fiction?

Nope.

13. What is your favourite book?

I think I have to go with A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas. Sorry. Gotta be that b*tch.

14. What is your least favourite book?

That I’ve actually finished? Recently? The Kiss Thief by LJ Shen. It just solidified that this author is absolutely not for me. It has the one and only one-star rating I’ve ever given. Usually I will DNF books that I dislike this much, however, I kept waiting for it to redeem itself since so many people like it. And it never did.

15. Do you prefer physical books or reading on a device (like Kindle)?

I love the look and feel of real books, but man, the convenience of a Kindle is so glorious.

16. When did you learn to read?

I have no idea. Probably around 4 or 5 I would assume.

17. What is your favourite book you had to read in school?

As a little kid, I remember I was absolutely taken with The BFG – my teacher read it to us in class. When I was older (in high school), I was so surprised by how much I loved The Great Gatsby.

18. What is your favourite book series?

Right now it is The Caraval series by Stephanie Garber, but it’s likely the Cursebreakers series by Brigid Kemmerer could become my favorite. However, it’s unfinished. But from book one to the last book in the series, Caraval was perfect.

19. Who is your favourite author?

I think I have to look at this as, who consistently writes books that I love, and that would be Mariana Zapata. I’ve read every single one of her books and have loved them all and reread them all multiple times.

20. What is your favourite genre? Adult contemporary romance.

21. Who is your favourite character from a series? Rhen. He is, by far, the best beast in any Beauty and the Beast retelling. Also, I just adore his character so much. I want to give him a big hug and tell him that everything is going to be ok.

22. Has a book ever transported you somewhere else? I’m absolutely got swept away in Caraval. (Just as the book warns you not to do!)

23. Which book do you wish had a sequel?

Mother effer I’m still made about My Name is Memory not having a sequel!

24. Which book do you wish DIDN’T have a sequel? Honestly? I think the Black Dagger Brotherhood series can stop now, thanks.

25. How long does it take you to read a book? That depends on so many thing. I’ve finished books in a matter of hours, in a matter of days, or in a matter of weeks.

26. Do you like when books become movies? I’d much rather books become TV shows because they tend to have more time to develop and include everything.

27. Which book was ruined by its movie adaptation? (Twilight)

28. Which movie has done the book justice? The Hunger Games was done pretty well!

29. Do you read newspapers? Nope.

30. Do you read magazines? Nope.

31. Do you prefer newspapers or magazines? None.

32. Do you read while in bed? Every night!

33. Do you read while on the toilet? Occasionally.

34. Do you read while in the car? Only audiobooks. Reading in a car makes me nauseated.

35. Do you read while in the bath? Yes!

36. Are you a fast reader? I’m fairly fast.

37. Are you a slow reader? No.

38. Where is your favourite place to read? My reading chair.

39. Is it hard for you to concentrate when you read? Nope, I can pretty much zone everything out when I read.

40. Do you need a room to be silent when you read? I actually prefer some noise.

41. Who gave you your love for reading? My mom is just as obsessed with books as I am. I grew up seeing her with a book anytime she had a moment to sit and relax. She’d never deny me books. She always encouraged my love of reading.

42. What book is next on your list to read? Eek! I’m not sure. I just started my latest book. It’ll depend on what I’m up for reading when I’m finished.

43. When did you start to read chapter books? I was pretty young. I think around 6 or 7 I started reading The Babysitter’s Little Sister series and the Goosebump series. Then I graduated to The Babysitter’s Club and Sweet Valley High and Fear Street.

44. Who is your favourite children’s author? RL Stine

45. Which author would you most want to interview? Brigid Kemmerer just because her book is so fresh in my mind. I want to pick her brain.

46. Which author do you think you would be friends with? Mariana Zapata seems like so much fun!

47. What book have you reread the most?

OMG. Probably The Hating Game by Sally Thorne.

48. Which books do you consider ‘classics’? Probably the same as everyone else?

49. Which books do you think should be taught in every school? I think there are a ton of more modern books that would be worth reading in school.

50. Which books should be banned from all schools? I mean… it depends on the age of the kids in the school. I wouldn’t put a Sierra Simone book in an elementary school. LOL!

50 Bookish Questions I saw this over on Sahi's blog, My World of Books, and I thought it looked super fun!

#tag

[makinwellness-blog]

Anxiety Symptoms and Treatments

New Post has been published on https://makinwellness.com/anxiety-symptoms-and-treatments/

Anxiety Symptoms and Treatments

Many individuals use the term anxiety to refer to a great deal of worry. But what does anxiety really mean? And what does anxiety look like? Awareness of anxiety symptoms and treatments can increase the likelihood of getting help and relieving any stress you may be feeling.

  What is Anxiety?

Anxiety means an excessive worry or anxiousness that lasts for more than six months. The fear and worriedness manifest themselves in various extreme forms. These forms could look like physical and emotional ailments or psychological unrest. The toll that anxiety takes on an individual is very severe. For many individuals, it may not seem clear or evident that he or she is experiencing an anxiety disorder due to the lack of knowledge and information about its manifestation (anxiety.org).

  Research suggests that women are more likely to develop an anxiety disorder in their lifetime than men (McLean, 2011, pp. 1). Gender differences and anxiety has shown that the manifestation of anxiety in both women and men could be presented in a similar fashion. However, research suggests that the main difference is “the observed differences between men and women are somewhat influenced by gender-related differences in the conceptualization and reporting of symptoms” (McLean, 2011, pp. 11).  

  Common Anxiety SymptomsAnxiety Symptoms and Treatments

Anxiety’s most common psychological symptoms are: excessive worriedness, nervousness, irritation, racing thoughts, and a sense of panic. On the other hand, anxiety could take a much more physiological form in certain individuals. These common symptoms are: increased heartbeat, difficulty sleeping or remaining asleep, loss of appetite, tense muscles, and sweating. “These shared physiological states suggest a shared underlying biology and that anxiety maybe a whole-body condition” (Jovanovic, et al., 2018).

  Treatment for anxiety could include various options. When combined, evidence-based therapy (EBT), cotemporary and alternative therapies have been shown effectiveness in the treatment of anxiety. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is an example of one type of EBT. “It teaches people different ways of thinking, behaving, and reacting to anxiety-producing and fearful objects and situations. CBT can also help people learn and practice social skills, which is vital for treating social anxiety disorder.” Typically, some therapies are combined to increase their effectiveness in treating anxiety. CBT and exposure therapy have been utilized quite a bit together to treat social anxiety disorder (SAD) (NIMH, 2018).

  Another form of treatment for anxiety disorders that has been researched intensively is the use of medical marijuana. The research that has been complied thus far suggests that medical marijuana is capable of reducing anxiety, relaxing muscle tension, and stimulating appetite (Lava, 2018). Pennsylvania is one of the 33 states that has legalized the medical use of marijuana, “short-term use of medical marijuana with low THC and high CBD content has been shown to be most effective in treatment of anxiety disorders” (Sasko, 2019).  

  How Can We Help? Anxiety Symptoms and Treatments

Rahmah Albugani is a doctorate intern who is conducting evaluations and ongoing counseling here at Makin Wellness. She is a nationally certified counselor with experience in setting goals for clients that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time manageable. If you are interested in mental health counseling for anxiety, please contact our office at (412)-532-1249 to schedule with Rahmah!

    References:

Jovanovic, T., Lott, A. P., Michopoulos, V., Stevens, J., Rooij, S. van, Keller, J. M., … Sierra Carter. (2018). What Is Anxiety & How to Treat It – Anxiety Definition. Retrieved from https://www.anxiety.org/what-is-anxiety#anxiety-and-physical-health

  Lava, N. (2018). Medical Marijuana FAQ. Retrieved from https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/medical-marijuana-faq

  McLean, C. P., Asnaani, A., Litz, B. T., & Hofmann, S. G. (2011). Gender differences in anxiety disorders: prevalence, course of illness, comorbidity and burden of illness. Journal of psychiatric research, 45(8), 1027–1035. Doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2011.03.006

  National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). (2018). Anxiety Disorders. Retrieved from https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/anxiety-disorders/index.shtml#part_145353

  Sasko, C. (2019). People with Anxiety Disorders Can Soon Get Pa. Medical Marijuana Cards. Retrieved from https://www.phillymag.com/news/2019/07/12/anxiety-medical-marijuana-pennsylvania/

    —

About Makin Wellness

Founded in 2017 , Makin Wellness is Pittsburgh’s premier therapy & coaching centers located in Downtown Pittsburgh and Downtown New Kensington. The company’s mission is to help people heal and become happy again. Makin Wellness specializes in depression, anxiety, addiction, trauma, medical marijuana assisted treatment and relationship counseling.

#anxiety #counseling #counseling downtown new kensington #counseling downtown pittsburgh #downtown Pittsburgh #gender #gender differences #Healing Happens Here #Makin Wellness #mental illness #Therapy #therapy downtown new kensington #therapy downtown pittsburgh

[republicstandard]

Dear Liberals: It’s not "Rednecks" who are Inbred

The Inspector General (IG)’s latest report, capturing exchanges from as many as five FBI agents under investigation, exposed the intense hatred and contempt that the Deep State has not just for President Trump, but for the average American who voted for him. A sample exchange:

Agent One: “I find anyone who enjoys [this job] an absolute f---ing idiot. If you don’t think so, ask them one more question. Who are you voting for? I guarantee you it will be Donald Drumpf.” Agent Five: “I forgot about Drumpf…that’s so sad and pathetic if they want to vote for him. Someone who can’t answer a question. Someone who can’t be professional for even a second.” Agent Five: “I’m trying to think of a ‘would I rather’ instead of spending time with those people.” Agent One: “stick your tongue in a fan??” Agent Five: “I would rather have brunch with Trump and a bunch of his supporters like the ones from Ohio that are retarded.” (sic)

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That last comment from Agent Five is the smug refrain of coastal cosmopolitans that America’s rednecks are incestuous retards, but the reality is quite different. You see, it’s not the working class whites -who actually make the country go- with average IQs literally at or below clinical mental retardation. The much-maligned “hicks” of West Virginia have an average IQ of almost 99. There are two population groups —one of them quite prominent in the media and entertainment industries committed to perpetuating such a portrayal of America’s working class— who have serious genetic issues related to inbreeding.

For point of reference, here is a list of the countries with average IQs at or below 70, which has been considered to be a marker of "definite feeble-mindedness" or "mild mental retardation": Sudan, Sierra Leone, the Congo, Zimbabwe, Senegal, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Jamaica, the Central African Republic, Tanzania, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Botswana, Rwanda, Togo, Burundi, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Malawi, Niger, Angola, Burkina Faso, Chad, Haiti, Djibouti, Somalia, Swaziland, Dominica, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Liberia, St. Kitts and Nevis, Sao Tome and Principe, the Gambia, Cameroon, Gabon, Mozambique, St. Lucia, East Timor, Ghana, and Equatorial Guinea. Nigeria would also qualify if you removed the Igbo. Does anything stick out to you?

Regarding inbreeding, globally about half of all Muslim marriages are consanguineous (blood related), usually between first cousins or an uncle and niece, while the rate is about 1% in Europe (largely attributable to the “migrants”) and 0.2% in the US. Carlisle du Rozel reports:

According to Bengali ex-Muslim essayist Abul Kaseem, the product of rampant phenomena of inbreeding in Islam is due to several things, but two stick out in particular: 1) interpretations of the Qu’ran which permits a Muslim man to marry and have intercourse with his daughter born out of wedlock (usually 8 or 9 years old), and 2) the popular and widely accepted practice of cousin-marriage initiated by the Prophet Muhammed himself, who infamously had relations with his cousins outside of marriage (Tirmidhi 5.3214).

The consequences can be severe. Medical data shows that while British Pakistanis are 3 percent of all births, they account for over 30 percent of children in the UK born with genetic illnesses, costing the NHS at least about 600 million pounds per annum. A 2005 BBC survey found that 55% of Britain’s Pakistani population was married to a first cousin; in Pakistan itself, 70% of all marriages are consanguineous. British scientist Steve Jones explains:

It is common in the Islamic world to marry your brother’s daughter, which is actually closer than marrying your cousin. We should be concerned about that as there can be a lot of hidden genetic damage. Children are much more likely to get two copies of a damaged gene.

Consanguineous marriages result in an average IQ deficit of about 15 points. The risk for having an IQ lower than 70 increases by 400% among the offspring of first cousin marriages. It also increases aggression, lowers impulse control, and dramatically elevates the risk of a whole host of medical disorders. The Danish “migrant” community offers another illuminating case study. From the newspaper Jydskevestkysten:

Immigrant children are clearly overrepresented in Copenhagen’s schools for retarded children and children with physical handicaps. … 51 percent of the children in the three schools in Copenhagen for children with physical and mental handicaps have an immigrant background and in one of the schools the amount is 70 percent. … These amounts are significantly higher than the share of immigrant children in the municipality, which is 33 percent. The many handicapped children provide clear evidence that there are many intermarried parents in the immigrant families.

From B.T.:

Disabled immigrant children costs Danish municipalities millions. In Copenhagen County alone, the number of disabled children has increased 100 percent in 10 years…[Social worker] Meredith Lefelt has contacted 330 families with disabled children in Copenhagen. She estimates that one third of their clients have a foreign cultural background.

The Rockwool Foundation Research Unit found that:

Those who speak Arabic with their parents have an extreme tendency to lack reading abilities - 64 percent are illiterate. ... No matter if it concerns reading abilities, mathematics or science, the pattern is the same: The bilingual (largely Muslim) immigrants’ skills are exceedingly poor compared to their Danish classmates.

From Kristeligt Dagblad:

In Sct. Hans Hospital, which has the biggest ward for clinically insane criminals in Denmark, more than 40 percent of the patients have an immigrant background.

In Denmark, the number of inbred Muslims ranges from Pakistanis at 40% to Turks at 15%. The rate of inbreeding in Turkey itself is about 25-30%. For Islam, this is pretty low. While in India the Muslim rate of cousin marriage is 22%, the rate spikes to 40% in Jammu and Kashmir. Between 20-28% of Morocco’s marriages are of the cousin variety. 35-50% of sub-Saharan African marriages are estimated to be between blood relations, with Nigeria’s rate highly variable depending on the tribe: Hausas (percentage unknown) and Yorubas (51.2%) practice it; Igbos ban it. 34% of all marriages in Algieria are consanguine, with Tunisia at 39% and Syria at 40%. About 40% of the population marries a cousin in Egypt, according to a 2016 report in The Economist. “Rates are thought to be even higher in tribal countries such as Iraq and the Gulf states of Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Kuwait,” says the Economist.

Statistical research on Muslim-majority countries shows that up to 42% of all marriages in Lebanon are consanguine (blood related), as are 45% in Yemen, 46% in Bahrain, 47% in Mauritania, 48% in Libya, 54% in Qatar, 54% in the United Arabic Emirates, 56% in Oman, 60% in Iraq, 63% in Sudan, 64% in Jordan, 64% in Kuwait, 66% in Palestine, 68% in Saudi Arabia, and 80% in Nubia. Arabs have one of the world’s highest rates of genetic disorders, with 66% of the abnormalities linked to cousin marriage. A Saudi study discovered that “90% of couples detected as carriers did not follow the advice they were given and went ahead with their marriages.” Executive Director of the Prince Salman Center for Disability Research, geneticist Dr. Stephen R. Schroeder, stated:

Saudi Arabia is a living genetics laboratory. Here you can look at 10 families to study genetic disorders, where you would need 10,000 families to study disorders in the United States.

In Afghanistan, where 46% of the marriages are consanguineous, Danish psychologist Nicolai Sennels discusses some of the consequences:

A study from Kabul, Afghanistan, based on autopsies of the remains of suicide bombers, shows that close to 90 percent were suffering from severe illnesses or deficiencies such as blindness, cancer, missing limbs or leprosy. Many Muslim societies, including that of Afghanistan, have a low social acceptance of handicaps and mental illness. Being physically handicapped or mentally retarded often leads to exclusion. Becoming a martyr may be the only chance of achieving social recognition and honor. Some cases of Down’s syndrome may be another unpleasant effect of inbreeding and al-Qaeda has been known to use people afflicted with it. People with low intelligence may also be more easily convinced that Islam, with its promise of 72 virgins to Muslims who die fighting for their religion, is true.

The numbers for consanguinity in some Muslim nations such as Indonesia, Niger, Djibouti, Somalia, and Bangladesh are woefully incomplete, though we do know that 17.6% of marriages in the Teknaf region of Bangladesh are consanguineous. 37.5% of Iran’s marriages are consanguineous, as are 69% of Burkina Faso’s Fulani and 27% of Mali’s (admittedly a small sample at just 600 persons). We do not know the percentage of Azerbaijani marriages of this kind, but there is a tradition of inter-marriage, and a prevalence of certain diseases and disorders common to this practice. 30-35% of birth defects in Tajikistan are attributable to kin marriage. Dr. Bill Warner writes:

Think about this, Islam says it is destined to rule the world, and if it does inbreeding will be everywhere and humanity will actually devolve. And this can’t be changed, because the Sharia is Allah’s law. But why are we silent about Sharia, suffering? Why can’t we educate about this harm? How can we go about trying to show that this is wrong? Oh wait a minute, we can’t do this because this would be offensive to Muslims. So we won’t be including incest in part of the explanation about the beauty of Islam in our schools. Can we find a Muslim who will say that inbreeding is wrong, will he abjure this because science agrees it is wrong? Can we run a social program to educate immigrants who come here about genetic damage? Well, as good as that sounds, because it would reduce suffering, that would be Islamophobic. How evil does something have to get before we can talk about it? I want to prevent a crime against the next generation. Am I a bigot to talk, and are you afraid to talk? This is a serious problem and it needs to be addressed.

As Winston Churchill said, “The influence of [Islam] paralyzes the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world.” It also retards —literally— the development of not just the next generation, but generations henceforth. The data bears this out. In addition to actually being incestuous, the Muslim world is intellectually incestuous, contributing precious little to the advancement of human knowledge and understanding outside of its own religious texts. The UN Arab Human Development Reports (AHDR) records that roughly the same number of books are translated within the country of Spain annually as have been translated into Arabic in the last 1,200 years. Eugene Rogan notes:

The Arab world translates about 330 books annually, one fifth of the number that Greece translates. The cumulative total of translated books since the Caliph Maa’moun’s time (813-833 AD) is about 100,000, almost the average that Spain translates in one year.

From the Nature International Journal of Science:

In 2003, the world average for production of articles per million inhabitants was 137, whereas none of the 47 OIC countries for which there were data achieved production above 107 per million inhabitants. The OIC average was just 13.

On the other side of the consanguineous coin, all Ashkenazi Jews are descended from the same group of 330-350 people who lived in the Middle Ages, a hybrid population of Levantine males and European females who ultimately turned inward and bred with each other in closed communities for centuries. This intense inbreeding has paradoxically had the opposite effect of cognitive impairment that’s afflicted the Middle East and Africa. The Jews are wildly overrepresented in terms of their intellectual contributions. From JINFO.org:

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At least 201 Jews and people of half- or three-quarters-Jewish ancestry have been awarded the Nobel Prize, accounting for 23% of all individual recipients worldwide between 1901 and 2017, and constituting 37% of all US recipients during the same period. In the scientific research fields of Chemistry, Economics, Physics, and Physiology/Medicine, the corresponding world and US percentages are 26% and 39%, respectively. Among women laureates in the four research fields, the Jewish percentages (world and US) are 33% and 50%, respectively.

This is not to say, however, that the inbreeding amongst the Ashkenazim hasn’t been without consequence. Jews are twenty times more likely than the average person to suffer from schizophrenia, and they are predisposed to higher rates of breast and ovarian cancer. There are a number of gene mutations found exclusively amongst their population that are attributable to the prevalence of other diseases, primarily Tay-Sachs.

The evidence is clear: the cousin diddling isn’t so much a West Virginia thing as it is an after-madrassa and shtetl thing.

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The Motivation Factor Dr. Mercola By Dr. Mercola Research1 has convincingly demonstrated that the more physically active children and teenagers are, the better they do academically. As noted by the authors of a 2012 scientific review: "Physical activity and sports are generally promoted for their positive effect on children's physical health … There is also a growing body of literature suggesting that physical activity has beneficial effects on several mental health outcomes … In addition ... there is a strong belief that regular participation in physical activity is linked to enhancement of brain function and cognition, thereby positively influencing academic performance." Several mechanisms that help explain why physical activity benefits cognition have been proposed. For starters, exercise increases blood and oxygen flow to your brain, which in and of itself increases learning speed.2 Exercise also increases levels of norepinephrine and endorphins, which lowers stress and improves mood. Importantly, exercise triggers growth factors that create new nerve cells and enable brain plasticity, thereby facilitating memory and learning. According to the authors of this 2012 review: "The increasing pressures to improve academic scores often lead to additional instructional time for subjects such as mathematics and language at the cost of time for being physically active … [T]he literature provides inconclusive evidence on the positive longitudinal relationship between physical activity and academic performance. However, there is a strong general belief that this relationship is present, and research in this area is ongoing." The Motivation Factor The featured documentary, "The Motivation Factor,"3 investigates these claims, showing how exercise — and particularly physical education (PE) in school — helps motivate kids and young adults to excel in other areas of life, including academically. "The knowledge that the physical well-being of the citizen is an important foundation for the vigor and vitality of all the activities of the nation, is as old as the Western civilization itself. But it is a knowledge which today, in America, we are in danger of forgetting." This quote is attributed to president-elect John F. Kennedy, given during an interview in December 1960. Unfortunately, his warning went largely unheeded, and today, children and young adults are more sedentary than ever. Not only is this having consequences for physical health, but it's also taking a psychological toll. As noted in the film, exercise has the ability to unite people, to bring them together and form interpersonal bonds. This too plays an important role in a person's ability to succeed in life. In the 1800s, one-third of the time spent in school was dedicated to physical exercise. The ancient Greeks spent a full half of their education working on physical fitness. Kennedy, too, was a firm believer in the idea that exercise produced academic excellence and built integrity. As noted in the film, the historical view has been that physical wellness leads to a healthy mind, body and spirit. "Our current state of physical illiteracy leaves us guessing how to become smart, productive and mentally stable," the narrator notes. Physical Education Is Imperative for Life Success A consequence of striking PE from the curriculum in American schools has led to the worst education and productivity rankings since the '70s. In addition, despite spending more money on health care than any other country on Earth, the U.S. has the highest rate of mental illness, and both obesity and chronic illness has dramatically risen with each passing decade. Throughout the film, you see 50-year-old video clips from PE classes at La Sierra High School in Riverside, California. La Sierra High followed Kennedy's lead, developing one of the most rigorous and progressive daily fitness curricula in the U.S. Long rows of young men looking like they belong in a fitness magazine stream by. It's a far cry from the high school students of today. Tony Asaro, part of La Sierra High's class of 1967, describes how his high school training has served him throughout his life. To this day, he runs 3 miles and does his stretches every morning. It keeps him feeling good, both physically and mentally, and keeps him motivated to pursue life with vigor and optimism. Ed Carisoza, class of '61, agrees, saying he's been exercising ever since his high school days. The fitness habits he developed back then stuck with him for life. The Importance of Discipline and Physical Achievement Research by Harvard Medical School shows that as soon as PE is reinstalled in schools, there's a greater than 80 percent drop in discipline problems within a single semester. This in turn means teachers can focus on teaching rather than policing behavior, and by improving participation and focus, the children learn more and score better on tests. Indeed, studies have repeatedly demonstrated that performance in math and science correlates to physical fitness. Eight years ago, ABC News4 reported on a special program being implemented at Naperville Central High School, west of Chicago, where students could take part in a dynamic gym class at the beginning of the day and had access to exercise bikes and balls throughout the day in their classrooms. The results were astounding. Those who participated nearly doubled their reading scores, and math scores increased twentyfold. Research has also shown that after 30 minutes on the treadmill, students solve problems up to 10 percent more effectively. The film also points out that lack of PE has had a dramatic impact on crime and incarceration rates. Despite having only 4 percent of the global population, U.S. prisons house 25 percent of the global prisoner population. According to experts interviewed in the film, this state of affairs has a lot to do with the fact that youngsters lack direction, discipline and motivation to excel, which they attribute to a lack of physical education and fitness. "It helps your ego, your pride and sense of self," Trent Saxton, a chiropractor from the La Sierra High class of '67, says. In short, physical fitness — not just looking good but actually feeling good — has a tremendous impact on your self-esteem and your capacity to view yourself as strong and capable of overcoming challenges and working toward a goal. A good PE program teaches not just physical endurance but mental endurance. This is the core message of this film: Physical fitness is the missing piece that can unite us as a society, and allow each person to optimize their intelligence, productivity and mental stability. The Mind-Body Connection In researching his book "Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain," psychiatrist Dr. John J. Ratey reviewed 1,000 scientific papers on physical fitness and mental performance. "I was amazed at how much we already knew," he says. For example, we know that exercise: Is the best preventive remedy for psychiatric disorders, heart disease, diabetes and cancer.5 Even your risk for age-related hearing loss is reduced through exercise.6 Helps build a brain that resists shrinkage7 and increases cognitive abilities8 and creativity. Researchers at Stanford University found that taking regular walks can increase creativity up to 60 percent.9,10 Promotes neurogenesis, meaning your brain's ability to adapt and grow new brain cells, regardless of your age. Promotes mental health by normalizing insulin resistance and boosting natural "feel good" hormones and neurotransmitters associated with mood control, including endorphins, serotonin, dopamine, glutamate and GABA. Boosts memory by improving hippocampal function11,12 and volume13,14 — a finding that may be an important prevention strategy against Alzheimer's disease, the most serious and deadly form of dementia. Increases peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator (PGC-1α), an important metabolic signal that increases mitochondrial biogenesis. The PGC-1α pathway regulates both mitochondrial activity and mitochondrial replication. This is important, as your brain is the most mitochondrially-dense organ in your body. How Modern Schools Are Crippling Children Over 10,000 published studies now show that sitting is an independent risk factor for chronic disease and premature death. In fact, chronic sitting has a mortality rate similar to that of smoking. Yet U.S. schools now force children to remain seated for most of the day. Making matters worse, changes in school furniture are forcing children into extremely harmful postures. Early school desks were slanted, and extensive research showed a 20-degree slant was ideal for reading and writing. Such desks have since been replaced with horizontal, flat desks, which forces you to hunch over and twist your body into a series of unnatural positions while reading and writing. The end result is postural deformities, leading to pain and further inhibitions to movement. And, without PE providing restorative movements to counteract the poor posture of sitting hunched over a flat desk all day, the ill effects are likely to become chronic. The widespread use of cellphones and tablets among young children — which also put you into a forward-hunching posture — further exacerbate these problems. Physical Movement Forces New Brain Connections You probably know that the way to keep your brain young and agile is to train it, but brain training programs can only take you so far. One of the most effective ways to train your brain is actually to perform complex physical movements and coordination exercises. The more complex and challenging the movement, the greater the benefits to your brain, forcing new neural connections to be formed. Practicing with Indian clubs or maces, for example, where you have to move your body in all directions and really focus on performing complicated coordination patterns are excellent examples of this. Martial arts such as karate, muay Thai (Thai boxing) and taekwondo also tax the brain in a beneficial way. The film also stresses the importance of restorative movement practices, noting that if a single sport is your sole form of exercise, that sport, no matter what it is, will eventually create physical imbalances. What's needed are movements that simply restore your body's natural movement patterns. If you can move well, then you can perform any sport better. You will also be less prone to aches and pains in general. Another great brain challenger is simply spending time in nature. Walking outdoors challenges your brain to a greater degree than walking on a treadmill indoors because you have to pay greater attention to your surroundings. You have to pay attention to where you place your feet so you don't stumble over a rock or a tree root, for example. Being surrounded by nature also increases your sense of being present in the moment, which has neurological and psychological benefits. Fitness Is a Right and a Responsibility As noted in the film, physical fitness used to be both a right and a responsibility as a citizen. We have indeed veered far off course as a nation when it comes to physical education. It goes beyond just learning a sport. PE is about building a strong, fully functioning body, and with it a well-functioning mind and a stable spirit that isn't crushed by every adversity. PE is the one thing that simultaneously addresses all three aspects of being human — body, mind and spirit. When those three aspects are all strong and fit, people are well-equipped to face the world with self-confidence and achieve their dreams. Today, kids don't know what to eat, they don't know how to move, stand or even sit. And, as noted in the film, it's not their fault. They've simply never been taught any of these things, and school is really the best, most logical place for this education to take place. How to Get Your Kids Moving In 1960, JFK issued a challenge to the nation to take fitness seriously, for its individual benefits and for the benefit it can bring to the country as a whole. As JFK said, "A nation is only as strong as its citizens." We're well overdue in answering this call to action, but it's not too late. Wherever you are today, and wherever your children are, you can set a new course for yourself and your family — a course where fitness is a part of your daily life. Chances are, your child's school may not have a robust PE program, if it offers it at all. I'd encourage you to communicate with school administrators, and try to get the school to give PE the attention it deserves. After all, it's one of the most cost-effective ways to improve test scores. Aside from that, start taking fitness seriously as a family. Below are some suggestions to help you get started: First, it's imperative to limit the amount of time your child spends watching TV or playing computer and video games, and to replace some of these sedentary activities with exercise. Children need at least 30 to 60 minutes of exercise each day. Encourage your child to take part in physically engaging activities after school and on the weekends. There are plenty to choose from, from sports and dance classes to gymnastics, bike riding and playing tag with friends. Remember, the trick to getting kids interested in exercise at a young age is to keep it fun. Also keep in mind that spontaneous bouts of exercise throughout the day is actually the ideal way of doing it. Like adults, kids also need variety in their exercise routines to reap the greatest rewards, so be sure your child is getting high-intensity interval-type training, strength building exercises, stretching and core-building activities. Also consider less conventional exercises. Battle ropes, Indian clubs, jumping exercises, agility ladder training, BOSU ball training, bodyweight exercises and slacklining are just a few examples. Being a role model by staying active yourself is one of the best ways to motivate and inspire your kids. If your child sees you embracing exercise as a positive and important part of your lifestyle, they will naturally follow suit. Plan physical activities that involve the whole family. Hiking, bike riding, canoeing, swimming and sports are all great options. Think of it this way: By taking the time to get your kids interested in exercise now, you're giving them a gift that will keep them healthy and happy for the rest of their lives. About the Director I believe in bringing quality to my readers, which is why I wanted to share some information about the creator, Doug Orchard, from "The Motivation Factor." We sat down with Orchard to learn a little more about what goes in to making these films. Thank you, Doug, for sharing with us. What was your inspiration for making this film? Before I started this film, my chiropractor told me he could no longer provide me with relief and referred me to see a spine surgeon. In addition to my back pain, I had a debilitating case of carpel tunnel that prevented me from filming and editing, and I had a frozen shoulder that kept me out of the gym. I learned about “restorative arts” as profiled in the film, which was part of classical PE 100 years ago. I learned how to repair myself using those classic (now forgotten) methods without a physician, surgery or drugs. I repaired (for free) my frozen shoulder and carpel tunnel, and avoided spine surgery (and eliminated all back pain), all by what you’ll see in this film. That saved my insurance company a fortune, but it also eliminated my depression! It transformed my life. I saw my productivity double, and my relationship and interest in others improved dramatically. I wondered, “What if everyone did this? What would our society be like?” We are in a state of physical illiteracy as a society. The root cause to many of our problems including a lack of unity, out-of-control health care costs, mental health problems and ballooning national debt stem from the lack of classical physical education. Physical education wasn’t about sports back then. it was lifetime fitness and it included education on restorative arts. They simply did it better 100 years ago than we do today. It’s shocking to see how far we have fallen. I’ve watched with horror how so many of the youth in inner city schools are destined to become another statistic. I see that this film’s message could solve that particular problem, and so many others, all without legislation. All it takes is the right education, and this documentary could set it in motion. I believe we can transform our society with the message of this movie. What was your favorite part of making this film? Filming the kids at Prescott Middle School in Modesto, California. They are the only school still following this program. I interviewed a young girl there who was homeless (living in a car with her mom and two sisters). She had been bullied in elementary school but not in this middle school. I asked her why, and she said, “PE.” At this school, they followed a classical physical education model where they structured the entire class as a team, and in a real team, labels like “race” or “homeless” take a back seat. The kids who lived in the country club accepted her as an equal. There was no bullying in the school. The boys and girls all worked together. These kids represented the entire social-economic gamut of our society and yet were completely unified. They learned it in PE. I’m not sure I would have believed it if I wasn’t there filming it. As I drove away that night I thought, “These kids think differently than the rest of our society. Their current situation doesn’t determine what they are going to become. They don’t accept labels, and they are learning it all in PE.” Where do the proceeds to your film go? We can’t change our society without a return to what used to be taught in classical physical education. One hundred percent of the film’s proceeds thus far have gone to help make that happen again. The film raised $40,000 in crowdfunding and all of those proceeds and all film sales thus far have gone toward hard costs associated with the film creation, as well as promoting the film’s message to politicians, schools and communities. The film had a combined production cost of time and expense of over $500,000 and it was primarily funded by the filmmaker. Proceeds go toward paying for those costs and promoting the message moving forward, as well as creating additional material on this topic. I have turned down two offers to sell the film since it won the festivals. I turned down $500,000 from a corporation that wanted to fund the film because they wanted to use it to sell services instead of initiate the change our society needs. This is about getting it to happen again, and I hope people use the film to initiate meaningful change in their life, their school, their company or their retirement community. I’m reaching out to Dr. Mercola’s community to help >>>>> Click Here <<<<

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Traditional Educational Institutions in Child Education in Sierra Leone

INTRODUCTION

  Sierra Leone is bounded on the northwest, north, and north-east by means of the Republic Guinea, on the southeast through the Republic of Liberia and on southwest with the aid of the Atlantic Ocean. It has an area of 27,925 square miles. The colony of Sierra Leone originated in the sale and cession in 1787 with the aid of native chiefs to English settlers of a bit of land supposed as a home for African settlers who have been waifs in London and later it was used as an agreement for freed African slaves. The hinterland changed into declared a British Protectorate on twenty-first August 1896. Sierra Leone attained independence on 27th April 1961 and became a Republic in 1971. Education is provided by using both personal and state-sponsored schools. The cutting-edge machine of schooling is 6-three-4-four (that is six years Primary school, three years Junior Secondary School, 4 years Senior Secondary School and 4 years tertiary/higher education. This device is complemented via no- formal education.

  CONCEPT OF EDUCATION

  Education is frequently used in the sense of coaching within the study room, laboratory, workshop or domestic technological know-how room and is composed principally inside the presenting through the teacher, and the purchase through scholars, of facts and intellectual in addition to guiding abilities. A wider which means that education is that of schooling. That is to say, all that is going on inside the faculty as a part of the pupil’s lifestyles there. It includes, among different things, courting among students and teachers, pupils and scholars both in and outdoor the faculty. J. S. Mill (1931) opined that something allows shaping the person; to make the individual what he is or avert him from being what he isn’t is part of his education. Implicitly education is lifelong and ubiquitous; it’s miles the sum overall of all effects which go to make someone what he’s, from birth to dying. It includes the house, our buddies, and the road amongst others.

education

Education is to a degree a planned system devised and conducted by using the educator with the motive of imbuing the learner with certain records, capabilities, of thoughts and body in addition to modes of conduct taken into consideration appropriate. In part, it is the learner’s own response to the environment in which he lives. Education has 3 focal factors: the person/person upon whom the educator’s effects are delivered to bear; the society or community to which he belongs; and the whole context of fact inside which the character and society play their part. The man is a social creature; he grows as a person via the impact of persona on character, and even for his primary physical needs he depends on the help and cooperation of his fellow ladies and men. Without society and the mutual help and enrichment of reviews which it affords civilization is impossible and the lifestyles of guy, in Hobbes’ phrases, is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.”

  One of the fundamental records of human existence is the tension among the pull of the past and the ahead urge into the destiny, between balance and exchange, a way of life and innovation. For effective dwelling, guy desires a circle of protection, a place of hooked up conduct and courting which forms dependable relationships. This is likewise authentic of society. For its effective functioning, here has to be an underlying continuity of traditions and outlook which preserves its identification as a society and safeguards it in opposition to the disruptive effects of exchange. Change ought to be for lifestyles and no longer static but this alteration in flip need to be managed with the aid of the primary traditions of society. It is a way of life which offers a nation its person and area of expertise as a society. The conservation of culture consequently is manifestly critical.

  It has been recognized from time immemorial that the conservation of conventional training has a crucial part to play in the development of the texas child support disbursement unit. The youngsters of nowadays are the adults of the next day; they should be taught consequently, to inherit and perpetuate the beliefs and modes of existence ordinary to the unique society to which they belong. For every society has the choice to hold itself not best physically however as network consciously sharing sure goals, ideals and patterns of behavior. This form of training is not necessarily formal in schools by lecture room instruction but that effected in a roundabout way thru the own family and through the impact on the person of social influences and customs which the child can’t keep away from. In Sierra Leone this social schooling protected elaborate ceremonies of initiation involving feats of endurance in which younger men and women need to show themselves worthy of the network. The last goal was to produce an individual who turned into sincere, respectful, skilled, cooperative, and who may want to comply with the social order of the day. As Aristotle as soon as said “the constitution of a kingdom will suffer if training is omitted. The citizens of a country ought to always be educated to fit the charter of the state. The kind of person suitable to a charter is the electricity which keeps to maintain it as it’s also the state pressure which at the start created it” (p. I).

  TRADITIONAL EDUCATION IN SOCIETY

  Traditional training has both a creative and conservation function in society; it is a powerful approach to preserving a society’s customs, if no longer culture. In the beyond the character and desires of society played a critical element in figuring out the nature of education. Professor M.V.C. Jeffreys (1950) as soon as wrote in his e-book, Glaucon, that “in a tranquil society the instructional gadget will generally tend to reflect the social sample, whilst social uneasiness and instability create opportunity for using schooling as an tool of social trade”(p.7). A comparable view was shared by using John Dewey (1897) who opined that thru schooling society can formulate its very own functions, can organize its very own way and assets and thus shop itself with definiteness and financial system inside the path wherein it wishes to transport. Education seems both to the past and the future; unavoidably it displays the traditions and individual of society. Traditional Christmas music training may be used to put together for changes in society and assume and save you adjustments or the effects of modifications in society.

traditional

Traditional schooling conserves and palms at the customs and ways of lifestyles which constitute the individual of a society and maintains its cohesion. It also facilitates society to interpret its features in new ways to satisfy the challenges of change, in search of methods or strains of development that are steady with the traditions and customs and could on the identical time improve society to a more complete fulfillment of itself.

TRADITIONAL EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN SIERRA LEONE

  History reveals that there were no formal schools wherein kids had been knowledgeable in Pre-colonial Sierra Leone. The Poro and Bondo/Sande Secret Societies have been looked upon as establishments to train kids. They had been bush colleges. And the education those bush schools furnished turned into casual. Children who went thru those mystery societies had been taken into consideration able to wear out their civic duties. They became adults and might marry and start existence. They considered themselves as one circle of relatives. In different words both Secret Societies created a feeling of comradeship and harmony among members no matter circle of relatives, clan or ethnic association. It becomes consequently considered that youngsters who had no longer long gone through those mystery societies were not fully matured.

  The Poro Secret Society is for boys. The spiritual head of the Poro Society is Pa Gabon, visible simplest via the older graduates or contributors. The bodily heads are the Pa Sama Yorgbors and Pa Romanos. They direct the sports of the institution. The senior teachers are the Pa Kashi, who typically train and provide instructions to different initiators. The Pa Machias serve as teachers to the initiates at the same time as the Kachemak are the scaring spirits. They scare the women and kids alike collectively with the brand new initiates.

  The Rakas are the errand boys carrying messages around. The Yamas are the top boys. The Bombs are the senior prefects even as the Say boys are the prefects, and the video display units are the Gbagbo’s. Informal instructions are held inside the Secret Poro Bush. The topics taught consist of Creative Practical Arts, Performing Arts, Practical Agriculture, Medicine i.E. Use of nearby herbs for the remedy of different illnesses), conflict and other capabilities. In Creative Practical Arts initiates are taught a way to make fishing nets, baskets, mats, and carving wood and soap stones into one-of-a-kind items along with animals and human beings; in Performing Arts initiates are taught singing, dancing and the usage of Poro musical contraptions. In Practical Agriculture initiates exercise farming. Boys are taught to bear complication with out complaint and develop accustomed to it.

  Thus they may be taken to the farms of their teachers and elders to paintings on pro bono foundation. However for the duration of the harvest season initiates may want to pass via those farms taking whatever they need and consume without being puzzled by means of farm owners. Initiates are taught to admire elders and use of guns to kill animals. In a similar vein initiates are taught the way to use guns in fighting in defense of their groups. Other skills initiates are taught encompass making fish traps, fishing and looking internet, and basketry. In the usage of herbs initiates pay money (a few freely given) for recovery various sicknesses as well as for safety against enemies, evil spirits and snake bites. Initiates who want to purpose damage to others the usage of herbs may want to ‘redeem’ the herb/medication involved. Over all initiates are taught a new Language spoken only by means of members known as Ke Sornor. For example fonka trika that means I am speakme to you; fonka bonomi which means Talk to me. The use of this new Language makes graduates very proud and experience one-of-a-kind from non-initiates. Graduates come out with new names along with Lamp, Langba and Kolerr. A graduation rite climaxes the occasion.

  Parents make huge arrangements which include sewing attire for the graduates. To mark the commencement ceremony there is feasting, ingesting, dancing and making a song reward songs for the graduates and their dad and mom. Those qualified for initiation have to have been circumcised and grown to the age of puberty. They ought to stay on their own during the period of education which ranges from one to seven years. Graduates are completely admitted to the general Poro society thru some other rite is known as Encore, which lasts for 4 days.

  The Bondo/Sande Society is the institution wherein ladies are skilled for womanhood. Its non-secular head is Na Bondigba. The Na Gboyamas and Na Oculus are the bodily heads. These have spiritual powers used to predict the destiny and seize witches. They are the senior teachers. The Na Sokos are the provider teachers. They can initiate girls even up to the superior degree of the Society. The Digby are the overall instructors and stay close to the initiates. The Sampras are the skillful dancers and errand women/girls. They make announcements approximately the development and activities or packages at some stage in the commencement ceremony.

child

The Na Fets, as the call implies do not realize all of the secrecy of the organization. They bring the institutional implements and regalia. The Karr Ayeamus are the ‘waiters’ to be initiated into the better fame of the institution. Girls admitted to the Bondo/Sande Society are trained informally. Classes are held at Kantha or sacred home. The teachers are in large part involved with the transmission to those adolescent ladies the talents and know-how which grownup women are expected to possess for you to feature properly and intelligently of their community. The topics girls are taught include Cooking, Performing Arts, Fishing, Husband and Child Care, and Home Management. In Cooking girls are taught how to prepare food thru statement and participation in the preparation of diverse dishes and are later allowed to have a go along with little or no supervision.

  Those who couldn’t cook well are allowed to copy. In Performing Arts girls are taught how to compose and sing songs and a way to beat the Bondo/Sande drums (sambo reis). Alongside making a song ladies are taught the way to dance and those who dance nicely can also be part of the hierarchy of the Sampras. Girls are also taught how to fishing, make fishing nets, fishing baskets, snoozing mats from bamboo and palm leaves. Further women are taught how to help their potential husbands and how to attend to children specially those of senior contributors. Like the Poro Society commencement ceremonies are marked via massive arrangements. Both dad and mom and potential husbands might purchase new attire, slippers, perfumes, powder, and beads to make neck laces. On the day of the commencement ceremony the new initiates are arrayed in white with coronets. They pop out with new names inclusive of Burch, Year, Rukia and Yainkain. This demonstrates a signal of maturity. Initiating girls into Bondo/Sande society lasts a few months and 3 years.

  CHALLENGES

  If training has the vital function of perpetuating the traditions and values of society, of adapting them to a converting surroundings, and of elevating them to richer and extra fruitful expression then both the Poro and Bondo/Sande Secret Societies, as conventional retailers of this technique must experience a function of the best esteem. Through these secret societies the country’s tradition flows from one era to the other and the aspirations of society are centered with intimate and telling persuasion upon the younger. They stand at a factor where the energies of youngsters are released into new and innovative possibilities. Through these mystery societies children consider the past sports in their predecessors. They help in behavioral schooling styles of society. These societies are establishments of concept and both politicians and chiefs use them to advantage. That is to either advantage or keep electricity. Major and binding selections are taken in the Poro Bush of which most effective members are allowed to attend and participate. The Poro Secret Society acts as a test against the abuse of electricity. In disaster ridden conditions essential choice are taken in the Poro Bush.

  The Poro society even acts as an arbitrator in chiefdom disputes and will promulgate fashionable legal guidelines and modify trading practices. It is likewise worried in the burial of chiefs and other essential local officers (Alie, 1990).

  Western education has existed within the united states for long and is now so crucial a part of the civilized existence that there’s a bent to assume that it is the principle or sole manner of providing abilities, information and social values in children. This isn’t always the case in Sierra Leone. The significance of the Poro and Bondo traditional mystery societies can not be over-sighted because of their full-size potentiality in educating youngsters for existence in society. Fundamental is that recognize for people as individuals are the basis of conventional society. Linked with that is courtesy, sensitivity to the wishes of others, cooperativeness, willpower, ethical and physical braveness, hard work and high requirements of success. These are surpassed on to kids in the environment in which they’re a part of their each day reviews. Notwithstanding, these traditional establishments as dealers of schooling are currently faced with many challenges there-by forcing their dying.

  The practice of lady genital circumcision is of international challenge and in Sierra Leone humans are agitating for its total ban.

  Currently, women are allowed to be circumcised at age eighteen at some point of which period a baby is perceived to be matured sufficiently to choose whether or no longer to be initiated into the Bondo/Sande secret society. In addition, the period of initiation is perceived too lengthy and is being challenged. Besides kids these days no longer should be initiated into these societies to be taught how to be clean, cook, rear kids, practice agriculture, and inculcate morals and virtues to cite some examples. All these may be learned either in or out of doors formal training via studying. What is greater Religion, in particular, Christianity and Islam, western existence, as well as rural-urban migration are forcing these secret societies to obliteration?

  Besides the sports and work of these traditional societies aren’t in curriculum form and documented. Neither is also using herbs documented. Therefore by way of discontinuing these traditional secret societies, Sierra Leoneans stand to lose their cultural background. If however, education has the crucial characteristic of perpetuating the traditions and values of society, of adapting them to a changing environment, and of elevating them to a richer and greater fruitful expression then those traditional mystery societies, as sellers of this procedure need to revel in a function of the highest esteem. Through these societies, the national subculture flows from one generation to every other and the aspirations of society are targeted with intimate and telling persuasion upon the younger. These secret societies stand on the point wherein the energies of youngsters are launched into new and innovative opportunities.