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theorynexus · 4 years

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52 is a great number! It is also the number we’re at, now.

What, you want to go through a mental battle for predomination with the force of nature that subsumed fricking Caliborn? I mean, sure, he wasn’t influenced by human culture, so that version was bound to be different, but I’m pretty sure much of the horribly irksome traits that made him him came from his heart, not from his upbringing.

It is beautiful that Alt!Calliope feels it necessary to note exactly why Jade has a clear expression visible to others. There’s just a whole lot of subtle humor packed into that revelation. Additionally, it’s nice to see that Alt!Calliope recognizes the important distinction that they are the two different versions of Jade, despite their Heartfelt connection. It is very interesting to see that Jade’s first thoughts are about what the other Jade had just been through. It’s nice to see the symmetry with what the Jade who drifted into the black hole had been thinking of, before her mind gravitated to Alt!Calliope’s siren song.

Yaaayyy, echoes reaching out across timelines and instances, flowing into and affecting beings seemingly disconnected, yet who both at different times had primacy of Relevance! (I am here obviously ignoring the fact that the Jade who died was split off before Game Over: she was from the Game Over side of the Retcon, regardless, and the Collide side of canon has been split into two different versions of herself who have similar levels of importance too, so it’s not like there isn’t a parallel level of distance from “primacy”. These things are relative. The important part is their proximity to the two archetypal “main” versions of the Kid, and that they act as representatives of these sides.)

A relatively sound argument, Narrator 1, but you seem to have been outmaneuvered.

Yes! Most excellent, o’ Muse! I am curious why you need to (partially?) possess Jade’s body in order to accomplish that, but I am willing to accept this as a necessary sacrifice, potentially. Jade does still seem to be in there, and I trust that you, as subtle as you can be, will not impede her own will too terribly badly?

Hehehehe... HAAAA HAHAHAHAHA!!! Indeed, indeed! I am glad you see things in a manner congruent to my own understanding, o’ Muse. I suppose I might, perhaps, even be able to cease referring to him as “Narrator” altogether, rather than simply adding the demeaning “1,” at this point. Curious, I am, though, what precisely is referred to by “my horizon.” There are multiple possible things which I think could satisfy this, from a spatial, temporal, or metaphorical (thus metaphysical) level: It could refer specifically to the meta-temporal conditions that are considered “after the destruction of the Green Sun,” It could refer to the white void beyond the darkness of the Furthest Ring, which appears to have always been there, rather than to have been created as a result of the devastation the Green Sun Black Hole’s emergence/creation/completion caused, or It could refer to all areas beyond the realm of Canon. There are other potential interpretations, as well, but these seem like the ones most likely to be the actual antecedent idea which her verbiage referred to.

Vagueblogging? As for the other matter: Hmm. That sets a condition to a potential reversal, after which Calliope loses her grip. I wonder how things will develop, and if it’s just that she intends to inundate the narrative with her text, or if the smaller font there is indicative that she’s actually clamping down on his ability to produce any of his own at all. Oh, and... I guess maybe this suggests that Jade’s personality may be suppressed for some time. Given there are ending conditions to it, the sacrifice may be even less than I thought it might be, so I will in fact continue to accept this.

I am really, really glad that Calliope can sense Alt!Calliope, and that we have received such a rich description of the friction between sides of the narrative divide! <3

It’s also somewhat nice that Alt!Calliope is aware of and/or instantly capable of properly using the gender/lack thereof(?) they (both Calliope and Roxy) identify with. ‘T’is very intriguing that the information was already there, and there were no hickups which Dirk might have mocked Alt!Calliope with.

Hmmmmm-hmm!~ Okay, thanks for clarifying the conditions of the possession.

Hy-po-crite. Disgusting. Particularly considering his interference in the narrative is treating others’ lives like playthings, and resulting in great harm-- just like Caliborn. I suppose this is yet another reason that they had the same Denizen. (Related: I am reminded of the fact that Dirk was the only one of the Alpha Kids that actually bonded with Caliborn, and who that Cherub seemed to consider as a friend.)

The point Dirk made would actually be pretty good, if it weren’t for the fact that her Muse powers almost certainly (as she demonstrates) kept her in constant contact with the world, over the course of the ages. Also: He’d better go get some aloe or something--- that burn looks painful.

Fool, the point is that it’s so sharp that any motion at all over its surface will bring about a cut-- gravity, wind pressure, and the flow of the silk in any vector other than directly downward or perhaps perpendicular to the blade would naturally give a potential frictional force, which the blade geometry naturally would amplify via wedge-based simple machine mechanics! No lever action is necessarily needed! ... Not that he’s not correct to suggest that the flowing motion of the swordplay is not the normal reason for a katana making a cut.

This is very, very true. Also how Debate works. I appreciate both such realities.

This... is just absolutely beautiful. The above paragraph is too. So much so that I shall not repost it here, but rather, shall urge all those who view my text to journey to Meat 27 and experience it for yourselves. Magnifique. (It also reminds me of the impotent rage which Caliborn vented toward Calliope before his false predomination in the distant future of this very universe he foolishly claimed that he, presumably alone, had created for the other Jade.) ... Post Script Edit: I feel bad for Callie, feeling like they had to run away like that~

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imagine-loki · 5 years

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discovery

TITLE: discovery CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: 10/10 AUTHOR: hiddlemediddles ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine being very, very lost in the woods and searching for any sign of life to help you get back to your village..Loki nurses you back to health. From there, a relationship blossoms.. RATING: M NOTES/WARNINGS: the end of a journey. Thank you for joining me on it :) x - It was only when you and Loki had arrived back at the shack that you both allowed yourselves a sigh of relief. On the way back from the airport, you had both stopped off at the house that you had been staying before you had even met Loki to fetch a few things. You noticed from the map how far you had actually gone off path. You had walked miles and miles out of reach of the path back to your home that fateful day. You would not even have been there with Loki in those moments had none of it happened. Loki had been rather impressed by it, suggesting that he might come and stay there with you. You welcomed the idea, but you said that you would like to stay over in the shack again with him. The peace you felt there with him was without comparison.

Hopping out of the taxi, you gazed upward at the gathering of conifers which surrounded you. You remembered those trees like the back of your hand. Your mind threw you back to when you had been stranded out there. It brought back a great amount of pain, but the beauty of the landscape eased it somewhat. The conifers were like giants, the leaves like clothes enveloping the bodies of the branches. The biggest sigh came when you both slumped yourselves on the couch together. You both turned your heads at each other with a look of wonder on your faces. The entire situation felt so.. surreal. Settling back in wasn’t difficult at all. Now, however, it was completely different. You and Loki were now.. truly together. By being away from the place, you had found each other. You almost mentally thanked SHIELD for their intervention. You curled up to Loki beside the fire, finding the paradox of the situation rather dumbfounding. You remembered lying on that very couch, waking up to hear a voice from the other end of the room asking if you were alright and well rested. You smirked up at him when he looked down at you. “What are you thinking about?” he grinned. “When we met. How you were sitting over there and I over here.” You smiled. “It feels like an age ago.” Loki chuckled. You rested your head against his chest, breathing him in. You had always been mesmerised by his scent. A deep, musky aroma of mint. You must remember to raid his room to find what cologne he wore. “Loki.. about before.. with the.. protection thing..” You whispered, raising your head to look him in the eye. “Whatever it is that you have to say, you must say it when you are.. ready to say it. Do not force something out of you that you are not ready to reveal.” Loki said gently, smoothing out your hair. He moved his hand to cup your cheek. You felt tears begin to form in your eyes, blurring out Loki from your line of vision. When they fell, they fell on his hands. “Y/N..” Loki whispered, wiping your tears away. “I am deeply.. unremittingly.. in love with you.” You felt the tears pour even quicker now. “And I with you, Loki. I love you.. more than I ever thought possible.” It was your turn to brush away the tears from Loki. You both chuckled at the absurdity of the situation. Kissing tenderly, you realised that the fire was very much still alight between you both. Yet, a contentedness fell upon you both which made the movements between you calming.. it was without description. “Loki - I.. I didn’t need protection that night. I already knew that I didn’t..” You said softly, feeling the tears begin to well up again. “What do you mean?” Loki asked with a quizzical look. He moved his hands to encase yours in his. You looked down at his pale hands and felt your tears begin to drip on them. You apologised and Loki raised your head to him again. After what felt like an age of inspecting your eyes, you exhaled. “I know.. because I can’t have children. I’m.. infertile.” You said, feeling your heart pound against your chest. Loki and you gazed at each other for a few moments. You watched revelation pour over Loki’s face and his hands move to embrace you tightly. You felt yourself going numb with what you had revealed to him. The silence was almost comforting. You remembered telling some of your closest friends and being inundated with pity. With Loki, however, you knew it would be different. In those moments, nothing needed to be said. In the silence, you heard the crackle of the fire continuing on incessantly. You rested your head against Loki’s chest once more. “Speak to me about it, if you wish. Tell me everything, or tell me nothing. It is all on you.” Loki whispered against your ear as he stroked your bare arm with his fingertips. You smiled weakly against his chest. He moved his hand to trace circles along your shoulder and then down to your collar bone. “Years ago.. I went for an appointment with a gynaecologist, who noticed that something was amiss.” You started. Loki looked down at you. “You don’t know what a gynaecologist is, do you?” You smirked at him, despite the pain that it all wrought within. “I’m afraid I do not..” Loki gave you a small smile of guilt. “I may have read many Midgardian books, but none of them were medical. Neither have I ever needed to.. visit a doctor.” “Well, it’s essentially someone specialising in the science of women. Mainly, the reproductive system. When you blossom into adulthood, you need to go for an appointment to see one.. or if you’re sexually active.” Loki listened on in curiosity. “The gynaecologist.. noticed there was something wrong. They ran a few tests and found out that I was infertile.. nothing could be done. They couldn’t find out what it was.. it was just as it was. They still, to this day, don’t know what it is. Despite all of these medical advancements, they don’t seem to have figured out everything. The gynaecologist simply said that I was.. ‘unlucky’” “At.. at what age were you?” “Well, I found out around four years ago.. when I was twenty. I was.. devastated, naturally. I found it so difficult to break it to my parents. When I did, there were.. a lot of tears. Mainly on my part. They needed to keep a strong face for me, they must have felt.” “How did you overcome it all?” “I haven’t truly overcome it.” You said honestly, moving to grasp onto his hand. “I have avoided relationships like the plague ever since. I never let anyone come.. too close. Then, of course, this happened.” Loki smiled at you gently. “You are an extraordinary woman.” “And you.. you are remarkably well controlled. What are you thinking? What I would give to have access to those thoughts. You could slip into my mind whenever you wanted, couldn’t you?” Loki chuckled. “I am thinking about you. About your strength. About how lucky I am to have you by my side.” Of course, at that, the tears had started to flow once more. “Gosh, you are a soppy one, aren’t you?” “If that is how you wish to phrase it.” Loki teased. You kissed his cheek gently. “I feel like.. this has helped.. so much.” “You are so.. strong. How did you do it, Y/N? Tell me the secret.” Loki whispered against your ear. He wanted to know the answer to a question he had been asking his entire life. His entire immortal life. He knew that the answer lay inside a mortal chest. “It took this to make me so. When I found out, I thought of myself.. as less of a woman. As a woman that wasn’t capable of fulfilling the purpose of her body. The biological essence of my being. Then I realised what a bunch of rubbish I was thinking. I realised that being a woman wasn’t reproduction. Being a woman was being who I am - exactly as I am, with no strings attached. I travelled.. I discovered myself. Strength is the ability to move on and the ability to face your greatest fears head on. The ability to leave behind the past and the complications in your life to discover the beauty within it all.” Loki kissed you with passion after you had finished speaking. Your tongues danced tenderly together, not ceasing until you were both desperate for air. “I thank, with all of my being, whatever strange force which brought you to my doorstep.” Loki whispered, causing you to chuckle. “Then you can thank my awful sense of direction.” “So be it.” Loki chuckled. It was that and the rest of your lives together. Nothing could be compared to it. It was your transformation. Your transformation together. The rest of your life with the God of Mischief. The rest of your life with Loki.

#Loki #Lover #Submitted fic #submission #discovery #chapter 10 #hiddlemediddles

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newstfionline · 3 years

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Thursday, July 22, 2021

U.S. and E.U. security officials wary of NSO links to Israeli intelligence (Washington Post) The Israeli company NSO Group has earned a reputation among national security experts around the world as a best-in-class manufacturer of surveillance technology capable of secretly gathering information from a target’s phone. But U.S. and European security officials regard the company with a degree of suspicion despite the ability of its technology to help combat terrorists and violent criminals. In interviews, several current and former officials said they presumed that the company, which was founded by former Israeli intelligence officers, provides at least some information to the government in Jerusalem about who is using its spying products and what information they’re collecting. “It’s crazy to think that NSO wouldn’t share sensitive national security information with the government of Israel,” said one former senior U.S. national security official who has worked closely with the Israeli security services and, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly describe intelligence operations. The founders of NSO are former members of Israel’s elite Unit 8200, which conducts electronic surveillance and is analogous to the U.S. National Security Agency. The company’s Pegasus surveillance tool can penetrate cellphones and steal emails, call records, social media posts, user passwords, contact information, pictures, videos, sound recordings and browsing histories. All of this can happen without a user even touching her phone or knowing that she has received a mysterious message from an unfamiliar person.

Schools confront more polarization with mask rules for fall (AP) Students in Wichita, Kansas, public schools can ditch the masks when classes begin. Detroit public schools will probably require them unless everyone in a room is vaccinated. In Pittsburgh, masks will likely be required regardless of vaccination status. And in some states, schools cannot mandate face coverings under any circumstances. With COVID-19 cases soaring nationwide, school districts across the U.S. are yet again confronting the realities of a polarized country and the lingering pandemic as they navigate mask requirements, vaccine rules and social distancing requirements for the fast-approaching new school year. The spread of the delta variant and the deep political divisions over the outbreak have complicated decisions in districts from coast to coast. Schools are weighing a variety of plans to manage junior high and middle school classrooms filled with both vaccinated and unvaccinated students.

US life expectancy in 2020 saw biggest drop since WWII (AP) U.S. life expectancy fell by a year and a half in 2020, the largest one-year decline since World War II, public health officials said Wednesday. The decrease for both Black Americans and Hispanic Americans was even worse: three years. The drop spelled out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is due mainly to the COVID-19 pandemic, which health officials said is responsible for close to 74% of the overall life expectancy decline. More than 3.3 million Americans died last year, far more than any other year in U.S. history, with COVID-19 accounting for about 11% of those deaths. Black life expectancy has not fallen so much in one year since the mid-1930s, during the Great Depression. Health officials have not tracked Hispanic life expectancy for nearly as long, but the 2020 decline was the largest recorded one-year drop. Killers other than COVID-19 played a role. Drug overdoses pushed life expectancy down, particularly for whites. And rising homicides were a small but significant reason for the decline for Black Americans, said Elizabeth Arias, the report’s lead author.

Massive wildfires in US West bring haze to East Coast (AP) Wildfires in the American West, including one burning in Oregon that’s currently the largest in the U.S., are creating hazy skies as far away as New York as the massive infernos spew smoke and ash into the air in columns up to six miles high. Skies over New York City were hazy Tuesday as strong winds blew smoke east from California, Oregon, Montana and other states. Oregon’s Bootleg Fire grew to 606 square miles (1,569 square kilometers)—half the size of Rhode Island. Fires also grew on both sides of California’s Sierra Nevada. In Alpine County, the so-called California Alps, the Tamarack Fire caused evacuations of several communities and grew to 61 square miles (158 square kilometers) with no containment. The Dixie Fire, near the site of 2018′s deadly Paradise Fire, was more than 90 square miles (163 square kilometers) and threatened tiny communities in the Feather River Valley region.

In Peru, a rural schoolteacher rises from obscurity to the presidency (Washington Post) The rise of Pedro Castillo, a previously obscure leader of a rural teachers union, to Peru’s highest office is the most glaring example yet of the power of the pandemic to upend politics in Latin America. The ravages of the coronavirus, and the surges in poverty and inequality it has caused, have provoked nearly 1 million people to protest in Colombia and saw a communist elected mayor of Santiago, the capital of Chile, the region’s free-market model. Here in Peru, a what-more-have-we-got-to-lose mentality helped propel one of the most unusual candidates ever to win a Latin American presidency. A 51-year-old, straw-hat-wearing schoolteacher and farmer who reported an income last year of $16,600, Castillo has never held public office. After finally being declared the winner of the June 6 runoff election on Monday evening, he will now trade his adobe abode in the Andean highlands for the grandeur of the Presidential Palace, going from nurturing poor children in a multi-grade classroom to handling the weightiest matters of state. In a race that pitted Peru’s elites against a man they derided as a country bumpkin unfit to rule, Castillo edged out the right-wing political veteran Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of jailed former president Alberto Fujimori. After losing a six-week effort to challenge the results, the Peruvian right is now gnashing its collective teeth.

UK’s swan-uppers take to the Thames to check on queen’s birds (Reuters) Royal officials took to the River Thames on Tuesday to count the swans that belong to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth at the start of the “Swan Upping” ceremony which dates back to the 12th Century. “Swans were a very, very important food, and they were served up at banquets and feasts,” David Barber, the queen’s Swan Marker, said. “Of course today swan upping is all about conservation and education.” The ceremony dates back 800 years to when the English crown first claimed ownership of all mute swans, which have long curved necks, orange beaks and white feathers. Barber and his team lift up the swans—which can weigh as much as 15 kg—to check for any injuries, typically caused by fishing tackle. Young cygnets are taken ashore to be weighed and measured.

Pegasus Highlights New World of Espionage (Foreign Policy) French authorities have vowed to investigate after it emerged that President Emmanuel Macron’s phone was recorded on a list of possible targets of government-led phone hacking using software, called Pegasus, licensed by a private Israeli spyware firm. According to an investigation by a global media consortium which includes the Washington Post, Le Monde, and the Guardian, ten prime ministers, three presidents, and Morocco’s King Mohammed VI were all potential targets. It’s not the first time world leaders have been targeted by spy agencies—the U.S. National Security Agency’s targeting of German Chancellor Angela Merkel is one high profile instance—but the Pegasus revelations highlight how sophisticated espionage programs are no longer limited to wealthy states, and can be purchased on the open market. In India, the investigation has caused a political scandal. The Indian National Congress—the largest opposition party—has accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of spying on its leader Rahul Gandhi after his number appeared on NSO’s list. It would not be the Modi government’s first alleged offense: It was accused of using NSO software to hack 1,400 phones before India’s 2019 elections.

US and Germany compromise on natural gas pipeline (WSJ) The U.S. and Germany have reached an agreement allowing the completion of a controversial Russian natural-gas pipeline, according to officials from Berlin and Washington, who expect to announce the deal as soon as Wednesday, bringing an end to years of tension between the two allies. The Biden administration will effectively waive Washington’s longstanding opposition to the pipeline, Nord Stream 2, a change in the U.S. stance, ending years of speculation over the fate of the project, which has come to dominate European energy-sector forecasts. Germany under the agreement will agree to assist Ukraine in energy-related projects and diplomacy.

India’s true COVID-19 death toll has likely surpassed 3 million, study finds (The Week) Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, official death tolls in many places have likely fallen short of the true figures, but a new study from the Center for Global Development suggests that the undercount in India may be particularly drastic, The New York Times reports. The Indian government’s official fatality count currently sits at more than 400,000, a grim figure in its own right. However, researchers estimate that between 3.4 million and 4.7 million more people than would normally be expected died between January 2020 and June 2021 in India. While the precise number of excess deaths that can be attributed to COVID-19 may never be known, the authors of the study believe it’s higher than 3 million. “True deaths are likely to be in the several millions not hundreds of thousands, making this arguably India’s worst human tragedy,” the authors said.

Severe floods inundate parts of central China (Washington Post/Foreign Policy) Powerful floods in central China’s Henan province have submerged streets and prompted harrowing rescues amid what Chinese media called the region’s heaviest rainfall in decades. Precipitation in Zhengzhou, a city in the province, reached a high of roughly eight inches per hour Tuesday, breaking a 1975 record. At least 25 people have died and the number is likely to grow, and more than 100,000 people have been relocated. Clips shared widely on social media show cars floating on the surface of a street that resembles a river. In another, rescuers pull a woman from a torrent of water rushing down what looks like a staircase. Other videos show inundated subway stations and commuters on a Zhengzhou subway car who were up to their shoulders in water. Flights and trains have been cancelled throughout cities in the region. Damage from the floods is likely to run into the billions of dollars. Power is out in much of the city, and key components of supply chains, including Apple and Nissan factories, have been wrecked. Tens of thousands of cars were washed away by the flooding. Local dams are threatened by the waters: At least one has been deliberately breached as part of flood control, while others are in danger of collapse.

North Korea food shortage (Nikkei Asian Review) North Korea’s food shortages have reached crisis levels, and inequalities have sharply widened ever since the Covid-19 pandemic forced the country to close its borders in January last year. The reclusive nation will be short by about 860,000 tons of food this year, or about two months of normal demand, the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimated in a recent report. The government has been trying to get the population to supply their own food but with little success. News agencies with sources inside the country are reporting starvation deaths as well as an increase in the number of children and elderly who have resorted to begging. Jiro Ishimaru of AsiaPress said North Korea’s current food shortage is quickly shaping up to be the worst humanitarian crisis in Asia.

Police in Nigeria secure release of 100 kidnapping victims (Reuters) Police and government authorities have secured the release of 100 people, including women, children and nursing mothers, who were kidnapped from their village in northwestern Nigeria over a month ago, a local police spokesperson said. Nigeria is battling an increase in armed robberies and kidnappings for ransom, mainly in northwestern states, where thinly deployed security forces have struggled to contain the rise of armed gangs, commonly referred to as bandits. While northeastern Nigeria has faced a decade of insecurity, including attacks by Islamist militants including Islamic State-allied Boko Haram, the current wave of kidnappings is primarily financially motivated.

Teens around the world are lonelier than a decade ago (Washington Post) Loneliness among adolescents around the globe has skyrocketed since a decade ago—and it may be tied to smartphone use, a new study finds. In 36 out of 37 countries, feelings of loneliness among teenagers rose sharply between 2012 and 2018, with higher increases among girls, according to a report released Tuesday in the Journal of Adolescence. Researchers used data from the Programme for International Student Assessment, a survey of over 1 million 15- and 16-year-old students. In the worldwide study, school loneliness was not correlated with factors such as income inequality, gross domestic product and family size, but it did correlate with increases in smartphone and Internet use. By 2012, most of the countries in the study had reached a point where at least half of teens had access to smartphones, and that is when teen loneliness levels began to rise, said Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University and the study’s lead author. Social media can create an exclusionary environment that increases school loneliness, especially for girls, the paper said; it can also enable cyberbullying. And even if an adolescent does not personally use social media and smartphones, they are so ubiquitous that they can have a negative effect regardless.

#headlines #news

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stevedonnellyfaith-blog · 5 years

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Darkness and Light (Post 54) 9-10-14

I flicked on the television on Saturday and was surprised that it was tuned to a news channel. Because it is only Stephen and I at home, I asked Abby to cancel our satellite service, but she hasn't gotten around to it yet. I record some car shows and soccer occasionally to watch while I decompress after work, but that is time that would be better spent reading anyway. Stephen is generally too distracted to turn on the television, but he must have been watching something on Fox News because the show that came on was 13 Hours in Benghazi. The show transfixed me.

I have read quite a bit of military history over the years, but I prefer military history to be the straight truth without revisionism or embellishment. Discussions about the attack in Benghazi tend to focus on boring politics rather than about the sacrifice of the men who died there. 13 Hours in Benghazi, on the other hand, was about what actually happened on the ground as told by the special operators who were there. I decided the car shows could wait. Jesus once explained to us that there is no greater love than to lay down one's life for a friend. With the anniversary of September 11th this week, the sacrifice of people that run towards gunfire and burning buildings is on my mind. Taking time to watch a show about what happened in Libya seems little enough sacrifice to pay homage to a much more significant sacrifice on the part of men whose calling is to keep us safe.

I watched the rest of the program. At times it was excruciating, but the ache was healthy. The three special operators that wrote and lived the story explained how things went down and the circumstance of the death of their friends. When one couldn't talk through the pain, one of his buddy's would take up the story. They acted as a team even in this.

Each of them is devoutly Christian; each is also a loving father of a family. They were in Benghazi not because they revel in violence and death, but because evil men walk the earth and their vocation was to protect the innocent from the malevolent. While Christianity is a peaceful religion, it is also possible to be a Christian warrior. Every shepherd carries a crook and David was very capable with a sling in his youth and with a sword in his adulthood. I have read that every angel carries a blade and will continue to defend heaven until the last day, after which, with evil banished forever, their weapons and watchfulness will no longer be required. For the present, there exists great evil in the world, a state made apparent with each subsequent beheading, school shooting, murder and rape. It is perfectly natural that the Body of Christ should have a hand that can, at need, become a fist. As often as possible that hand should be used to help others, but for every Solomon that has served the Lord, there has also been a Joshua or a Judas Maccabeus.

It concerns me that our country may one day fail to provide a generation of soldiers fit to defend justice. Culturally we are drinking deeply from a poisonous draught in which right and wrong no longer stand in opposition. There no longer seems to be a choice between a white door and a black door; we have imagined a gray one that has never existed before. For every heroic television protagonist there is a serial killer protagonist or a methamphetamine cooker. Dissatisfied with goodness, adolescents now play video games in which they are assassins or violent felons. This is not a totally new phenomenon in America as Bonny, Clyde and Billy the Kid were portrayed as contemporary Robin Hoods in the media of their day - minus the giving to the poor part. What is a modern innovation is the idea that when someone beheads another person, we ought to animate the act with realism for an upcoming version of Jihadi Killers IV. A beheading ought to inspire our condemnation and our prayers for the victims as well as the warped immortal souls of the perpetrators.

We need to be careful of the impact of the jaundice of relativism on our ability to discern good from evil. There is no moral equivalence between the values that Maximilian Kolbe lived by and the values of the commandant of the prison camp where the saint gave his life. The bravery of the firefighters that I watched stride into the World Trade Center was admirable. The "courage" of the hijackers was misguided and reprehensible. Good and evil are objectively different. As Catholics we believe that the truth of the Natural Law written ineligibly on our hearts; truth is not written with an Expo pen on a dry erase board.

Within each of us there is both good and evil in opposition. In our prevailing culture there seems to be a belief that good and evil can exist in a soul in a kind of perpetual stasis like chocolate swirl ice cream. Modern thinking holds that nothing is purely dark or perfectly light; everything is jamocha. As a Catholic, I believe that my soul is always headed towards purity or degradation. Each act brings me closer to the darkness or towards the light. There is no standing still. When I chose wrongly, I need to make a U turn back to the light with a stop at the confessional on the way.

At one point during 13 Hours in Benghazi an operator describes aman with a cell phone that walked up the street next to the compound that served as their Alamo and returned in the direction from which he came. The special operator chose not to shoot him even though he was probably using the GPS capability of his phone to triangulate the mortar attack which later killed two teammates, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods. The operator's decision was a moral one consistent with his training in the United States military. The pedestrian could have been a random non-combatant. The operator made a choice reinforced through discipline, an ingredient of most objectively right decisions.

Many modern people argue against the existence of a conscience. They say that when they make a decision in opposition to what we believe is the objective Natural Law they feel no remorse or cognitive dissonance caused by what we would call their transgression. The existence of terrorists, sociopaths and moral relativists can trouble faithful Christians because they don't seem subject to guilt. Their moral compass seems to be scrambled or broken. The conscienceless disturb people who are seeking salvation because if there is a Natural Law there must be guilt. If the lawbreakers don't suffer guilt, doesn't that put into question the idea that Natural Law is written on all our hearts?

In actuality people that claim not to feel the pangs of conscience are either mentality ill or have trained themselves in a manner to their great detriment. When a person persists in sin, they serve Christ an eviction notice from their personal premises. It is not hard to see the signs of a person who has set out with determination to silence the still small voice that tells him what is right. Usually the person inundates themselves with booze, drugs, sex, loud music or any other obsessive activity in an attempt to drown the inconvenient feeling of guilt. Mortal sin is soul poison. It is not surprising that those who slather their lives in iniquity eventually meet their goal of immunity to conscience.

13 Hours in Benghazi was a good reminder to me that the world is bigger than Brentwood, California or even the United States. I watched three men that love their families but also think daily about their lost teammates. They look forward to reuniting with them one day in heaven. I am sure that there are many firefighters and policemen in New York that think similar thoughts. As for me, on September 11th, I will think of my friend, Pat Dunn, an upperclassman who watched out for me my plebe year. I will never know on this side of heaven if Pat did anything heroic as the jetliner bulldozed into the side of his workplace in the Pentagon. I am hopeful that his soul was in good order in his final moments. I pray for the salvation of all those that lost their lives in the attacks September 11th and in subsequent action like Benghazi. When I remember to, I also pray for the attackers. Let us all hope for Jesus' mercy.

#sacrifice #Maximillian Kolbe #God #Jesus #The Holy Spirit #The Virgin Mary #heroism #lay down one's life for a friend #vocation #I am a Catholic priest #virtue

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houstonlocalus-blog · 7 years

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Dealing With Social Media Bots in Future Elections: A Guide

Illustration by Shelby Hohl

What lurid posters and leaflet campaigns were for 20th century propaganda, Twitter and Facebook posts are for 21st century. The internet’s viral capability as well as its tendency to continue delivering us what our page clicks imply we want to see more of, has made it a potent tool in the war to influence minds. It works, too, not the least because people on social media are consuming information in huge chunks with little time to taste or digest it, and it makes us feel so full of ideas we don’t always question whether that particular brain meal was wise. It’s the binge-drinking of data.

Earlier this year, it became inarguable that much of the mass information regarding the 2016 election originated from Russian intelligence agents. The bots and sock puppet accounts were capable of harnessing memes and trends to create huge waves of thought that would be quickly amplified by others. It was chemical warfare of the mind.

And it worked. Russian bots pretended to be Bernie Sanders supporters, helping to amplify to phenomenon known as the Bernie Bros and sending Hillary Clinton supporters fleeing to closed groups. Bots also infiltrated several pro-Sanders Facebook groups to disseminate memes and false news stories. Following the end of the Democratic primary, bots began to abandon Sanders supporters to focus on helping Donald Trump, though they largely used the same effective tactics.

Heck, I somehow still had one of these on my own friends list last week, which popped up when I mentioned Clinton in a Facebook post to begin spamming me with anti-Clinton propaganda (which matters now for some reason). Some of my friends, unaware they were not in fact arguing with a person in good faith, wondered how to tell it was a bot. So today, I’m going to present a brief guide on avoiding this mess in future elections.

Characteristics of Russian Bot

Before responding to an all-caps angry rant extolling Donald Trump, click on the person’s profile. Bots and sock puppeteers are not clever or industrious. They rarely take the time to create well-rounded personalities as they know they are essentially the internet equivalent of a burner phone. Their profile pics tend to be stock models, especially pretty women, and clicking on them will usually show they didn’t even bother to crop the watermarks out.

Their page usually has no indication this is a person who actually lives a life. No pictures of kids. Few friends (and almost exclusively male as men are quicker to accept friend requests from a random woman than vice versa). Often the profile is only few years old at most, and contains no lifestyle milestones or discussion except possibly links to dodgy political sites.

Also, beware of profiles of people who you know who begin to act uncharacteristic and strange. It’s a common practice for bots to copy other people’s profiles and resend friend requests. Beware if you see a familiar face you didn’t know unfriended you coming back. Odds are, your old friend is still there and this is a cheap imitation.

In communications, bots will usually start by yelling, and quickly move into responding entirely in memes. Memes are easier for foreign bots as they can provide a mass response that only needs a language and grammar check upon creation. They also spread well, and ultimately that is…

The Goal of a Bot

I need you to understand something and try to keep it close to your heart; not everyone on the internet is telling the truth or has your best intentions in mind. Bots arrived because Vladimir Putin wished to destabilize American elections and, if possible, prevent a powerful politician who had thwarted his ambitions in the past from attaining power. He and his psyops did not do this for our benefit.

They weren’t even trying to win an ideological war. Bots were not trying to convince Clinton supporters to switch sides. That wasn’t the goal. That’s not how modern mind control works.

The purpose of the bots was 1. To flood the internet with so much rage and media it felt suffocating. This would be helpful to dishearten Clinton voters. 2. To shift the rhetoric so far into the unreasonable that it made bad behavior seem reasonable by comparison. A person angry at the losing efforts of Sanders or the liberal agenda or whatever might not normally start screaming “lock her up” in the course of their rational life, but inundate them with enough pretend-people saying far worse and a wealth of unverified conspiracy theories and suddenly they assume they are the calm middle ground.

The campaigns work because when you put enough mass behind an ideological push, when it seems like “everyone is saying it,” real people can be counted on to boost the signal and fight the actual ground war.

The Effect of Bots

Bots are an infectious agent, but they are not the pandemic. Since they’re not real people that other real people actually care about, they make a poor vector for the virus to spread.

That’s where we come in. What a bot is hoping we’ll do is swallow some meme or story, regurgitate it, and that others will continue to do so. By the time someone steps in with a counter-opinion or a debunking, the infected population can reinforce itself through group-think and confirmation bias. Think of it like a mental zombie attack. One zombie, easily defeated. Ten zombies, all with the same target, much harder.

If these arguments take place on a friend’s page, then their friends become exposed, and they may quietly or not so quietly begin spreading the virus themselves. And to their friends. And so on. Before you know it, you are cut off in a sea of people all agreeing on a wrong thing.

Following the revelation of the bots and their effect on the election, I had a lot of Sanders supporters rationalizing that the harassment waves that came from that camp were all merely the work of bots, but that just isn’t true. What happened could only happen when real people allow what the bots say to guide their actions.

And Clinton supporters? Don’t get smug, either. If Sanders had come from behind and won the primary, the resentment felt from the bot operations would likely have prompted the bots to begin targeting the Clinton camp to help pull the same trick on Sanders after the fact. That’s the beauty of a bot attack. There is literally no scenario where the attacker can lose. But then…

How to Stop Bots

To keep with the virus analogy, vaccination is the only possible solution. Upon identifying a bot, report their profile and block them. If it happens on a comment thread, delete their comments and let everyone know that the person wasn’t real. Report any memes that you saw they were sharing as spam.

This isn’t about free speech. There is nothing to be gained by dealing with agents of a foreign power masquerading as concerned citizens, and if we aren’t to repeat the absolute carnage of 2016 we have to stop pretending weaponized information doesn’t influence or harm us.

Dealing With Social Media Bots in Future Elections: A Guide this is a repost

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