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felassan · 3 years

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Article: ‘The Most Powerful Woman in Gaming Wants to Make EA Loved Again’

Laura Miele is helping direct the company toward a future where it’s more attuned with consumers.

One of the first things Laura Miele did when she became chief studios officer of Electronic Arts Inc. three years ago was to gather 19 video game influencers in a conference room. “What do you want me to hear? Lay it on me,” she recalls asking them. “One guy sitting at the corner of the table, he just said, ‘I don’t understand why you don’t give players what they’re asking for.’ ”

[rest of article under cut for length, pasted as Bloomberg has an article read limit]

It’s something many gamers have wondered about EA for years. The $40 billion company, one of the biggest in gaming, is responsible for Battlefield, Madden NFL, and other megahit franchises. But many gamers have long seen EA as a necessary evil, resenting the direction in which it took some games and bristling at its aggressive attempts to extract money by charging extra for digital items in games that cost as much as $70 upfront. This dissatisfaction was no secret in 2018: Gamers spent their days filling up Reddit and other message boards with free advice for EA—but many felt its decision-makers weren’t listening.

EA’s leadership knows it has to improve that relationship, and Miele is a key player in its efforts to do so. Her focus group asked for new content for Star Wars Battlefront II and requested new types of games. Miele quickly assigned 70 people to the Battlefront development project, which dramatically improved its net promoter score, a measure of how likely people are to recommend the game. She also prompted EA to create a skateboarding game and committed to reintroducing its college football franchise, the two genres at the top of the influencers’ list.

In a sense, the guy at the meeting became a stand-in for all of EA’s long-suffering customers in Miele’s eyes. “I wanted to do right by this player,” she says.

As chief studios officer, Miele manages 6,000 staffers and thousands of contractors globally. She oversees EA’s 24 studios, where she makes personnel decisions and sets strategy, and she’s reshaped how the company uses analytics to create and market its games.

In the process she may have become the most powerful woman in gaming. In a 2019 International Game Developers Association survey, fewer than 30% of the more than 1,100 respondents were women, and few if any hold a more central role at such an important company. “It’s a tough place for a woman,” says Peter Moore, who was Miele’s boss when he was EA’s chief operating officer. “It wasn’t always smooth sailing, but she battled her way through.”

Proving good intentions is more important for EA than ever, as the business model of gaming continues to shift in ways that have the potential to alienate customers. Like its rivals, the company is increasing its focus on free-to-play games, making money through sales of digital products such as outfits and weapons for characters.

There are signs it’s succeeding. Apex Legends, EA’s free-to-play hero shooter game, has posted more than $1 billion in sales since it was first published in 2019, and it continues to grow. “The way to succeed with free-to-play games like that is to listen to and engage your customer base and earn their loyalty through incremental purchases,” says Doug Clinton, managing partner of the venture capital firm Loup Ventures, who says Miele deserves much of the credit for Apex Legends. “It feels like a proof point for her that the company is adapting well beyond traditional disk sales.”

Miele, 51, was born in San Francisco but grew up on the north shore of Lake Tahoe. She got her start in games—the kind that require a board—during family nights, when she pitted herself against her brother in Monopoly, Clue, Yahtzee, and backgammon. While attending the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, she worked at architectural companies. By the time she dropped out she’d moved on from receptionist positions to more senior roles, while gaining a reputation for organizing lunch-hour card games with her co-workers.

Miele landed a job as a project manager at Westwood Studios, a video game developer best known for Command and Conquer, in 1996. She eventually took over all marketing for its parent company, Virgin Interactive.

It wasn’t always a hospitable atmosphere: Miele remembers her colleagues expecting her to take notes at meetings, then clean up afterward. “That is just not something I would do today,” she says. “I adapted a lot because I was so passionate about what I was doing. I found my voice along the way.”

When EA acquired Westwood in 1998, she stayed on. At the time, the company did revenue forecasting by looking at sales data once a month and putting together spreadsheets by hand. Miele was tasked with developing more advanced analytics. She hired a group of data analysts, nicknamed “the Jedi,” and had them build EA’s first statistical regression models to examine sales trends, seasonality, and preorders. It took almost two years to put the system in place, but it overhauled the company’s business processes, and executives were soon using it to determine how to invest in advertising and promotions. “I loved how data and analytics can inform your judgment and your gut instinct,” Miele says.

Miele also decided to make one major break with EA’s existing business practices. In 2011 about 80% of game advertising budgets were spent on TV ads. But she saw how much time gamers spent online and decided to spend the bulk of the ad budget for Battlefield 3 on digital, downplaying other types of ads and cutting the TV ad budget to only 30%.

Messing around with the plan for Battlefield 3 was a good way to make people nervous. Miele remembers two executives calling her in for a meeting and demanding to know why they weren’t seeing billboards for the game as they drove in to the office. “It was scary for me, too, and I don’t blame our executives questioning me on that,” she says. But the game ended up being EA’s fastest-selling, moving more than 5 million copies in its first week. From that point, Miele’s marketing strategy became the standard for the company.

When EA signed a 10-year deal with Walt Disney Co. in 2013, Miele became Star Wars general manager. In 2014 she took over publishing operations, marketing, and other key areas, first in the North American region, then globally in 2016. At the time, the game industry was moving from physical disks to digital downloads, transforming its relationship with retail partners such as Walmart Inc. and Best Buy Co.

Miele was in charge of smoothing things over, explaining that EA would start competing with them for customers even as the retailers accounted for the largest portion of the revenue. “I never said to them, ‘Hey, see you later, we are moving on,’ ” she says. “It was, ‘How can we move forward together?’ ” EA began making physical cards with digital credits that its retail partners could sell at their stores, allowing them to share in the revenue from digital sales.

EA’s studios are spread around the globe, and Covid-19 altered Miele’s routine radically. “It was a very difficult year, and I’m really proud about how our company showed up,” she says. “I considered myself a wartime leader last year. You had to get in a bunker with everybody.”

Days became an endless progression of Zoom calls. To keep up with gamers, Miele started spending evenings listening to Clubhouse chats while answering work emails. Because she hasn’t been on the road, she’s also had more time to dine at home and play board games or Apex Legends and The Sims with her 16-year-old twins. As the pandemic retreats in the U.S., her schedule might change, but she still envisions providing more flexibility to her employees to work from home and office. “I do think we’re going to have a different work environment as we go forward,” she says.

Miele is itching to get back to the studio visits. She’s helping steer EA further toward smartphones. The company plans to release mobile versions of Apex Legends globally this year and spent $2.1 billion in April for Glu Mobile Inc., a mobile game publisher, while also preparing the next releases in its existing franchises. “I think the next Battlefield and the mobile shooter games, along with how successful the M&As come out will be key litmus tests of her management this year,” says Matt Kanterman, an analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence. “Her scope is clearly rising.”

— With Dina Bass and Jason Schreier

[source]

#video games #interesting..#long post #longpost

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zeldasayer · 4 years

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I transcribed and translated Pedro’s interview from GQ Germany for all of us. I tried translating as good as possible but bear with me, English is not my mother tongue. By @sixties-loser

Pedro Pascal, the star from “Game of Thrones”, “Wonder Woman” and “The Mandalorian” talks about becoming an adult, film, fashion, corona – and a painful surgery in the exclusive GQ interview.

It seems almost eerie how empty the streets of LA are in the sunshine. Meanwhile a new normality seems to be coming to Europe, most people in L.A. are still cutting their own hair. Many have not seen their friends for half a year. The pandemic is out of control. The reaction towards it too. Inviting someone into their garden for a “distance drink” can cause the same distress as suggesting to switch spouses.

Therefore, it was particularly surprising that Pedro Pascal immediately accepted. He accepted the drink, not to switch spouses. He is one of the rising stars and newcomers this year – if it wasn’t for corona sending the whole film industry into a forced vacation, there would most likely not have been time for said drink. After having his skull crushed in “Game of Thrones” followed the lead role as a DEA agent hunting Pablo Escobar in “Narcos” in 2015 and now he is stepping towards big Hollywood films. From the 1st of October onwards the Chilean-born actor will be starring in the blockbuster “Wonder Woman 1984”. Moreover, the second season of the “Star Wars”-series “The Mandalorian” on Disney+ starring him as the lead is going to air in October this year – but he will be underneath a helmet. Well, we all are under a helmet in 2020 in one way or another. We want to meet the man who a few years ago still worked as a waiter in New York, whose parents were political refugees who found asylum in Denmark and settled in Texas and whose son one day signed up for a theatre group in High School.

Then, the cancellation! While we were in the middle of fixing up the house and the garden for the drink with Pedro and organizing the fashion shoot, which was not easy considering the safety measures in L.A., his management called with an unfortunate message: Pedro – no, not sick with corona – had to get emergency surgery because of a damaged tooth and was lying in bed with a swollen face that was hindering him from speaking and taking pictures. The sun is shining onto empty streets. And our empty garden.

A few days later he nonetheless arrived at our front door without a swollen face but still with threads in his mouth. He was not chauffeured by a limo-service but he came with his own car – he even picked up his make-up artist. He is helping her carrying all of her utensils into the house and declares: “I’ve got time today!”. What a celebrity! It seemed like we did not want to ask him how he made it to the A-List of Hollywood but he wanted to ask us how we made it to the A-list. Pedro Pascal! Yes, what kind of a celebrity?

Pedro Pascal: Sorry for messing with your plans. The surgery was an emergency.

GQ: Really? We were wondering whether the swelling wasn’t the product of a secret visit to the plastic-surgeon. Apparently, they are drowning in work because of the quarantine in Hollywood.

PP: I have to disappoint you. A few days before our appointment I was rushing to the hospital with a fractured tooth and the worst pain in my entire life – a hospital in which treats people with severe cases of corona. I was unable to reach any dentist! Right in front of the parking lot a specialist called me back. The pain was hell despite the ten injections I got. The doctor said I was not an exception because a lot of people are grinding their teeth because of all the stress.

GQ: What are you most afraid of at the moment?

PP: How the government is handling the pandemic is worrying me more than the virus itself. This shortage of intelligent management of the crisis is a moral shame. The leadership crisis in this country is turning us all into orphans – destitute and abandoned.

GQ: How did you spend your time over the last few months?

PP: I spent it with frozen pizza and sweatpants in Venice Beach. I live in a rear house that’s in a family’s garden. Actually, there are a lot of good takeout places nearby but for some reason I just love pepperoni pizza from the supermarket.

GQ: That does not really sound like movie star-lifestyle. What does it feel like being suddenly stopped from top speed to zero?

PP: Regarding what is going on around the world one should hold back one’s own mental turmoil. I would be lying if I was saying that I am not disappointed. The whole team put a lot of heart and work into the production of “Wonder Woman 1984”. We had a lot of fun on set. I wished to travel around the world and introduce the film with the same lively energy.

GQ: You come from a politically engaged, socialist family that fled from the Pinochet-regime in Chile. What do you remember from that time?

PP: My sister and I were born in Chile but I was only nine months old when we first found asylum in Denmark. From there we quickly came to San Antonio in Texas where my dad started working as a doctor at the university clinic.

GQ: Texas is not known as a socialist utopia. How did you assimilate?

PP: San Antonio is not a Cowboy-town but very diverse with big Asian, black and Latino communities. I remember it as a romantic place, culturally open. The culture shock only came as we later moved to range county in California. There the atmosphere was suddenly white, preppy and conservative.

GQ: How were you received in California?

PP: I’m still ashamed of the fact that I did not correct my classmates when they kept on calling me Peter. I am Pedro. Even if I didn’t grow up in Chile the country and the language are still a part of me. I was very unhappy in that environment. However, I was fortunately able to go to another school close to Long Beach where I felt more comfortable. Through the theater group at that school I found my way.

GQ: Were you able to visit Chile as a child?

PP: Yes, when my parents made it to the list of expatriates that were able to travel to Chile without consequences. First, there was a big family reunion and then my sister and I stayed there for a few months with relatives while my parents went back to Texas. They likely needed a break from us. They got us when they were very young, had a buzzing social life and my mother was obtaining a PhD in psychology.

GQ: Was your mother a typical young psychologist who wanted to apply her theoretical knowledge at home?

PP: You mean, whether I was her guinea pig? For sure! I remember strange tests and sittings that were disguised as games where someone was watching me react to different toys. I cannot have been older than six but I was already aware of the dynamic. My favourite thing was being questioned about my dreams. That was a wonderful opportunity to come up with fantastic stories.

GQ: Was that your first performance?

PP: Of course! My mother worried about my strong imagination because I was living in my own fantasy world rather than reality. I hated going to school. I was always categorized as the troublemaker. At one point, the topics at school became more interesting and my grades also went up. There are so many kids that are unnecessarily diagnosed with learning disabilities without considering that school can be abhorrent. Why is it so accepted to be bored in class when there are so many stimulating ways to convey knowledge?

GQ: Considering al that has happened this summer around the world: Do you believe that we can seriously demand social change now?

PP: I Hope so. After lockdown, the first time I went out was to protest for “Black Lives Matter” on the streets. The energy was peaceful and hopeful until the police provoked severe conflicts. Nevertheless, we cannot run from problems like we used to this time and we cannot distract ourselves from them either. It seems like the pressure of the pandemic led to a new clarity: We cannot go on this way.

GQ: The “Wonder Woman 1984” Trailer revives the optimism of the 1980’s. From today’s point of view, it seems almost nostalgic.

PP: That’s right. You really are happy for two hours. The director Patty Jenkins created a film full of positive messages. We shot in Washington D.C., then in London and Spain – this sounds like I am talking of a past time.

GQ: Do you miss traveling?

PP: I’m just now realizing the privilege of just packing up one’s stuff and being able to fly anywhere. An American passport used to guarantee unlimited travel. And that’s why it the small radius of our lives is actually unimaginable. Over the last years I often retreated for a break after shootings because I was constantly on the move and overstimulated. My friends were already complaining I had become too comfortable. We all took social contact for granted and are only realizing now how dependent we actually are on human contact. Over the last weeks I often longingly thought about all the parties and dinner invitations I declined.

GQ: In L.A. people spend more time at home or nature than in other metropolises that are more geared towards public life. Could this city become your second home after New York?

PP: My Real Home are my friends. I have been a nomad since I was little and I do not have a place where I have put down roots. Up until not long ago my physical home was a place in between departure and arrival. Therefore, it was something I did not want to complicate through the accumulation of stuff. On the contrary: Without having read Marie Kondo’s book I have freed myself from excess baggage over the last few years and I lived relatively minimally.

GQ: Is there nothing you collect or something you just can’t throw away?

PP: Books! I even still have the literature I read when I was a teenager and when I was in college. Recently, I stumbled upon a box full of old theatre manuscripts and materials from my time at the New York University. I also cannot part from art easily, just like I cannot part from lamps or old photos. On the other hand, I can easily get rid of furniture and clothes.

GQ: Do you remember roles that were really only completely defined through the costume?

PP: Yes, I am particularly thinking about “Game of Thrones”. At that time I understood for the first time what it meant to be supported by a look. This is thanks to the costume designer Michele Clapton. She created very feminine robes and brocade coats for my character that nevertheless looked masculine when worn and I felt very sexy in them. Of course, Lindy Hemmings power-suits and Jan Swells bleached hairstyle for the tycoon-villain in “Wonder Woman 1984” were very important as well. At first I did not really see myself in the role because the cuts and colors of the 80s do not really fit my body. I’m more the 70s type.

GQ: Do you incorporate those inspirations into your personal wardrobe?

PP: In my free time I choose comfort over a cool look these days. Sometimes I miss the times when I expressed myself through a certain style. It is hard to imagine that I went to Raves as a teenage in the 90s; I was a real club kid with ridiculous outfits: overalls, balloon pants, football shirts and a top hat, like in Dr.Seuss’s “Cat in a Hat”. Later in New York I was hanging out with a group of people that felt it was very important to have a certain style. The fact that I am basically only wearing sweatpants everyday is actually tragic.

GQ: whoever plays roles in comic book adaptations becomes a bodybuilder and eats ten chicken breasts a day. You don’t?

PP:My body would not agree with that. It is hard enough to stay in shape normally. When you’re in your mid-forties you have to live with a lot more discipline. Up until before my tooth-incident I worked out with a trainer in my garden multiple times a week to keep the quarantine body in check.

GQ: Apart from the personal trainer, are you in a steady relationship?

PP: I am not ready for that yet. Maybe at some point I will be but until then I’ll let it be. I can’t even offer you absurd corona dating stories.

GQ: What would annoy you the most if you were your own roommate?

PP: I can be quite controlling. I have to conjure all my humanity to prevent myself from going through my entire film collection. When I don’t want something I cannot keep it to myself or be passive-aggressive, I always have to take it to the frontlines. Other than that, I tend to have tunnel view: when I am not feeling well I cannot imagine to ever feel better again. I have trouble relativizing my emotions or to wave off problems. Method-acting would really not be for me. This is why I try to only work on projects that feel good, where there is mutual support and encouragement.

GQ: When we were trying on the clothes earlier you spoke of a lack of self-confidence. How does that get along with a career like yours?

PP: Isn’t it interesting how these characteristics and circumstamces relate? Self-worth comes from inside but it is also influenced by what society values because we often internalise the public gaze. I have lived in New York for 20 years, I studied there and made a living by working as a waiter until my mid-thirties because the theatre and film jobs I got did not pay the bills. There were so many times I was almost there. The disappointment of having missed the perfect role or opportunity by a hair’s width can be crushing. When should you give up and what is plan B? That is a question that is not only on many actors‘s minds but also on many others minds who struggle for a living – no matter how much potential they have or how close they seem to be to the top. We are seeing now how our narrow definition of success destroys society. At the same time, we are realizing that where we come from and the color of our skin still decide whether we can exist with dignity.

GQ: What are the positive aspects of a relatively late success as leading-man?

PP: I feel like I can decide over my own life without the pressure of having to accept projects or to have to present a certain identity on social media. This is for sure also because I am a man. Regardless of age, Women have to try harder to stand out.

GQ: Life always consists of risk management – now more than usual. For what would you risk losing something?

PP: Generally, when you never risk something you might never get ahead. That is for friendship, love, work and creativity. I have to be ready to take risks for the things that really matter to you.

#pedro pascal #THANK YOU MY LOVE!#submission

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ohwereusingourmadeupnames · 3 years

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You’ll Look At Me With Eyes That See

Pairing: Peter Parker/Tony Stark Rating: M (Mature) Notes: This little brain child came after a few too many Netflix Christmas movies and a few motivating conversations with my best pal, S. I love dogs and awkward dog owner Tony just wouldn’t go away! Word Count: ~5.2K Summary:

When Happy first mentioned getting a dog, Tony balked at the idea. After taking a look around his empty home, however, he started to warm up to the idea. With Happy's overly excited advice in hand, Tony takes a chance & peruses the local border collie rescue. When he brought the shy dog home, Tony never would've imagined the bond he would create - or the human connection that would follow.

Read on AO3 here.

Looking down Bo’s snoot, Tony sent out a good vibe towards Happy for the millionth time that day.

When Happy initially mentioned the addition of a dog to the Stark household, Tony couldn’t say no fast enough. Despite being so his entire life, Tony liked being alone. The comfort of the normalcy of his everyday life revolved around the isolation and freedom the little cabin in upstate New York afforded him. He picked his current location specifically for that particular characteristic. Why ruin the carefully cultivated environment by adding another living, breathing thing to the mix?

It didn’t dawn on him until a couple of weeks later that maybe, just maybe, Happy might’ve been right. Though there wasn’t any excess noise, or people taking up more space than necessary, Tony felt like something was missing. Well, he felt that way throughout his entire life, but it ached a little harder the longer he looked around the room and found empty spaces. Making it alone and enjoying it were too things Tony didn’t have much experience distinguishing. His entire life was about making it – a part of him wondered if he even knew what it was to enjoy anything.

The next time Tony caught Happy on the phone, he brought the topic up himself, the entire thing grating on his nerves as he spoke – anxiety and the slightest bit of hope weighing him down ever so slightly.

“So – about that dog,” Tony started with a slight hitch in his voice.

Though, he didn’t make it very far before Happy pipped up, a loud shriek of excitement radiating down the phone line between them. “I knew I could break you down! Tony, you don’t know how great of an idea this is. I told you about the border collie I rescued a few months ago, Rango – I’ve been so much happier since he came barreling into my life.”

At that point, Tony could do nothing but listen to Happy’s exuberant rambling about the foundation and how much he was going to enjoy every second of the whole experience. Before getting off the phone, Tony finally got to sneak a word in, the slightest hint of affection in his voice.

“Thanks, Hap – this was a great idea.”

Of course, when Tony felt that bubble of scorching apprehension sitting in the bottom of his stomach, the thought of telling Happy how good of an idea it was the previous night felt like a distant memory now that he was sitting in the waiting room – twenty minutes and a few pieces of paper between him and a brand new addition to the meticulousness of his life.

Despite the anxiety about the whole process, finding the dog for him was surprisingly easy. After wringing his hands for what felt like an eternity, Tony was led back to the kennels by a smiling tech, the girl’s hair swinging from one side of her head to the other as she walked. Deciding that the tranquility of the motion was much more soothing, Tony watched the pendulum of it the entire way, his heart slowing down to a manageable level by the time he could hear yips and barks.

“Alright, Mr. Stark – this is the crew. Our vet and dog trainer, Peter, does a good job with their training, but they get a little excitable when they meet someone new – don’t let it overwhelm you.” The tech said all of this with a smile, her eyes flashing with a certain affection that all dog people shared – there really wasn’t anything like wet doggy kisses and fluff under the palm of his hand.

Taking a couple of steps into the pin, Tony was immediately swarmed. Though the dogs didn’t try and take him off his feet, each one nudged and pushed in an attempt to get closer to him – all, of course, except one. With his hands down, Tony let his fingers brush against soft fur, the mere contact enough to calm down all of the raging anxiety within him. Using the newfound confidence, Tony pushed through the group until he was standing in front of the one dog that hung back.

“That’s Bo – he’s our resident shy guy.”

Tony crouched down then, a soft smile on his face. “Hi, Bo,” he muttered softly, his hand extending so that the back of it was on offer for sniffs and introductions. A soft nose touched his skin a moment later, Bo’s head ducking to take him in. As if something clicked in that small moment of contact, Bo took a few steps forward until his body pressed against Tony, the pressure something collies were known for. Sucking in a breath, Tony let the grin on his face grow – it seemed as if he found his dog.

The process of getting Bo home wasn’t all that complicated. Since he was a trained service dog, Tony decided to sign up for the training course the foundation’s vet put on – if the dog was trained, the least Tony could do was get on board and train himself, too. The tech shot him a coy smile as she continued to talk up the vet – Tony knew he was missing something but went along with it all the same. Having Bo’s lead pressed into his hands made it all worth it.

That happened two weeks ago – two weeks in which Tony took a break from his editing duties in a desperate attempt to find a rhythm with his new pal, to fall in line with the demands of not only caring for himself efficiently, but the newest addition, too. It started off a little slow, both Tony and Bo trying to figure out where they fit with each other. Yet, as the days past, Tony felt a sort of comfortability settle between them. Tony liked the warmth pressed against his leg at night and Bo seemed to enjoy the hour long walks they took to taking later in the evening when the sky burst with color and painted the most serene of pictures.

In fact, things were starting to go so well that Tony completely forgot the dog training courses he signed himself up for. The text message reminder he asked for during the paperwork process reminded him the night before and then again, a few hours before the class was set to take place. At the time, signing up for the training seemed like a good idea. He wanted to know everything he could about Bo’s care, but he didn’t factor in the need to actually get out of his house and make the journey back into the public domain. He already made the monthly pilgrimage to get the dog.

Still unsure, Tony clicked Bo into his lead and left the house, anyway. He paid the fee to get the information, the least he could do was make an attempt to actually go (even if leaving the comfort of his house physically felt like the most impossible challenge to date). Getting out the door with Bo by his side made it all a little easier, though he hated to admit it. Giving in to the idea would mean that Happy was right; and he hated giving his old friend any sort of kudos, even if he deserved them.

Grinning with that thought in mind, Tony climbed into the car and let Bo get settled before backing out and making the ten-minute drive into the little town that surrounded his mecca of isolation. In the wintertime, when the roads were covered with snow and ice, the trek was almost impossible (and that was how Tony liked it). With a couple of minutes to spare, Tony relaxed back into the driver’s seat, his head turning to catch Bo’s glance.

“We can do this, right bud? It’ll be okay. We can survive the masses for a little while.” Tony ran his fingers through soft hair as he spoke. The dog pressed into his hand then, Tony understanding that was as much of an answer as he was going to get. Sucking in a deep breath, Tony nodded, let his fingers pass through Bo’s fur a couple more times, and turned off the car. By the time they got out of the vehicle, Tony was right on time.

Things were fine until Tony actually walked into the door. Instead of the big group he expected, there were two other dog owners and their pups idling around. There was the smallest bit of chatter happening, but no overwhelming noise like he initially thought there’d be. The front area of the waiting room was transformed into a large empty space, the coffee table and chairs obviously moved elsewhere. The sudden anxiety of being in a crowd dissipated easily; Bo nudged his hand, looking towards the other dogs in the room.

Before he could get his lead off and release him into the company of the other pups, a door opened, and all of the oxygen was pulled out of the room. When Cindy, the tech he worked with when he first got Bo, mentioned the vet, Tony immediately thought of someone older with graying hair and a soft smile. Instead, he was met with a young man with shoulder length hair, well-kept facial hair, and the brownest eyes Tony could remember ever seeing. They were deep and open, smooth in a way that Tony wanted to dive in and learn all of the secrets kept within them.

Bo gave a little huff then, Tony’s hand still gripping the dog’s collar (probably very tightly now that the entire world moved the second he saw the most handsome man to ever exist). Loosening his grip, Tony tried to swallow the lump that quickly grew in his throat. He couldn’t remember the last time he felt such an instant connection and immediately cursed Happy for this amazing burst of good fortune. A dog and a handsome man all within the same month – how could he ever handle the load of anxiety and excitement that threatened to overwhelm him?

Things got started not long after that, the abrupt nature of it allowing Tony to forget about his little dilemma for the entirety of the hour – an hour in which Tony watched Doctor Peter Parker talk about the facets of dog training, the man every so often running a hand through his hair as he spoke about the ins and outs of companion dogs and their mannerisms. By the time the training came to an end, Tony couldn’t decide if he liked Peter’s beauty or the brain that held so much knowledge more.

After finishing up and getting Bo clipped back into his lead, Tony stood idly around, wondering what the protocol for chatting up the teacher was. Like he understood Tony’s apprehension, Bo pulled him forward, the length of the leash allowing him to get a few steps ahead without Tony noticing. Looking up when he felt the tug, Tony rolled his eyes, a small smirk overtaking his lips. It was like Bo and Happy were conspiring against him – both pushing him in the direction he knew he needed to take.

Walking after Bo, Tony tried to play it cool when the sexy vet, Dr. Peter Parker, turned and dropped his hand for the dog to smell, a smile slipping across his gorgeous cheeks.

“Hi, buddy. I heard that you got adopted,” Peter said softly, his words for the dog and dog alone. When he looked up, Tony felt his heart stutter – they’d been within the same proximity all night, this feeling overtaking him each time they so much as caught eyes. With him so close, Tony could see the slightest upturn of his nose and the long lashes that enhanced the deep chocolate of his dreamy eyes.

“You must be the new owner – I’m happy to see you’re going to keep up his training. Bo’s been one of my best students since he came to stay with us.” Peter paused then, a hand slipping out between them. “I’m Peter – Peter Parker.”

Without hesitation, Tony gripped Peter’s hand, a shy smile dimpling his cheek, the red of his patented blush filling in the dip of his cheek. “Tony Stark,” he replied softly, his fingers squeezing Peter’s in a snug embrace. “I’m always behind continuing education.”

The answering grin just about knocked Tony on his ass, Peter’s cheeks crinkling at the corners with the quirk of his lips. “I like the sound of that. Does that mean I’ll see you next week?” He bent down then, running a hand through Bo’s hair – “and this little guy, too.”

“You bet – I signed up for the weekly course. I’m new to the whole dog owner thing, I thought I should get a little training for myself, too.” Tony felt his blush creep further down his face, his neck now in flames with the moving heat. “I kind of don’t know what I’m doing.”

“Looked okay to me,” Peter said quickly, his eyes flashing with something Tony couldn’t quite pinpoint. “But – I’m committed to making the best out of our dogs and their owners as I can. Take this.” He dug in his pocket for a second before producing a business card, the blocky Doctor Peter Parker across the front apparent and confident, much like the man handing it to him. “Give me a call if you find yourself not knowing what to do. I can make a house call.”

Unable to keep the dopey grin from overtaking his face, Tony pocketed the card and made up as good of an excuse to leave as he could. Aside from Happy and now Bo, Tony didn’t have many beings he felt comfortable with. Yet, standing in front of Peter those short few minutes, Tony felt good – strong and confident in a way that didn’t happen often – hadn’t happened in such a long time.

In a desperate attempt to save himself from further embarrassment (and a probable cardiac episode with all of the blood rushing straight to his face), Tony made a hasty exit, Bo’s leash clasped tightly in his hands.

“I’d say that went pretty well, huh boy?” Tony mumbled in Bo’s direction, his hand burying itself in soft fur as he spoke.

In his signature style, Bo pressed his body back into Tony’s hand, the movement answer enough.

----

Over the next couple of weeks, Tony went out of his way to ignore the card sitting on his workshop desk – the shiny block letters of Peter’s name almost taunting him every time they caught his eye. He went to their weekly training sessions, blushed his way through them, and attempted to not make a total fool of himself whenever he got the chance to speak to Peter. With each new time Tony saw the man, his crush got a little more serious – so serious in fact, Tony found himself doodling Peter’s initials all over the draft he needed to edit before the end of the week.

The childish nature of the feeling inside of him was new – throughout his young life, Tony didn’t have much time to let butterflies settle in his stomach, or impossible feelings overtake him. He was too busy surviving. Now, as a grown ass adult, Tony found himself grinning every time his heart raced, and his palm started to sweat when Peter came to mind. It should’ve rocked him to his core, the idea of wasting brain bytes on anything but the normal – but it didn’t; instead, Tony found himself with more energy and the companionship of a smile he didn’t really know existed.

By the fourth week of classes, Tony was feeling kind of desperate. He knew walking into the office later that night, Bo would get the best training and in between the commands and tricks, Tony got to have his fill, too. Yet, as the days past and the thoughts of Peter multiplied themselves in his brain, Tony wanted more. Of course he did – Peter’s smile lit up the room and the mere presence of the man, whether in his thoughts or in person, could make all the bad thoughts go away. No one, not even Happy, gave him such a feeling of comfortability.

Sighing, Tony forced down the thoughts, his brain mentally preparing to pine from a far, instead. With a rare free moment from his editing work, Tony decided to head to the workshop and work on his latest piece of woodwork. Though he kept his name from the business and picked drop-off places far from his home, Tony enjoyed his carpentry immensely – it didn’t hurt that the extra source of income brought him a lucrative cushion in which to fall onto when the book work got a little slow. The habit started as stress relief and managed to stay that way, despite the demand his work continued to foster.

Since bringing Bo home, the dog would follow Tony down the steep hill into the workshop, his tail wagging furiously the entire time they spent down there. Tony didn’t know what he did to have access to such a level-headed pet, but he was thankful for it – Bo didn’t have many demands and those that did exist were easy to carry out and minimally demanding. Nothing beat the companionship, though – Bo’s presence brought a new element to his life – no matter how reluctant he was to admit it to himself or Happy when he asked for the fiftieth time during their next phone call.

It took a few minutes for the two of them to get settled in, Tony adjusted the temperature and placed Bo’s bed a little closer to the source of heat. It didn’t hurt that the pup would be within reaching distance if Tony suddenly found the need for comfort, either. When he felt ready, Tony started the soothing rhythm of sanding his latest project – the edges of the table would come together nicely once he finished the little detail work.

He looked up every so often to make sure Bo wasn’t getting into anything, his eyes moving from one side of the workshop to the other at least a couple times every few minutes. Catching some movement out of the corner of his eye, Tony put down the sander, dusted himself off, and pulled the goggles from his face, a small grin slipping up his cheeks. “What are you up to, Bo?” Tony asked, a curiousness in his voice as he watched the dog walk to the front of the workshop and then back, his snoot down towards the floor until he was suddenly pressed up against Tony.

Leaning down, Tony ran his hands through the soft fluff on the top of Bo’s head, taking the moment to simply enjoy the feeling of the hair in his hands. As his head was pet, Bo looked up at him, the dog’s purpose of the walk to the front of the room now obvious – Peter Parker’s card was between Bo’s teeth, his slobber making the corners turn in on themselves.

“Hey, how’d you get that?” Tony gave Bo a cursory pat before taking the card from his mouth, his index finger tracing the raised edges of Peter’s name despite the sticky spit coating the entire thing. Shaking his head, Tony couldn’t help but laugh – in all his years, he never saw such an act of unsubtlety, and he was best friends with the biggest oaf of them all. He flicked the back of the card for a moment, then made a decision – if the dog, who only knew him for a few weeks, thought he needed to do this, the least Tony could do was try.

“Alright, I get it. I should’ve done this a couple of weeks ago, I know.”

The answering huff from Bo stole a laugh from his chest, his eyes glowing with affection, despite the apprehension that tried to pull him under as the seconds past.

Card in hand, Tony pulled out his phone and went about plugging in the number – he couldn’t decide whether he wanted to give Peter a call or simply send him a text message, so he allowed himself to dawdle while he made the final decision. After thumbing out a couple of messages that sounded ridiculous, Tony said fuck it and hastily pressed the audio button. By the time Tony felt the need to back out, the call was three rings in – the sound of Peter’s voice answering on the fourth ring really driving the finality of the situation home.

“Hi! I hope Siri got it right and this is Tony Stark,” Peter answered cheerily, the few short words already working to drive Tony crazy.

Sucking in a barely audible breath, Tony forced himself to speak, his words coming out rushed for just a moment. “Hi – yeah, it’s me. I mean, Tony Stark. Hi.”

He slapped himself for the awkwardness, Tony’s heart pounding so damn hard against his chest. “You said I could give you a call if I ever needed any help. Well, I need some help.” The whole thing was lame, and he needed to come up with a problem with the perfect Bo in the mater of moments, but it seemed worth it – Peter’s voice was so warm coming down the line.

“I did say that and would love to help. Can it wait until I see you this evening? Or should I get in the truck now and head your way?”

Tony drew his lip between his teeth, hazel eyes looking around the workshop and then down at Bo – his voice stuck in his throat. Coming to his rescue for the hundredth time, Bo leaned his body weight against him, the dog’s cold nose pressing against the back of his hand. Whatever it meant, Tony felt the instant bit of comfort radiating from the collie. “Bo’s been getting into some of the stuff around my workshop. I hoped you could come and decide how to best doggy proof everything.”

Bo looked up at him then, his body weight still pressing against Tony, his eyes glaring back at him as if he actually understood the words coming out of his mouth. Grinning, Tony gave his pup a soft pat against his head, fingers lingering in the soft fur. Despite the small white lie, Tony felt pretty good about his invitation – in the weeks since getting Bo, he did mean to accident proof a few things in his workshop. Bo didn’t get into things or hadn’t up until that point; but he wanted to feel good about it, anyway. It didn’t hurt that it gave a perfectly good excuse to have Peter come out his way.

The rhythmic voice of Peter brought him out of his thoughts, Tony catching the tail end of “give me your address and I’ll be right out.”

Shaking himself, Tony managed to babble out his address and the needed directions to get to his driveway after turning off the main road. He hoped, probably for the first time in his life, that this certain someone would find him, despite the self-brought upon isolation. Not everyone could handle his way of living, his need for space, hell – the amount of space he surrounded himself with was an obstacle in and of itself.

Bo, having sensed the shift in his thoughts, pressed his wet nose against the inside of Tony’s wrist, the sensory shift bringing him back to his workshop, the smell of shaved wood sitting in his nostrils an instant comfort. Looking around, Tony moved a couple of paces to his right, his hands running over the surface of his workspace to brush the sawdust off – the rest of the place was relatively well put together; Tony’s OCD didn’t allow him to keep much clutter when he was working.

Unable to remain idle while he waited for Peter to arrive, Tony picked up one of his tools and got to work on some of the small detail work at the edge of his almost put together table. The person commissioning the piece liked Celtic knots, so he distracted his nervous belly with the soothing movement of the design flowing from his fingertips.

It wasn’t until the crunch of tires on the road outside could be heard that Tony came out of his zone – his mind actually feeling clear after his little departure from the there and now. Sucking in a cleansing breath, Tony brushed himself and the table off once more before grabbing Bo’s lead and clipping him in. They stepped out of the workshop right as Peter got down from the cab of his truck, the door closing behind him.

“This is a gorgeous place,” Peter said, an open and honest smile slipping across his cheeks. His gorgeous eyes roamed over the land he could see, a look of wonder overtaking them. “I’ve never seen such a thickness of trees before.”

Letting his own smile slip, Tony let Bo pull him forward, the dog leading their way over to where Peter was standing a few feet away. “I had to chop a lot of them down when I first bought the land. Most of what used to stand makes up my house,” Tony replied softly, one of his hands moving to point to the log cabin he built from the ground up.

“That’s even more impressive. Did you construct everything out here?” By then, his eyes were on his workshop, the size of the building almost the same as the main house.

“The workshop was the first thing I got up and running. I moved out here about ten years ago – the hustle and bustle of the city was just too much. It’s quiet out here; lots of room to open up and breathe, y’know?” Tony narrowed the distance between them then, their shoulders knocking as the space was filled. “Come on – I’ll give you a tour.”

As they walked around, Tony told Peter about the process of getting the buildings together and all of the man-hours it took to make everything just right. They looked around the workshop and came up with simple solutions to the doggy-proofing problem, both men more than aware of the rouse Tony used to get Peter there. By the time they made it back to Peter’s truck, several hours were behind them. Tony’s face hurt from the permanent smile that wouldn’t disappear, despite his internal pleading; the last thing he wanted to do was look even more overeager than he already did. Their chemistry was amazing, he wasn’t going to deny that after multiple hours of seamless conversation.

Without the lead clipped to his collar, Bo walked around them as they milled around Peter’s open truck door, his tail occasionally brushing against Tony’s arm. The small comfort of the contact kept Tony in the moment, his eyes watching Peter’s every move – despite not getting along with most humans, Tony could read them impeccably well; facial expressions and body movements said so many things the individual didn’t.

Like, for instance, the shuffling of keys from hand to hand, or soulful brown eyes glancing down at Tony’s lips every couple of seconds. From the moment Peter gave him his card and mentioned house calls, Tony understood that there was interest there. Over the last few weeks of attending classes and catching a little bit of conversation before running for dear life, Tony could feel Peter’s attraction growing; the feeling so much like his own that it took until that very moment to separate his want from what he could feel rolling off of Peter.

In that moment, Tony felt a firmer grasp on what he wanted – what he’d been craving since the very first time he saw the vision that was Peter. Narrowing the space down between them, Tony caught Peter’s eye, his hand reaching to grasp the narrow hip in front of him. Peter nodded at him, the slightest blush rushing to the apple of his cheeks. Tony let his fingers grip the dark blue jeans sitting enticingly on Peter’s hips, the tips of them digging in ever so slightly.

“Is this okay?” Tony mumbled, the rest of his body already following his hand’s path, all of him so excited to finally feel the press of Peter against him.

Instead of answering, long fingers made their way into the hair on the back of Tony’s neck, Peter’s nails scraping his scalp slightly – the feeling of it all almost overwhelming.

Peter closed the space between them, his nose brushing against Tony’s. “I’ve wanted this since the second I saw you – you were so shy, but so gorgeous. Your salt and pepper hair and notice-me-not smile; I’m surprised we made it this long.” Without another word, both men shifted, their lips meeting for what felt like the only kiss that would ever matter to Tony ever again. A soft noise slipped from his chest, the feeling of total contentment too much to keep bottled deep within. Unlike the rest of his feelings, Tony wanted to revel in this one; he wanted to keep it at the forefront and hang on to it for as long and as tightly as he could.

The way Peter tilted his head to deepen the kiss had Tony moving into his space even more, the needed to have every piece of their bodies pressed together almost too much. Tony let another noise spill from him, the press of chest to chest something he didn’t remember missing. Peter was obviously fit, his jeans hugged his ass and thighs in the best of ways, and the solid color button downs he wore highlighted the narrowness of his hips and the tight chisel of his chest. Yet, Tony hadn’t imagined how right that firmness would feel – how, now pressed together from head to toe, Tony could picture everything between them with clarity. His brain felt fuzzy with the thought (and probably the lack of oxygen, too). Pulling back, he let his lips linger against Peter’s, their breaths harsh and ragged between them.

The next moment, a shrill bark had them jumping apart, both Peter and Tony looking exasperatedly at the dog currently wagging his tail, looking slightly like the true victor. Tony rolled his eyes, an affectionate huffing breath falling from his lips.

“You’re right, Bo – it is about time.”

Tony turned back to Peter then, his hands clenching against the rough jean fabric. “He is right, right?” Tony questioned, the barest look of hope taking up residence in his eyes.

Grinning, Peter pulled him back into a chaste kiss, their lips barely touching before he pulled away. A soft thumb swept along Tony’s cheek then, the skin barely tickling the edge of day-old stubble. His smile grew when Tony met his eyes, the touch just reassuring enough.

“He hasn’t been wrong yet.”

#starker #you'll look at me with eyes that see #and i'll be your lover too #bobbie writes #Peter Parker/Tony Stark

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recentanimenews · 3 years

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ESSAY: How Does My Hero Academia Fit Into Global Superhero Culture?

In 1989, Batman became the first film to make over $40 million in its opening weekend. In 2002, Spider-Man became the first film to make over $100 million in its opening weekend. In 2007, Spider-Man 3 hit over $150 million. In 2012, The Avengers nabbed over $200 million. And in 2019, Avengers: Endgame got over $350 million. Despite the fact that there have been concerns over “superhero movie fatigue” for literal decades now, it’s a genre that shows no signs of slowing down. As its universes expand on streaming services like Disney+, it’s apparent the age of the cinematic hero might be an indefinitely lengthy one.

As Marvel Comics luminary Stan Lee once said: “The pleasure of reading a story and wondering what will come next for the hero is a pleasure that has lasted for centuries and, I think, will always be with us.” In that quote, it seems our destiny is almost sealed — we crave heroes and we crave their stories and we crave their sequels.

This is the environment in which My Hero Academia was born.

My Hero Academia is, first and foremost, a superhero story. One could argue that most narratives of its ilk are superhero tales — anime like Dragon Ball, Naruto, One Piece, and others are full of good guys shutting down malicious attempts at local or world domination — but My Hero Academia embraces the iconography, both thematic and physical, of the superhero in a way that many other stories don’t. In fact, it might be one of the purest explorations of that kind of universe ever in fiction. It’s a world where heroism is practically currency, where roughly 80 percent of the earth’s population is imbued with some kind of inherent genetic power.

Populating your superhero story with powerful people instead of going the typical cinematic route of having one or two supernatural characters with a supporting cast of everyday folk might have been subversive 20 years ago. But in the age of the Avengers, where multiple heroes cross in and out of each other's storylines and the narrative objective was to eventually wrangle them all in one mega-movie, My Hero Academia fits comfortably. That doesn’t render it as uninteresting, though. Instead, rather than build to the issues that will inevitably crop up in a world full of Supermen, these themes are inherent in the story.

As such, most of the plotlines have to do with the idea of rampant heroism and the backlash that it would create. Plenty of superhero films address this (multiple Batman movies make the case that if there were no Batman there would be no Joker), but in My Hero Academia it is a constant struggle. Overhaul, wearing a variation of a 17th-century plague doctor mask, looks at these “Quirks” as if they’re a disease. Stain is against superheroes using their status for fame. Tomura Shigaraki wishes to destroy society as we know it, hating its values and its borderline divine treatment of figures like All-Might. These patterns are not just repeated in My Hero Academia, but inevitable. They are anime embodiments of that “superhero fatigue” article I shared above, except in this case they hurt and destroy in their attempts to find an alternative to the super status quo, rather than write essays in The New York Times.

It’s certainly an enthralling formula, though: My Hero Academia continues to be a best seller and has won numerous awards. Its anime has been similarly well-received. Despite the fact that superhero films very rarely have the same box office prominence in Japan as they do in America, My Hero Academia has been able to make an impact. That might be because, at its core, My Hero Academia adapts the ethos found in a hero that many Japanese creators really do enjoy: Spider-Man.

Kohei Horikoshi, My Hero Academia’s creator, loves Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man films. Creator of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Hirohiko Araki gushed over his love of Spider-Man 2 to director Sam Raimi during an interview. Yusuke Murata, illustrator of One-Punch Man, has done some absolutely amazing work when it comes to posters for Peter Parker’s cinematic adventures. Hideo Kojima, a video game designer whose creations are absolutely inspired by anime, called Into The Spider-Verse a “great masterpiece” and was “moved” by Spider-Man 2. After it became the best-selling game to be developed in the West but funded by Sony since 1998, Japanese game developers voted Marvel’s Spider-Man as their 2018 game of the year. So why the embrace of this particular character?

Journalist Kuremasa Uno told the Japanese site Business+IT that it’s because Japanese youth are more accustomed to embracing younger heroes. Since so much of Spider-Man’s Hollywood journey deals with him experiencing problems as a teenager and young adult, he fits in among the protagonists of series like Gundam or Naruto. Hideo Kojima even told Famitsu that Spider-Man is “similar to Japanese heroes,” as he has “worries.”

The aspect of youth is particularly interesting, as it’s what often renders heroes like Spider-Man to be the most relatable of all of their peers and rivals. In the comic book world, age tends to warp characters, turning them into beacons of impossible standards rather than troubled everymen. We have little in common with the hulking, aging Batman snapping bones in Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns. We are enthralled with the story on a narrative level. Even the legendary curmudgeon of the comic book industry, the supremely talented Alan Moore, found The Dark Knight Returns fascinating because it gave a hero a chance to end, rather than cycle through an eternal series of escapades. If you know Moore’s stance on heroes, that’s high praise, but it’s hard to connect with him no matter how cool he looks taking down the Mutant Leader.

In youth we find common ground. We all grow up, and for the most part, we all experience that mix of angst, desperation, and uncertainty that comes with finding yourself on a bullet train to adulthood. In my interview with Matt Alt, author of Pure Invention: How Japan’s Pop Culture Conquered The World, the writer/historian affirmed these feelings as especially true in anime: “It doesn’t look at adolescence as a lesser form of adulthood and it doesn’t condescend to the young people experiencing problems.” That is true of My Hero Academia, which treats Midoriya’s teenage problems as valid and worth concern, and is also true to Stan Lee’s affinity for Spider-Man: “He’s the one who’s most like me — nothing ever turns out 100 percent OK; he’s got a lot of problems and he does things wrong, and I can relate to that.”

So perhaps it is in collecting a cast of characters that, like Spider-Man, are all dealing with youthful problems that Horikoshi found the fantastic formula for My Hero Academia. It’s a world with teachers and Pro Heroes, but there is no real equivalent of a Justice League, no impenetrable class of demi-gods to impart moral lessons on not just younger heroes but the world at large.

Instead, much like in real-life youth, the characters of My Hero Academia and the class of 1A must discover those lessons for themselves. With that, the reasons for the aforementioned creators’ adoration of films like the Spider-Man trilogy and Into the Spider-Verse seemingly become more clear. Though these films feature a ... ummm ... supportive supporting cast, the integrity must come from the hero alone in the end, no matter how tough their obstacles become. You are born with Quirks, but how you choose to implement them for the good of mankind is up to you. Great power, great responsibility, etc.

My Hero Academia and Spider-Man are not a 1:1 comparison as, again, the basics of its world and the attributes of its cast fit it more firmly with late-term Avengers films where dozens of heroes interact in a spectacle created by the sheer existence of their number. My Hero Academia rarely feels as lonely as Spider-Man tends to be. But in capturing the relatable qualities of adolescence and focusing on the “quirks” of what is essentially high school life, it does manage to hit some of the same high notes, notes that I imagine contributed greatly to its popularity.

Does that mean All-Might is an Uncle Ben character, with his “Now it’s your turn” point to Midoriya serving a similar purpose to the “Great responsibility” speech? Eh, a little bit. But in relating it to the superhero genre that currently forms an entertainment monolith around the world, especially when it has to do with the character of Spider-Man, we start to unlock some of the reasons why My Hero Academia has been such a powerhouse series over the past few years. You can see just as much of Midoriya in Peter Parker as you can in guys like Naruto or Asta — characters that aren’t relatable simply because they’re young, but because we connect to their experiences of youth, experiences that are somehow both deeply specific and also beautifully universal.

Daniel Dockery is a Senior Staff Writer for Crunchyroll. Follow him on Twitter!

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features.

By: Daniel Dockery

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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skyovereuropeldkde · 3 years

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Climate and the “Little Green Women and Men”

A comment by Peter Koenig

The Little Green Women and Men (LGWM) are us, humanoids, especially those living in the west, believing we command Mother Earth. Well, no wonder, there is a group among us, who claims to be “God’s Chosen People” – and they act it all the way. So much so, that they and their influence on LGWMs, have almost managed to dominate all the women, men and resources of Mother Earth.

Humanoids, LGWMs, are easily manipulated. They have chosen to be green, because “green” is IN. They are ‘little’, because in the big scheme of things, as compared to Mother Nature, for example, they are diminutive. Very. Yet, they pretend to command the climate. Green parties all over the western world are multiplying fast; almost like the legendary grain on a chessboard. They are called green but they come in all shades, from brown to green to red, and everything in between. In Germany the Greens have become so popular that during the next elections they may catch up to 30 % of the votes.

Question is: What will they do when they come to real power, when they are in Government, confronted with the interests of big business? Will they bend over, cave in – as did the Socialist parties throughout Europe during the last half of the 20th Century? Today, one has to be green to belong.

Who is green, (pretends) fighting for the environment, for the protection of the environment – which is good, per se. But fighting for the environment is not a linear affair, as they, the LGWMs, are made to believe – and many of them believe, as “science” tells them to believe. When they believe, they create a comfort zone for themselves, where guilt disappears. They don’t question anymore. THE authority, called “science”, tells them the “facts” to believe. And if they do, they are almost absolved from guilt.

Almost – because to be really absolved in our western ultra-capitalist world, only money can really absolve you. So, they – or we, collectively, whether we believe in the propaganda or not (fortunately some of us don’t), will be asked to pay – to pay environmental fees and taxes of all kinds and shapes. To be more attractive they may be called ‘climate taxes’ – for using fossil fuel, for buying plastic, for flying in airplanes, for consuming no end – and-so-on. Hardly anybody asks what will be done with this new tax money.

As it cannot stop climate from changing, it will most likely end up in private banks, mostly Wall Street banks, where the billons collected will grow into speculative multi-trillions-dollar bubbles. And we know what eventually happens with bubbles. We all remember the Carbon Funds – which apparently are not dead yet, but will rather be resuscitated in this new fervor to fight climate change.

Stamped by our western Judeo-Christian guilt culture, we truly believe from the bottom of our hearts that paying a climate tax will free us from environmental responsibilities and put us back into our comfort zones. We then comfortably and guiltlessly continue driving our huge gas guzzling, CO2-emitting SUVs. That’s why the corporate manipulators – BIG-BIG money and their media tells us every day, the Climate Armageddon is coming. So, we pay, to postpone it.

It was coming already at the first UN-sponsored Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) of 1992 which was extended to the Kyoto Protocol of 1997, an international treaty that commits state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on scientific consensus that

(1) global warming is occurring and (2) it is extremely likely that human-made CO2 emissions have predominantly caused it. The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, on 11 December 1997, by 192 nations. The Protocol entered into force on 16 February 2005.

But despite all the warnings of Armageddon, nothing has happened. Even if mankind was responsible for the CO2 production that changes climate – mankind, or rather the LGWMs have ignored it. Climate Armageddon is still written all over the walls. But it moves from wall to wall, further into the future, as nobody seems to be interested in preventing it. After Kyoto followed Copenhagen, the next UN-sponsored Climate Change Conference, also called the Copenhagen Summit, in December 2009. Similar discourse, and new targets were set and propagated; billions of dollars were pledged by governments – but few paid-in, mostly because already then it was not quite clear who should administer the funds and who should invest in what and where to stop the climate from changing. Copenhagen also coined the 350-slogan. It stands for 350 ppm (parts per million) of carbon dioxide (CO2) which has been identified as the safe upper limit to avoid a climate tipping point. As of today, there is a climate NGO called 350.org.

In 2019, CO2 is expected to pass the 410-ppm level.   As per the New Scientist (25 January 2019), Carbon dioxide levels will soar past the 410 ppm milestone in 2019. We will pass yet another unwelcome milestone this year. The average concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is likely to rise by 2.8 parts per million to 411 ppm in 2019 – passing 410 ppm just a few years after first passing the 400 ppm mark.

No stopping of climate change is happening – and Armageddon is moving on. What this climate movement doesn’t seem to understand, or those that manage it do not want the world to know that climate is a complex structure of ever shifting values and natural phenomena; that climate is influenced by many factors which are all inter-related and orders of magnitude more important than what man can ever contribute.

There is the sun with its constantly changing eruptions and radiation emissions, perhaps the most important influence; then the oceans, while they absorb CO2, they also emit CO2 – and most important according to a 30-year NASA study the oceans themselves change temperatures in natural intervals of roughly ten years, which is called El Niño in the Pacific and the Nrth Atlantic Oscillation in the Atlantic. They are responsible for large-scale weather patterns, also orders of magnitude larger than what man could ever create. In addition, there are the volcanos around the world, many of which are active. A massive eruption of one of them, i.e. Iceland, the Philippines, Italy, Hawaii – may produce a multiple of CO2 levels of what man produces in one year.

And we should also be aware of what is not much talked about, that the US Air Force, the US Navy, the University of Alaska and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), have developed since the sixties a weather control-program that functions with electromagnetic waves emitted in the Ionosphere, altering ionospheric temperatures to create specific weather patterns. The intention is to weaponize the weather so as to control entire regions by weather, floods, droughts, hurricanes… you name it.

Weather warfare has a long history; Earlier technologies were applied during the Vietnam war, when it was capable to prolong and enhance the Monsoon season, so as to make the paths the Vietcong used to transit from the North to the South were made impassable. That is really man-made. The program used to be called HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) and was stationed in Alaska. It has now nominally been dismantled, but continuous more clandestinely to be sophisticated enough, to allow the US to control the world’s weather by 2030, according to the Pentagon.

Talking about military and climate – the wars and conflicts mostly inspired by the US and carried out by the Pentagon, NATO or their mercenary proxies, cause more than half of the man-made CO2 emissions. This is a fact that may never be discussed in these UN-sponsored climate conferences – a strict rule imposed by Washington.

These are just a few climate-influencing elements, the composite of which is much larger than each one acting linearly on its own, because they are all inter-related, they are all acting holistically and dynamically – in other words, not predictably – and with a power orders of magnitude larger than CO2 by itself, let alone man-made CO2 which is but a tiny fraction of all greenhouse gases produced by nature. And these ever-occurring climate changes, are well controlled by nature, as NASA’s Earth Observatory found out by studying the oceans for over 30 years. They are kept in balance by our Mother Earth, no matter how much we would like to influence them.

Notice this: We are today threatened by nuclear war, a nuclear war that could wipe out mankind within a few days – yet we talk and demonstrate for climate change prevention, mand-made CO2 reduction. Public Icon, the Swedish teenager, Greta, and her followers, the Friday for the Future kids and those that call themselves “Extinction Rebellion”, took to the streets in so-called climate strikes by the hundreds of thousands throughout the world.

Seriously, imagine – the use of CO2 producing fossil fuel and an industrial agriculture infesting the atmosphere with greenhouse gases, the engine for 90% of the world’s economy – and let’s not forget the CO2 produced by wars and hostilities around the globe – all of which is also the engine for huge corporate profits! – Does anyone seriously believe that hundreds of thousands, or even millions, demonstrating against climate change – will have an iota of influence on corporate behavior and profit oriented growth policies?

These kids – the LGWMs – are dreaming. Most of them anyway. Some of their leaders are directed by the same corporations they pretend to fight and to demonstrate against. Generally, the LGWM movement doesn’t have a clear agenda, other than talking loosely and abstractly about CO2 reduction. But they don’t really know how to go about it and what this means, what steps need to be taken and by whom, what implications and consequences this would have for our today’s civilization and every-day life, yes, theirs too, the climate kids’ every-day life. Thy have no program of what has to change; they just believe the change has to come from ‘outside’, i.e. the politicians.

No idea either that these same politicians are captured by the same industrial, financial and specifically the war industrial complex and that this highly capitalist money-making machinery also commands the propaganda apparatus on which they drive and thrive.

These climate folks managed to organize a special UN Climate event preceding the 2019 UN General Assembly, during which the most powerful and obnoxious representatives of nations and heads of states, notably of the US of A, talked aggression no end to those countries that do not bend to their orders and do not want to submit their people and natural resources for exploitation and profit of the western elite. In the special firing line are the usual condemned and sanctioned – but almost the only true sovereign countries left on this globe – Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, North Korea – and of course Russia and China.

Instead of seeking peace, the essence of the UN Charter, the UN has become a forum for war declarations and climate change. If ever man wants to make a true contribution to climate change – it can only be done by PEACE, through peaceful cooperation and solidarity among nations across the globe.

The LGWM movement has to wake up to a reality which is not propaganda based and has to do with our behavior, with our entire attitude, with our socioeconomic system – with a turbo-capitalist system that is growth based with ever larger profit margins. The system to survive has to expand every day, every year – it induces extreme consumerism, thrives on fashion trends – and on generation of massive waste, most of which is not biodegradable, but accumulates and – yes, influences our ambiance, living conditions – and eventually being part of a holistic world, also influences the climate.

We are living in a throw-away society, driven by an industrial apparatus that uses obsolescence as a tool for consumerism and growth, to generate more profit, no matter how much more non-renewable resources will have to be sacrificed and wasted – ending up as waste, rotting away, polluting the air we breathe, the soil we use to grow our food and the water – the all-important water, without which no life is possible.

To slow down and eventually stop the rapid decline of our existence on this lovely and generous planet, we ALL have to contribute in solidarity to PEACE. A life in peace is a sine qua non for improving our planets environment – and thereby our sheer living conditions, quality of life – and foremost to bring about more societal equality, less poverty a better distribution of wealth. All of this requires a massive awakening, an awakening towards a consciousness that is immune to egocentricity to fake propaganda – that is 180 degrees opposite to the current selfie-culture.

In the 1950s, I’m old enough to remember, we wrote letters to our friends and relatives, shopped in corner grocery stores, bought beverages in recycled glass bottles, filled our staple food from bulk containers into recycled paper bags, and wrapped fresh vegetables into newspapers (not plastic), went to public phone booths to call our girlfriends, walked, or biked to school, and if at all, our parents had small cars, no SUVs, prepared our sandwiches for school, used the same cloths for years, talked with each other eye-to-eye, enjoyed nature.

Today, nature is the same in the city or the countryside, because we stumble through nature wherever we go watching the little screen of an obsolescence disposable smartphone, with which we chat, smile and also make some phone calls. Then, in the post WWII fifties, our lives were more modest and happier. Then, we consumed less than what Mother Earth could sustainably provide us with. In the 1960s we started exceeded that threshold. Today, we, in the west, use three to four times what nature can give us (Africa about 0.6) – and that for sure will not go on forever.

Perhaps we have to think about jumping forward to a life style of the fifties and that consciously and conscientiously – and we won’t have to worry about 350-ppm CO2 as the limit for sustainable climate, because it will happen naturally and climate change will continue to happen naturally, as it always did for 4 billion years of our planet’s existence – and never bothered us. And most importantly, we have to learn to consciously remind ourselves that we are a solidary peaceful society, and we have to consciously disconnect from MSM, turn off our ears to the ever blaring and lying media propaganda lyrics. Consciousness is our integrity and base for social cohesiveness.

#climate taxes #CO2 emissions #Carbon dioxide #Weather warfare #HAARP #Skygazer was here #Thank you for paying Attention

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ernmark · 5 years

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Man in Glass (pt 1) reactions

Spoilers under the cut.

I love that the season started with yet another fakeout, with Juno starting a typical monologue and then Peter promptly telling him to shut up and taking over as the narrator.

The thing about narrators is that they can be difficult, and it can be really easy to fall into the trap of using the wrong narrator just because they’ve been appropriate up until now.

In my experience, the best narrators for a given story are often the ones who are competent and present enough to be able to convey what’s going on, but also are at enough of a disadvantage to have actual conflict and tension. And I think that, up until now, that made Juno an excellent narrator even when he wasn’t the protagonist of a given story.

But when last we saw Juno, he was probably in the best place that we’ve ever seen him. He’s taking the effort to grow and improve himself (which, while important, is full of so many itty bitty checks and reassessments that it gets a little tedious to see in person), but he’s also left an altogether toxic environment and entered one where he’s surrounded by people who trust him and are good at communicating with him (Vespa aside). And you could hear it in his voice in that opening monologue—he’s more confident and at ease than he’s ever been.

And sure, Kevin and Sophie could yank him out of that and shove him into more trauma, but that’s exhausting. So Juno has a fairly low-stakes mission, very reminiscent of Midnight Fox. Our lady needs a break (and, apparently, a really kickass ball gown).

Enter Peter Nureyev.

Peter’s got conflict coming out his ears right now. Apparently he’s in debt up to his eyeballs (over what? to whom?), he’s dealing with some major resentment and animosity toward Juno (despite being very obviously besotted over him, which is beautifully complicated), and he’s trapped in a situation where he depends on Juno to vouch for him in order to keep this job that he so desperately needs.

And oh my god, listening to Peter’s voice is a delight. There is just so much going on in there, and I love it, especially with how profusely he compartmentalizes. This man is a ball of overconfidence and anxiety, and he keeps folding up his every spare thought and filing them away, and that leaves a sea of ideas and reactions half-thought and pushed aside. And did I mention conflict? Because that’s all his head is. It’s in the mix of love and disdain for Mag every time he brings up Mag’s teachings. It’s in the way he describes Juno—with derision, with seething jealousy, with longing, with trailing thoughts that are suddenly cut off before he can finish thinking them. (My god, he’s got it bad. I love this so much.) He’s pissed as hell with Juno—and rightfully so—but he has to make an active effort not to be drawn in again. This time it’s Juno who needs to charm him. Also, it’s so wonderful to finally hear exactly what about Juno draws him in. And I think that largely it’s his sincerity—he’s real in a way Peter tries so hard not to be, and Peter seems to both hate and adore that about him.

And I think that’s exactly why this mission is happening, in-universe. Because Buddy is a good, solid leader, and she knows how to handle Juno to bring out the best in him, and how to read him. Even if Vespa hadn’t pointed it out, I don’t think she missed the fact that Juno and Peter used to be romantically involved. The tension is too palpable for that, and Peter’s disdain is too one-sided. She knows Juno wouldn’t ordinarily put up with that. Also, Juno choking on his coffee at the first (deliberately placed) implication that he and Peter were sleeping together was a pretty big giveaway.

So naturally, she forces them to work together right off the bat. She puts Juno in a pretty dress and makes sure he’s the belle of the ball, makes the two of them play happy newlyweds, and lets the chips fall as they may. If this mission ends with the tension dissipated and the two of them in bed together, fantastic. If they don’t make up, but they manage to pull it off and work well together despite the obviously uncomfortable circumstances, then that’s great, too. But if they prove entirely incapable of working together under stress, then that tells her everything she needs to know. And my money says that Peter would be the one to get the boot. Juno’s got proven results with everybody else on the crew, sans Vespa. Peter is entirely unproven, and it would be significantly faster and cheaper to find someone new than to try to overcome that kind of bad blood.

It is a superb strategy. I wholeheartedly approve.

And I love that this situation—which, like I said, I feel was engineered on Buddy’s part to create conflict—is taking something that would ordinarily be extremely straightforward and making it complicated. Yes, Juno got bored and acted stupidly. That’s undeniable. But that could easily be worked around if Peter had deigned to actually engage with him, rather than shove him into a corner on a fool’s errand. If he’d let Juno get a word in edgewise, he might have had an incredible advantage in the auction. Instead he shot himself in the foot with his own jealousy and hurt.

And let me reiterate here: Peter has every right to feel hurt. Juno was an absolute asshole the last time he saw him, and Peter is entitled to the pain he’s feeling. It makes sense that he wants to curl up in his shell and refuse to depend on anyone else for anything ever again. But this is not the time or the place to indulge that impulse, and if he’s not careful, it’s going to cost him his spot on this pirate crew.

And for once, Juno is the one reaching out. He’s trying to start conversations with Peter. He wants to talk about what’s hanging between them. He’s trying to make amends. This time it’s Peter who needs to accept the compassion he’s being offered.

My predictions:

“The Man In Glass” doesn’t refer exclusively to Peter. I think there’s another person (or object?) that fits that description. My money says it has something to do with what happened to Nova a year ago, when she was robbed.

Nova isn’t nearly as wealthy/powerful as she pretends to be. Giving herself access to everyone else’s money means she can tamper with it somehow. Also, she was way too nervous about the bidding for the map. Maybe she promised it to someone in particular? Maybe they were supposed to win it in the auction, but Juno outbid them too quickly, so she had to take drastic measures?

Juno is gonna get chummy with Nova and “lend” her Peter. I suspect he’s going to request the map in exchange, but she’ll refuse, and Peter will accept whatever terms she gives instead on the premise that he can steal it out from under her nose. Bonus points for the chance to make Juno as jealous as Peter obviously is.

Peter’s going to keep insisting on doing everything by himself and dig himself in progressively deeper until Juno gallantly comes to his rescue and sweeps him off his feet. This is going to start the ball rolling on Peter trusting Juno again, but it won’t mend things between them. Not by a long shot.

Nova finds the man of her dreams, and he turns out to be none other than Cecil Kanagawa. Possibly Juno even introduces them.

#the penumbra podcast #man in glass #100 #200

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houseofslash · 4 years

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Angela Eugenia Christiansen (Templeton)

a complete-ish backstory for angela, my slasher oc. the timeline i have for her is tentative and i might play around with it a bit more, all i’m definitive about for her is that she’s somewhere in the mid-century period

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Angela Eugenia Christiansen Templeton

Born: December 2nd, 1940 to Mary and Peter Christiansen

Age: 28

Height: 5’5

Hair/Eyes: Blonde /Greenish-hazel

Hometown: Jacksonville, Florida

An only child born later in life to her parents (who considered her conception and birth miraculous), she was doted upon by her mother and various other relations that came to call, being the only child in the family at the time (with all her cousins having reached an age bracket far enough away from her as to make meaningful connection difficult). Her father, already not particularly fond of his wife’s family or of being sociable, spent long hours locked away in his office, where Angela was forbidden to go. “Sorry, Angie, Daddy’s busy,” was a common refrain of her childhood. Peter really did love his daughter dearly, he just didn’t know how to express it, and had long since given up the hope of children long before she was born. He worked hard as a way to show his affection, made money to keep her in nice clothes and buy her nice things. Angela often wondered what was wrong with her, when everyone else seemed to like her so much, but her own father wouldn’t give her the time of day. Upon later reflection, she agrees she has daddy issues because of this.

Upon reaching school age, she found it easy to put on a gregarious face and attract others to her; as her mother told her, everybody wanted to be friends with a pretty child who smiled and laughed all the time, even when she didn’t feel like smiling or laughing. The attention felt too good to not keep doing it, however. Eventually, she collected a gaggle of girlfriends, all similarly well-heeled and pretty, who giggled over the same boys and attended the same parties. For most of her adolescent years and into high school, she was content, growing into an amiable and eager to please young adult.

By the time her senior year of high school rolled around, some of that contentment had faded. She was realizing, slowly, that she might want more from life than a secretary job, a husband, and a house to keep, like her mother and most of her friends talked about. That slowly burgeoning doubt wasn’t enough to impel her to apply to college, or to keep her from accepting (with everyone in her life’s strongly-voiced support) when she was proposed to by a local banker’s son with wicked eyes and a razor-sharp grin, Richard Templeton.

Her father died when she was twenty-one, a year after she married Richard, from a sudden, devastating heart attack. Neither she nor her mother ever really recovered from the loss, since despite the slight dysfunction they all really did love each other, and Mary died less than two years later.

She spent the next ten years as Richard’s housewife, which she quickly realized meant his live-in maid and cook. At first they were friendly and even loving with each other, but as the honeymoon phase ended and they realized they really had no idea who the other person they had committed their life to was, they drifted apart. Eventually Richard was taken in entirely by his workplace environment of toxic masculinity and flagrant abuses of power, which carried over into his home life and how he treated Angela. She was never abused physically, but he did eventually become emotionally and verbally abusive.

This was not what Angela had been promised her life would be like. As she tells Richard, “I did everything right.” But it still wasn’t enough to make her happy.

The last straw came the day Richard came home, already drunk, and cornered her in the backyard as she was hanging out the laundry, and yelled at her for not having it done already, since he wanted to wear a particular shirt out with “the boys” that night, and it was currently in the wash. Angela, already annoyed since he’d specified what he wanted done that morning, snapped at him that he could wear a different shirt. He backhanded her across the face, his wedding ring breaking open the skin over her cheekbone, and sent her staggering. He snarled at her to never talk back to him like that again, and to dry the damn shirt already.

Her head ringing with the aftershocks, Angela nearly collapsed. It was in that moment that she spotted by the toolshed an axe, left out. She didn’t think as she stood up, moved to the toolshed, picked up the axe, and turned to go inside. She found Richard in the living room, taking his jacket off while muttering to himself. He didn’t have a chance to turn around and ask her what she was doing before she raised the axe and brought it down with a meaty wet crunch into the upper part of his back.

After she finished killing him, still high on power and adrenaline, Angela went about staging the scene. She wouldn’t do well in prison, she knew, and now she had plans forming in the back of her head, floodgates that she hadn’t known existed were opened; a new path presented itself. She’d do anything to feel that powerful again, to take that power from those that abused others. She couldn’t put this new notion into action if she were arrested for murder in the first degree. It took nearly an hour, but through working feverishly and rehearsing the lines she assigned herself as well as she could, she set the scene quite effectively for a home invasion gone bad. Fingerprints wiped from the axe, valuables removed from torn-out drawers and flushed. The final touch was to remove all suspicion from herself. Placing the axe on the floor with the glittering edge pointed up, she deliberately forced herself to slip and fall backwards on it. The large lot their house sat on kept any neighbors from hearing her scream. One genuinely agonized call to the police later, and Angela closed her eyes to wait. Either this worked, or maybe she could make a plea deal, get out early on good behavior.

It worked. No one could believe that Angela, sweet Angela, could possibly have murdered Richard. The scene really did appear to be that of a burglary gone south, especially the brutal axe wound poor Mrs. Templeton sustained trying to run away.

The police chief, a personal friend of the Templetons’, was especially helpful in removing all suspicion from Angela, since he could personally attest to the “happy marriage” the two shared.

Angela was happy to give a witness statement, to sniffle and cry through saying she didn’t really have much to do with her husband’s business, that she hadn’t seen the men’s faces because they were masked, that they made off with some of the valuables in the house before getting into a vehicle she hadn’t seen and taking off. Once she built her story, she was careful to stick to it. Within a week, she was formally cleared of all suspicion, and the gossip columns were all sympathy for poor Widow Templeton. She was allowed to leave the hospital soon after that, and laid low until Richard’s funeral was taken care of and the commotion died down around her.

After that, she sold much of their belongings including Richard’s car and their house, packed up what she wanted to keep, and decided on a whim to roadtrip out to California to start a new life. She returned to using her maiden name. The first day she was out on the road, she stopped at a motel to buy a map and ask about renting a room for the night. The manager was very unhelpful, openly ogling her and making inappropriate comments. That high feeling returned, flooding Angela’s veins with a glimmering wicked desire. The next day, a maid found the manager dead on the floor behind his desk, his eyes gouged out with his own desk scissors, gutted like a pig.

She’s aware she can’t just kill everybody who’s ever rude to her. That’ll get her caught, and she’s already come so far! She determines, however, that as she makes her way across the country, not to stay in one place for too long. So that if something were to happen, it wouldn’t be traceable to her.

Internally, Angela still longs for acceptance, since the recent events have led her to second guess every amount of love she’s ever gotten. Did her mother and relatives really love her, or did they love the idea of her? The concept of her they’d created in their heads, that Angela herself let them create?

She loves as deeply as she hates, longs to love and be loved. She tried tirelessly for ten years to love Richard and to make him love her. Despite her proclivity towards violence, Angela really does have an enormous amount of love to give. She wants to give it, wouldn’t mind taking care of a partner again, but doesn’t know if she can trust like that anymore.

She doesn’t know who she is, but if she can’t discover who she is, she isn’t afraid to forge herself anew, by any means necessary.

Random Facts:

-She likes animals of all kinds, and has a fondness for small children.

-An absolute sweater hoe. If you give her an article of your clothing that’s a bit big on her and soft, you’re not getting it back

-Has a quick wit and a sterling sense of humor, surprisingly easy-going and quick to laugh among friends or those she trusts

-Has a genuine need for glasses, but it’s not severe enough to need them all the time, and she prefers not to wear them

-Develops faint freckles when out in the sun for longer periods of time

#by hope #text #long post #slasher oc

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almasexya · 5 years

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Carnivorous Plants and the Things I Know About Them

I've been kicking around the idea of making a post like this and I figured it was of enough general interest to folks on Tumblr to go for it.

One of the things I do is grow carnivorous plants, like these

From top left to bottom right we have a Venus Flytrap, a North American Pitcher Plant, a Sundew, and a Butterwort. All of these are pictures I've taken of plants during the growing season.

Now if you look at these weird looking plants you probably wouldn't expect them to be native to North America, but they are. You can find pitcher plants all over the southeast up to the northeast into Canada, flytraps in the Carolinas, and butterworts and sundews all over the continent.

These plants are a lot of fun and easy to grow once you understand their requirements, but before we get into that, I want to take a moment and explain how they came to be in the first place.

To keep it short, carnivorous plants are carnivorous because they grow in soils that are lacking in the nutrients plants need to put out new growth. Because of this, they evolved to find their nutrients a different way - by luring, trapping, and digesting insects. While these plants still photosynthesize, they supplement this with the nutrients they absorb from insects.

Now that we've got that out of the way, I'm going to go into the basics of growing them, point by point. A short disclaimer - I'm specifically talking about temperate North American plants, since they're what I have experience growing. I can provide basic info on how to take care of tropical plants like the southeast asian pitcher plants, but as of this post I don't have experience with them yet.

Soil: For carnivorous plants, a good soil mixture is a must. These plants grow in nutrient-poor marshes, and the soil they call home is constantly wet. The main ingredient in basically any carnivorous plant soil mix is sphagnum peat moss, which is slightly acidic. The second part of the mixture is often perlite or horticultural sand. Some nurseries use a mix of equal parts peat and perlite while others use 80% peat and 20% perlite, but I've had success with both. The most important thing to ensure is that your soil doesn't have any fertilizer added to it. Because carnivores grow in low nutrient soil, any kind of medium that contains fertilizer can actually kill them.

Water: The other vitally important part of the equation (and the one that kills lots of plants when incorrectly applied) is water. Generally, unless your tap water is soft, water carnivores with distilled or reverse osmosis water. The minerals in tap water or even bottled drinking water can eventually build up and kill your plant in the same way fertilized soil does. Carnivores love waterlogged soil, and some even get flooded in nature. To approximate this, set your plant in a tray of water no more than an inch or two high. This ensures your soil stays wet without having to constantly water it.

Containers: Plastic pots are your friend. Avoid terra cotta clay pots, since they can leech minerals into the soil and also tend to dry out your substrate faster. Glazed clay containers can also work. If you're using the tray system, make sure to buy pots with drainage holes, so the water can get in. Also, a trick that lets the water in but keeps the soil from escaping is to line the bottom of the pot with long-fibered sphagnum moss. If you go with an undrained container, make sure to keep the soil wet at all times, but allow some of the water to evaporate in order to keep the water table fluctuating.

Sunlight: Since carnivores evolved their leaves to catch insects, they're pretty poor at photosynthesis. As a result, these plants love sun - the more the better. Many a store bought flytrap has perished as a houseplant due to lack of sun, so if you can, put these plants outside, in the sunniest spot you can. Generally, it's good to give most carnivores around 6 hours of sunlight per day. Many can get by with 4, but they don't often thrive with that amount of light.

Dormancy: Plants that grow in temperate or warm temperate climates tend to buckle down and hibernate during the late fall and winter months, conserving energy until spring. Generally speaking, the large traps die off, or in some cases the plant dies down to the roots, or forms a small bud that rests on the ground. Plants grown outside respond to colder temperatures and shorter photoperiods, while plants grown inside usually need some help. If you're growing your plants on a windowsill or in a terrarium, move them somewhere cold or cut down on their heating, and also diminish the amount of daily light they receive. You can also slow down on watering, though they still need some water to get by.

Temperature: Temperate and warm temperate carnivores can tolerate a wide range of temperatures, despite what you might think. My pots survived the freak snowstorm the Pacific Northwest got this February without a single dead plant. Most species can tolerate temperatures up to 100 degrees Fahrenheit and down to 20 degrees, though not for prolonged periods of time. If you see long spells of hot or cold weather coming, try and move your plants to a protected area until they pass.

Feeding and Fertilizing: Now I know what you're thinking. Fertilizer? He just told us that stuff was death! And it often is, but there are ways to fertilize your plants. Generally, a fertilizer made for acid-loving plants can be diluted and applied to the leaves during the growing season. I use Maxsea 16-16-16 on plants that are too young to easily catch prey (diluted down to a half teaspoon per gallon) and haven't had issues. Try not to spray the soil unless you frequently water your plants from overhead, as the dreaded mineral buildup can still occur. That said, if your plants are outside, they'll fertilize themselves. You can also "feed" your plants insects using tongs - keep in mind that some plants require their prey to be alive in order to secrete digestive enzymes. I'll get into prey in more detail in other posts about specific types of plants.

Flowering and Propagation: For a lot of carnivorous plants, flowering is an exhausting effort that tends to deplete the energy they would use creating traps. As a general rule, if you're not interested in seed, clip the flower stalks off. Many plants can be propagated through leaf or root cuttings, which produce genetically identical plants. Some plants also clump and form their own divisions over time, meaning all you need to do to get more is wait for a year or so, depending on the age of the plant.

Pests: Carnivores can be targeted by various pests. For insecticides, I've seen neem oil recommended, as its generally less harmful to the plant and the environment. I haven't had to make much use of these yet, so my information on insecticides is a bit of a blind spot. Generally, try and stay away from soap insecticides and aerosols, and stick to less concentrated varieties. If you're dealing with squirrels or rodents digging up your plants, I found a generous sprinkling of cayenne pepper around the plants works wonders, and does no harm to the plants.

This is a basic rundown of carnivorous plants and how to take care of some of them. I must stress there's a ton of information out there - this post is geared more towards starter plants that are fairly forgiving and simple to grow.

So why grow carnivorous plants when you can just go out and buy some petunias?

They're active: Carnivores are showy, unique plants that can move on their own through some incredibly unique and complex evolutions. Watching a Venus Flytrap snap shut or a Sundew curl around an insect is a truly special thing to see.

They're a conversation piece: The relative rarity of carnivores in cultivation means the average person doesn't know much about them, despite maybe having heard of a Venus Flytrap before. A 12" pot of flytraps, sundews, and pitchers is a surefire way to grab attention.

They can control certain pests: Carnivorous plants can act as natural pest controllers. North American Pitcher Plants gorge themselves on flies and wasps, and considering some pitchers can grow over two feet tall, they can hold plenty of them. Sundews and butterworts specialize in catching smaller prey, such as fungus gnats, fruit flies, and even fleas. These plants can work as limited, natural pest controllers, though they won't eradicate a yellow jacket nest for you.

They're endangered in the wild: The wet, marshy habitats carnivores call home are rapidly dwindling due to improper land management and development. Some are nearly extinct in their home ranges, kept going through dedicated nurseries and attempts to naturalize them in other locations. By caring for carnivorous plants, you're raising awareness of these unique, underappreciated organisms and aiding in their conservation by keeping them alive.

Phew, I realize this was a lot, but I hope it was a fun read! Let me know what you think about carnivorous plants, or if you have any questions about them. I'm going to try and go into more detail on specific plants later, but for now, I wanted to bang out the basics.

If you're looking for more information, Flytrapcare.com is a great forum, and the r/savagegarden subreddit is very helpful as well. For books on the subject, the Savage Garden by Peter D'Amato is the go to source. Nurseries I've used and can vouch for are Sarracenia Northwest (located in Oregon) and California Carnivores (located in California).

#carnivorous plants #plantblr #my plants

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venusparker · 7 years

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storms ↬ p.p

prompt: with tony stark’s eye on the newest superhero, he asks peter to keep an eye on them, only to be met with some complications.

warnings: nothing really, just flash being a dick i guess. also kinda long guys

notes: highkey got this idea after watching “beautiful creatures,” and i got inspired by a scene in there after watching it for the fourteenth time. this is so random and it’s a little different than my other imagines because there’s a lot more plot to it and i’m thinking of making this into a mini series if you guys enjoy it! tell me what you think and i hope u enjoy xo

Peter Parker, though he’d never admit it, is keen on having a routine.

Though he could say that changed after becoming Spider-Man, because of course how could he not, even being a superhero had become a part of his schedule, taking up certain (maybe estimated in the slightest) times when he preferred to go out and about and explore Queens, maybe even further out into New York if he had the time.

When there was a robbery or break in, or worse God knows what, he always had a game plan—or, at least a something that would allow him to think things through somewhat.

He liked being more cautious and prepared than he’d like to think (because he doesn’t like to see himself as boring, which to be fair, he really isn’t), almost as much as he also liked the spontaneity of his adventures.

The thing, basically, about Peter was that he liked getting used to things—it made his nervous self feel better about a situation when his anxiety seemed to endlessly spike through the roof. Which was not a problem, really, because Peter tended to get used to people, ideas, and new environments quite easily. After all, how else could he deal with Tony Stark suddenly taking him under his wing without freaking out too much?

However, Peter still had yet to get used to you.

Peter knows he’s technically supposed to be the one watching over you ever since Mr. Stark told him so. You were—in a completely non-objectifying way, Tony just couldn’t think of a different noun—the newest project, an underground superhero that he had been researching over at Stark Industries after stumbling upon a video of you in your suit, fighting off some bad guys that the government was supposed to take care of; a project that he so thoughtfully handed over to Peter upon finding out that the both of you went to the same school.

Just how Tony Stark found out who you were without knowing what you looked like under the mask, Peter will never know, even though the same thing happened to him. But he knew one thing: you were now his responsibility.

Not that he minded exactly. You two had always been friendly with each other, and you were in most of his classes—and really, you guys are close enough to be considered friends, having each other’s phone numbers and all, but it wasn’t enough for him to suddenly be keeping an eye on you without you becoming the least bit suspicious.

He was more than sure that you could handle yourself, seeing as you managed to take out villains twice your age and twice your size faster than the government could (Peter’s still incredibly amazed by that), but Tony wanted reassurance.

And Peter wanted to impress Tony.

Tony Stark had said something along the lines of you being still very new to your powers, and that it was easy for you to lose control, both of which were dangerous when mixed with each other.

If it had been something subtle like Peter’s super strength or spidey sense, or wall climbing—all of which he could easily hide even when he first started being Spider-Man—then maybe it would be more simple. Unfortunately, your powers didn’t have that luxury. You had the powers of manipulating and creating elements and weather at command, and unfortunately, also at emotion.

To put it simply: since you’re so fresh to this world, this newfound gift and burden, you getting angry could cause a lightning storm any second and that wouldn’t be pretty. And so, there Peter was, staring at you as you sat a lunch table away from him, figuring out how to tell you this.

If he was going to keep an eye on you, he might as well tell you the truth, right? He’d rather have that than you thinking he was a complete and utter stalker, and he’s sure that telling you he’s Spider-Man would be the one, reasonable exception to his Try & Keep It A Secret rule

He wonders if you had told anybody, like your best friend who was currently sitting in front of you, laughing at something you had said. Or maybe you told your parents. Maybe you hadn’t told anybody. You were young, just like he was, and he was quickly beginning to wonder how other teenagers handled and reacted to having a life like this, a life full of danger and risks at such a small growing age.

“Dude, you are staring!” Peter hears Ned whisper to him urgently, and he turns his head to see Ned rolling his eyes and quietly groaning. “Since when were you so interested in [Y/N] eating lunch?”

Peter sighs, then blushes, but coughs to cover it up. “Shut up, Ned. It’s nothing, it’s just Stark stuff.”

Ned narrows his eyes and takes a sip of his chocolate milk. “Are you absolutely sure, Peter? Because you’re looking at them like it’s a lot more than a Stark Internship on your mind.”

Peter lightly kicked Ned’s chair, blushing even harder, and he let out a nervous chuckle. He had always found you attractive and funny and a good friend, but he refused to let his best friend’s words fluster him. He loved being your friend, but there had always been something about you that he couldn’t put his finger on. Now, with discovering your true abilities, he knows what the something was.

Still, even after knowing, he wasn’t sure he’d ever get used to someone like you.

And truthfully, that wasn’t a bad thing.

“Should I go talk to them?” Peter asks, glancing at you for the umpteenth time while you remain oblivious, wrapped up in conversation with your best friend. “It’s so crazy, Ned. You won’t believe what Mr. Stark found out about [Y/N]!”

“Tell me later, just go. I’m tired of you giving [Y/N] the flirty eye, it’s exhausting,” Ned says simply and Peter rolls his eyes but gets up anyway.

“I wasn’t giving the flirty eye,” he mumbles as he walks away, slowly walking up to your table, stopping the talking between you and your friend.

You look up from your half finished food and give Peter a smile, and a part of you feels excited. You considered yourself to be good enough friends with Peter, but you always found yourself wishing that the both of you talked more. Giving Peter an expectant look, your best friend gives you a discreet smile and makes up an excuse about having to throw away her trash.

“What’s up, Pete?”

Peter stops and pauses. Crap, crap, crap. This whole thing went a lot better in his head. He practically wrote a script of what he wanted to say to you and how to say it and the minute you locked eyes with him—it all vanished. Was that even possible?

Gone, poof! Like he had never even thought of it, and he gulps, counting this as one of the reasons why he prefers to be ready for something. And now, he sweats from embarrassment, and he stands there like a fidgety loser.

His mouth is trying to keep up with his brain, hoping to think of what to say, when it all just slips out.

“I–I know your secret!” He says too quickly and too loud, making you widen your eyes and look around the both of you, and releasing a breath of relief when you realize no one had really cared.

You stand up and move closer to him, unintentionally making the breath hitch in his throat.

“What secret is that, exactly, Peter?” You question and narrow your eyes at him, speaking low yet innocently, like you’re not admitting to anything but if you reach a point where you’d have to, you will.

“I’m—well, I’m Spider-Man and Tony Stark sent me,” He confesses, rushing as he sees Flash make his way over and suddenly Peter wants to shrink in his sweater and disappear. “He knows about you being the one who took out some of those guys who were stealing his dangerous weapons. I can’t believe you never told me!”

“Excuse me? Peter, look at yourself, you never exactly gave me any clues to you being Spider-Man,” you chuckle to cover up how bothered you are that your identity had already been found out by Tony friggin’ Stark and you hadn’t even been a hero that long yet.

You also tried to keep your composure after finding out that Peter Parker was Spider-Man, but you felt your ankles slightly give way and you clutched the wall behind you, playing it off. You gave him a sharp look and added:

“And I’d never be an Avenger.”

At this point, Flash reaches you as the last syllables of the word “Avenger,” slips from your lips and he looks over at Peter.

“Oh what, [Y/N]? Is Penis Parker still trying to convince everybody that he’s friends with Tony and that birdsuit guy?” Flash teases, a taunting smile shot over to Peter and you can see the boy next to you take in a shaky breath and look down.

Though you had tolerated Flash since he could be nice when he wanted to be and was actually a good person deep down, you knew how much of a bully he could be to Peter—the two of them going back and forth, but mainly Flash initiating it and making it worse. It was irrevocably aggravating. So, understandably, that always made you angry.

“First of all, Flash, that birdsuit guy’s name is Falcon, everyone knows that, also it’s not a birdsuit,” You point out snappily, in a snarky tone, and Peter hears distant thunder rolling outside even though the news said today was supposed to be a clear and sunny forecast. “And his name is Peter Parker, not Penis Parker, Eugene Flash Thompson, it’s not that hard really.”

Flash’s smile falters and he backs off, running his fingers over his dark skin. “It was a just a joke, I’m sorry.”

Peter looks outside the window and raises his eyebrows as he sees clouds roll in the harder you clench your fists. He instinctively grabs as your arm, stopping you from taking a step towards Flash.

You make a face. “Well I didn’t find your joke very funny.”

Suddenly, a loud and bright strike of lightning shoots out from the sky, drops of heavy, pouring rain following quickly after, causing Flash to break hold and for you to marvel at what you had just done. Peter quickly jumps to your side, as you accidentally make more lightning strike on the now wet parking lot, throwing an arm around you, nervously chuckling. He guides you to the doors, leaving everyone behind until it’s just you two in the hall.

“Cool it down, cool it down,” He whispers frantically into your ear, and the feeling of his lips brushing against your earlobe in panic instantly does the trick and you’re taking a deep breath and you watch the skies clear up again, once you get rid of the clouds you had conjured.

That’s the thing with your powers. You tended to create more than manipulate (although manipulate is also something you could do if you wanted), meaning you couldn’t use the clouds or the sun or whatever was already there—you weren’t a God after all— and so you mainly made your own. You could make it rain indoors if you felt like it.

That’s what made you so powerful, you figured. That’s why Tony Stark wanted you as part of the Avengers.

“I’m sorry,” You whisper, running a hand through your hair in distress as Ned makes his way over.

“Dude that was awesome, oh my gosh!” Ned rambled excitedly, gleaming at you.

“No it wasn’t, I could’ve started a storm!” You reply reasonably, not caring that Ned now knows as well, because if Peter knew, it was only a matter of time until Ned did. The two boys purse their lips and consider something, making you confused. You furrow your eyebrows, leaning against a locker. “What?”

“Well, I mean…that was pretty awesome, [Y/N],” Peter tells you, giving you a sweet and thankful smile that could make your heart flutter. “Thanks for defending me like that.”

“You could defend yourself, Peter. I’ve heard some of your witty remarks when you think no one can you muttering under your breath in class when you get in trouble for not paying attention,” You give him a grin and you make him go red.

“I think that’s enough superhero talk for one day,” Peter says, “Well, for you.”

“Trust me, we’ll see about that,” you smirk at him, but there’s a glint in your eye, another thing that he can’t get used to, and it’s a glint saying something he can’t read. He finds himself looking away, his face getting hot.

You’ve started another storm, but this time it’s not outside.

It’s in Peter’s head, and his heart, and he’s fiddling with pockets of his jeans. It’s bad, because he knows he’s probably being ridiculous right now but, he wonders if adoring you is something he actually could get used to.

Maybe it already is.

326 notes · View notes

mongleelifestory · 4 years

Text

Housing affordability: Social impact funds to solve the UK puzzle?

Similarly, BMO REP, which is behind one of the latest affordable housing funds to come to the market, argues that its investment case stacks up both from a financial return and social impact.“There is a very interesting space where you can provide potentially more sustainable-type income characteristics, and therefore on a risk-adjusted basis it really does make sense for investors,” says Angus Henderson, head of business development at BMO REP. “So I don’t buy into the fact that just because something’s got good ESG characteristics it has to be a lower-returning type product. It can be core in its nature and deliver a core type of return with defendable income.”Working with housing association Home Group, the BMO UK Housing Fund will create purpose-built accommodation for low to middle-income households. Its target audience will be ‘key workers’, such as emergency-services staff, struggling to pay market rents near to where they work. It uses a flexible-rent model to ensure it remains affordable to different households, thereby reducing income volatility. It is targeting a 6% return and 4.5% annual distribution.“We wouldn’t see a trade-off here at all,” says Henderson. “On a risk-adjusted basis that is the right return for the product.”Nuveen Real Estate is another fund manager looking at affordable housing. Tanja Volksheimer, senior portfolio manager for Europe, has been focusing on social-impact potential and agrees with this notion. “If you really take the lower rent, you have less fluctuation,” she says. “People do not maybe move out as quickly.”Can social impact funds address the UK’s housing crisis and serve pension funds at the same time? Richard Lowe reports

Widening inequality, the rise of populist politics, growing public fears about climate change and the advent of potentially disruptive technology have prompted the financial industry to stop and think about how it goes about its business.

The emerging consensus seems to be: capitalism needs to become less short-termist and more inclusive. The primacy of shareholders is now being questioned within capitalism rather than, as has traditionally been the case, from without.

As if to underline this notion at the start of a new decade, BlackRock announced on 14 January that it would place sustainability at the centre of its investment approach in response to shifts in investor preferences. The world’s largest asset manager effectively endorsed inclusive capitalism.

It is within this context that something seems to be happening in parallel within the institutional real estate industry: the mainstreaming of social impact investing – principally, in the form of social and affordable housing strategies.

Institutional real estate investors have for some time being incorporating – or pressuring their investment managers to incorporate – environment, social and governance (ESG) practices into their investment strategies. Hence the rise of the real assets sustainability benchmark GRESB, founded by a number of pension funds and a very visible catalyst in this area.

But while the adoption of ESG was, in effect, about the integration of a new element of risk management – of protecting future returns against the costs of greater regulation and arbitraging the future demand for green buildings – impact investing is different.

Impact investing has explicit objectives beyond maximising (or protecting) financial returns. It implies levels of performance measurement running in tandem: financial and impact. This had traditionally meant it fell outside the remit of institutional investors, which typically have a fiduciary duty to generate the best possible risk-adjusted returns for their ultimate beneficiaries.

But the situation is changing. There have been a number of impact real estate fund launches recently, and the past 12 months have been bookmarked by the launch of two UK affordable housing funds: one by CBRE Global Investors at the start of 2019, and one by BMO Real Estate Partners (REP) at the beginning of this year.

There seem to be at least two reasons behind this. One, there is a growing recognition that having a positive social impact is becoming important to some of those ultimate beneficiaries and might also be in the long-term interest of institutions invested in the real economy.

Two, there is a growing argument that optimum risk-adjusted returns and measurable social impact are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

Peter Hobbs, managing director of private markets at Bfinance, who advises investors and carries out fund managers searches, has witnessed a marked pick-up in interest in impact real estate strategies. And none of them are prepared to “forgo a financial return”, he says. “They all say at the outset, we’ve got to achieve this return and we want to achieve an impact. And it is their fiduciary responsibility to achieve that return.”

It was a point Hobbs made last year at a social impact seminar in London organised by the Association of Real Estate Funds (AREF) and the Investment Property Forum (IPF). During that event, James Giles, pension investments and risk manager for the Co-Op group, revealed how Co-Op pension fund capital was being invested in affordable housing. He said the pension fund had started to look at how it might be able to make a social impact when seeking out low-risk, inflation-linked real estate investments in the UK. PGIM Real Estate, which invests on behalf of the Co-Op continues to help it build up a portfolio of affordable housing in the UK.

Hobbs believes affordable housing could become bigger than the burgeoning private-rented sector (PRS) in the UK. He says a number of investors are wondering if affordable housing might potentially offer “better risk-adjusted returns” than traditional PRS, because it is “less cycle-exposed” and responding to a greater “structural need”.

The first mover into UK affordable housing was Cheyne Capital, which launched the Cheyne Social Property Impact Fund in 2014. For Stuart Fiertz, co-founder, president and director of research, it has been about matching up the acute demand-supply imbalance for affordable housing with another demand-supply imbalance – for inflation-linked assets on the part of UK defined-benefit pension funds.

“We recognised there was a convergence of a number of factors that made this a compelling opportunity, which are still just as true five years on – arguably even more true than when we set up five years ago,” Fiertz says. “You have the world of defined benefit in particular crying out for inflation-linked assets,” he says. “We set about trying to address this massive demand, this underbuilding of housing, the length of the waiting lists, the amount of people in inappropriate temporary accommodation.”

Fiertz says Cheyne Capital’s affordable-housing investments are more sustainable and are a better proxy for inflation than typical PRS strategies. “This housing will remain affordable through time because wages will rise at about the same pace as the rent was rising – unlike traditional PRS where there is always an assumption that the rents will rise faster than wages, which is not sustainable in the long term,” he says.

“We’ve also seen that UK institutional investors are underinvested in residential property,” he adds. “They can either go the direction of many of their peers into traditional PRS. But some of them are recognising that actually a long-term lease that is inflation-linked gets them the return profile that they actually want. They don’t want house-price inflation, because their liabilities are not linked to house-price inflation.”

So, can affordable housing really give investors the best of both worlds – social impact and more-appropriate risk-adjusted returns? “I think we’ve won the argument that impact investing does not entail a sacrifice of return or a degradation of the risk-reward,” Fiertz says.

But not only could affordable housing provide more stable and sustainable income streams for investors than higher-rent housing, it might also be less exposed to regulatory risk. As we highlight in the latest edition of IPE Real Assets, there is growing pressure on governments – both in Europe and the US – to put the breaks on unregulated private-rented markets. Rental caps and other controls can materially affect PRS and multifamily investment strategies.

“With everything that is happening on the regulatory level, you don’t know what is happening,” says Volksheimer. “I think this is very risk-averse and could be a risk-management tool worth pursuing.”

Nuveen is already investing in affordable housing. It recently invested in Shore Hill, a senior-housing community in Brooklyn where tenants pay no more than 30% of their income towards rent, leading to the property’s rents being roughly 45% below Brooklyn’s market rents.

“There is an affordability restriction on the property that will run out in three years’ time,” says Volksheimer. “Nuveen together with a co-investor actually will renew the mission and keep this property affordable, which is usually where a traditional investor would swoop and say, okay, I’m going to put balconies out front, I’m going to drive the people out, I’m going to increase rents.”

Moving beyond ESG Volksheimer believes that impact investing will become bigger in the institutional real estate industry than the niche activity it is today. “Ten years ago, we wouldn’t have thought that green buildings would be so sought after,” she says. “Maybe impact investing will not be totally separated from the traditional investing because it will have been fully integrated into our thinking. The profit will be combined with the wider purpose.”

Hobbs says impact investing is probably going to be bigger than ESG. He also thinks the real estate industry should ensure it is thinking about its public perception in today’s world of chronic underfunding and political populism. There was plenty of popular dissatisfaction with the role banks played in the global financial crisis. And in contrast to periods from the 1960s to the 1980s, “real estate hasn’t really been in the firing lines”, he says.

“Monetary stimulus has escalated asset values. I’m surprised there hasn’t been more political focus on trying to take some of that back for the public. I’m sure that’s coming,” Hobbs says. “Real estate should be on the front foot and saying we’re doing real public good in what we’re doing.”

This returns to the earlier point about inclusive capitalism and the real estate industry’s role in that arena. Writing in IPE Real Assets November/December 2019, Rob Martin, director of research at LGIM Real Assets, says ignoring factors like rising inequality “will create risks for investors”.

“Why is populism a particular concern? By definition, populists reject the status quo. They have little time for consensus building. That has some particular implications for investors,” Martin writes.

“If populism is about ‘us and them’, it is about turning us into them. This is not to suggest we mirror the priorities of populist politicians. But by changing the way we invest, we create a pool of advocates for our sector and underline the risks inherent in disrupting our investment into the built environment.

“This needs to be about more than lip service and PR – there needs to be genuine change. We will need to adapt in ways that are unfamiliar and uncomfortable. How much more difficult will it be to introduce rent controls in the build-to-rent sector if we can demonstrate that rents have not been pushed as hard as the market would have borne to ensure they remain affordable?”

At the group level, Legal & General has been championing inclusive capitalism. And it has been one of the biggest institutional investors to move into affordable housing in the UK. In 2018, it set up a standalone division, Legal & General Affordable Homes, which is aiming to deliver 1,000 new homes this year, a further 2,000 next year and an additional 3,000 in 2022.

Ben Denton, managing director of the new subsidiary and former executive director of Sovereign Housing Association, says that “one of the driving principles” of Legal & General as a whole “is how can we deliver fair returns to shareholders and investors whilst maximising our societal benefit as an organisation”. He says: “That runs right across what the business does. From a philosophical perspective, we think the right long-term decisions for society will, at the end of the day, feed through to the right quality of returns for investors and shareholders. We, as a start-up business in L&G, sit within that thesis.”

But there are also “practical-level” reasons why Legal & General is pushing hard into affordable housing, and they are similar to those voiced by Cheyne Capital’s Fiertz. Pension funds are desperately looking to real assets to generate attractive index-linked returns. “Our affordable housing business effectively creates those real assets,” Denton says. “That’s the really important point to get across.” He points to how other institutional funding of affordable housing falls into two main categories: those who just fund development and those – like Legal & General – that fund, build and operate themselves.

“We haven’t set this up with the principle of it being an impact investment fund,” says Denton. “But I can see there is the scope to be a proposition in that space.” To date, Legal & General’s activities in affordable homes has been funded through its internal capital, but this year it will open the strategy to external investors. “The level of interest is very significant,” says Denton.

An industry of problem solvers It is understandable to see why some of the biggest customer-facing institutions like Legal & General are grasping the nettle and seeking to address housing affordability with investment scale (Nuveen and BMO REP are also part of large institutions in the form of TIAA and the Bank of Montreal). But what about smaller private-equity groups more commonly associated with high-returning opportunity funds?

Patron Capital fits this description. And as well as raising capital for its fourth pan-European opportunity fund, the London-based company, led by founder Keith Breslauer, has managed to launch the Women In Safe Homes (WISH) fund to provide affordable homes for women who are experiencing homelessness or are vulnerable to domestic abuse.

“This is what I get excited about,” says Breslauer. “Raising another billion-euro fund to do opportunistic real estate is kind of our bread and butter, but that’s already happening, that’s going really well. But doing this is exciting because it actually says we can do what we do in our day job and bring it to help change the world.”

As is the case with the strategies being pursued by Cheyne Capital, BMO REP and Legal & General, the fund will provide a financial return for investors as well as making a social impact.

“We just figured out there was a real opportunity to use our skillset, which is property and property investing and development and refurbishment, in helping people,” Breslauer says. “The question was how to do it. We spent a lot of time in discussions with various groups and we came to a natural conclusion that there is an opportunity out there.

“The key question is: is there an appetite from investors for this, and what is the challenge? And the challenge is: are you really providing a charitable service or actually are you doing something that will [generate] good returns on a risk-adjusted basis for an investor and how would an investor look at it?”

The appetite is definitely there. “Our problem so far isn’t whether we think we can get the money for it,” he says. “There is appetite because we can show a good return. That’s a very important point, because this is not a charity… the challenge will be how scalable [it is].”

But Breslauer – who does a lot of charity work on the side of his day-to-day business – is putting in some of his own personal wealth to test the concept, adding to a pool of what he calls “catalytic capital”. He says: “What I’ve done is taken the best of the charity world and the best of the financial world and we’ve merged them.”

The WISH fund is being run in collaboration with Resonance, a specialist impact fund manager that already runs homelessness property funds, and Big Society Capital, a social-impact investor.

Big Society Capital has been instrumental in launching a number of affordable housing funds in recent years, including those managed by Cheyne Capital, CBRE Global Investors and BMO REP. Its mandate is to promote business models that address social issues, which has naturally led it to support the creation of privately-funded affordable-housing solutions.

Anna Shiel, head of origination at Big Society Capital, has noticed a “step-up in interest and engagement from the real estate investment sector, in terms of what role they can play”, over the past 12 months. “There has been a step-change in the past 12 to 18 months in terms of the number of funds,” she says. “Some are differentiated, and that is where we tend to be interested. There are others that are less differentiated, and that is absolutely fine too – we acknowledge that the scale of social problem here is one that merits a large amount of capital being brought in.

“So there are varying degrees of innovation and emphasises on different types of housing or different problems that we see out there. But there is certainly quite a range of different solutions that are being proposed and are under development at the moment.”

This rise in new affordable-housing funds shows that there are many different ways to try to address social needs with the objectives of institutional investors. Shiel says they can emerge from different starting points. Some begin by looking to address a social need and others start with the needs of investors – but they can end up in a similar place. “In a way, it’s slightly different paths to the same goal, rather than there being a clear delineation between what is finance-first and what is impact-first,” she says.

“The innovation can come in the form of the organisations – the business models they’re employing – but it can also come in the form of the financial solutions,” Shiel says. “In a way, that diversity is to be encouraged because it allows us to test and work what out is effective.”

For the WISH fund, it will be important to “work out which organisations want this kind of finance and are able to use it effectively and demonstrate that it is an investable and sustainable model” that can then be scaled up.

The ability to create scale is very important if institutional capital is to move in bulk and begin to make a dent on the UK’s housing crisis. BMO REP believes its fund will be scalable, hence the decision to structure it as an open-ended fund. “Part of the ability to have an impactful approach is also to have something that can create scale to benefit… as many people as possible,” says Henderson. “So for us it is about creating something that will scale and endure over time.”

Measurement: essential or a distraction? Affordable-housing strategies seem to promise the best of both worlds for investors by generating social impact and financial returns, without the former diluting the latter. However, if social impact is part of the investment proposition – and especially if investors are committing capital because they have an impact mandate – the performance needs to be measured.

It was clear at the AREF/IPF seminar that measuring impact performance was essential to impact investing becoming a mainstream real estate asset class. There were a lot of questions from the audience about this subject.

Speaking at the event, Hobbs said there were already a number of frameworks created, so there was no reason for investors and fund managers not to collect data and measure performance. “There is a desire to have explicit social, environment outcomes alongside the financial and so there is a real need for them to be clear on what those outcomes are, to measure those outcomes and to report on them… there is a lot of investor engagement around that.”

BMO Real Estate Partners (REP) has created a bespoke ESG framework for its recently launched BMO UK Housing Fund. “A lot of investors have a concern about the impact credentials being fulfilled,” says Henderson.

“Measurement and how you approach that is really key… what you are doing today needs to be augmented for tomorrow. So [this means] setting the goals within your investment characteristics; having a really strong and robust scoring criteria and a feedback loop that goes into that, so you can report back to your investors and make sure there is an independent audit of what you are looking to achieve and how you are going about that.”

But Fiertz is concerned that a fixation on measurement could be distracting from the basic objective: making a social impact. “I think it’s sufficient at this stage to say you’ve made an impact and move forward on that basis,” he says.

“There is no shortage of capital. So we don’t have to choose between two projects based on their degree of impact… when I speak to investors they don’t say, prove to me that you’ve got more or less impact on this investment versus another. We have the governance structure to show there is impact, that we’re meeting the standards we set in terms of additionality and providing the right kind of property and right lease structure. But investors have a challenge to meet their pension obligations… so they want to know: is it good credit quality?; what is the spread over linkers?… it needs to be translated into that language.”

In fact, he says some investors in the Cheyne Social Property Impact Fund are candid that it would have been easier to get their investment through the investment committee if it didn’t have the word ‘impact’ attached to it. “They like the impact, but there is that suspicion that you have to sacrifice returns or raise the risk-reward,” he says.

Tanja Volksheimer, senior portfolio manager at Nuveen Real estate, says impact investing is about both the social impact and the financial return. “We cannot forget that. We are not doing philanthropy here,” she says.

But measuring the impact element is crucial, she says. “How do you really measure the impact? That is how you can distinguish [between] someone who knows how to talk about impact investing and someone who just pretends to do impact investing – impact washing, as they say.”

Volksheimer adds: “It’s not just setting up the vision and launching the fund. It is actually really hard to be honest. You have to manage for impact. You always have to integrate impact considerations in the beginning in your processes; you have to establish a team who knows what they are doing.”

Anna Shiel, head of origination at Big Society Capital, says that when investors and fund managers look at impact investing they, at first, need to take a “step back from the measurement question” and instead think about the purpose. “You measure what you are trying to change. It isn’t per se the challenge of coming up with metrics and measurements – those are challenges… but the conversation that needs to happen first in order to frame that is what change any individual investment strategy is actually seeking to bring about and that allows a refinement down to a core set of measures that will really allow the investor to understand if they are achieving that.”

She adds: “There are questions around being able to attribute change to any given intervention. I think we need to be realistic about that. But it’s not impossible. It’s definitely doable… if we can potentially start to group some of those strategies together then we’ve got an ability to both share some of the measurement approaches that are effective but also ultimately over time move to some degree of comparability between equivalent strategies.”

0 notes

saltygardenerlove · 4 years

Text

Housing affordability: Social impact funds to solve the UK puzzle?

Two, there is a growing argument that optimum risk-adjusted returns and measurable social impact are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

As is the case with the strategies being pursued by Cheyne Capital, BMO REP and Legal & General, the fund will provide a financial return for investors as well as making a social impact.

The WISH fund is being run in collaboration with Resonance, a specialist impact fund manager that already runs homelessness property funds, and Big Society Capital, a social-impact investor.

0 notes

bertrhert · 4 years

Text

Housing affordability: Social impact funds to solve the UK puzzle?

Two, there is a growing argument that optimum risk-adjusted returns and measurable social impact are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

As is the case with the strategies being pursued by Cheyne Capital, BMO REP and Legal & General, the fund will provide a financial return for investors as well as making a social impact.

The WISH fund is being run in collaboration with Resonance, a specialist impact fund manager that already runs homelessness property funds, and Big Society Capital, a social-impact investor.

0 notes

dreamilykawaiibasement · 4 years

Text

Housing affordability: Social impact funds to solve the UK puzzle?

Two, there is a growing argument that optimum risk-adjusted returns and measurable social impact are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

As is the case with the strategies being pursued by Cheyne Capital, BMO REP and Legal & General, the fund will provide a financial return for investors as well as making a social impact.

The WISH fund is being run in collaboration with Resonance, a specialist impact fund manager that already runs homelessness property funds, and Big Society Capital, a social-impact investor.

0 notes

movieblogreview · 4 years

Text

Housing affordability: Social impact funds to solve the UK puzzle?

Two, there is a growing argument that optimum risk-adjusted returns and measurable social impact are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

As is the case with the strategies being pursued by Cheyne Capital, BMO REP and Legal & General, the fund will provide a financial return for investors as well as making a social impact.

The WISH fund is being run in collaboration with Resonance, a specialist impact fund manager that already runs homelessness property funds, and Big Society Capital, a social-impact investor.

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