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prof-peach · 3 years

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if fans wanted to include peach in stuff they write, would that be okay? and how would they write peach's personality? aside from "FIGHT ME" anyway, i think that much is a given lol. i only really write the anime characters 'cause that's what i know, but it sounds like it'd be kinda fun to try making a version of ash that fits into this blog's universe! nerf'd Obviously, but i think she'd probably appreciate how hands-on he gets when training his pokemon!

Ok, I get a lot of these messages, and I often hear folks wanting to throw peach into their stories and comics and writings, and I will always simply ask that if it’s published online publicly, to be linked to it so I can snoop and enjoy the content too. If someone asks about her in your work, let them know about the blog I guess? But literally I love that people take this stuff, these characters and stories, and make new stuff with it. No ones making money off my work here? So where’s the issue? Go for it buddy, knock yourself out, I’m all for it.

For you, and all the others out there who want to add peach, and other characters to your world building, I will give you a detailed rundown of the main lot, and how they behave, what they do, how they function. You can use that, use bits, or use none of it, I do not mind at all. If you’re creating something, you’re in control, not me.

So, peach doesn’t actually fight people as much as you’d think. She’s very aware most cannot and do not want to do that, and so she likes to keep to herself with regards to that aspect of her life, she doesn’t ask to spar with people, or even bring it up at all, but people ask her all the time, even if they clearly would lose or become hurt should she miscalculate during the fight. She looks at people like they usually create problems, and often has a somewhat reserved nature to other humans. You have to work quite hard to get anything more than formalities out of her. She will dead-pan handle people with blunt and very to-the-point statements, aid whenever possible, but very quickly get back to handling the Pokemon she so carefully tends. Her focus is clear, she’s all about hard work, her very small select family, and the Pokemon.

Her brutal, loud and brash personality only comes out with friends, family, difficult humans, OR any Pokemon. She will joke and laugh and play with Pokemon, but clam up around humans, maintaining tight body language and generally will be a little cold by regular standards. She does however have some weaknesses in this emotionless shield she puts up. When peach was young she was always angry, which swung so fast to sadness, back and forth. Her teenage years it just got worse and worse, it was crippling at points. She is to this day, full of fire and rage, even sadness, but now she has learnt to control it, to use it. When she sees that in others, it’s familiar, and she is pushed to drop the front, and be very real with the person. Underdogs I suppose, people who get bad reps, but deserve the same as everyone else. She can’t ignore it.

Once you start to pry open her personality, you’ll find she’s a lot more laid back and fun than originally appeared, you just have to work hard to find that side of her. She will meme reference, can’t dance to save her life, loves her coffee, and can be caught in quiet contemplation while gardening. This hobby is her calmest, and often is why she can stay so level headed when her quiet rage boils up again. Without time outside she will become grouchy, a little snippy, and lethargic. Will not go in the ocean for any reason other than life or death, is fine with ponds and rivers, or water at wading height. Likes the rain.

With regards to her training others, they usually have to tolerate her somewhat strict nature. She is a little....unforgiving, holds a grudge if you make a lot of mistakes, and has no tolerance for ignorance in the age of information that we all live in. In previous posts I’ve mentioned she’s only recently selected two students, after many years of testing kids who want to learn from her. Hundred tried out, only two have ever been approved. How she teaches is very fast paced, be prepared to get some scrapes and bruises, she will test your physical and emotional tolerances with intense tasks, carefully watching students like a hawk. Bad posture in your stance? She’ll be the first to tell you to sort it out. Not hearing your Pokemon partner? Right, now you spend the day without using words trying to communicate, let’s see how you like not being listened to.

This is a woman who has spent her life saying very little, and watching everything, she watches Pokemon and can see an issue from a mile off, and in battles, her observations are why she can react fast, and chose effective strategy to avoid damage and achieve results. Don’t let her body fool you, her strongest asset is analysing, watching, planning. Those skills have over the years transferred to people too. As a student, mistakes don’t go unnoticed with this professor.

Her methods are harsh but fair, and should you prove yourself, she will protect you with her life.

Because of her disinterest in kids and lots of noise, she does pass the training of students on to the other staff members whenever possible. Grey takes on the lions share of battle lessons, he is far calmer, more open and friendly, with patience for people, and an empathy that peach sometimes struggles to have. When you go through a lot of harsh training, and difficult events, it’s hard to change how you feel or think, with peach, well, she’s been through it. Most do not come out the other end in one piece, but she did, and it made her strong. You may think I mean strong like buff and big, and yeah sure she is, but I mean it mentally more than anything. Peach will not quit. She has learnt to destroy the boundaries that stop people getting hurt, gone is the fear that freezes you in your tracks, that feeling that you’ll pass out if you go one more step. She’s learnt to ignore it.

This means she’s a little forgetful at how it is to be normal, to be vulnerable and soft and squishy like students so usually are.

She has her issues, but for the most part, visitors get a laugh, a smile, a calm assertive confidence, and facts. She will indulge those who have genuine interest, or show a connection with nature, an understanding of the balance that needs to be struck for everyone to live well together.

Despite her many flaws, she’s fiercely protective, and will go above and beyond to defend the island, it’s staff, the Pokemon and the visitors. Injustice is her biggest gripe, along with littering, and she doesn’t stand by quietly if something happens that seems unfair.

You will not see her without Valka, her vulpix, close by. That Pokemon doesn’t like to be touched by strangers, at all, and will run the second someone comes at her with that intent. Peach will scold you for pushing yourself onto her, should you persistently try to get close to pet Val. They are in sync, if peach is sad, Val is sad, if Val is stressed, peach is stressed, and so on. They are inherently connected, it’s just been that long, the psychic bridge between them has been built, and reinforced over the years.

The only other Pokemon who follows her so endlessly is Booker, a teddiursa who’s pretty rough looking. He quietly trots behind, grouchy and stoic, they fight closely together a lot. He lost his mom a long time ago to poachers, and peach took him in, and changed her whole life for him. Not many people know, but Booker was the reason she left the rangers, changed career, and got so strong. Will tolerate people petting him but isn’t keen at all, grumbles a lot and tries to move away.

You may also need to know about the others, for the sake of writing, she here a few more bits that may be important to you, or others wanting to do this.

Grey is very tall, very burly, composed, tells bad dad jokes, is a bit of a goof if allowed to be. If he sees a pun, he’ll say it. Can’t help himself. Very nice guy to work with, good at keeping people calm and grounded. Pokemon are drawn to him like a moth to a flame, he gives off warm energy, and has inhuman amounts of patience. If you wrong his family however, he will snap back.

He grew up in the city, loves to swim and hike and cycle, can snowboard, is really sporty. A total brain box with held items, and boosting stats. He will explore many paths, to make sure visitors and students get the information they need, in a way that can be remembered and retained for later. Is a huge guy, but will get on the floor to play with a tiny Pokemon. Treats big “meaner” looking species like babies, very good with all pokemon.

His free time is spent either tinkering, swimming, or trimming his bonsai trees. This guy stares at screens a lot, so appreciates time away from them. Peach built him his own little greenhouse for his trees and tools, which he keeps clean and loves dearly.

His methods as a teacher are built around fun and games, he makes hard work easier to do by distracting trainers from the difficult bits, and focusing in on something more interesting or compelling.

His most commonly seen Pokemon would be a houndoom, Saxon, old battle veteran, retired now to herding and being a good boy. Very gentle, loves a pet.

Pari, now a fully fledged nurse, often oversees the labs front desk and pokecentre features, such as healing pokemon, and informing trainers who come to visit. Her skills with eggs and hatchlings is high, she’s great with younger Pokemon, and hands out good advice to trainers a lot. She’s not a fighter, never was, but can find any file, any study, any book, and any refrence you may need. A true bookworm, loves her romance novels, chat shows and upbeat celebrity gossip mags. Will cry at a lot of stuff, be it sad or happy.

She’s got a seriously upbeat personality, but if caught off guard or shocked, she gets a little flustered. Too much chaos will overwhelm her, but usually she’s on top of things. The years spent on the island have made her better at maintaining composure in emergencies. With lots of siblings, she’s very competent with others, and has a good ability to disarm cagey people with her jolly nature. Because of this, she can sometimes gain information from trainers that some of the more harsh professors may not have access to. Charming is a word for it.

Her partners are an eevee, and a happiny. They are quite sweet and well adjusted, the eevee gets a bit bouncy if you get it too excited.

#if you dont want to use the refs #im really cool with it #just enjoy yourself buddy #pokemon #prof.peach #peach talks #prof.grey #pari #dotaku island #dotaku staff #PLEASE #just ask me if you dont know something #or feel i missed something in what i wrote

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ecoamerica · 1 month

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alolanrain · 4 years

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Cold

Galar is cold. The coldest Region Ash has ever been to and this is including Sinnoh. He’s wearing his thickest sweatshirt and pants, full on gloves instead of those fingerless ones. Gou is shivering next to him, the mountain dog anthro is still fairing better though since his anthro shift was made for this weather.

Ash’s tail lashed out and then quivered. Wrapping around his stomach and squeezing his middle. Gou eyed Ash, it’s not like Ash even has an inkling of control over his appendages. Ash just wants to get to the hotel and call it a very early night, since it’s only like three in the afternoon.

Their Specifically in Wyndon, for the worldwide Championship that all champions have to be at. Well all this year, the last twelve Ash has been sneaking by with Drake going in his stead but now Lance had put his foot sown firmly now that Ash is a double titled Champion.

“You can explore,” Ash pointed a shaky finger at Gou, Pikachu making it a bit hard with the way he was hunkering down on his shoulder, “I’m going to be taking a long ass nap.”

Gou snorted and rolled his eyes, “yeah, whatever.” He snipped back. Maybe the cold was getting to him more then Ash thought. But that didn’t matter now, getting to a warm room with a fluffy bed is more important.

“How may I help you this afternoon?” The receptionist asked politely. Though she eyed them like they were at the bottom of her shoes. Rich neighborhoods suck. Pikachu bristled slightly but calmed down when Ash pet the back of his partners tail that was on his other shoulder.

“Master suite for Champion Ash Ketchum on the Alt floor.” Ash mumbled. Pulling out his Champion card and putting it in the little machine right next to the computer behind the desk wall. It was custom at this point that every high end hotel had one of these machines to actually check if people were impersonating a Champion or not. Not like it would be easy with all the mythical and strong animal anthro’s on the line up. The only one closest to a plain human was Ash, a simple house cat Calico anthro, even then the red in his fur was so rich in color that the most expensive dye jobs can’t reach it.

“Oh sorry,” the lady was soon loosing her mock happiness, “it doesn’t look like-“

“The lights green.” Ash stopped her. Tiredly looking at the green light on top of the small black box. Not only was the color indicating that he is in fact a Champion, but also that he does have a room rented.

The receptionist grit her teeth in a false smile that faltered as her eyes moved to something with a slight horror on her face.

Before Ash could move, and with the fact that Gou gasped pretty hard right after the change in the Receptionist’s face, a light hand ghosted from the outside of his shoulder over to his neck. Ash unconsciously moved his head when the hand ran up his neck to cup his jaw.

“You’re freezing.” Good old Wallace. Blunt as ever.

“I feel freezing.” Ash couldn’t help the slight whine filtering into his voice. He lent into Wallace’s hand that still cupped his jaw a little and eyes fluttered closed for a few milliseconds before slowly opening again. Pikachu chirped in greeting to the Champion and Wallace moved his other hand to pet under the mouse’s chin.

“Get your room keys,” Wallace motioned you the small envelope, Gou moved and snagged them off the counter, tossing it to Ash who caught it on reflex, “I’ll escort you and your friend up to your room.”

“Thank you.” Ash whispered. Moving to lean into the taller man’s side. Pikachu gave an appreciative chirp when the blue haired man’s warm hand pet down the spine of the yellow Pokémon.

“Thank you, Champion Wallace.” Gou was more formal. Bowing quickly while walking before catching up to the two who stepped into the elevator.

“It’s no problem,” Wallace’s light cyan angel wings spread out a little to cup behind Ash and Pikachu, “I warned Lance this wasn’t the right time to introduce you. You’ll be shivering and teeth chittering the entire time.” He ran the hand behind Ash’s back from the middle of his shoulders down to the small of his back.

Gou eyes the two Champions, mentally stopping himself from asking why their so affectionate with each other. It was answered soon after when the elevator door opened onto the secret floor when they came face to face with the retired Ex-Champion Steven Stone and Champion Alder.

“Ashton!” Alder belowed happily. Moving to allow the trio out into the floor before pulling Ash into a hug. Minding his fluffy tail that spazzed a bit before winding around the man’s thick ankle. “It’s so good to see you.”

“Hi Alder,” Ash sniffed back some snot before moving to curl tighter into the hug, “long time no see.”

“Hello, Ash.” Steven hesitantly reaches out before cupping the back of Ash’s jaw and neck and running his hands up into the semi long hair to brush some hair back. “Your shaking.” Steven frowned.

“I told Lance,” Wallace muttered again while coming closer and pressing a quick kiss into Steven’s hair before facing Ash who was still curled into the hug with Alder, The man never minding how cold the calico anthro is, “but he never listens.”

“It’s because he’s a dragon.” Ash grumbled as he forced himself away from the really warm hug with the gargoyle shifter. “He’s warm all the time no matter what weather, it clouds his judgement.”

“But for twelve years?” Wallace didn’t look to convinced.

“I don’t know,” Ash was fully whining now, “I’m just super tired and really want a bed.”

“Room one hundred and twelve right?” Steven asked. Thumbing at his phone which must have all the Champions room numbers on them.

“Ye.” Ash grunted. Reaching back and grasping for Gou’s hand before trotting behind light gray angel. He didn’t really pay attention to the passing rooms theirs only a few until they reached to the biggest one, which usually goes to Lance since he’s the oldest and the longest lasting Champion

———

It wasn’t long after that when Ash was finally sliding into a big plush bed in his room. Gou right across the hall, the mountain dog anthro had made a point in declaring nap time for him also, so Ash doesn’t have to worry to much in case another Champion or some hotel staff accidentally thinks Gou is sneaking in with a stolen card. Ash doesn’t need a fucking repeat two year ago when he brought Dawn with him that one time to a large scale conference and she was accidentally accused of thieft of Ash’s second key card and trying to sneak into their shared room.

Ash was pretty vicious with both Lance and Drake, who had accused the girl, and publicly dragged their ass’s to the police station to make them pay bail for Dawn. Berating and verbally ripping into the Chinese dragon anthro’s the entire time while sitting next to Alder who drove them there.

He both made them apologize and he and Dawn went to a thrift store to go get some ice cream before heading back to the hotel where they stayed up all night to watch some movies.

The only reason why Brock wasn’t with them was that he already had a room with Misty and another Gym leader that they were friends with on a different floor, floor delta, which is also a secret and private floor for any gym leaders on or off work.

Ash curled his tail tighter around his body, not keen on the cold silk sheets at all, his sock covered feet getting encased most by the multi colored fluff. Sleep was also terrible, which increased Ash’s anger and pushed him to the point where he threw off the covered and hit his hands and legs against the bed like a toddler before getting up and slinging on his sweatshirt from earlier again.

Pikachu blinked lazily you from his spot under the rest of the pillows and half of the comforter. Only stretching and getting out of his half warmth cave because he doesn’t like it when Ash is cold when he isn’t and the way Ash is stalking about looking for some warmer socks he packed made Pikachu anxious. He hopped onto Ash’s shoulders when his trainer offered an arm put after finding said socks and putting them on over his existing ones on his feet.

Shuffling out of his room, Ash’s back met with Gou’s. Making both of them jump and twirl around. Pointing their fingers at each other like the spider man meme.

“Your room cold too?” Gou asked. Floppy ears twitching as he glanced down a millisecond at Ash’s bristling and thrashing tail.

“Iceberg cold.” Ash hissed as he stalked past the mountain dog anthro to go over into the kitchen and the thermostat.

“It’s already at seventy five degrees Fahrenheit!” Ash nearly yowled in rage.

“No way,” Gou trotted into the kitchen and gently shoving Ash away with his shoulders, ignoring the slight hiss and pinned back ears as he looked at the thermo, “holy Arceus you’re not wrong.”

“No shit!” Aah hissed again. Pulling back away from Gou more and going back to his freezing room to snatch his phone of the charger. A loud yowl sounded in his throat as he noticed that it wasn’t even charging.

“My phones nearly dead!” Gou’s voice barked from his room. He must have went to grab his as well.

“Mines at half battery,” Ash convened with him in the middle of the hallway again, “I’ll call Lance to see if he’s up and having the same problem.” No doubt the dragon would be nearly throwing a fit if his heat was shut off and his room freezing cold. Not like it would bother him to much since he has a fire core even if he’s a water dragon, which made absolutely no sense to Ash when he explained it earlier when Ash first came on as his secondary Champion.

Alder would be having a similar problem since he doesn’t retain a lot of heat as well. Cynthia should have no problem since she’s a dragon to and actually is used to the blazing tundras of Sinnoh. Wallace and Steven, even though Steven isn’t a Champion anymore and Wallace just likes dragging his husband to all these events, should be at least okay. Their wings are pretty heat absorbant and should last them a while before they truly got really cold. Four hours into their stay and it’s already been terrible.

Before Ash could even lift the phone to his ears there was a harsh knocking on their hotel room door.

“Sounds like Lance.” Ash grumbled. Ignoring Gou’s bristled shock state at such a harsh sound.

Peeling back his door he was faced by a seething Lance followed by Alder and then even Leon. The Griffin was shuffling his feet and he looked absolutely wrecked, black eye bags and frazzled wings and hair.

“Is your room cold.” Lance snarled.

“Good evening to you too.” Ash hissed back.

“Is. your. room. cold.” Lance turned even a little more violent with his voice.

“Of course it’s cold dipshit!” Ash spat back, “I was about to call you, and ask a bit more politely, if you guys were having the same problem.”

At this Lance tipped his head back and pinched the bridge of his nose. Taking a deep inhale that looked like it hurt his lungs before exhaling. “I’m sorry.” Lance muttered. Much more calm and respectful. “I didn’t mean to heat up any anger. I was angry and wasn’t right of me.”

Ash relaxed as well. Letting some of the fight in him slink away in favor but that didn’t stop his tail lashing back and forth. “I’m sorry as well.”

”did one of you check the vents in your room?” Alder pipped up tiredly.

Gou made a nose before pulling back from behind Ash and going to the nearest vent. It was opened and Ash tiredly watched as he crouched down and hovered his hand over the metal.

“Nothings blowing in out sucking out.” Gou informed. Padding back over and taking the time to press his chest into Ash’s side. Going and grabby the calico’s tail and wrapping it around his would fluffy one. He stuffed his face into Pikachu’s fur and the mouse Pokémon papped at the top of his head like an irritated kitten.

Ash groaned and leaned into Gou more, pressing Pikachu between his neck and Goums face more much to the timing ones discontent but he didn’t mutter anything more then a squeak. At least he was warmer then the cold room. He ignored the way Lance and Leon tracked the movement and the way his chest heaved up and down in a very tired sigh.

“How’s Diantha?” Ash asked. Not doubting she wasn’t fairing good at all being a black jaguar anthro.

“Hissing and spitting at anyone who gets to close,” Alder laughed nervously while moving to show the inside of his arm where his sweater sleeve was in tatters with some little blood drops welling up, Good think Alder has very thick skin, “she’s stolen Cynthia and buried herself under their combined blankets and pillows.”

“Sounds like her.” Ash agreed before doing a full body shiver. Tail unwinding from Gou’s tail and thrashing enough that it’s hitting the doorway loud enough to make an auditable thumps.

“Stop that!” Lance growled and moved his hand quick enough to catch Ash’s tail before it thumped against the wall. “I know you’re cold,” he ignored Ash’s hiss and the clawed hand coming down to press his fingernails into Lance’s scaled hands, “but we don’t need you hurting yourself in anger.”

“Much easier said then done.” Ash growled low in his throat. Tightening his hold onto Lance’s hand.

Gou and Pikachu looked wearily from Champion to Champion. Gou for once experiencing one of their ‘legendary’ spats that Ash rarely talks about. Pikachu was looking more towards Alder, hoping that the Rhino anthro would stop this but by the man’s distant look he was going to be no help.

Before anyone could say something else Leon piped up, “I feel like this is all my fault.”

That made everyone pause and turn to stare at him. A mix of confusing and annoyance filtering through their face’s.

“What in the fucking world are you talking about?” Lance asked. Turning more, as much as he can with his arm across his chest in Ash’s hold, to look at the Galar Champion. “You had nothing to do with what’s going on.”

Leon fidgeted even more. Obviously tired and overthinking things, but he carried on. “If I didnt let Rose talk everyone into coming here for the starting ceremony of the worldwide Championship then none of us would be here at this point. No one would be cold, Ash wouldn’t have brought Gou because you wouldn’t have been able to do his long overdo introduction, Alder wouldn’t have gotten his arm scratched by Diantha, and everyone would be relatively okay.”

It took a few seconds for everyone to let the griffins words sink in. But after that they exploded.

“That is so not your fault,” Alder started, “no one would have predicted this happening at all.”

“Alders right!” Lance added, “it’s not your job to leash Rose like that and even then you’re no way responsible for what’s going on.”

Ash sighed heavily. Shoulder slumping as he picked Pikachu off of his shoulder and kinda shoved him into Gou’s arm. Letting go of Lance’s hand as he walked past the two taller Champions and traitor over to Leon. Reaching out with both hands so he could cup the fallen griffins cheeks and make Leon look into his brown eyes.

“Hey,” Ash cooed, “don’t beat yourself up over this. The ceremony would have taken place at another Region and we would all be staying at another hotel, I would have to make my debut anyways an Gou would still be with me since he’s my research partner, the same things that’s happening now?” Aah waved his hands along the darken cold hallway and to the few open door’s that lead into the other hotel room’s, “could have happened the same way like it is now at a different hotel. None of us could have perdicted this would happen.”

“Sorry,” Leon croaked out, wiping away a few tears that were forming in his eyes, “just tired and over thinking everything.”

“I know,” Ash soothed a hand through Leon’s more then usual wild hair, making sure his claws doesn’t catch on a heavy knot or scratch Leon’s scalp, “I am too. We’re all tired but we’ll get through this.”

In truth Ash was already at his fucking limit. It’s to cold and he can feel himself loosing feeling in his tail and ears. His hands shook as he brought them back from brushing Leon’s hair and cradle long his face to clutch them close to his chest. Taking a short breath and exhaling. Suddenly he was made a yelping noise as Leon dragged him into a hug. A hug that somehow made Ash feel safer and was warm. Ash’s face lit up in a blush as he looked up to Leon in a bit of shock.

“Sorry... again.” Leon mumbled into Ash’s own bed head. Hot breath feeling nice against his cold ear even if it did flick itself at the feeling. “You’re probably the coldest one out of us all right now.”

“Diantha is suffering!” Ash protested, “she has shorter fur then I do!”

“But she has Cynthia.” Lance added. Moving to gently slide the tip of Ash’s cat ears between two buckles. The oldest man hissed slightly at the feeling. “Your fucking freezing! Are you sure you’re all right Ash?”

That got Pikachu’s attention and the mouse wiggled out of Gou’s grip and hopped from Alder’s shoulder onto Leon’s. Chirping in worry at Ash.

“I’m good buddy.” Ash cooed. “I’m good.”

Leon draged his large wings over Ash, but not before motioning for Gou also to join. Now that he had the two in his arms Leon seemed to settle down.

“Wallace is trying to figure out what’s wrong, yeah?” Gou hesitantly asked. More concurred in keeping Ash, who started to shake more violently even with Leon’s body heat, warm.

“Along with Steven.” Alder sighed. “But The elevator is broken so they have to walk down thirteen flights of stairs down and up.”

“Why didn’t they ask for Diantha’s Gardevoir?” Ash piped up, looking very unamused, “they could have teleported down there and up in the matter of seconds!”

Lance bit his lips as he made a pointed stare at the floor then swinging it over to Alder who made an even more expressive face.

“Who wants to brave the dungeon?” Lance asked after a few minutes. Looking at everyone who immediately hesitated but one.

———

“Dinatha!” Ash yelled as he barged into Diantha’s suite. The black panther immediately hissed, fur standing on end as she was curled up with Cynthia who had her wings wrapped around the big cat anthro. “We need your Gardevoir!”

“I fucking told Wallace!” Cynthia shouted you the roof immediately after. “That dolt said that it wouldn’t be a problem.”

Diantha kept hissing but Ash’s sudden yowl of anger drowned her out and also surprised her. Blinking in shock her mouth closed with a click!

“Bitch you are not the only one that’s cold!” Ash hissed as he stalked forward to looks for her belt of Poké balls that must have been stashed in the mountain of pillows. “You have a dragon that’s eager to cuddle while I’m stuck with the most touch hating people in the group, get the fuck over yourself and help you useless soft bellied Yamper.”

“Harsh.” Gou muttered behind Ash.

“It’s the fucking truth.” Aah hissed back. Grabbing the Poké ball and calling out Gardevoir.

The physic Pokémon grumbled about being out of her ball. Rubbing her arms over her own shoulders while looking around before turning to face Ash again.

“Hi sweetheart,” Ash chose to be nice and kept his temper down, Dinatha’s Gardevoir wasn’t one to really take shit, “we need you to teleport to Wallace and Steven and then teleport them to the main reception hall if their not already there by now and then teleport them back.”

Gardevoir grumbled loudly at Ash’s request. Scrunching her face to show her displeasure. Making motions with her hands like she was using Kalosian sign language.

“Baby I’m so sorry,” Ash’s shoulders slumped and a weak apologetic smile crossed his lips, “but I can’t make out what you’re saying because we’re both shaking to much.”

The Pokémon grunted before immediately disappearing out of the room and down the hallway.

“Thank you!” Ash cupped his hands around his mouth to yell out to the Pokémon. Who was probably already down in the flight of stairs to check if said husbands were there.

He whipped back around and stepped towards Leon, who still held Gou close, and buried his face into Leon’s own sweater. Opting to keep quite now and save his energy. Though his cheeks were some how permanently stained red at this point.

Gou reaches out and grasped the sweater sleeve of Ash’s elbow, tugging insistently until Ash is curled in his arms and then slept is hugging both of them together. Which was more warm then Leon just holding them by their waists with his wings closed as tight as he could get them around the two.

Lance had moved over to Alder, raising his wings questioning to the Unovian Champion and already rapping his long red scaled tail around the back of Alders ankles. The taller man ducked his head into Lance’s fuffy hair between his two curled horns. Thankful that the Kantonian Champion was willing to share his warmth with the rhino anthro.

It took five minutes for anyone to move next. Leon had moved his arm around Gou, causing Ash to tug Gou closer and lean into Leon’s arm wrapped around his waist, to dig into his pocket to pull out his phone. Thumbing through until he got to his contacts and clicked on one.

It rang three times until the other end came up. Leon put it on speaker phone and sent an apologetic glance towards the two under him that were right next to the speaker end.

“Leon,” a heavy growl sounded through the room, “you better have a good fucking excuse to be calling me at ten at night when you know I’m asleep at this time.”

“Sorry, Rai,” Leon flinched at the angry tone, “we just have a big problem at the hotel we’re staying at, something wrong with the electricity and heat, and we have some anthro’s who can’t really contain heat that well... and I was wondering if-“

“-that I would get up out of my comfy bed and come and help warm some people up?” Raihan injected over Leon’s voice.

“... yes?” Leon phrased it more of a question.

Another growl echoed out of the speaker, both Gou and Ash couldn’t help but flinch at how loud it was. Leon tightened his hold on the two with another apologetic smile that was more a grimace.

“Rai, please?” Leon begged, “two champions are literally about to go feral while another is gonna like... die of being to cold.”

“Damn right!” Ash and Dainatha belted out at the same time. Same tone and everything.

“Arceus. dammit Lee,” Raihan sneered, “You’re killing me here. You’re killing your friend and rival my dude.”

“Please?” Leon doesn’t care if he’s straight begging right now, he really doesn’t want to see Diantha and Ash actually go feral and kill like ninety percent of all league officials.

Another growl, “I’m on my way.”

Leon made a happy griffin noise, wings fluttering a little around the two boys in his arms.

“Yeah, yeah,” Raihan gave a heavy sigh, presumably getting up out of bed, “I’ll be there in like twenty minutes.”

“Thank you Rai!” Leon sighed happily before ending the call. Putting his phone back in his pocket before wrapping his arms around Gou’s back again, giving the boys a squeeze and tucking his head down into Ash’s head only to jerk back a little and blink in shock. “Damn your ears are cold.”

“No shit.” Ash weakly hissed. “We already established that.” He buried his face to try and not to let out a muffled choke as Leon started to massage his ears. Trying to get them as warm as he could.

———

“We’re back!” Wallace yelled out from the hallway, “and we brought a friend!”

Gardevoir teleported into the room and clicked her own Poké ball that Ash had left on the kitchen counter. The physic Pokémon not wanting to be out in the cold any longer and returned to her, presumably, heated Poké ball.

A much taller dude came sliding down the hall and nearly crashed into the doorway, ducking his head and coming into the room. He towered over everyone and his larger dragon wings were tucked close to his back unlike his large tail that dragged behind him.

“Leon.” He grunted.

“Raihan!” Leon beamed before letting go of the two boys and pushing them over to the dragon anthro, “Ash, Gou? This is Raihan! He’ll warm you guys up in no time. I usually use him as a heater as well when it gets super cold here in Galar.”

“Which is like ninety percent of the time.” Raihan pokes his slightly split tongue out at the Galar Champion who did the same before turning back and going over to Lance and Alder. The rhino more the happily greeting the griffin.

Ash squeaked when one of Raihans arms reached out and wrapped around his waist. He looked back over to the dragon who gave him a once over.

“Well aren’t you a cutie.” He purred. Dragging Ash closer until he was tucked against his chest.

Gou was given the same treatment. both of their face’s were burning red, but it wasn’t because of the nice warmth that was radiating from Raihan’s body. Next thing they knew Raihan was sitting down, dragging them as well until they were both settled on both his legs.

“Better?” Raihan asked.

“So much better,” Gou answered, eyeing Ash who just tilted his face more into Raihans warm sweater instead since his face was a blushing mess more so then Gou’s, “thank you Raihan.”

Raihan only hummed. Eyeing Ash’s tail that was still trashing and hitting his arm. “You good there kitten?”

“Uh-hu!” Ash squeaked out. Turning quickly to nab his tail and tuck it close to his chest to keep it from moving anymore. Ash felt so embarrassed as he hid his face more in Raihans, extremely toned, chest.

“Ash is just super tired and cranky,” Gou grumbled, from what Ash could see he was nearly asleep which hes fucking lucky, “he kept getting piles of rain or water dropped on to him, so Ash’s been cold since the moment we left for the airport.”

Gou wasn’t wrong. Ash had somehow continually been getting splashed with water. Be it from trees or accidentally bumping into someone with an open water bottle, Ash was drenched or at least damp most of the day. It’s why he was so cranky when they got to the hotel, Ash was actually looking forward to going out on a sight seeing trip after dropping their luggage off at the hotel, but all he could think about was changing into some nice warm pajamas and sleeping until Lance inevitably knocked on his door to check up on him and Gou.

“Poor kitten,” Raihan rumbled low in his throat, leaning more into Ash and the smaller could feel the dragons muscles shifting under his clothes, “todays just not your day is it?”

“You and Leon are making it better.” Ash said without really thinking. Making the mistake to look up into Raihans extremely pigmented blue eyes, which widened and the pupils dilated.

“Oh really,” The dragon purred out. Leaning down more into Ash’s face. “how so?”

“Leon tried keeping us,” he nodded a little to Gou who was no completely asleep, tail tucked into his lap and looked peaceful, “warm and he called you here to help. By the way thank you for coming, Diantha maybe a pain in the ass while cold but I can guarantee I’m much worse.”

“I’d like to see that.” Raihan sayed. Tilting his head to the side and narrowing his eyes at Ash who blinked wide eyed up at him.

“See what?” Ash cursed silently as his voice cracked a little.

“You all wild up,” Raihan gave him a little heated look, “bet you look hot while mad.”

Ash couldn’t help but snort a little. “I look like a fluffy ball of murder while mad, which is no way hot to see.”

“To each their own.” Raihan shrugged his shoulders and flinched the tiniest amount Ash has seen a person do when Gou made a sleepy whining noise before settling back down.

“So it’s gonna be like this for most of the night?” Diantha’s irritated growl echoed through the open room. Eyeing everyone that was standing around her and Cynthia in their pillow mountain.

“Most likely.” Wallace huffed. Wings starting to shake at the tiniest bit. “It’s only really our level and half of the Delta level, so most of the current gym leaders staying here tonight are good with bunking up with one another even more.”

“So we’re just stuck with the cold?” Ash asked. Reaching up for one of his numb ears and rubbing his pads into them, trying to stop them from aching so much.

“Again,” Wallace sighed, giving Ash an apologetic and worrying look, “most likely.”

Ash made a loud whining noise and curled up tighter. Shoving his face into Raihan’s hot skin of his neck that was open and uncovered from his sweater. The dragon hissed in shock and flinched away a little from Ash’s cold face.

“Sorry.” Ash muttered before pulling his face back down and rubbing it into Raihan’s, much less, warm sweater.

“S’okay,” Raihan was quick to answer, Tucking Ash and Gou more into his chest and even bent his head down to rub his face into Ash hair and ears, “don’t mind it at all, Kitten.”

Ash only hummed. Tilting into Raihan’s down right nuzzling fest and rubbing his own cheeks back against Raihan. Tonight’s gonna fucking suck but at least it’s not gonna be to bad.

Though Ash does wish he had taken a hot shower before throwing pajama’s on and sliding into that cold torture of a bed.

#wolfy writes #ash ketchum #gym leader raihan #champion leon #champion lance #champion diantha #champion alder #champion cynthia #gou #champion wallace #steven stone #dawn #pikachu #rose #oleana #not your average calico!au

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fleshpurifies · 4 years

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THE BIG BLEACH HC MEME centering around politics, repost & fill out! For anyone who wanted to explore those aspects more, considering it played a big role in the story. Some things may be unknown to your Muse, just think in WHAT IF then & well, have fun and take your time!

BASICS

Name: Unohana / / / Age: 3000+ / / / Gender: nonbinary woman Race: Shinigami / Quincy / Hollow / Fullbringer / Visored / Human / Other Currently lives: Soul Society / Hueco Mundo / Silbern / Living World / Hell Exact Location: Seireitei Group(s): Gotei 13, Squad 4, Squad 11 (formerly)

QUESTIONS

- Would your muse consider themselves more: GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL ? - Would your muse consider their group more: GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL ? - How does your muse think others see them: GOOD / EVIL / NEUTRAL ? - How does your muse think others see their race: GOOD / EVIL / NEUTRAL ? - How does your muse think others see their group: GOOD / EVIL / NEUTRAL ?

- Is your muse considered a threat: YES / NO ? By whom?: Central 46 , to the Soul Society governed by laws and ideals of justice , to any living creature in any and all realms on an instinctual level - Is your muse powerful: YES / NO ? Could they be considered OP: YES / NO ? (probably... but i love op women so keep them coming) - Did your muse commit any crimes: YES / NO ? (sweaty emoji) - Does your muse think they are doing mostly the right thing: YES / NO ? - Would society think the same: YES / NO / MIXED OPINIONS ? Does your muse think they are treated unfairly: YES / NO ? - Does your muse feel understood from others: YES / NO ? - Is it important for them what others think of them as a person: YES / NO ? - Would they welcome death: YES / NO ? - Will they ever find peace: YES / NO ?

01.0. Do they fully stand behind the group they are part of? YES / NO. Why is that? Explain: As one of the founding members of the Gotei Thirteen, Unohana’s loyalty to Yamamoto and resolve to uphold the governing laws have never once wavered.

02.0. Do they like as things are in Soul Society? YES / NO. 02.1. Is there anything they would change? Explain here: It’s not until she becomes ‘Retsu’ Unohana, that she truly begins to understand feelings like empathy and compassion, even if feigned at first to fulfill the role she’s taken. While she feels sympathy for those souls subjected to living in Rukongai in poverty, and genuinely wants the legislature of Central 46 to improve the quality of life for the poor outside of Seireitei’s walls, her sense of duty to the Yamamoto and the Gotei, as well as her own responsibility in regards to her personal ‘sin’ outweighs much else. She is capable of recognizing the nuance of morality to some extent, especially as Retsu, she firmly distinguishes right from wrong (her compliance with Rukia’s execution for example, despite recognising it was objectively too severe a punishment), but this code will in most cases come second to upholding Soul Society’s ideals.

- (this next area is tricky because I stand by the fact that there is a LOT of conflict with the image of ‘The Self’ that exists within Unohana, and as such, she falls into the category of both traits in a lot of these- bold is the more dominant of the two, italicized is secondary)

03.0. Would they ever actively try to bring change (in general)? YES / NO. 03.1. Is your muse more: passive / active ? Introverted / Extroverted ? 03.2. Does your muse care more about: others / themselves ? 03.3. Do they trouble their mind over a lot of problems, others? YES / NO. 03.4. Do they mostly involve: the world / everyone / themselves / comrades / friends / family / elderly / kids / teenagers / home / workplace / strangers / souls / humans / quincy / shinigami / nobles / fullbringer / visored / hollows / espada / arrancar / former bosses / pets / animals / zanpakuto spirit / enemies / partner / lovers / soul king / god / other…(add more) 03.5. Name (up to) three which are the most on their mind (optional, adding names): - Kenpachi Zaraki. The burden of guilt weighing heavy on her shoulders, the promise of the heights he could rise to, should she raise him properly. - Isane Kotetsu. Her tender-hearted, earnest ally in everything; who she trusts to keep her greatest secrets (her greatest shame), the person with whom she entrusts her zanpakuto, who runs to her side when the nightmares are too vivid, who will proudly stand alongside her, and honor her legacy as Retsu. - Genryuusai Shigekuni Yamamoto. When monsters still roamed the realms and the balance of souls was in chaos, her strength was once sought out by one such demon in exchange for endless enemies to fight and cut down for him. She has never looked back. - Shutara Senjumaru. They once knew each other when they were nothing more than The Kenpachi and a noblewoman. Feelings, relationships, names, social standing, roles, identity— if everything about a person is subject to change, what is left remaining? Still, the threads connect; pulling, stretching, but never breaking.

04.0. Do they think frequently about politics? YES / NO / SOMETIMES. Why is that? Explain: Her position as a long-standing Captain and founding member of the Gotei Thirteen itself is highly politicized. As stated above, Unohana has a strong sense of objective “right and wrong��, but this always comes second to her duty to Soul Society. Specifically following Aizen’s betrayal given her direct role in partial discovery of his scheme, she gives deeper thinking to the flaws within the Central 46 governing system.

05.0. How do they feel in their current location, more: POSITIVE / NEGATIVE / NEUTRAL ? 05.1. Why is that?: Positive is in response to her death, and Kenpachi absolving her of her sins and guilt over being unable to bestow him her title years earlier. Neutral & Positive also both correlate to her standing and service as the 4th Division Captain, as well as the post-canon AU I’ve given her.

06.0. Does your muse have any goal: YES / NO ? BIG / SMALL ? 06.1. Does it involve anything world-changing: YES / NO ? (technically ig??) 06.2. If goal or not, any future plans? Share here: To raise the next Kenpachi and correct her mistake. Though perhaps in itself a small goal, the ramifications on the world are large, and it is a largely character-defining goal for her.

07.0. Does your muse know about the original sin of soul society*: YES / NO / MAYBE ? * curious? Read about it here. 07.1. If they knew, would it change their views on Soul Society: YES / NO ? 07.2. More: POSITIVE / NEGATIVE / NEUTRAL ?

08.0. Who is the worst person in their eyes?: Yhwach , Aizen 08.1. What should happen to them? Execution (quick / slow death) / Imprisonment / Stripped of their powers / Torture / Repay for their sins / Pay a Fine / Social Work / lose their loved ones / Exile / other… (add more). 08.2. Explanation: I feel like they’re both fairly self explanatory, though extra points to Yhwach for killing Yamamoto because she is Not A Fan

09.0. Thoughts on the Quincy Massacre if they knew: POSITIVE / NEGATIVE / NEUTRAL ? 09.1. Would they be alright with such thing happening again: YES / NO / INDIFFERENT ? 09.2. Would they try to prevent it: YES / NO / DEPENDS ? 09.3. Explanation: They were a threat to Soul Society and the balance of souls between the realms, one that was eliminated in response to a rebellion they themselves started. Perhaps if circumstances were different (such as, the Mod Soul dump/genocide, where they were innocent), there wouldn’t have been a need for such bloodshed. But as always, everything is done in the name of preserving the balance of souls, regardless of the cost.

10.0. Would they ever switch sides: YES / NO ? 10.1. If yes, What could bring them to do so?: N/A 10.2. Would they create a new one: YES / NO ? or join a current one? If so, which: In my post-canon AU, she “retires” to Rukongai and lives as an herbalist before being recruited by Yoruichi Shihoin to teach at the Shin’o Academy. So in that sense, she joins a current subset of the Soul Society faction with which she was aligned.

11.0. Does your muse follow a certain moral code*?: YES / NO / GRAY AREA ? (UH... LOL) * (ethics) A written, formal, and consistent set of rules prescribing righteous behavior, accepted by a person or by a group of people. 11.1. What does it involve?: The laws and governing laid out by Central 46, though this is secondary to Yamamoto’s commands. The latter is especially important, given that Yamamoto’s own laws changed drastically over time. 11.2. What does it NOT involve?: This one is subject to the changes laid out above; torture, murder, violence, whatever earns you the title of The Most Bloodthirsty and Violent Criminal In Soul Society’s History.

YOUR MUSE’S VIEWS / OPINIONS ON THESE GROUPS ?

Central 46: positive / negative / neutral. ━ because: they govern the Soul Society, but she follows primarily Yamamoto’s command.

Four Great Noble Clans: positive / negative / neutral. ━ because: She herself has no divisive opinion on the Nobility beyond her disapproval that certain members can buy their way into a high rank within the Gotei. Those positions ought to be earned by strength and skill, not monetary means. That said, due to the Nobility having extensive influence within Soul Society, Unohana has personally served as the attending physician to such distinguished houses, most notably the Kuchiki Household (with regards to Ginrei, Sojun, and Hisana).

Royal Guards / Gotei 13: positive / negative / neutral . ━ because: She literally helped to create the Gotei 13, so there is a certain amount of pride in that fact.

Fullbringer: positive / negative / neutral. ━ because: Other than the actions and fate of one Ginjou Kuugo, she has no true opinion on Fullbringers existing as their own “spiritual race”.

Visored: positive / negative / neutral. ━ because: Not positive in the sense that she is perfectly fine with their circumstances, however she explicitly refers to them as her “comrades”, which is an especially interesting note given how other Gotei officers and Captains reacted with suspicion or out right disgust. Unohana has been known to heal enemy and ally alike, however, and likely viewed them as such given their shared history as Gotei officers, as well as already having proven themselves to align their interest with those of Soul Society.

Espada: positive / negative / neutral. ━ because: As far as fighting beneath Aizen’s command, she disapproves. However, given the post-HM attempt at establishing relations between Hueco Mundo’s de facto ruler and Soul Society, there is a begrudging neutrality between their worlds for the time being. That said, Unohana was not opposed to healing Gantenbainne Mosqueda after arriving in Hueco Mundo, suggesting that she views Arrancar in general with as much autonomy as Humans and Shinigami.

Quincy: positive / negative / neutral. ━ because: Her prejudice against Quincies comes chiefly from their practice of eliminating souls vs cleansing them, creating an imbalance between the worlds, as well as Yhwach during the original Blood War. Prior to the TYBW, she was fairly neutral, if not perhaps somewhat pitying over their race for having stood and fallen against Soul Society. But she’s a firm believer that the Quincy genocide was a result of their own hubris; angels with wings of wax, etc etc. That said, she gets absolutely zero direct interaction with any Quincies during the TYBW, and I personally think that despite her stronger opinions, she’d be inclined to heal the likes of Bazz-B, Giselle, and Liltotto because they defected from the Wandenreich. It’s a whole nuanced thing.

YOUR MUSE’S VIEWS / OPINIONS ON THESE (IMPORTANT) PEOPLE ?

Aizen: positive / negative / neutral. ━ because: Treacherous reprobate, etc etc. All the obvious reasons. I don’t think she’d disapprove of Shunsui’s decision to free him though, only because drastic times call for drastic measures. If that weren’t the case, surely she wouldn’t have been pushed to finally teach Kenpachi Zaraki the Art of Killing.

Yhwach: positive / negative / neutral. ━ because: Other than the obvious stuff, him cutting down Yamamoto was something she reacted to negatively and viscerally so.

Mayuri: positive / negative / neutral. ━ because: His personality is infuriating, but she does find it hilarious to push his buttons and prod at his ego. She doesn’t agree with some of his crueler methods, but she really doesn’t have room to talk and in the end, it’s for the sake of the Soul Society.

Kurosaki: positive / negative / neutral. ━ because: INCREDIBLE, INSPIRING, SHOW-STOPPING, BRILLIANT. Really fond of the kid, really worried for the kid. She kind of wants to fight him.

Soul King: positive / negative / neutral. ━ because: While his origins are dubious and objectively horrific, his presence is necessary for the sake of the greater world.

CONGRATS, you managed till to the end, now tag your fellow bleach partners!

TAGGED BY: genuinely cant remember. it was prob either tom or hela TAGGING: anyone who hasn’t done this yet, feel free 2 steal!

#THE CURTAIN RISES / HEADCANON #MEME / ANSWERED #we live in a society...............................a soul society #whos ready to read some terrible shit

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crusherthedoctor · 5 years

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Sonic Villains: Sweet or Shite? - Part 10: INFINITE

There are some villains I like. And there are some villains I don’t like. But why do I feel about them the way I do? That’s where this comes in.

This is a series of mine in which I go into slightly more detail about my thoughts on the villains in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, and why I think they either work well, or fall flat (or somewhere in-between). I’ll be giving my stance on their designs, their personalities, and what they had to show for themselves in the game(s) they featured in. Keep in mind that these are just my own personal thoughts. Whether you agree or disagree, feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions! I don’t bite. :>

Anyhow, for today’s installment, we’ll be sharpening our blades and resisting the pain as we discuss what it takes to be the right-hand henchman of Sonic Forces: Infinite.

The Gist: Dr. Eggman was minding his evildoing business when one day, from thin air emerged a particularly strange jewel that seemed to be drawn to him. Realising this was no mere Chaos Emerald, due to both its peculiar shape and its bizarre reality-distorting effects, Eggman immediately contemplated how he could effectively utilise this new gemstone for his purposes.

Suddenly, jackals!

“Go forth, Red Shirts!”

Eggman's base was under attack by the imaginatively titled Jackal Squad, a group of thieving mercenaries who figured they could profit from the theft of the doctor's equipment. Unfortunately for them, Eggman had Main Character Immunity, so their efforts to kill him send him to the Shadow Realm fell flat. Despite nearly getting killed by them, Eggman knew an opportunity when he saw one, and he offered the role of apprenticeship to the squad's heterochromia-inflicted leader. His fellow jackals insisted not to take up the offer, because even they knew the risks, but the leader signed up immediately, because he's not all right in the head if you know what I'm saying.

In a cruel twist of fate, Eggman's first request for his new stooges was for them to take care of Shadow the Hedgehog. That Shadow the Hedgehog. Ultimate Lifeform Shadow the Hedgehog. Fast, immortal, capable of stopping time, drops his bracelets to grow even stronger Shadow the Hedgehog. They had to defeat that Shadow the Hedgehog.

They did not succeed.

BOOOONESAAAAAW’S READYYYYYYYY

After metaphorically and literally murdering the rest of the already forgotten squad, Shadow gave some parting words to their defeated leader, and those parting words were responsible for what happened next, and everything after. As someone who prided himself on being the ultimate mercenary, Mr. Jackal was bloody well peeved off about coming to terms with his physical shortcomings, and thus decided to give himself an upgrade in the form of sticking a gem on his chest, putting on a mask worthy of a heavy metal cover, and rechristening himself as... Infinite. Infinite power. Infinite possibilities. Infinite memes.

The upgrade paid off. With the aid of the gem, known to us as the Phantom Ruby, Eggman's latest minion was able to distort the environment, summon past foes, and do what no other villain not retconned out of existence had ever managed to achieve: defeat Sonic the Hedgehog.

Eggman was delighted. The past foes were delighted too, as evidenced by how they stood there to take it all in.

This is a very sentimental moment for them.

With Sonic out of the way, Eggman was able to take over 99% of the planet, because Sonic's friends were tragically all on holiday at the same time. During the subsequent six months of suffering and strife, Infinite relished in the doctor's conquest, but not as much as he relished in killing and terrorizing innocents. One incident in particular involved him leaving behind a scared youngster for the sake of letting them know fear. This would turn out to be a big mistake on his part, when - with the ever reliable power of friendship - said youngster would go on to oppose him as part of the Resistance. (This franchise isn't known for creative group names.)

“L’Oreal: Because I’m not weak.”

The formerly incapacitated Sonic also managed to eventually break free from his captivity, and proceeded to do what he does best alongside his new friend. Infinite was having none of this, and so he made absolutely certain to... leave him alive. Despite Eggman's insistence that a freed Sonic could cause as much trouble as a freed Sonic could in every other situation since 1991, Infinite remained confident that he couldn't be beaten. Three guesses for how that turned out. The first two don't count.

He was serious about crushing the Resistance though, and together with Eggman, not only did they summon a whole army of clones, they also summoned an artificial sun that, upon reaching the ground, would ensure the Resistance would meet a terrible fate. Good always triumphs however, and the clones were fought, the sun was vanquished, and Infinite himself was defeated once and for all.

It was at this point that Eggman decided to reveal that Infinite was a sham, a distraction, a red herring. For all his power, Infinite was little more than a glorified mook the whole time. Infinite was never the doctor's endgame. He was. Infinite didn't even have true mastery over the Phantom Ruby... but he did.

Death Chad Robot.

In just a few minutes, Eggman tapped into the power of the Ruby more than Infinite ever did, and overclocked it to turn his Doc Ock-looking mech into a beast. But through thick and thin (and a second Nega-Wisp Armor), Sonic and his ambiguously named friend teamed up to take the madman down, because we're Sonic Heroes.

The world was saved from further tyranny, and Eggman went on to either lose his memory or shrug it off to take part in racing spinoffs depending on the continuity. But Infinite - or rather, the jackal who called himself Infinite - remains absent. He could be alive. He could be dead. He could finally get a haircut. His fate is a mystery that we may never know the answer to. Maybe he's spending his retirement climbing the tallest of mountains.

The Design: Careful you don't cut yourself with all this edge.

You could have gotten yourself an eyepatch for half the price.

Demonic eyes, dark colours, anime hair... he's a villain alright. Infinite's design is unashamed of itself. It knows it's ridiculous, and it goes all out with it, which - let's be frank - matches the character in general pretty reasonably. Funnily enough, I don't have much else to say about it. It's not my favourite character design in the world, but I can credit them for pioneering loudspeaker ears. And at least he's not a hedgehog. Or an echidna.

If you listen carefully, you can hear Shadow sighing in relief under the knowledge that he's no longer the edgiest guy in the room.

The Personality: What's an easy way to make a villain a villain? By making them pointlessly sadistic, of course.

"You may call this the Sonic Chronicles soundtrack... in the brief moments that remain to your eardrums."

And I don't speak lightly when I say pointless. Infinite's penchant for sadism is actually treated as a character flaw, as it contributes heavily to his ultimate downfall. He wastes time by drawing out his kills, and his decision to leave his greatest foes alive because they're supposedly "not worth killing" bites him in the ass on more than one occasion. Even Eggman calls him out on his shitty decisions.

"Don't get cocky with me, son. This ain't the Adventure Era anymore.”

And this ties in with how he is in general. Infinite, for all his delusions of grandeur and nihilistic waxing, is a bit of a fuck up. Him and his squad combined couldn't even take on Eggman on his own (albeit with a Phantom Ruby in his possession), and when the mask comes on, it becomes clear that he only defeated Sonic through the element of unfamiliarity. Once Sonic starts to know about him and fights him for real, Infinite doesn't rely on the Phantom Ruby nearly as well as he could. He has a jewel that can do all sorts of distortions, and all he can think to do with it is use basic lasers and blasts for the most part. He's a thug at the end of the day. A powerful thug, but a thug all the same.

Despite this, though it's only hinted here and there, it seems that he has an Inferiority Superiority Complex. His passionate response to Shadow calling him pathetic (ironically, he never actually said he was weak) goes without saying, but then there's his dramatic speeches about having no hope, and how you can't count on anyone, and blah blah blah eat a Snickers already.

The Execution: Much like Erazor Djinn, you may have gathered that this character has a lot in common with everyone's favourite Ice Age antique, Mephiles the Dark. Like Erazor, Infinite is a better (albeit flawed) take on Mephiles' schtick, but whereas Erazor better emulates the success that Mephiles tried to go for, Infinite better represents the failure that Mephiles actually is... right down to showing how Silver would react if he had actual brain cells.

Above: Character development.

Hell, they both share the fate of getting swatted by Omega.

Not bitter at all.

Anyway, to explain this requires some elaboration. I'm aware that a lot of what I've said about Infinite sounds negative, and that's not entirely untrue, since I'll be the first to admit that he could have been handled a little better, and fleshed out a bit more, especially with all the pre-release hype and attention he was given. At the same time however, he's still leagues above the likes of Mephiles, for one simple reason that we discussed previously: his incompetence is intentional.

Maybe not fully - the pre-Infinite breakdown probably wasn't meant to be as comedic as it ended up being - but you can't tell me his setbacks weren't there on purpose. Eggman lost the war because Infinite left his enemies alive and free. Eggman lost the war because Infinite clumsily left a Phantom Ruby replica behind. Eggman lost the war because Infinite kept messing around when he had better things to do, didn't know what to do other than blindly attack when the chips were down, and got disposed of with little fanfare by the doctor after having failed him enough times. Compare all this to Eggman himself in the same game, who despite being known for his childishness and occasional shortsightedness, had a lot of genuine foresight to share around, and went from backup plan to backup plan like it was nothing.

In other words, Infinite could be seen as a well-needed deconstruction of villains like Mephiles, and why they're not as great as they look at first glance. And in that respect, he's kind of a genius concept.

“Ugh, MORE shitty friends...”

Infinite is a very divisive character, and I can see why. Alongside his far from perfect execution, many fans were expecting and hoping for a straight example of late 00's Sonic villains, in part because that's what the marketing and his infamous theme song set him up as and partly because '06 is now considered better than everything afterwards because Baldy McNosehair is literally oppressing all Sonic fans across the world. If you're like me on the other hand, and don't have the slightest unironic interest in those kind of villains, you can probably respect Infinite a little more for addressing the elephant in the room. And even though he is indeed flawed, I think most of that has to do with the wasted potential of the plot itself rather than anything inherently to do with Infinite's own character.

He's no Eggman, Erazor, Metal Sonic, or Hard-Boiled Heavies. But he's above Mephiles, Black Doom, Eggman Nega, and so many others who blend together after a while. Still, maybe someone should assist Shadow the next time he decides to insult somebody.

Crusher Gives Infinite a: Thumbs Sideways!

#Sonic Villains: Sweet or Shite?#Opinion #Sonic the Hedgehog #Infinite #Sonic Forces

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swissmissing · 5 years

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Fan Fic Ask Meme (self ask edition)

I saw this going around and I figured no one is going to actually respond and send me any of these asks because I have like maybe 2 followers who ever interact with me, but I felt like doing it so I’ll just ask myself all of them. :)

A: How did you come up with the title to "The Best Picture of the Human Soul”?

I wanted an artsy-intellectual title because I felt like it’s a kind of pretentious little story that takes itselt too seriously. It’s about images and soulmates, so I googled picture, soul, and quote, and that’s one of the hits that came up. So it is actually a quote by the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein: “The human body is the best picture of the human soul.”

B: Any of your stories inspired by personal experience?

Probably all of them. But the one where I consciously put in something from a real-life experience was in “A Capacity for Love” (HP fandom fic). I don’t want to go into detail, but there are characters in the story whose experiences and actions were based on things I had knowledge of in real life.

C: What member do you identify with most?

I am guessing this means which character I identify with most, from the stories I’ve written? Hermione Granger, definitely. From the Sherlock fandom, probably Molly. But I don’t find her an interesting character to write about.

D: Is there a song or a playlist to associate with [insert fic]?

No, I am not into music in that way.

E: If you wrote a sequel to [insert fic], what would it be about?

The most obvious one of my fics to get a sequel would be “The Way to a Man’s Heart” which would naturally be about Sherlock and John’s wedding.

F: Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

Nothing specifically comes to mind and I’ve written too many stories to go back through them all and find anything. I think I’m pretty good at dialogue in general and enjoy writing it more than the prose in between. When I write dialogue, I really try to hear the characters/actors saying the words, with inflection and volume changes and speech patterns all of that. I think that makes it work well and feel real, rather than just me putting my own thoughts into the characters’ mouths.

G: Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?

Mostly from start to finish, but I usually have one or two key scenes that I may jump ahead and write because I want to capture them in the moment. But the problem is, I will always end up having to rewrite them anyway because there are details that come up as I write that I hadn’t anticipated, that will need to be worked in.

H: How would you describe your style?

I have no idea. Probably too wordy.

I: Do you have a guilty pleasure in fic (reading or writing)?

For reading, really raunchy PWP. And I suppose for writing as well. I do feel some residual puritanical guilt when I write a PWP.

J: Write or describe an alternative ending to [insert fic].

I’ve seen other authors say they don’t want to answer this because they don’t think it’s fair or something, which I don’t understand. Why not? Anyway, an alternate ending for “Revenge Averted”, which is itself an alternate ending of VizardMask’s fic “Best Served Hot”, would be that Sherlock and John come up with a plan to neutralize the threat from Mary without John having to go back to her.

K: What’s the angstiest idea you’ve ever come up with?

Sticking to the ones I’ve actually written, probably “A Capacity for Love”, which shows the aftermath of Snape raping Hermione from both of their perspectives. Usually we only see things from the victim’s perspective in those kinds of stories, but I wanted to get into Snape’s head as well. In the Sherlock fandom, I guess “More Earth Than Fire”, which deals with the death of John and Mary’s baby.

L: How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?

It’s constant. I never just write a whole first draft, then go back and revise. I re-read and revise every single sentence constantly. Like even writing this entry, I have already gone back through all of my previous responses a couple of times, re-reading and adjusting things. I’ll write a few sentences, then re-read everything from the beginning. Then write a couple more. It makes for extremely slow progress but it’s how my brain works. I can’t leave something untended.

M: Got any premises on the back burner that you’d care to share?

I have a couple of things that I’ve started that I’ll probably never finish. The one that’s furthest along is a Sherlock/Whisky Tango Foxtrot crossover. I also have an ACD werewolf fic that I started years ago for some Halloween exchange that’s pretty far along. I have probably around 10 other stories as well, in stages from vaguely sketched out to fully outlined to having a couple of scenes written.

N: Is there a fic you wish someone else would write (or finish) for you?

All of my WIP’s! Probably especially the WTF crossover. I really want to read that one. ;)

O: How do you begin a story–with the plot, or the characters?

I mean, if it’s a fic, then the characters obviously. They are already a given. I’m going to write about Sherlock and John (or whoever my current muse pairing is). I have some original story ideas too, and there it’s the plot that comes first. I have a harder time coming up with original characters, so it’s unlikely I’ll ever write one of those stories.

P: Are you what George R. R. Martin would call an “architect” or a “gardener”? (How much do you plan in advance, versus letting the story unfold as you go?)

I like to plot out the entire story before I start writing so that I’m sure I won’t get stuck anywhere. Of course then as I write, things happen that necessitate adjustments to the outline. But yeah, mainly architect because my biggest fear when writing is getting stuck.

Q: How do you feel about collaborations?

I have seen some really brilliant products come out of collaborative writing projects, so clearly some people work really well that way. However, I don’t think I could ever be part of a collaboration, other than as a beta reader.

R: Are there any writers (fanfic or otherwise) you consider an influence?

Every time I read a text, it influences me. I don’t have anyone whose style I consciously attempt to emulate, or who I aspire to be like, though.

S: Any fandom tropes you can’t resist?

For reading? All the favs: Fake relationship, only one bed, roommates.

For writing, I have a soft spot for being in a relationship already without realizing it.

T: Any fandom tropes you can’t stand?

When I see Coffee Shop AU or Teen AU in the tags of a fic, it turns me off. Although I’ve read quite a few really good ones in those categories, so it’s not like they’re an automatic nope. Just, they make me wary.

U: Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.

There are too many to name and I don’t want anyone to feel left out. But basically, there are certain authors who I know will always deliver top-quality writing and a highly satisfactory reading experience, regardless of subject matter, fandom, genre, or pairing.

V: If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose?

Too hard to choose a specific one. Basically anything by any of those authors referenced in the previous question!

W: Do you like more general prompts, or more specific ones?

I have a hard time writing to prompts given by other people. So I guess I prefer general ones that I can take in my own direction rather than a tailor-made commission.

X: A character you enjoy making suffer.

Sherlock and John both do it so beautifully. :)

Y: A character you want to protect.

Children, I guess. I have a hard time seeing a child character be hurt.

Z: Major character death–do you ever write/read it? Is there a character whose death you can’t tolerate?

I am okay with it if it is a natural death, such as occurs in retirement fic. I don’t see the point of it in other situations. The whole point of reading fan fiction for me is to have a happier conclusion than in the original.

Anyone who wants to do the thing, feel free to copy and share your own answers! And of course, if anyone wants to ask me one of these about another fic than the ones I chose, please do. :)

#meme #personal #writing #sherlock #fandom

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ecoamerica · 1 month

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youtube

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

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didanawisgi · 7 years

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MIT atmospheric science professor Richard Lindzen suggests that many claims regarding climate change are exaggerated and unnecessarily alarmist.

Introduction:

For over 30 years, I have been giving talks on the science of climate change. When, however, I speak to a non-expert audience, and attempt to explain such matters as climate sensitivity, the relation of global mean temperature anomaly to extreme weather, that warming has decreased profoundly for the past 18 years, etc., it is obvious that the audience’s eyes are glazing over. Although I have presented evidence as to why the issue is not a catastrophe and may likely be beneficial, the response is puzzlement. I am typically asked how this is possible. After all, 97% of scientists agree, several of the hottest years on record have occurred during the past 18 years, all sorts of extremes have become more common, polar bears are disappearing, as is arctic ice, etc. In brief, there is overwhelming evidence of warming, etc. I tended to be surprised that anyone could get away with such sophistry or even downright dishonesty, but it is, unfortunately, the case that this was not evident to many of my listeners. I will try in this brief article to explain why such claims are, in fact, evidence of the dishonesty of the alarmist position.

The 97% meme:

This claim is actually a come-down from the 1988 claim on the cover of Newsweek that all scientists agree. In either case, the claim is meant to satisfy the non-expert that he or she has no need to understand the science. Mere agreement with the 97% will indicate that one is a supporter of science and superior to anyone denying disaster. This actually satisfies a psychological need for many people. The claim is made by a number of individuals and there are a number of ways in which the claim is presented. A thorough debunking has been given in the Wall Street Journal by Bast and Spencer. One of the dodges is to poll scientists as to whether they agree that CO2 levels in the atmosphere have increased, that the Earth has been warming (albeit only a little) and that man has played some part. This is, indeed, something almost all of us can agree on, but which has no obvious implication of danger. Nonetheless this is portrayed as support for catastrophism. Other dodges involve looking at a large number of abstracts where only a few actually deal with danger. If among these few, 97% support catastrophism, the 97% is presented as pertaining to the much larger totality of abstracts. One of my favorites is the recent claim in the Christian Science Monitor (a once respected and influential newspaper): “For the record, of the nearly 70,000 peer-reviewed articles on global warming published in 2013 and 2014, four authors rejected the idea that humans are the main drivers of climate change.” I don’t think that it takes an expert to recognize that this claim is a bizarre fantasy for many obvious reasons. Even the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (this body, generally referred to as the IPCC is the body created by the UN to provide ‘authoritative’ assessments of manmade climate change) doesn’t agree with the claim.

Despite the above, I am somewhat surprised that it was necessary to use the various shenanigans described above. Since this issue fully emerged in public almost 30 years ago (and was instantly incorporated into the catechism of political correctness), there has been a huge increase in government funding of the area, and the funding has been predicated on the premise of climate catastrophism. By now, most of the people working in this area have entered in response to this funding. Note that governments have essentially a monopoly over the funding in this area. I would expect that the recipients of this funding would feel obligated to support the seriousness of the problem. Certainly, opposition to this would be a suicidal career move for a young academic. Perhaps the studies simply needed to properly phrase their questions so as to achieve levels of agreement for alarm that would be large though perhaps not as large as was required for the 97% meme especially if the respondents are allowed anonymity.

The ‘warmest years on record’ meme:

Figure 1aFigure 1bFigure 1c

This simple claim covers a myriad of misconceptions. Under these circumstances, it is sometimes difficult to know where to begin. As in any demonization project, it begins with the ridiculous presumption that any warming whatsoever (and, for that matter, any increase in CO2) is bad, and proof of worse to come. We know that neither of these presumptions is true. People retire to the Sun Belt rather than to the arctic. CO2 is pumped into greenhouses to enhance plant growth. The emphasis on ‘warmest years on record’ appears to have been a response to the observation that the warming episode from about 1978 to 1998 appeared to have ceased and temperatures have remained almost constant since 1998. Of course, if 1998 was the hottest year on record, all the subsequent years will also be among the hottest years on record. None of this contradicts the fact that the warming (ie, the increase of temperature) has ceased. Yet, somehow, many people have been led to believe that both statements cannot be simultaneously true. At best, this assumes a very substantial level of public gullibility. The potential importance of the so-called pause (for all we know, this might not be a pause, and the temperature might even cool), is never mentioned and rarely understood. Its existence means that there is something that is at least comparable to anthropogenic forcing. However, the IPCC attribution of most of the recent (and only the recent) warming episode to man depends on the assumption in models that there is no such competitive process.

The focus on the temperature record, itself, is worth delving into a bit. What exactly is this temperature that is being looked at? It certainly can’t be the average surface temperature. Averaging temperatures from places as disparate as Death Valley and Mount Everest is hardly more meaningful than averaging phone numbers in a telephone book (for those of you who still remember phone books). What is done, instead, is to average what are called temperature anomalies. Here, one takes thirty year averages at each station and records the deviations from this average. These are referred to as anomalies and it is the anomalies that are averaged over the globe. The only attempt I know of to illustrate the steps in this process was by the late Stan Grotch at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. Figure 1a shows the scatter plot of the station anomalies. Figure 1b then shows the result of averaging these anomalies. Most scientists would conclude that there was a remarkable degree of cancellation and that the result was almost complete cancellation. However, instead, one stretches the temperature scale by almost a factor of 10 so as to make the minuscule changes in Figure 1b look more significant. The result is shown in Figure 1c. There is quite a lot of random noise in Figure 1c, and this noise is a pretty good indication of the uncertainty of the analysis (roughly +/- 0.2C). The usual presentations show something considerably smoother. Sometimes this is the result of smoothing the record with something called running means. It is also the case that Grotch used data from the UK Meteorological Office which was from land based stations. Including data from the ocean leads to smoother looking series but the absolute accuracy of the data is worse given that the ocean data mixes very different measurement techniques (buckets in old ship data, ship intakes after WW1, satellite measurements of skin temperature (which is quite different from surface temperature), and buoy data).

Figure 2

These issues are summarized in Figure 2 which presents an idealized schematic of the temperature record and its uncertainty. We see very clearly that because the rise ceases in 1998, that this implies that 18 of the 18 warmest years on record (for the schematic presentation) have occurred during the last 18 years. We also see that the uncertainty together with the smallness of the changes offers ample scope for adjustments that dramatically alter the appearance of the record (note that uncertainty is rarely indicated on such graphs).

At this point, one is likely to run into arguments over the minutia of the temperature record, but this would simply amount to muddying the waters so to speak. Nothing can alter the fact that the changes one is speaking about are small. Of course ‘small’ is relative. Consider three measures of smallness.

Figure 3

Figure 3 shows the variations in temperature in Boston over a one month period. The dark blue bars show the actual range of temperatures for each day. The dark gray bars show the climatological range of temperatures for that date, and the light gray bars show the range between the record-breaking low and record-breaking high for that date. In the middle is a red line. The width of that line corresponds to the range of temperature in the global mean temperature anomaly record for the past 175 years. This shows that the temperature change that we are discussing is small compared to our routine sensual experience. Keep this in mind when someone claims to ‘feel’ global warming.

The next measure is how does the observed change compare with what we might expect from greenhouse warming. Now, CO2 is not the only anthropogenic greenhouse gas.

Figure 4. Red bar represents observations. Gray bars show model predictions.

When all of them are included, the UN IPCC finds that we are just about at the greenhouse forcing of climate that one expects from a doubling of CO2, and the temperature increase has been about 0.8C. If man’s emissions are responsible for all of the temperature change over that past 60 years, this still points to a lower sensitivity (sensitivity, by convention, generally refers to the temperature increase produced by a doubling of CO2 when the system reaches equilibrium) than produced by the least sensitive models (which claim to have sensitivities of from 1.5-4.5C for a doubling of CO2). And, the lower sensitivities are understood to be unproblematic. However, the IPCC only claims man is responsible for most of the warming. The sensitivity might then be much lower. Of course, the situation is not quite so simple, but calculations do show that for higher sensitivities one has to cancel some (and often quite a lot) of the greenhouse forcing with what was assumed to be unknown aerosol cooling in order for the models to remain consistent with past observations (a recent article in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society points out that there are, in fact, quite a number of arbitrary adjustments made to models in order to get some agreement with the past record). As the aerosol forcing becomes less uncertain, we see that high sensitivities have become untenable. This is entirely consistent with the fact that virtually all models used to predict ‘dangerous’ warming over-predict observed warming after the ‘calibration’ periods. That is to say, observed warming is small compared to what the models upon which concerns are based are predicting. This is illustrated in Figure 4. As I have mentioned, uncertainties allow for substantial adjustments in the temperature record. One rather infamous case involved NOAA’s adjustments in a paper by Karl et al that replace the pause with continued warming. But it was easy to show that even with this adjustment, models continued to show more warming than even the ‘adjusted’ time series showed. Moreover, most papers since have rejected the Karl et al adjustment (which just coincidentally came out with much publicity just before the Paris climate conference).

The third approach is somewhat different. Instead of arguing that the change is not small, it argues that the change is ‘unprecedented.’ This is Michael Mann’s infamous ‘hockey stick.’ Here, Mann used tree rings from bristle cone pines to estimate Northern Hemisphere temperatures back hundreds of years. This was done by calibrating the tree ring data with surface observations for a thirty year period, and using this calibration to estimate temperatures in the distant past in order to eliminate the medieval warm period. Indeed, this reconstruction showed flat temperatures for the past thousand years. The usual test for such a procedure would be to see how the calibration worked for observations after the calibration period. Unfortunately, the results failed to show the warming found in the surface data. The solution was starkly simple and stupid. The tree ring record was cut off at the end of the calibration period and replaced by the actual surface record. In the Climategate emails (Climategate refers to a huge release of emails from various scientists supporting alarm where the suppression of opposing views, the intimidation of editors, the manipulation of data, etc. were all discussed), this was referred to as Mann’s trick.

The whole point of the above was to make clear that we are not concerned with warming per se, but with how much warming. It is essential to avoid the environmental tendency to regard anything that may be bad in large quantities to be avoided at any level however small. In point of fact small warming is likely to be beneficial on many counts. If you have assimilated the above, you should be able to analyze media presentations like this one to see that amidst all the rhetoric, the author is pretty much saying nothing while even misrepresenting what the IPCC says.

The extreme weather meme:

Every line weather forecaster knows that extreme events occur someplace virtually every day. The present temptation to attribute these normally occurring events to climate change is patently dishonest. Roger Pielke, Jr. actually wrote a book detailing the fact that there is no trend in virtually any extreme event (including tornados, hurricanes, droughts, floods, etc.) with some actually decreasing. Even the UN’s IPCC acknowledges that there is no basis for attributing such events to anthropogenic climate change.

Figure 5. Temperature map for North America.

The situation with respect to extreme temperatures actually contradicts not just observations but basic meteorological theory. Figure 5 shows a map of temperatures for North America on February 27, 2008. Extreme temperatures at any location occur when air motions carry air from the coldest or warmest points on the map. Now, in a warmer climate, it is expected that the temperature difference between the tropics and the high latitudes will decrease. Thus the range of possible extremes will be reduced. More important is the fact that the motions that carry these temperatures arise from a process called baroclinic instability, and this instability derives from the magnitude of the aforementioned temperature difference. Thus, in a warmer world, these winds will be weaker and less capable of carrying extreme temperatures to remote locations. Claims of greater extremes in temperature simply ignore the basic physics, and rely, for their acceptance, on the ignorance of the audience.

The claims of extreme weather transcend the usual use of misleading claims. They often amount to claims for the exact opposite of what is actually occurring. The object of the claims is simply to be as scary as possible, and if that requires claiming the opposite of the true situation, so be it.

Sea level rise:

Globally averaged sea level appears to have been rising at the rate of about 6 inches a century for thousands of years. Until the advent of satellites, sea level was essentially measured with tide gauges which measure the sea level relative to the land level. Unfortunately, the land level is also changing, and as Emery and Aubrey note, tectonics are the major source of change at many locations. Beginning in 1979 we began to use satellites to measure actual sea level. The results were surprisingly close to the previous tide gauge estimates, but slightly higher, but one sees from Wunsch et al (DOI: 10.1175/2007JCLI1840.1) that one is in no position to argue that small differences from changing methodologies represents acceleration. Regardless, the changes are small compared to the claims that suggest disastrous changes. However, even in the early 1980’s advocates of warming alarm like S. Schneider argued that sea level would be an easily appreciated scare tactic. The fact that people like Al Gore and Susan Solomon (former head of the IPCC’s Scientific Assessment) have invested heavily in ocean front property supports the notion that the issue is propagandistic rather than scientific.

Arctic sea ice:

Satellites have been observing arctic (and Antarctic) sea ice since 1979. Every year there is a pronounced annual cycle where the almost complete winter coverage is much reduced each summer. During this period there has been a noticeable downtrend is summer ice in the arctic (with the opposite behavior in the Antarctic), though in recent years, the coverage appears to have stabilized. In terms of climate change, 40 years is, of course, a rather short interval. Still, there have been the inevitable attempts to extrapolate short period trends leading to claims that the arctic should have already reached ice free conditions. Extrapolating short term trends is obviously inappropriate. Extrapolating surface temperature changes from dawn to dusk would lead to a boiling climate in days. This would be silly. The extrapolation of arctic summer ice coverage looks like it might be comparably silly. Moreover, although the satellite coverage is immensely better than what was previously available, the data is far from perfect. The satellites can confuse ice topped with melt water with ice free regions. In addition, temperature might not be the main cause of reduced sea ice coverage. Summer ice tends to be fragile, and changing winds play an important role in blowing ice out of the arctic sea. Associating changing summer sea ice coverage with climate change is, itself, dubious. Existing climate models hardly unambiguously predict the observed behavior. Predictions for 2100 range from no change to complete disappearance. Thus, it cannot be said that the sea ice behavior confirms any plausible prediction.

It is sometimes noted that concerns for disappearing arctic sea ice were issued in 1922, suggesting that such behavior is not unique to the present. The data used, at that time, came from the neighborhood of Spitzbergen. A marine biologist and climate campaigner has argued that what was described was a local phenomenon, but, despite the claim, the evidence presented by the author is far from conclusive. Among other things, the author was selective in his choice of ‘evidence.’

All one can say, at this point, is that the behavior of arctic sea ice represents one of the numerous interesting phenomena that the earth presents us with, and for which neither the understanding nor the needed records exist. It probably pays to note that melting sea ice does not contribute to sea level rise. Moreover, man has long dreamt of the opening of this Northwest Passage. It is curious that it is now viewed with alarm. Of course, as Mencken noted, “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.” The environmental movement has elevated this aim well beyond what Mencken noted.

Polar bear meme:

I suspect that Al Gore undertook considerable focus-group research to determine the remarkable effectiveness of the notion that climate change would endanger polar bears. His use of an obviously photo shopped picture of a pathetic polar bear on an ice float suggests this. As Susan Crockford, a specialist in polar bear evolution, points out, there had indeed been a significant decrease in polar bear population in the past due to hunting and earlier due to commercial exploitation of polar bear fur. This has led to successful protective measures and sufficient recovery of polar bear population, that hunting has again been permitted. There is no evidence that changes in summer sea ice have had any adverse impact on polar bear population, and, given that polar bears can swim for over a hundred miles, there seems to be little reason to suppose that it would. Nonetheless, for the small community of polar bear experts, the climate related concerns have presented an obvious attraction.

Ocean acidification:

This is again one of those obscure claims that sounds scary but doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Ever since the acid rain scare, it has been realized that the public responds with alarm to anything with the word ‘acid’ in it. In point of fact, the ocean is basic rather than acidic (ie, its ph is always appreciably higher than 7, and there is no possibility of increasing levels of atmospheric CO2 bringing it down to 7; note that ph is a measure of acidity or basicness: values greater than 7 are basic and less than 7 acid.), and the purported changes simply refer to making the ocean a bit less basic. However, such a more correct description would lack the scare component. As usual, there is so much wrong with this claim that it takes a fairly long article to go over it all. I recommend the following source.

Death of coral reefs:

The alleged death of coral reefs is partly linked to the acidification issue above, and as we see, the linkage is almost opposite to what is claimed. There is also the matter of warming per se leading to coral bleaching. A typical alarmist presentation can be found here.

The article is behind a pay wall, but most universities provide access to Nature. The reasoned response to this paper is provided here.

As Steele, the author of the above, points out, bleaching has common causes other than warming and is far from a death sentence for corals whose capacity to recover is substantial. This article is a bit polemical, but essentially correct.

Global warming as the cause of everything:

As we see from the above, there is a tendency to blame everything unpleasant on global warming. The absurd extent of this tendency is illustrated on the following here. That hasn’t stopped the EPA from using such stuff to claim large health benefits for its climate change policies. Moreover, I fear that with so many claims, there is always the question ‘what about ….?’ Hardly anyone has the time and energy to deal with the huge number of claims. Fortunately, most are self-evidently absurd. Nation magazine recently came up with what is a bit of a champion is this regard. CO2, it should be noted, is hardly poisonous. On the contrary, it is essential for life on our planet and levels as high as 5000 ppm are considered safe on our submarines and on the space station (current atmospheric levels are around 400 ppm, while, due to our breathing, indoor levels can be much higher). The Nation article is typical in that it makes many bizarre claims in a brief space. It argues that a runaway greenhouse effect on Venus led to temperatures hot enough to melt lead. Of course, no one can claim that the earth is subject to such a runaway, but even on Venus, the hot surface depends primarily on the closeness of Venus to the sun and the existence of a dense sulfuric acid cloud covering the planet. Relatedly, Mars, which also has much more CO2 than the earth, is much further from the sun and very cold. As we have seen many times already, such matters are mere details when one is in the business of scaring the public.

Concluding remarks:

The accumulation of false and/or misleading claims is often referred to as the ‘overwhelming evidence’ for forthcoming catastrophe. Without these claims, one might legitimately ask whether there is any evidence at all.

Despite this, climate change has been the alleged motivation for numerous policies, which, for the most part, seem to have done more harm than the purported climate change, and have the obvious capacity to do much more. Perhaps the best that can be said for these efforts is that they are acknowledged to have little impact on either CO2 levels or temperatures despite their immense cost. This is relatively good news since there is ample evidence that both changes are likely to be beneficial although the immense waste of money is not.

I haven’t spent much time on the details of the science, but there is one thing that should spark skepticism in any intelligent reader. The system we are looking at consists in two turbulent fluids interacting with each other. They are on a rotating planet that is differentially heated by the sun. A vital constituent of the atmospheric component is water in the liquid, solid and vapor phases, and the changes in phase have vast energetic ramifications. The energy budget of this system involves the absorption and reemission of about 200 watts per square meter. Doubling CO2involves a 2% perturbation to this budget. So do minor changes in clouds and other features, and such changes are common. In this complex multifactor system, what is the likelihood of the climate (which, itself, consists in many variables and not just globally averaged temperature anomaly) is controlled by this 2% perturbation in a single variable? Believing this is pretty close to believing in magic. Instead, you are told that it is believing in ‘science.’ Such a claim should be a tip-off that something is amiss. After all, science is a mode of inquiry rather than a belief structure.

Richard Lindzen is the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

#climate change #controversy #science #climate science #global warming #global cooling #philosophy

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jewelwriter · 6 years

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My Two Cents: Why yez, Gen 7 is the worst of them all.

Disclaimer: "My Two Coins" are to be read as such, someone's two coins about the topic at hand. IF at any point you disagree with it or agree, remember they are just my coins about said topic and the value you have of it will differ from my own because of religion, upbringing, beliefs, and logic based on your own experiences. Do not assume my coins are the international equivalent for it may be considered of a lesser value in the bank of public exchange. Thank you.

Pinks, You asked for it. YOU KNEW how stupid your commentary to defend Gen 7 is and yet you did it and I gotta rip you some new ones. I’ll even go...

Yea. I’m going this far TO KICK YOUR ARGUMENT and banish it in all it stands for to the Shadow Realm! Though first things first.

Welcome ladies and gentlemen. You've found a wild Jewelwriter.

And here’s the reason why I’m going at it and I’ll be commenting on it non stop so if you value your gen 7 souls then escape and don’t look back.

Oh boy... You seriously were that worried that it is a not belonging in the place where it belongs and is going to be ripped by me where I wouldn't hold back. Trust me... I know your brain is deep in Gen 7's cave of wonders but it's time to get your head out of there and get with bleeping reality. Trust me I'm tempted to use memes to say you are so wrong that it hurts. And I'll get even the pictures that you point out so I'll be thoroughly ripping this up with a sword and not a chainsaw.

OH, it is... I mean seriously do I got to list them... but if I gotta say it there's going to be a gen 7 of that bleeping picture and your call of calling hypocrisy so allow me to poke of each point you pull up.

-If not counting all the added Pokemon the difference is 7 more for everyone thinks Ultra added more. This wasn't a bugger to me since I expected a low number and its clear people aren't getting it.

-Exp isn't too bad and I was keeping it on since it was meant to be on and I still felt the challenge was more with two of the 3 starters and everyone's frog was the easy mode for people when I felt the "Charizard" of the generation is Chespin and Fennekin gets it easier at least as well be the next second since through the playthrough of X and Y, gym one has bugs with one a bug water, followed by rocks, then fighting types (Fennekin's evolution gets psychic moves to soften this) then grass types (Unless you got a poison move, Fennekin gets this faster) and then we get to electric which isn't good for both and then fairies (with fully evolved Pokes now, Chespin's line is in trouble sans poison.) then Psychic and then ice (Poor Chesnaught times two more) And Chespin and Fennekin's line doesn't get love at all in the Elite 4 either.

-Story is not bad but it's true that story wasn't good but it wasn't going for hyper twists, it was more on the nose and wasn't ashamed of it. Pluse there was more expressions in that than both su and moon games.

-This is true that I can't fight it but I'll say that I saw them as a copy of team rocket if Giovanni decided to return just in time for a new kid to smack them stupid and if Giovani had a death cannon.

-Only the true rival of sorts being your opposite without the hat and the others...mixed.

-Skip since this is true for all Pokemon but it doesn't last longer than both Sun and moon and Ultras.

-Customization was first introduced so it would be limited.

-Fairy Pokemon is the first big shake up and I like it.

-Depends on your mega. OH, gods.... it ranges from ...Garchomp to Mega Rayquaza (who was introduced in ORAS) though I will say this....this should have been the end of Smogon's reign. I still want it gone!

-Postgame was in Lumiose, and it was short and otherwise, it was the battle house. (Delta episode in ORAS)

-This I don't mind... And here's the funny thing...you never could get out of that Linear road in a sense unless you are thinking gen 1 at when you take on Saffron City and gen 4 which allowed you to break that norm when crossing Mt Coronet.

-This I can get on ORAS on for teasing that and it not showing up since post battle content really shrunk in gen 6 but it's worst in gen 7 so it's not getting off that hook.

I was willing to buy X and Omega Ruby (and gained Alpha Sapphire as a gift which I thanked.) which was a good thing overall.

And now...let's see how right you represented how it is the worst....which you tried to hide.

-This is wrong... the number where it stopped before getting the special Pokemon is 78. And I'm not counting Alolan forms.

-The Island Trials don't feel as rewarding since you only get emergen-z gemstones and nothing really marking progress.

-This is a sad truth that hurts making it fun. Super Training allows one to EV how you want without battling and having to plot how to grow your Pokemon there. Triple Battles I can say I'll not miss as much as Rotations since Rotations is battle intelligence pushed into one great format that you don't have to worry about Rocks and other entry hazards in a sense. Just tactical play! Contests came back and were lost is a sad thing since there could have been more potential if done right. And HMs I see is sad because they were a better gate block than what those silly borders and the HM rides are which were so underused it's ridiculous.

-SOS battles are the only way to get high IV Pokemon from the wild and yet they were able to annoy to no end since it means you might get a Pokemon Interrupting your catches and will burn more resources. They kind of fixed it with the Ultras but still exists the moment you trigger SOS. Hypertraining is an IV copout while breeding your best mon isn't loved anymore. Festival Plaza....oh gods that is a mess more of a mess than what happened at Gen 4's first steps into Wifi. And the Ultra Beasts...I can't tell if they are legendary or out there Pokemon that are in the wrong series.

-This is entirely correct with how many Pokemon of Gen 1 got not only representation but given special forms....and guess what...no extra Alolan forms!

-If you picked Primarina's line you were on easy street, even on Ultra when taking on Necrozma after dealing with the BS handicap of the Pokemon getting boosted artificially to make difficulty. Rowlett is able to take on only the first Kahuna, the new Kahuna of Poni island and for a while Team Skull/Aether President...Keep in mind of who has poison type but otherwise...You'd be recked with the owl... and Litten..let's see Bubble beam with the Kakuna of MElemele, Rocks with Akala's Kahuna, Team Skull's Bugs when you go john Incenaroar on top of the water type and bugs while on Ula Ula, And Poni island's new Kahuna if you can endure the dragon of the north star.

-I mentioned it earlier....tutorials are needed but this did it so wrong and had nearly all of island 1 be this. You get pushed to a school of it, you get forced into battle with the false rival, and you get guided by the Nosepass by Rotom.

-Returning to Hau... he's the 'Bianca' rival which I didn't mind but knew people would uproar but I guessed it wouldn't show up at all. I was wrong. It was the Professor who is the true rival (as in get the starter strong to yours and would be the real challenge) and they pull that off with the best First championship battle of Alola in Sun and Moon.

-Skip since I already covered this in gen 6 but it's worst since it is to nearly all of island 1.

-This was less forgiving as we got such fewer options than before as far as attire. Least you can lose the hat.

-the Emergen-z moves are in fact worthless. As I stated in a bit of a comparing document. Z-Moves are Hyper Combos that can be 'blocked', countered, or even snuffed out before you pull them off. Mega Evolution is a boss character with upped stats that can be harder to take down in battle and would be on the field still until you KO the Pokemon.

-This has less postgame than what X&Y had and this is when counting the Looker missions vs the UB hunt for the startups and the Delta Episode vs RR Episode is at least a stronger fight to one side....and while I give Zennia the lore and potential aspects, the RR gets you all villains of the past trying to get the world with grandpa Giovani at the top who should have RETIRED by now but nope...

-(sarcasm) It's so linear here that you got a Pokedex pointing the way to where to go. Great job Programmers. (sarcasm ends here.)

I at least hold my ground when it comes to this kind of argument.

For the picture comparing B2W2 to USUM...

[]

Pleasantly surprised [Vs] worried and sickened.

Didn't come to mind [Vs] Why would the series leave the 3DS? Which I say is a stupid idea still!

I had a good surprise on this and took it [Vs] WAIT will you...the fact you can still play them is proof you can wait.

This was a great surprise and showed they cared [Vs] Super rushed game that barely got out before 1 year of the game's release...which most of the other mainline Pokemon games weren't released in under a year.

New story and set in a truly different timeline [Vs] it barely changed and any changes were mostly seen near the end and were cheap shots.

This would be entirely wrong Vs IT is highly true!

That's because nothing really did change sans Ultra Recon Squad as far as plot goes and the killing of an already weakened char when USUM came up.

On sales, this would be one thing on its own and yet I was able to smell bs and not buy them (somehow I still got them because someone didn't get the note I DIDN'T WANT THEM!) and it's good I rate games based on what is within them...not the sales and that.

So sorry, it still belongs to gen 7! And there's a diff between good changes and BAD changes. You kept ignoring all the bad changes while also trying to make it look like the other generations did it worst.... sorry but This is utter BS to the nth degree.

I haven't claimed that 8 will be worst but I have a worry about what will be in it if certain games sell well.

Also Funny you use someone that you hate for someone to be the big comment here. I can't help but laugh it up. (I got stories of this but that's a need to know a thing)

[-|-|-]

So excuse ME for killing all your hopes and dreams but they are really nightmares and falsehoods that you have tried to hide behind all this time. TIME to come into the light and maybe wear this while you're at it.

As for me... this wild one runs away!

#m2c #rant #nintendo #opinion #pokemon gen 7 #response

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jeroldlockettus · 6 years

Text

Letting Go

David Rubenstein has seen every kind of C.E.O. transition imaginable. Now it’s his turn to step down. (Photo: The Aspen Institute/flickr)

Our latest Freakonomics Radio episode is called “Letting Go.” (You can subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts or elsewhere, get the RSS feed, or listen via the media player above.)

If you’re a C.E.O., there are a lot of ways to leave your job, from abrupt firing to carefully planned succession (which may still go spectacularly wrong). In this final episode of our “Secret Life of a C.E.O.” series, we hear those stories and many more. Also: what happens when you no longer have a corner office to go to — and how will you spend all that money?

Below is a transcript of the episode, modified for your reading pleasure. For more information on the people and ideas in the episode, see the links at the bottom of this post.

* * *

There’s pretty much one way to come into this world — but a lot of ways to leave it. There are good deaths: like dying peacefully in your sleep, in old age, in your own bed. And … bad deaths — sudden or tragic or brutal. You can die by accident or on purpose; from a common cause or a rare one. Also: ambivalent deaths, and undramatic but nonetheless sad deaths. Like I said, a lot of ways to go. It struck me, now that we’ve reached the end of our “Secret Life of a C.E.O.” series, that the same could be said for C.E.O.’s. There are a lot of ways to go. Some of the C.E.O.’s we’ve been speaking with — they went the hard way, for sure:

Carol BARTZ: They thought, “Well, we’ll just fire Carol.”

Ellen PAO: The board didn’t have the stomach for it. And that ended up being the reason why they asked me to leave.

Others have stepped down on their own terms, in their own time:

Ray DALIO: When I undertook the process of transitioning, I said, “Well, I think that this is going to go quick, maybe two or three years.”

And there’s been a lot of in-between:

Steve BALLMER: I got kind of riled up about that topic and I didn’t think it was handled well.

Jack WELCH: The reason I left was not that I was tired.

Today on Freakonomics Radio: letting go of the corner office. From the planning stages …

Indra NOOYI: The day you become C.E.O., you have to think about grooming a successor.

To the relief:

Richard BRANSON: I mean, you can maybe get just a little bit too many selfies in a day.

Now you’ve got the freedom to speak your mind:

WELCH: Well, I give him a D-minus on management practices.

Also: what do you do with all that money?

BALLMER: I own a basketball team.

David RUBENSTEIN: I bought the Magna Carta.

And: the afterlife of the C.E.O.:

BARTZ: Uh, I am going to have a quesadilla.

* * *

We’ve spent the past several episodes speaking with the C.E.O.’s, past and present, of Facebook, Microsoft, PepsiCo, General Electric, Virgin, Yahoo, the Carlyle Group, Bridgewater Associates, and Reddit. Also, the academics who know them best. The first episode looked at what a C.E.O. actually does, and why they’re paid so much. We followed that with a look at how our C.E.O.’s got to the top. Next was an in-depth conversation with Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo, a conversation that was turned into a global meme called Lady Doritos. The episode after that was — fittingly — about crisis management; and then a look at why female C.E.O.’s are so rare, and why they’re often asked to run companies that are in trouble. On today’s episode: the end of the road. It’s a road that, from what we’ve been hearing, is fairly exhausting.

NOOYI: Today I woke up at 4 a.m.

BRANSON: I was starting a company without financial resources.

RUBENSTEIN: I try to read two books a week.

BARTZ: I fought so hard against that, and fought, and fought.

The worst way to go, I think we’d all agree, is involuntarily. That’s what happened to Carol Bartz, who was fired from Yahoo after just a couple of years. The chairman of the board fired her by phone.

BARTZ: He didn’t have the nerve to see me face to face. Now, I’d like to think he didn’t have the nerve because he knew I would probably punched him out.

Ellen Pao was interim C.E.O. of Reddit. She says she was pushed to aggressively grow the company.

PAO: I had warned the board like, “This is going to be pretty ugly. It’s going to be a mess for a while.

It was a mess. Pao lasted just eight months.

PAO: At the end of the day I think the board didn’t have the stomach for it.

But she’s still working — back in venture capital, where she came from.

PAO: I am the chief diversity and inclusion officer at the Kapor Center, and a venture partner at Kapor Capital.

Carol Bartz, who pretty much came out of retirement to run Yahoo, stayed there this time. And she’s enjoying life:

BARTZ: I love quesadilla. I just think it’s so simple. Tortilla, cheese, and whatever you have.

And, for the pleasure of being fired from Yahoo in 2011, Bartz walked away with a compensation package of roughly $16 million. Golden parachutes are standard issue for fired C.E.O.’s. Here’s Jeff Sonnenfeld of the Yale School of Management.

SONNENFELD: You know, Carly Fiorina, who sliced shareholder wealth in half at Hewlett-Packard and created a chaotic, strategic pileup of computer carcasses and made the company larger and far weaker — she somehow had a huge package to leave.

A package that was reportedly worth something like $100 million. One reason C.E.O.’s are paid so much, both during their terms and even afterward, is that the job has become increasingly difficult.

RUBENSTEIN: You know, in the 1950’s, C.E.O.’s, basically they got the job and they could stay until they were ready to retire.

David Rubenstein is a co-founder and, until recently, co-C.E.O. of the Carlyle Group. It’s one of the biggest private-equity firms in the world.

RUBENSTEIN: I think it’s much harder today, because today you have much more scrutiny of what you’re doing. It used to be the case that activist investors were not taken that seriously by boards. Now an activist can, with 1 percent or 2 percent of the stock, really change who the C.E.O. might be or change the direction of the company. I think the scrutiny, in terms of everybody in social media watching what every company is doing all the time, is much greater than it used to be.

Today, the scrutiny, and the pressure, can be relentless. Even for someone who’s had great success, like Satya Nadella.

NADELLA: Thank you so much.

Nadella, the C.E.O. of Microsoft, isn’t close to retirement: he’s only 50, and got the job just three years ago. Already he’s been credited for pulling the company out of a serious stall. Microsoft’s market cap has risen roughly $400 billion since Nadella started.

NADELLA: The idea that a lot of progress has been made is not how I look at it. We are clearly grounded in all the things that we can do better — whether it’s the products we build, the capability we create, or the culture we have — and on all three fronts, I feel there’s a lot to be done. I’m proud of some of the progress, but it’s not sufficient.

DUBNER: Obviously, the role of C.E.O. is vast, and there are many duties and obligations. There’s deal-making. There’s strategic planning and customer relations and technical elements — you are, after all, an engineer — and daily personnel management. Can you rank for me your different duties from least favorite to most?

NADELLA: I have to admit, the most favorite is when I get to meet these engineers who know no fear or no conceptual boundary and can dream of the most impossible things. It’s no question. I mean, for me, that’s when I get energized. And I’d say my least favorite thing would be when someone says, “Come, just do these ribbon-cutting type of things.”

DUBNER: And would you say podcast interviews rank closer to the ribbon-cutting or the meeting with engineers?

NADELLA: You know, talking to you is one of my great pleasures.

DUBNER: All right, now I know you’re a good liar because that sounded very credible.

One reason that being C.E.O. is so hard is that, as Indra Nooyi told us, when you’re the C.E.O., you are “it.”

NOOYI: You are “it.” When you become C.E.O., overnight you are the person calling all the shots. It’s a very daunting job.

Daunting and, potentially, lonely.

NOOYI: Incredibly lonely.

BARTZ: People don’t talk about this a lot — but it is a very lonely job.

Carol Bartz again.

BARTZ: There’s really no one you can talk to about concerns in the company. The board is there, and many times there’s at least one or two board members that are pretty easy to confide in. But for the most part, you know, they show up six times a year. And also it’s a little dangerous to talk about today’s problem, because then they never forget it. And so, you know, they keep asking, “Well, how is such-and-such doing?” And you’re like, “Oh my god, that was put to bed six months ago! I should never have said anything.”

Nicholas BLOOM: It’s hard for C.E.O.’s, I think, to get fully candid advice because they’re there at their own on the top.

That’s Nicholas Bloom, an economist at Stanford.

BLOOM: It’s hard for them to talk with their peers. Remember there’s anti-trust. So, if the C.E.O. of McDonald’s would start to talk to the C.E.O. of Kentucky Fried Chicken, they’d be taken to court. So they can’t really talk that well to their peers, so who can they talk to? The people below them who are never fully honest. We’ve seen it over the centuries, millennia, with kings that are lonely at the top. They surround themselves with courtiers and advisers. And on the one hand, they want honest advice. On the other hand, they have a tendency — particularly in medieval England — to chop the heads of the people that didn’t agree.

As I said, this sentiment came up in several interviews. But not every interview.

WELCH: All that crap about lonely at the top — it’s nonsense. Pure nonsense.

That’s Jack Welch, former longtime C.E.O. of General Electric.

WELCH: No, it’s not lonely at all. That’s the biggest myth in the world. You’ve got your friends there, you’re all sharing everything you have. I mean rarely do you have such an opportunity at a job to totally change lives, make people rich, send their kids to college, get vacation homes? I mean, it’s a turn-on. I used to call guys in my office and give them a million bucks. Do you realize how good that feels? And some of them would cry. Here’s a million dollars’ stock. They go home thrilled. Think of the party they’re having in their house that night.

BRANSON: No, I don’t get lonely. I mean, I love people.

That’s Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group. He started with one record shop and now has dozens of companies, including the space-travel firm Virgin Galactic.

BRANSON: Maybe I’m lucky, I don’t know. But I mean, there are occasions, because I’m a recognizable face around the world, that I can maybe get just a little bit too many selfies in a day.

DUBNER: Is that why you want to go to space? To avoid all that?

BRANSON: Well, maybe that’s why I live on an island, anyway.

DUBNER: You’ve admitted that Virgin Galactic may not be the best bang for the buck when it comes to maximizing profits. You also admit that the Virgin board has not been thrilled with the endeavor. Why is this so important to you?

BRANSON: You only live once. And there are millions of people who would love to become astronauts, who would love to go to space. Me included. And I love a challenge.

Perhaps the biggest challenge for any C.E.O. is the transition. Whether it’s sudden and involuntary; or a well-executed succession plan.

NOOYI: The day you become C.E.O., you have to think about grooming a successor.

Indra Nooyi has been C.E.O. of PepsiCo since 2006.

NOOYI: How do you, you know, take people and give them bigger assignments?

It wasn’t always thus. The process of grooming and choosing a successor wasn’t always so … methodical.

SONNENFELD: When I started doing this work in the 1970’s, virtually every C.E.O. would have some version of, “Oh, that’s taken care of, that’s right here.” And they’d open up a drawer, and pull out an envelope: “well, the name’s in here.”

Jeff Sonnenfeld again.

SONNENFELD: Who is that person? Shouldn’t we all know who that is? Certainly we on the board should know. What’s the training that person has? What’s their preparation, and what are the alternatives? Have we benchmarked some people against the outside? That was the way things were in the 70’s.

What about the 80’s?

SONNENFELD: In the 1980’s, people were being stacked, whether or not it was through mergers or whatever, commitments were being made. Okay, this person will be the next C.E.O. We were coming out with some very recipe-like H.R. practices , that somebody is ready now, and ready in five years, and whatever.

And who was responsible for writing these successor recipes?

SONNENFELD: There was often a czar of some sort, of executive development, that would report directly to the C.E.O., that had tremendous king-maker or queen-making power. You were worried about that person. They were legendary. They could derail people’s careers. There was a lot of personal prejudice and ethnic and gender, racial bias, often built into those roles. So that was a real problem in the 80’s.

Okay, glad we’re out of the 80’s. What about the 90’s?

SONNENFELD: Then, you know, we started to see the supremacy of certain functions — that, with all the deal-making frenzy, that somehow finance had this primacy and C.F.O.’s had raced past C.O.O.’s.

One firm that participated in that deal-making frenzy was General Electric, under Jack Welch. He stepped down in 2001, having run G.E. for 20 years.

DUBNER: You’d been there a while, and you were getting on in years, but I’m guessing if you’d really wanted to you could have powered through some more years. How do you know as a C.E.O. that it’s time to go?

WELCH: The reason I left was not that I was tired. The problem was you have expectations in the bureaucracy; and the expectations of these talented, wonderful people. I didn’t do it because I was tired or bored. I loved it. I did it because it was the right thing to do for the rest of the people. And I would have expected it when I was there. That there’s a certain rhythm; and 65 was the rhythm in G.E.

Meaning Welch was going to be 65 years old and it was time for someone else to have their turn at the top. He and the G.E. board meticulously plotted his succession. Their candidate list began with two dozen names. “Over the next four years,” Fortune magazine reported, “Welch tried to fill the gaps in all the candidates’ resumes and test their ability to grow.” Finally, the two dozen were narrowed down to three. After another round of auditions, Welch and the board made their decision.

WELCH: I told the two guys that weren’t gonna get it — I told all three, six months before, “All three of you are going to have new jobs. One of you’s going to be running G.E. And two of you are gonna be C.E.O.’s elsewhere.”

The two who didn’t get the job indeed wound up as C.E.O.’s elsewhere. Jim McNerney at 3M and, later, at Boeing. And Robert Nardelli at Home Depot and, after that, at Chrysler. The man who did get the G.E. job? Jeff Immelt, who would go on to run G.E. until 2017. His record was, at best, mixed. The firm’s value fell a great deal. Some blamed Immelt; some blamed economic forces; and some blamed Welch for having built a conglomerate with so many moving parts that it was unsustainable. Welch famously pushed G.E. well beyond its manufacturing and technology roots into businesses like insurance and financial services — businesses that G.E. has since sold off.

DUBNER: I’m just curious, did you regret that you had to take on so much of financial services to drive profit? Because …

WELCH: No.

DUBNER: You didn’t.

WELCH: No. I thought we had tons of leverage there. We had a great balance sheet. We had talent in financial services. We had our own homegrown financial management program where we could put people. We build great businesses. And I would still be in it if I was running it.

DUBNER: Oh really that’s interesting. So you wouldn’t find those —

WELCH: Wells Fargo is doing beautifully with the assets they bought.

DUBNER: Yeah, well, it helps when you’re making up a fake million accounts here and there. Right?

WELCH: Well, that that’s not — that’s not the businesses they bought.

DUBNER: So you’re saying that you would not have the divested the financial-services stuff if you were still runn—?

WELCH: No, I’m not saying that. I am saying that I might not have gotten in the trouble that they got in by exploding in real estate, but that’s second-guessing. You can’t second-guess a C.E.O. That happened eight years after I left. That’s the normal tenure for two C.E.O.’s. To talk about what I would have done or what somebody else would have done when I was there is unfair.

DUBNER: In 1999, not long before you retired from G.E., you said that your ultimate success would be determined by how well your successor grows the company over the next 20 years. When you said that, G.E.’s market cap was up north of $450 billion. Now it’s almost 20 years later, it’s just north of $200 billion. So talk to me about that. I know that you …

WELCH: I don’t talk about that.

DUBNER: You don’t. Why not? I mean it’s public record — I mean …

WELCH: You can comment on it in any way, where you want. But I’m not — I haven’t commented on my successor once in 20 years. And I don’t intend to comment now. You can judge me any way you want, on whether I picked the right guy or not, you gave numbers. And one, from those numbers, would question how well I did. But I’m not commenting. And I — if you want to give me a black mark, give me a black mark. I did the best I could. I picked the guy.

DUBNER: I’m curious whether you carry over this tradition from the U.S. presidential tradition, where it’s kind of standard for the former president to stay out of things, or did you come up with this on your own?

WELCH: My predecessor came up with it. He never commented on me. And I radically changed everything he did. And he sat quietly and was a friend.

The transition from Jack Welch to Jeff Immelt was considered so sensible, so thorough, that business schools taught it as the perfect example of how to search for, and install, a successor. Oh well. It doesn’t mean it wasn’t sensible and thorough, or that Immelt was the wrong man. It just means that business is hard — and most big firms throughout history do lose their mojo. The C.E.O. who recently replaced Immelt, John Flannery — he’s not having a very good time either. When we spoke with Welch, G.E.’s market cap was just above $200 billion; it’s since fallen to roughly $130 billion.

* * *

RUBENSTEIN: Generally, the companies that are going to make it are the companies that have a C.E.O. founder who has driven the company for the first couple of years.

That, again, is David Rubenstein of the Carlyle Group. He’s worked with, and seen, every kind of C.E.O. transition imaginable. In medium-sized firms looking to get bigger; in big firms looking to reboot; and — what he’s talking about here — in startups that outgrow their C.E.O. founders.

RUBENSTEIN: And then you bring in a C.E.O. who’s better at managing a more mature company than somebody who’s getting it off the ground.

DUBNER: What about when the startup C.E.O. wants to stay and plainly isn’t the right person for the job, how do you handle that?

RUBENSTEIN: It can be a very complicated conversation. Typically outside investors may have the majority voting stake or the majority of the board by years three or four, and they might have the ability to vote out the C.E.O. But it’s not pleasant. So sometimes you give the C.E.O. different responsibilities.

BRANSON: I’ve delegated pretty well all the C.E.O. roles.

And that, again, is Richard Branson of the Virgin Group, a conglomerate with many companies in many industries. Branson started Virgin when he was a teenager; now he’s 67.

BRANSON: And I actually believe that people should delegate early on in their businesses, so they can start thinking about the bigger picture. We accept that some things they’ll do differently than us. Some things they’ll do better than us.

DUBNER: It strikes me that even the most public-facing of those C.E.O.’s is much less public-facing than you. In many ways the Virgin brand is really Richard Branson. That, at least, is my assessment. I’d love to hear your assessment and how you see yourself as a representative of your firm.

BRANSON: If you go back to when I was 15, 16, I didn’t have any money and I was starting a company without financial resources. So you know I would do anything I could to get Virgin on the map, even if it meant jumping in boats or balloons, and trying to break world records, etcetera. I think that worked. I think the Virgin brand is here to stay and hopefully will outlast me, and that was the original plan.

DUBNER: You know, that’s what I wanted to ask you next, I’m glad you brought that up. What would Virgin look like beyond Richard Branson? And I’m curious if you think about succession.

BRANSON: Well, I would be irresponsible not to. First of all, we’re — all the companies are run by wonderful people. We have a chairman and chief executive who run the group on a day-to-day basis. And I’ve got two wonderful children who, you know, do their own thing, but they — they dive in and out. But I’m still enjoying myself. So for the next 10 or 20 years, I’m still going to be very much involved, I hope.

SONNENFELD: He is kind of elusive.

Jeff Sonnenfeld again.

SONNENFELD: He’s a moving target. He, I think, has an inspirational quality. No matter what the crisis is, or the success is, it’s very Richard-centric. You can’t list a, you know — with Jack Welch, you can list — like them or not, you can list 20, 25, 30 very high-profile, and for the most part, very successful progeny. Some of them loved him, some of them didn’t, but it’s very strong record of leadership creation and identification. With Branson, I don’t know, can people name one, two, three? That is a sign of a grandiosity that isn’t something which is generally used as a yardstick, outside of the world of entertainment.

So Jeff Sonnenfeld, as a C.E.O. observer, isn’t so impressed with how Richard Branson has managed the next generation of leader. There’s another founding C.E.O., of a much younger company, that Sonnenfeld also disapproved of.

SONNENFELD: I thought he showed an incredible audacity to not learn and listen as a leader.

He’s talking about Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook.

SONNENFELD: He was obviously technologically brilliant but self-absorbed if not even disdainful of the people who were giving him the money to make him so wealthy, sending out videos of himself with the hoodie on, not going out and meeting on the road shows with investors.

At least that’s what Sonnenfeld used to think.

SONNENFELD: Oh my gosh, has he changed. He’s a reminder that, yeah, adults can learn and grow. He had a great board, great mentors, and also he’s just been a great learner. He has been remarkably different now as a leader than he was when he first became C.E.O.

Zuckerberg, despite rumors of his political ambitions, seems ready to stay at Facebook, for a while at least. After all, he’s only 33. So he’s got time before he starts thinking about letting go. As Sonnenfeld says, he’s shown remarkable growth. Here’s what Zuckerberg told us recently about managing employees:

ZUCKERBERG: The real art I think is not when you know that you have someone who is a superstar, who is going to make great decisions, but deciding to let people do things that you disagree with, because on principle you know it’s just going to free up more creativity and people will feel like there’s more potential to try different things in the future that may be better, if you let them go do those things, even if you disagree with them.

Still, the time will come, eventually, to let go. At some point, Zuckerberg may start asking his elders how they did it. What worked, what didn’t work. And what it feels like:

Ray DALIO: Well first of all, I know that I don’t know how anything is going to go until I actually experience it.

That’s Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund.

DALIO: I have a saying: if you haven’t done it three times successfully before, you probably don’t know how to do it.

Dalio founded Bridgewater in the 1970’s. It had some early failures …

DALIO: I was so wrong, I had to let clients go. I lost money. I got so broke that I had to borrow $4,000 from my dad.

Bridgewater is not a typical company. Built in Dalio’s image, it became famous for practicing what he called radical honesty and radical transparency. It wasn’t for everybody.

DALIO: The senior partners said, “You’re making people uncomfortable, you’re demoralizing them with your straightforwardness.”

But it worked. Today the firm manages roughly $160 billion.

DALIO: And so when I undertook the process of transitioning I said, “Well, I think that this is going to go quick, maybe two or three years. But I’m not actually sure of how it would go.”

DUBNER: I’d love you to talk for just a second, Ray, about when you stepped down as C.E.O. a few years ago and installed a new C.E.O. but then had to step back in as temporary co-C.E.O. I’m just curious what happened? What did you miss?

DALIO: So I realized the transition from a founder-owned company to an independent company is classically very challenging. And so how do you approach that? How do you strike that balance? I wanted to be totally a mentor: being there for other people and letting them do it the way that they wanted to do it. And then I found myself in the surprising position of having them struggle with that — unacceptably struggle with that.

DUBNER: And this was a guy who you’d hired as a kid, essentially, and had been around forever and I gather were very close with, yes?

DALIO: Yeah. You know for like 20 years. And I, you know, I love the guy. I mean, literally wonderful deep relationship brilliant man. And I think it was largely my fault too. I think I gave him too much. You know, when the business grew up, there were two things: I had to get my head into all the investment and economic stuff that I do. And then also run a business simultaneously. And any one of those things is too much for any human being, me included. And then to take that and then sort of to give it to this person — I made the mistake essentially of giving too much.

The man in question here is named Greg Jensen. He’s still at Bridgewater, but as co-C.I.O. now, chief investment officer.

DALIO: So we had that evolution. But we didn’t anticipate it.

Jensen and Bridgewater were in the news again recently. The Wall Street Journal reported that Bridgewater had paid a settlement of more than $1 million to a former employee Jensen had an affair with, apparently while he was running the firm. He was also accused of sexually harassing at least one other female employee. Jensen called the report “inaccurate and salacious”; and Dalio defended him as “a man of high character.” Whether Jensen’s behavior contributed to his demotion is unknown. But when he was demoted, Ray Dalio stepped back in to co-run the firm, along with a tech executive recruited from outside Bridgewater. That guy lasted less than a year. Finally, in April of 2017, Dalio put Bridgewater in the hands of two longtime insiders, and he remained, along with Greg Jensen, co-C.I.O. So what happened that Dalio was finally ready to step down again?

DALIO: We learned a structure. And I learned a whole bunch of things that I never understood before, like about governance.

That’s the thing about being C.E.O. of a firm you started. It’s your firm. It’s got your shape, and idiosyncrasies. Part of the reason people start their own companies in the first place is to escape the cookie-cutter mentality. But that can leave you, as it left Dalio, with a lot of blanks to fill in later, during a C.E.O. transition that lasted a lot longer than he had anticipated.

DALIO: How do you do the right checks and balances? Should you have a board? Should you do not have a board? What are the processes and all of that? So it became a learning process — that evolved over seven years.

Another founding C.E.O. who recently stepped down, but not aside completely, is David Rubenstein. His new title is co-executive chairman.

RUBENSTEIN: I have a theory that if you retire you go downhill quickly, and I have a theory that if you relax too much, your immune system relaxes, germs come in, and see a relaxing immune system, they attack, and all of a sudden you’re in trouble. So I don’t want to relax too much, because I’m afraid that bad things will happen.

Jack Welch is another former C.E.O. who’s kept very, very busy.

WELCH: I started my own school.

It’s called The Jack Welch Management Institute. Which is … what exactly?

WELCH: An M.B.A. program online, fully online, fully accredited for working adults.

And also there’s this:

WELCH: I’ve given thousands of speeches around the world. I’ve taught at M.I.T. for six years.

We don’t have good data on this but: it would seem that the kind of person who is capable of becoming a C.E.O. is often, like Jack Welch and David Rubenstein, not the kind of person who wants to just chill out. Plus which: golf is not Rubenstein’s thing:

RUBENSTEIN: I concluded that with respect to golf, that it was too frustrating and too humiliating. Because I have the view that if I have a business meeting with somebody, and they think that I’m competent and intelligent, if I were to go on the golf course, I would destroy the illusion of competence and intelligence.

BALLMER: I really love golf. My first year I retired, I played 100 rounds.

That’s Steve Ballmer, who ran Microsoft from 2000 to 2014. So plainly he’s in the pro-golf camp. Ballmer’s departure from Microsoft was a bit messy, with some hurt feelings.

DUBNER: I’m curious, going forward, how much you care, or I guess how do you care about Microsoft’s future success?

BALLMER: Well, when I ran Microsoft, I was always consistent in saying, “The number one measure of whether I did a good job or not would be what Microsoft would look like 10 or 15 years after I left.” And so I can’t do anything at this stage. You know I’m just I’m just an outside, independent guy. On the other hand of course I’m rooting for the company for three reasons: I’m a shareholder; because it is the mark of whether I did a good job or not, and part of that is the succession plan; and oh, by the way, I got a lot of friends who work over there and I think the world of.

And don’t be fooled by all that golf Ballmer plays. He’s got a lot of other stuff going on.

BALLMER: Hoopers, hoopers, hoopers! I own a basketball team.

The Los Angeles Clippers is Ballmer’s team. He’s also involved in a lot of philanthropies, including a website called USAFacts, which synthesizes 30 years’ worth of data from federal, state, and local governments. It’s a sort of fiscal colonoscopy of the American government.

BALLMER: If I’m a citizen I don’t want to know just where the government got its money, from whom, and where it spent it. But is it working at all, or at least what activity is it generating? Do we like the kind of outcomes we’re getting?

That’s the thing about the afterlife of the C.E.O. You’ve got money. You’ve got connections. You’ve still got name recognition, if not as much actual leverage. But you’ve also got freedom of speech. Being a C.E.O. often means trying to never say anything to anybody that any other person could possibly construe as controversial. The idea is probably best expressed in a quote, from long ago and quite possibly apocryphal, attributed to the basketball superstar and endorsement machine Michael Jordan. There was a Democratic senate candidate from Jordan’s home state of North Carolina, Harvey Gantt, who wanted Jordan’s support. Gantt is black, as is Jordan, and Gantt was running against an old-school, white Republican incumbent, Jesse Helms, who was widely viewed as a racist. But Jordan declined to support Gantt. Here’s what he reportedly said: “Republicans buy sneakers too.” Michael Jordan was smart enough to know that he even though he was still a basketball player, he was also the C.E.O. of Michael Jordan, Inc. So most C.E.O.’s are as anodyne as it gets, especially about politics. But when you’re no longer speaking on behalf of your firm, you can say whatever you’d like. Take Jack Welch. Here’s what he said in the fall of 2017 when I asked why he hadn’t quit President Trump’s business-advisory council, like many other C.E.O.’s did, after Trump spoke out in defense of a white-nationalist protest in Charlottesville, Virginia.

WELCH: I felt you’re better off inside the tent, staying on the commission, seeing him, making your position known, than being outside. So I was one of the two or three that disagreed. But I wasn’t an active C.E.O. I was the only retiree on there. So I didn’t bang the table; but I thought it was a bad decision, just to express your frustration. But I understand if you got a lot of employees and they’re rebelling over it, you might want to get out of town.

DUBNER: What’s your assessment so far of President Trump’s leadership style?

WELCH: Well, I give him a D- on management practices. And I give him an A+ on policies.

DUBNER: Do you think you think you could run him through your management institute and get that D- up to a B or something?

WELCH: I guess this is a guy that ran his own company, So he does things like — I didn’t disagree with removing James Comey; I disagreed with the way he did it. But he abandons soldiers in his army very quickly. Leaders of a corporation wouldn’t do that.

DUBNER: So you think it’s a function of him being in a family corporation where everybody around him is a little bit too obedient, perhaps?

WELCH: Yeah, that’s causing him problems.

DUBNER: Do you think someone of his age, experience, and position, now, with everybody watching every move, do you think it’s possible for someone like that to change as fundamentally as you’re suggesting he change?

WELCH: We’ll see. I think he’s changed. I think he’s changed for the better in many ways in some speeches he gives. But the consistency isn’t there by any means. I mean, he gives a U.N. speech that was remarkably effective. First-class. And by the weekend, he was having a fight with the N.F.L. You didn’t hear another day of the U.N. speech.

David Rubenstein, of the Carlyle Group, doesn’t shoot from the hip like Welch. In fact, his career has been marked by a quiet sense of discretion and propriety. Here’s what Jeff Sonnenfeld of Yale said when he learned that Rubenstein was stepping down as C.E.O. of Carlyle but was going to stay on as an executive chairman.

SONNENFELD: So it’s a shame, only that he’s stepping down. If he was to be moving beyond Carlyle, you would have prayed that he could have been lured into any presidential administration. You could almost randomly look at any cabinet position, for example — literally whatever role it was, it would be better served with him there.

Rubenstein has been a Washington fixture for decades. He’s recruited many former politicians to work at Carlyle. He himself got his start in the Carter White House.

RUBENSTEIN: So at 27, I was the deputy domestic policy adviser for the President of the United States, a job I obviously wasn’t qualified for.

DUBNER: Now, I’ve read that you stayed late at your job to make sure that your memos were on top of the President’s briefing pile.

RUBENSTEIN: It’s, for better or worse, completely true.

DUBNER: And I’ve read that your net worth is a little north of $2.5 billion. Is that accurate, if you care to confirm or not?

RUBENSTEIN: You know, I’ve never calculated it. I see what Forbes says. It’s more than I ever dreamed I would have. I have signed the Giving Pledge. And I’m committed to giving away not half of the money, as the Giving Pledge suggest that people do, but to giving it all away. So whatever it is, I will give it away.

His giving is already well underway. In fact, you have to wonder if Washington itself might be crumbling if not for David Rubenstein. He gave $18.5 million to restore the Lincoln Memorial; $7.5 million to repair the Washington Monument after earthquake damage; $75 million to the Kennedy Center; $2 million to the National Zoo, to bring in some elephants. He also buys a lot of historical documents and has them put on public display.

RUBENSTEIN: I bought the Magna Carta, and then other historic documents like the Emancipation Proclamation, or rare copies of the Declaration of Independence, or the 13th Amendment came to me, and so I buy them. I bought the first book ever printed in the United States.

DUBNER: What was the first book ever printed in the United States?

RUBENSTEIN: It’s called the Bay Psalms Book, printed in 1640. The first printing press was brought here in 1638. This was the first book printed. There are about seven copies. One was auctioned off a couple of years ago, and I won it, and I paid the highest price ever paid for a book. I’m not sure I’m happy to brag about that. I think it’s about to be put on display at the Smithsonian.

Why is this how Rubenstein chooses to spend his money, and time?

RUBENSTEIN: I’d say in my case, I am giving back money to my country, because I came from very modest circumstances. My parents didn’t have any money. They didn’t have any education. I rose up with a last name like Rubenstein to be able to do what I did, and I do feel that I owe this country, because I don’t think I could have done this in other countries. And so I’m giving it back in this way and into education and medical research.

My biggest concern is I’m now 68 years old, and actuarial tables being what they are, it’s unlikely that I’ll live another 68 years, and maybe not even another 38 years. So I wish I had all the resources I have, the access, the willingness to get to do the kind of things I can do, and the ability to the kind of things I do when I was 37. I would give away all the money I have today, every penny, if I could be five years younger.

DUBNER: Just five years, really, that’s quite an arbitrage.

RUBENSTEIN: Life is so pleasurable. Even if you’re not wealthy. You know, money doesn’t necessarily make you happy. Some of the saddest people I know are the wealthiest people I know. And some of the poorest people I know are some of the happiest people I know. You know, Thomas Jefferson said, “Life is about the pursuit of happiness.” But he didn’t tell us how to actually get happiness. And it’s the most elusive thing in life, is personal happiness. Very few people achieve it. I think I’m personally happy. But you know, I think I was happy before I was wealthy, so you know, I don’t know that the wealth has made me happier.

This concludes our special six-part series, “The Secret Life of C.E.O.’s” Thanks to David Rubenstein and all the other C.E.O.’s who spoke with us: Steve Ballmer, Carol Bartz, Richard Branson, Ray Dalio, Satya Nadella, Indra Nooyi, Ellen Pao, Jack Welch, and Mark Zuckerberg. We’ll be releasing many of their complete interviews over the coming weeks, so keep your ears out. Thanks also to all the academics who contributed their research and commentary, especially Jeff Sonnenfeld.

Freakonomics Radio is produced by WNYC Studios and Dubner Productions. This episode was produced by Max Miller. Our staff also includes Alison Hockenberry, Merritt Jacob, Greg Rosalsky, Stephanie Tam, Vera Carothers, Harry Huggins and Brian Gutierrez. For this series, the sound design is by David Herman, with help from Dan Dzula. The music throughout the episode was composed by Luis Guerra. You can subscribe to Freakonomics Radio on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find us on Twitter, Facebook, or via email at [email protected].

Here’s where you can learn more about the people and ideas in this episode:

SOURCES

Steve Ballmer, former C.E.O. of Microsoft.

Carol Bartz, former C.E.O. of Yahoo.

Nicholas Bloom, professor at Stanford University.

Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group.

Ray Dalio, founder and former C.E.O. of Bridgewater Associates.

Satya Nadella, C.E.O. of Microsoft.

Indra Nooyi, C.E.O. of PepsiCo.

Ellen Pao, former interim C.E.O. of Reddit.

David Rubenstein, co-founder and former co-C.E.O. of the Carlyle Group.

Jeff Sonnenfeld, professor at the Yale School of Management.

Jack Welch, former C.E.O. of G.E.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder and C.E.O. of Facebook.

EXTRA

“Changing of the Guard,” Geoffrey Colvin, Fortune, (Jan. 8, 2001).

The post Letting Go appeared first on Freakonomics.

from Dental Care Tips http://freakonomics.com/podcast/letting-go/

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2017 (1st Quarter) Preview

The humble boxing blog. As in demand as an WBU title shot. Essentially, the written equivalent of the CSI franchise; once you've seen one, you've seen em all. This blog is in part the product of both a love for the sport and a searing dislike of the day job. More the latter than the former admittedly, but nevertheless I will try to articulate my love of the sport in a post at some point in the future. To inaugurate this fleeting blog though, which will presumably have a shelf life akin to Scott Quigg’s reign as World Champion, I have reverted to the Meat and Potato of sports writing. A tedious and ill informed look into what 2017 offers the Sport. And why not just focus on British fighters. In the spirit of our new Brexit Overlords, where internationalism is sadly deemed a dissent relic of the past.

Haye vs Bellew (March 4th 2017, 02 Arena, London)

Eagerly anticipating the expected announcement of Vince McMahon as guest referee, this bout should probably climax around the final presser in late February. Its a fight which fits the fashion of 2016. Not only is the underdog Bellew considered technically inferior to Haye, he is stepping up weights to take the fight. For me, there’s a clear bounty on Bellew’s head, and it fortunately for him, pays well for both fighters. As such Haye should be a step too far for the Liverpudlian. Think Everton/Villarreal in the 2005 Champions League playoffs. Could be mistaken, but I thinks that’s who Bellew supports, right? Yet maybe not. There could be a danger of perhaps underselling this. Both Chisora and Whyte can sit smugly as prima facie evidence that the ‘insight’ of the boxing fraternity can be proved so very wrong. Could there be a shock on the cards, could this actually materialise into an interesting fight?

An important side note is that Chisora and Whyte fought in the dying light of the year of our lord 2016. 2016, the year that Lucas Browne became Heavyweight World Champion. Yes Lucas Browne. World Heavyweight Champion. Donald Trump, Leicester City, Brexit, David Bowie. But more importantly Lucas Browne yeah. So the year should basically be written off as a stained outlier of our human epoch. One that should never be mentioned again. Probably on a similar tone nor should this fight. The hand speed previewed by Haye in that first press conference gave a frighteningly small glimpse of the physical proficiency of Haye. Assessing their relative records, Haye stands only to have been beaten once by a better fighter. He lost the Thompson fight because of ill discipline, a propensity to work too hard at the wrong moments. His only other defeat against the much bigger Vladimir Klitschko. Who at that time was surely at his peak. Bellew, naturally smaller than Haye, has been more active; and has fought opponents in the last 18 months with actual Wikipedia pages. But you do sense that both Flores and Makubu (Bellews greatest scalp) don't posses anything close to the speed, range or technical ability of Haye.

As you may denote, I am slightly pessimistic about both Bellew’s chances and the fight itself. A scripted rivalry which hinges on one incorrectly calling the other Spongebob Squarepants, and the other, perhaps correctly, a bellend. The state of boxing circa 2017. It can and probably will be rescued by a solid knockout. A hook ideally thrown from Haye’s hip. The type that gets written into future memes. The type of KO so brutal your da’ will be trying to show you it on Facebook three months later. Haye, even at 36 should demolish Bellew. And look to move onto Joshua in time.

Joshua/Klitschko (April 19th 2017, Wembley Stadium, London)

And so moving onto Joshua myself and to a heavyweight bout which should actually carry some significance. Klitschko, now 56 years old, sleeping rough in his car outside Matchroom HQ is expected to help break Carl Froch’s record (and in the process his heart) by boxing in front of 90,000 at Wembley Stadium. Yet even those 40 quid seats up in the high heavens of North West London should be able to anticipate whats coming. Vlad looks desperate for one last cheque. Fury, whilst technically impotent, proved in Germany the endemic frailties of an ageing Klitschko. Fury and Joshua are two polemic fighters admittedly. Joshua isn’t awkward nor will he be patient. No prior evidence suggests AJ will approach this fight in any other way to his previous 18. He will front up, throw a decent number of combinations and try to out-power the Ukrainian.

Ignoring the amount of time Klitschko has spent out of the ring, this will still be a great eye opener to just how good of a job Fury did in 2015. If, and for me this is a large if, Klitschko can establish his jab, allow the fight to tick on his time schedule, there is an air of intrigue added to the result. But I think it is an incredibly shrewd move by Eddie Hearn. From a purely promotional perspective Hearn has produced a fully operational machine. An animatronic knockout artist who has had his career moulded and protected as proficiently as any Conservative member of Parliament. I don't as such see this as a huge step up considering Klitschko’s inactivity. And as a result of the Molina fight, who happened to go nine rounds with Wilder, I’m not even sure Wilder is really at that elite level yet either.

Frampton/Santa Cruz II (January 29th 2017, MGM Grand, Las Vegas)

A World Championship fight I'm actually looking forward to! A rarity in a sport which feels like every other World Title fight is merely a promotional stepping stone for just one of the two competitors. This point was recently emphasised by Steve Bunce, writing in the independent, and essentially writing off (with a degree of truth) Anthony Joshua’s entire 2016. As a rule, it is mildly refreshing to see a world title contender fighting on odds lower 1/40.

The first bout between these two created a spectacle which amalgamated two very different styles. Santa Cruz probably threw about 20,000 punches whilst Frampton boxed in beautiful flurries. Thankfully, the technique embroiled within these combinations won Frampton the fight. And as a caveat, I actually thought he won by more than two rounds. Yet the closeness of at least two scores (and maybe some contractual necessities) mean that we can see it again this January. For me, it was also my fight of the year. Whilst you are often presented with glorious slugfests like Whyte and Chisora, which are undeniably enjoyable bouts. They are not, in ode to the great AJ Liebling, a true articulation of the sweet science. Any fight of the year contender must be at world level for me. It has to accurately showcase elite boxers. I believe Santa Cruz and Frampton both slot neatly into this description. As such therefore, the sequel promises a great deal.

Santa Cruz has already offered a prelude to a trilogy, moreover has hinted at retirement if the bout goes against him. So whether spoken in the spirit of promotional hyperbole or even in sincerity, the stage is set. Cue a fucking dreadful fight…

Crolla/Linares II (25th March, Manchester Arena, Manchester)

At the risk of carrying a level of bias akin to the Sky Sports Boxing twitter feed, I have sought to incorporate another Matchroom show into the preview. Partly out of love for Anthony Crolla, and also an indictment of how few concrete fights have been made so far. I don't actually believe a rematch is a fair product of the original bout. Linares, looked a level too far for Crolla. Despite been tagged ‘the most genuine man in boxing’, you do sense that politics is ultimately preventing the most ‘genuine’ fight in the division, the dust up between Crolla and Terry Flanagan.

Nevertheless, I am not seeking to argue the first fight was not a quality affair. It was a frenetic fight which produced a lot of interesting moments. Crolla’s style as oppose to Linares’ expansive repertoire of punches is why the fight was fashioned in this manner. More to this point, it is his movements which are so integral to why most of his recent bouts have been fought in this manner. Even though the Columbian did throw the far slicker hits. Crolla, as instructed by a coach who as it happens is readily tagged the ‘greatest trainer in boxing’, kept his defence tight and was acutely patient to strike in his own right. This was the precedent set against both Perez and Barroso. And it was the latter fight in which he used it so effectively.

The problem is, and this is also a reflection of Bellew, as mentioned earlier, it is really hard to grasp any strategic path to victory. Bar any dramatic change in style, it is hard to see how Crolla will step up to a level that is seemingly beyond him. Of course it would make success even sweeter, victory even greater. A Crolla win would be on par with United winning the league come what May. United being who he supports, right?

Four fights there, involving British fighters in the first quarter of 2017. I could of attempted to write about five, but generally lost interest in the post. An apt written representation of over 50% of these fights. A tenner on a Frampton, Haye, Linares and Joshua four fold pays out 40 quid. So maybe stick to the horses.

#boxing #sports #blogs #mma #2017 #joshua #frampton #crolla #haye #news

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