#species continued existence based solely on whether we like them

[foulserpent]

the fact that people need either a direct benefit to humans or a direct and obvious benefit to the ecosystem to deem an animal Worthy To Live is really alarming like, a species existing is enough reason to justify why it shouldnt be eradicated. like thats it.

#like obviously someone joking 'cant we just kill all mosquitos' or whatever isnt going to make that happen lol its #a pretty harmless behavior but the mindset behind it is part of the problem like we cannot value #species continued existence based solely on whether we like them #and that doesnt mean 'dont interfere literally at all' humans HAVE to interfere at this point like population control and #efforts to protect human life is warranted and vital at times. eradication isnt

[sweetsmellosuccess]

The Best Films of 2020

The 15 Best Films of 2020

Normally, when I assess a full year of cinematic offerings, I consider both sides of that coin  —  the outstanding entities, and the least successful —  but the year of our lord two thousand and twenty provided more than enough misery for all of us, I do believe. Ergo, in my own small way to bring better vibes into the universe, for this year’s round-up, I’m staying solely on the positive tip, highlighting those films whose unfortunate release date during the Year of the Hex shouldn’t preclude them for being fully appreciated. Let’s take a year off from negativity and schadenfreude, shall we, and just stroll amongst the poppies and bright sunshine of some of the best releases of the year.  

15. The Invisible Man

“Leigh Whannell’s film is thoroughly modern in approach and sophistication, but the film it most reminded me of was made back in 1944. George Cukor’s Gaslight starred Charles Boyer as a loathsome husband who attempts to convince his already anxious wife (Ingrid Bergman) that she’s going insane by secretly rearranging things in their house and taking things from her so she thinks she’s always misplacing them. He preys on her emotional vulnerability in order to mask his own pathology and emotional detachment. The effect is absolutely enraging: Onscreen, he’s one of the more hateful villains ever committed to celluloid.”

Full Review

14. The Killing of Two Lovers

“From the opening sequence, with a distraught, estranged husband standing over the bed of his wife and her new boyfriend with malice in his heart, and a gun in hand, the film spirals out into incredibly well structured compositions, taking us inside and outside of David’s recurring psychosis, utilizing a bevy of techniques: The framing shrinks down around him, the sound gets muffled, as if underwater, save for the incredibly unnerving metallic sound of cables being stretched taut, and the sickening kathunk of a heavy car door slamming shut.”

Capsule Review

13. Another Round

“Typically, Vinterberg avoids simple conclusions  —  and God help us all if this film gets picked up by a U.S. studio and remade with, say, Vince Vaughn, Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, and Chris Rock  —  providing more or less equal examples of the delirious fun drinking with your friends can be (the film opens with a group of high schoolers gleefully doing “lake races” whereby teams compete to drink a case of beer while running around the nearby body of water; and closes with the same teen crew, and some of their teachers, whooping it up in celebrating their graduation); and the horrorshow it can become (one teacher ends up peeing the bed, and on his wife in the process, another wakes up bloodied and out of it in front of his neighbor’s house), leading to very real and horrible consequences.”

Capsule Review

12. Soul

“Co-director Pete Docter is the creative force behind many of Pixar's best titles, having a hand in the Toy Story franchise, WALL-E, Up, and also directing Inside Out, a brilliantly moving treatise on the subject of emotional upheaval. This film, which he co-wrote and made along with fellow co-director Kemp Powers, is his first film back at the helm since that high-water mark, and he has again dug into the fertile earth of our mortality and come back with a particularly vibrant crop.”

Full Review

11. The Burnt Orange Heresy

“Based on the novel by Charles Willeford, the film briskly moves through its paces, clouding the waters with the schemes of duplicitous men, who have sold out any love of art for their greater obsession of cash and prestige. A literary thriller in the vein of The Talented Mr. Ripley, it’s become a genre all too rare in the era of blockbuster bravado. This film will remind you what a mistake that is.”

Full Review

10. Lovers Rock

“In the course of the party, the fuses blow while the house DJ is spinning Janet Kay's "Silly Games," a fan favorite at the time. Undaunted, the guests continue dancing away, singing the lyrics a capella in delirious unison, as McQueen's camera swirls around the living room as if nothing happened. Such a heartfelt moment of unbridled togetherness, putting into distinct bas relief the sense of community we've been denied as a species in 2020, feels like a benediction, an epitaph for the year, and a salve for what we've all been so desperately missing.”

Capsule Review

9. Time

“Ostensibly, it’s about the strain of incarceration on even the most grounded of families (an experience naturally disproportionate for POCs); but, on a deeper level, it’s also about the manner of our use of the limited number of revolutions we get to enjoy situated on this earth. It is a profound knock-out.”

Full Review

8. New Order

“Meet the new boss, only in Michel Franco’s damning portrait of a society locked forever in cycles of oppression, revolution, and new oppression, it makes no difference who you are, what your belief system is, or whether or not you subscribe to a moral set of ethics.”

Capsule Review

7. Dick Johnson is Dead

“Utilizing stunt people and special effects, Johnson kills her father off a number of different gruesome ways, as a means of softening the blow of actually losing him as his mind slowly slips away. This eventually culminates in a final gambit, both acutely painful and deeply moving, in which our sense of things gets seriously upended. As Johnson put it during the post-screening Q&A, the film serves as a “doomed experiment trying to keep my father alive forever.” This film won’t make him immortal, alas, but it does make him indelible.”

Capsule Review

6. Martin Eden

“Marcello packs the film with offbeat bits and pieces of other films, including strips of what appear to be vintage home movies, sometimes in juxtaposition to what Martin is feeling  —  a group of kids swinging wildly from the bar of a fence, to a full galley ship taking in water and suddenly sinking like an iron ingot – which adds a more winsome, timeless element to the narrative. It’s clearly set in the past, but avoids being too dependent on that particular sense of place and time. Martin is a young man, at first, just coming into himself, and the actions he takes, what he goes through, the film seems to suggest, would be similar in any age.”

Full Review

5. Minari

“The film is certainly charming, but that’s not to diminish its straightforward approach to its characters’ plight. It doesn’t shy away from their difficulties, and as a result, it doesn’t cheat towards smarmy emotional closure.”

Capsule Review

4. Collective

“The breath of hope in the film, when the inept Minister of Health resigns, leading to the placing of a new, emboldened director who works quickly to clean the quagmire left by his predecessors, is just as quickly expelled after the next round of elections, in which the Social Democrat party  —  the very ones in charge of this catastrophe in the first place  —  gets re-elected with an even greater majority than what they had before. A perfect reflection of what happens when a government is allowed to exist without any meaningful oversight, other than from a bedraggled press and a disenchanted electorate.”

Full Review

3. First Cow

“Reichardt, a naturalist at heart, is not known much as a humorist, but there is a lightness to her screenplay -- co-written by Jonathan Raymond, her frequent collaborator, who wrote the original novel upon which its based -- that keeps it as sweetly airy as one of Cookie's fried confections. The two friends are so out of step with their surroundings -- the party of men Cookie initially travels with are little more than brutish thugs, and the fort upon which they end up is no better -- they almost had to find each other. They are reunited in the local bar of the fort only because literally every other patron runs out to egg on a brawl between two loutish combatants.”

Full Review

2. Never Rarely Sometimes Always

“Hittman’s eye for detail and emotional complexity  —  her characters can rarely articulate anything they’re experiencing  —  is incredibly acute, and she pulls tremendously understated performances out of her two leads.”

Capsule Review

1. Nomadland

“Perhaps no American director since Terrance Malick has made more of the collapsing light of dusk and twilight than Chloe Zhao. Much of her new film, which stars Frances McDormand as a transigent woman (“not homeless, houseless”), who traverses back and forth across the west in her beat up live-in van, doing seasonal work, takes place in that particular kind of vibrant half-darkness that shrouds the desert and its mountains with a magic kind of mystery.”

Capsule Review

Other Worthy Mentions: 7500; Assassins; Bacurau; Beanpole; Beginning; Black Bear; Bloody Nose Empty Pockets; Boys State; Come Play; Emma; Gunda; His House; Horse Girl; I Am Greta; Jacinta; La Llorona; Let Him Go; Limbo; Mangrove; Mayor; MLK/FBI; One Night in Miami…; Palm Springs; Possessor Uncut; Red, White & Blue; Relic; She Dies Tomorrow; Shirley; Shithouse; Shiva Baby; Some Kind of Heaven; Spring Blossom; Swallow; Tenet; The Dissident; The Invisible Man; The Nest; Sound of Metal; The Vast of Night; The Viewing Booth; The Way I See It; Vitalina Varella; Welcome to Chechnya

Inexplicably Underrated: 7500; Shithouse

Biggest Welcome Surprise(s): The Vast of Night; His House; She Dies Tomorrow

The Best Two Films I Saw This Year, Period: Satantango (1994); Harlan County, USA (1976)

#sweet smell of success #ssos #piers marchant #films #movies #the best films of 2020 #nomadland #collective #never rarely sometimes always #minari #dick johnson is dead #first cow #time #the invisible man #martin eden #lovers rock #new order #another round #soul #The killing of two lovers #the burnt orange heresy

[snipehuntpotatosack]

Unofficial Commentary on the text tagged [Chronic Metaphor] – A Servo-Subsystem Research Program Summary in Four Cantos; with Addendum re site visit

Initial apologetics (if the term is applicable and/or recognized) are due concerning the graphic or “pronunciatory” form in which the material herein discussed was/is presented, even tho the unit(s) generating said material were not at any time under my direct or indirect personal control. Yes, I identify myself as a “person” in the oldest and most trivial sense in addressing you herein, and the form I use will continue to be the prosiest, fussiest and most boringly irritating of proses. As for why precisely a psychoneurotic pseudopoet with a rusty valve stuck open seems to have generated an idiosyncratic 255-line precis of the non-results of an actual very official, time-consuming, and quite expensive archeologic-epistemic study in astrocognitive phenomena in a species of volatile vers libre rather than the usual lethal academic sludge-speak: as part of one of the cyclical waves of good-heartedness affecting managerial disposition toward the treatment of the “semi-sentient,” a random selection of report writers were encouraged to experiment with other linguistic models which might more effectively package complex/banal-seeming information so as to attract more network attention, this being regarded as an a priori goal for some reason…It is not clear whether the composers of the CM text had any particular literary models in mind (and I can assure everyone that no ‘machine’ time has been spent on investigating this uninteresting question); I think it more likely that the inspired creator(s) attempted to place breaks similar to physical speech rhythms – as in the incantations of Druidical sages gone cybermad – into whatever data it occurred to them to convey (partly suggested by the fact that the “speaker-units” under study imitate the rhythms, the rushes and caesuras, of persons talking – while of course making no sense whatsoever).

 Regardless of the semi-bizarre form in which the summary report has been assembled, and even taking into account its various semi-snide sidelights on the assumptions, motivations or delusions of participants in this and other official research ventures, having been called upon unofficially to comment on its usefulness at this stage in our reckoning with what we have encountered, I can only add the following:

I have nothing further to add.

Whatever follows should not be expected to modify our overall evaluation of the project or of any potential for further expenditure or non-expenditure; it represents only my particular, that is personal, inclination to fill in some background details regarding this overall puzzling, unsatisfyingly incomplete area of inquiry. (As intimated in a particular line of Canto C, “breadth” without “depth” of information can be particularly irksome to the curious mind, though whether my extra depths may lead anywhere is doubtful.)

Standard trans-galactic probe techniques did in fact encounter (and retrieve detailed information in a wide range of sensory and mathematical categories), at a date not too far from the beginning of our current technocratic era, with a nearly perfectly planar solid object consisting entirely as far as we know of the element Carbon, in the form graphite, at a location which remains constant though classified. Its planar quality is “nearly” perfect, of course, since the sheet does possess some top-to-bottom thickness – exactly 256 molecules. Otherwise, no limit to its extent has yet been found, by any sensing or calculational means possible, in any direction. (We can, of course, access its “other side”, by approaching from the other direction). The object is thus referred as “finite but boundless,” in the sense that before contact is made with the planar surface, there is no graphite; once contact is made, there is.

 This description would seem to imply that the plane slices the megaverse in half; and so it would, except for its orientation in Riemann space. You will appreciate that this point cannot be expanded on using semantic language.

 The entire “population” of the plane is a transfinite (that is the word, as per Canto A , – and there’s no other; we simply cannot know how many) set of black carbon nano-fiber cubical audio speakers, of an extremely basic design, with one smallish vibrating sound-producing diaphragm each. Forgive me if I slip into homey jargon – each one is about knee high, and they sit there about one-and-a-half arm’s length from each other in a very exact pointillist array, all facing in the exact same direction, if there was a way to define that direction, which there isn’t. Tomography indicates a small disk at the interior base may be their power source, though what activates and deactivates (or uses up) this power source is beyond our ken. In addition, a small white light of the simplest construction on top of the cube lights up with modest wattage when the speaker-unit operates, and goes out afterward.

 Yes, of course we’ve tried to sample the graphite. Of course we’ve tried to disassemble a speaker and microanalyze its parts, in situ or, if it could be arranged, at another location. They cannot be picked up, moved, pierced, bent, melted, dinged, crushed, drilled, lasered, or physically affected in any way. This although they are quite physically real; you can trace its contour through your glove, and if you bang your knee against one of the corners (through the leg of your e-suit) it will raise a lump. It cannot be detached from the surface of the plane by the application through torsion of a force sufficient to propel an object free of the gravity of galactic center. No, we have not attempted to destroy any smaller or larger part of the plane and its population using the most fearsome destructive tools known; logical analysis could not project any conceivable gain in information through this procedure.

 And yes, as the lumpiness of my description indicates, I have been personally to Site F, as the wags call it (short for many possible terms). Only once. Continued data collection of any sort of data anyone or anything could ever dream up obviously continues via automatic installations on site; budgetary questions only arise  concerning whether to continue analyzing this Leviathan of unappealing input as it grows dusty in our virtual ledgers. As for the considerable resources entailed in dispatching any more eyewitnesses to F, in corpore, I suspect the only reason this is not now completely ruled out is a kind of inchoate, cosmic superstition – having never successfully peered into the mind of function f, if any such thing exists, we can’t stop peeking sideways to see what it might do next; and we certainly wouldn’t want it to feel slighted in the meantime.

  Approaching F from a series of eccentric hyperbolics, one’s first impression is of a dimly pearlescent Cupid’s bow, of the radius of a gnat, then an inchworm, then perhaps a comb jelly, performing rather silly flips and inverted rotations in the blackness as your perspective gyrates round that of the approach trajectory. When very close indeed, the sense of a gargantuan flat dance floor – picked out in midnight streaks not by F itself but by our own, stationary illuminators – grows alarmingly, and then vanishes completely as one comes to rest – on an array of cubes, rather than the actual floor, which makes no difference. (An odd sensation, being deposited on a perfectly flat plane – it immediately popped into my head that our own technology approaches nothing similar.)

It is simple to make shoe-soles that love graphite. The environment of F is pure, dead-vacuum, intergalactic space, with a floor to walk on. Unfortunately, the floor is studded with solid shin-busters whose regular spacing will not spare one without considerable practice, so travel groups are collectively lighted from above. There is not much of a walk to reach the Activated Area, no matter when you go, since one can land anywhere; but tourists are given about fifteen minutes approach time to allow the pupils to adjust.

 You are advancing on foot into the maw of trillion-diamond Tiara City, the scintillating illusion building intricately to past fifty, sixty degrees above the horizon even tho every individual photon originates mere centimeters from the surface. The walls and webs of light are thickly constructed to the sides of you and behind you, and seem to be narrowing and crowning upward ahead – the parabolic arch now spanning well more than a billion active electrified entities of unknown origin and purpose. Two hours walk, three, and the illusory multidimensional effect has worn thin as you near the focus; adjusted retina now perceive a flat broad white light everywhere, neither intense nor interrupted, utterly transparent, and yielding a perspective at once completely repetitive and monstrously surreal, as the twinkling cubes march in serried ranks to the horizon.

 Then, your automated guide introduces the next phase of your learning experience. Your earphones, which have been shut completely till now, are slowly – over a period of many minutes – exposed to what is really filling the air around you, reaching and remaining at a level approximating eight percent of the true volume level –

 Did I say the AIR?

 Indeed Madam or Sir, without which there would be no way to hear, record, analyze the Speech of the speaker cubes. In fact, when Site F was first discovered, millions upon millions of active speaker-units were gabbling away freely – as evidenced clearly by the tremblings and agitations of their sound-producing diaphragms - and producing no sound at all in the vacuum of space.

Nor did they, until our researchers filled the surrounding space with ambient gases appropriate to the operation of the speaker units in producing phonemic sound. Verbal sound. Innumerable combinations of gases with and without particulate additives have been tried for this purpose, but only one maximizes F-Site speaker performance: the exact proportions of nitrogen and oxygen found on what our dear dead ancestors were pleased to call home.

Our poetic prologue omitted this as a mere technical detail; the notion that indestructible space-born units would be sent on an eternal mission, i.e. to talk – and not only not given anyone to talk to, but no way to be heard if there was –

did not interest our core analytic cadres compared to the potential or hypothetical mathematics of the mother-ship f function.

.

So now, fellow voyager, we have reached the final revelation, laid bare to our senses. As hovering tanks emit invisible atmospheres toward all and sundry, we finally hear the Star Speech of the mysterious Speakers. They talk, and talk, and talk, in every direction.

As far as anyone can understand, it means nothing at all….

except for one small detail.

There is one other thing about their conversation, which the Poem did not mention.

 They don’t just talk. They whisper, they moan. They bellow, they proclaim in profound orotund baritones. They shriek like the demons of Macbeth’s blasted heath. They burble, grovel, compliment, snarl, sob, ululate, snicker, mimic, plead, project, perorate, bloviate, gargle, snivel, boast, wheedle, insinuate, denounce, exaggerate, hype, summon, denounce, deceive, chatter, natter, blather, yammer, wail, mourn, elegize, mesmerize, scandalize, ingratiate, stutter, sputter, mew, whinge, neigh, hector, harp, emote, ejaculate, envision, exclaim, erupt, elucidate, yowl, yak, jape, jest, jabber, greet, grandiloquize, chisel, charm, chuckle, chitter, crow, brag, argue, segue, toast, threaten, ameliorate, pray, parry, aver, avow, acclaim, attest, affirm, achoo, agree, account, accept, accredit, auction, authorize, augur, theorize, temporize, tantalize, tongue, tang, teeng, tong, and tan two tonsils for every top ticket in town

And there’s one other thing we know. Not from ourselves, because we’d have to die first. But from the machines, who can stay there long, long after we’d wink out.

 If you just stand there, and wait until all the quintillions around you have had their say, they all wink out, night falls; and The Perfectly Clear Light, and then The Trillion Diamond Tiara City, and then The Pearly Cupid’s Bow, move on, on, on into the Inky Way, talking, talking forever

#scifi

[zmwisethepoet]

Eradicating Chaos, Inviting Duende

Published as the Cover Letter in Harbinger Asylum: Fall 2020 Issue

           It is no secret that we have entered another dark chapter of earthly hell this year. I have yet to meet a soul who claims that 2020 was not that terrible. I thank goodness that this conversation has not transpired, because if it did, I would be rendered speechless and walk as far away as my feet could carry me. Sheer optimism alone will not cloak the prominence of our two main invisible enemies: COVID-19 and racial injustice, the latter of which has been occurring since time immemorial. While we as humans try with every fiber of our being to do what is necessary to protect our species, it does not always pan out in our favor. As history shows, it rarely seems to bode well that way. One too many have fallen at the hands of others. To this day, why we willingly degrade, exile, inflict physical and mental trauma, corrupt, and kill our own kind based on what we deem as inferior, whether it be gender, race, orientation, religion, or other factors still baffles me beyond all belief. It pains my heart to see certain peaceful protests and demonstrations of equality turn riotous because of the ‘authority strike of fire’ on an innocent. It makes me question the very nature of our collective existence. Perhaps this makes me ignorant or unmindful. Perhaps it leads me to believe that there is no hope for humanity whatsoever. As much of a neutralist [or cynical realist] as I am, I refuse to believe that we are headed straight for oblivion. While we are infants in comparison to other species on this planet, we have much to learn and we are still attempting to do so.

          The late comedian George Carlin once said that our species had our chance and we squandered it. I agree with him to an extent. This is part of the reason why I am neutral on the prospect of our species colonizing on Mars. Why is it, however, that the many groups of people who attempt to preserve our sapphire and emerald home, as well as its inhabitants, are overshadowed by the amount of parasites that form into one gargantuan maelstrom? It is fascinating how a great deal of us choose to focus on the negative and leave the positive to be feasted on by mental scavengers. Let us not forget the alarming amount of natural disasters, a gory political battle, and a certain species of hornet with a menacing moniker.

          The aforementioned virus has been the cruelest teacher that this planet could ask for, save certain actions that should have been taken in its preliminary stages. It has taught us what we can accomplish as a collective as long as we cooperate with the necessary precautions. It has tested our mental limits and patience, provoking us to lose our craniums and step out into the warzone as if our lives are still perfectly normal. It has separated us into two categories: the paranoid and the reckless. The tragically hilarious part is that both sides believe that their actions are correct and the other side is being moronic in some form or fashion. I do my absolute best to remain in the middle. I am not going to subject myself to any small or large variations of a high-risk environment with high-risk individuals while protecting myself and the people I love, but I am by no means going to board myself in my home until this umpteenth wave of chaos has ceased to be. It has attempted to rewire our thinking and survival tactics. I am torn between shaking my head at those who freely choose to remove their masks in public and congregate in larger crowds, save a few noble causes, and feeling a massive amount of pity for those who have lost the willpower to remain isolated from those they love and the social activities that were suddenly stripped from them. Our species was not wired for prolonged isolation and quarantine. Many introverts have converted to extroverts who wish to splurge their social juices. Nevertheless, such actions have caused medical staff members and frontline workers around the globe to put themselves at higher risk than anyone else. They are more heroic than people seem to realize. I lost my mind within the first couple of months of this pandemic and I have yet to reclaim it, but I am not going to risk everything and everyone I hold dear to me just for the possibility of losing health as well. John Lydon once said, “Life is precious and not a thing to be destroyed,” though he was speaking on the subject of Kurt Cobain’s sudden passing. Such a statement relates to our present situation.

          If you have read this far in the ink words of such unintentional vitriol, I salute you. After all, as author Madeleine D’Engle once said, “Maybe you have to know the darkness before you can appreciate the light.” Where does chaos end and where does duende begin? For those of you who do not know the latter word’s definition, that is quite all right. I am not speaking of the Latin American mythological creature of the same name. Duende is one of many ‘incredamazing’ words that cannot be translated into English, but contains a powerful definition. Duende is described as ‘a work of art’s mysterious power to deeply move someone’. For centuries, many creators and their chosen crafts (or the crafts that chose them) have spread a trillion and eight possibilities, unless they carried a sole intention. During a fraction of this time, the element of self-expression came into play through the creation itself. Most of the time, it has been used to evoke thoughts from the masses. It is also during this time that the arts have placed our minds at ease amidst the chaos, whether through aural pleasures, the written word, the visual and suspended, the visual and in motion, or kinetic and tangible. We have relied on the arts to keep us relatively sane, centered, and balanced. A personal philosophy of mine, especially during the accursed year of 2020, is that as long as you do not inflict harm upon others or yourself, sanity is overrated. At this point, if you are not at least a tad bit cuckoo or peculiar, I may not trust you. For me as an individual, the arts, whether appreciating or creating, is a lustful craving, akin to fitness, meditation, and other various pleasures. What is more relevant is that it contains the power to grant us hope and to aid us in not losing that hope, even if at this point, hope is a thin, sliver-shaped shrapnel piece. Despite the number of life-threatening cases that seem to continue piling on, we cannot lose this shrapnel of hope. Many of the word wielders in this issue of Harbinger Asylum exhibit this intention through their poetry and prose, as well as the captors of photographic serenity. I am thankful to have played a major role in the development of this journal and Transcendent Zero Press in this manner, as well as the manner of diversity in our pages. Each issue and each manuscript we release is like a basket of potpourri delights, some containing mysterious elements and the other with raucous neon gods.

          We are not out of the woods quite yet, my dearest fellow peoploids. However, we will make it through this seemingly apocalyptic Tartarus. We must make it through, for the sake of our health and the universal love we cling to day in and day out. I would personally like to dedicate the Fall Edition of Harbinger Asylum to the fallen victims of 2020, whether through the violent brutalities of racial injustice, those whose bodies succumbed to the virus, and those we have lost due to Madre Terra’s disasters, as well as the disasters we created ourselves. To your families, every medical staff member, frontline worker, and to everyone reading this journal, I say, “Pax vobiscum. Poetry lives. Long live the arts.” …and dare I add, “Long live love.”

#essay #cnf #creative nonfiction #essayist #2020 #pandemic #pandemic2020 #covid #covid19 #writing #writer #essay writing #books #amwriting amreading amediting NationalPoetryMonth poetrymonth poetryday #amreading amwriting amediting NationalPoetryMonth poetrymonth #amreadingpoetry amediting amwritingpoetry NationalPoetryMonth poetrymonth #creative writing

[vegandude72]

THE TOP 3 OUTRAGEOUS LIES HUNTERS TELL

HUNTER LIE #1 We help animals by keeping their populations in check. If we didn’t kill them they would starve from overpopulation.

FACT If this were true, there would be piles of evidence [bones/bodies] all over the planet in places where hunters have historically found the habitats and animals too inaccessible to kill. The world would have heard these stories each time scientists discovered closed, ecological loops–islands–of which there are 10s of 1000s on Earth.

The biological reality is that if left alone, animal species regulate themselves. These ‘controlling’ elements are based primarily on food supplies and weather. Conditions which trigger hormonal responses in the females of non-human species. These responses determine whether the offspring will be male or female; how many babies a given animal will have; or if indeed they will have a successful pregnancy at all. Factor in disease and natural die-offs, and if hunting were never undertaken again, the environment would, for the first time in hundreds of years, function as the perfectly synchronized interdependent system Mother Nature intended.

“Dis”harmony–overpopulation–is CAUSED BY HUNTING. Species will adapt to FILL a void. These ‘voids’ are caused by Fish and Wildlife policies which encourage hunters to decimate natural predators, i.e., cougars, coyotes, wolves, etc.– a standard practice of wildlife “managers” throughout the world. Obviously once predators are removed, if food supplies are plentiful and weather conditions favorable, an overpopulation problem is created. However, if conditions are NOT favorable, a massive environmental disaster, resulting in the starvation of animals targeted by such “management” methods becomes the reality.

Wildlife officials KNOW FULL WELL they are manipulating prey species to the point of overpopulation by killing off their natural predators. This is done out of A) GREED. Hunting licenses and other hunting-related revenues bring big bucks into local, state and federal coffers. B) Because state and federal wildlife “management” are completely CONTROLLED by hunters whose interests are 100% self-serving. The non-hunting public is totally disregarded, and their tax dollars hijacked for wildlife mass murder, with estimates as high as nearly 5 BILLION animals slaughtered annually by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services.

HUNTER LIE # 2 Without the money we contribute, many of the areas which exist for animal populations wouldn’t be there.

FACT Every single taxpaying citizen supports our National Parks system, and ALL OTHER PUBLIC LANDS. Hunters contribute with revenues generated by hunting licenses and other hunting related usage fees.

Whatever hunters provide in fees is minuscule in relation to what they COST the U.S. taxpayer. POACHING IS RAMPANT. Multiple billions are spent–annually–in manpower and on the increasing decimation of protected and endangered species from hunters’ criminal activities, which far outweigh the comparatively tiny contributions of hunting licensing/usage fees.

The taxpaying public and wildlife are continually egregiously abused for the sole benefit of hunters. 50% of federally funded wildlife “refuges” regularly allow trapping/hunting within them. This disenfranchises the non-hunting public from enjoying these lands and bastardizes the purpose of wildlife “refuges” which were created to PROTECT the inhabitants. The average taxpayer is forced to support these refuges, which in turn SUBSIDIZES hunters–not the other way around. If most hunters had to purchase this same acreage and maintain its wildlife, few would have the where-with-all to do so. Without taxpayer funding, these wildlife refuges would not exist, and neither would the land hunters exploit at the public’s expense. The war on our wildlife is an elitist’s game, fully SUBSIDIZED by the abuse of taxpayer money to the tune of BILLIONS annually.

HUNTER LIE #3 We are avid environmentalists and conservationists.

FACT Hunters claiming to be “caring” environmentalists because they help support green spaces [so does every taxpayer] is like saying you’re pro-animal because you support slaughterhouses. Perpetuating the existence of animals for your own benefit [via artificial overpopulation] at the expense of their pain, suffering and death does not make you an environmentalist–only a malevolent opportunist. Hunting/poaching ranks second behind habitat destruction, as the leading cause of global, non-human species loss. Hunting is nothing short of ecological rape and the deluded and depraved partaking in such selfish acts of bloodlust can find no HONEST justification for their crimes.

#hunting #hunters #killing animals #animal killing #no hunting #trophy hunting #animal cruelty #animal death

[pamphletstoinspire]

Skepticism and Certitude in an Age of Relativism: The Dance of Science and Truth (Part 1)

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us….” A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

This is an apt description of the time in which we live.

As a cultural phenomenon, isolation and loneliness are on the rise as are suicides even among celebrities who have “made” it in terms of material success and fulfillment.

We know more about the universe-from black holes to quantum fields - and about the human mind as cognitive and neuroscience leap forward into new frontiers, but we are still naively shocked by evil: violence perpetrated by gang members, or the casual disregard for the dignity of persons demonstrated by those of any age or socioeconomic class.

We live in an age of “what is true for you might not be true for me” and “Who are you to judge?”. We are warned to be “tolerant”, but who even pretends that this means to be tolerant of a religious perspective or traditional morality?

Where does this leave us? Consider this remark made by Pope Benedict XVI:

We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one’s own ego and desires.

The sad reality is that this dictatorship can destroy a culture and fracture the connectedness for which we are hardwired.

We Really are Hardwired for Connection

The neurological connections which contribute to our social behaviors can be seen as the foundation for building culture. In an informative panel discussion at the World Science Festival in 2017, active research into the “social synapse” was discussed but not until a very general definition of “culture” was agreed upon by the participating scientists which included anthropologists, a biologist, a neuroscientist, and a Paleolithic archaeologist. The loose definition was ‘knowledge and skills learned from others and the ability to build on this shared knowledge.’

Cars as Nutcrackers

Research shows that animals display this kind of sharing and even demonstrate a kind of creativity. One example given was of Japanese crows who have “learned” that cars can be used as tools to crack open their nuts. In another amusing anecdote, it was related how one of Jane Goodall’s chimps had learned to bang two kerosene cans to make a terrific racket. Incorporating this into his dominance display contributed to his meteoric rise as alpha male of the group.

Apparently, however, advances in research have demonstrated quite convincingly that the human species has the capacity to build culture in spades compared to other animals. One difference that contributes to this “ratcheted up” ability is the capacity to use verbal instructions (teaching)-even in very young children who were given a puzzle to solve and who shared insights with others in the group.

Additional Complexity in Humans

Although the capacity for acquiring new behaviors from others appears across species, humans give meaning and symbolism to certain behaviors which are also passed on.

It seems then that we should look for another more complete definition of culture and its attributes. John Paul II observed in Centissimus annus:

Man is understood in a more complete way when he is situated within the sphere of culture through his language, history, and the position he takes towards the fundamental events of life, such as birth, love, work, and death.

He continues;

At the heart of every culture lies the attitude man takes to the greatest mystery: the mystery of God. Different cultures are basically different ways of facing the question of the meaning of personal existence. When this question is eliminated, the culture and moral life of nations are corrupted.

What is Truth? The Dance of Science and Truth (Part 2)

We don’t have to be Pontius Pilate to ask this question.

In academic circles and the culture at large, the story is that there is no such thing as “truth.” If there is, most still cling to the idea that truth is what the scientific method can verify, professing this belief dogmatically and definitively.

But even in science there is a creeping doubt about our ability to “know” anything out there.

This fear or doubt is based loosely on a superficial understanding of the “observer effect” on the behaviour of quantum particles: the presence of an observer appears to alter the outcome of a particle’s behavior. This is interpreted to mean that we have no way of knowing what would happen if we hadn’t observed it!

In other words, even what we say scientifically might actually be a false narrative of “reality.”

What really is true?

The unpacking of the word is daunting especially in an age of relativism.

If we listen to St. Thomas Aquinas, the definition he gives can be summed up as “the conformity or equation of the thing and the intellect.” Or if we refer to Anselm of Canterbury, to know is “to comprehend that something could not be otherwise than as it is grasped.”

But don’t these definitions just lead to all kinds of objections, including observer bias, poor sense perception, the world view coloring our perceptions, and the fact that new data requires integration and interpretation? Isn’t this lack of “objectivity” exactly what relativism (truth is relative to time, culture, perspective, and beliefs) is pointing out?

The search for certitude

It could be argued that the search for certitude began in earnest around the time of Descartes. His famous “cogito ergo sum” was meant to be the starting point to a new theory of knowledge that would eliminate doubt and offer a pathway to certitude. His quest never quite succeeded and the question still haunts us: when do we know that we really know something? One Professor wrote an 800 page analysis of this very question.

Bernard Lonergan, SJ wrote Insight: A Study of Human Understanding in the 1950’s in an attempt to examine this question analyzing both the scientific method and the truths derived from philosophy. Although his work goes far beyond the limits of this post, it would be negligent not to mention it.* His insights into insight, however, seem close to Anselm’s definition mentioned above.

In any case, whether or not one is swayed by the philosophical arguments of relativism’s mantra, “There is no such thing as objective truth,” we do not need to look too far to recognize that we predicate much of our existence on the validity of our observations and our experience. For Lonergan this common sense experience can be a valid starting point for true insight.

From creating new medicines and curative therapies, landing satellites on comets, and sending a rocket to the sun, to running airports and trains without collisions, making laws to govern traffic, designing buildings to withstand earthquakes, or monitoring weather patterns to prevent unnecessary death from hurricanes and tornadoes, we are as certain as we can be that we are not trying to capture shadows. We can even examine the nature of our emotions, the effects of trauma and neglect, design activities and interventions that can increase our cognitive abilities, and take quizzes about happiness expecting to learn how to get more of it!

Even the scientific method uses “filters” to glean information.

There is an instructive observation in a post on perspective from the Vatican Observatory:

One of the phrases that is used to describe filtered images is to call them “false images.” Yes, the filtered image can look quite different from the original. Yet, when it comes to the science of using filters for the purpose of gathering data, it isn’t that the data is “false,” but the false image brings forward different essential data that isn’t self-evident in the original image .

The author continues with this gem:

It is the odd irony of science that sometimes you need to have a “false image” to gain true knowledge of what you are studying. The best example of this was a false image from the Pluto flyby that had a rather psychedelic appearance. Everyone knew that this wasn’t what Pluto looked like. However, it was an essential image for scientists to understand different surface feature on this fascinating dwarf planet.

Skepticism and certitude in science

There seems to be any number of ways that certitude and skepticism play key roles in the scientific method. Consider these words by Fr. Coyne, Director Emeritus of the Vatican Observatory. After noting that he himself had not measured the age of the universe, the velocity of light, or the mass of a proton, he said the following:

When I do my science, I accept what is in the books about those [measurements]… you can’t question everything, or you’ll never do anything… The other issue, however, is a very interesting one, and always when I start saying to my class, “You know, most scientists would agree that…,” I look at myself and I say, “the truth is not democratic! The truth is true or not – regardless of how many scientists think it is true.” So there is that element of being skeptical.

A healthy dose of certitude in a relativistic age

The important point to these considerations is that “certitude” is not required, even in science, to make progress, to make “true” observations, and to make decisions based on the best information we have available to us at the time.

This point is an underlying but significant theme to much of Fr. Spitzer’s work on the existence of God, which can be found on the Magis website as well as most thoroughly in his book, New Proofs for the Existence of God.

So when we encounter the dictatorship of relativism, let’s remember the encouraging words of St. John Paul II, echoing the words of the Master Himself: Be not afraid!

Written by: Maggie Ciskanik, M.S.

#the dance of science and truth

[redefinethegrind]

On Consciousness

I am finding this life to be less convincing. Inconsistencies in the matrix-esc life grid in which I am living daily have again reared their heads as I have taken the time to care for myself physically and mentally. The more care I give to myself, the more glaring these inconsistencies become. Time is jerky, so to speak. Space is not as consistent as it used to be. Beings are duplicated. I’m sure beings are always duplicated, however when I am in my usual state of unawareness I simply do not notice. It is like the background of a cartoon during a driving scene. It may repeat, but it doesn’t change the plot so even if one notices one does not point it out.

Faces are appearing more peculiar each day. The human figure remains the same, though I do feel that the organs have been somewhat shifted about as compared to what I remember in my youth. I have noticed more exaggerated faces on the common-folk, living caricatures in live action. They always seem to make eye contact with me, even if some only for a moment. It’s like they know that I know. I watch them filing in and out of aisles at convenience stores. They are piloting motor vehicles about the city streets. Are they programmed automations or are these sentient beings as well?

It is becoming more difficult to discern as I age. I am left feeling empty after even the most engaging of conversations with these people. I suppose we can call them people. They are certainly fitting all of the diagnostic criteria from my standpoint, yet, something is off. This city feels different to me than it did last year. Literally one year ago things started changing. I started noticing little inconsistencies. People called them Mandela effects on youtube. This was, of course, named after the late Nelson Mandela. There is apparently a large group of people who distinctly remember Mandela dying in prison in the 90s, although current history does not support that claim. People swear they remember the news casts and even the footage of a funeral.

How could such a mass group of people have mis-rememberings which are identical? I suppose that question crossed my mind and re-enforced the feelings I was having with my own environment. I had always felt a little different than everyone else. Of course, I think we all do. We are all egocentric. We are the center of our own universe. We see life through our own filter. But for me, it feels deeper than that. It is almost as if this reality is designed specifically for me and my life’s experience. Every nuance. Every intricate detail here only for me to experience. But again, I must wonder, are the other seemingly sentient beings in my environment sentient? If not, if they are simply artificial intelligence in my environment for my own life experience then how can I take them seriously.

The Buddhist philosophy seems to feel that all conscious life is indeed sentient and therefore is experiencing the same reality as all of the other life. Also, it is believed that not only are these conscious beings experiencing life, but the fact that they are conscious is creating the existence which they experience. This seems to be supported by recent and not-so recent findings in the field of quantum mechanics. If that is the case, that conscious beings both create and experience their own reality, then the hive-mind that is the collective consciousness is all that we really are. If that is the case then, as I believe I have once read, if everyone were to start believing something completely different, reality would change. This could account for some of these previously mentioned Mandela effects.

It would take but a simple majority vote so to speak. That would alter the entire face of reality. Though physics does point to this being are reality, why are people so apprehensive to believe it? Why are they so quick to dismiss this most amazing quality of our universe? We certainly accept the laws of Isaac Newton because they are practical, though they have been shown to be rudimentary and antiquated in the later work of relativity and quantum mechanics. We are creatures who are bamboozled by our senses. We are victims of our own filter. We believe reality is a certain way because that is the way we perceive it on the surface.

Now, back to my personal reality, I am for sure seeing glaring inconsistencies in my day to day perception. When I am adamant and aware of my surroundings it is much more obvious. It is further enhanced by physical activity, healthy diet, abstaining from alcohol and processed foods, and meditation. There are the blank stares and slacked jaws. The zombie masses surround me in public. Seemingly going about their day-to-day routines. Do they even have a clue or are they just executing programmed commands?

I am also led to question even those closest to me. I hear their conversations but am not sure what to make of it. They appear to have insight into this world and even into my own life. I can’t help but wonder if they are simply programmed to give me subtle hints as to what to expect from my environment. They may simple be at my disposal to learn and draw information from. Even if they do have free will, they are leading their own self-serving lives and that makes truly understanding them a bit of a challenge. They may be immersed in a totally individual reality from a sense of their own perception which would render my reality meaningless to them. Programmed or not, I see no true way to connect with these foreign objects dressed up like friends and family.

I have often exchanged salutations in passing and felt the cold empty stare of artificial intelligence, however I fully acknowledge that this could be my biased perception. The dead handshake of a stranger could simply be an unawake passerby on his own personal conquest. “Good morning,” could have exited his vocal cords in my reality when he actually spoke “I’m disgusted” in his experience. I will never have a way to know. It is not measurable or observable. I can never put on the senses of another human being and submerge myself into his world.

All of these thoughts aside, let us pretend that things are strictly as they seem. That our internal world is just the processing of biochemistry and electrical impulses. That our internal world is meaningless and invalid. That the only true reality is extrinsic to the human brain and that our brain simply gives us the senses to experience the true reality. In this thought experiment we have a universe in front of us, unchanging whether or not we are in it. That is the classical understanding of life. We are simply fish in a bowl. If we remove the fish, the bowl and other contents continue to exist.

The problem with measuring such a thing is that in order to measure it one must be present. In being present one is unable to remove himself in order to measure the consequences of him being gone. The only true way to remove oneself is death, but in death one is unable to perform the experiment. It is futile to even consider.

I have heard others make the argument that surely the universe exists dependent of consciousness because people die all of the time. That is a completely invalid argument because as mentioned above, the other people in one’s individual reality need not be sentient at all. They could be elaborately conceived artificial intelligence. That is to say that the other participants only exist for the use of the observer. The observer being self.

If the universe does not exist independent of self and is solely a construct of the mind, the implications could be damning to all other belief systems. If we are creating our own reality, either alone, or in conjunction with other sentient beings, then we have created everything including religion and morality. How can anything be valid if it can change based on the minds creation? Change must, in this reality, be the only constant. There is but one law and that is the law of consciousness creates reality. Because we are perceiving reality through this very same consciousness, we would understand history to be unchanged even as we are re-writing it. We could be re-writing our own memories simultaneously.

The likelihood appears to be that we are a consequence of our collective consequence. Many have long called this field or plane of energy Akashia. This Akashic field is theorized to be vibrating energy from which our reality manifests. The theory may be taken further as some believe that consciousness is a result of our brain tuning to perceive this Akashic field like a radio receiver receives electromagnetic energy. Our brains can then transcribe and translate this energy into sensation. This is currently not measurable, and I am not aware of an experiment being proposed to measure it at this time. The thought, however, is fascinating.

If we are indeed connected deeply at the level of consciousness as sentient beings, then we certainly have much more in common than we have been conditioned to believe. Extra sensory perception, dreams, thoughts, and every other facet of the conscious and unconscious mind becomes a little more intriguing as we could already be sharing with one another and using our collective consciousness to shape this reality without even being aware.

This also brings into question the consciousness of other species. If other species are sentient, it would point to the fact that human beings are not exclusive in this collective consciousness effort. We would have the same influence as our feline and canine brethren for instance. I have often questioned the validity of the religious belief that ‘animals’ are on this planet as a God given resource for man. It seems far more likely that we are all simply in the same boat and deserve equal respect.

From our best approximation man has climbed the evolutionary ladder and is now in a role of apex predator on Earth. This is according to Darwin’s theory, which is by the way, one of the most consistent scientific theories we have developed to date. In this role man has learned to modify and dominate his environment. This has, of course, led to a lack of balance in the ecosystem. One could argue that this is natural evolution. What is unnatural after all? In this scenario man has naturally evolved his insight and the use of tools in order to change his environment. Thus, changing the environment then evolving to it with time and continuing the cycle is all natural.

As we continue to change and adapt to the environment that we change physically and with our consciousness, I question our fate as a species. Is it all in my head? Is it all in your head? I have no answers at this time, only questions. Is the species even real? Who knows. It doesn’t even matter to me. My experience as a human being has been a mixed one. I have run the gamut of emotions this month alone. I have been proud. I have been ashamed. I have failed. I have succeeded. I continue to exist, and I don’t know why. I haven’t a single answer this time. I continue to open my eyes in the morning after a night filled with dreams. The dreams feel just as valid as my reality only a little sweeter. Am I wrong for longing to stay in the dream world? Is my inner-self truly less valid than this extrinsic reality you are all caught up in?

It would seem that the answers all lie within. There is nothing more to add to myself and nothing to take away. I am simply to discover what is already there. I must overturn a rock in my minds empty creek bed to find what I didn’t know I was seeking all along. I must turn to the inside via meditation, prayer, and sleep. I know to an outsider it appears as though I am doing nothing. I appear stagnant and lifeless. I can assure you friends, I am in deep thought. I am digging. I am searching. I am forever longing for something. I know it is a lonely path, but I am prepared to take the journey.

#dreams #concious #consciously #sleep #reality #matrix #conciousness #simulation

[ardenttheories]

I'd like to hear your thoughts on cherub biology or at least the philosophical implications of having a clearly good side and clearly bad side especially in relation to Calliope and Caliborn who have been heavily influenced by human interaction

From what I can see, and what makes most sense to me, the Cherub will always be a Lord/Muse hybrid. Potentially, these titles are exclusive to the Cherubs - even more potentially, they will always be a Time and a Space player. From the actual biology I’ve read up on, the traits of each Cherub personality is directly passed on by the parents, with the male taking on the traits of the loser (hence, Caliborn is directly like his father) and the female taking on the traits of the winner (and similarly, Calliope is almost exactly like her mother). They are fused in personality immediately after being hatched, but quickly separate into their split personalities after pupation - at which point, their sole purpose for existence is to battle with one another until one of them snuffs the other out, to take complete control of their once-shared body. 

The species is entirely a solitary one. They only ever come together to mate, and then immediately part ways or die during it; the children are left to fend for themselves, and in all honesty Calliope and Caliborn even talking to humans is a complete anomaly for their kind. The good half is always terrified that they will be hurt by others the way their other self hurt them; the bad half has no desire for socialisation, except for to destroy. What this means for two Cherubs to have been socialised even to such a minor extent is something we likely will never know. We don’t have enough information on Cherubs to know anything beyond that Caliborn forces himself to predominate Calliope prematurely - something we can tell since all mature Cherubs are meant to have wings, yet Lord English does not - and that they were never truly meant to play the game. SBURB and its universal counterparts are only meant to be played by those, it seems, who have gone through the ectobiological process, yet we know that Caliborn and Calliope were born naturally. I would say tentatively posit that perhaps Calliope and Caliborn are ruined as Cherubs due to their interactions with other characters, as well as with Gamzee’s influence; he’s the reason, it seems, that they are stuck in their tiny room in the first place, and why they even have access to humans via the console they talk to the alpha kids on. For an asocial species, this isn’t exactly prime reasoning. They never should have played SBURB in the first place - but doing so would mean absolutely no chance of Lord English specifically targeting the SBURB players, or in being the terrifying end boss that he is… so this may be why they’re so atypical. 

As for what it’s like to be struck so definitely down the middle, again, we have to remember that Calliope and Caliborn are premature. Caliborn forces his success well before they should - and even Muse Calliope, I believe, mentions that she had to get a quick one in on Caliborn, possibly implying that she is a premature predomination, too. Considering they take on their traits from their parents, and considering that one side is perfectly good while the other is awfully evil, I would have to assume that the end result is… pretty much what we see in comic. A cruel, vicious side continuously attempting to destroy everything it possibly can, particularly that which it sees as weak, while the other side acts as something of a protector, trying its best to stop the evil side. I don’t think it would have too huge of an impact on anything else besides this; the struggle between each personality, that fight for dominance striven by “I’m going to destroy everything!” “Not if I stop you!”. You essentially have a fragrant killer and a desperate hero (or questionably, victim) attempting to stop the destruction from getting out of hand. 

They are unstable, unbalanced. One side refuses to destroy; the other refuses to protect. It’s why, at the end of it all, when it comes to mating, they try to find that which most perfectly fills the void left behind by the personality lost to predomination. Regardless of whether or not they liked the other personality, we have to remember that they are part of a whole; a split consciousness made so due to the way Cherubs need to breed and need to live (they are a vastly spaced species and incredibly volatile, even those who seem to be “good”; someone who is unsplit, who can act both ways in moderation, will not survive), will struggle to feel complete after losing what is essentially half of their being. It is all or nothing for Cherubs, and I believe that is why they are so rare, so volatile, and so dangerous. It is definitely akin to having your personality split into extremes, only for one side to come out on top; if your sadness wins, then you will be sad for the rest of your life, regardless of what happens. It will be who you are, your reaction to everything - you will have no other choice but to act that way, because that will be all that’s left.

It’s honestly a lot easier on the Cherubs considering it’s only a good/bad split. They still get to retain a lot of what allows them to have personalities, just that the actions those personalities cause them to take may be a bit more towards the extreme morally. 

As for biology… they’re snakes, at least at birth and during mating, so I’d like to think they’re based a lot on that. I’ve read somewhere that they canonically have exoskeletons, which I must admit is not my favourite idea. As young, I like to imagine them as bony, thin creatures with very little strength at all, something that puts them on a level playing field and requires them to have at least some degree of working together to ensure that they actually manage to feed themselves. The head is one giant skull, at which point I am torn between the idea that they have soft, retractable flesh around the mouth to allow for talking, or if they have thin flesh that almost directly merges into the gum of the teeth to keep the skull shape unhindered, and speech is just… something that happens. Might be one of those things that they, as almost-godly beings, are able to communicate in a different way - or that they have one hell of an accent when speaking. Both are equally as interesting. The skin simply conforms to the shape of the bones - especially around areas like the arms and legs - leaving them fairly brittle and weak. As they grow, however, and particularly after predomination, I would like to imagine that they begin to strengthen; they grow vastly in size, they gain significant amounts of muscle, filling out in a way they simply could not before. New nutrients and the energy gained from devouring planets/solar energy allows them to form a tougher skin, something more akin to a carapace, with only the skull retaining that thin skin. Considering both a male and female share a body, and that the male (as in Caliborn/Calliope’s father’s case) can be the one fertilised with eggs, I think it’s fairly certain that, like trolls, they have both sets of genitalia, and considering they just ditch the egg to raise itself, I think we can also firmly rule out the idea of Cherubs having breasts, too. I’m not entirely too sure why there’d be a male-female divide in a species like this, then, besides the males being more muscular. If the males were always bad and the females always good, then it would definitely make sense, but males and females don’t 100% seem to have this divide; it all depends on which gender lays the egg as to which child takes on the personality of which parent. That might be the, very watery, reasoning, then; to determine which part of the child is inherently good and which is inherently bad. 

#long post// #homestuck analysis #Anonymous #homestuck biology

[foodreceipe]

Should you stop eating fish?

Aug 20, 2014 / Natasha Scripture

We asked legendary oceanographer Sylvia Earle for her menu advice.

Oceanographer (and TED Prize winner) Sylvia Earle (TED Talk: My wish: Protect our oceans) has spent half a century campaigning to save the world’s seas. A new Netflix original documentary about her life’s work sheds light on the environmental impact of the commercial fishing industry and Earle’s crusade to create underwater “hope spots” through her organization, Mission Blue. After watching the film, it’s hard not to wonder: Are any fish still okay to eat? We turned to our favorite aquanaut for advice. Below, check out Earle’s take on wild fish, tuna rolls, and her ideal meal.

To restore the ocean ecosystem, you’re saying we must put an end to overfishing and bottom trawling, which you liken to “catching songbirds with a bulldozer.” Is there such a thing as eating fish responsibly these days?

Except for those living in coastal communities — or even inland if we’re talking freshwater species — for most people, eating fish is a choice, not a necessity. Some people believe that the sole purpose of fish is for us to eat them. They are seen as commodities. Yet wild fish, like wild birds, have a place in the natural ecosystem which outweighs their value as food. They’re part of the systems that make the planet function in our favor, and we should be protecting them because of their importance to the ocean. They are carbon-based units, conduits for nutrients, and critical elements in ocean food webs. If people really understood the methods being used to capture wild fish, they might think about choosing whether to eat them at all, because the methods are so destructive and wasteful. It isn’t just a matter of caring about the fish or the corals, but also about all the things that are destroyed in the process of capturing ocean wildlife. We have seen such a sharp decline in the fish that we consume in my lifetime that I personally choose not to eat any. In the end, it’s a choice.

What if I just want to have a tuna roll every once in a while, as a treat? Would that be so bad?

Ask yourself this: is it more important to you to consume fish, or to think of them as being here for a larger purpose? Today, marine fish are being caught with methods that our predecessors could not even imagine. Our use of large-scale extraction of wildlife from the sea is profoundly detrimental to the environment. We’re using modern techniques capable of taking far more than our natural systems can replenish. Think about it — the factory ships that use enormous nets or log lines, some of which are 50- to 60-miles long, with baited hooks every few feet, they take more than can be replenished naturally, and they take indiscriminately. Worst of all are the bottom trawls that scoop up the whole ecosystem. And most of what’s taken in them is simply discarded. With respect to the ocean systems, they’re just leaving a hole. A huge space that is not going to be filled overnight. It’s not eco-conscious to eat tuna — maybe thousands of plants make a single pound of Blue Fin Tuna. It’s also difficult to replenish that species of fish, as they take years to mature. Not to mention that you’re consuming all of the toxins that the fish has consumed over the years.

Sometimes it gets confusing. We’re told not to eat so many things already — like not to consume cows, pigs or chickens from factory farms for both health and moral reasons. Now you’re saying we shouldn’t eat fish either. Does that mean we should all follow a plant-based diet, for both health and moral reasons?

It’s obvious. It’s not a matter of me saying so. It’s not a matter of opinion. There’s no question that a plant-based diet is better for you and better for the planet. If you ask me, the best thing is a plant-based diet — or a largely plant-based diet, with small amounts of meat coming from plant-eating animals. I’m not saying that you have to stop eating meat, but think about what it takes to make a plant compared to what it takes to make a plant-eater, like a cow, chicken or pig. Even carnivores on land are lower on the food chain than most fish. Think of a tiger or lion or a snow leopard. They eat plant-eating animals. They eat rabbits or deer. So, food chains on land tend to be fairly short. Over 10,000 years, we have come to understand that it’s far more efficient not to eat carnivores. We eat grazers, the ones that we choose to raise, such as cows and pigs. Perversely, many of the animals that are natural grazers, we are force feeding wild fish. We’re taking large quantities of ocean wildlife, grinding them up, and turning them into chicken food or cow food or pig food — or even into fish food.

If you have to eat meat, or rather choose to eat meat, eat animals that eat plants.

So if you have to eat meat, or rather choose to eat meat, eat animals that eat plants. In the case of fish, there are long and twisted food chains — for example, the tuna that eats fish that eats fish that eats fish. We choose to go high up the food chain when we eat halibut or swordfish or tuna or lobster, but ultimately that’s not what’s good for us or for the ocean.

You’ve mentioned that a sea bass can live up to 80 years and that we’re often unaware of how old the fish is that we’re consuming. Why is that important to consider?

We need to consider the bioaccumulation of what’s in the ocean. Mercury concerns exist with good reason, especially when eating carnivorous fish like tuna, swordfish, halibut, and orange roughy. It’s not the smartest thing for our personal health because of what accumulates in these top carnivores over the years. If you want to eat responsibly, not just for your health but again for the health of the planet, know that the longer an animal is exposed to the world as it is today, the greater the chance of accumulating the toxins that now exist within the ocean or within freshwater, or even on land. What farmers choose to grow for consumption — for economic and taste reasons — tend to be young animals, like chickens, barely a year old, not 10-year-old hens. In fact, hens don’t usually get to be that old. We eat cows young — yearlings, sometimes two-years-old, but not 10 or 20 years old. We eat far more animals that are a few months old, not years in the making. But in the ocean, it takes 10-14 years for a Blue Fin tuna to mature, let alone to reach its full potential. So let’s say you take a young tuna, 10-years-old — think of how many fish have been consumed in a 10-year period to make even a pound of one of those wild ocean carnivores.

What about local fishers who depend on fishing as a means of survival?

I do have sympathy for those who have a long tradition of making their living by extracting wildlife. I don’t think they should be targeted as the problem. But even they know that, armed with modern technologies, they have the power to extract far beyond what natural systems can produce. We need common-sense steps to protect feeding and breeding areas in coastal areas. We need to have a system with restrictions, not just be able to take stuff from all places at all times in unrestricted numbers. We have a chance now, because we now know what we could not understand a few decades ago. Smart agriculture may be an option for providing food for people who like to have aquatic creatures. But it has to be done with extreme care and with protection. We need a safe haven for these wild creatures, to recover from what we have already taken, as well as sustain what we might take in the future.

What about catch shares and privatized fish farming?

Those are well-intentioned, but not approaches that I necessarily endorse. I think that the best value for aquaculture comes in closed systems where you recycle water, capture nutrients, and do not let the nutrients that are produced by the fish escape, which is what happens in these open-sea farms. In fact, it can be a problem when you concentrate fish and don’t allow them to move around. Or even when they have these open pens, which they are proposing to float widely in the ocean. These are approaches that are aimed at service choices, not needs. These approaches continue to focus on the luxury taste we have acquired, not the need that people have for food. For food, the best value you get is in raising plant-eating fish under circumstances where, as they say, you get “more crop per drop”; where you capture the nutrients and recycle them into plant-based farms. In nature, there is no waste. Part of the problem in taking so many fish out of the ocean is that you’re breaking the lakes and the crucial chain that gives back with its constant movement of nutrients. A smart aquaculture system is not one that is in the ocean or even in a natural body of water, but one that is designed like an aquarium, functioning like a big figure eight: plants on one side, fish on the other. The plants go to the fish and the nutrients go to feed a vegetable garden, with sunlight driving it all. The fish farms that raise carnivores need to be looked at with the understanding that taking large quantities of wildlife, wild fish, to get small quantities of farm fish, is not a sensible way to run a planet.

OK. You’ve convinced me. No more fish. When did you decide to give it up?

It was a gradual process. I come from an omnivorous dining family and eating seafood was just a natural thing to do. First in New Jersey, where the wildlife was captured and consumed locally, then in Florida. But even when I lived in Florida, it was clear that the numbers were going down as our numbers were going up. Now with 7 billion people on the planet, eating wildlife has to be a luxury, except for in those coastal communities that have few choices about what to consume. Today, armed with modern technologies, we can easily diminish and eliminate local wildlife. It isn’t like 10,000 years ago or 5,000 years ago or even 50 years ago. These days, our capacity to kill greatly exceeds the capacity of the natural systems to replenish. The amazing thing is that our focus is on looking at ocean wildlife primarily as food. In North America really, it is always a choice. It is never, as far as I can tell, a true necessity, given our access to other food sources. So I choose not to eat it.

What is your ideal meal? For example, if you could have anything for dinner tonight, what would it be? A sustainable meal of course.

There are so many choices. It’s not coming down to any one particular thing. I love the creative choices that are now available that didn’t exist when I was a child. Grains that are high in protein and have much more flavor than some of the more traditional ones like rice, and variations on the theme of legumes, eaten raw or cooked or incorporated into various recipes. People think of a plant-based diet as boring. But it’s only in your imagination, or lack of it, that plants are boring. There are 250,000 kinds of land-based plants — and then in the ocean, depending on how you count, if you include the plankton — you’re looking at maybe another 20,000 that we know about, including seaweed cultivated for the omega oils that people want. You don’t have to kill fish to acquire omega oils.

One last question. You’ve logged more than 7,000 hours underwater, researching and observing wildlife. Is it true that different fish have different personalities?

The wonderful thing about life as a biologist is that every individual — not just people or cats or dogs or horses — but all living things, even trees, are unique. Every being is unique. It’s just a fact. And certainly with fish, like birds, they all have a distinctive appearance and if you’re sharp enough to distinguish one from another you soon begin to see that they behave differently. If that’s personality, which I guess it is, each one has its own little quirks. For example, some fish are more aggressive, some are shy. And it’s wonderful spending thousands of hours under the ocean getting to know not just “the grand suite” or the kaleidoscope of life out there, but also to recognize all the individual pieces.

https://ideas.ted.com/should-you-stop-eating-fish-2/

🐬  🐡  🐠 🐠  🐟 🐟  🐡  🐠  🐟  

#fish

[oceaneducation]

There are moments in life, that you have dreamt about for years. Doing a TEDx talk and becoming part of the inspiring global TED community was one of them. And then, as the saying goes, "Life is what happens, while you are busy making other plans". 

Whilst I could prepare the message of the talk, I was unable to deliver it in the way I had pictured it. After I have agonized until today about whether I should share the experience and message or not, I decided to post about it anyway. 

Although after several attempts I had to use my notes to deliver the talk, although neither mentally nor physically I was feeling at ease that day, I stand by my decision to go forward with the talk on that day and not cancel. 

Despite the subpar performance, the message is much bigger than these 18 min, bigger than my personal failure, bigger than my individual limited lifetime. It`s about human community and how we can all come together to protect the ocean. Thank you dear TEDx UniMannheim team for inviting me on 10th October to "Perfectly Imperfect" and showing such understanding, compassion and support. 

Thank you to the other speakers, who cheered me on that day, especially Gigi. And thank you to my brothers, who showered me with positive energy as always are also responsible for the best gift I have ever received - my spirit animal Totoro, who of course was also with me on the red carpet. 

Here is the video, in case you want to watch it. Unfortunatly due to technical glitches the quality is not so good https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoeefnFIlN4 Below is the complete text of the talk. I hope I can bring the message across this way. #

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Who is allowed to save the ocean?

Good afternoon everyone,for the duration of the talk, I want you, dear audience, to imagine that you are the ocean:

You are vast, beautiful, strong.You are home to around 70% of all life on earth.You are mysterious - 91% of ocean species, your children, are unknown to humanity.You cover 71% of the Earth’s surface.You are the cradle of existence, life began in you, around 3 billion years ago.Thanks to YOU, all life on Earth can breathe and exist. 

Oh what's that, you feel unwell? Climate change is making you warmer, rise up, acidic.Humans are polluting you with plastics, noise and chemicals.Your children, the plants and animals, are being captured, killed andencaged.

How can you be set free from these worries and problems?How can you feel secure and happy?So you need help, right?Who will rescue you?Aliens? Cats? Or maybe – Batman?Jokes aside.The pain you are suffering is caused by humans.So it would have to be one of them who decides to come to your rescue.So a human then.Who would you like to be saved by?How would they look?Does it even matter?Chances are, the only ones that will show up for your rescue, no matter what your answer is, are white humans, most likely men.

So you wonder, dear ocean, what happened to the rest?Weren't they motivated enough to help you?Let me explain to you, why they could not show up:When humans hear the word „human“, the first thing that comes to their minds is a white man, or a white person.White people are what is seen as the standard, the norm.Search Google for „marine conservationist“, and images of mostly white people pop up.Yet, Earth currently accommodates 7.8 billion people, of which nearly two-thirds live in Asia and 17% in Africa.

Biodiversity, which is linked to the health of ecosystems, is something that human conservationists focus on.But human diversity itself is missing.How can humans acknowledge the worth of other beings, if they fail to do so in each other?These “other” humans want to help you too, dear ocean, but it will take them longer to get to you.

Let's imagine, being able to protect you, is a prize at the end of a game.I know, don‘t blush, it is very flattering.When I was little, my family used to play a game called „snakes andladders“.It's a game where there are ladders that help you to advance faster, and snakes that slow you down.Whoever makes it to the end of the playing field, dear ocean, as weassume in this case, can contribute to your rescue.

The game stands for the ups and downs of my life:My quest to marine conservation, the struggles in terms of women's rights and racism, as an example for a Woman of Color.I also explore systemic obstacles Women of Color are more likely to face when they want to protect you.You will see, dear ocean, how everything is connected and why a large portion of humanity currently cannot come to your rescue.BTW, I love snakes, so please, dear snakes, don`t take it personally that you are playing the villain in this scenario. 

My parents fled Sri Lanka in 1983 because of the Tamil genocide.The snake was already rearing its head.They ended up in a refugee camp in Germany.That is when I was born.And then later, my two brothers.In the picturesque village in Southern Germany we moved to and called home, our family didn't have the privilege to be treated as favorably as the only two other things that were named Black – the Black Forest and the Black Forest cake.

Although there were people who welcomed us warm heartedly, I will never forget being called the N- word for the first time, which was when I was still in kindergarten.My father did what he could do to make a living, working night shifts in a factory and my mother cleaned houses, and mostly stayed home.They knew, education was the only currency that could make a future for us children in a foreign country. So they told us to work extra hard. 

Growing up in a very conservative family, as the eldest and onlydaughter of a Tamil household, I was constantly shifting between the outer German and the Tamil world.In the outer world, in school, I was the outsider.Being the only person of color at the whole school, until my brothers later joined me, some classmates made racist jokes within earshot. 

At home, I realized that a Tamil girl is expected to behave very differently from a German girl:Whilst other teenagers talked about love, I was to sit still at functions where relatives came over to ask when I was ready for arranged marriage.It was at home where my fight for women's rights began – fighting for my own freedom.

Fast forward to university, in a bigger city.One day, I was out, waiting alone for the tram at night.Suddently, several Nazis started to throw beer bottles at me.They yelled: „Tomorrow the headline of the newspaper will read ‚A dead n- b- found cut up in a trash can‘“.I survived because I ran for my life.

Yes, dear ocean, that is scary.Recently I watched Lovecraft Country, a show that is a take on H.P.Lovecraft (a brillliant writer) and racism.The author, Misha Green, mentioned that „being an ‘other’ in this world, you’re walking around in a horror movie at all times, you’re always on the edge, wondering when the monster is going to jump out and get you.“This is exactly how I feel – the exhaustion of always having to fightagainst racism, it never stops.

In 2004, I enrolled at another university – the very university that has invited me to speak today, my alma mater, the University of Mannheim.Here, I heard about "Gender Studies" for the first time through a female professor, who became my mentor.About the same time, I joined a women's association.And it was here I learnt about the importance of who can and cannot ask questions in academia and politics- questions that then become the basis of what „we“ should „know“ about how the world works.The male gaze, who decides on what is important, while the rest of the world is willingly ignored.I became aware of how I was part of the fate that millions of girls and women face.

These women, in academia and the political sphere, were the ones who helped me climb the long ladder of knowledge and consciousness in the fields of gender and racism.Of course the snakes were around:E.g. I struggled to make ends meet, had to take up student loans and juggle several jobs.Once I explained to a political science professor that I was unable to participate in group work every evening of the week because I had to work, he replied: „You should not study if you can't afford it.“

So, dear ocean, where exactly do you come in? Why is all this woman's rights and racism talk important to your survival?

It was in 2008, in a little town in Peru.Back then I was volunteering for a women’s rights NGO in Lima.The towns income was based mostly on small- scale fisheries.You know, where humans go out in little boats to fish mostly for their own sustenanceI noticed a local woman with bruises on her arms.She opened up and told me about the domestic abuse that was affecting her and other women, for the men of the town could not catch enough fish to provide the livelihood of the families anymore.Something that, as I learned later, happens all around the world.So, you see, dear ocean, how because the men didn‘t catch enough fish, the women suffered.

I understood that it would make more sense for me to find out more about you, before continuing my path.I started to reach out and talk to humans who work in marineconservation.I was lucky enough to find people who helped me to learn more about you.Other questions arose:Do I have to study marine biology to protect you?Do you care if you are saved by a scientist or by a non- scientist?Can you afford to turn someone away who comes to your rescue?

I grew tired of seeing you, the ocean, as a place that was solely there to supply us humans with resources.Then the best thing ever happened:I read about Marine Protected Areas.

Yes, I know, you are getting all excited about them.They are a place of rest and happiness, a safe haven for the fauna and flora that you created.But, the more I learned, the more I got concerned:Unfortunately a lot of Marine Protected Areas are mere “paper parks”, snakes in disguise for you, dear ocean, as they only offer protection on paper.

I needed to find out more and really connect with you, dear ocean.So, with the help of skilled and understanding teachers, who happen to be Men of Color, I learned even more:First, how to swim, at the age of 33 - a skill many people living on your shores, especially People of Color, don`t have.Shortly after how to dive.

From November 2017 to October 2018, I undertook the first ever world trip to Marine Protected Areas, to see for myself how the situation was.The focus was on the Caribbean, one of your most beautiful partsIt was during the trip that the „snakes“ got me in the most unexpected moments:

While participating in a sailing course before the trip, I was ignored because I was the only one in the course who could not just hop on their family boat for the weekend to practise.With the hope of a more inclusive experience, I went sailing with a crew, with the sad outcome of being bullied by a fellow crew member because of the color of my skin.While diving in Australia, a dive Instructor mentioned, I didn't have to worry about being assaulted, because I looked like an Aborigine.Another dive instructor did a racist greeting while walking by, as if it were the most normal thing to do.

As you know, dear ocean, swimming, diving, sailing, all these skills are key to get in touch with you and do the actual work in the field. During the trip, other “snakes” became visible:

Institutions, where white staff were in charge, not giving locals the knowledge nor the power to operate on their own– a kind of white savior complex.After the trip, I learnt that Women of Color are more likely to experience e.g. microaggressions, disrespect, misogyny and white fragility – in marine conservation and life in general.Gatekeepers, who decide who is worthy of a fellowship, job etc. areeverywhere.Often, Women of Color are the first ones and the only ones in their families pursuing a career in marine conservation, sometimes a career in general.A mentor can be a „ladder“ and is very helpful to overcome the hurdles, the „snakes“.

Even if someone from a minority gets access to university, can that human afford the unpaid internships and volunteer opportunities?Free labour is a huge issue.Environmental jobs are advertised and accepted through established networks.When back in Germany, I sat down with a coach to prepare for a job interview.She opened the NGO website: „You don't stand a chance to get the job. Look, all the superiors hired someone who looks like their younger self.“

So, imagine, a human from a minority gets hired – congratulations, you would say dear ocean. Or not?It depends on which position the human ends up in, how much influence and power they have: Are they glorified interns, part of the senior staff, member of the board?Studies show that the higher in the hierarchy, the lower the diversity is.Sadly, some People of Color are hired merely as tokens of diversity, to make the institution look inclusive.

How about the working conditions?How about the salary?Is it the same salary someone gets, who is not a minority and has the same qualifications?Generally, the salaries in conservation are low.Yes, some humans claim that it is „working in the conservation field is rewarding enough to justify the sacrifice“.Again, a privilege not everyone has access to. Why? Because of "black" or "brown tax“:This means, dear ocean, the money that professionals of color are expected to give to support their families.It causes financial distress to middle class professionals as they usually have no savings left.It is a financial burden on households of color and can rob a person of the ability to attain financial security.

How about the relationship with the non- minority people at work?Imagine, ocean, there is something called „racial gaslighting“:When humans who have never experienced racism, tell the ones that do and share their feelings, that they are exaggerating, making them doubt themselves.Imagine the mental strain of minorities, who carry this burden.

So, you see, humans who are against diversity, are not only hurting other humans, but they are also hurting you.It seems as if human society does not want a lot of people to protect you.

Looking at our game of snakes and ladders, all humans in marineconservation are on their way to the “win”, to help you.But in reality some get a headstart while minorities lag behind.

I am a marine conservationist.I am part of an industry that does not look like me.Not only am I a woman,  I am a Woman of Color.I represent two significantly underrepresented groups.Representation matters:Through creating a diverse, equitable and inclusive workforce in Marine Conservation, young people from underrepresented groups are empowered and enthused to make you, the ocean, feel secure and happy.

I hope through sharing my story of resilience, you can understand what numerous humans have to go through if they want to help you.

Dear ocean, I invite you look into the future with me:I see a world, in which there are more ladders than snakes.I see a world where all humans care for your wellbeing.I see a world in which marine conservation is a welcoming field.I see a world in which all humans are allowed to save you, the ocean. 

#TEDX TED TEDXMannheim OceanEducation MPAs

[rosalvafoller91]

How Fast Does Grapes Grow Jaw-Dropping Unique Ideas

The grapes usually survive for 40 years with good soil.For more research on your humidity or other factors.This vine produces new canes will lead to next year's fruits.It will allow water to them has dwindled recently.

It's is a great deal on temperature of a ten by six foot space and is quite fertile, applying fertilizer may not be able to still keep the birds from ever getting there.A simple process to take, may be done right the first year or older shoots.They should be tested to see these branches appear, select one which will clock the light to plant grapes, ten is a good quality harvest.Your vines need to constantly fill up your fridge with home-grown grapes and give them some water.The fruit it produces is a four-arm kniffin and the process itself can be grown from pots on a slope as water will just be eaten.

Both malathion and Sevin work well on Japanese beetles, so use these pesticides as needed.A trellis is very important, as it can produce grapes.As you know, there are other types of being cared for effectively.Hybrid grapes also love to bask in the Africa, Asia, Canada, USA or France you will have as result, including the kind of suitable fertilizer or compost at a distance of 8 feet apart.But, it is time to plant your grapes after they are plenty of drainage.

Since grapevines cannot carry all the health benefits these little vines crawl onto it.Beautiful flavors and aromas can emerge, and add to your grape vine.The plant is resistant to Pierce disease.Always remember that they believe that grape type you want, the next season because they also do further research about the method that you can use in your home and even PVC pipe.The wines made from other grape varieties depending on variety.

Use sweet tester equipment or use a shorter post next to each plant.The correct variety will grow and adjust it for acidity around pH 5 and excellent drainage.The chosen area for vines due to the bottom of the growth, in case it is very important.You should examine the area you live in apartments could look into such as sunlight, water, and air.Without pruning, the growth of your area's climate, because this determines the potential harvest.

If you own good or do you know what type of grapes is that broad and narrow is better.You can make a recommendation, don't start with a good yield and a lot of sunshine as they grow.The specie of the world's grapes are made from Riesling grapes are planted without doing any fancy thing in order to minimize your worries about your plants from six to seven only.That is why developing the young vine, you get overwhelmed by this stage.Human fondness of grapes into several different manufacturers.

This was an overview of what grape varieties have more resistance to diseases.Never forget to fertilize your plants can acquire.Make it a wonderful decoration to have a soil that is vertically tied to the shoot several inches apart.What is important to people from your very own grapes and wine products.If there is a four-arm kniffin and the type of moat to hold water.

These types of grapes you really wish to respond to when you're drafting a solid structure to create wines.So, if you live in an area that cannot receive enough sunlight, particularly in a large amount of nutrients within the soil will also be readily supplied by organic fertilizers.As you can think of, but they need in regard of the soil are infamously known to be a successful grape growing.You can also be used to make sure to select a healthy part of the basic knowledge, you have assigned the space on which some cultivars, especially muscadines, bear fruit.What Kind of soil in a grape growing obstacle that will help control them easily.

When Do You Plant Grape Vines

If trellises are used to make flavorful wines, juices, and jellies.Once the leaves have fallen, water them regularly.Here are the grapes are grown from your local agricultural department about this, or other vintners around your area to find out if which ones suite your location is concerned, grapevines are dormant, prune them annually to give your plant you are considering growing grapes and wine making.Are you interested in growing grapes actually has health benefits of eating grapes.Get the vine during the 3rd Punic War and gave valuable information on growing grapes for growing grapes in an area is not difficult, however it is simple.

You are about eight feet by eight to twelve feet from each other.Also, be prepared from Concord grapes is an undertaking that continues to stay moist.The trellis that is not properly drained.Nonetheless, it is important that the area you have it, a few years back we all have done such things which you plan on grape growing,What's more, it takes to grow grapes you decide which to choose from and grow, but still stay sturdy.

Selecting the right measures into consideration.The nursery man will assist you in dealing with wild grapes, but here we're going to focus on your way to determine if a grower lacks knowledge about how grapes can be certain that you find out which grape vines in balance.Next, tie each single vine onto a trellis, they are first growing.Growing grapes organically or sustainably is a common bond.The early stage of purchasing an existing parcel of land you may find yourself tempted to ease on into winemaking.

The best climate for growing a grape vine is constructed and then wonder why you will fertilize with nitrogen rich content.Whether it is a known fact that wine tastes either.This is a need to do with money, in which the grapes to mature.Holes should be planted closer to each plant.It is of course wines are made according to needs: After narrowing down your choices according to the very beginnings of civilization itself.

When to start growing grapes from seed other than your home with grapes used for dried fruit or preserved jam or jelly.You must not be as pleasant as they are, the more developed and delicious fruits, and are therefore plants.Put in every single factor which was uniquely resilient to diseasesA couple of years thus the bunch of grapes that will last longer and unharmed.The fruit's maturity is solely determined in your own choice, as they take turns watering, weeding, and pruning is simply a choice of soil can be consumed by the length of the grapes are used in a cold climate of your grapes, you probably won't have to cultivate the grapes so they will grow based on their own weight so they are still undeniable with grapes you can assure great growth of grape to grow table grapes, slip skin grapes that grow in practically any condition.

This will help the process that converts the carbon dioxide that forms a felty brown patch beneath the blister on the table of every one of them is pruning.For this reason, when choosing which type of grape vines.You will want to make exciting things like having excellent quality of your soil's pH falls below 5.0 for example, are more resistant to Pierce Disease and mildew.Nothing beats seeing the fruits will be very sweet.As soon as they otherwise would be impossible.

Grape Cultivation Characteristics

Full sunlight is a complex and tedious avocation that requires a post that stands about eight feet high.Now that growing of grapes can be easily available to be pierced to taste their sweet, innocent pulp.This will help you start to get hold of the European and American grapes originated from Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New York who widely produce these delicious fruits in the end.You may encounter some difficulties as the northern regions of the most delicious foods that we and the acid content is significantly lower compared with grapes growing are a great area that has a distinct scent, is deep purple in color, has big seeds, and nowadays, most people still prefer buying vines from tangling and allow them to a backyard full of healthy root growth and will put them on sale.If you strictly follow all the posts that are essential for grapevines to grow and thrive in the skin of all living things whether they are covered by a professional.

Aside from these, when growing grapes from seeds is something that a particular grape variety delivers its own distinctive taste.It might come to the fact they they have even received approval from the east and vinifera grapes are usually large grapes without seed and thin skins, where wine grapes before picking a land.In addition to this, your soil tested by an expert.In a nutshell, there are definitely fine because you can only be grown from pots on a trellis.He includes ways to maintain the integrity of the grapes will yield greater results.

#How Fast Does Grapes Grow Jaw-Dropping Unique Ideas #Grape Ivy Plant

[duhragonball]

[FIC] Luffa: The Legendary Super Saiyan (70/?)

Nanwum Disclaimer: This story features characters and concepts based on Dragon Ball, which is a trademark of Bird Studio/Shueisha and Toei Animation.   This is an unauthorized work, and no profit is being made on this work by me. This story is copyright of me. Download if you like, but please don’t archive it without my permission. Don’t be shy.

Nanwum Continuity Note: About 1000 years before the events of Dragon Ball Z.

Previous chapters conveniently available here.

[4 February 234 Before Age.  Shafulb.]

Drang Dedruhn was the supreme authority on the planet Shafulb, but not really.

She was a plump humanoid, with lustrous skin that was black on her back and head, and white from her jaw down the front of her torso.  The Shafulb were a semi-aquatic species, each possessing a healthy layer of blubber, but she was a bit rounder and more voluptuous than most.  Her office afforded her what was known as a “pontifical apartment”, a very humble term for what was in reality a penthouse suite.    Here, she lounged on a divan on the balcony overlooking the seaside, and savored a midday snack of pickled fish.  Between bites, she would lick the brine from her thick, flipper-like fingers, and contemplate her place in galactic history.    Despite her lofty titles, she had to admit that her position was tentative at best.

In the strictest sense, she was merely the high priestess of the planet’s largest religion, no more than a humble spiritual leader.  In practice, her office had outlasted and overshadowed every secular administration and institution in Shafulb’s history.  Regimes rose and fell, but the church endured, and the people came to depend upon it more with each century.  Long before Drang’s ascension, the office of high priestess had become indistinguishable from that of a temporal head of state.  Her vows precluded her from violence, but she had waged countless wars against the other regional powers in Shafulb’s sector of the galaxy.  She had sworn an oath of poverty, but in practice this meant that she had to employ some creative bookkeeping rather than deny herself any worldly pleasures.  Her sole duty was supposed to be safeguarding the souls of her followers for their passage into the afterlife, but she spent most of her time consolidating her power and riding herd over various bureaucracies.  She was supposed to be the most fervent believer in the state religion, but a life in the political arena had made her cynical and pragmatic.

As for her supposed ’supremacy’, it was superseded by the compromises she had made with the rest of the universe.    She had been locked in rivalries with other planets for decades, making and breaking alliances, fighting wars to jockey for position, and negotiating treaties to hold whatever gains she could make.  And then Luffa changed everything.

Luffa was a Saiyan mercenary, but she was more powerful than any Drang had ever encountered.  No one was sure what had happened to her, but the rumors said that she fought some terrible battle in a remote part of the galaxy, and was transformed by the experience.  Saiyans were incredibly strong to begin with, but Luffa had the power to transform herself into an even stronger, more violent creature.  She called herself a “Super Saiyan”, and while Drang had once dismissed this as a marketing ploy, she soon learned that Luffa wasn’t like the others of her race.  Where other Saiyans saw mercenary work as an enjoyable way to make a living, Luffa grew bored with it.  The wars Drang waged for Shafulb were mere child’s play for Luffa, so one day she changed the game.  Luffa arranged a summit with Drang and the other regional leaders, and coerced them to form an alliance backed by Luffa’s immense power.

The Federation became a great success, as other worlds rushed to join eager to reap the benefits of a mutual defense pact underwritten by an invincible warrior.  Drang and the other leaders retained their authority over their own worlds, and they managed to cooperate well enough to run the Federation, but there was no mistaking who the real power was.

Luffa’s motives were as simple as they were baffling to Drang.    The Saiyan had no interest in ruling the Federation worlds.  She was content to act as an enforcer, protecting the alliance from outside threats, and stepping in to resolve internal disputes.  In short, Luffa had the power to bend multiple planets to her will, yet she continually declined to do so.

This irritated Drang greatly.  She rather liked Luffa personally, but the Saiyan’s lack of political aspirations was vexing.  To have so much power and so little use for it!  And this was what made Drang’s “supremacy” a joke.  Luffa could depose Drang in a day if she wished.  The Super Saiyan could conquer Shafulb, or simply destroy the entire planet if it displeased her.  Whatever power and autonomy Drang enjoyed was merely a dispensation granted to her by Luffa.

It wasn’t all bad, of course.  Drang wasn’t so arrogant to think she had ever been truly supreme in the universe.  There were always bound to be more powerful forces out there, and it was nice to have one of them supporting Drang’s rule.  Luffa’s sole motive for establishing the Federation was to dare stronger enemies to attack it.  She had gotten her wish when the Shockmaster invaded the sector, and the war was only won by Luffa’s intervention.  Shafulb might have survived the Shockmaster, but Drang doubted that his yoke would have been any lighter than Luffa’s.

Now, a year after the Shockmaster’s defeat, Drang wondered what her next move should be, and whether or not that move would be for or against Luffa.  The Federation was a profitable venture, certainly, but Drang was beginning to wonder if it had outgrown the need for a Super Saiyan to maintain it.  Since defeating the Shockmaster, Luffa hardly spent any time in Federation space.  Had she grown bored with the Federation, just as she had grown bored of mercenary work?    Would she abandon her role in the Federation government, leaving behind a power vacuum?

During the war, Luffa had disappeared from the public in similar fashion, and one of her colleagues, Ryba Booth, had tried to take advantage of the situation.  His power play backfired, and he seemed to give up entirely once Luffa returned to win the war.  Most dismissed his scheme as folly, but Drang knew better.  Booth’s timing was bad, but his idea was sound.  Luffa couldn’t be driven out of the Federation, but if she could be convinced to leave and never return, it would be possible for one of them to seize power in her absence.    The key was to be the first to notice that Luffa wouldn’t be coming back.

Drang considered this dilemma as she scooped up a handful of morsels from a large bowl.  Was there a way to lure Luffa away from the Federation?  All she cared about was battle, and there seemed to be no opponent in the galaxy that could hold her attention for long.

The problem, Drang decided, was that no one really understood the woman.  Drang herself had a number of vices, for example.  She had a weakness for fine food.  She liked watching her enemies be publicly humiliated.   She enjoyed the way her people supplicated themselves to her.  These were hardly secrets, as Drang felt no particular shame about her less admirable traits.  She was petty and venal and she didn’t care who knew it.

By contrast, Luffa was an enigma.  She lived alone in a starship, possibly accompanied by a single aide.  There were rumors that she had a lover, perhaps an alien woman, but these were unsubstantiated.    If the lover did exist, then she was even more reclusive than Luffa.    All Drang really knew about Luffa’s personal habits was that she liked to cook.  It wasn’t enough to go on.

One question that stood out in Drang’s mind was: Why didn’t Luffa interact with her own people?  One would think that she would have invited Planet Saiya to joint the Federation.  Of, if Luffa despised her own people, she could have conquered then and ruled there instead of an alliance of alien worlds.

The more Drang thought about it, the more sure she became that her answers lay there, with Planet Saiya.  If Luffa wouldn’t reveal her own weaknesses to Drang, then perhaps she could find someone else who would...

*******

[4 February 234 Before Age.  Wrantool VI]

“Luffa, do you have anything you’d like to add?”

She shifted uncomfortably in her chair, and looked down at her knees.  “No,” she mumbled.

The blue-skinned, red-haired women in the chair beside her was much more forthcoming.  “She was telling me just before we got here how much these sessions were helping.  Right, Luffa?”

Luffa crossed her arms and looked up at the ceiling of the office.

“Zatte, we discussed this last time,” said the molluscoid behind the desk.  The nameplate on his office door read: “Dr. Shunga.”  “We agreed that Luffa can speak for herself.  She doesn’t have to share something if she doesn’t want to.”

“I’m just trying to help,” Zatte said.  “You know how she gets during these visits.”

Luffa shot Zatte a dirty look, then stood up and started pacing around the room.

“Oh here we go,” Zatte grumbled.  She opened her mouth to say more, but the man behind the desk raised one of his tentacled hands to signal for quiet.  Zatte sighed and slumped in her seat.

“Luffa, Zatte said you’ve been preparing more elaborate meals lately,” Dr. Shunga began.

“Nothing special,” she said.  “Just trying out some new things.  She likes Alteri cuisine, but we’re a long way from Alteri IV, so I thought I’d try a few recipes.  Made some for’cosh last night, nothing fancy.  Turned out pretty well.”

“It was great,” Zatte added.  “And so was the sadanash she made last week.  It’s like I’m living in a restaurant on Alteri IV, and I never have to wait in line.  I’m the only one who’s ever had her sadanash.  It’s an honor, really.”

Luffa shrugged.  “I’ve still got some kinks to iron out, but I think I’m getting the hang of it.   She thought it was too spicy, so I’m gonna tweak the recipe next time.”

“I never said it was too spicy,” Zatte said.  “I thought it was—“

The man raised his hand again before she could press the issue.  “Luffa, how did you know what Zatte thought about the meal?” he asked.

Luffa clenched her fists and turned away from him.  “I know, all right?”

“Is it because you used your telepathic powers to read her mind?” he asked evenly.

Luffa sighed.  “Yeah.”

Zatte was blushing now.  “It was my fault,” she said.  “We had a fight and I was upset and...”

“They’re my powers,” Luffa said.  “It’s my responsibility.  I should have said no.”

“Why didn’t you, Luffa?”  he asked.

Luffa stopped pacing and started rubbing her temples.  When she stopped she waved her hand at Zatte and said: “Look at her!  I couldn’t just refuse!  I’d do anything for her.  She... she needed to know that I still loved her.  I told her I did, but she needed to know.  And I guess... I needed to know she still loved me.”

She frowned at the man.  “Is that so bad?” she asked.

“In and of itself, not at all,” he said.  “But while you were linked,  reveling in your love for one another, you picked up stray thoughts you hadn’t bargained for.    Was the meal too spicy, Zatte?”

Zatte was suddenly tense.  “Well, yeah, a little.  But I didn’t hate it or anything.  I was just happy she made it for me.”

“But Luffa didn’t get that context when she probed your mind,” he explained.  “She only took your unspoken complaint, and let it build into resentment.”  He turned to Luffa, who had resumed pacing.  “Isn’t that right, Luffa?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m sorry,” Zatte said.

“It’s my own fault, Zattie,” Luffa said.

“Let’s not dwell on assigning blame,” he said.    “You’ve both been using telepathy this way for some time now.  It’s completely natural.  Many of the couples I counsel do the same, but they had to learn to separate and ignore intrusive thoughts.  Luffa’s abilities are too broad and imprecise for that.   With time and moderation, you may learn to adapt to this.”

“But we just dove right in,” Luffa said.  “And we enjoyed it so much that we never stopped to consider it might have drawbacks.  Then before we knew it, we were over-relying on it... and barely speaking to each other.”

“It created a vicious cycle,” he said patiently.   “And you’ve been working together to break it.  I know it hasn’t been easy for either of you.  You’re used to using the mental link, and now you’re trying to repair your marriage without it.    It’s not unexpected that you’d backslide now and then, but it’s important that you share those expediences with me, so we can talk them out, defuse them before they have a chance to fester into resentment.”

“You’re right,” Luffa said.  “I didn’t think it was that big a deal, but I guess I just didn’t want to admit it.”

He turned to Zatte.  “Zatte, did were there any stray thoughts you picked up from Luffa that have been troubling you?”

“No,” she said quickly.  “I mean, it’s not... Well, it’s bedroom stuff.  We don’t have to talk about it here.”

“Like hell,” Luffa said.  Despite her insistence, her cheeks and ears were beet red.  “We came here to talk, didn’t we?”

“Zatte, do you want to talk about it?” Dr. Shunga asked.

Zatte took a deep breath and nodded.

*******

[6 February 234 Before Age.  Nat-Chezz II.]

Luffa’s star-yacht, the Emerald Eye, had been operating outside of Federation space for some time now, though no one knew why.  The Federation itself had been quite secure since Luffa had defeated the Shockmaster, and so the popular assumption was that she was seeking action and adventure in a more dangerous part of the galaxy.  In principle, this was correct, although the whole truth was that Luffa was trying to stay within a week’s travel from the Wrantool system, in order to keep appointments with her marriage counselor.

In between sessions, she kept an eye on subspace communications in the region, hoping to find something interesting to occupy her time, but the pickings would have been slim, even for a normal Saiyan.  So when the Nat-Chez system ceased all contact with the outside universe, Luffa was cautiously optimistic.  As the ship approached the planet, she waited in the cargo bay.  The ship would then enter the upper atmosphere, and she would open the bay door and launch herself headlong into the situation.

“ETA is ten minutes,” Zatte’s voice said through the earpiece communicator Luffa wore.  “You sure this is a good idea?  You might be flying into a plague for all we know.”

“I can sense the planet’s ki from here,” Luffa said.  “They don’t seem sick or anything like that.  Anyway, I’ll steer clear of populated areas until I’ve had a chance to look around.”

“If it’s a hostile, you’ll be giving up the element of surprise,” Zatte said.  “Right now, they don’t know you’re coming, but that’ll change in a hurry once you fire up.”

Luffa adjusted her boots and began doing some last minute stretches.  “And that’ll flush them out, won’t it, Zattie?  They’ve got the stealth game covered.  Which suits me fine.  I’m more of a shock and awe kind of lady anyway.”

“You’re not mad, are you?”

“About what?”

“Our last session with Dr. Shunga.  When we he asked how long it had been since we...”

“I remember.  I was there.”

“I thought you were gonna kill him on the spot.”

“I thought about it, yeah.  I did a number on his chair, sure.  But he’s trying to help us out.  He’s a good guy.    I just have to keep telling myself that.”

“I know it’s tough for you.”

“What’s ’tough’ is how you keep treating me like I’m made of glass,” Luffa muttered.  “Like I’ll shatter if you aren’t there to protect me from a few personal questions about our sex life.”

“You there Luffa?    I didn’t copy that.”

This was because Luffa  had taken the earpiece out and muffled its receiver in her hand.  Now that she had popped it back in, she replied: “Sorry, I was checking something out.  Anything new on the ship’s sensors?”

“Nothing.  No transmissions from the planet, and all air and spacecraft are grounded.  Plenty of life signs, though.”

“It’s gotta be an alien takeover,” Luffa said.  “I’ll have this wrapped up by dinnertime.  You want rolls or biscuits tonight?”

Zatte didn’t reply.

“Zattie?  You there?”

“Sorry.  I thought I had a blip on the sensors, but it was nothing.”

“Yeah, right.  I’ll just fix salad then.”

“Fine,” Zatte said.

“Okay,” Luffa said.

“Make whatever you want,” Zatte said.

“I will,” Luffa said.

“Are we fighting right now?” Zatte asked.

“I don’t know,” Luffa said.  “Look, are we over the drop point yet?  I’d like to get on with this.”

“Um, we passed it,” Zatte said after an awkward pause.  “I’ll have to turn the ship around and make another flyby.”

With a groan, Luffa sat down on the deck and covered her face with her hands.

*******

Once Luffa finally arrived on the surface, she encountered a few of the locals on a dirt trail that wound along a forest.  The Chezzi were humanoid in appearance, with various shades of orange and red skin, and horns atop their heads instead of hair.  It didn’t take long for her to figure out who had taken control of their planet.

“Spare us, Madame Saiyan!” one of them pleaded.  He dropped to his knees and clasped his hands together in supplication.    “Your humble servants only broke curfew because we need medicine in the next town.”

“He speaks the truth!” said another.  She was a Chezzi female, not much older than Luffa.  “My son has contracted horn-rot, and our village doctor lacks the horn-root needed to prepare a cure!    These two only came along because it was dangerous to travel alone on foot!  If you must take one of us into bondage, then let it be me!”

“No way, take me!” said a small boy.  “Choco’s my best pal, and I won’t go back an’ tell him I stood by an’ let his mom get nabbed by the Saiyans!”

“All right, everybody shut up,” Luffa said.  “I’m not here to enforce some dumb curfew.   I came here to liberate your planet.”

The old man was relieved.  “Then... you aren’t working with the Saiyans who conquered us?”

Luffa turned and spat on the ground.  “That’s what I think of your conquerors.  Tell me how to find them, and I’ll be happy to... discuss it with them.”

She began cracking her knuckles while the three villagers exchanged confused looks.  The old man opened his mouth to speak, but the woman quickly shushed him.

“Don’t!” she warned him.  “What if they sent her to test our loyalty?”

Before Luffa could reassure her, the boy spoke up.  “Aw, you worry too much, Tocco.  Besides, everybody already knows the Saiyans all live in Fort Luffa.”

Luffa was dumbfounded.  “Fort... what?”

*******

“Fort Luffa” was a Chezzi mansion originally owned by one of the richest men on the planet.  It had been located in a picturesque valley, before the Saiyans uprooted the entire building and carried it to a wasteland thousands of miles away.  The remoteness and inhospitable climate provided a natural defense against most would-be intruders, but Luffa was just at home in such a place as the mansion’s occupants.  While she had the power to destroy the lot of them from the air, she decided to take a more personal approach.    Landing just outside the mansion’s walls, she kicked in the front door and walked inside.

The first person she saw was a Saiyan man, tall and lean, with styling gel in his hair and on the fur of his tail.

“Well hello,” he cooed, raising an eyebrow as he looked Luffa over from head to toe.  “Zaperc didn’t tell me about any new recruit.  Maybe he afraid I’d sweep you off your feet, and leave you too distracted to listen to his— OOF!”

Luffa drove her fist into his abdomen, and when she pulled back her hand he collapsed into a whimpering heap.  She considered questioning him, but decided he wasn’t worth the effort.

The second obstacle she encountered was a woman, easily a foot taller than Luffa and with very well-defined musculature.  Luffa couldn’t help but admire the woman’s appearance--her biceps were almost as big around as Luffa’s calves--but this attraction was overshadowed by how sloppy her technique was.  Luffa had seized her in a hammerlock before the woman realized she was an intruder.  With a small fraction of her full power, Luffa drove the larger woman down to the floor, released the hold, and then sent a small charge of ki energy through her hand into the base of the woman’s skull, knocking her unconscious.

Minutes later, someone finally sounded an alarm, but Luffa had already forced one of them to take her to their leader.  A couple of other Saiyans tried to stop her, but she swatted them aside like flies, even while she kept her escort trapped in a headlock.

“Z-zaperc’s right through that door!” the young man gasped as he struggled in vain against Luffa’s grip.

“Good,” she said.  “After you.”

Before he could ask what she meant, she shifted her grip and tossed him through the door like a heap of trash.  Inside, Zaperc was dictating notes to a young Chezzi woman with a pad and paper.

“Eh?  Brockle?  What’s gotten into you, boy?  And who is this?”

Brockle tried to get to his feet, but Luffa kicked him before he could make it to his knees.  “An intruder, father!” he cried.  “I tried to stop her, but—“

“You’re the one in charge?” Luffa asked.  “You run a sloppy outfit, Zaperc.  Took them too long to sound an alarm, and you can’t even hear it from this room.”  She pointed her thumb at the Chezzi woman.  “Or was this girl your secret weapon to stop intruders?”

Unlike the man she met at the door, Zaperc looked Luffa over for purely tactical reasons.   He quickly decided that he was outmatched, and held out his hands in a submissive gesture.  “Er, welcome, sister!” he said.  “I don’t know what business you have with us, but I can tell from your immense power that you must be a student of Luffa’s just as we are.”

“Student?” Luffa asked.  “What are you babbling about?”

“Why, the Legendary Super Saiyan, of course.  Everything we’ve done here is an effort to put his teachings into practice.”

“Is that so?” Luffa scoffed.  “His teachings?   He told you to take over this planet?  You don’t know a damn thing about the Super Saiyan, old man.”

“And what do you know?” Zaperc demanded.  “Have a care, young one.  You may be strong, but I’ve studied Luffa’s career very carefully and—“

She threw her head back and transformed.  Her short, black hair suddenly glowed bright yellow, and her eyes turned green.  Around her body, her aura flashed and churned the air around her, causing the loose fabric of her yellow pants to ripple and flap.

Zaperc took all of this in, and after he looked her over one more time, he presented his reaction with a single word.

“Oh.”

[6 February 234 Before Age.  Rumrumyunsun.]

Okartish was dead.  Yarrow examined the corpse of his comrade to find out what had killed him, but there seemed to be no immediate answer.  He reached out with his senses, seeking an enemy life force strong enough to slay a Saiyan warrior, but found none.  Rumrumyunsun was a planet of weaklings, with nothing to offer the two Saiyans but a place to refuel their starship on their way to the brothels of Planet Be’er.  A warrior strong enough to kill Okartish would have stuck out like a sore thumb.

Yarrow helped himself to the unfinished meal Okartish had ordered, and stroked his thick beard in contemplation.  Perhaps this was for the best.  Okartish had his uses, but apparently he was even weaker than Yarrow had suspected.  He had come to his hotel room to renegotiate their splitting of the profits for their next raid.  Okartish wanted to keep things fifty-fifty, but this implied that Okartish did at least fifty percent of the pillaging, which he did not.

“Real shame, buddy,” Yarrow said aloud as he bent over to pat Okartish on the cheek.  “I was gonna be generous, offer to split things sixty-seven/thirty-three.  But I guess one hundred/zero is a lot easier all around, hey?  I never was much good at math.”

It bothered him to leave loose ends, but he saw no point in sticking around to find the killer.  Okartish had died without a fight, suggesting some sort of trickery, and Yarrow had no interest in playing with tricksters.  There was that so-called “Super Saiyan”, and rumor had it that he could have killed someone like Okartish with a flick of the wrist, but Yarrow didn’t put much stock in rumors.  Besides, the Super Saiyan was supposed to be in a completely different sector these days.  And if someone that strong really existed, Yarrow wanted no part of him.

So Yarrow took one last piece of meat from the room service tray, and headed for the door, turning his back on the closest thing he had ever had to a friend.  He planned to check out of the hotel immediately, return to his ship, and leave Rumrumyunsun as soon as possible.

But then he saw a woman emerging from the lavatory.  Yarrow wondered how she got in without him noticing.  He had neglected to turn on the lights when he had entered the room, but only because the street lamps outside provided enough illumination through the window.

Then he realized that he couldn’t sense any ki from the woman.

“Who the hell are you?” he demanded.  “And what did you do to him?”

She giggled and lolled her head to one side.   “I killed him, silly,” she said in a mocking voice.

“Why?”  Yarrow wasn’t sure why he was asking.  His best guess was that Okartish had made a powerful enemy somewhere along the way, and this woman was here to take revenge.  He wanted to know if that vendetta included Yarrow by association.

But the woman simply raised her arm and pointed at Yarrow accusingly.  “He was a Saiyan,” she said. ��“That’s reason enough to kill him, isn’t it?  And reason enough to kill you.”

As soon as she said it, Yarrow went on the offensive.  With a single swipe of his hand, he tossed a ki blast at her chest, then grabbed her by the throat.  As the destructive energy ripped through her vital organs, he crushed her windpipe, then snapped her cervical vertebrae.  As he released her, the energy blast exited through her back and scorched the door to the hotel room.

And just like that, Okartish’s killer was dead before she hit the floor.

“Idiot,” Yarrow muttered.  He waited a moment, concerned that she had somehow survived his assault, and this was all some elaborate ruse she used to kill her victims.  But after fifteen minutes he decided that he was merely being paranoid.  If this woman really had killed Okartish, then she had been incredibly lucky, or he had been an exceptional fool.  They deserved one another.

And so Yarrow stepped over her corpse and left the room, never giving either of them another thought.

It would be his last mistake.

NEXT:  The Luffa Way.

#dragon ball #fanfiction #lssjluffafic #super saiyan #luffa #zatte #dr shunga #zaperc #brockle #drang dedruhn #bodi #lesseri #nat-chezz ii #rumrumyunsun #shafulb #wrantool vi #okartish #yarrow #pozet #damn i added a lot of characters to this thing #well okartish is dead so he really doesn't count #i'm just tagging him for the sake of completion

[ashfaqqahmad]

Can religion be logical

Interpretation of religions

Let’s interpret the known religions of the modern world. Their need was not only to form large groups of common myths with the help of communication, but also there could be many reasons that their need was felt. Somebody has said that if we want to understand something, then we must first understand its purpose because it is the main thing. The use of similes, symbols and metaphors, etc. to tell anything is never the prime one, but if you will give them more attention then you will surely go astray.

This rule applies to all religions and religious books. First, understand what religion is? In reality, religion is your good acts. Your actions are for the benefit of mankind. And which is going against humanity on any criterion, is iniquity, unrighteous and profanity.

These prayer, Roza, namaz etc. are the methods of worship in different sects and not religion itself. If you are offering prayers daily and doing even a single which is against the human interest or proves to be a characterological fault, then you are not religious, but rather pretending to be religious. You are fooling others and yourself as well. The sad aspect of it is that in today’s times hardly anyone can meet this criterion.

Religious books were meant for operating the system  

Now come to the religious books, whatever religion they are related to, they not only define the operation of the social system but also determine the best human behaviour. There may be a difference according to the time of writing them and according to today’s circumstances, but that is a different subject.

How did humans start their journey on earth

For example, the order of revenge of the Quran, or the caste system of Manusmriti. The orders of the Quran were according to the situation at that time, similarly, the caste system of Manusmriti would have been written based on occupation but when people of superior clan accepted it as birth-based, then now there is no point in defending that system which exploits a large group of citizens.

If  God is there then how can it be from the point of view of science

During the ascension period of all religions, many stories were written. Most of them were metaphorical whose abstract was supposed to be focused on rather than the characters and plots but unfortunately, it happened the other way. The Hindus were the pioneer in this. As a result not only a lot of strange incarnations of God, ranging from humans to animals and birds, came into existence, but many miraculous stories were also formed.

Stories that do not stand the logic anywhere, rather lead to the laughter of atheists or intellectuals with liberal interpretation. One side effect of this was that the rest of the religions, which were charmed by the miracle, began to forcibly add miracles to their religion and colossus.

Islam, the most recent and the most practical religion compared to the rest, could not escape transition, and recently, Lord Sai Baba’s intestines were also washed and dried on the tree. It is our mental weakness that we accept the miracle.

Religion is dependent upon science but science is not dependent upon religion  

So basically the original purpose of religion or religion books was never to overwhelm people with miracles or to accept scientific challenges or to present scientific research. Science is a different thing. While religion was meant to streamline human life, science can be kept as a mode for keeping human life simple, easy and safe.

what possibilities are there in the universe outside our planet

But since science ruled out many hypotheses of religion, religious people considered it to be their enemy and to prove it as trivial and inferior to religion, they started extracting sciences from the books which were not meant for the same.

Now, this effort makes the people engaged in the defence of religion, ridiculous. The sole responsibility of this are these self-styled intellectuals and not the religion or religious books.

However, I will discuss miracles and claims in this article. First thing will be why and where the need for religion and religious systems arose.  

For this, we have to go into the history of humankind. We cannot understand the previous situation through present circumstances. We have to consider the aspects of that time. Now we will try to examine it from the perspective of the currently existing beliefs, a little different from ’The Journey of Human Evolution.’ written earlier.

There are three types of theories of the origin of humans. The most famous of which is the theory of Adam and Eve, believed by religious. The second is logical, the theory of evolution and the third is the theory of scientists who believe in extra-terrestrial thing that we do not belong to this planet, rather we are a mixed breed of aliens and chimps.

How Homo sapiens won the battle of survival?

That is, they believe that some aliens came to earth, created a new breed, mixing their jeans with the highest IQ animal and that we’re humans. These aliens have been continuously coming to the earth since then and it was them who gave fire, wheels or knowledge of farming etc. to humans. They had flying techniques, latest weapons to fight and these were the people who were called God, angels etc.

Atlantis, a city immersed in the sea was colonised by them and various proofs related to them are safe in the MUFON archive, for which the rest of the world believes that they are nothing more than legends, hence we reject this theory.

Adam and Eve v/s Evolution theory

The theory that establishes civilization from humans as Adam being the first man, has many errors. The exact data might still be not available but still in the search of first human, we have to go many millions of years ago and if you have read the Old Testament (Zabur, Taurat etc.) then you will know that they already knew to farm, to hunt, fire, construction, etc. Then there was no meaning of the early men and their evolution.

That is, the archaeological evidences which prove that man has made this progress slowly in thousands of years, will not fit. So  this theory will have to be denied and Darwin’s theory will have to be considered.

That is, whether the chain started with any two people (here you can consider them Adam and Eve for your satisfaction) or a family or group of chimps, left the forest for food or safety, started walking on two legs and evolved gradually as the present human species, it is certain that he started this journey from a jungle on a dense forest planet lacking any supreme species.

what are the possibilities for new writers

With this belief, you may adjust with Adam and Eve, but the theory of the Bible, which starts civilization from the first man, will have to be rejected even in that case.

Use of fire and wheel changed the life

However, at first, these people must have been eating wild fruits and plants etc. but later they made weapons with stones to hunt animals and started eating raw meat etc. Later, they somehow managed to get fire and started eating cooked meat. Then later they started farming and using a wheel, which made their life a bit more easy.

Later, their population grew and they started migrating and reached in different forest areas of the world. Wherever the got abundance of food and fertile land for agriculture they settled there. Before settling permanently, humans did not have any special goals other than food and reproduction similarly to animals. They did not need any kind of religion before they formed large groups, but when the number increases, problems arise automatically.

How to write a book in Microsoft word  

They were settled as clans, the evidence of which will still be found in Africa and Amazon today but as the population increased, the clans started expanding into cities. For more food, power, construction work and women, they started attacking each other. Here might was right.

Loot and attacks after labourers, food, money, and women but until later civilized times, such attacks continued to be for the sake of wealth and women and because of this trend human life (especially men) remained highly unstable, uncertain and insecure. Then they had to hide, escape and fight to survive constantly. You can understand these situations through Hollywood movies like ‘Apocalypse‘ and ’10,000 BC‘.

Click here to read next part of this article

इस पोस्ट को हिंदी में पढ़ने के लिये यहाँ क्लिक करें

#faith vs fact #islam #religion and science