#systematic restore

[terrible-eel]

I may be too stressed to articulate this clearly but I am going to try.

While Hawai'i and Maui are trending I'm going to share this link. Its a FAQ about Hawai'i's statehood and the situation Hawai'i is in at the moment. There are people who want to be part of the U.S in Hawai'i and there are people who don't, but the people of Hawai'i were never, at any point, given an option to choose.

If you want to help Hawai'i and it's people but can't donate, spread this word. Help educate people. Make Hawai'i as the tropical paradise be replaced with the sovereign nation stolen by the u.s.

It is subtropical, meaning it is much more vulnerable to arid climates caused by climate change.

It has been systematically stripped of its native food harvesting practices and any ability to farm and self sustain. It has been systematically stripped of its previous industries. Maui used to export milk and cattle. That's all been taken away.

The islands since the 1800s were exploited as plantations, burning sugar cane and growing pineapples which are not native, diverting the water and depleting the water table.

Lahaina burned because of these practices. Because the native people were no longer allowed to govern their lands.

We as local people know that tourism is bad because this systematic destruction has happened in living memory. Within my grandparent's lifetimes, within my lifetime. I have watched this island crumble at the hands of mainland startups, hoping to take people on whale watching tours that cut the whales with their boats while people aren't allowed to have a ferry between islands. People create ziplines and tours through lands that used to belong to local people for farming and cattle. Now they're bought out for photos and hikes the local people can never afford. Hundreds of jobs have been lost in the past thirty years. Mass migrations to the mainland have been made by local people, myself included because we can no longer afford to stay on the island where we were born. Working three jobs is not enough to cover the rent because the houses are bought up by mainland people who then turn these houses into vacation rentals and charge hundreds a night. Right now these very homes are being paid for by the government so that Lahaina people have somewhere to stay and it's costing the state millions that people in the mainland are reeping.

People ask why tourism is bad. Because there are people alive today on Maui that have watched the foreign industries destroy everything. Because people alive today know what used to be and knew how to take care of the ecosystem so that this kind of calamity didn't happen. Lahaina was not just fertile. They had canals and waterways. Rivers that they would drive boats through to go from one part of town to another. It was more like Venice than this desert you see in pictures.

And do your own research. The information is out there. There are two Hawai'i's. The one you see as a tourist, and the REAL one. The one we need to protect.

Let Hawaiians have their land back. Let them restore the water to the land so we can prevent further catastrophe. Tell people about REAL Hawaii.

#hawaii #Hawaii fires #Maui #maui fires #Lahaina #lahaina fires #injustice #sovereignty

[contemplatingoutlander]

In the 1920s, a series of greed-based, racially charged murders of members of the oil-wealthy Osage Nation occurred in Oklahoma. (The linked article is a gift 🎁 link, so anyone can read the entire article, even if they do not subscribe to The New York Times.)

The article's authors, Jim Gray and David Grann, also point out how legislatures in red states like Oklahoma have created laws that are being used to prevent the teaching of significant racist incidents in American history for fear that it could be implied that students are being taught that they "'should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress' on account of their race or sex." Consequently, teaching about the Reign of Terror against the Osage Nation is being stifled in some Oklahoma schools.

Here is a video about the murders.

.Below are some excerpts from the article:

During the early 20th century, members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma were systematically murdered by white settlers. Yet outside the Osage Nation, the history of this racial injustice — one of the worst in American history — was distorted and then largely erased from memory. “Killers of the Flower Moon,” a film directed by Martin Scorsese, shines an extraordinary light on these events and provides a long overdue opportunity to restore them in our consciousness. But ironically, at the same time that the film is being released, there is a new attempt to suppress the teaching of this very history in the state where it took place. In 2021 the Oklahoma Legislature passed a bill prohibiting teachers in public school from instructing several concepts, including that “any individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress” on account of their race or sex. The vagueness of the law has caused teachers to censor themselves, for fear of losing their licenses or their school’s accreditation. In a high school classroom in Dewey, Okla., copies of “Killers of the Flower Moon,” the nonfiction book behind the film, were left unread because the teacher worried about running afoul of the law. Another teacher confessed that she was uncertain if she could refer to the settlers who murdered the Osage as white. At stake in these fights is not only factual accuracy. It is also how new generations will be taught to record and remember the past — both the good and the bad — so that they can learn to make their own history. The story of what’s now called the Osage Reign of Terror is essential to understanding America’s past. After vast oil deposits were discovered under their lands, the Osage were suddenly, by the 1920s, among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. In the year 1923 alone, the roughly 2,000 Osage on the tribal roll received a total of more than $30 million, the equivalent today of more than $400 million. As their wealth increased, though, it unleashed an insidious backlash across the country. The U.S. government passed legislation requiring many Osage to have white guardians to manage their fortunes — a system that was both abhorrently racist and widely corrupt. Then the Osage began to die under mysterious circumstances: There were shootings, poisonings and even a bombing. [color emphasis added]

I encourage you to read the entire article. It is tragic that red states are so afraid of their racist past that they are making it extremely difficult for children in those states to learn about the racist underbelly of American history, and how that history continues to reverberate in our society.

_______________ Video source for gif (before edits/caption) Originally posted 10.21.23; last edited 01.20.24

#osage murders #oklahoma #american history #killers of the flower moon #censorship #anti-crt legislation #david grann #jim gray #Youtube #the1920s channel #the new york times #my gifs #gift link

[tainbocuailnge]

Hey, sorry to send an ask without us knowing each other 😅

But I just saw you in the tags in the post about jrpg translations, saying that FF14 has better translations in other languages.

Can you talk more about that?😊

I played in English before and it was okay. I tried German too, but was a bit disappointed. So hearing you say that, I'm genuinely curious to hear more!

I've been replaying msq in german and wrapped up tsukuyomi just yesterday and it's insane the extent to which german is more thematically consistent and has stronger and more nuanced characterisation than english. i think the german script is more poetic too, despite english trying so much harder to sound flowery and important. I've been translating bits and pieces to my friends and I keep feeling like I'm presenting them with that botched jesus painting restoration because I just don't know how to convey how beautifully constructed some of these sentences are. the german translation team are genuinely very good writers.

as an example of what kind of differences we're dealing with here, and since it's what I finished most recently, in german from the start there's a lot more emphasis on how it was systematic mistreatment from the "good old" doma that lead yotsuyu to where she is, and that her cruelty is specifically retribution for the way doma has failed her (as opposed to english trying to frame it as in large part to satisfy her personal sadistic impulses). gosetsu is repeatedly shown to be sympathetic towards her for this even while she's actively trying to hurt and kill him (as opposed to english having him be sarcastically dismissive of her), which makes it make way more sense that he'd take tsuyu in his care later even without the "also she reminds him of his dead daughter" bit (that they do still tack on at the end but doesn't feel like a handwave excuse as much because of aforementioned consistent sympathy).

in english hien has several lines showing he's hostile to and wary of tsuyu and waiting for the right opportunity to kill her, but in german hien brings up killing tsuyu one (1) time and when gosetsu argues for her right to live hien agrees, and the difficulty in keeping her around is not his personal dislike but that it's hard to guarantee her safety when the doman people will want violent retribution in turn (in clear parallel to lyse trying to keep fordola from getting lynched without a fair trial). because german hien is not constantly talking about how he wishes he could just kill yotsuyu for her crimes, it doesn't read as pathetically incompetent of him to let her sneak out of the mansion multiple times because he was treating her as harmless citizen of doma instead of an enemy of the state (because german in general emphasises a lot that she SHOULD have had a place in doma), and her backstory is taken seriously as part of his motivation to create a better doma that she perhaps could've had a peaceful life in

there are many cases like this where german displays a nuance that english doesn't, and from very early on. in english arr cid ran away from the empire out of moral disagreements, in german it's clear that he also holds a complicated resentment over losing his father to project meteor and then his replacement father figure gaius to a similar mad search for power, something that in english doesn't come up until all the way in shadowbringers with bozja. in english castrum meridianum livia says she's going to kill you because gaius is hers, in german she's mad at you because you killed her friend mr cape westwind and is going to kill you before you can take gaius from her too.

in german heavensward thordan sounds much more convinced of his principles. when you defeat him in english he's horrified of how you could possibly overcome the amount of faith he's powered by, in german he's horrified that the future of ishgard will be thrown into chaos in the name of your pursuit of truth. gaius sounds more convinced of the ideals he spouts too, and it feels more plausible that he has people willing to die for him and his ideals. in german the similarities between nidhogg and estinien are clearer, and when nidhogg possesses him he insidiously frames it as an act of kindness.

in german, many random moments of misogyny in the english script outright don't exist. matoya doesn't make fun of alphinaud for looking like a girl. alphinaud isn't dismissive of alisaie in binding coils. most of the lines in english that insult or dismiss yotsuyu as an evil whore don't exist in german, and lines that weren't about her at all in english turn out to express sympathy towards her in german. in english hydaelyn had minfilia fuse with her by force, in german it was minfilia's idea. in english i was bothered by lyse being made head of the resistance because she sounds so unsure of what to do and think right until the end, in german she's full of conviction and clarity of purpose. I'm sincerely convinced the english team hates women.

because german doesn't go out of its way to sound like some kind of ancient wizard prophecy at every turn, several scenes which in english were confusing convey their information clearly in german (I'm particularly thinking about the minfilia anitower scene here). characters talk clearly and with a lot of personality that english fails to achieve because everyone has to speak faux old english. and because most characters talk like real people instead of ancient wizards in german it's extra cute that urianger does in fact talk like an ancient wizard.

as a more personal gripe, I have noticed several moments where the english script centers the warrior of light and their importance and struggles, while in german those scenes where about, like, the character the scene is about. german wol is still hydaelyn's favourite freak of nature and everyone loves them obviously, but as the example most fresh in my memory there's the scene in early post-stb where you visit fordola in her cell and she unwillingly looks into wol's past thanks to her fake echo. in english, she asks wol how they can bear all the suffering other people have put them through. in german, she asks how wol manages to stay sane when the echo makes you so deeply aware of the suffering of others. in the flashback of her past you see in that scene the german script also mentions that her face tattoo is an ala mhigan design, which makes it clearer than it was in english that she was specifically trying to rise the ranks of the imperial military as ala mhigan and makes her motivations more coherent - namely wanting to prove both the ala mhigans who hated her for being garlean and the garleans who hated her for being ala mhigan wrong by achieving success as both (and the power to lash out at both).

there have been very, very few moments where I actually thought the english script was better (shiva's trial lines and like, one line hien says at the steppe, that's it), and the vast majority of the time german is anywhere from about the same quality as english to just insanely better. the english script is so concerned with sounding cool and important that it becomes scared of letting characters be motivated by emotion. it's plagued by the kind of insincerity and insecurity that plagues so much of western media and leads to movie superheroes making fun of their own costumes. the english script will write one good line and then keep repeating that line ad nauseam and yet still fail to achieve the amount of internal thematic consistency the german script has, because english is relying on this handful of cool lines to carry its emotional core instead of actually letting the emotional core drive the characters. combined with the consistent pattern of dumbing down and/or vilifying female characters frankly I want to beat koji fox with hammers.

I'm actually very curious what about the german script disappointed you. the german voice acting is not good so if that's what turned you off I completely get it (I play with jp voices myself) but that's separate from the actual writing. these kind of things will ultimately always come down to personal preference so i won't judge but as you can tell from these several paragraphs i feel very strongly about the quality of the german script so I find it hard to imagine why you think that

#riverrabbits #king of asks #efksiv #ffxiv

[autisticlancemcclain]

The first time Lance defends him, he’s shocked.

He’s not actually sure it’s the first time, actually. Lance is so practiced. The words come so easily. He’s silver-tongued and ruthless, systematic in the way he shuts the man down, proud and prideful in the set of his shoulders.

“But he’s Galra,” the man hisses, snarl twisting his features, fists clenched around Lance’s right hand and the fabric of his jacket, locked in a dance. Neither of them have noticed Keith, at the edge of the ballroom, half-hidden in the balcony, gaping.

“The Galran Empire is a plague that has monopolized three quarters of the universe,” Lance replies, steely. “If you think the billions of children it has sired and abandoned are the enemy, then you are a fool.”

“Those children carry that violence in their blood.”

Lance does not flinch, even as spittle flies onto the corner of his mouth, dripping with the man’s vitriol. “Ten thousand years,” he reiterates, “of conquering without any value of the people they are colonising. You can trace the lineage of almost any person on any planet that has been under the Empire’s rule for longer than they can remember, and you will find Galran blood. How do you think the Empire rebuilds planets for workforces after they slaughter their armies? Do you think it’s left to natural restoration?”

For the first time the man does not speak, stunned. Both of them have stopped moving, much to the annoyance of other dancers in the gala. Lance delicately pulls himself out of the man’s hold but still stands in front of him, looking him in the eye, defiant set to his chin.

“The Empire is your enemy,” he says. “Not a race of people. I cannot count for you the amount of people who have gleefully joined the Empire in desperation of power, regardless of their race, the cost to their planet. Zarkon and his forces need to be stopped. If you stand stubbornly where you are, demanding blood tests of every ally to determine that they meet your puritan standards, you will have no allies left to stand with you.” He takes a step back and finally the blankness of his expression gives way to real fury, brown eyes flashing and jaw set with a rage Keith has never seen in him before. “I will not stand with you. Keith has earned my trust. I know my black paladin will lead this war to an end. If you stand in his way — in our way — I will cut you down before he has the chance to see your block in the road.”

#lance calling keith my black paladin……… #vld #voltron #lance #lance mcclain #keith #keith kogane #klance #pre klance #red paladin lance #black paladin keith #galra keith #brown-eyed lance #fic fragment #my writing

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: SEGM

Published: Aug 13, 2023

Near-zero regret” findings among adults suffer from a critical risk of bias and have low applicability to youth

Recent research published in JAMA Surgery evaluated satisfaction and regret among individuals who had undergone chest masculinizing mastectomy at the University of Michigan hospital. The average patient age at the time of mastectomy was 27 years; no patients who were under age 18 were allowed to participate in the study.

The participants reported high levels of satisfaction and low levels of regret at an average of 3.6 years following mastectomy. The study authors lauded the “overwhelmingly low levels of regret following gender-affirming surgery,” and framed their findings as in conflict with the “increasing legislative interest in regulating gender-affirming surgery,” referring to current legislative attempts to restrict or ban “gender-affirming” procedures for minors. Another group of authors provided an invited commentary on the paper, reinforcing the view held by the study authors, and asserting the presence of a “double standard:” “gender-affirming” mastectomies have come under undue scrutiny by states’ legislators, while other surgical procedures with higher regret rates do not appear to concern legislative bodies.

The study suffers from serious methodological limitations, which render the findings of high levels of long-term satisfaction with mastectomy among adults at a "critical risk of bias"—the lowest rating according to the Risk of Bias (ROBINS-I) analysis. ROBINS-I is used to assess non-randomized studies for methodological bias. The "critical risk of bias" rating signals that the results reported by the study may substantially deviate from the truth. The results also suffer from low applicability to the central issue the study and the invited commentary sought to address, which was whether legislative attempts to regulate “gender-affirming” surgeries are warranted in minors. Unfortunately, these highly questionable findings are misrepresented as certain and highly positive by both the study authors and the invited commentators, several of whom have significant conflicts of interest.

Below, we provide a detailed explanation of the key methodological issues in the study which render its claims untrustworthy and not applicable to the patient population at the center of the debate: youth undergoing gender reassignment. We also comment on the alarming trend: several prestigious scientific journals appear to have deviated from their previously high standards for scholarly work and instead have become vehicles for promoting poor-quality research, seemingly to influence judicial policy decisions rather than advance scientific understanding. We conclude with recommendations about how journal editors can restore the integrity of scientific debate and raise the bar on the quality of published studies in the field of gender medicine.

[ For in-depth analysis, see: https://segm.org/long-term-regret-satisfaction-mastectomy-critical-appraisal ]

SEGM Take-Aways

Although this study reports extremely high rates of satisfaction and low regret, the timeframe in which these outcomes were assessed is insufficient—just 3.6 years post-mastectomy on average. The sample is also highly skewed: 50% of the participants had mastectomies in the last 3.6 of the 30 years. This skewing of the length of time since surgery is expected, given the sharp rise in the number of people (especially adolescents and young adults) identifying as transgender and undergoing chest masculinization mastectomy. It is also a short time in which to assess regret, particularly since one quarter of study participants were younger than age 23 at time of surgery and the median age of first birth in the US is 30 years.

The conclusion of high satisfaction/low regret suffers from a critical risk of bias due to the high non-participation rate, important differences between participants and non-participants, and lack of control group. Problematically, the authors misuse the (critically-biased) results from adults to argue against regulations for irreversible body alternations for minors and do so with a decidedly politicized spin.

The only intellectually honest commentary is that we do not have good knowledge of the likely rates of detransition and regret following chest masculinization mastectomy, nor do we know how many people experience regret but remain transitioned. There is an urgent need for quality research in this area. Previously, detransition and regret rates were considered to be low: they may have indeed been low due to the much more rigorous screenings, or the results may have been biased by the notoriously high dropout rates that plague “regret” research. Regardless, there is now growing evidence of much higher rates of medical detransition.

A recent study from a comprehensive U.S. dataset with no loss to follow-up revealed a 36% medical detransition rate among females within just 4 years of starting hormonal transition. At least two recent studies suggest that average time to regret among recently-transitioned females is about 3-5 years, but there is a wide range. Much less is known about detransition among those who undergo surgery. A growing number of detransitioners now express regret associated with the loss of breastfeeding ability, with one case study detailing breastfeeding grief experienced some 15 years post-mastectomy.

The study and invited commentary exemplify three problematic trends that plague studies emerging from the gender clinics: problematic conflicts of interest of the authors; leveraging scientific journals to disguise politically-motivated pieces as quality research; and a conflicted stance by the gender medicine establishment on surgery for minors. We expand on each briefly below.

Conflicts of interest of study authors and commentators 

The significant conflicts of interest of the gender clinicians who study and report on the outcomes of “gender-affirming” interventions cannot be overlooked. These clinicians are conflicted financially, since their practices specialize in “gender-affirming” interventions, as well as intellectually. While conflicts of interest among experts are common, such experts should still attempt to be balanced in their discussions and should acknowledge and reflect on their conflicts of interest.

The interpretations of the data in the study is neither rigorous nor balanced, and both the study and the invited commentary have a decidedly political spin. Further, the invited politicized commentary does not disclose that at least one of the authors is a key expert witness opposing states’ efforts to regulate “gender-affirming” surgeries for minors. This role alone precludes the ability to provide a balanced commentary.

There is a fundamental problem with research emerging from gender clinic settings. The same clinicians provide gender-transitioning treatments to individual patients in their practice; serve as primary investigators and custodians of data used in research informing population health policies; and increasingly, provide paid expert witness testimony in courts defending the unrestricted availability of hormonal and surgical interventions for minors.

As a result, such clinicians cannot express nuanced perspectives. Since any balanced statements may be used against them in a court of law when they serve as expert witnesses, they must resort to the lowest common denominator of the "winner-takes-all" adversarial approach. Such an approach does not tolerate nuance. Unfortunately, this approach contributes to the erosion of the quality of the published work in the arena of gender medicine and accelerates loss of trust about the integrity of the scientific process.

Misuse of scientific publications to promote politically-motivated articles disguised as scientific research

That prestigious medical journals now serve as platforms for promoting misleading, politically motivated research that aims to apply a veneer of misplaced confidence in  highly invasive, irreversible treatment should worry everyone committed to evidence-based medicine and the integrity of science. Moreover, it impairs our ability to accurately assess and improve the long-term health outcomes of the rapidly growing numbers of gender-diverse and gender-distressed youths.

This is not the first time that a JAMA has been used as a platform for positioning advocacy for “gender-affirming” care as scientific research. In 2022, JAMA Pediatrics published a study that assessed bodily happiness in a group of subjects aged 14-24 three months after chest masculinization mastectomy. Despite the very short follow up and dropout rate of 13%, the authors argued that their findings supported the premise that there was no evidence to suggest that young age should delay surgery. They also asserted that their research would help dispel the misconception that such surgeries are experimental. The editorial commissioned to bolster the authors claims was descriptively titled, “Top surgery in adolescents and young adults-effective and medically necessary.”

Another troubling trend is the misuse of statistical tools to reframe research findings that contradict the author's own position. For example, a well-known study that claimed that access to puberty blockers reduce the risk of suicide disregarded the fact that individuals reporting use of puberty blockers use had twice as many recent serious suicide attempts as their peers who did not use puberty blockers. Like the finding cited above, the doubling of suicide attempts was not statistically significant due to a small underpowered sample—but the magnitude of the effect was striking and should have tempered the authors’ enthusiastic conclusion that puberty blockers prevent suicides. Another recent gender clinic study, widely and positively covered by major media outlets, claimed that puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones led to plummeting rate of depression—even though the rate of depression among youth taking those medications remained demonstrably unchanged. More information about problems with research originating from gender clinics is detailed in this recent analysis.

Gender medicine’s stance on pediatric surgery

More generally, the gender medicine establishment is in a curious state of internal conflict about its stance on “gender-affirming” surgeries for minors.  On the one hand, it has become common for advocates of “gender-affirmation” of minors to insist that surgeries for minors are not performed and anyone who suggests otherwise is spreading “scientific misinformation” and “science denialism.”  On the other hand, gender clinicians publish mastectomy outcomes for minors in major medical journals, and laud surgeries for minors as “effective and medically necessary.” It is not uncommon for these opposing claims to be made by the same group of researchers and clinicians, as they test various arguments, searching for the "angle" that is most likely to convince judges and juries--and public at large--that scrutiny of the practice of pediatric transitions, which is increasingly occurring in European countries, is not warranted in the United States.

Notably, none of the European countries that are enacting severe restrictions on the use of puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones for minors have ever allowed surgeries for youth under 18. That the U.S. gender affirmation professionals continue to fight regulation of these problematic procedures speaks volumes about how far the U.S. healthcare has drifted when it comes to "gender affirmation" of minors.

Final thoughts

While it is challenging to determine how best to reduce the temperature of the highly politicized nature of the debate in gender medicine, the editors of scientific journals can begin to restore balance by recognizing how far the field has drifted from the standards of quality scientific research, and begin to expand their circle of peer-reviewers to those with diverse views. Inviting those concerned with the state of gender medicine (and not just the practices’ advocates) into the peer-review and commentary process is the first essential step to improve the quality of research published in the field of gender medicine.

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==

The activists are predictably - and consistent with the superficiality of their own ideology - upset that anyone should look below the surface. It seems to be more troubling that anyone would notice the shoddiness of the research, than that the research is shoddy.

If this is supposed to be "healthcare," you would think that they would want the best healthcare, and be more alarmed at the misrepresentations of the study, than by people finding those misrepresentations.

Could it be that this is ideological rather than medical? 🤔

The conflicts of interest and funding sources alone are remarkable.

#Leor Sapir #SEGM #Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine #double mastectomy #top surgery #gender affirming mastectomy #ideological corruption #ideological capture #medical malpractice #conflict of interest #sarcastic font #medical scandal #medical corruption #gender ideology #genderwang #queer theory #gender affirming care #gender affirming surgery #gender affirming healthcare #medical mutilation #sex trait modification #religion is a mental illness

[stories-of-the-past]

The only advice Aang doesn’t take is Yangchen’s

Something that struck my while re-watching Aang’s discussions with the four past Avatar’s is that when he take’s Ozai’s bending away he is technically following all of their last words of advice except, ironically, his fellow Air Nomad Avatar.  

Roku: You must be decisive.  Aang is so firmly committed to not kill Ozai in cold blood that he pulls himself out of the Avatar State.  The Lion Turtle also warns him that in order to successfully bend another’s energy “your own spirit must be unbendable.”  Aang was firm and committed to his decision to find another way.

Kyoshi: Only justice will bring peace.  Justice isn’t inherently a death sentence.  Justice means consequences for one’s action in a punishment proportional to the crime.  Ozai did need to be punished after all of the pain and suffering he inflicted on countless people and threatening the balance of the world itself.  And he was.  All things considered, what is a more fitting punishment for someone as self-absorbed and power hungry as Ozai:  Dying in battle, going down in history as such a powerful warrior that it took the Avatar (channeling every past Avatar) to best him or having to live out the rest of his natural life without his status and bending (the two things he valued most) and watching as all that his cruelty and imperialism created was systematically dismantled?  Also a point I can’t take credit for this interpretation and don’t remember where I read it from but fully agree with: making the choice he does Aang proves that the Air Nomad culture and values were not destroyed.  Going back to the crimes of Ozai’s forefathers, Sozin’s legacy is proven to have failed to truly eradicate the Air Nomads and ultimately it is their philosophy of peace that wins the day over rage and violence.

Kuruk: You must actively shape your own destiny and the destiny of the world.  Similar to the point about decisiveness- Aang makes his own choice.  He doesn’t passively accept what literally everyone is telling him the only possible outcome is.  Instead, even as he seeks advice he insists on his own autonomy, recognizing that whatever action he takes will change the course of the world and its destiny.  He very much took an active role in deciding how that battle ended and what came after.

Now finally we have Yangchen.  While, in context, yes all of the Avatars felt they were telling Aang to kill Ozai they all choose phasing that as illustrated above is actually open to wider interpretation and still holds true with what Aang actually does.  Yang Chen is perhaps the most direct in her advice:  Selfless duty calls you to sacrifice your own spiritual needs and do whatever it takes to protect the world.  The one thing Aang does not do is compromise his own spiritual beliefs and identity.  He finds a way that upholds his responsibility as Avatar to restore the balance, prevents the destruction of the Earth Kingdom, and mete out justice for past crimes all while still honoring the beliefs he was raised on and holds so dear.

#Avatar The Last Airbender #aang #sozin's comet #atla #avatar advice #avatar roku #avatar kyoshi #avatar kuruk #avatar yangchen

[racefortheironthrone]

Which federal laws and policies would you get rid of or modify in order to help the American labor movement.

I was looking through the labor law tag on my blog and your ask reminded me I haven't actually written a comprehensive post about this on Tumblr. (Indeed, you'd have to go back to my old, old policy blog from 2009...it's been a while.)

One silver lining of the Sisyphean struggle to restore American labor law that's been going on since the 1970s is that the labor movement and their allies in Congress, academia, think tanks, and progressive media have been thinking through this very issue of "what reforms would make a real difference" for a long time. I'm not going to say it's a solved question, but the research literature is pretty robust.

For the purposes of this post, I'm going to focus on the three most recent reform packages: the Employee Free Choice Act that was the main vehicle during the Obama years, Bernie Sanders' Workplace Democracy Act (which was introduced repeatedly between 1992 and 2018), and the Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act) that is the current proposal of the Democratic legislative caucuses. There's going to be quite a bit of overlap between these proposals, because it's very much an iterative process where allies in the same movement are trading ideas with one another and trying to stay abreast of new developments, but I'll try to tease out some of the similarities and differences.

EFCA

While EFCA contained a number of provisions that sought to close various loopholes in U.S labor law, the three main provisions largely target the flaws that have made it extremely difficult to win a union through the National Labor Relations Act process devised in 1935 that has turned into a Saw-style gauntlet thanks to the professionalization of union-busting and the Federalist Society's strategy of death-by-a-thousand-cuts:

"Card check." Probably the most common pattern of union-busting in the workplace today is a war of attrition by management waged by an industry of specialized law firms. Generally what happens is that the union files for election with a super-majority of ~70% workers having signed union cards, then management delays the vote as long as possible to give their hired "union-avoidance" firm to systematically intimidate, surveil, propagandize, and divide workers, up to and including illegally firing pro-union workers pour encouragez les autres. Over several months, what happens is that the initial 70% of pro-union support starts to erode as workers decide it's just too dangerous to stick their necks out, until the vote happens and the union loses either by a squeaker or a landslide.

Card check short-circuits this process by just saying that if the union files with a majority of cards, you skip the election and the union is recognized. And for all the pearl-clutching by the right, this is actually how labor law works in many democratic countries, because the idea of a fair election that lets management participate is an oxymoron.

Arbitrated first contract. In the event that enough workers keep the faith and actually vote for a union, management's next move is to draw out collective bargaining for a year or more. After a year, the original vote is no longer considered binding and employers can push for a "decertification" vote, which they usually win because workers either give up hope or change jobs. So this provision says that if the two sides can't reach an agreement on a first contract within 120 days, a Federal arbitrator will just impose one, so that at least for two years there will be a union contract no matter what management wants.

Strengthening enforcement. As I said above, one of the problems with existing labor law is that there are basically no penalties for management knowingly breaking the law; companies literally just budget in a line-item and do it anyway. This provision would allow unions to file an injunction against employers for unfair labor practices or ULPs (at present, injunctions are only required for violations done by unions), and would add triple back pay for illegal firings and fines of $20,000 for each ULP. This would make union-busting much more expensive, because companies routinely rack up hundreds and hundreds of them during a campaign.

Workplace Democracy Act

Sanders' proposal includes the main proposals from EFCA, and adds a bunch of additional reforms, like mis-classifying workers as independent contractors, banning captive audience meetings, making "joint employers" liable for labor law violations by franchisees, legalizing secondary boycotts, and requiring employers to report to the NLRB on all anti-union expenditures during a campaign and barring anyone convicted of an unfair labor practice from being hired for anti-union campaigns and making "union-avoidance" consultants liable for fines for ULPs (which would kill the "union-avoidance" industry, because they commit ULPs for a living).

PRO Act

The PRO Act is very much an updating of the previous efforts we've talked about. It bans captive audience meetings, allows for secondary strikes and boycotts, massively increases fines and allows for compensatory damages, ends mis-classification, speeds up the election process, etc.

It also contains a couple new and ambitious proposals:

it allows unions to sue management in court instead of having to complain to the NLRB, which opens management up to a very expensive legal proceeding and discovery.

it bans "right-to-work" as established by the Taft-Hartley Act.

it requires that any worker who's fired for pro-union activity be immediately reinstated while their unfair labor practice process or civil lawsuit is going through the process. This would be enormous just on its own, because it changes the entire veto structure of illegal firing. As it stands, employers fire people and maybe maybe have to pay some back wages in a couple years when the worker has found another job and is unlikely to come back. This would reverse the balance of power, such that the worker is immediately back and other workers can see that they can speak up without getting fired, which makes illegal firings a giant waste of time and money for management.

In terms of stuff that's not on this list that I would add, I would say that an enormous difference could be made by simply making it illegal for management to lock-out their workers or hire scabs. You do that, and unions can win almost every strike.

#labor law #labor law reform #labor movement #trade unions #unions #union movement #public policy

[therainbowwarrior4]

Project 2025 is a plan to, in the words of project Director Paul Dans, "...march into office and bring a new army of aligned, trained, and essentially weaponized conservatives ready to do battle against the Deep State".It is organized by the Heritage Foundation, to "muzzle woke propaganda at every level of government", "gut the administrative state" (HUD, FEMA, DOJ, DHS, the Federal Reserve, CDC, FDA, EPA, etc.) and concentrate power into the hands of the President (Leeja Miller, in a video that is linked below, goes into detail on how this would work).Their claim is that "Only through the implementation of specific action plans at each agency will the next conservative presidential Administration be successful".The plan includes a [180 Day Playbook](https://www.project2025.org/playbook/), described as "...a comprehensive, concrete transition plan for each federal agency."

The plan is "the conservative movement's unified effort to be ready for the next conservative administration to govern at 12:00 noon, January 20, 2025".Project 2025 promises to "rescue the country from the grip of the radical Left" and to "unite the conservative movement and the American people against elite rule and woke culture warriors".Project 2025 lists problems with America such as:* The breakdown of the family* Immigration* The "totalitarian cult known today as The Great Awokening"* The erosion of constitutional accountability in Washington* Children suffering the "toxic normalization of transgenderism with drag queens and pornography invading their school libraries"* An "overseas, totalitarian Communist dictatorship" that is "not a strategic partner or fair competitor" and is "engaged in a strategic, cultural and economic Cold War against America's interests, values and people"* "Low-income communities" that are "drowning in addiction and government dependence"* "America's elites have betrayed the American People"* The left using climate change "to scare the American public into accepting their ineffective, liberty crushing regulations"They believe that "These are problems not of technocratic efficiency, but of national sovereignty and constitutional governance. We solve them not by trimming and reshaping the leaves, but by ripping out the trees -- root and branch."

Their broad goals are to:1. Restore the family as the centerpiece of American life, and protect our children2. Dismantle the administrative state and return self-governance to the American people3. Defend our nation's sovereignty, borders and bounty against global threats4. Secure our God-given individual rights to live freely - what our constitution calls "the Blessings of Liberty"Dans states that "The long march of Cultural Marxism through our institutions has come to pass. The federal government is a behemoth, weaponized against American citizens and conservative values, with freedom and liberty under siege as never before".Project 2025 is, in my words, a distinctly terrifying and highly detailed roadmap for:* Installing a Chriso-fascist oligarchy* Rolling back civil and human rights* Removing bodily autonomy from women and transgender individuals* The systematic eradication of minorities and other vulnerable groupsI don't use the words "systematic eradication" lightly or with hyperbole.

They obviously don't come right out and say it, but they state that:* Pornography should be outlawed* The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned* Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders* Telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shutteredThe real problem with the above, apart from the obvious, is that they label the existence of LGBTQIA+ people as "inherently pornographic". They say that pornography is “manifested today through the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology".They say that the fix "starts with deleting the terms sexual orientation and gender identity ('SOGI'), diversity, equity and inclusion ('DEI'), gender, gender equality, gender awareness, gender sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights, and any other term to deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists".They also state that "The president should direct agencies to rescind regulations interpreting sex discrimination provisions as prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, transgender status, sex characteristics, etc."

They want to "maintain a biblically based, social science-reinforced definition of marriage and family" which would remove protections for same-sex marriage.Leeja Miller helpfully points out that the above language does not simply include transgender individuals, it includes cis women as well. I'd argue that removing the DEI language also allows them to target anyone that isn't a white, cis, heterosexual, evangelical (or other approved flavor of Christianity) male.Some other points of note:* They want to eliminate the Department of Education* They want to ban the teaching of Critical Race Theory* They want to bring back the practice of impounding funds

**References*** A direct link to a PDF copy of the project's Policy Agenda, aka their "Mandate for Leadership": [https://thf\_media.s3.amazonaws.com/project2025/2025\_MandateForLeadership\_FULL.pdf](https://thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com/project2025/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf), this can be found on the Policy page of the Project 2025 website.* A video from Leeja Miller: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k3UvaC5m7o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k3UvaC5m7o)* An NPR article focusing on the climate policy aspect: [https://www.npr.org/2023/08/08/1192634090/if-republicans-win-the-white-house-in-2024-climate-policy-will-likely-change](https://www.npr.org/2023/08/08/1192634090/if-republicans-win-the-white-house-in-2024-climate-policy-will-likely-change)* A UC Berkeley write up: [https://bpr.berkeley.edu/2023/11/17/project-2025-democratic-doomsday/](https://bpr.berkeley.edu/2023/11/17/project-2025-democratic-doomsday/)* An article from the NECC Observer: [http://observer.necc.mass.edu/blog/2023/11/20/the-danger-of-project-2025/](http://observer.necc.mass.edu/blog/2023/11/20/the-danger-of-project-2025/)* An article from PBS: [https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/conservatives-aim-to-restructure-u-s-government-and-replace-it-with-trumps-vision](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/conservatives-aim-to-restructure-u-s-government-and-replace-it-with-trumps-vision)

#lgbtqia+ rights #lgbtqia+ community #lgbtqia+ #queer #queer community #lgbtq #lgbtqia #lgbtq rights #lgbtq community #project 2025 #stop project 2025 #pro choice #women rights #reproductive rights #black lives matter #black people #black rights #hispanic rights #immigrant rights #biden 2024

[kummatty]

ArteEast has an online program--Archives of Power--screening several Palestinian films for free from March 7-17 !

Archives, often perceived as impartial guardians of history, are actually deeply entwined with political agendas. In the context of the Palestinian struggle, archives have been systematically pillaged and obliterated by the Israeli state and military, resulting in the loss of invaluable records of Palestinian history and resistance. Among the missing archives are decades of footage by the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) Palestine Film Unit (PFU). This collective of militant filmmakers emerged in the late 1960s, utilizing the camera as a tool of resistance to document the Palestinian experience and the struggle for liberation. The film program features documentaries about the Palestinian film archive and filmic legacy – Azza El-Hassan’s Kings and Extras: Digging for a Palestinian Image (2004), Mohanad Yaqubi’s Off Frame (aka Revolution Until Victory) (2016)– as well as a selection of earlier films created during the revolutionary Palestinian film era, which have recently been restored as part of El-Hassan’s invaluable initiative, The Void Project, which was founded in 2018 to explore the presence and absence of the Palestinian visual archives as a discourse in narrative formation, and to restore and distribute some of the surviving films of the era. Archives of Power ultimately strives to amplify the voices and stories that have been marginalized and suppressed, reclaiming agency and autonomy in defiance of ongoing attempts to erase Palestinian history and visual narrative. This program serves as an indispensable platform for comprehending and challenging the mechanisms of oppression and resistance within the domain of archival representation.

[workersolidarity]

🇺🇳⚔️🇮🇱 🚨

WHO REPORT CALLS AL-SHIFA HOSPITAL AN "EMPTY SHELL" AND DESCRIBES A GRAVE YARD

A newly published World Health Organization (WHO) report on the Israeli occupation raid on Al-Shifa Medical Complex, located in the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City, calls the hospital an "empty shell" and describes a ruined courtyard with "numerous shallow graves" filled with the bodies of murdered Palestinians.

According to the WHO, the organization tried on six different occasions to organize a mission to visit the hospital in order to evacuate patients, staff and displaced civilian sheltering inside, but were "denied, delayed or impeded" six times between March 25th and April 1st, 2024.

The WHO said the hospital, which had been Gaza's "largest and most important" referral hospital in the Gaza Strip and said it is now "nothing more than an empty shell," with no patients, no doctors and a majority of the hospital's equipment and facilities completely or partially destroyed, including the hospital's emergency department and its maternity ward, both of which were destroyed by "explosives and fire."

The Israeli occupation army also destroyed the hospital's oxygen plant, which the WHO says leaves only Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, which was also damaged during a previous weeks-long Israeli siege and eventual raid back in December, 2023.

However, the horrific part of the WHO report comes when WHO personnel describe what they witnessed outside on the hospital grounds, writing in the report how, "numerous shallow graves have been dug just outside the emergency department, and the administrative and surgical buildings."

"In the same area, many dead bodies were partially buried with their limbs visable. During the visit, WHO staff witnessed at least five bodies lying partially exposed to the heat. The team reported a pungent smell of decomposing bodies engulfing the compound. Safeguarding dignity, even in death, is an indespensible act of humanity."

Further, survivors of the raid described to the WHO teams horrific treatment at the hands of the Zionist army, telling the WHO they'd endured "severe lack of food, water, healthcare, hygiene, and sanitation, and were forced to relocate between buildings at gunpoint."

"At least 20 patients have reportedly died due to the lack of access to care and limited movement authorized for healthcare personnel," the WHO added.

Despite the horrendous scenes the WHO teams were met with, they'd endured several delays, and even the illegal detention of a driver, before gaining access to the site and they also said more than half of all their missions to Gaza have been met with delays, impediments and postponements.

Worse still, the WHO says the loss of the Al-Shifa medical complex has "broken the backbone of the already ailing health system" in Gaza. This after the WHO worked to restore basic services at Al-Shifa after a previous Israeli raid inflicted damage to the hospital's functionality, saying in the report that all those efforts are "now lost."

Out of 36 hospitals functioning in Gaza on October 7th, 2023, only 10 remain at this time to serve over 2 million Palestinians, most of them displaced, and nearly 5% of Gazans dead, wounded or missing.

Meanwhile, with a looming Israeli invasion of Rafah, the WHO fears Gaza could be facing "unimaginable health consequences" from Israel's war and its "systematic dismantling of health care" in the Gaza Strip.

The report finishes by warning that, "as famine looms, disease outbreaks spread, and traumatic injuries increase, WHO calls for unimpeded access of humanitarian aid into and across the Gaza Strip, and a lasting ceasefire."

#source1

#source2

#source3

#photovideosource

@WorkerSolidarityNews

#gaza #world health organization #gaza news #gaza war #al shifa hospital #al shifa medical complex #israeli occupation #israeli occupation forces #israel #israeli war crimes #israeli crimes against humanity #war crimes #crimes against humanity #genocide #genocide in gaza #genocide of palestinians #israeli terrorism #palestine #palestinians #free palestine #israel palestine conflict #politics #news #geopolitics #world news #global news #international news #breaking news #current events #war

[eretzyisrael]

by Troy O. Fritzhand

A group of 3,000 teachers working in Gaza for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) — the global organization’s agency dedicated solely to the refugees and descendants of Palestinians who fled during Israel’s 1948 War of Independence — glorified and celebrated the Hamas terror group’s Oct. 7 pogrom across southern Israel in an internal Telegram group, according to a new investigation by UN Watch.

The Geneva-based NGO, which monitors the UN, found that on Oct. 7, when Palestinian terrorists invaded Israel, massacred 1,200 people, and kidnapped 240 others as hostages to Hamas-ruled Gaza, the UNRWA teachers posted messages such as “welcome the great October” and “Allah is great, reality surpasses our wildest dreams.”

One principal, Iman Hassan, said the surprise attack was “restoring rights” of Palestinians. Other teachers called the terrorists “heroes” and said “foreign nationals should remain among the Israeli prisoners in the Gaza Strip until the siege … is lifted.”

UN Watch exposed 20 specific Gaza educators who celebrated the massacre, ranging from regular teachers to even directors of a training center.

“This is the motherlode of UNRWA teachers’ incitement to jihadi terrorism,” UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer said in a statement. In a tweet accompanying the report’s release, he added that the agency was engaging in “the systematic incitement to terror.”

According to UNRWA, the agency has 702 schools with half a million students educated by nearly 20,000 teachers — including those who celebrated the Hamas attack.

Complaints that UNRWA is promoting antisemitism and terrorism are not new.

A report published in November by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), an independent research group, found that at least 14 teachers at UNRWA-run schools had praised the Oct. 7 pogrom carried out by Hamas terrorists in southern Israel.

Another UNRWA teacher was separately accused by an Israeli journalist of having held one of the hostages abducted during the onslaught, depriving him of food and medical attention. For its part, UNRWA has strongly denied that there is any basis to that claim.

The US is the largest donor to UNRWA and gave over $371 million to the organization in 2023. Former President Donald Trump cut funding to the group in 2018, a move that was ultimately reversed when current President Joe Biden took office.

UNRWA’s future role in Gaza after the Israel-Hamas war ends has been a point of discussion in the Jewish state. Hebrew media reported last month that the Israeli government has outlined plans to root out the agency completely from Gaza following the war.

Part of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to endorse the idea of the Palestinian Authority governing Gaza should Hamas be wiped out is due to the education it supports via UNRWA that promotes incitement against Israel and Jews.

For example, a 2023 joint report by Impact-se and UN Watch found that UNRWA employees had created classroom material celebrating the firebombing of a Jewish bus as a “barbecue party,” encouraging students to pursue jihad and martyrdom, erasing Israel from maps, and encouraging students to “liberate the homeland” with “their blood,” among other examples of incitement to radicalism.

In its new report, UN Watch called for the immediate dismissal of the teachers it identified and the implementation of a zero-tolerance policy for any future instances of calls for incitement or glorifying terrorism.

#unrwa #antisemitism #hamas #gaza #support for terrorism

[theladyofbloodshed]

You're The Closest To Heaven I'll Ever Be - Chapter 7

A whoosh of wind blew through the room, rustling the pages of her book. Elain swept in with it, a small bunch of flowers clutched to her chest as she twirled. With a flourish, she threw herself onto the low-slung couch opposite Nesta, pink skirts draping across the lush carpeted floor.

‘I am the luckiest woman in the world.’

‘Because I am your sister?’ Nesta countered.

With a beaming smile making her features shine, Elain brandished the bouquet to Nesta. It was a little tired from where Elain had likely clung to it on her walk home from the village, escorted by Mrs Lawrence as chaperone.

‘You hate peonies. You called them roses for paupers a few weeks ago.’

Elain snatched the flowers back and pressed them to her chest again. ‘It’s the thought that counts. Graysen didn’t have to buy me flowers. And they’re beautiful.’

They were nice enough but they looked as if he had torn them from somebody’s garden hastily before his meeting with Elain. Her sister was enamoured with them though so Nesta kept her lips firmly closed.  

‘Maybe I won’t be the only lady in this house to receive flowers.’

On instinct, Nesta’s eyes flickered towards the windows, expecting to see shadows or wings.

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

Elain gave a coy smile. ‘Mr Dunne was on his way here. He’ll be knocking at any moment.’

As soon as the words were out, a knock did sound at the door. Nesta suppressed her groan. Many suitors had been sniffing about her father, enquiring after his eldest daughter’s hand – and he had been happy to indulge them in conversation so that he could bloat his account with further coin. Since Father had been away on the Continent, Nesta had snipped away every suitor like pruning dead flowers, chopping the heads off one by one. Only one man still came calling because he was too dopey to realise her scathing comments were meant to wound.

Mrs Lawrence’s voice echoed down the corridor as he was seen into the room by her. Rather than sprawling out, Elain sat upright, flowers still held in her lap. She greeted him with a nod of the head and a brief curtesy.

‘It is highly inappropriate to come unannounced and unwanted, Mr Dunne,’ said Nesta, not rising from her chair. She had tried to be polite, abrasive, or cold, and he still returned. ‘Even stray hounds can follow commands.’

‘You charm me with your tongue. I did come with a reason. I have written to your father this morning. A letter has been sent to Neva requesting your hand, officially.’

Elain let out a gasp. She had the luxury of marrying for love. Nesta did not. Destiny was cruel; because she was the eldest, she carried the family’s status on her shoulders. There was no future that she could carve, only her father could decide it. And, well, they rarely saw eye to eye. He wasn’t likely to take her views into account. Only in his absence, could Nesta meddle.

‘You will not find me an unpleasant companion,’ he continued, though Nesta already did. He was in his thirties, with a waistband that was stretching year on year with indulgences. The mutton-chops taking up most of his face were greying and untrimmed. He had not yet married but was filthy rich, seizing the unoccupied space their father had once held in trading.

Nesta was not naïve. She’d known a match would be made between her and a wealthy man, but did he have to be so unappealing on the eye and have the personality of a wet dishcloth?

‘Is that all I should want? A pleasant companion to spend all of my days with?’

There had to be more to life than being a docile wife whose dreams were systematically plucked away by her husband. Being a mother was important to her – but that wasn’t all she wanted. Now that their wealth was restored, opportunities were presented to her, ones that were denied in their destitution.

Nesta’s fangs were already exposed ready to draw blood. A glance was shared between Elain and Mrs Lawrence that said they ought to evacuate Mr Dunne from the room before Nesta shred him in two. She had already been called a difficult girl by Mr Polesworth as if she was a foul-tempered horse that could not be broken in fully.

‘I have sent a letter across the ocean to your father.’

She resisted the urge to snort. That was all it took, was it? A simple letter officially asking to be the husband of Nesta Archeron. That was all that was needed to tie them together for a lifetime.

‘And that should move me? Would you cross oceans of time to find me? How ardently will you love me, admire me?’ Nesta stood then to her full height – which had a good, few inches on him. ‘Would you not wish for any companion in the world, but I?’

Mr Dunne attempted to stammer out a reply, but Mrs Lawrence cut in. ‘Good grief, look at the time! We must host you at another time, Mr Dunne. We’d be overjoyed to have you for afternoon tea next Thursday. Miss Archeron will be on her best behaviour. She has been unwell of late.’

‘Ah the sea air would do her well. My family has a property with a vast land by the coast.’

Their voices carried from the room and Nesta let out a low laugh as she dropped back into her seat. Her fingers grazed the spine of her novel as she reached for it. Elain blew out a breath.

‘That was not nice, Nesta.’

‘I am not nice,’ she replied.

If he wanted to enter her den, he should expect the monster to be residing within. Mr Dunne was insufferable. If Father shackled her to him for a lifetime, Nesta would claw and shred until there was nothing left. 

‘What did you mean, crossing oceans of time to find you? What was all that?’

‘Graysen will marry you because he loves you. I must marry whomever father decides will fill his pockets with the most money. Is it a crime to a want a man who would love me too?’ Nesta thumbed through her book to find her page, having closed it too hastily earlier. ‘If a man wants me, he should earn my love, not expect it.’

From her couch, Elain gave a small, mischievous smile – the likes of which Nesta hadn’t seen on his expression for many, many years. ‘You are a romantic at your core.’

Nesta made a tutting noise. ‘Delusional, perhaps, to hope a husband might want a wife who could meet him step for step in history and mathematics and be more than a brood-mare.’

Elain stood then, smoothing down her skirts with one hand. The peonies were gazed upon once more with airy delight, Nesta’s words hardly registering.

‘These need a vase and water,’ she said to herself before exiting the room.  

It was difficult to know if Elain purposefully ignored comments that Nesta made or it was unintentional. She had been coddled and kept, year on year. When Nesta had asked her to think of the possible outcomes of Graysen discovering their youngest sister was fae, Elain had begun singing to herself and straightened the rug. She did not like to face reality, but it was a necessity. Elain preferred to keep her head in the clouds to avoid the rain whereas Nesta anticipated downpours before the clouds had even greyed.

As a result, she had nobody to share her misery with. The only one in the village who ever made time for their family was Clare. Thoughts of Clare had Nesta’s throat tightening. She had walked past the house the next morning. She’d thought along the way that there was a pungent smell of smoke strangling the air then her eyes had settled on the charred, smouldering remains of the Beddor home. It had felt as if the whole world stopped. Nesta had stared and stared in disbelief that a whole family could be gone – that nobody in the village even knew about it until the morning.

The sycophantic women who had made a return to their lives when money returned were not welcomed by Nesta. She had made a point of being rude and cold to them. Elain might have forgotten about the decade of shunning they received, eager to be back in society, but Nesta would never forgive them. She did not want – or need – such vain people in her life.

But it meant that she was alone. There was nobody to lean on, to share her worries about an impending engagement with, or even pass the time with for fun. Nesta had learned to be alone.

***

‘Where in the name of the Mother have you been?’

Cassian dropped the spoon he was holding and practically hurdled the low table in the living room to wrap Azriel in a bone-crunching embrace that lifted his feet from the ground.

‘Do that to him again,’ called Mor, ‘and he’ll disappear for another week.’

When Azriel was settled back down, Cassian returned to his soup. Mor lay on a couch, a lock of blonde hair twisted around the end of her finger.

‘I’ve been busy,’ he replied then joined them in the living room.

Busy.

Laughable. Debatable. Undeniable.

He had been busy of his own choosing. Azriel took on more missions on the Continent, more stakeouts, more canvassing. He was working himself ragged of his own accord. The order hadn’t been issued by Rhys. Hell, Rhys had not even contacted him for days. He'd do anything rather than be back at the mortal manor - although every single fibre of his being demanded he go there.

Not even him. These fucking shadows.

See her.

They whispered it even now.  

Azriel did not want to even think of that word – mates – because it was impossible. She was mortal, so very mortal. In fifty years’ time, she might not even exist. A strong illness could take out mortals as easily as a dandelion head blown away. There was no such thing as a mating bond to a mortal. Bonds were rare amongst high fae, rarer still for Illyrians.

His shadows had a newfound fascination, that was all.

They had latched onto something new and shiny. Someone who didn’t balk from them. That was all. It was a novelty for somebody not to shy away from them so his shadows were getting carried away with their excitement.

‘I need to see Rhys.’

‘Good luck,’ said Mor with a tinkling laugh. ‘You won’t see him for at least a week.’

‘A week? You’re being generous. Four days, maximum,’ replied Cassian.

He glanced between the pair, not understanding their joyful expression.

‘Feyre accepted the bond,’ said Mor.

Oh.

Azriel had suspected it the moment Rhysand had stormed the wedding and spirited her to Velaris. Anybody else would have been kept in the Hewn City rather than risk them seeing their City of Dreams.

‘You can tell the story, Mor, since you were the one to stow Feyre in Illyria.’

It sounded as if Azriel had missed all of the excitement in his self-imposed exile. Whilst he was overjoyed for Rhys and Feyre, the ache in his chest gave a resounding sigh as if it was missing something. While Mor spoke of the attack on Rhys, Feyre ensnaring the Suriel and discovering the truth, and her taking Feyre to the cabin in Illyria, Azriel listened mutely.  He had little to add to the conversation except his own congratulations which he’d pass along when they all reunited again. If anybody deserved a mate, it was Rhys. He was glad for his brother, but as he shuffled along to his room that night, Azriel couldn’t help but feel jaded. For over five hundred years, he had wanted only one female. He’d wanted to bond with her. Wanted her. And the Cauldron had decided that Azriel didn’t deserve Mor. He wasn’t equal to her.

The shower head rained down on his wings. He tipped his head up towards it so the heat washed over him. There were many things in his life that his childhood had forever changed. Showering was one.

Each day, a fresh bucket of water was brought to him to drink from. An empty one remained to relieve himself in. He doubted if they were ever truly washed. Once a week, after he saw his mother, Azriel was brought a bucket of tepid water with a few bubbles floating on the surface. It was all deliberate, he knew, so that he was sent to his mother as grimy as possible. One rag would be at the bottom of the bucket to scrub himself with. Azriel could never wash his wings properly with too-short a reach.

When Rhysand’s mother had taken him in, Azriel would stand under the shower for what felt like hours. He only ever came out when he was forced out either through food or some other means. Even now, Azriel did not like baths or open water. He’d learnt to swim later on as a necessity, but found no joy in it. Showers, however, were still something that he craved and looked forward to when his mood was low.

When Azriel finally emerged from his bathroom, his shadows were skittering over the bed like a pile of puppies. At his arrival, they scattered to the floor, leaving one solitary shadow on the bed.

‘Oh, remembered who sings to you, have you?’

It rushed at him. In one movement, it darted across his cheek, around the back of his neck then settled on a shoulder, curling towards his ear.

‘Did you enjoy your jaunt to the mortal lands?’

The shadow spoke to him.

Engagement.

Letter.

Neva.

At the words whispered into his ear, Azriel stiffened. The ache in his chest turned to something unbearable like a rib prised open, a heart plucked from within.

‘She’s the eldest daughter. It is a natural sequence of events for mortals.’

With war imminent and the abode of the mortal sisters likely to be a battleground soon enough, engagements seemed a folly. Azriel warred with himself over what to do with the information. It was inconsequential. It changed nothing. He had no need to pass it along to Rhysand or Feyre, even if it concerned her sister. And yet, Azriel could not stop himself from thinking of it as he lay in his bed, in the silent House of Wind. Did the eldest sister not deserve a life of happiness with a husband to take care of her? If the male had a safe place for Nesta, it was better she married and increased her distance from the Wall.

Her heart has not chosen him.

Azriel pulled a pillow over his head as he rolled over. The shadow continued trying to wheedle its way towards his face.

‘The heart does not always get what it wants.’

It gets what it needs.

#nezriel #you're the closest to heaven i'll ever be

[srbachchan]

DAY 5670

Jalsa, Mumbai Aug 26/27, 2023 Sat/Sun 1:19 AM

Birthday - EF - Rohit Kumar Bhutoria Sunday, 27 August .. wishes and more from the entire Ef family .. 🚩

In time at last .. or well sort of .. an effort made to be in no disappointment for the Ef .. and to be able to bring back the discipline that has ever existed and remains a part the primary Ef ..

the run is customary now .. unless there is a need to alternate it with either someone that has 'rolled over' and has been incapable of any physical activity ..

but before all that physical bit .. a bit of the self aggrandisement in the HELLO mag about the 100 influentials of INDIA :

.. and then we have a brilliant retort from Anand Mahindra to the BBC, questioning our Chandrayaan 3 .. !!

🤣🤣🤣

Really?? The truth is that, in large part, our poverty was a result of decades of colonial rule which systematically plundered the wealth of an entire subcontinent. Yet the most valuable possession we were robbed of was not the Kohinoor Diamond but our pride & belief in our own capabilities. Because the goal of colonisation—its most insidious impact—is to convince its victims of their inferiority. Which is why investing in BOTH toilets AND space exploration is not a contradiction. Sir, what going to the moon does for us is that it helps restore our pride & self-confidence. It creates belief in progress through science. It gives us the aspiration to lift ourselves out of poverty. The greatest poverty is the poverty of aspiration… Quote Megh Updates 🚨™ @MeghUpdates · Aug 23 Listen to what BBC had to say about #Chandrayaan3

Should India which lacks in Infrastructure and has extreme poverty, Should they be spending this much amount of money on a space program

But what is quite brilliant is also a Hindi retort from a colleague :

वो देश, जिसके संग्रहालयों का खज़ाना, केवल दुनिया से लूटे गए मूल्यवान वस्तुओं से भरा है, वो देश, जो मसाले की खोज में भारत आया, उसे लूटा, लोगों को मानव निर्मित अकाल में झोंका और आज भी जिसके खानों से मसाले गायब हैं, वो देश, जिसे अपने ही इजाद किए खेल का विश्व कप जीतने में बरसों लग गए वो देश, जिसका सूरज कभी अस्त नहीं होता था, पर आज भी अपने अंतरिक्ष संस्थान का नाम दुनिया तक नहीं पहुंचा पाया है,

आज हमें ज्ञान दे रहा है?

हम भारतीयों ने दुनिया को अद्भुत संरचनाएं दीं, कला दी और भारतीय दर्शन से संस्कृतियों को प्रभावित किया और आज भी कर रहे हैं हम भारतीयों ने अपने मसालों और अपनी पाक शास्त्र का परचम दुनिया के कोने कोने में लहराया है हमने दूसरों के इजाद किए खेल न केवल सीखे, पर उनमें महारत भी प्राप्त की और धुरंधरों को धूल चटाई है हमने न केवल चांद और तारों पर कविताएं लिखी, न केवल उनको देखकर सपने बुने, परंतु चांद पर भारतीय तिरंगा लहराया और अंतरिक्ष पर निरंतर और सतत जीत की ओर अग्रसर हैं।

जो कभी हम पर राज किया करते थे, उन अंग्रेज़ों की ईर्ष्या को यह चेतावनी है - यह आग तुम्हें बस जलाएगी पर इसी आग से हम अंतरिक्ष के उस छोर पर पहुंचेंगे जहां से भारत का सूरज कभी अस्त नहीं होगा।

🇮🇳

WILL THE HINDI /ENGLISH LITERATE PLEASE TRANSLATE

🇮🇳

but before all that .. a bit of the self aggrandisement in the HELLO mag about the 100 influentials of INDIA :

and the music delivers its most colourful night .. it is the divinity of the hour that brings the creativity to the fore .. and in its brilliance dwells the ultimate ..

when the 'SA 🎶' - the first note is hit .. its vibration exudes all that is in the positive eons within .. the superiority of its scale is beyond measure .. actually measure is truly the wrong word .. vibrations of the gravity of a 'note' cannot be measured .. Richter scale and all ..

( and mr Googlé does not have Richter in its information .. process )

we be in blessings beyond to be as in to be ..

Amitabh Bachchan

[transmutationisms]

The humanists’ pursuit of Greek manuscripts came to resemble the earlier intellectual gold rush that had seen such figures as Adelard of Bath, Daniel of Morley, and Gerard of Cremona set off in search of Arab wisdom. Now, however, the humanists were fueled by their new idea of history—captured, ultimately, in the very notion of a renaissance—and by a related quest for classical authenticity without the unwanted Arabs as intellectual middlemen. Western humanism from its very beginnings, then, was an attempt both to create a new theory of knowledge resting on what were now defined as exclusively Western sources—that is, classical Greek and Latin works—and to renounce any connections to the medieval Scholastics, who were so in thrall to the Muslim tradition (Cifoletti 1996:123; Høyrup 1996:110). This logic can be seen at work in Valla’s De rebus expetendis et fugiendis, an influential humanist encyclopedia completed in 1501 comprising translations and paraphrases of classical works. Along the way, Valla rigorously excludes any mention of Arabic learning, which is now the work of the unwanted Other—or, as the humanists would have put it, the work of barbarians (Rose 1975:48; Cifoletti 1996:123). The humanist scholars were also eager to apply their new methods of textual criticism to the medieval Latin translations, most made via the Arabic, and to restore the meaning of the Greek texts by working exclusively in the original language of Aristotle and Archimedes. Such goals, however laudable they may appear on their face, contained a number of serious pitfalls that the humanists, blinded by their theory of history and bolstered by the established anti-Islam discourse, could not even imagine. Many of these shortcomings still plague the Western history of ideas, as reflected in the classical narrative of Muslim science. Foremost, in reducing the Arabs’ role to little more than that of caretakers of an authentic Greek and Roman classical tradition, the Renaissance humanists effectively eliminated the very real contributions to knowledge that the Muslim thinkers had made over the centuries. Second, they unwittingly reintroduced errors and re-created philosophical and scientific problems that had already been addressed within the Islamic tradition. Third, by creating a vacuum once occupied by Arabic science, they allowed space for Western science to assert its primacy all the more easily, even going so far as to rewrite intellectual history, as was the case with the art of algebra (Cifoletti 1996). Finally, they forestalled and even precluded scholarly exploration of the full richness and depth of that same Muslim tradition, with the result that even to this day the state of knowledge about Islamic science and philosophy remains woefully incomplete. Hundreds of thousands of scholarly manuscripts produced over many centuries in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Urdu remain unstudied and largely forgotten (Savage-Smith 1988; Rashed 1994:2). It is difficult not to believe that a systematic analysis of this material would yield a very different picture of Muslim science than the one that predominates today. The same can be said of Islamic religious history, where only a tiny fraction of available manuscripts have been printed, let alone edited and studied (Makdisi 1981a:217–218). As a result, the anti-Islam discourse has been more than content to fill in the blanks.

Jonathan Lyons, Islam Through Western Eyes (2014)

#hps

[fromtheseventhhell]

calling targ fans neo-nazis because they enjoy a fictional family of dragonlords is insane. it's also super disgusting because a majority of targ nation are poc and/or jewish themselves. and where the fuck do they get the idea that targaryens are nazis to begin with? which race are they trying to systematically exterminate? when did they impose valyrian lebensraum on westeros? how the fuck can they be white supremacists against the other whites of an entirely white continent?

Honestly, I think this is why we just have to start being meaner to these people. There's no way they should feel comfortable casually calling people "neo-nazis" because of the fictional characters they like in a fantasy series. I'm so tired of the superiority complex they have because they think they're enjoying the series in the "right" way in comparison to the rest of us. The Targaryens are "Nazis" because they don't like them and need Dany to go mad to fit their idea of what the story should be. In other words, they lack any concept of critical thinking skills and their only reference for the story is that god-awful show that George has said multiple times has a different ending than his. "Targ restoration is neo-nazi rhetoric" and the Targ restoration in question is a former bridal slave who's spent the majority of her life in poverty and danger + who is currently enacting a wide-scale revolution and fighting for slaves getting the family and happiness she's always wanted. Not to mention that people never have these "bad blood" takes about Jon, despite him being Half-Targaryen. The Starks are colonizers who took over the North and decimated the COTF...but I don't see any takes saying it's bad to hope the Starks regain their home. Where are all the metas/theories about the remaining COTF returning and regrowing their numbers? I thought we weren't supposed to like colonizers responsible for the destruction of an entire species? Funny how that hypocrisy works. Meanwhile, the actual author of the series is a Targ stan who has written more for House Targaryen than any other house. But sure...it's our moral obligation as readers to not like them and root for their extinction 🙄

#ask #anon #house targaryen #anti targaryen antis #daenerys targaryen #there's nothing wrong with disliking any character/house but there are certain characters that being /antis/ of is just gonna be miserable #cause the author obviously loves them and is invested in their story #Dany is the character with the most growth + wide-scale impact but he's going to suddenly make her /mad/ in the last act #the main threat is ice zombies...but the /mother of dragons/ who brought magic back to the world is going to die right #I just know y'all were struggling in 9th grade English cause this is just basic reading comp and understanding of the narrative

[dragonthunders01]

Spectember D15: Posthumans

5 million years has been since the last human being die on earth, but is a world still ruled by humans, or what descended from them.

All started for the struggle for a civilization that collapsed in a cataclysmic event of interplanetary scale that annihilated the biosphere and a good chunk of the human population, for sure it was not pollution or the man’s hand, or even something like an asteroid, maybe was an extraterrestrial invasion? A supernova? Whatever was this event, it was strong enough it pulled out a civilization that was already on their early steps on traveling to star systems and already was settled across the solar system, it was the endgame for all of them.

The last remaining survivors did the best to stand and find ways to perpetuate the species, but when options at short term turned useless there was a last hope to humanity to survive until the world they live on would recover, they focused the last resources on build a vault designed to last until the habitable conditions of earth returned and repopulate the planet thanks to thousands of human specimens samples that could be born and reclaim the world in the future helped by the synthetic hands of long term lasting artificial intelligences.

Though whatever happened in the planning, something went wrong, something caused to make those restored humans to be shaped into what was sort of similar to them but more ape like, was this deliberated or if it was an inconvenient? if it was ideal for mankind to rise like their ancestors or if this “devolution” was something sketched for the artificial systems as a way to secure their offspring for a systematic failure? Is another question which will likely have no proper answer, but the result of this turned at the end successful for the survival of the biological lineage of humans.

When that humanity arose of the ruins of the again habitable earth, they sort of resembled lanky shorter versions of a chimp, brownish, with a more developed diet thanks to a modification in their digestive system and dentition allowed them to exploit every resource available as generalist omnivores. These creatures which could be called the "woodland dwellers" conquered most of the continent in matter of centuries, they did not need transport or technology to do it, they just traveled, wandered like their ancestors although they no longer were bipedal.

They started somewhere in Eurasia, eventually crossing to new regions and in a thousand years the majority of the world that was easy to access through routes was filled with these, all of them started to establish wherever food was easy to find, then came those that started to venture in new environments, new climates, migrated across continents.

In 50 thousand years, there were new populations that isolated themselves and became adapted to their respective environments: Tundra, Grasslands, canopies, the deserts, the coasts and seas, rivers, etc., all product of constant migration and colonization of new terrains.

100 thousand years, few ice ages went and came, they have turned the balance of diversity further towards speciation at a rhythm that only will benefit those species that can be flexible to change, they manage to colonize America, as well expand towards Africa and many of the island regions across the pacific ocean somehow reaching up to Australia, and so conquered most of the planet with exception of Antarctica.

1 million years, many of those ecologically adapted or regionally isolated populations have turned into different species, they still resemble the woodland dweller to a degree but they have changed considerable depending of their environment, with new behaviors, sizes and faces.

3 million years, the world was starting to see the new men shapes, some robust, some more slendy than their ancestors, some agile, some slow walkers, bipedal, facultative bipedal, quadrupeds, a lot of them took advantage of being the only dominant megafauna to reign as only a handful of small surviving mammals, resilient birds and many reptiles and amphibians represent competition, some have started to take over but it will be a long time until the posthumanity is dethroned from their state, meanwhile the oceans and rivers are dominated by shark and fishes, though there were already the start of a branch of the human dwelling species that became semiaquatic, their evolutionary path is increasingly fast.

And now 5 million years hence, a lot of these new posthuman species have specialized and turned even more different of their ancestral form, many look like an amalgamation between different animals with features of many of their gone monkeys and ape relatives. For things of natural selection and that speciation the new species that evolved of the isolation for the last 2 million years have migrated and now claimed another place on other continents, especially in America which in these million years saw a wave of posthuman species that replaced many of the endemic species, and some of those moved towards Asia. These ecosystems have one of everything, browsing or grazing herbivores, specialized prey eaters (insectivores, mollusk eaters, scavengers), varied lineages of omnivores, and full carnivores.

Specifically one of the carnivore lineage that evolved of the original "Woodland dweller" came from a specialized form reduced in size, adapted on hunting small animals and after millions of years these started to increasingly expand their prey range, growing in size as they replaced previous predatory forms that became stagnated. With the new diversity of the posthuman formed ecosystem growing in complexity, the new predatory forms could rise to hunt these down. Some are fast small prey hunters, some became more arboreal, some are more prominent on the grassland or mountains, all of them came in a considerable range of sizes from the extinct domestic cat to a panthers, but upon the appearance of large herbivores, a new more formidable and heavier predator evolved, this was the Spiketooth.

Spiketooths are among the largest terrestrial carnivores of earth, with a height of 2.3 meters tall and weight some 300 kg, their range extend across Eurasia, coming on the most temperate regions, they are heavy predators adapted for ambush and wrestling their prey into submission rather than fast hunt and kill. They hunt down large posthumans like the Eurasian slothmen, heavy descendants an arboreal heavy species from Africa that resemble a ground sloth, though formidable fighters with their long hand claws, or the armored species like the Temperate Lockskin, fatty and hairless posthumans that are semi bipedal, descendants of the tundra species that moved to the tropics and lost their fur due to the climate they live on, turning their skin very robust made against medium size predators, they often hold a handful of small sized gibbon like posthumans that feast on parasites and live in sort of symbiosis with their host Lockskin, often even being able to warn these of the incoming attack of a spiketooth.

This large carnivore evolved specifically to deal with the thought skin of these animals, with hypertrophied conical incisive that often pressure and cut through the hardest epidermis and are capable to pierce any defense of the large forms, with their carnassial teeth they are capable of tear down and cut with quite efficacy the meat of their prey, often taking also chunks of bones if they are capable off.

#speculative evolution #spectember #future evolution #posthuman #man after man