#those percents translated into real numbers look like this:

[polaristranslations]

Amarimonogatari: Afterword

There are many arguments for and against the idea that the creator and his creation are separate, but if we think about it simply and logically, it is impossible for the creator and the creation to be the same, or to be in perfect agreement. Personally, I think that the statement, "The creation is but one part of the creator," is correct. But the funny thing is, there are examples--lots of examples--where that one part surpasses the whole, and I'd like to say that's the real thrill of creation. I suppose it would be like, "The creator is but one part of his creation"? There is no doubt that he is one of its components, but the proportions of those components and the roles they play may vary. In that case, what if the creator expresses that his creation reached fruition in a manner completely different from his original plan? One may think it equates to being a failed work, but that isn't the case--the author may have failed, but it surely wouldn't become a failed work. I'm sure we can solicit any number of opinions on how much the excuse "This wasn't what I planned" can be used against a creative work, but I imagine the number of people saying that it ended up better than the original plan and the number of people saying that it ended up worse than the original plan would be about the same. Of course, whether it's good or bad, the work is a part of the creator's self, so he may not feel any sense of accomplishment as a result, but I suppose that point is what separates the creator from his creation. Even without parents, a child will grow.

Although this has no relation to the above discussion, this book was originally a story about Araragi-kun and Ononoki-chan going on an adventure to the demon world during the summer vacation of his first year in university. That had been the plot at the planning stage, but once I began writing and finished thusly, the contents ended up slightly different. But I am not dissatisfied in the least. Conversely, if I think about how it would've never ended up like this if I'd planned everything out in minute detail, then that sounds even scarier. Sengoku Nadeko's storyline in the latter half also has Ononoki-chan as a partner, so the entire novel was full of this corpse doll as a result, which was also outside of my expectations. But, at least when it comes to me, I have never written a single novel according to my original plans. Nevertheless, it appears that my next novel will become my hundredth one. It was certainly outside of my expectations to have been able to write for this long, so I can only say that I'm truly glad that things didn't go according to plan. With that, this book was a tsukumogami[?] written 100 percent as a hobby, "Amarimonogatari", "Episode 4: Yotsugi Buddy" and "Episode 5: Yotsugi Shadow".

As you have seen, the cover features the version of Ononoki Yotsugi-chan in her new fashion. VOFAN-san, thank you very much. Her appearance rate on the covers has inadvertently become top-class, so she's completely become a main character before I knew it, didn't she? Monster Season will now be entering its second half, so please look forward to the remaining three volumes. I hope you will follow along with my unplanned plans. Translator's Afterword

There are often times when I revisit some of my earlier translations and think that I could've done better. Of course, feeling ashamed of my past translations is likely a sign that I've improved as a translator—but when I consider the embarrassment I feel from recalling my past memories, does that really mean I've grown as a person? On the other hand, there have been times when I've read a translation of mine and thought, "This holds up surprisingly well for something I did several years ago," so perhaps I haven't actually improved as much as I think I have. For example, instead of an upgrade, it would be a sidegrade. (At least, I hope I haven't downgraded.) In any case, if I had infinite time and resources, I'd be tempted to keep going back and editing what I've put up, but then again, if I really did have infinite time and resources, they'd be better off spent translating new works instead. With that in mind, I'd like to have the confidence to never go back and edit my earlier translations, but perhaps that isn't quite it either.

It was touched upon in the text itself, but the word "buddy" in the arc title "Yotsugi Buddy" could also be read as "body". Given that the word "body" is more commonly written as bodi unlike title's badi, and considering the partnership of Koyomi and Yotsugi being more at the forefront of the story than anyone's bodies, it seemed more appropriate to use the word "buddy", but in the end, I can't claim to know for sure the author's true intentions. Perhaps a translation should seek to be so natural that people forget it's a translation, but ironically, I'd like to keep reminding people that a translation is but another interpretation of the translator.

On behalf of the author, I would like to thank you for reading "Amarimonogatari"—and I would like to thank you for reading my translation.

Polaris

[leehallfae]

https://www.tumblr.com/leehallfae/713992010181312512/i-dont-transition-to-escape-social-expectations A trans person killed three inocent people last week, one being a little girl. Who's dying again?

“extremist politicians and pundits are focusing on speculations about the shooter and fear-mongering about transgender people because they have no interest or willpower to offer real commonsense solutions to america’s gun problem.”

— jay brown, human rights campaign (x)

“there were 1,529 total mass shootings in 2018, 2018, 2022, and so far in 2023. a mass shooting is defined as four or more people shot or killed, not including the shooter. based on that total, four transgender shooters would be 0.3 percent of the mass shooters, compared to 99.7 percent who are cisgender.”

— lisa chiu, “what mass shooters have in common, and what they don’t” (x)

“a spokesperson for the violence project, which records data on mass shootings in the u.s. since 1966 with ‘four or more’ people killed in public [said] that ‘nashville is the first case of a trans’ perpetrator in their database and per their methodology. …the gun violence archive, which began collecting data on gun violence in the u.s. in 2013 […] recorded more than 4,400 mass shootings in the last decade…. of those, ‘the number of known suspects in mass shootings which are trans is under 10 for the last decade,’ which translated to ‘1:880 [or 0.11%] of the 4,400 shootings’ they recorded…. further, the u.s. secret service national threat assessment center (ntac), which studies all forms of targeted violence including mass casualty attacks, published a report with data from 2016 to 2020 [examining] 173 attacks in the u.s. that ‘that resulted in harm to three or more individuals in public locations,’ […] and ‘three attackers (2%) were transgender’…. most mass shootings or violent gun attacks in the u.s. carried are out by cisgender men.”

— “fact check—majority of u.s. mass shooters are cis men, not transgender or non-binary people” (x)

“because ‘the base rate of incidents in general is so small, any increase looks astronomical […] so going from 1 shooting perpetrated by a transgender individual to 2 is a 100 percent increase... it is important to remember that correlation (which this is not even large enough to be that) does not equal causation.’ …mass shooters are ‘overwhelmingly cisgender heterosexual white men, so any deviation from that will certainly be seen as out of the norm.’”

— kahleda rahman, “are transgender mass shootings on the rise? what we know, what we don’t” (x)

“lgbtq+ people are more than twice as likely to be a victim of gun violence than their cisgender and straight peers. …additionally, nearly 20% of all hate crimes are motivated by sexual orientation and/or gender identity bias. …lgbtq+ youth disproportionately face violence at school: notably, 29% of transgender youth have been threatened or injured with a weapon on school property, compared to 7% of cisgender youth.”

— “facts & statistics about the impact of gun violence on lgbtq+ people” (x)

“at least five people were killed and dozens were injured in a late night shooting on nov. 19 [2022], the eve of transgender day of remembrance, which honors the memory of the lives of transgender people who were victims of discriminatory violence. the targeted bar, club q, was hosting its weekly drag show…. acts or threats of violence against the lgbtq have been seen across the country in recent months—including bomb threats toward boston children’s hospital, which offers gender-affirming care, an alleged riot plot from white nationalists at a pride parade in cœur d’alene, idaho, and more. ‘there’s actually a term for this. it’s called stochastic terrorism. and this is a documented phenomenon where when levels of hateful rhetoric towards a community rises, that it’s followed inevitably by levels of hateful actions.’”

— kiara alfonseca, “lgbtq community ‘in deep mourning’ after colorado springs shooting” (x)

#anon #mailbox #gun violence #trans #lgbt

[chhavimalik]

Reasons Your Brand Should Be Using User-Generated Content

Brands that are adept at using user-generated content are enjoying overwhelming success. This infographic analyzes why UGC has such an influence and how it allows businesses to gain tons of leads, engagement, and eventually customer conversions. If you're new to the concept of UGC, the folks at Reelup have written a great definition of the term. Reelup define UGC as “any content – ​​text, videos, images, reviews, etc. – created by people rather than brands”. It's so simple! By enlisting the help of your customers, followers and brand loyalists, you can collect authentic content and use it to further market your business. Without further ado, let's explore how and why UGC has such an impact.

Why is UGC important?

Content created by real people, even if prompted by a contest, campaign or challenge, builds trust. That's because user-generated content is authentic, and authenticity resonates with consumers. Compared to other forms of marketing, UGC is still on top. 79% of consumers say UGC influences their purchasing decisions, while only 13% believe branded content has the same impact. Content created by influencers is even less influential at 8%. These numbers prove the importance of incorporating authentic content into your marketing, meaning content created by real people as opposed to influencers or advertising agencies.

UGC by Industry

Some industries can use UGC better than others. For example, the travel industry, restaurants, retailers, and health and beauty industries find that their customers post more about their experiences than customers of other types of businesses. In other words, if businesses in these industries aren't using UGC, they're really missing out. In fact, the percentage of consumers willing to post positive experiences is high. Here are the numbers by industry: Health & Beauty – 65% Dining – 85% Apparel & Accessories – 71% Travel – 89% (Source) If these consumers are already posting their positive experiences, why not take advantage of the content opportunity? However, the obstacle to using customer content is obtaining the rights to it. It is essential to obtain permission from the content owner before using in a repost or in any form of marketing. On the plus side, rights management solutions make the practicalities of obtaining authorization slightly easier. Additionally, when it comes to rights management, 51% of consumers say they would like to grant permission to a business that wants to reuse their content.

UGC vs. traditional advertising

When it comes to comparing UGC to traditional ads, there is no contest. As I mentioned earlier, UGC influences 79% of consumer purchasing decisions compared to 13% influenced by branded content. There are other statistics that prove the superiority of UGC. When looking at engagement, UGC content received 73% more positive social media comments than ads. Driving engagement is one thing, but encouraging that much positive engagement is even better. And when it comes to brand awareness, UGC beats traditional ads in that department as well. 31 percent of consumers say ads with UGC content are more memorable than traditional ads.

UGC and Social Media

Social media campaigns that include UGC actually see a 50% increase in engagement. If you look at several famous UGC campaigns that used social media, the proof is in the pudding. Take, for example, Coca-Cola's famous "Share a Coke" campaign. Not only were they able to garner 500,000 posts using the hashtag #shareacoke, but they also gained 25 million new followers. That's a serious achievement! T-Mobile organized a unique campaign that asked users to submit a break-up letter to their existing provider. Each subscriber who sent a termination letter and switched to T-Mobile received coverage for any fees incurred as a result of breaching the contract with their old provider. T-Mobile collected 80,000 breakup letters. If each of those letters translates to a new T-Mobile customer, that's a lot of additional revenue.

Ready to create your own UGC campaign?

Convinced? If you want to see some of this success for your own business, starting a UGC campaign is a great place to start, but first you'll need the right tools to get the job done. Enlist the help of competing software that offers the ability to collect, manage and acquire rights to the content you collect.

#ugc #ugcvideos

[wallpiner]

Amazon kindle ebooks

#AMAZON KINDLE EBOOKS DOWNLOAD#

#AMAZON KINDLE EBOOKS FREE#

It’s a memoir its a true story but be forewarned that it isn’t for the weak, these people went through horrible things, be ready to cry like i did. I highly recommend “If You Tell” by Gregg Olsen. And there are all types of books too, healing, self help, thriller, psychological thriller, fantasy, etc. but Kindle Unlimited allows you to pay so much per month & “borrow” as many books as your heart desires, read, return, & replace with another good book that sparks your interest. Plus I have “feral kids” (if you know, you KNOW but if not, look it up😅). I can’t get into it if I know what’s going to happen, so I definitely can’t afford to spend the amount of money they now cost to only get use one time. I have always been a bookworm but times are tough, I can’t afford to go buy books to read right now, especially considering I can’t reread something I’ve already read. Kindle is great, but Kindle Unlimited has made it AMAZING!!😍😍📖 Get notified when authors you love have new releases.īy using this app, you agree to Amazon’s Conditions of Use (and Privacy Notice (ElizabethHawkins.Switch seamlessly from reading your Kindle book to listening to the Audible book, all within the Kindle app. When you’re reading a book, the Kindle app will automatically sync where you left off-along with any bookmarks, highlights, or notes-so you can start reading on one device and pick up where you left off on another. Zoom in on high-definition color images in Kindle books, magazines, comics, and manga.Flip between pages or get a bird’s-eye view of your book with Page Flip-don’t worry, we’ll save your place. Open My Notebook to see all your notes in the same place. Bookmark places you want to revisit, and make highlights and take notes throughout your book.See what percent of the book you’ve read, real page numbers (for most top titles), and how much time you have left in the chapter or book based on your actual reading speed. Simply tap and hold a word to view its definition, or use the Google and Wikipedia links to get more information. Breeze through words you don’t know and characters you can’t remember with the built-in dictionary, X-Ray, Wikipedia lookup, instant translations, and search within your book. Look up words, people, and places while you read.Go to the Aa menu in your book to get started. Read comfortably day and night with adjustable brightness and background colors. Customize your text size, font type, margins, text alignment, and orientation (portrait or landscape)-and choose whether to turn pages from left to right or continuously scroll. Explore these reading features in the Kindle app:

#AMAZON KINDLE EBOOKS FREE#

Turn your iPhone or iPad into a book with the free Kindle app-so you can read anytime, anywhere. Kindle Vella and In-App purchase of Tokens are currently only available in the US. Tokens may only be used to unlock Kindle Vella story episodes and are available for In-App purchase. The first three episodes of every story are always free-after that, purchase Tokens and redeem them to unlock episodes.

Kindle Vella brings you stories released one short episode at a time.

Over 1,000 books, magazines, comics, and more included with Amazon Prime.

Kindle Unlimited members can enjoy unlimited reading and listening, with the freedom to explore over 1 million titles, thousands of audiobooks, and current magazines.

Explore Amazon Charts best sellers and titles across genres like romance, science fiction, children’s books, self-help, religion, nonfiction, and more-and try any book with a free sample straight from the Kindle app. Choose from over six million Kindle books (including those with Audible narration), magazines, and comics and start reading in seconds.

Read the books you buy on Amazon in the Kindle app.

#AMAZON KINDLE EBOOKS DOWNLOAD#

Kindle Unlimited and Amazon Prime members can select and download Kindle books directly in the app. Kindle books you have purchased on Amazon will automatically appear in your app. On the bus, on your break, in your bed-never be without a book.

#Amazon kindle ebooks

[bananamail]

Amazon kindle app not downloading books

AMAZON KINDLE APP NOT DOWNLOADING BOOKS HOW TO

AMAZON KINDLE APP NOT DOWNLOADING BOOKS APK

AMAZON KINDLE APP NOT DOWNLOADING BOOKS INSTALL

AMAZON KINDLE APP NOT DOWNLOADING BOOKS ANDROID

AMAZON KINDLE APP NOT DOWNLOADING BOOKS FREE

Get notified when authors you love have new releases.īy using this app, you agree to Amazon’s Conditions of Use (and Privacy Notice (/privacy).

Switch seamlessly from reading your Kindle book to listening to the Audible book, all within the Kindle app. When you’re reading a book, the Kindle app will automatically sync where you left off-along with any bookmarks, highlights, or notes-so you can start reading on one device and pick up where you left off on another.

Zoom in on high-definition color images in Kindle books, magazines, comics, and manga.

Flip between pages or get a bird’s-eye view of your book with Page Flip-don’t worry, we’ll save your place. Open My Notebook to see all your notes in the same place.

Bookmark places you want to revisit, and make highlights and take notes throughout your book.

See what percent of the book you’ve read, real page numbers (for most top titles), and how much time you have left in the chapter or book based on your actual reading speed. Simply tap and hold a word to view its definition, or use the Google and Wikipedia links to get more information. Breeze through words you don’t know and characters you can’t remember with the built-in dictionary, X-Ray, Wikipedia lookup, instant translations, and search within your book.

Look up words, people, and places while you read.

Go to the Aa menu in your book to get started. Read comfortably day and night with adjustable brightness and background colors. Customize your text size, font type, margins, text alignment, and orientation (portrait or landscape)-and choose whether to turn pages from left to right or continuously scroll. Explore these reading features in the Kindle app:

AMAZON KINDLE APP NOT DOWNLOADING BOOKS FREE

Turn your iPhone or iPad into a book with the free Kindle app-so you can read anytime, anywhere. Kindle Vella and In-App purchase of Tokens are currently only available in the US. Tokens may only be used to unlock Kindle Vella story episodes and are available for In-App purchase. The first three episodes of every story are always free-after that, purchase Tokens and redeem them to unlock episodes.

Kindle Vella brings you stories released one short episode at a time.

Over 1,000 books, magazines, comics, and more included with Amazon Prime.

Kindle Unlimited members can enjoy unlimited reading and listening, with the freedom to explore over 1 million titles, thousands of audiobooks, and current magazines.

Explore Amazon Charts best sellers and titles across genres like romance, science fiction, children’s books, self-help, religion, nonfiction, and more-and try any book with a free sample straight from the Kindle app.

AMAZON KINDLE APP NOT DOWNLOADING BOOKS INSTALL

In order for you to install the Amazon Kindle app, your operating system must be either Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 10. Although the Microsoft app store has a version of the Kindle app, it is not free (and not developed by Amazon).

AMAZON KINDLE APP NOT DOWNLOADING BOOKS HOW TO

Choose from over six million Kindle books (including those with Audible narration), magazines, and comics and start reading in seconds. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to download and install your Kindle app.

Read the books you buy on Amazon in the Kindle app. If amazon support the downloading of older compatible versions of their apps try downloading it on a different device (or computers iTunes if you havent updated to iTunes 12.7+) so that its in the accounts purchase history, and then see if you can download an older version via the Purchased tab in the iPads App Store app.

Kindle Unlimited and Amazon Prime members can select and download Kindle books directly in the app. Kindle books you have purchased on Amazon will automatically appear in your app.

AMAZON KINDLE APP NOT DOWNLOADING BOOKS ANDROID

Just Search for Kindle on Google Play and tap Kindle icon to install it to your Android phone/tablet.On the bus, on your break, in your bed-never be without a book. Almost every App Stores in the Android device provide the Kindle App for Android, including Google Play Store. The Kindle App is the offcial App realeased by Amazon that lets every users download for free. How do I get the Kindle app on my Android phone? How do you download apps on a kids Kindle?.Why Amazon app is not compatible with my device?.Why won’t my Kindle books download to my phone?.How do I download kindle app to my Samsung tablet?.How do I add a device to my Kindle account?.Why is my book not compatible with my Kindle?.Why won’t my Kindle let me download apps?.

AMAZON KINDLE APP NOT DOWNLOADING BOOKS APK

What devices are compatible with Kindle app? Amazon Kindle Lite APK Read millions of eBooks 3 MB ( ) - Kindle Lite APK - Amazon Kindle Lite Read millions of eBooks.

How do I get the Kindle app on my Android phone?.

#Amazon kindle app not downloading books

[devnagri]

Benefits of Machine Translation API for Content Translation?

How do you know when to use machine translation for your job or business? Some translation jobs are better left to human translators, but a growing number of jobs are significant for machine translation(MT) or a mix of machine and human translation. As AI improves, modern machine translation API has several benefits that are all its own. Here are five good reasons to use machine translation to give you a sense of the situation.

Machine Translation Is Faster

One of the best things about machine translation API is its quick work. MT can translate quickly enough for real-time business communication when set up correctly. An MT array can translate hundreds of thousands of words per second with the right server setup, which is often provided in the cloud. When used with one round of human post-editing, MT can cut turnaround times by 35 percent or more, depending on the project's size.

Also Read: Five Reasons Why You Need App Localization?

Improve Terminology Consistency

Another benefit of machine translation API is that it ensures that terms are always used in the same way. This is especially important for projects that are more significant because it makes it easier to track the words being used. Large human projects would need to be translated by more than one person simultaneously. This makes it harder to keep the same tone and control the terminology than machine translation.

Also Read: AI-led English to Marathi translation solutions can increase the engagement of the audience

 Drive down The Total Cost of Translation.

Human translation is 100 times more expensive than machine translation. This is true even if the deployment is customized and secure. Even when the technology is used with human post-editing, it still cuts costs by 15–30%. The key is to train the MT engine to almost perfectly copy your voice, tone, and style.

Also Read: Is Website Localization Important For Edtech Companies In India?

Great for Sifting Through Large Amounts of Data.

Machine translation is also helpful when you need to translate a lot of content quickly, like chats in real-time or large-scale legal cases. A job that would be impossible for a person to do. In these situations, machine translation API makes it easy to quickly sort through documents written in a foreign language, look for relevant words, and remember them for later use.

Also Read: Why Is The Banking Sector Availing English To Hindi Translation Solutions?

It Makes It Possible To Balance Cost, Quality, And Time.

When MT is used as part of a complete enterprise solution, it makes it possible to change cost, quality, and time in ways that have never been possible before with language solutions. The machine translation API also helps medical clinical trial organizations that need translations that are as good as those done by humans but want the best price and fastest turnaround. Before AI-powered machine translation was added to the language solutions workflow, it was impossible to give customers a lot of freedom.

 Provides A Starting Point For Translation For Human Production.

The machine translation API is now commonly used in almost half of all translation work. If an MT engine is trained well enough, it can give a professional specializing in a specific industry a better place to start. This is sometimes called post-editing, a single pass over the MT output. Even with good training, MT post-editing will still lower the overall quality of the translation, but it is much faster and cheaper.

Also Read: The Importance of English To Malayalam Translation in Publishing Media

Machine Translation Is More Efficient

Using machine translation API has many benefits, and speed is one of them. When designed well, MT can provide the speed of translation needed for real-time communication in the workplace. With the proper server infrastructure, an MT program can translate hundreds of thousands of words per second typically hosted in the cloud. When MT is used with one round of human post-editing, the turnaround time can be cut by up to 35%, depending on the size of the project.

Source: https://devnagri.com/benefits-of-machine-translation-api-for-content-translation/

#Machine Translation API

[meyhew]

.

#lottie's post from a week ago popped up on my explore page and i am. 🙃can people STOP engaging with her #when she posted that blm statement post for tanologist she shared some stats abt their 40 corporate members #2.5% black 5% woc 12% lgbtq 85% woman-identifying 15% man-identifying #disregard how fucking weird those last two sound and just. bear with me for a second #those percents translated into real numbers look like this: #1 black person 2 woc 4.8 queer ppl 35 women 6 men #if there's 35 women and 2 are woc that means 33 white women are running a tanning business #targeting other WHITE girls to tan excessively to the point of looking Not White At All Times #just. the ONE black person and a measly TWO woc really stands out like how fucking embarrassing #what was the point in sharing something like that how does it help their case #not to mention that she posed next to a black model and looks nearly as dark as her #how is that helping ur case!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOW!!!!! #and im sick of grown white women in this fandom trying to brush it aside and instead praising her?? #for starting a business from the ground up????? like FULL offense to ur white feminism but #we all know that you support her actions bc she's louis tomlinson's little sister #if some other white girl was doing this im also certain the response to it would look very different #just bc she's had a great deal of tragedy in her personal life at such a young age doesnt mean any of this is okay #racism and capitalizing off of the aesthetics of poc isn't a coping mechanism #empty statements to 'do better' arent enough when she continues to exploit black and brown features #and now has an instagram post with a black model #we dont need her to ‘represent the Black and POC community more across everything’ she does #we need her to STOP with her nonsense and we need YOU to stop engaging with her promoting her shitty business #like lets not even pull on the other thread of all this which is the incredibly negative consequences on young girls' body image issues #especially in the long run. just fucking stop liking her posts i mean what r u getting out of it???????? #you'll tear down any woman but somehow she gets a pass? for being a successful business woman? i'll tear u new one bby #yall spammed the hell out of the tl with ur blm posts but when it comes time to contextualize it all #and actually BE anti racist in different situations.. so many of u simply fall flat ❤️

[prolifeproliberty]

Responding to COVID Cult Talking Points

“All/most of the people in the hospital with COVID are unvaccinated.”

- Hospitalizations are still very low compared to what they were in spring of last year. The real question is what percent of unvaccinated people who test positive for COVID are hospitalized (notice how they don’t push those numbers)

- Hospitalizations are defined differently in different places. In some cases, “hospitalized” means “went to the hospital to receive care,” and doesn’t even necessarily mean they’re staying overnight. They may have simply been held for a little while for observation and then sent home with medication or vitamins.

- Many of the people who have been told by their doctors not to get the vaccine because of their medical history are also vulnerable to COVID because of that same medical history. That’s why it’s important for doctors and patients to get real data and factual information about available treatments and therapeutics, including medications that can be used off-label.

“Hospitals/ICUs are nearing/at/over capacity.”

- Hospitals want to be near capacity at all times. It’s how they make profit. If they are truly overwhelmed, they will cancel elective procedures. Check to see if they’re doing that before you panic.

- Hospital capacity is not just the physical space or number of physical beds. The number of “available beds” is also dependent on staff availability. Our economy is experiencing a labor shortage, there was a nursing shortage before COVID, and many hospitals have suspended or fired doctors, nurses, and other staff for refusing to get the vaccine. Less staff = fewer available beds, which is why a hospital can be mostly empty and still be “over capacity.”

“There’s no evidence that the vaccine has long-term side effects.”

- Of course there’s no evidence, because it hasn’t been “long term” yet. Impacts on cancer, fertility, and other health issues won’t be seen for years, because it takes years for those problems to develop.

- For instance, an OB/Gyn won’t even consider a patient to have fertility problems unless she’s been trying to get pregnant for over 6 months without success. Most people haven’t even been vaccinated for 6 months, much less actively trying to get pregnant and seeing an OB about it. Studies are currently being done on whether the mRNA vaccine has an impact on ovarian reserve, with data expected early next year.

“Unvaccinated people are responsible for the Delta Variant”

- We know that vaccinated people can contract, carry, and transmit COVID.

- Vaccinated people are more likely to be asymptomatic, and therefore not know they have COVID and potentially spread it without realizing.

“Getting the vaccine reduces your risk of getting COVID.”

- Vaccinated people are less likely to get tested if they don’t have symptoms, since many places that require negative tests for unvaccinated people don’t require those tests for vaccinated people. That means unvaccinated people are getting tested more often, and will be overrepresented in case data.

- The case study cited by the CDC when they changed their mask guidance had data showing that the percentage of cases in vaccinated people was proportionate to the vaccination rate of the area. That suggests that protection against infection may not be as high as people thought.

- The effectiveness data for the vaccines is the effectiveness at preventing severe illness, not preventing transmission or infection. The initial studies done before the vaccines got emergency use authorization were not designed to measure whether the vaccine prevents transmission or infection.

“This person had a severe reaction to COVID or has ‘long COVID.’”

- We definitely need more research on therapeutics and other treatments to be able to help those who had a hard time with this virus.

- Individual stories do not translate to general risk. Keep data in mind and look at severe illness/death rates for your demographic.

- I can tell you stories of people I know who have had lasting adverse reactions from the vaccine. We need good data to be able to make good decisions.

“It’s okay that we’re [locking down, mandating masks, mandating vaccines] because we [violated rights some other way in the past].”

- Doing something wrong in the past does not justify doing it again in the future.

- Just because there may have been good outcomes in the past doesn’t mean the ends justify the means.

- Rights given up usually have to be taken back. Often at great cost.

#COVID #Covid Cult #COVID 1984

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: Podoboo

Debut: Super Mario Bros.

Before I start this post, I’d like to clear something up. Podoboo? Yes, Podoboo! I’m well aware these enemies are often called Lava Bubbles and that’s the name Nintendo has been trying to make standardised these days, but you know what? You can’t make me! Podoboo is a lot cuter, plus its the name I grew up with and changes in society scare me and cause me to lash out! Maybe Lava Bubble is closer to the Japanese name of just “Bubble”, but since when has that been a factor in any of the localised names? Do you really want to refer as Lakitu as “Jugemu”, huh? I’ll have you know one of my civil rights as a citizen of Wet Dry World is to refer to Mario enemies with whichever official name I please. Like it or leave it!

So this is a post about Podoboo. Do you like Podoboo? I certainly Podo-do! They are perhaps the most generic design you could give to a Mario enemy, a visibly Dangerous Thing with two eyes, but they have always charmed me! It’s the little things, like their distinct shape and the fact their pupils are somewhat wider than most obstacles like this. They bring me comfort in dire times. No matter what happens, I know Podoboo will be there, jumping at a set height in a particular spot of lava! Without them I would be nothing! 

So simple is their design, isn’t it weird to think they started off as even simpler? The Podoboos in the first SMB game are completely blind, and with no eyes they may as well not be creatures at all! Of course, I’m very glad they are creatures, and their iconic behaviour was there from the start! They love to jump, of course! There is nothing they would rather be doing!

Awaken! As of Super Mario World, they have been gifted sight and are no longer blind to the sins of this world! Hurray! What do you think they see as they jump up and down? I’m surprised it doesn’t make them dizzy!

You’ll be glad to hear Podoboos have had an expansive career ever since, now with their new trademark eyes! After all, they are THE lava enemy! Anywhere you’ve got that tasty hot fire juice, these guys are soon to follow! Here they are in Super Mario RPG, called Sparkies here because they couldn’t make up their minds on a localized name and probably because they confused them with Li’l Sparkies. In Yoshi’s Story they even called them Spark Spooks! Geez, I’ll even take the name Lava Bubble over this! But doesn’t this render look nice and juicy?

Though any great career has its flops, and I have to say... I am usually the first to campaign for the unique designs from the first three Paper Marios, but I do not really like this Lava Bubble! This takes away from their distinct Mario-y charm and makes them look like a Fire Enemy you could find in any other game! Though in the RPGs they are able to float around without needing any lava, the ones in Super Paper Mario act just like the platformer ones, jumping around despite not looking like they should be doing that! Ok!

The Podoboo from New Super Mario Bros. DS just wasn’t trying very hard at all. Come on! They could’ve it a bit more justice than this! 

Ah, there we go! The Podoboos in New Super Mario Bros. Wii decided to finally stop messing about and go back to what everyone loved from them in Super Mario World. I encourage experimenting with your identity, of course, but it’s good to be back, and now they are more mortal than ever! A single shot from an Ice Flower is enough to instantly vaporize a Podoboo in a puff of smoke, which is a bit scary! Are they really just pure fireballs that can be put out just like that? What a frightening life to live!

And in Super Mario Galaxy 2, they... hey, wait!! You took away their eyes again! Now you are just being inconsiderate. This outraged me as a kid! One of my most vivid memories of playing this game with my brother involved chanting “Podoboo rights! They deserve eyes!” because this upset me so much. Maybe my past as an activist is why I am so passionate about Mario enemies these days... I think I was 100 percent correct in hindsight, and now you know some of my backstory, too!

What relief it gave me to find out they were back to their usual selves in 3D Land! And they have been ever since, of course getting redesigned for the modern Paper Mario games and everything. 

What’s this? Blue Podoboos! Podo-blues, even...! They show up in 3D World, in its incredibly cool-looking blue lava levels! It’s a well known fact that blue fire is objectively cooler than red fire, and it seems even the Podoboos wanted in on the action! Blue Lava is an actual phenomenon I’ve just learnt, though it’s a sulfuric fire rather than lava. Could it be that Podoboos, being made entirely of lava, adapt to their environment? I’m not sure...

As an aside, the blue Lava Bubbles aren’t to be confused with Lava Bubble (Blue), which are from Mario Galaxy and show up during King Kaliente’s fight! They hop around on the ground and have square-ish eyes, which is enough to make them different I guess!

The Podoboo’s next big appearance, in Super Mario Odyssey, was in Soup! Yes you heard me- Soup! Some delightfully pepto-bismol pink coloured soup, no less. This is why I wasn’t too sure about Podoboo’s being able to adapt to their environment earlier- the Luncheon Kingdom is a big soup volcano after all, but the fact these Lava Bubbles are able to live in it is very interesting!

There is simply no way I would talk about Odyssey here without talking about possibly its greatest achievement, the best game design decision ever made! After decades of begging from fans, they finally did the impossible- they made Podoboo playable! Now it is Podo-you! It is quite unlike the other captures in the game, since it keeps the Podoboo’s simple-looking eyes and simply adds onto it a nose and a mustache! You may very well be the world’s first Podoboo with a sense of smell! I wonder if that is a benefit or not. The constant smell of soup might be a bit overpowering. 

Not only is this delightful, but it gives us more insight into the life of the humble Podoboo. First of all is the fact that they can swim around in lava, not just jump in one spot! Do you think they do this when we aren’t looking? I really hope so! Imagine a school of Podoboos swimming through molten lava in a castle’s moat. How delightful! 

The Luncheon Kingdom is also home to a number of Lava cannons, marked with a Podoboo’s lovely face. These are cannons for only for Podoboos to launch themselves across the kingdom, from one body of lava to another! My question is whether this was technology made by Podoboos themselves or whether it was made by some generous Podoboo lovers as some lava equivalent to the Fish Tube. I think I would take either explanation! 

And last I have a Podoboo appearance that even I, the world’s biggest Podoboo fan, didn’t know about! Paper Mario Color Splash has a Big Lava Bubble boss which speaks with you through a Shy Guy translator! It is quite upset that you barged into its volcano and decided to change the temperature. Mario, of course, kills it anyway, and also the Shy Guy translator without a second thought.

Still, just take a look at this sprite sheet! How cute! A little disappointing that they thinned out the eyes, but wow! They more than make up for it with this range of expressions! An angry Podoboo! A sad Podoboo! And my personal favorite is of course the shocked Podoboo with its assymetrical dot eyes, which might be one of the best things I’ve ever seen. 

To be honest, I could talk about Podoboo forever! If you didn’t stop me, I would go on all day about their every appearance, but I kind of had to limit myself to some of the most relevant ones. I just think they’re neat! And cute! And silly! Besides, I’m Mod F Boy, so I’m basically obliged to talk about fireballs with eyes! But for now I must bid you Pod-adieu! 

...Not! What, did you really believe me? Well you clicked the Keep Reading button, so you only have yourself to blame for this. Here I am talking about more Lava Bubbles from all over, because Lava Bubble’s career has taken it BEYOND the Mario series! Wow!

Podoboo’s had quite a few appearance in the Zelda series, appearing in Link’s Awakening, both the Oracle games, and even Cadence of Hyrule! Their Zelda wiki page is still called Podoboo instead of Lava Bubble, which means those Zelda fans have it better than we do. But wow, this is a pretty angry looking Podoboo! I wouldn’t mess with them! 

Both the Oracle games even had a Podoboo Tower! Amazing! They look quite a lot like a Fire Snake, but they are simply a tower of Podoboos! Why don’t they do this more often?

Hm... The Cadence of Hyrule one doesn’t have any eyes. Come on guys! It’s 2019! Podoboos having eyes should be standard! Though they still made the conscious decision to call them “Podoboos” in 2019, so I can’t be too mad. 

And they have even spread to Minecraft! In the Mario Mash-up Pack, they replace the Magma Cube enemies, and really there was no better choice for this. And now we have a Podoboo Cube! What more could possibly be left for Podoboo?

The answer is obvious- Podoboo in real life! Thanks to a certain Lego Mario set, Podoboo is now real and can be in your home for the small price of 19,99 US dollars. Please give a Podoboo a home today! Just make sure you don’t own anything flammable. 

#mario #mario enemies #podoboo #lava bubble #mod f boy

[ohpedromypedro]

I Love It When You Say That

A/N: @manuphantom​ wanted a second part for More Than Okay, so here it is! The well awaited part 2 she’s been looking for. 😘💕 Big thanks to @bxbyriku​ for the Spanish translations, you’re the real MVP 😩🙌🏼

word count: 5.8k (this is literally 20% plot and 80% smut, sorrynotsorry)

pairings/characters: Pedro Pascal x f!Reader, minor oc for the fic.

warnings: smut smut smut, but passionate smut. oral (f and m receiving), unprotected sex with use of birth control by reader, lots of swearing, fluff if you squint

summary: no please, I suck at them

“Hello? Earth to Y/N?” Your coworker Zena snaps her fingers in front of your face, bringing you back to reality and out of your rapidly running mind.

“Huh?” You snap out of it when her hand invades your vision, looking at her with raised brows. “You said something?”

“Yeah,” she laughs, wiping down the counters by the espresso machines. “Asked what you were doing after work?”

“Oh,” you blush, shaking your head with a smile as you continue washing mugs at the sink. “I’m sorry Z, was sort of daydreaming. I...I have a date tonight.”

“You do? Who with?” She grins, leaning in close as if you’re telling her the biggest secret in the world and she’s a million percent into it.

“You wouldn’t believe me.” You laugh, playfully shoving her away.

“Try me.”

“Did I tell you what happened on my birthday several months ago?” You bite your lip, looking at her with a slight head tilt.

“Well your birthday was before you started working here, so no.” She laughs.

“Long story short, no one remembered, not even my own family, so I found myself sitting in a park miles from my apartment just crying, knees tucked to my chest and face burrowed in my arms. While I was there sitting under a tree an absolute mess, someone started talking to me, asking if I were okay and why I was crying under a tree; eventually after a few shoulder shrugs and head shakes from me in response to his questions, he asked that if he introduced himself by name would it make me feel more comfortable talking to him, so I nodded in response… Well, it was Pedro Pascal. You know, Prince Oberyn Martell from Game of Thrones?”

“Okay one, I’m sorry you had a shitty birthday,” she frowned. “And two, you’re fucking with me, aren’t you?”

“See that’s the thing, it was shitty until by some Godly miracle Pedro Pascal happened to be in that same exact park as me and when he found out I was crying under a tree on my birthday, he went out of his way to make it better.” You bite your lip thinking about it, the smile on your face genuine. Z notices that.

“What did he do?” She asks with pure interest, occasionally glancing over at the coffee shop’s entrance for any new customers.

“Took me to dinner and a movie.”

“Cliché.”

“Yes, but it was delicious food and the movie at the drive-in was a surprise.” You smile.

“Which was?” She quirks her head in question.

“His movie, one of my faves too, Bloodsucking Bastards.” You sigh dreamily and she just laughs.

“Let me guess, he’s a vampire in this movie?”

“Head vampire,” you smirk.

“Hot.”

“Right?” You laugh softly, giving your head a shake. “But... but that’s not all.”

“Oh? You fuck him?” She asks, eyebrows raised high.

“No!” You blush, hard. “But he did kiss me… many times. And...And when he dropped me back off at my apartment after the movie, he...gave me his number.”

“To keep in touch?” She grins, looking somewhat genuinely happy for you.

“Yeah! He....he sends me good morning texts every single morning…” you bite your lip with a smile. “And tonight is I guess technically our second date since he took me out to dinner for my birthday, but...this time our date is going to be spent inside for a more private, relaxing setting.”

“That’s romantic.” She smirks, hint of a suggestive tone in her words.

“Yeah, it is.” Your cheeks couldn’t be any more hot. “It’s also our first time seeing each other since my birthday cause you know, filming and such.”

“It’s nice that he still wants to see you despite being a busy bee with acting life.”

“It’s more than nice,” you grin wide, looking at her with eyes full of genuine happiness. “It’s beyond anything I could ever ask for, he’s...he’s more than just a silly celebrity crush, you know?”

“I understand that.” Z grins. “You’ve got to actually spend time with him, he took you out for your birthday for God’s sake, so yeah I can definitely understand that you’ll feel for him as more than just that.”

“He’s the sweetest, most caring, adorkable, and handsomest man out there.”

“I bet,” she giggles, hearing the bell above the door ding to alert there’s a new customer and going over to the front counter to greet them. “Hi! Welcome to-- oh, you’re...wow… May I help you?” She looks up at the new customer awestruck, Pedro Pascal himself standing there with a cheesy grin.

“I’m here not for a coffee, thank you, but just to pick up Miss Y/N over there.” He points to where you’re still standing at the sink washing and drying the coffee mugs and spoons by hand, humming to yourself. Z smiles when she looks over at you and decides to make this a little fun before she alerts you that he’s here.

“You must be the vampire guy she was telling me about. Bloodsucking Bastards or something?” She smirks, looking up at him with a small tilt of her head. “I prefer Prince Oberyn, if I’m being honest.”

Pedro laughs softly, giving his head a shake with an amused smile. “Yes, I am that vampire guy from Bloodsucking Bastards and I am honored that you enjoyed my role as Oberyn.” His eyes flick back over to you, watching with an adoring gaze as you place the mugs and spoons back in their designated spots after drying your hands with a clean dish towel.

“I’ll let her know you’re here,” Z murmurs quietly to him, seeing in his eyes alone how much he truly feels for you.

Z goes over to you and gives your shoulder a light tap, gaining your attention immediately. She has a look in her eyes that seems both mischievous and amazed and you can’t help but give your head a curious tilt when you look up at her. What she says next has your heart thumping in your chest.

“Your vampire boyfriend is here to pick you up.”

Your gaze quickly moves to the front counter and your eyes light right up at the sight of Pedro standing there smiling at you.

“Bye,” is all you say before you pull your apron off and toss it onto the counter, quickly grabbing your purse from the small associate break room so you can meet Pedro by the front counter. “Hi,” you smile widely when you step out of the work area, allowing him to right away engulf you into a warm embrace, which you happily return.

“Hey, hermosa. Ready for our date night in?” He grins, pulling back to gaze down at you while his hands rest on your waist, the two of you completely unaware that Zena is ducking behind the counter to secretly watch your interaction. If only she had some popcorn...

“More than ready,” you whisper, yet again another blush coating your cheeks tonight. “I’ve missed…” You bite your lip and move your gaze elsewhere, too nervous to say what you want to say in case of scaring him away for being so forward.

“I missed you too,” he says it for you, reaching one of his hands up to gently brush his thumb against your cheek so he can gain your attention again, a genuine look in his eyes. “Missed that beautiful smile of yours.”

“Awwwww!” Z chimes in, the two of you breaking your gaze to see her standing at the counter with a wide smile and hand over her heart, as if in an adoring way.

“Oh shut up,” you mumble with a shy smile and Pedro only chuckles.

“Come on,” he smiles, taking one of your hands in his own and sending a small wave Zena’s way, leading you out of the shop. “Let’s get to your place for our date, yeah?”

“Yeah.” You grin.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Did you want something scary or not scary?” You ask Pedro with a smile, flipping through the movie options on Netflix.

“Depends, will the answer change whether I get to hold you in my arms during the movie or not?” He inquires with a soft smile of his own while carrying the few snacks the two of you picked out together into the living room. You blush at his response, but smile up at him when he places everything down on the coffee table.

“Do you want to hold me during the movie?”

“Yes,” he states simply, but with adoration and you can’t help but grin.

“Then no, the answer will not change depending on what genre you choose.” You reach out for his hand, gently pulling him down onto the couch next to you and bringing your freehand up to gently rest against his cheek which he leans into, just staring into his eyes for a moment while you admire his company. Ever since your birthday you just can’t help but to truly appreciate Pedro Pascal more as a person and there’s so much you wish to do to pay him back as a way to show your appreciation. “I owe the world to you, Pedro Pascal.”

“You are my world.” He whispers and your face says it all, you weren’t expecting that from Pedro Pascal himself, not yet at least.

“I am?” You whisper right back, tears already welling in your eyes.

“Fate brought me into that park on your birthday, Y/N… I never quite believed in it, at least not until you.” His own freehand comes up to rest against your now damp cheek, his gaze never leaving yours as he wipes away the few tears that escape your vision. “I knew from the moment I met those tear filled eyes the first time that you were going to change the course of the rest of my life...and boy was I right. You, I just…I can’t get you out of my mind. I film scenes with many wonderful and beautiful women, but none of them occupy my mind the way you do...none of them come close to you, your courage, your passion... I think about you and that bright smile of yours, that adorable genuine laugh that brought so much joy to my heart and ears when we watched Bloodsucking Bastards, your cute little giggles when something I said amused you and those eyes...like gazing into a whole new and beautiful galaxy. Such beauty, everything about you...”

You’re stunned, absolutely stunned. Your gaze is soft, but wide and full of adoration. This man who you’ve grown to love over the years because of his incredible acting skills and his downright glowing personality, is practically confessing his love to you without actually using the term, yet. You’re at a loss for words, unable to even comprehend any to begin with, so you respond by leaning in for a deep, passionate kiss, pouring every ounce of your emotion into it. Pedro’s response is immediate, arms wrapping around your waist and pulling you flush against his chest while kissing you with as much fervor in return. After a few long moments, the two of you pull back to catch your breath and he lets his forehead press to yours with a wide smile.

“I definitely missed your lips too… Such beautiful, kissable lips,” He murmurs, smiling when he hears your giggle.

“Ditto, mister.” You smile, moving your fingers to gently card through his hair. “I didn’t realize you felt so strongly for me…”

“Love is the only term that comes to mind when I look at you.” He pulls you against his chest with a soft murmur, sitting you sideways on his lap and moving to press his lips to your forehead.

“I…” You bite your lip softly, looking up at him as he cradles you against him. “I love you too.” You whisper, judging by his wide grin that he was hoping you’d say that.

“That’s all I needed to hear,” he hums softly, moving to give you one more deep kiss while holding you tighter against him.

Your arms move to wrap around his neck, pulling yourself up further where your faces are level with one another and letting out a content sigh when one of his hands instinctively grabs you by the leg and pulls it over his lap so that you’re comfortably straddling him. His other hand moves to hold you by the waist as the two of you momentarily get lost in your heated kiss, your lips molded against one another’s like the perfect puzzle pieces. You’ve never had a kiss this real before or one as passionate and full of love; everything about this moment screams that this is it, this is what life’s intentions are for you.

After several minutes of slow, passionate kissing and allowing your hands to freely explore one another, you pull back to breathe again, moving your hands to cup his face.

“I wish to show you how much I love and appreciate everything about you, Pedro…” You murmur quietly, moving your hands to gently rub circles along his chest. He hums at the soothing sensation, looking up at you while his hands stay seated on your waist.

“How so?” He muses, rubbing his thumbs into your sides and smiling at the way you melt into the feeling.

“With my lips,” you sigh contentedly, studying the way Pedro’s eyes light up with blown pupils at the mention of your lips being how you’ll show your love and appreciation. You smile. “I want to kiss every inch, crevice and curve of your perfectly toned skin, kiss every one of your cute little tattoos to mark my admiration for each of them and how they’re a part of what makes you you.” 

Pedro doesn’t let you speak another word, only presses another kiss to your lips while shifting to stand up from the couch with your legs wrapped firm around his waist. “Which way to your bedroom, hermosa?” 

“Second door down the hall on the right.” You breathe, carding your fingers through his hair and kissing him once more before dipping your head to start kissing along his jawline toward his neck while he walks the two of you toward your bedroom. His low groan makes you smile and urges you to leave a playful nip to one of his throat’s sensitive areas before finishing with a gentle kiss.

“Mmmm you’re a dream come true.” He sighs, opening the door of your room with a quick gentle kick of his foot against the bottom corner.

“That would be you, mister.” You giggle softly, grinning when he drops you onto your bed after getting the door kicked open and closed and moving to lay comfortably before him.

“Me? I’m just Pedro Pascal.” He chuckles, climbing his way up and along the bed until he’s hovering face to face with you, his lips finding his way to the curve of your jaw now.

“You’re more than that,” you say breathlessly, moving your fingers into his hair again. “You’re more than just the sum of what Hollywood makes you out to be… I love you for who you show me when we’re together, not only for what Hollywood shows. You are more than just Pedro Pascal the actor, you are José Pedro Balmaceda Pascal, the man I shamelessly fell even harder for after he saved my birthday from being the absolute worst one to ever happen to me.”

“You deserved every minute of what I did for you,” he murmurs against your skin, pulling back to gaze down at you with admiration. “I appreciate everything you say to and about me, hermosa. Every word.”

“I mean every one and I will always stand by them.” You whisper with reassurance, your lips finding his once more. “Now please, let’s prove to each other how true our words are?”

“Yes,” he smiles, moving away so he can rub his hands up and along your sides. “And you’re sure you’re ready for a step this big?”

“Yes,” you breathe, grabbing his hands and lowering them toward the hem of the comfortable sweatpants you changed into after arriving home from work, your eyes showing how ready you really are. “Please.”

Pedro smiles and nods immediately, lightly gripping the hem of your sweats and pulling them down and off your ankles, leaving you in just your black laced panties you wear beneath. His hands go for your cotton t-shirt next, sitting up a bit so you can help him to get it pulled up and over your head, a blush burning at your cheeks as his gaze takes in your form laid out for him, your matching bra and panties a pleasing sight to his eyes.

“You’re so beautiful…” He muses in a gentle tone of voice, gliding his hands along your soft skin and smiling when goosebumps start erupting from his touch. “Your body reacts so naturally to me…” He leans forward to kiss from the edge of your shoulder toward your neck where he nuzzles his face against it, his lips and teeth eliciting soft gasps from you.

“Pedro…” You tilt your head, your fingers once again brushing through his dark locks.

“Hmm?” He hums in an inquiring tone, moving his lips from your neck down to your chest to start kissing at the swell of your breasts.

“Oh…” A soft moan escapes your lips when he reaches your breasts, your fingers giving a light clench in his hair. “Please,” you whimper softly, using your freehand to start tugging on his own shirt, which he immediately leans back so he can help you pull it off and toss it to the side. Your hands go for his pants next, getting the button undone and watching as he momentarily moves to the edge of the bed to kick them off and let them join his shirt, now only in his boxers as he climbs right back over you.

“Better?” He chuckles, letting his hands gently roam along each inch of your skin they can reach.

“Almost,” you murmur, shifting your positions in a quick blink of an eye so he’s now laid against the pillows and you’re straddling him by the waist, your hands tracing over each inch of his sun-kissed chest. “Now it’s better.” You smile down at him before starting to trail kisses along his skin the way he did you, starting from his lips and working your way from his neck, along his shoulders, down his chest and over every inch of his stomach.

“Bebita…” He sighs pleasantly, watching you shower him with love and affection with that pretty mouth of yours.

You have him speechless from the way your lips move over every inch of his skin that you can reach in your current position, him wanting so badly to have his hands on you in some way, but enjoying too much of the attention you’re so willingly giving him. It’s something he doesn’t receive very often and he doesn’t have the heart or even want to stop you from doing it. When you start kissing down the center of his stomach toward the waistband of his boxers, his breath hitches and you can only smirk at the small sound when it escapes him.

You look up at him through your lashes as your mouth hovers just over his clothed cock, your warm breath hitting his hardening length through the thin fabric of his boxers and making him visibly shiver. You smile this time and lean forward to press a gentle kiss to his twitching member as your actions cause him to grow harder. Your gaze is trained on the obvious size of him beneath his boxers and you can feel your cheeks burning again knowing you finally get to feel and experience what you’ve only gotten to think or dream about before you met him. You’ve always had a hunch that he’s an endowed man, pictures are obvious evidence of that, but seeing it for yourself in this moment for the first time has you wetter than a waterfall.

You gaze up at him when your fingers reach for the waistband of his boxers, your eyes asking for permission before pulling them off, even though you already can tell he wants them gone. With a quick nod of his head and a gentle brush of his thumb against your cheek, you quickly slide his boxers from around his waist, your cheeks even hotter now as his entire length springs free. You feel your mouth water at the sight of him, immediately dropping your head to kiss at the base of cock before trailing your tongue along the entire underside of his shaft.

“Fuck,” Pedro gasps, his eyes wide and lust blown as he watches you work your tongue along his length. When you stop at his swollen, precum leaking head to swirl your tongue in circles and collect the few beads of cum dripping from him, he lets out a deep groan, his fingers moving right into your hair. “Bebita…”

“Hmmm?” You repeat the hum he made at you minutes earlier, smirking when you take his tip into your mouth and suck on it as if it’s a lollipop.

“Oh bebita, your mouth feels so good.” He breathes, moving his fingers through your hair toward the back of your head and choking on air when you suddenly hollow your cheeks and take him further into your mouth and down your throat, your fingers wrapped around the base of his length to hold what you can’t reach just yet. “Holy fucking shit,” he groans louder this time, his hips bucking up into your mouth.

“Mmm…” You hum around him in response, swirling your tongue a few times before pulling back almost completely then taking him right back into and down your throat, gagging a bit the deeper he goes.

You repeat your actions several times, breathing through your nose with every bob of your head and letting out a deep moan when you take the entirety of his length down your throat, your nose pressed right against his pubic area.

“Jesus, bebita, if you keep that up I’m gonna cum and I’m not ready to cum yet.” He groans, clutching his fingers in your hair. He watches as you slowly pull off his cock, your lips swollen and eyes glossy when you gaze up at him.

“Sorry,” you bite your lip, moving back up his body to press a deep kiss to his lips, gasping when he has you flipped onto your back and pinned to your bed beneath him.

“It’s okay, but now it’s my turn.” He smirks, kissing and making his way down your body until his face is level with your clothed core, his fingers massaging into your thighs before curling around the waistband of your panties and slowly pulling them down, revealing your pretty dripping folds for him. “Fuck… What a pretty little pussy you have, bebita.”

Pedro dives right in, doesn’t even give you a chance to say a word before he starts swirling his tongue in circles around your clit and sucking it into his mouth. Your moans are instantaneous and he hums as he pushes his tongue right into your aching heat, groan rumbling through his chest when he tastes the sweet juices of your pussy.

“You taste so good, bebita… I desire to wake you up like this every morning...” He muses as he gives his lips a small lick, going right back to sucking at your clit and slowly easing two of his fingers inside of you, giving them a few small scissoring motions.

“Oh Pedro. Please,” you gasp, cheeks burning again at his words, wishing you could wake up to this every morning like he desires. If that’s what he wants then he can have it.

“Mmmm yeah? Is that what you want too, bebita?” He rasps, moving his fingers in and out of you while gently curling them against your spongy walls, humming and sucking your clit back into his mouth.

“Mmm oh yes,” you moan out, giving your walls a squeeze around his perfect fingers and bucking your hips against them and his tongue. “F-fuck, please don’t stop!” You plead with a soft cry, dropping your hand to card your fingers through his hair as he pleasures you with his mouth and fingers.

“I won’t,” he murmurs, picking up the pace of his fingers and curling them right against your sweet spot, lapping and sucking at your clit to coax you toward that high slowly burning inside you.

“Just like that!” You gasp, squeezing around his fingers again and giving his hair a gentle tug. “Oh fuck it feels so good.”

“Yeah? Gonna cum for me, hermosa?” He coos, repeating his actions and earning himself another soft cry from you.

“Yes! ’m s-so close already, oh please don’t stop!”

“I won’t,” he reminds you with a small smirk, continuing his licks and sucks on your clit and the rapid thrusts of his fingers against that same spot inside you until you’re finally coming undone for him.

“Oh Pedro!” You cum the moment your walls clamp down around his fingers when his pace quickens, soft wails of pleasure leaving your lips the longer he gives your clit harsh sucks to extend the high of your orgasm even more. “Fuck! Yes!”

“Mmmm.” He groans against your folds, lapping up every drop of your release while his fingers give one more curl inside you. “You taste so good, hermosa. I could feast on you for hours.”

“I need you,” you murmur with a soft pant, your fingers loosening in his hair. “Please.”

“Bebita…” Pedro coos, pulling his fingers from inside you and slowly making his way back up toward your face, leaving a gentle trail of kisses in his wake. “Tell me what you need.” He murmurs, pulling you forward off the bed and pressing his lips to your shoulders to leave a trail of soft kisses while his hands reach around to unclasp your bra. 

“I need you inside me, please. I...I want you to take what’s yours,” you plead with wide doe eyes, sighing in content at the feel of his lips kissing further along your skin after getting your bra pulled off and thrown to your bedroom floor.

“Yeah?” He grins, gently pushing you to lay back again while moving to press a deep kiss to your lips, settling between your legs with a low hum. “That all?” He smirks, hint of a tease in his tone as he kisses down your chin and toward your breasts, taking one of your nipples into his mouth and giving it a soothing suck.

“Mmm I want--” you moan, moving your fingers into his hair again after he takes your other nipple in his mouth and sucks the way he did the first time. “--your big cock, please… Want to feel how w-wide you stretch my tight little pussy and n-no condom either, I’m on-- fuck, I’m on birth control.”

“Joder, nena. ¿Dónde estuviste toda mi vida?” He groans deeply, moving back up to kiss your lips deeply while pressing the head of his cock at your entrance. “Are you ready for me, bebita?” translation: fuck baby, where have you been all my life?

“Yes,” you whisper, wrapping your legs firm around his waist when he starts to slowly push his hips forward, allowing your warm walls to swallow up his cockhead and the first few inches of his length. Your head tilts back with parted lips as he slowly fills you, finally letting out the loud moan building in your throat when he finishes burying himself to the hilt inside of you. “Oh Pedro...”

“Fuck you’re so tight, bebita.” Pedro hisses, giving your walls time to adjust to the burning stretch of his cock before starting his movements. Pressing his lips to yours once more after a few moments of letting you adjust, he slowly pulls his hips back, the two of you moaning in unison. “You feel so good, hermosa…” He murmurs into the kiss, one of his hands holding your right arm above your head while the other cups your cheek, pushing himself back inside of you with a deep groan.

“Oh yes, you stretch m-me so well…” You moan along with him, your hand in his hair pulling him further into the kiss as you start rocking yourself against him. “P-Please make love to me, baby.”

“Joder, te amo.” He groans, bringing both of his arms over to rest on each side of your head while slowly pulling his hips back again, pressing a deeper kiss to your lips and with more fervor than you’ve ever experienced when he pushes right back in, repeating the slow motions of his previous thrust.

“Te amo, Pedro…” You murmur into the kiss, both your arms now slipped around his neck and holding him close against your chest while he repeatedly makes his slow back and forth thrusts inside of you. “Oh g-god, baby...”

“‘m not gonna last long, bebita… Fuck, you feel better than anything I’ve ever felt in my life.” He buries his face against the crook of your neck with a groan, leaving chaste kisses as he lovingly fucks into you.

“Mmmm f-faster, please.” You moan, tilting your head sideways to give him better access to your neck while he kisses your sensitive skin, biting your lip at the groan that leaves his throat from your request before he starts picking up his pace. “Y-yes, like that, oh please don’t stop!”

“I love it when you say that,” he groans more, thrusting as deep as he can go with every gradual increase in his pace. “You love how good I make you feel, huh bebita? Finally get to feel the things you could only ever fantasize or dream about?”

“Mmmm yes!” You admit without shame, your eyes rolling back the faster and deeper he sends his cock inside of you, squeezing your legs tighter around his middle so your heels are pressing into his lower back. “E-Everything I’ve ever dr-dreamed it to be, oh god Pedro!”

“I love the sounds you make for me, bebita… Your beautiful moans and cries of my name…like music to my ears, music I wish to hear and cherish for the rest of my existence.” He murmurs tenderly while pressing a kiss to the shell of your ear, pulling back so he can gaze down at you as he gives your breasts a gentle caress and squeeze, continuing his deep and fast thrusts.

“I want...it too, I-- Oh…” You moan again, arching your back into his touch to your breasts and pressing your ankles hard against his ass, simultaneously pushing him even deeper inside of you. “Oh right there.” You groan, your fists balled up in the sheets.

“Fuck,” he grunts in response to the way you push him deeper into your warm center, his immediate reaction being to hit that same spot over and over again, both of you groaning at how great it feels. “Right here?” He grins, gently tweaking your nipples between his thumb and pointer finger.

“Yeah!” You gasp, rocking your hips against his own to match his forward thrusts into you, your head thrown back as a soft, deeper moan escapes your open mouth. “I’m gonna cum, oh god I’m gonna cum.”

“Cum with me, bebita.” He groans, leaning down again to kiss you with extreme fervor, one of his hands dropped so he can rub quick circles on your clit, eliciting a cry from you at the sudden attention to your bundle of nerves.

You kiss him harder now, throwing your arms around his neck again and hugging him closer as he coaxes the two of you toward your rising climaxes, your walls fluttering around him with his every thrust. “I’m so close I’m so close I’m so close!” You whine and with one hard thrust right against your cervix and a few more rubs to your clit, Pedro has you coming undone beneath him, your walls clamped down around him as you cum hard and in turn trigger his own release, your body trembling in his embrace as your orgasm rips through you. “Oh yes!”

“Joder bebita,” he moans as he fills you, burying his face in the crook of your neck while he continues his thrusts, still aiming for your deepest areas to help ride both of you through your highs. 

“Oh Pedro, I--” You groan softly, fisting your fingers in his hair at his continued thrusts into you, your eyes rolled to the back of your head. “--fuck!”

You’re the one left speechless now by how mind blowing sex with this man is, how intimate and passionate he is as he makes love to you and how verbal he can be, the Spanish spoken words and phrases the cherry on top of it all. You just can’t believe how lucky you are to have someone to love you like this, so intimately, and you’re even more blessed that it’s Pedro Pascal himself.

The two of you are panting by the time Pedro pulls out of you, his forehead gently resting against your shoulder while you both catch your breath, unable to contain the smiles wide on your faces. If you were able to read minds, Pedro’s thoughts would for sure make that smile wider and even your cheeks a lot hotter.

“Wow…” You breathe, lightly scratching your nails at the nape of his neck. “That was…”

“Everything you’ve ever dreamed it to be?” He teases, lifting his head to give you a playful smirk.

“Yes,” you giggle, leaning forward to capture his lips for a deep kiss. “I love you, Pedro…”

“Te quiero más que a nada en el mundo.” He murmurs against your parted lips, slowly pulling back and giving your thighs a firm massage. “Now wait right here for me, okay?” translation: I love you more than anything in the entire world.

“Where’re you going?” You pout and he just chuckles.

“Bathroom.”

“S’right there,” you point to the bathroom just off your room and again he chuckles.

“I’ve noticed, hermosa.”

Pedro gives you one more kiss before carefully moving off of you and heading to the bathroom to grab a nice warm wet washcloth to clean you with, giving himself a quick wipe down with a cloth of his own before rejoining you in the bedroom.

You smile when you see him reappear out of the bathroom, gaze landing on the washcloth in his hand and you become flustered at the thought of him tenderly cleaning you up after making love to you. He smiles down at you as he climbs back on the bed, taking the warm cloth and washing your sensitive area as gentle as possible, being sure to get your thighs too. You sigh softly.

“I’ll miss this while you’re away...”

“Miss it? I’m taking you with me.”

Other translations:

bebita: baby, hermosa: beautiful, joder: fuck, te amo: I love you (duh)

Everything taglist: @halefirewarrior​ @takemepedropascal​ @wildcard566​ @readsalot73​ @talesfromtheguild​ @msmona​ @oberynispunk​ @whiskeyxinxaxteacup​ @pedrosdoll​ @ah-callie​

Pedro taglist: @manuphantom​ @unadulterated-neckherolover @luna-longbott0m @hanelijoy​ @bxbyriku​ @lireandcampfire

#pedro pascal x reader #pedro pascal x you #pedro pascal x y/n #pedro pascal x f!reader #pedro pascal fanfiction #pedro pascal smut #nsft #writing #ohpedromypedro

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Space Orcs “Animal Planet.”

I had the sudden desire to do one of those documentary style episodes today, so that is what you are going to get. This will probably have one or more episodes, but it should be fun. Hope you all like :)

“Ok, ok ok, everyone listen up!... QUIET DOWN PLEASE…. Ok very very good. Now we have been cordially invited to interact with a very special group while they are being quartered here on our planet.”

“Don’t you mean you pestered begged and threatened?”

“You know what, you, you can shut up.”

‘Why are we doing this anyway. Humans aren’t all that interesting anymore?” 

“That is where you are wrong! Universe-wide opinion polls state that, behind the drama with the LFIL, humans at large and the most sought after topic in the galaxy. My other sources tell me that only 5% of the galactic population has ever even seen a human. You should read some of the rumors about them, it is quite stimulating. 

“How did you even get this to work?”

“The humans seem to want good PR as much as we want good entertainment. Alright everyone! GET YOUR CAMERAS READY!” “Do you want us to turn on the translation software?” 

“No, of course not, well for everyone accept humans.”

“Why.”

“Well the public won’t exactly get a great thrill from them if they think they are intelligent speaking creatures now will they.”

“But they are?” 

“Shut up, and get ready.” 

“Three….. two ….. One.” 

“HELLO EVERYONE! I am Mendex of the Tesraki, and today on my journey through the universe to meet some of the most dangerous species known to the galaxy, I have taken a stop back on my own planet for a rare opportunity. Now my researchers have come up with a few statistics I would like to share with you before we begin. According to intergalactic poles only five percent of the universal population has ever met, in person, one of these creatures. Number two, since their introduction, these creatures have been the cause for a 15% incline in death rate and a .2% drop in life expectancy for your average dweller of the GA. They can digest metal,, and reports say that they evolved to run their prey to death….. A slow death towards exhaustion.”

The camera pans slowly over the face of the Mendex, his light brown fur accented by a scruffy red scarf around his neck. They are walking up a grassy pathway, though the grass comes in shades of purple and blue instead of green.

“Now as I said before, I have been given a rare opportunity to interact with these creatures in their own environment. Now based on the concerns of some of my producers, we will not be allowed to go in alone, but have connected with an Expert who will take us through safety. Now as I understand it, this expert has left society to spend entire swaths of time with these creatures. He claims to have been incorporated into their pack and has enough social standing with them that he will be able to protect us while we interact.” 

The ground grows steep for a moment as the camera moves up a hill and over the other side.

“Ah, there it is, their hive. Look at it. Now not much is known about how they build such complicated structures, but we do know that they enjoy the use of very hard sharp lines and corners. “ They trundle down another hill and towards the ship sat crouched in a field. Overhead clouds pass over the star.

“Oh, and there is our expert, waiting for us at the entrance to the hive.

The camera cuts for a second, and when it comes on the Tesraki and a Vrul are sitting side by side at the base of the hive.

“No more suspense. It is time for me to tell you what we are going to be seeing today….. HUMANS. Yes that’s right everyone, I have been given access to a human pack and the expert who has been living with them for the past few cycles now.” He turns to the Vrul sitting by his side, “Why don’t you tell us a little about yourself and your research, Docotr.”

The little creature glances up at the sun and then back towards the cameras, “Well I am Dr. Krill, and I have been working as a surgeon for as long as I can remember.” “As A surgeon, how did you end up here?” 

“Well, that is actually an interesting story. I was working at the Thevel-1 Andromeda Trauma center, when a human ship actually called in for an emergency landing. One of the humans had been involved in some sort of freak accident on board, and they required immediate medical attention, so I men them in the trauma bay, and, I will leave the details out, but as it turned out one of the humans had a metal rod logged in his brain, through the orbital socket.”

“No, you’re kidding me?”

“Not even a little. I had never seen anything like it. Accidents like that result in visits to the morgue, not the hospital, but the human was still alive, so I removed the object and watched his recovery. Now at this point I was so fascinated that I couldn’t just let them go. There was so much for me to learn.”

“So just like that, you hopped on a human ship, and went gallivanting across the galaxy.”

“I know, sounds strange every time I hear about it, hardly something I would do.”

“What was that like, first day aboard a human ship, surrounded by predators.”

“Terrifying as you might imagine. I was convinced that I was going to get eaten or worse, but of course I never did.”

“Now why don’t you tell us a little about humans.

“Well, Mendex, the first thing you should know about humans is how social they are. Humans generally require SOME contact with other humans weather it be in large group units or at least one other human that they can interact with. It is such a big deal in fact that isolation can drive a human to madness or worse. They are very perceptive to social situations, and that is what made my first day so terrifying because the humans have many social rules that are expected to be followed that just never crossed my mind.”

“And how dangerous would you say a human is?”

“Well that depends entirely on the human and the situation. If a human thinks they are in danger, they will either run or they will fight. Humans have a special hormonal response that, during times of extreme stress, can allow them to life objects up to 500% their own body weight. For most of us a human, even the weakest humans, have the ability to maim, injure or severely mutilate.” he held up a hand, “however, I am not saying that to make you wary of humans, they are generally very friendly and curious creatures, and as long as they don’t feel threatened they will at least be tolerant of you.”

“Why are humans so dangerous?”

“Well that is a funny question, it actually stems from the simple fact that humans aren't actually all that dangers…. At least not on their planet, on the basis of raw power or predatory instincts.”

“Fascinating, what do you mean by that?”

“I mean that humans were not originally a predator species, in fact they are actually pretty poor hunters compared to most everything on their planet. In fact prey animals have been known to maul humans if provoked. Humans are probably the LEAST durable species on their planet. They adapted to survive in a world where the prey animals were dangerous and the predators could decimate them with the sweep of a paw.”

“Is that why they are a pack-creature.”

“Precisely, you see, a single human has a very low likelihood of being dangerous on their own planet, but together they can hunt creatures three four five times their own size if not more. You see comparatively to other animals of their planet, humans are slow, weak, with a poor sense of smell, hearing and even sight, but they had the one thing that sentient life is known for, and that is intelligence. This intelligence allowed they to group together and create a strategy for surviving in a hostile environment. That then led them to the building of weapons and machines to the point that survival was no longer an issue, and hunting even the most dangerous of their previous predators had become laughable.” 

“That is fascinating, to think that a creature that dangerous could be so weak on their planet….. Have you met any of these other dangerous species?”

“Actually, yes/ Humans are so social and pack oriented that they have the ability to bond with non-sentient animals. They call it domestication, and it requires an animal to be, pack oriented, easy to feed, and have a short gestation period. The humans then take that animal and only allow the breeding of animals with specific desirable traits. In fact, they took a similar pack predator, and used their natural sociability to integrate them into human packs. The humans keep them as pets and began to use them as hunting partners considering their new pack member was faster, stronger, had a better sense of smell and hearing, but was now loyal to its human companions.”

“That doesn’t sound real.”

“Oh but it is. We have one aboard the ship.”

“And this creature could rip the humans apart?”

“Oh pretty easily, especially if she had the element of surprise.”

“Amazing, so what do we need to know before we get on the ship with you, you know for our safety and security.”

The doctor shifts in place. He is making a strange expression that seems unnatural for a Vrul, “Well you have to be aware that the humans have a strict hierarchy. When you get on the ship you are immediately assigned a specific sort of guest place in this hierarchy. The human pack alpha that runs the ship is higher than you as well as the betas below him and their immediate underlings. You can assume that your comfort is more important than the low ranking humans but you MAY NOT order them around since it is not your place and you have not been accepted into the pack. Generally speaking though, a human ship is a relatively safe place as long as you are polite, apologetic, and willing to do what is asked of you. Now the humans are likely to be very curious, try not to show signs of fear, but if you do they aren’t going to attack or anything. Depending on the human they may or may not gently mess with you, they may playfully try to dominate or scare you for their own amusement, but don’t worry they aren't likely to attack. Do not make any disparaging remarks or insult the humans.”

“Are humans very sensitive to verbal attacks?”

“Some are and some aren’t. In the case of insulting a human, I have found that it is not generally the human you have insulted that you should be afraid of, but the other humans around the human you have insulted. You see many humans have no issue in making an insult, but will not tolerate one directed at one of their pack members. They are very protective of each other, especially the alpha. It is also a good idea not to insult objects that belong to humans. The human bonding instinct is strong enough that they will bond to objects. So the ship for example, do not offend the ship. I made that mistake on my first day and thought the alpha was going to tear out my throat.”

There was a shifting amongst the crew.

“What are the rules on touching.”

“That is complicated, it also depends on the human. The general rule is not to go up and touch a human without permission. If a human approaches you first, you may make contact with them. Generally hands and arms are acceptable to touch though I would suggest avoiding any other part of the human anatomy for the sake of their privacy. Humans are very very serious about their personal space and their personal privacy 

“Are there any warning signs that we should be aware of, just in case.”

The doctor nodded, “Well there are a few things. Humans have a warning call they use to indicate to other humans that something is wrong, it generally indicates pain or immediate danger and is specifically designed to get attention and bring other humans to assist. This involves a high pitched sort of keening, it is very loud and very powerful, and will hurt your ears if you aren't careful. Generally though, I have only ever heard it used on a few occasions. As far as more subtle things to look at. If a human gets into a defensive posture in your direction it isn't a good sign. They will bend at the knees and have their hands up to protect their face. Their chins will be lowered to cover their necks. Another important signal to look at is the face. A frowning human could either be thinking or they could be anger. That is when the mouth sort of dips on either end like this…. Yes…. yes like that. But the important thing to look at is the eyes. The eyes will always give them away.”

“What is so important about the eyes.”

“Well, human eyes are enormously expressive. I swear by them personally. Humans have this habit of pretending one thing but meaning another, and looking at the eyes can tell you that. Eyebrows slanted down is generally a good indicator. A frown mixed with slanted eyebrows and…. Its hard to explain. If you look into the eyes and feel as if their expression could kill you, you probably want to stop doing whatever you are doing. Also sudden silence isn’t entirely a good thing either. Humans love talking to each other, there is always someone speaking, most of the tie, but if you are in an area with many humans and none of them are speaking there is either something wrong, or they have been ordered to behave that way”

“What is a good indicator of a happy human.”

“It seems strange, but showing their teeth is a good sign most of the time. A curious human is generally a happy human. They like learning and interacting with their environment, so encourage curiosity and the showing of teeth. Also there is a strange sound they make, sort of a repetitive revving noise that comes from the back of the throat or the chest. That means that the human is amused, and that should also be encouraged.”

“Alright…. Do you think we are ready.”

“I think so…. Follow me.”

The crew gets up and the feed cuts to black.

This episode will continue after the break.

#humans are space orcs #humans are space australians #humans are space oddities #HUMANS ARE WEIRD #earth is a deathworld #Earth is space Ausralia

[brainiuminfotech]

Xamarin Vs React Native: Choose the Right Platform For Your Business

Mobile phones are used by 5.22 billion people, while 4.66 billion people have access to the internet. The rush to develop innovative apps based on new concepts is greater than ever. Businesses of all sizes have set aside funds to develop the most relevant mobile applications to meet the demands and preferences of their consumers. React Native and Xamarin are presently dominating the scene, according to those who monitor the mobile app development industry's trends.

The developer community prefers both of these open source cross-platform frameworks for developing high-performing apps with minimal coding effort and time. Several businesses have made it a prerequisite to hire mobile app developers who know how to write code that works on both iOS and Android. It's no surprise that these frameworks have become quite popular.

When asked which of these two titans has the upper hand in the sector, however, individuals rarely have an answer. Both React Native and Xamarin have their own set of benefits and drawbacks, making it tough to choose between the two.

Today, we'll go over some major aspects that highlight the differences between React Native and Xamarin. But before that, let’s look at their individual characteristics. Let’s go

What is Xamarin?

Xamarin is an open-source platform for .NET developers, similar to React Native. The fundamental purpose of Xamarin is to keep shared code and platform code in communication. The ability of Xamarin to enhance the capabilities of the .NET developer platform with platform-independent tools and frameworks distinguishes it as a unique framework for app development.

Furthermore, Xamarin may take advantage of the entire functionality of the underlying platform. This means that when the app runs on Android, it will take advantage of platform-specific features to deliver the desired user experience. The same can be said for an app that runs on iOS devices. Its ability to take use of the hardware acceleration capabilities of the underlying platform is also due to Xamarin's ability to offer the necessary performance.

Benefits:

Below are some of the benefits of Xamarin:

Xamarin is an ecosystem of built-in technology that enables Xamarin developers to create cross-platform apps in a single step. Developers may reuse 96 percent of this code when using the C# language and the .NET framework. Building apps for all platforms necessitates the use of three technologies: C#, .NET, and Visual Studio.

Xamarin applications are designed to operate on a variety of platforms, yet they share a similar code base. Aside from that, their business logic, database access, and network connectivity are all the same. The developer's only responsibilities are to make improvements to the user interface. This is necessary to ensure that each platform retains its original feel and appearance. In the development world, Xamarin is recognized for providing a highly native but simple application performance. Xamarin has unrivalled performance as compared to other cross-platform programming tools. The picture loading performance of a native platform is just 14 percent quicker than Xamarin when compared to native application development and rendering.

Using Xamarin, you can create a fantastic user experience. It's a collection of standardized interface components and pieces with 100% reuse code. Developers may utilize the built-in Xamarin to change the components from either  Xamarin or iOS or Xamarin. Android to make the needed modifications.

Even for the most popular components, Xamarin did not have a large number of libraries available to developers initially. However, Microsoft's development team heeded this request and created ready-to-use components for typical scenarios and use cases.

Having read about Xamarin and it’s benefits, let’s see what React Native has to offer us.

What is React Native?

React Native is an open-source framework built and introduced by Facebook in 2015. It is based on JavaScript and JSX. The goal is to create native apps for both iOS and Android devices.

The React Native framework uses JSX, which is an amalgamation of XML-Esque Markup. React renders to the native platform of the device on which the app is executing.

This ensures that the app performs similar to those created with a native app development framework such as Java for Android or Objective-C for iOS. As they have a common code base, React Native mobile app development enables the creation of platform-specific versions of components that can be shared across platforms. React Native is used to create mobile apps such as Facebook, Walmart, Bloomberg, and Instagram.

Benefits:

Following are some of the benefits of React Native:

Developers built React Native, and they continue to support it with the same zeal. For this incredible community support, there has been a revolution in React Native mobile app development. The community generously distributes its vast expertise, and everyone gets free access to a plethora of free components for mobile app creation.

With live and hot reloading, React Native mobile app development improves itself. Both of these qualities are complementary, yet there is a significant difference between them. The framework can compile and read the changes performed by the developer in real time thanks to live reloading. When sending a new file to the simulator, the complete file is read from the beginning and the changes are updated. The goal of hot reloading is to test the application's modifications without actually reloading it.

React Native is the go-to solution for developers looking to save money because 90% of the code can be reused to build iOS and Android apps. Working with React Native saves a lot of time because it just requires small changes to add nativity and minor changes to create performant applications.

The React Native application developers may render the application for third-party support using the JavaScript-powered framework. Because React Native does not have all of its components in one place, it makes use of native and JavaScript modules to improve the application's functionality. Third-party modules may be used to integrate features like maps and two-factor authentication to the app.

The frameworks chosen to develop an application have a direct impact on its performance and capacity to deliver a better client experience. As React Native makes use of native modules and components to assist developers in creating a working application, it is possible to generate code for native APIs without causing any issues. As a result, performance-centric apps may be developed at reduced costs and in record time.

Now that we have some in-depth information about the two platforms, let’s do a comparative study between the two to help web developers choose the right platform.

Xamarin Vs React Native:

Direct comparisons are usually the most effective approach to choose between two options. Let’s have a look.

Performance: This area is critical to your ultimate selection because cross-platform and hybrid frameworks are renowned for sacrificing performance for convenience. Though both Xamarin and React Native provide near-native performance, Xamarin is faster on Android and iOS and provides a UI for utilizing native tools.

Popularity: Although popularity does not necessarily define the worth of software, it does have a significant impact on how other people engage with it. The popularity of the software is frequently associated with characteristics like a big skill pool, thorough tooling, and a vibrant community. React Native is more popular than Xamarin, maybe because it is open-source whereas Xamarin is closed-source and exclusively supported by Microsoft. This is evident in everything from Stack Overflow insights to Google Trends.

Community And Developer Ecosystem: You may expect React Native to have a larger and more supportive community than Xamarin for the same reasons mentioned above. React Native's community was small when it first started. However, as the framework develops in popularity and JavaScript frameworks in general gain in popularity, spotting other React Native developers has gotten simpler and easier.

Development Environment: Pre-built components are available in both Xamarin and React Native to improve speed and the developer experience. Despite the live reload functionality of React Native, the technology as a whole pales in contrast to Xamarin. Xamarin. Forms and  Xamarin.iOS as well as Xamarin.Android  gives developers the ability to design native UI components that are particular to the platform. Xamarin developers may get native-like performance in this method, which React Native developers may not be able to do.

Availability: The majority of open-source frameworks are free to use. Xamarin, on the other hand, is unable to claim that title. There is a free version of Xamarin, however it has restricted functionality. In general, more access equals more freedom, therefore React Native has the upper hand in this category.

Compilation: Just-in-time (JIT) compilation is used by JavaScript and its frameworks, notably React Native. Despite the fact that compiled languages are quicker than interpreted languages because they are translated to machine code before execution, JIT compilation may offer the best of both worlds. JIT compilation is used by JavaScript, Java, and C#. However, React Native's JIT compilation only works on Android, not iOS, causing performance issues for iOS apps. Both JIT and ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation are available in C#. In most situations, AOT compiled code runs quicker. Xamarin vs. React Native demonstrates that both frameworks have identical compilation techniques, but Xamarin has a compiler that works well on both iOS and Android.

Expense: Xamarin and React Native are both free to download. However, Xamarin is only available for free to individuals and small businesses. This, of course, makes React Native, which is completely free, much more enticing.

Wrap Up:

Finally, we can conclude that both React Native and Xamarin are robust frameworks that can be utilized to create high-quality apps. Both have advantages and disadvantages, and only you can choose which is the greatest match for your next project. For better results, hire professional mobile app developers as they can assist you in determining the best platform for the success of your project.

#xamarin app development #Hire React Native Developer #react native app developers #hire xamarin developers #Xamarin vs. React Native #Xamarin App Development Services #React Native App Development Services #Xamarin App Development Company #React Native App Development Company #Mobile App Development Services #cross platform app development company #android app development #iOS App Development

[holisticalecsecareanu]

This interview by ERA News Beta speaks to Alec about a varied number of subjects to do with his film casting and debut in GOC, but farther than that, Alec speaks in great detail about his journey in Romanian theatre,  his views on the state of Romanian theatre today,  his acting philosophy.

I found this an incredibly revelatory article about Alec because you don’t fully realize, until an interview like this,  the depth and breadth, not only of his intelligence, but of his strong beliefs and views regarding his chosen profession. It’s very different going from little snippets in interviews where Alec discusses mostly just one project, to this really comprehensive presentation of who he is as a person and an actor. Also, obviously being able to discuss such complex subjects in his native language, I believe, really allows him to open up more comfortably.

He has a -LOT- of strong feelings and responses to the questions the interviewer asks and he expresses them eloquently, intelligently, and also pretty bluntly, sometimes. It shifted, a little, and not in a bad way, who he is in my head, or rather, it fleshed out who he is in a way that all the quick sound bites and magazine interviews don’t.

I know, from this, that he will never strop striving to push himself and his abilities, to discover new and different ways to learn in his craft. This interview also goes a long way towards explaining how Josh, Francis, and he,  formed such a bond, because I believe they also hold these beliefs and commitments to the roles they take on and the projects invest in. It’s almost like kismet because what are the odds that these three individuals would have the same kind of approach to the story they were telling? I think that is why God’s Own Country is such a superlative and luminous film.

Also, the Fight Club production sounds KICK ASS and I wish I had seen it and I can’t believe someone didn’t tape it!

And, yes, that photo, because it never, never ceases to rock every aspect of my world.

This interview is in Romanian but, at least on Google, there is a Google translate button that appears. I have also provided the Google translated version below; am not able to vouch for it’s accuracy, but at least it is something!

Thank you if you’ve read this far. :-D

Google Translation of Interview Below. : 

The first British film brings a London agent to Alec Secăreanu

There is also news that one of the young aspirants managed a movie in Hollywood, and for a second people hold their breath, dismayed, wondering "what the hell is this?", Before the engines start again. and to see life beyond its course - Radu Iacoban once said to me, referring to an entire generation, actors who are making their way to a glory that neither they nor we know much about yet . It could have the American endorsement or the greatness of the European trophies, in any case it will no longer be possible to rely on the applause of those who built their illusions in the theaters where they were taken by force or on the admiration of those who dreamed of the two hours of the program. television of yesteryear.

Alec Secăreanu is not one of the 10-15 actors who appear constantly in the distribution of each of the films of the new wave, fueling the impression that only a few people have managed to finish the theater institute in Romania lately. But it has the merit of entering Tyler Durden's mind. And to enter Tyler Durden's mind is courage, especially since it is a dark mind, split into two completely separate universes, and in each of them reigns revolt in all its forms, revolt against the system, against consumer society, against to an absent father and, therefore, against God himself. It's an even greater courage to do this after a perfect director has already passed by, who explored his corners, in tandem with an iconic actor.

The first six rounds of Fight Club demonstrations were, at the end of last year, an absolute success in Bucharest, so the complete version follows, with sophisticated projections made by Les Ateliers Nomades - the company that made the famous mapping on the Parliament Palace - and imagined stunt figures under the guidance of experts from the Gladiator Association, which works in the good tradition of its illustrious founder, Szobi Csech. It's like we lost sleep. Anyway, Tyler Durden doesn't sleep either… Alec Secăreanu certainly sleeps quite a bit himself, since in the meantime he finished filming the first feature film in which he took the lead role, a kind of Brokeback Mountain with a farmer from Romania, the debut film of the British director Francis Lee.

There were nine weeks of filming in Yorkshire, enduring the "bipolar weather" of England, during which time he learned, among other things, to cut the hooves of cattle, to make cheese, to witness the birth of lambs. Oleacă already knew from the Fight Club. And in few percussions I surpass him, after Alexandrul Dabija's Requiem, from the National Theater in Bucharest. In addition to stories about the British system, a show business performance machine, news about new theatrical productions in Bucharest or evaluations of Romanian theater in general, from Alec Secăreanu I found out that there is an online radio that takes you far, Nice Cream FM , and something even more interesting, that there is Radiooooo, with five "o's", which allows you to choose from the map of the world what kind of music you want, in decades, from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present. «You can understand your decade and your country and listen to, say, Mongolian music from the '60s. It's something like Wikipedia, users are still uploading music, so they've already reached an impressive database, "says Alec.

Rep: Actors of your generation make most of the film and most make film outside. Ana Ularu, Iacoban, Bucur… a long series in which you have just been included, in the most honorable way, with a British production, a kind of Brokeback Montain as far as I understand, a love story that happens on a farm and involves a character born in Romania

Alec Secăreanu: The first feature film in which I had the main role, "God's Own Country" is Francis Lee's debut film. I really wanted a Romanian for the role, because the character in this story is Romanian, and the director wanted everything to be as authentic and organic as possible. Of course, the character has only a line or two in Romanian, not at all significant, by the way, for the story, so they could take absolutely any other actor who speaks English with an accent. But he wanted everything to be organic. The casting director from Romania gave more than 40 rehearsals and, a few weeks later, the director came to Bucharest and wanted to meet about 13 of us, a group from which he chose three actors. The three were in London for a final test, a so-called chemistry test with the other actor, the one who had already taken the role.

YOU HAVE TO HAVE EXTREMELY STRONG NERVES THOUGH, ESPECIALLY WHEN THE STAKES ARE HIGH. PROBABLY THE FIRST THING YOU NEED TO GET USED TO AS AN ACTOR IS TO BE REJECTED. YOU GO TO DOZENS OF CASTINGS, TO HUNDREDS OF CASTINGS, YOU GET FIVE OR TEN PERCENT OF THEM, TO THE OTHERS YOU ARE REJECTED AND, MOST OF THE TIME, IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT.

 They are simply looking for something else, the sooner you understand this system, the better. To keep your lucidity and show signs of mental health. And you have every reason to protect your health, since, in the end, the tool you work with is yourself and, if you break this tool or if it is defective, it no longer serves you properly. My character's name is Gheorghe Ionescu, he is a young Romanian farmer who went to work in England, who ends up working somewhere, in an isolated complex in Yorkshire, and there he meets a guy, the boy of the farm owners. An unexpected meeting for both of them, surprising, a friendship and a fascination are linked and the two end up living a love story, although neither of them identifies as a gay person. In fact, the film does not want to be a gay movie, but, rather, a story about people, a plea that some encounters are love. A very interesting creative connection was created between me, my colleague, Josh O'Connor, the director Francis Lee and Joshua, our operator.

We had two weeks of rehearsals, in which we discussed very well each stage of the script, each sequence, what happens to the characters, the history of each of them. When I started working, everyone in the frame knew what to do. I filmed a lot of exteriors, on which occasion I got to know very well the weather in England, which is dementia, you

have four seasons in one day, it starts with snow, followed by a storm, then hail, then the sun rises, then again it snows a little and so on. In fact, the weather was a real problem at the connections, because I was starting a frame in the sun and when I resumed it, it was snowing outside, so things didn't fit.

THE TWO WEEKS OF REHEARSALS HELPED ME BUILD THE CHARACTER, BECAUSE I HAD TO WORK ON THE FARM, I LEARNED TO WORK WITH COWS, SHEEP, TO WITNESS THE BIRTH OF LAMBS, TO CUT THE HOOVES OF CATTLE, TO MAKE CHEESE , LOTS OF THINGS. IF THIS THING WITH ACTING DOESN'T WORK… I LEARNED SOME EXTREMELY USEFUL THINGS, WHAT CAN I SAY.

Rep: I understand that the benefits were even greater, you chose an invitation to the British actors' union and a London agent…

Alec Secăreanu: I had the opportunity, for nine weeks, to work in a healthy system from the ground up, starting from the way the union works, to the fact that the actors from the British schools learn notions of personal discipline from college, in a broader framework for the management of the profession. I was treated as a member of their union. A month and a half after I finished filming, my agent received an email from the union asking if I had been paid for the work done, so that the warranty that had been withheld from the producers at the time could be released. in which they announced the film. What can I say… welcome to Romania!

I told them that I am not part of this union, they told me that such a contract in the UK guarantees me these rights and allows me to become a member. I'll be back on the 20th for a series of meetings, and we'll probably finish the talks on this occasion. In the meantime, I also have an agent in London, in addition to those who represent me in Romania. I started the relationship with my agent from Romania, Alexandru Harsany, from RAA (Romanian Artists Agency), two years ago, when I was just returning from Venice, where I stayed for about three months, at the Art Biennale, where I was a performer in an installation built by Alexandra Pirici. Alexandra…, a perfect artist… two days ago completed a performance that will be presented at the Tate, in London…

Returning to my professional path, my stake, I once told my agent, is to work abroad, because in the country, unfortunately, you have nothing to do. You just have nothing to do. Seven to eight films are made a year, which usually have the same cast. In fact, if you look at Romanian films from the last ten years, you might get the impression that only 15 actors have graduated from the University of Romania lately. Beyond this shortcoming, there is no market, the options are few, I do not understand how many of my colleagues manage. Well, I'm in this situation too. Outside, once you have a major project, some doors open, everything goes on.

HERE, I HAVE COLLEAGUES THAT PEOPLE RECOGNIZE ON THE STREET, BY SUBWAY AND BY BUS, WHERE THEY ARE MAINLY BECAUSE THEY DON'T HAVE TAXI MONEY. IT'S FRUSTRATING.

I worked with my agent in Romania, I updated my casting photos every six months, which means to make available to potential producers a picture of the state, in which you must be relaxed, not to frown and to highlights your features as best you can. We have updated, to the necessary standards, the video materials or CV presentations, ie that series of things without which you have nothing to look for at the door of a casting director or an agent. While filming in England, the producers there issued a press release announcing that they were filming and that they had a certain distribution. At time number two, Alexandru's mail exploded, hundreds of requests, questions and offers came, sent by casting directors, agents, an entire machine was set in motion.

During the filming in London, I had five days off at one point, and the producers arranged for me to meet with some other directors, agencies, to see how things worked. They are somehow looking for unpolished stones, hoping to find the next great talent. We don't have this culture. I know only one casting agent who goes to shows or to UNATC, to see new faces, and that is Domnica Cârciumaru. The others always work with the same people, and that's especially because they don't know other people, they don't look to see what actors there are on the market, they don't care. Romanian agencies do not have casting databases, for example.

There are real platforms out there for that. Our casting directors work from project to project. 'What I need, a 40-year-old woman. Where else have I had a 40-year-old woman? Aha, in the gum commercial. Well, let's call that one too - that's how things work. In London I had meetings with three agencies and I opted for a rather large one, The Independent, which deals not only with actors, but also with directors, screenwriters, a total of about a thousand people. I liked that it works as a boutique agency, they have 40 agents, every week they meet and discuss the projects that are on the market and to which they have access and then they try to promote the people they represent. In addition, this agency is open to the States. We will see…

Rep: Returning closer to home, you have a few shows in Bucharest, including Fight Club, one of the revelations of last season. The first six rounds of Fight Club demonstrations were an absolute success, so the full version follows… 

Alec Secăreanu: In addition to the most recent premiere, Fight Club, we have an extraordinary show at Godot, «Flowers, Girls, Movies or Boys», which we have been playing for ten years with great success. It is one of the first texts written by Mimi Brănescu, he being a basic actor, but lately he has reshaped himself on dramaturgy and screenwriting. A show about relationships, which follows the evolution of two couples, from the moment when future lovers know each other, until a little later, when they may lose love. It's a good, funny text, it catches the audience very well. I'm one of those lovers, a filthy neighborhood wannabe, the kind who feels like he knows them all, and obviously he's not.

His evolution is very interesting, he hits a person he underestimates, in any case he did not expect to have such an impact on him. The girl is from another social class and this very conflict between social classes arouses him and makes him get closer. In time, however, the two realize that they do not have much in common.

I KNOW, I KNOW, THERE'S A THEORY THAT OPPOSITES WOULD BE DRAWN, BUT THEY'RE MOST LIKELY DRAWN TO THE POINT WHERE THEY REALLY HAVE NOTHING IN COMMON. THEY MAY NOT EVEN MEET AT ALL, AND THAT'S THE STRANGENESS OF THE COUPLE WE'RE TALKING ABOUT.

I have another show at the National Theater, Requiem, directed by Alexandru Dabija, entered the seasons last year, things are going well. We expected him to be selected in the National Theater Festival, but it seems that was not the case. It is a text Vişniec, first placed in Romania, with references to an area that seems to be of great interest to Dabija now, more precisely the area of ​​war, the world of soldiers. Vişniec was also interested in this form in one form or another, if we think of "The Woman as a Battlefield in the Bosnian War".

most spectacular staging of this text. There was another show, once in France, he told me that he had seen it, but that it is much more extravagant. Dabija thought of an image show, there are costumes, there is scenery, there are quite a few actors on stage, about 20, some of them employees of TNB, most of them - collaborators. It is sung, it is sung beautifully, the music is by Ada Milea, some songs are really very nice, it is a kind of music specific to the instruments with which it is played: an accordion, a big drum - where I play… We have some marches and various others pieces that lead to the military music area.

I play the role of a soldier who still believes in victory. The story takes place in a cafe Chez Vişniec, a place where soldiers meet who are preparing to return home, who dream of the triumphant march and the glory of reception in their cities. All sorts of people gather at this cafe, some who have never believed in victory, others who have believed, there are some who still believe that victory is possible - all sorts of psychologists synthesized from this theater of war.

What did not delight me about this text is the fact that the characters do not have an evolution from one end of the show to the other. A logic does not have to exist, it is an area of ​​the theater that Vişniec has accustomed us to, but the characters, although very vehement, with a very strong speech, were suitable for a well-deserved development.

Rep: Do you believe in victory? Or have you not fought your big battles so far?

Alec Secăreanu: No, the great battles did not take place. But we started with a few fights, some of which we lost, others we won, others are still contested. I lost, for example, the struggle with the idealism I had at the end of college. I was very disappointed when I finished college, very disappointed… I had high expectations from the Romanian theater market, I hoped to have a vision, a coherence, a general enthusiasm. Of course, everyone wants to be part, at some point, of a movement that means something. I'm still part of the independent theater area, so I never relied on the state theater to do anything for me.

BY THE WAY, I THINK THAT THE STATE THEATER HAS ENTERED A KIND OF SHADOW CONE, IN THE SENSE THAT, AT LEAST THAT IS MY IMPRESSION, IT HAS BECOME MANNERIST, IT HAS NO IMAGINATION, IT HAS STUCK IN SOME RECIPES THAT SEEM TO WORK AND, WITH FEW EXCEPTIONS, NO ONE SEEMS WILLING TO DEVELOP NEW THEATRICAL EXPRESSIONS.

And in the latter case, the high hopes and high expectations were primarily for them, because they manage the funds needed to do that. Every year they have to put on a number of shows and I look in amazement that they are not trying to discover anything, they are systematically going to areas where they have been before, they only walk on dirt paths. It's not the commercial that has to bring the world to the theater. There may be a commercial area, but I think it is our duty, of artists, actors, directors, to push the boundaries a little, to invent new ways.

But the independent theater is currently identifying itself as an area of ​​precarious means. You do shows that catch the audience - logically, otherwise you can't finance yourself, the setting is, most often, modest, consisting of two chairs and a table - since there is no money for something more sophisticated, the costumes are also as they are - most often the actors come with their clothes from home. It's a poor theater, let's face it. If you try to look for what is happening in the independent theater, the first time you notice the lack of funds, and you notice it as a spectator and it would not be your job as a spectator to see things like that. It can be seen that the director made a kind of compromise with the money to make this show. While in the state theater a lot of funds are lost.

There are exceptions, of course, but my huge frustration is that you see shows with extraordinary budgets and you don't understand why the money went for such a show, which doesn't bring anything new. While in the independent theater there are so many ideas and so much desire to work, but there is no funding for their realization. I was really talking to someone the other day, because we're looking for funding for Fight Club, and I was asked, okay, beyond funding, what's the business? Let's get along, we're talking about an art form, and monetizing art in this brutal way is harder to imagine, because our stake is to try to develop new theatrical languages, we need grants, state aid, maybe even the private area, the effort is not made for a show to be sold like this, to fill the halls.

If you want that, you have a party, you call the world, you play a few more instruments, you say three more poems and that was it. Either way you want to go, the discussion inevitably reaches the area of ​​the diseased system, which you have little to do, except to try to build it from scratch.

I have a cultural association with some colleagues. We realized in 2007, when we finished the University, that there is no point in hoping, that we will not receive any kind of help from the theaters, where even now the places are blocked.

I WOULDN'T SAY THEY AVOID YOUNG PEOPLE, BUT RATHER THAT THEY ARE WARMER WITHOUT US. THERE ARE A LOT OF EMPLOYEES IN THEATERS WHO DO NOTHING, BUT KEEP THE SEATS BLOCKED, TWO OR THREE SEATS APPEAR ONCE EVERY THREE YEARS.

IT'S A KIND OF SLAVERY, PEOPLE WORK IN A WELL-GROUNDED SYSTEM, WHICH NO ONE REALLY WANTS TO CHANGE.

In fact, the same situation is in every state institution, many people who receive a meaningless salary. And these are not theater companies, to say that they are families, but they are state institutions, financed from the budget. One is an independent, self-financing theater company and theoretically is allowed to do whatever it wants with its money, and another is a budget-funded theater, obliged to function for the public and to educate it, to arouse it, to motivate it. . If you put the same pieces of Caragiale and Chekhov every year, and only that, and only that…

Rep: There are all kinds of public calls lately for the elimination from the scene - from various scenes - of the generation we call, coded, "golden", as we saw calls of some intermediate generations, I would not know how to define them , to finance somewhat less intellectual productions, which have at least some connection with the public. Where is the truth? And with the golden generation, what should be done, ideally, from the point of view of the new wave you represent?

Alex Secăreanu: Who else is today a consumer of magazine theater, for example? They are nostalgic, and they know where to find their shows, and they somehow look for them by virtue of inertia. I have no problem taking care of established actors. I appreciate them as history and there are some from which I had a lot to learn, because they are better than me. Victor Rebengiuc, for example, with whom I worked for a short film called Casting Call, written and directed by Conrad Mericoffer, is a man from whom I learned a lot. The story follows an elderly actor, who is called to a casting, but it is not necessarily about the elderly actor, but a generic meditation on the condition of the actor, because we are all, in fact, in the same situation. I played, Paul Ipate, Victor Rebengiuc and Sergiu Costache.

I learned a lot in the short time I spent with Rebengiuc, how to behave in a team, how to approach a role…

IT'S LIKE CHESS. IF YOU PLAY WITH SOMEONE WHO IS BETTER THAN YOU, YOU LEARN FROM HIM. IT'S NICE TO HAVE SOMEONE BETTER BEAT YOU, BECAUSE YOU LEARN FROM HIM.

There are cases, however, in which it would be in the best interest of the actors in question to give up, as is the case of Radu Beligan, for whom I have a huge respect, but who has advanced a lot in age, goes through natural stages of life, to simply remember the lines, it is simply no longer possible. What we want from this story is already doing him a disservice. It's just an example. With reconfigurations and reinventions it is harder… but actors like Victor Rebengiuc and Marcel Iureș believe that they went in different ways from the very beginning, they wanted more than they were offered and they looked for more.

In this profession you never stop searching, because as soon as you get the impression that you know them all, you enter a very dangerous area, an area where you don't come up with anything new, and the viewer feels that. You have to surprise him, he has to see you doing something new, otherwise there is no stake.

Rep: Fight Club… You were able to get into Tyler Durden's mind, a courage, probably, after his twisted imagination was once explored by David Fincher, with the iconic film released in 1999. What you found there ?

Alex Secăreanu: Fight Club… is a story that, for me, started many years ago. I read Chuck Palahniuk's book in 2006 and I thought that this book must be a theater show. The idea bothered me for many years, until last year, when the stars lined up, I said it would be time to do it, especially since I found an exceptional team. We developed ideas, we had a lot of meetings in which we kept challenging the imagination, to see where the story can take us, and finally we were ready to put everything into practice. Sure, we hit the funding. Arcubul financed us for the show, which is a complex one, with multimedia elements, videomapping, fight scenes, music,

It was a test for us first of all, to see if our ideas work, if the team works. After the first six rounds, we realized that we are on a very good road, which must be continued. We can bring new elements to the theater, we can develop new languages ​​in the theater, we wanted from the beginning to make an experience for the spectator, a one hundred percent experience made for him. We wanted the spectator, when he left the theater, to feel that he had received a punch in the stomach. We got pretty close to the goal, all the people said, after the show, that they lived that thing that we felt when we were little and we watched a karate movie, and after the movie you wanted to jump around the house, to give more and you a fist, try another scheme.

He left absolutely no one regardless of this show, which is very important. We need some more money to set it up the way we thought it would. The amount is not large for a state theater, but huge for an independent theater. About 60,000 euros. Usually, in the independent theater you say, come on, how much do we have, 5,000 euros? Let's do it, we come home with more clothes, we cut another set, we give up that one, the other one and we did the show. When you have thought of an artistic approach in a coherent way, you cannot make concessions like this. You can not. There are elements, means that you absolutely need to build your convention fluently, to say what you wanted to say.

THERE ARE ALSO PRODUCTIONS AT TNB OF ONE MILLION EUROS, APUS DE SOARE, THIS ONE FROM TEN YEARS AGO OR WHEN IT WAS MADE, TWO SEASONS WERE ALSO PLAYED AT REVEDERE.

There is also a record amount for a show that has never been played before. I don't know how much the funding was, but let's remember that in the year of Caragiale, a theater wanted to do D'ale Carnavalului somewhere, at the Metrorex Halls. They equipped a hall with bombers, cars, an entire fair built from scratch, and the show was never done again

#alec secăreanu #alec on stage #interview #fight club #fight club: play #he's so intelligent #how is that fair #goc #god's own country #goc film

[datatalks21]

'Neuroprosthesis' restores words to man with paralysis

Researchers at UC San Francisco have successfully developed a "speech neuroprosthesis" that has enabled a man with severe paralysis to communicate in sentences, translating signals from his brain to the vocal tract directly into words that appear as text on a screen. The achievement, which was developed in collaboration with the first participant of a clinical research trial, builds on more than a decade of effort by UCSF neurosurgeon Edward Chang, MD, to develop a technology that allows people with paralysis to communicate even if they are unable to speak on their own. The study appears July 15 in the New England Journal of Medicine. "To our knowledge, this is the first successful demonstration of direct decoding of full words from the brain activity of someone who is paralyzed and cannot speak," said Chang, the Joan and Sanford Weill Chair of Neurological Surgery at UCSF, Jeanne Robertson Distinguished Professor, and senior author on the study. "It shows strong promise to restore communication by tapping into the brain's natural speech machinery." Each year, thousands of people lose the ability to speak due to stroke, accident, or disease. With further development, the approach described in this study could one day enable these people to fully communicate. Translating Brain Signals into Speech Previously, work in the field of communication neuroprosthetics has focused on restoring communication through spelling-based approaches to type out letters one-by-one in text. Chang's study differs from these efforts in a critical way: his team is translating signals intended to control muscles of the vocal system for speaking words, rather than signals to move the arm or hand to enable typing. Chang said this approach taps into the natural and fluid aspects of speech and promises more rapid and organic communication. advertisement "With speech, we normally communicate information at a very high rate, up to 150 or 200 words per minute," he said, noting that spelling-based approaches using typing, writing, and controlling a cursor are considerably slower and more laborious. "Going straight to words, as we're doing here, has great advantages because it's closer to how we normally speak." Over the past decade, Chang's progress toward this goal was facilitated by patients at the UCSF Epilepsy Center who were undergoing neurosurgery to pinpoint the origins of their seizures using electrode arrays placed on the surface of their brains. These patients, all of whom had normal speech, volunteered to have their brain recordings analyzed for speech-related activity. Early success with these patient volunteers paved the way for the current trial in people with paralysis. Previously, Chang and colleagues in the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences mapped the cortical activity patterns associated with vocal tract movements that produce each consonant and vowel. To translate those findings into speech recognition of full words, David Moses, PhD, a postdoctoral engineer in the Chang lab and one of the lead authors of the new study, developed new methods for real-time decoding of those patterns and statistical language models to improve accuracy. But their success in decoding speech in participants who were able to speak didn't guarantee that the technology would work in a person whose vocal tract is paralyzed. "Our models needed to learn the mapping between complex brain activity patterns and intended speech," said Moses. "That poses a major challenge when the participant can't speak." In addition, the team didn't know whether brain signals controlling the vocal tract would still be intact for people who haven't been able to move their vocal muscles for many years. "The best way to find out whether this could work was to try it," said Moses. advertisement The First 50 Words To investigate the potential of this technology in patients with paralysis, Chang partnered with colleague Karunesh Ganguly, MD, PhD, an associate professor of neurology, to launch a study known as "BRAVO" (Brain-Computer Interface Restoration of Arm and Voice). The first participant in the trial is a man in his late 30s who suffered a devastating brainstem stroke more than 15 years ago that severely damaged the connection between his brain and his vocal tract and limbs. Since his injury, he has had extremely limited head, neck, and limb movements, and communicates by using a pointer attached to a baseball cap to poke letters on a screen. The participant, who asked to be referred to as BRAVO1, worked with the researchers to create a 50-word vocabulary that Chang's team could recognize from brain activity using advanced computer algorithms. The vocabulary -- which includes words such as "water," "family," and "good" -- was sufficient to create hundreds of sentences expressing concepts applicable to BRAVO1's daily life. For the study, Chang surgically implanted a high-density electrode array over BRAVO1's speech motor cortex. After the participant's full recovery, his team recorded 22 hours of neural activity in this brain region over 48 sessions and several months. In each session, BRAVO1 attempted to say each of the 50 vocabulary words many times while the electrodes recorded brain signals from his speech cortex. Translating Attempted Speech into Text To translate the patterns of recorded neural activity into specific intended words, the other two lead authors of the study, Sean Metzger, MS and Jessie Liu, BS, both bioengineering doctoral students in the Chang Lab used custom neural network models, which are forms of artificial intelligence. When the participant attempted to speak, these networks distinguished subtle patterns in brain activity to detect speech attempts and identify which words he was trying to say. To test their approach, the team first presented BRAVO1 with short sentences constructed from the 50 vocabulary words and asked him to try saying them several times. As he made his attempts, the words were decoded from his brain activity, one by one, on a screen. Then the team switched to prompting him with questions such as "How are you today?" and "Would you like some water?" As before, BRAVO1's attempted speech appeared on the screen. "I am very good," and "No, I am not thirsty." The team found that the system was able to decode words from brain activity at rate of up to 18 words per minute with up to 93 percent accuracy (75 percent median). Contributing to the success was a language model Moses applied that implemented an "auto-correct" function, similar to what is used by consumer texting and speech recognition software. Moses characterized the early trial results as a proof of principle. "We were thrilled to see the accurate decoding of a variety of meaningful sentences," he said. "We've shown that it is actually possible to facilitate communication in this way and that it has potential for use in conversational settings." Looking forward, Chang and Moses said they will expand the trial to include more participants affected by severe paralysis and communication deficits. The team is currently working to increase the number of words in the available vocabulary, as well as improve the rate of speech. Both said that while the study focused on a single participant and a limited vocabulary, those limitations don't diminish the accomplishment. "This is an important technological milestone for a person who cannot communicate naturally," said Moses, "and it demonstrates the potential for this approach to give a voice to people with severe paralysis and speech loss." Co-authors on the paper include Sean L. Metzger, MS; Jessie R. Liu; Gopala K. Anumanchipalli, PhD; Joseph G. Makin, PhD; Pengfei F. Sun, PhD; Josh Chartier, PhD; Maximilian E. Dougherty; Patricia M. Liu, MA; Gary M. Abrams, MD; and Adelyn Tu-Chan, DO, all of UCSF. Funding sources included National Institutes of Health (U01 NS098971-01), philanthropy, and a sponsored research agreement with Facebook Reality Labs (FRL), which completed in early 2021. UCSF researchers conducted all clinical trial design, execution, data analysis and reporting. Research participant data were collected solely by UCSF, are held confidentially, and are not shared with third parties. FRL provided high-level feedback and machine learning advice. Read the full article

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Eli Steele: De Blasio's shameful racial profiling of Asian students

I was setting up my camera to film a rally on the steps of Tweed Courthouse in lower Manhattan when a disheveled middle-aged man clutching an odd assortment of papers to his chest stopped and stared at the gathering of parents and community leaders. 

They were there to protest Mayor Bill de Blasio’s ongoing attack on the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT), the sole gateway to one of New York’s nine specialized high schools. Their hand-drawn signs read, "Stop picking on Asian kids!" "Fix failing schools!" and "Keep the test!" The disheveled man began to yell aggressively and I turned, to lipread him: "You Asians take all the spots at these schools! Only eight blacks got into Stuyvesant High, only eight! You gotta give us blacks a chance, that’s all we’re asking for, man!" I turned my camera to capture him but he saw me and fled.

Later, as I reflected on this incident, I thought of that frosty November morning in 2013 when I waited outside a Brooklyn voting center for the de Blasio family to arrive and cast the votes that helped elect the father mayor of New York City. I was filming my documentary on multiracial Americans, "How Jack Became Black."  There was an excitement in the air as people around me praised de Blasio’s multiracial family. 

They believed such a man was a harbinger of better racial relations and they loved his campaign stance against racial profiling. They could not have predicted that de Blasio would leave office eight years later as one of America’s most egregious racial profilers.

Why had de Blasio and his education administration racially profiled Asian children? Was it because these youths took the American dream seriously and burned the midnight oil? Was it because their parents — many of them immigrants and impoverished — squeezed every penny to see that their children were prepared to take the test? Or was it simply that they were different, Asian and an unpreferred minority?

If 54 percent of the 4,262 eighth graders that passed the SHSAT had been black instead of Asian, there is very little doubt that de Blasio would not have charged the test as "structurally racist." In fact, he likely would have praised the test.

Wai Wah, the charter president of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance Greater New York, and her friend, George Lee, showed me the tweet sent by de Blasio’s education chancellor, Meisha Potter, after the students received their test results. Potter found it "unacceptable" that so few blacks were admitted to specialized high schools and said that it was "past time for our students to be fairly represented." The implication was the test was racist. FLORIDA WILL REQUIRE SCHOOLS TO TEACH CIVICS AND ‘EVILS OF COMMUNISM’

Wai Wah and George pointed out that Potter failed to congratulate the students who had studied for years and passed the exam. They also noted that Potter had neglected to pay respect to the other 19,266 students who similarly sacrificed but did not pass the test. The only thing that mattered to Potter was "our students," a label that included only Blacks and Hispanics.

Potter was only following the path forged by de Blasio, who spoke of the need to "redistribute wealth." Like previous educators, she ignored the reality of favoring equity over merit, a reality that cost many black and Hispanic neighborhoods its gifted and talented programs over the past several decades. When blacks and Hispanics had access to these programs, they took the same test that de Blasio disparaged as racist and dominated Brooklyn Tech from the 1970s to the 1990s.

Not one of these bureaucrats from de Blasio and Potter to the previous education chancellor, Richard Carranza, asked the obvious question: why had "too many" Asians passed the test?

Asking such a question would have forced de Blasio to examine what influences and behaviors made certain students successful. He would have quickly discovered that there was nothing "Asian" about their successes — after all, far more Asians failed the test than those who passed. He would have also discovered that it was their steadfast belief in the American Dream that drove them to take chances on their talents, a path followed by countless successful Americans.

Also, to look at the humanity of these Asians would have forced de Blasio to look at the root causes driving the terrible inequities that plague the nation’s largest public school system. Instead, it was easier for him to racially profile and scapegoat Asians for these inequities.

The racial biases of de Blasio and the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) establishment, rarely got much attention in the press. These folks promoted equity to the level of a top societal moral virtue where representation by race trumped merit. Having lowered themselves down to the inhuman level of race, they see race in everything and therein lies their bias, a bias that extended beyond Asians to blacks and Hispanics.

Rather than empower these demographics with the tools of equality by strengthening the schools, de Blasio believed he could racially engineer blacks and Hispanics to parity at the expense of Asians. That is how little faith he had in these demographics to agent their own fates. At the same time, de Blasio derived enormous political capital for appearing to champion the downtrodden while conveniently ignoring the long history of horrific oppression suffered by many Asian communities in America. It was this bias that allowed de Blasio to racially profile an entire class of people for the way they looked.

I thought about how this ugliness was taking place in 2021 as I traveled to the far end of the Brooklyn borough to visit the Ni family. Sam, an immigrant shop owner, welcomed me into a home that married the American Dream with cultural memories of the China that Sam and his wife left behind. I asked their children, Zoe, a seventh-grader studying for the SHSAT, and Leo, a ninth-grader at Hunter College High School, what they thought of all this anti-Asian discrimination — a Brooklyn educator had recently called the people like them "yellow folks."

After several shy answers, Zoe answered with the truth ignored by many educators: "People aren’t numbers. There are real people in these statistics. There are real people who are losing out on opportunities. And it is upsetting to me to know the reason is merely race."

Sam, a reflective and thoughtful man, revealed later that he had heard of Martin Luther King’s dream in China and that is part of why he came to America. Through a translator, he said, "In China’s cultural revolution, students were classified as ‘being of red five category’ or ‘being of Black five category.’ Why? It’s not anything to do with the individual student, but with his family background, with other external factors. In New York, even the entire United States, education, concerning race matters, it’s actually like China’s Cultural Revolution, not looking at the student himself, on who studies well and who doesn’t, but throwing up a mess of race and family background identity, to judge what kind of person you are. I think this is going backward in history."

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Sam also had words for leaders like de Blasio: "What they want is to use their views to remake and control the world as they want, and not let us free people, competing freely, under a system of equal opportunity, create a brilliantly multi-colored world. So what they are doing, to take their ideas to control the world, that's, in a certain sense, actually very much like communism, totalitarian communism."

Sam revealed to me that he had recently thought of immigrating to another country. He left the paralyzing class divisions of China only to find his children on the wrong side of racial divisions in America. But then he seemed to let that thought die down — at least in America he has the unbridled right to fight the injustices affecting his kids and he has fought.

As I rode back into Manhattan, I thought of what George Lee told me on the issue of representation. He blamed the ongoing racial divisions on critical race theory that, for him, was a "political ideology of race war, racial hatred." He wondered out loud how one Asian could represent another Asian, or a black another black, for that matter. He explained that nobody looks like him or thinks like him so how can he represent another Asian? He then continued, "If an Asian gets into Harvard, does that Asian take courses on behalf of an Asian who did not get in?" He looked at me with the twinkle in the eye that one often has when revealing a racial absurdity: "There is no such thing as representation by race. This whole language of representation is basically saying that Asians or whites or blacks are mutually substitutable."

That was the very thing that de Blasio fought against when he campaigned for Mayor of New York. He knew the evil of racial profiling was that people were not seen as individuals but as members of a race. He had heard blacks complain that they should not fall under suspicion because they were black and lived in high crime neighborhoods. They protested that it was unfair and that they were more than their race. Yet de Blasio betrayed this lesson in humanity when he racially profiled the Asians his entire time in office, leaving many black and Hispanic students worse off than when he took office.

In many ways, the disheveled man who yelled at the Asians at the rally was a sad symbol of de Blasio’s education legacy. That man had been poisoned in the mind to believe that Asians somehow had monopolized all the power and that is why he demanded that they give blacks a chance. But there is nothing the Asians can give him. There is nothing a race can give. Only the individual can give or take. That man will sadly never rise above his current station as long as he thinks that way. And that is why de Blasio failed so miserably on his campaign promise to uplift the schools. Eli Steele is a documentary filmmaker and writer. His latest film is "What Killed Michael Brown?" Twitter: @Hebro_Steele