#while the rest of the system is publicly multiple and communicating with each other

[the-house-wins]

#bitches be like 'im one person' #while the rest of the system is publicly multiple and communicating with each other #it's me #i am bitches #todd.txt #system stuff #osdd #plural system #system things #alters #did memes #osdd memes #system memes #did

[swordoforion]

The Orion Manifest - a Declaration of the Tenets, Mission, and Formal Structure of Orion

Respice ad futurum, respice ad astra. This is the motto of Orion – look to the future and look to the stars. For millennia, humanity has looked up at the stars and wondered what lies beyond, what secrets could be contained beyond such unimaginable heights and distances. Though we have caught glimpses, the vast realm of the cosmos continues to be a mystery, with all of human history only scratching the surface. It stands to reason, then, that in our future, we should and will seek to venture outwards into the unknown, to know the unknowable, the reach the unreachable, to do the undoable.

But though we look to the future and to the stars, they act as only a goal, and our path ahead cannot distract too much from where we lie now. We live in an era of crisis – sea, land, and sky burn as people shed their blood fighting the wrong enemy. The world, wracked by constant war, races toward it once more, as those with power march forward unceasingly to grab more of it. We face threats of extinction from all around us, and though the power to save the world is well in the hands of the people, they do not know that they have it, they do not know how to wield it.

Our mission is one of necessity – to ensure the survival and prosperity of our charge, that being the whole of humanity, we must first ensure that they can survive long enough to make it off this planet and flourish. To do that, we need to ensure that the environmental habitat of Earth is sustainable and will preserve – thus the first Tenet of our mission is Environmentalism.

The damage to the environment has been spurred largely in part by our unceasing and unstable growth – the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century set our worldwide society on a course that has bred such a hunger of its drivers for power that everything – people, species, and eventually the precious few resources of our home planet – is only temporarily capable of sating such an appetite. Following principles that emerged alongside the genesis of capitalism, our second Tenet is Socialism, the transfer from greed-based industry to need-based democracy.

To get to the stars, we need to preserve the environment. To preserve the environment, we need to regulate our industry and secure the rights of the people. But to do this most truly and effectively, it cannot be done in merely one part of the world. To isolate this change would fail to make enough of a dent in our problems and would abandon the rest of humanity to the same fate we seek escape from. Thus, if we are to make a change, it must be universal, and the last Tenet, following suit, is World Federalism, the establishment of a representative world government.

The establishment of a world federation will allow the universal regulation necessary to implement socialist economic structures, allowing us to slow our growth to a sustainable level and put resources towards the revitalization of Earth. With these needs met, we can move forward as a species, at peace and not raising our weapons at each other’s throats but raising our eyes to our final destination – the cosmos. And so, it is with this document that Orion is established – an organization devoted to the establishment of eco-socialist federalism, and to the mission of prosperity and survival of all humankind.

Article I: The Tenets.

Section I: Environmentalism.

The interest of both protecting pre-existing natural resources and species as well as fostering new habitats and growth, to ensure the continued existence and flourishment of Earth’s ecology. Our numbers are growing as a species while our resources shrink, and while there are ways to preserve and help the environment recover, we are not employing them in the interest of economy. However, if we reach a point of environmental decay at which the ability of Earth to sustain human life is threatened, we face a universal and uncompromising threat – extinction. Preventing this climate crisis will take potentially centuries of action, which means that the sooner, the better to make a stand.

To accomplish this goal, we need to lower our output – decreasing emissions as much as possible and slowing production from what will grow the economy to what we need, which will slow the rate of human population, until a time comes at which the world population can sustainably increase at the exponential rate it has kept thus far. Not an end to modern comforts, not a retreat into the Dark Ages – but a matter of prioritizing what we need in our lives, on both personal levels and large-scale, economic levels.

While this is done primarily to ensure that the human population of Earth can survive the oncoming crisis, the preservation of other species and the beauty of nature is both an obligation and a reward. Despite the fragility of other species, continued biodiversity allows us to observe many different types of evolved life, and with that broad spectrum available for our observation, we can discover much more about life itself than if we were to isolate the ecological population of Earth to a selective pool of species.

Section II: Socialism.

While a broad term, socialism in reference to the interests of Orion is defined as a system of economic organization in which the resources used for production of goods and services are made publicly accessible, and businesses are ran democratically by the workers. Unregulated privatization of capitalist economies has resulted in a growing inequality of both power and wealth, which threatens both the ability of citizens to have their basic needs met through economy, as well as the balance of democracy, as the affluent gain more power and representation in elected democratic governments.

The goal of socialism is to focus more on equality than the ability to reach heights of power – instead of the few having exponentially greater than the many, all would be able to live comfortably and have minimal contribution to labor, and be granted freedom through unbiased democratic government. With the people producing goods and services motivated by their own need and not by a unceasing need for profit, not only would a market be more catering to the interest of the common citizen, but would not produce overwhelming surplus that contributes to environmental destruction through rapid resource usage.

Of note is that socialism is not just a matter of political and economic change – it also seeks a change in social order and views, as capitalism relies largely on self-interest and competitive pursuit, concepts which have become engrained in modern culture, at the expense of care for community, for the plights of others who are less successful. Those in power seek only more, and everyone else tries to take what they can, breeding mistrust and greed rather than camaraderie. To establish a more equal and just social order would require an end to the mechanisms, social and economic, that make most see the world as ‘eat or be eaten’.

Section III: World Federalism.

In the face of threats that care not of borders or political history, we must also realize the limits of dividing ourselves off from each other. International relations are long and storied, carrying much weight in the culture of respective nations, but to be bitter and mistrusting of our neighboring countries will only worsen the situation, as we try to keep a fragile peace while also fixing the world. Simply put, the resources needed to compete with other nations are wasted, when a single, cooperative nation could much more easily manage international crises as listed above.

Federalism implies a nation consisting of multiple smaller regional governments, which allows for a balance between sovereignty and uniquity and peaceful coordination. The integration of the nations of the world into a federal nation would mean that limiting systems such as military reconnaissance and deterrence, international trade strategy, and intense border security would lose relevance and importance, allowing far more necessary concerns to take center stage. The need to be the most powerful nation would subside when there is only one entity to be concerned with – economy will be focused on what is best for all people, military will protect every citizen of the world, and government services will be applicable to everyone.

One of the most important elements of such a federation is the vital inclusion of democracy – allowing every region to have a say in the affairs of world government, just as smaller federal governments include representation from their constituent states. A world government that simply commanded the people of Earth would simply create another elitist order on top of capitalist monopolization; the people and individual regions must have a say in what happens to them, and regional governments should keep a degree of authority to better manage their own affairs.

Section IV: Eco-socialist Federalism.

The combination of the above tenets into a single theory, eco-socialist federalism advocates for the creation of a federation of socialist states with expressly engrained policy to preserve and replenish the environment of Earth through universal economic regulation and investment in sustainability until a point at which technology and global ecosystems develop enough to allow for rapid growth in consumption and production.

The socialist federation could continue to manage past this threshold, and environmental policy would remain to ensure that we would not repeat our past mistakes, but the end goal would be to develop the capability for manned interplanetary travel, such that we could create sustainable colonies on other planets to increase our influx of natural resources and habitable space for human population.

Once sustainable human colonies are established on other planets, and the technology of reaching the colonies is efficiently produced, the problem of ensuring the survival of humanity will be dealt with; in that regard, Orion’s goal will transfer mainly to exploration and expansion; the never-ending goal of learning what is out there.

However, with the creation of a socialist federation, there must also be from its inceptions safeguards on fundamental human rights, which are listed below, and must be ensured to achieve the completion of the second goal – the prosperity of humanity. If only a ruling class is to benefit from this change, we have become little better than our forebearers.

Section V: Fundamental human rights.

Important among the principles of an eco-socialist federation is the universal and enforced protection of human rights – equality and freedom are two virtues that must be upheld in any moral society. The fundamental human rights are as follows:

- No matter the circumstance of one’s birth, the color of their skin, their physical ability, their sexual orientation, their gender identity, their religious affiliation, the culture they belong to, or the value of what they own, all human beings are deserving by birth of the same, unalienable rights, and shall not be discriminated against for any of the reasons above.

- Everyone has the right to life and liberty, and as such, either welfare or employment should provide for the basic essential needs (food, water, shelter), as well as proper medical care.

- All should have the right, when charged with a violation of federation or regional laws, to a fair and public trial to determine either guilt or innocence before a jury of peers. Here, they will be assumed innocent until their guilt is proven.

- All citizens shall have the freedom to move within both their own region and into any other region of the federation without persecution or inhibition.

- All citizens, granted they consent and are of legal age, shall have the right to engage in a relationship and be entitled to marriage, recognizable by the state.

- Everyone shall have the freedom of speech and expression, which includes the ability to assemble, speak, write, and/or practice as long as it is publicly safe to do so.

- Everyone shall have the ability to run for public office and participate in democratically elected, representative government, or work democratically in organizations in a market for the acquisition of resources, via the form of goods and services.

- Everyone who, in working, produces goods and services through their labor, earns and is deserving of the value of their labor.

- Every citizen shall have the right to free and equitable public education, with necessary skills and information instituted universally within the federation’s public education system.

- Everyone shall have the right to rest – labor is required only as long as is necessary for those able-bodied to provide it, and any time beyond necessity is up to the discretion of the citizen. Maximum working hours and days on shift shall be limited to humane numbers.

- No citizens will be subject to intrusion or arrest without just cause, and all citizens, regardless of the defined categories, are subject to equal protection and review under the law.

Article II: The Mission.

Section I: To establish the organization.

The establishment and growth of Orion and its branches is necessary first to ensure that Orion exists to seek and bring about this change in the first place. If by any means, Orion is destroyed or somehow disbanded, the next in line for the Operational Manual should use the instructions contained within to reorganized Orion, at least until the other steps of the Mission are completed.

Section II: To spread awareness.

Through both the Sword of Orion, data supplemented by Museion, and in-person movements by Liberius, the first goal once the organization is established is to bring progressive and eco-socialist federalist ideas to the attention of the public, as well as raise support for organizations and movements of interest.

Section III: To connect with allies.

One of the most essential functions of the Sword of Orion will be to find other organizations with cooperative goals, and to build a network to coordinate efforts towards large-scale change, using the resources and reach of allied groups to reach a common goal.

Section IV: To move founder nations towards federation.

The goal of social change is to move key nations towards a political position where their governments would be supportive of the formation of a world federation. While the ideal result would be to have all the nations of the world agree to such an idea upon first suggestion, a few powerful founding members could get the ball rolling, and would prove much easier a task to concentrate effort around.

Section V: To complete world federation.

Over time, once a world federal government is established, other nations could be approached and persuaded to join as members. Of note is that the current power system within a given nation is irrelevant – a government is not its people, and should the structure of a nation change, the decision to be a member could as well.

This Manifest is written to be of universal use so long as the Mission is incomplete, which means that the hierarchy and international organization at the time of writing are always subject to change. Given that Orion has a vested interest in ensuring environmental security and protection of human rights post haste, the pressure of democratic or even revolutionary change is not off limits, so long as the means by which change is acquired is moral, and in the interest of the citizens.

Section VI: To create environmental and economic regulation.

The requirement for states of an eco-socialist federation will abide by the principles of human rights stated in Article II, Section V, as well as to have a minimum level of regulation in their own economies to ensure that output of emissions and use of nonrenewable resources is kept at acceptable levels and that businesses within their markets are registered. A registered business will follow certain guidelines in terms of workers’ rights and representation and will not be allowed to monopolize privately.

Section VII: Develop means of interplanetary travel.

Government research into space travel and technological development will continue and be given adequate funding to pursue the goal of cost and production efficient manned space travel, in addition to sustainable and eco-friendly technologies for public use. The end goal is to be capable of carrying humans to other livable planets, as well as establishing further stations for observation and management in our solar system.

Section VIII: Reach sustainable growth.

The goal of any society is to grow – to grow the population, economic output, technological advancement, and knowledge. Currently, our global society has grown rapidly and will continue to grow on its current rate, but it has done so unsustainably, and puts us at risk. The goal of a stable and rational global society would then be to become coordinated and advanced enough that this pattern of growth can resume without burning our resources at a rate we cannot keep up. By this point in the Mission, society will be self-sufficient with no sign of long-term instability and will be moving to other planets to provide an extra layer of security. Once Section VIII is met, Orion’s function will be relegated to management and exploration.

Article III: The Structure of Orion.

Section I: Sword of Orion.

The Sword of Orion is the first, largest, and most essential branch of Orion – the public face and the means by which alliances are forged and information is spread. The functions of the Sword of Orion are writing, activism, and communication, which means publication of resources and operation of social media to provide news and information on why we need change, supporting action that makes positions clear to public representatives, and assisting and connecting different organizations already in the fight.

The Sword of Orion will be the only branch of Orion to have a multi-chapter structure – wherever available, local chapters composed of in-person or regional online members working to communicate with the people, politicians, and organizations in their area. While there are universal messages that can reach people from all over the world, the advantage of having additional, regional based campaigns is the familiarity and uniquity of regional culture and politics. The problems of one area may require special attention, attention that only people of that area know to give.

Above all chapters, however, is the Sword of Orion’s presence as an online organization. All chapter leaders and members can communicate with each other and coordinate more general writing projects, larger gatherings, and communications with national and international organizations. This online hub allows for an easier form of membership and participation, representation for members without a local chapter, and organization-wide coordination.

The Sword of Orion, in its communication to both the public and with other large-scale movements, is the main arm of diplomacy and democracy, as well as the central structure of Orion itself.

Section II: Liberius.

The second branch of Orion, Liberius is more of an ancillary corps within the greater structure of the Sword of Orion – instead of having it’s own chapters, Liberius members are specialized members of Sword chapters. Where the Sword of Orion focuses on writing and communication, Liberius is a branch of action – activism, volunteering, campaigning, aid drives, and protests are where they will work. Any in-person events that the Sword organizes or assists with, Liberius agents will help head and coordinate, and they will represent Orion at more general, impromptu events like marches and picketing.

As the nature of Liberius involves much more rigorous, hands-on work, Liberius agents will receive more training and preparation for events, consisting of skills like communication, first-aid, and self defense, to both aid and protect people in the case of violence or accident. Liberius Leadership will be responsible for this sort of training, as well as what type of events and work there will be a focus on.

Each branch of the Sword, at full capacity, will have one or more associated Liberius agents, ready for local work and chapter assistance. Liberius, while having separate channels for planning and training, will also communicate organization-wide through online hubs. To become an agent of Liberius first requires membership in the Sword; after which, one can volunteer and apply to do activist work.

Section III: Museion.

The third branch of Orion, Museion, as per its namesake institution of research and study, will be a primarily information and research-based sect of Orion focused on keeping track of environmental status, technological developments, and political trends. Separate from the overall combined structure of the Sword and Liberius, Museion will consist of a singular chapter/organization that functions as a think tank; doing studies of its own and working with other organizations and institutions to provide information to both the Sword and the general public on relevant matters.

The function of Museion is more evident in the later sections of the Mission – scientific research into eco-friendly technological developments for everyday life and economic growth as well as innovation of space travel to allow for interplanetary travel will rapidly become one of the top priorities once the political matters are out of the way. However, not only can Museion provide statistics and news to backup the publications of the Sword of Orion, but starting early on matters of innovation will prove an investment that pays off when the tech we need is started in advance.

Like Liberius, one must be a member of the Sword of Orion before volunteering for Museion, but the partnerships and communications of Museion can be separate from the Sword of Orion, due to being more scientific rather than political in nature. At full capacity, there will be in-person Museion facilities, but online research and organization is always an option.

#orion #orion digest #sword of orion #liberius #museion #orion herald #manifest #manifesto #orion manifest #document #founding document #mission #environmentalism #world federalism #socialism #democratic socialism #human rights #fundamental human rights #eco-socialist federalism #eco-socialist federation #world federation #eco-socialism #foundation #organization

[patriciasage]

the tune of coffee

Author: Patricia_Sage

Fandom: Stranger Things

Pairings: Joyce Byers / Jim “Chief” Hopper / Bob Newby

Summary: 

Bob hands Joyce her coffee and kisses her gently on the lips. She smiles.

Then Bob walks around the bed and hands Hopper the other mug. Before the police chief can figure out what to say, Bob leans down to kiss him as well.

[posted in full under the break, or you could read on AO3]

Hopper fights through quicksand into consciousness. His thoughts are sluggish, and his mouth is dry. Slowly, he becomes aware of his body. There’s sun warming the back of his head and the sheets are soft. Not his place. He hears soft snoring behind him. Not alone.

The first sight that greets his eyes is Darth Vader. A Star Wars poster hangs above the dresser. There’s a ‘fun fact’ daily calendar on the bedside table. There’s faint clattering in the kitchen and a low voice humming. He knows where he is.

Hopper is grateful for his police training when he does not immediately leap out of the bed and wake the person sleeping behind him. Instead, he lays still and tries to think of an escape route.

His bleary headache flares as he slowly rolls over to face the ceiling. His arm touches the other person’s back. Joyce doesn’t stir. Hopper can’t help but smile a little as she continues to snore quietly. Her dark hair rests on the white pillowcase like ink.

Moving under the sheets makes Hopper acutely aware of his nakedness. Joyce seems to have put on pajamas before sleeping, but he had not. He rubs his free hand over his eyes as hazy memories of last night arrive. He chuckles quietly and then looks for his pants.

He expects them to be crumpled on the floor but instead he sees his clothes folded on a stool across the room, his hat perched on top. He carefully sits up.

Joyce wakes at the movement with a little snort. She mumbles a question and turns to face him at the same time that the bedroom door opens.

“Oh, wonderful, you’re awake,” Bob says. He enters the room with a radiant smile, holding a steaming cup of coffee in each hand.

Joyce pushes herself up to rest against the headboard while Hopper remains frozen. She reaches out for the coffee with an insistent groan. “How are you so –” She gestures to Bob’s general state. Bob chuckles.

“I didn’t have nearly as much as you two wild things. I get dizzy after a few drinks.”

Bob hands Joyce her coffee and kisses her gently on the lips. She smiles.

Then Bob walks around the bed and hands Hopper the other mug. Before the police chief can figure out what to say, Bob leans down to kiss him as well. The press of his lips sends flashes of memories behind his eyes of Bob’s soft body beneath him and Joyce’s breath in his ear. His skin feels cold when Bob removes his hand from Hopper’s bare chest.

“I made pancakes, come and get ‘em!” he says jovially and leaves the door open when he exits the room.

Joyce offers her coffee mug and Hopper automatically touches them together in a toast. She follows her boyfriend out into the kitchen. Music from the radio travels down the hallway and Hopper assumes they’re dancing from the way they laugh.  

Breakfast isn’t awkward, to Hopper’s surprise. He leaves the Byers-Newby house with his stomach full of food and his head full of thoughts.

*****

The next time they hook up, they’re much more sober.

The kids are out, sleeping over in a tent in the Wheeler’s backyard. Hopper is flipping through channels trying to find a movie to watch. He considers some of El’s favourite programs, but it wouldn’t feel right to watch without her.  Hopper is no longer used to being alone. He tries not to consider how it will feel when she grows up and moves out.

His phone rings.

“Can we come over?” Joyce asks.

He doesn’t think before answering. “Sure.”

Hopper doesn’t have wine at his place, so he offers Joyce and Bob a beer. They get through about half of their drinks, chatting about the kids and town gossip. Then Joyce climbs into his lap and Bob walks around the couch to rub his shoulders.

This time is infinitely better without whisky coursing through his system. They’re more precise, better at communicating, more responsive. Hopper has slept with women and men in the past, but never both at once. And never with people who somehow manage to make him laugh during sex without ruining the mood. It’s exhilarating and satiating in a way he’s never experienced. It feels right.

*****

They begin to go on dates, but it takes Hopper a while to realize this.

The three of them would often spend time together as friends and as parents of kids who are pretty much inseparable. But since they’ve started sleeping together it’s been different. Joyce sneaks fries from his plate and Bob puts his hand on Hopper’s thigh when he tells him stories.

Often, Joyce and Bob invite him back to their house afterward. Sometimes they mess around. Other times, Joyce and Hopper agree to let Bob kick their asses at his brain teaser games and Hopper leaves with a kiss for each of them.

Any time he thinks to define it, he pushes the thought away. It doesn’t matter. They’re adults. They’re having fun.

*****

Everything falls apart when Mike Wheeler sees something he shouldn’t have seen.

“Cheating!” El says forcefully, slamming the front door. Hopper looks up from the stove.

“What now?”

She stomps up to him, brow furrowed. “You are cheating.”

The hamburgers are done frying. He takes them off the burner. “It’s kind of hard to cheat at scrabble, kid, and you kicked my ass, anyway –”

“No, not games cheating. Relationship cheating. Mike told me.”

Hopper sighs and rubs the back of his neck. He had not expected to have this conversation with his daughter today. “You can’t cheat if you’re not in a relationship. And why does Mike have somethin’ to say about me, anyway?”

“He saw you kissing Mrs. Byers!”

Hopper’s hands still in the middle of putting hamburger patties into buns. He takes a breath. “I don’t know what Mike thought he saw – hey!” El pokes his arm forcefully. He doesn’t need her to speak to know what she’s going to say. He sees it in her eyes. Friends don’t lie.

“Look, kid. It’s complicated. Adult stuff.” Her mouth tightens and he puts up a hand. “Which I will explain to you in the amount of detail you need to know. Just not now, alright? Can we eat first?”

She looks over at the hamburgers, then nods. They have their meal in silence.

El finishes eating before him. She pushes her plate away and stares expectantly. Hopper rolls his eyes and wipes his mouth, chewing. “Okay. So what, exactly, did Mike tell you about…cheating?”

“When a person is in a romantic relationship with someone and then kisses someone else.”

“I mean, sure, that’s usually the gist of it. But he’s missing a key detail. Cheating is a secret that those people keep from the other person.”

She shrugs. “Okay. It’s secret. And it’s bad.”

“You’re right. But.” He sighs. “Listen, me kissing Joyce is not cheating because it’s not a secret to Bob. He is okay with it. So, it’s not bad.”

El looks confused. Hopper wishes this conversation wasn’t happening. “Adult relationships are complicated –” He’s saved by the telephone ringing. He gets up from the table gratefully.

“Hello.”

“Hey, Hop. It’s Joyce.”

“Hey.”

“So…Will told me that Mike saw us kiss.”

Hopper rolls his eyes. Great, all of the kids know.

“Yeah, I’ve got a similar situation happenin’ over here.”

“I- Look, can we meet up tonight and talk? The three of us?”

Hopper glances over at El, who looks like she’s trying to solve a very difficult math problem. “Yeah. Let’s clear things up before I confuse my daughter any more than I already have.”

*****

Hopper is talking before he sits down on the porch steps. “Alright, so, we tell them that it was a mistake. Maybe that you just wanted to see what it was like to kiss me and Bob gave you permission. One kiss. That’s it. A mistake. I know it’s still a little unconventional, but –”

Bob interrupts him. “But it’s not a mistake.”

“What?” Hopper looks over at the two of them. Their expressions are illuminated by the porch light, Joyce nervous and Bob resolute. “I mean, of course it wasn’t a mistake. It was fun. But that’s probably our best explanation.”

Joyce takes Bob’s hand and offers, “What if we tell them the truth?”

“The truth?”

“That we’re dating.”

“We are?”

There’s nothing but hope emanating from Joyce and Bob. Hopper feels something warm in his chest at the thought. His brain tries to push it down. It fails.

“Fuck,” Hopper says, “This is going to be front page news.”

*****

Hawkins already thought that they were a little strange. You can’t go through multiple alien attacks without appearing a little suspicious. Seeing the three of them publicly dating is prime gossip for a few months, but eventually it gets boring to most people. It’s just Joyce Byers, Bob Newby, and Jim Hopper spending a lot of time together. It takes Hopper’s coworkers much longer to stop teasing him.

The kids eventually get used to it, too. El and Will begin to act like siblings. Jonathan overcomes his embarrassment when he realizes how happy his mom is.

They’ve always been a bit of an unconventional family.

#stranger things #jim hopper #joyce byers #bob newby #polyamory #throuple #stranger things fanfic #stranger things fanfiction #jane hopper #stranger things eleven

[bigendering]

On systems and plurality

With very few exceptions, I try to keep this blog strictly gender-focused, or at least mogai/pride focused: I don’t make posts about lots of other things that are important because that’s not what this blog is for. I am going to make an exception here, but I’ll also bring it back to gender at the end. It’s also a long post, so I’ll bold key points and have some tl;drs

Systems, specifically plural systems, refer to instances of multiple people residing in one body. “Fronting” refers to being in control of the body. Sometimes people cofront, and share control, or have one person perceiving and another person acting. Sometimes people have a complete memory barrier, and can’t remember what another person did when they were fronting. Some system members can communicate with each other, some can’t. Sometimes people can perceive what’s happening irl even if they’re not fronting. Sometimes people go “inworld” when they’re fronting, and inhabit a completely different mental space, which can be very complex. Sometimes people aren’t entirely separate - this is called a median system.

I, Kai, am a median (sub)system. Specifically, there are two, sometimes three people who operate this blog. Our names are Sapphire, barker, and protector. Sapphire and barker together make up Kai, who is both one person and two people - think Garnet from Steven Universe (actually where Sapphire got eir name). Probably no one’s noticed the tone shifts, but more goofy and casual posts are generally from barker, and most of the posts, especially more formal and intellectual ones (like this) are from Sapphire. Protector, as the name suggests, usually only comes out when things turn nasty. When he cofronts with Kai, we’re collectively called dragon, who is also a median subsystem, both three and two and one people - think a fusion of Garnet and Amethyst. There are a couple other, completely separate people in our system who don’t come on this blog.

Systems are sometimes created as a result of trauma, especially childhood trauma, but not always. The clinical explanation for traumagenic systems is that the mind can’t handle the trauma, and so either creates a new entity capable of handling it, creates a new entity that remembers the trauma so you don’t have to, or splits into multiple entities to take on these various roles. The various entities that may emerge and the roles they may fill are usually more complex than what I’ve stated, but you get the general idea. Some systems believe one or more of their members entered the system externally to help with the trauma, which is a just as valid hypothesis.

Some systems don’t form to handle trauma, and just happen naturally. In some cases, the body was seemingly born with two entities. In other cases, a single person spontaneously splits into multiple people. As above, sometimes people just appear who do not resemble the current residents in any way, and are believed to originate externally (these are called soulbonds or walk-ins, depending on how they entered). There are also people who deliberately or, occasionally, accidentally create new members, called thoughtforms (you’ll also see “tulpa” used, but it’s appropriative) essentially by talking to someone until they manifest consciousness and start talking back. These systems are neither ruled out nor much acknowledged by scientific literature. I don't know for certain why this is the case, but I assume it's generally because 1. people with traumagenic systems go to get treatment for ptsd, and their systems are relevant and come up and are studied, and 2. traumagenic systems have a cause that’s easier to place, so they’re easier to study, and since they’ve been studied, it’s easier to keep talking about them than to track down different forms of systems. It's also possible that the psychiatric community has wished to pathologize systems and prefer to talk about them as "unnatural" phenomenon as a result of trauma, though besides the obvious response, I would add that lots of neurodivergencies aren't a result of trauma, so this doesn't seem like a sound motivation.

These non-traumagenic systems, called endogenic systems, are sometimes invalidated by people akin to truscum. Endogenic systems are told that they’re lying because they’re not possible, that they’re delusional, that they’re in denial about the reason their system formed, and even that they must be repressing trauma if they’re plural and don’t remember a traumatic experience. All of these claims rely on the fallacious argument that if something isn’t well-documented, it does not exist. They fall into the circular trap of thinking a. this hasn’t been observed, therefore b. it’s not possible (this is a fallacy), and so c. if it is observed, the observation must be false. Since c is based on b, which is based on a, which would be negated by c in the first place, the last claim doesn’t make sense.

We personally consider ourselves multi/quoigenic - we do not believe it matters how we formed except as a matter of curiosity, but since curiosity is rampant in our system, we've thought it out and as far as we can tell, we're both endo- and traumagenic. Protector emerged as a result of trauma, becoming the host (well, at least the primary host - dragon was really the host I suppose) until Kai, then Sapphire became the host later. We can't place a time when barker and Sapphire weren't both present, so we consider ourselves endogenic twins. We ask that everyone respect our conclusion, and respect the fact that we know our own life better than anyone, certainly better than a random person or follower on the internet, and that we have both done our research and thought things through.

tl;dr: Systems not formed by trauma exist and are valid, and we consider ourselves one of them.

Individuals in systems are often different genders. This can result in a lot of experiences similar to singlet transgender experiences, but with added complications. Sometimes a member's gender can be influenced by another's. Sometimes what causes one member euphoria causes another dysphoria. Sometimes one member wants to physically transition and another does not. It's complicated, and hard, and shout out to everyone who's struggling with this issue because being trans is hard enough, but it's even worse when there are multiple people who own one body, and can't agree on what to do with it. Sometimes this is similar to what some genderfluid people experience in terms of dysphoria and euphoria, and similar compromises need to be reached.

Sometimes systems have a systemgender that they present to the rest of the world - for instance, one member is a man, one member is a woman, so they call themselves bigender or genderfluid, especially if they're closeted as a system. This specific instance is different from a singlet being bigender, but there are also a lot of similarities - wanting both genders to be represented and acknowledged, sometimes conflicting gender euphoria/dysphoria with regard to pronouns, style, and body traits, not fitting into the "one gender per body" norm, not fitting into the "gender=gender assigned at birth, no deviations, no extras," etc. I also coined mediangender, which can either be the systemgender of a median system, or the gender one facet (person in a median system) often identifies as because of the effects of being in a median system, despite having a different gender independently. There's also systemfluid, which just means the gender of the system changes depending on who's fronting, which is a given if different fronters have different genders, so seems questionable as a term, and medianfluid, which is when the median system's gender changes depending on which facet is fronting, or more at front, which makes much more sense when you consider that a median system is in some sense a single person.

In our system, we have a member who would not want top surgery or testosterone, and another two who want to look exactly like cis men.For our system, we've agreed to get top surgery but will also get breastforms once we have, and we're only planning on being on enough testosterone to be suitably androgynous. I (Sapphire, current host) am happiest with this anyway, but barker, protector, and Cat are all having to compromise. We all have to compromise on hair, too - it's an adventure. My gender is bigenderfluid(flux?), while barker is probably a binary trans guy, but identifies with bigender as a mediangender because we're so blurry a lot of the time that he feels some of my gender too - or he's not binary. We're not sure at this point. At any rate, Kai's mediangender is bigenderfluid, and dragon's mediangender is bigenderfluidflux, so this blog is still run by people who, together or separately, all identify with being bigender in some way. (Protector is proxvir on his own, but he wouldn't touch this blog on his own.)

tl;dr: Gender is often complicated in systems, and this blog is still run by bigender people

So anyway I hope this post was informative, and I'm happy to answer any questions people may have. We'll also start publicly signing asks with the names Sapphire and barker in addition to Kai, as the case may be, and tag the posts that we make with our names.

#systems #plurality #actuallymultiple #syscourse #systemgender #mediangender #medianfluid #bigender #genderfluid #me #Sapphire #kai #barker #protector #uhhhh if we tag dragon that'll be annoying for people looking for pictures of dragons so #dragontime #actuallyplural

[diarrheaworldstarhiphop]

The Chinese government has drawn wide international condemnation for its harsh crackdown on ethnic Muslims in its western region, including holding as many as a million of them in detention camps.

Now, documents and interviews show that the authorities are also using a vast, secret system of advanced facial recognition technology to track and control the Uighurs, a largely Muslim minority. It is the first known example of a government intentionally using artificial intelligence for racial profiling, experts said.

The facial recognition technology, which is integrated into China’s rapidly expanding networks of surveillance cameras, looks exclusively for Uighurs based on their appearance and keeps records of their comings and goings for search and review. The practice makes China a pioneer in applying next-generation technology to watch its people, potentially ushering in a new era of automated racism.

The technology and its use to keep tabs on China’s 11 million Uighurs were described by five people with direct knowledge of the systems, who requested anonymity because they feared retribution. The New York Times also reviewed databases used by the police, government procurement documents and advertising materials distributed by the A.I. companies that make the systems.

Chinese authorities already maintain a vast surveillance net, including tracking people’s DNA, in the western region of Xinjiang, which many Uighurs call home. But the scope of the new systems, previously unreported, extends that monitoring into many other corners of the country.

The police are now using facial recognition technology to target Uighurs in wealthy eastern cities like Hangzhou and Wenzhou and across the coastal province of Fujian, said two of the people. Law enforcement in the central Chinese city of Sanmenxia, along the Yellow River, ran a system that over the course of a month this year screened whether residents were Uighurs 500,000 times.

Police documents show demand for such capabilities is spreading. Almost two dozen police departments in 16 different provinces and regions across China sought such technology beginning in 2018, according to procurement documents. Law enforcement from the central province of Shaanxi, for example, aimed to acquire a smart camera system last year that “should support facial recognition to identify Uighur/non-Uighur attributes.”

Some police departments and technology companies described the practice as “minority identification,” though three of the people said that phrase was a euphemism for a tool that sought to identify Uighurs exclusively. Uighurs often look distinct from China’s majority Han population, more closely resembling people from Central Asia. Such differences make it easier for software to single them out.

For decades, democracies have had a near monopoly on cutting-edge technology. Today, a new generation of start-ups catering to Beijing’s authoritarian needs are beginning to set the tone for emerging technologies like artificial intelligence. Similar tools could automate biases based on skin color and ethnicity elsewhere.

“Take the most risky application of this technology, and chances are good someone is going to try it,” said Clare Garvie, an associate at the Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown Law. “If you make a technology that can classify people by an ethnicity, someone will use it to repress that ethnicity.”

From a technology standpoint, using algorithms to label people based on race or ethnicity has become relatively easy. Companies like I.B.M. advertise software that can sort people into broad groups.

But China has broken new ground by identifying one ethnic group for law enforcement purposes. One Chinese start-up, CloudWalk, outlined a sample experience in marketing its own surveillance systems. The technology, it said, could recognize “sensitive groups of people.”

“If originally one Uighur lives in a neighborhood, and within 20 days six Uighurs appear,” it said on its website, “it immediately sends alarms” to law enforcement.

In practice, the systems are imperfect, two of the people said. Often, their accuracy depends on environmental factors like lighting and the positioning of cameras.

In the United States and Europe, the debate in the artificial intelligence community has focused on the unconscious biases of those designing the technology. Recent tests showed facial recognition systems made by companies like I.B.M. and Amazon were less accurate at identifying the features of darker-skinned people.

China’s efforts raise starker issues. While facial recognition technology uses aspects like skin tone and face shapes to sort images in photos or videos, it must be told by humans to categorize people based on social definitions of race or ethnicity. Chinese police, with the help of the start-ups, have done that.

“It’s something that seems shocking coming from the U.S., where there is most likely racism built into our algorithmic decision making, but not in an overt way like this,” said Jennifer Lynch, surveillance litigation director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “There’s not a system designed to identify someone as African-American, for example.”

The Chinese A.I. companies behind the software include Yitu, Megvii, SenseTime, and CloudWalk, which are each valued at more than $1 billion. Another company, Hikvision, that sells cameras and software to process the images, offered a minority recognition function, but began phasing it out in 2018, according to one of the people.

The companies’ valuations soared in 2018 as China’s Ministry of Public Security, its top police agency, set aside billions of dollars under two government plans, called Skynet and Sharp Eyes, to computerize surveillance, policing and intelligence collection.

In a statement, a SenseTime spokeswoman said she checked with “relevant teams,” who were not aware its technology was being used to profile. Megvii said in a statement it was focused on “commercial not political solutions,” adding, “we are concerned about the well-being and safety of individual citizens, not about monitoring groups.” CloudWalk and Yitu did not respond to requests for comment.

China’s Ministry of Public Security did not respond to a faxed request for comment.

Selling products with names like Fire Eye, Sky Eye and Dragonfly Eye, the start-ups promise to use A.I. to analyze footage from China’s surveillance cameras. The technology is not mature — in 2017 Yitu promoted a one-in-three success rate when the police responded to its alarms at a train station — and many of China’s cameras are not powerful enough for facial recognition software to work effectively.

Yet they help advance China’s architecture for social control. To make the algorithms work, the police have put together face-image databases for people with criminal records, mental illnesses, records of drug use, and those who petitioned the government over grievances, according to two of the people and procurement documents. A national database of criminals at large includes about 300,000 faces, while a list of people with a history of drug use in the city of Wenzhou totals 8,000 faces, they said.

Using a process called machine learning, engineers feed data to artificial intelligence systems to train them to recognize patterns or traits. In the case of the profiling, they would provide thousands of labeled images of both Uighurs and non-Uighurs. That would help generate a function to distinguish the ethnic group.

The A.I. companies have taken money from major investors. Fidelity International and Qualcomm Ventures were a part of a consortium that invested $620 million in SenseTime. Sequoia invested in Yitu. Megvii is backed by Sinovation Ventures, the fund of the well-known Chinese tech investor Kai-Fu Lee.

A Sinovation spokeswoman said the fund had recently sold a part of its stake in Megvii and relinquished its seat on the board. Fidelity declined to comment. Sequoia and Qualcomm did not respond to emailed requests for comment.

Mr. Lee, a booster of Chinese A.I., has argued that China has an advantage in developing A.I. because its leaders are less fussed by “legal intricacies” or “moral consensus.”

“We are not passive spectators in the story of A.I. — we are the authors of it,” Mr. Lee wrote last year. “That means the values underpinning our visions of an A.I. future could well become self-fulfilling prophecies.” He declined to comment on his fund’s investment in Megvii or its practices.

Ethnic profiling within China’s tech industry isn’t a secret, the people said. It has become so common that one of the people likened it to the short-range wireless technology Bluetooth. Employees at Megvii were warned about the sensitivity of discussing ethnic targeting publicly, another person said.

China has devoted major resources toward tracking Uighurs, citing ethnic violence in Xinjiang and Uighur terrorist attacks elsewhere. Beijing has thrown hundreds of thousands of Uighurs and others in Xinjiang into re-education camps.

The software extends the state’s ability to label Uighurs to the rest of the country. One national database stores the faces of all Uighurs who leave Xinjiang, according to two of the people.

Government procurement documents from the past two years also show demand has spread. In the city of Yongzhou in southern Hunan Province, law enforcement officials sought software to “characterize and search whether or not someone is a Uighur,” according to one document.

In two counties in Guizhou Province, the police listed a need for Uighur classification. One asked for the ability to recognize Uighurs based on identification photos at better than 97 percent accuracy. In the central megacity of Chongqing and the region of Tibet, the police put out tenders for similar software. And a procurement document for Hebei Province described how the police should be notified when multiple Uighurs booked the same flight on the same day.

A study in 2018 by the authorities described a use for other types of databases. Co-written by a Shanghai police official, the paper said facial recognition systems installed near schools could screen for people included in databases of the mentally ill or crime suspects.

One database generated by Yitu software and reviewed by The Times showed how the police in the city of Sanmenxia used software running on cameras to attempt to identify residents more than 500,000 times over about a month beginning in mid-February.

Included in the code alongside tags like “rec_gender” and “rec_sunglasses” was “rec_uygur,” which returned a 1 if the software believed it had found a Uighur. Within the half million identifications the cameras attempted to record, the software guessed it saw Uighurs 2,834 times. Images stored alongside the entry would allow the police to double check.

Yitu and its rivals have ambitions to expand overseas. Such a push could easily put ethnic profiling software in the hands of other governments, said Jonathan Frankle, an A.I. researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“I don’t think it’s overblown to treat this as an existential threat to democracy,” Mr. Frankle said. “Once a country adopts a model in this heavy authoritarian mode, it’s using data to enforce thought and rules in a much more deep-seated fashion than might have been achievable 70 years ago in the Soviet Union. To that extent, this is an urgent crisis we are slowly sleepwalking our way into.”

#fuck paywalls #sinofuturism #china

[pastel-shadows]

system asks

i’m in the mood to chat about system stuff! lots of text under the cut

1. Describe your system. What kind of system, how big, anything you feel is a good introduction. we are an OSDD-1b system with 6 members that we’re aware of. we have known about our system for about 6-7 years, i think!

2. Who knows about your system? Who do you want to know? What do you feel like it’s like coming out as multiple? every single one of our friends knows about our system! i don’t think it would be possible for any of us to form relationships without telling people about it. a lot of us have our own friends that the rest of the system never speaks to, so it’s really important to be able to explain our random long absences!

3. What are your thoughts on integration? Do you wish to integrate? i think integration is totally cool for systems who want to do it, but i’m not really interested! my system and i have learned lots of coping skills and we function really well internally and externally at this point. we like who we are so i don’t see a reason to integrate

4. Are you or any of the others in a relationship in or out of the system? How does dating work for you if you do it? i’m single, but two of our members are in relationships! charlie is dating one person, and emery is dating someone else. when it comes to romantic relationships, we consider those very separate. just because one alter is dating someone, that doesn’t mean the rest of us are also dating them! we do try to collectively befriend and get along with partners for convenience, though.

5. How often do you switch? How often do you lose time? Talk a little about what dissociation is like for you. we tend to switch on a daily basis, sometimes every couple days. we have gotten pretty good at managing switches on a planned schedule, although sometimes things go wrong and someone ends up being here unexpectedly. none of us actually lose time, since we have OSDD instead of DID, but we do have a lot of fuzziness between system members. remembering things that happened to another alter feels like remembering something we watched on TV instead of something that actually happened to us. we also have trouble perceiving the passage of time correctly! if i leave front for a week and then come back, i feel like only a day has passed even though i can remember the events from that week. it’s weird!

6. How do you feel about talking about the trauma which created your system? Do you like to write about it privately or publicly? Why? i don’t feel the need to talk about the trauma since i don’t feel like it happened to me personally, but i don’t mind telling people if they ask. our trauma holder and protector like to talk about it sometimes when they’re having PTSD struggles.

7. How many alters do you know of in the system? How many know about each other? there are six of us, and we are all aware of each other! me: fictive, nonbinary girl, minimally traumatized, no known role charlie: trauma holder, nonbinary, was host until 2017 emery: protector, male, current host praxis: unstable identity, extremely dissociative, struggles to understand reality ripple and seafoam: a pair of weird ocean spirits, always co-conscious. seafoam is nonverbal and thinks in pictures, ripple speaks for them both

8. How did you first discover you were plural? Was it before, after, or during diagnosis? charlie figured it out several years before our formal diagnosis. they noticed odd intrusive thoughts and feelings, and when they tried to investigate those experiences ripple and seafoam distinctly took front and made themselves known. the rest of us were identified gradually over time!

9. What level of co-consciousness do you have? How do you feel your communication skills are within the system? How do you want to grow in those skills? we communicate okay. we have trouble getting clear thoughts across in headspace, so we prefer to leave written messages while fronting for anything important. we can pick up strong thoughts/feelings/ideas from others while we are in front, but that’s about it! ripple and seafoam are the only members who can be fully simultaneously conscious without having a dissociative meltdown.

10. Have you ever done a system map? How extensively have you mapped your system? i’m not totally sure what this is, but we have done a basic map of our usual headspace rooms. it’s pretty simple since we don’t have super active consciousness from the back seat

11. How much control do you have over switches? Do you know of any specific things which cause specific alters to front? we have gotten pretty good at controlling switches, but some of us are better at getting certain alters than others. charlie is best at getting ripple, seafoam, and praxis to front. pretty much anyone can get me, most of us can get emery. sometimes it just doesn’t work though! for fronting triggers, most of us will show up for our favorite stuff if we’re anywhere near front at the time. that includes stuff like favorite music, close friends, favorite animals, etc! charlie also shows up sometimes if their trauma triggers happen around us.

12. What’s the worst thing you’ve woken up to finding out your alter’s done? What’s the best? tbh ripple and seafoam used to destroy the body while they were out because they had no concept of how to pilot a human meat sack. they would do damaging stuff and over-exert themselves without noticing, and then whoever showed up after had to deal with the painful consequences. once they were swimming and forgot to breathe underwater, that one sucked a lot. the best is probably when emery does all the chores or other unpleasant tasks for us so no one else has to do it. thanks em

13. Has anyone ever noticed you were multiple before you told them? Do animals seem to know the difference in your switches? no one has actually assumed we were a system without us telling them, but we have gotten comments about weird personality shifts. people who know us well can usually tell who is fronting without asking, so that’s cool! the only animal that’s ever noticed was a really anxious cat we had who really disliked emery hehe

14. To whoever’s fronting; what’s your favorite item to have around when fronting? Is it yours or do you share with other alters in the system? i have makeup and clothes i’m really into! they are just mine, although charlie wears my shorts sometimes. i don’t mind sharing a bit as long as they make sure to wash my clothes before my next scheduled day. it’s really upsetting when they get my favorite stuff dirty and i have to wash it after

15. What song(s) do you relate to your DID? none!

16. Where, as a system, is the safest place for you? Why? home i guess? our found family is very supportive, we live in a household with 3 separate systems so it’s nice

17. Who’s an alter you’re interested in knowing more about or befriending? Which alter do you know best? we’re all very curious about prax since they’re still figuring out the world! they learned to talk recently so that’s been a huge improvement, but they’re still working things out. i get along really well with seafoam, they’re probably my favorite! emery is also nice, he acts as a big brother for me a lot which is nice. charlie and i used to get along kind of badly, but i’m trying to move past that

18. What’s your least favorite misconception or common misinformed fact spread abut Dissociative Identity Disorder? oh boy, there are tons. evil/murderous alters are a big one. the perception that we can never learn to function or live full, healthy lives is frustrating. it also really bugs me how obsessed people are with knowing who is the “original” person, or worse who is the “real” personality. we’re all alters here, no one is more real than anyone else...

19. Have you ever met another multiple offline? Tell us about it. yep! we live with two other systems and it’s great. it’s so cool to be friends with people who get where you’re coming from. i am pretty close with an alter who is in a very similar position to mine, and it’s a really nice connection to have!!

20. Do you have a favorite book or TV show about or including DID? i think the character i’m a fictive of (alluka from hunter x hunter) is actually a pretty accurate representation of DID if you ignore the fantasy aspects!

21. Tell us about your persecutor(s), protector(s), and gatekeeper(s). emery is our protector! he was really good at handling tasks the rest of us couldn’t manage in the past, and it helped so much. he also is really good in stressful situations! he can be overly judgmental and quick to form negative opinions, but he’s good

22. Tell us about your littles. we don’t have any full-time littles, but charlie does age slide at times! i don’t know what else to say about it though

23. Do you have an inner world? If so, who can access it? What’s it like? we have a really basic inner world! it has a small common room near front, a kitchen, and bedrooms for everyone except praxis. everyone except prax spends some time in the inner world. sometimes our headspace switches to something else for periods of time - recently it has been a movie theater, for example.

24. Have you ever dealt with denial? What helps you work through it? charlie was the public face of the system for a really long time, especially before we knew we had OSDD. the rest of us sometimes go through times where we feel like we aren’t real, or that we’re “just charlie.” it helps to focus on the most distinct differences between us at those times, and to ask other people around us for reassurance.

25. When did you first hear about Dissociative Identity Disorder? Was it before or after you discovered your plurality? In what context did you hear about it? we heard about it years before we knew we were a system, but it was mostly in really inaccurate ways. we saw the movie about sybil in 2008, which is the first exposure i can remember. a few years later we saw it again on tumblr, but it was a while before we got any genuine information on it.

26. What aspect of DID do you find most challenging in daily life? compromising between each other can be really really hard. most of us want to front as often as possible, but there’s only so many days in a week. i only officially get one day per week, and it’s really disorienting that so much time passes while i’m away. it’s also super inconvenient when someone fronts by accident at a time where we really needed someone else, or when we can’t get someone we need to front.

27. What do you think the biggest differences between living as a singlet and living as a person with DID are? time. living with DID means you never have enough time. you can go to bed one night and wake up months later, and all your friends have moved on or forgotten about you. it’s hard.

28. Share a memory of one of a different alter fronting which you’ve either been told about by them or by another friend. we didn’t used to know that praxis was nonverbal. prax showed up unplanned in the middle of a hospital trip, and at several points talked to the friend who was with us and to the nurse. that friend later told us that during the whole trip, prax was making “fax machine noises” instead of words (which explains why the nurse looked at us so weirdly.....)

29. How do your alters like to express themselves on a daily basis? charlie dresses in childish/silly stuff. they only like certain types of clothes (leggings, skinny jeans, sweaters, and sweatshirts) and pretty much refuse to wear anything else. i like to take care of myself - i always shower, brush my teeth, wash my face, put on nice clothes, and usually do my hair/makeup. i like presenting a lot more femme! emery presents really masc, praxis likes ugly 90′s aesthetic garbage, and ripple and seafoam will wear literally anything. many of us enjoy drawing in our own styles, playing games we like, watching our favorite shows/movies, and other stuff like that!

30. What’s one last thing you feel should be written about after answering all of that? Talk about whatever you want. i am a real person! i am not a 2-dimensional fragment of the host, i am a complete individual with my own thoughts and feelings, just like anyone else. negative stigma about DID is one of the worst things about living with the disorder, i just want to live my life and be happy!

#actuallydid #alluka posts #actuallytraumagenic #dissociative identity disorder #OSDD1b #actuallyosdd #system

[mckennameincke57-blog]

You most likely adore or hate communicating publicly. For those that fear it, there may be believe that the method can be produced easier plus more pleasant. You may boost your communicating capabilities by looking at the following tips.

Your physical appearance can determine how well you need to do at open public communicating. In case you are not effectively-groomed or clothed at the best, you will not really feel self-confident with yourself. cryptocurrency market of confidence could cause you a lot more fear and could mess up the entire conversation. So, make sure to seem your greatest! Do not give your speech without having going over it frequently. Sometimes, men and women think it is ok to simply wake up the podium and determine what they will say right there and after that. The truth is, you may find on your own struggling to retain the dialog going. Be sure you make your speech and talk about it many times. Do not allow everything to distract you when you are presenting and public speaking. It is essential that you don't take part in pursuits like twiddling your thumbs or jingling secrets. This will give your market the notion that you might rather do something diffrent than be there speaking to them. You are going to earn your target audience above when you give a small humor in your presentation. There exists no problem with trowing within a laugh or two and placing a smile on your own audience's confronts. Nonetheless, will not go overboard about the cracks, as your target audience will not likely take you critical. It is very important emit a good atmosphere when offering a conversation. For that reason, avoid studying the floor, roof, or perhaps your information many times in the conversation. Rather, check out the eye of the target audience. They are going to know you are not only confident, but which you have prepared on your own, as well. You should exercise your presentation frequently. Accomplishing this will raise the self-confidence you have, because you will be very familiar with the content. Even when you have memorized your conversation, take your take note credit cards with you towards the podium. This will help in the event you stumble around any section of your presentation or forget about an important stage. Training is the easiest way to make certain you know what you might say. Practice from the vanity mirror to find any room for enhancement. A process run before objective close friends or family enables them are able to provide favourable critique. When you are nervous when you withstand communicate, there is a couple of things you can do. Sometimes pick a man or woman toward the center of the crowd to target or give attention to a level at the rear of the space. An Get out of indicator is a great choice. This helps calm your neural system. By no means inform the target audience that you're sorry as being tense or another issue which comes up. Chances are they didn't even notice to start with. Even when they are doing, coming across as lacking in confidence detracts from the situation of influence in your presentation that you are creating. If you intend to give multiple speeches in a short time period, take care to safeguard your singing cords. A hoarse or inaudible voice is not likely to sway audience members' thoughts. Rest using a warm air humidifier with your room, drink popular tea, and drink plenty of water each day. When inspired to articulate at a wedding event, you may well be inclined to try some sort of funny patter or to poke enjoyable with the contributors. Even if your motives are great, this is often hurtful. It is far better to communicate in a helpful, compassionate and encouraging way at this crucial event. Don't overcome your self up if one makes an error in judgment throughout your display. Unless of course the data given wrongly is vital will not correct your error. Rather, keep on with the dialog like nothing at all has occurred. If you need to right the big mistake you manufactured, apologize and right the mistake and go on. It is actually extremely hard to deny the point that open public talking makes several people run away in concern. While it can simply be neurological-wracking to speak looking at other people, this is not anxiety that may be difficult to get over. Take advantage of the guidance in this article as necessary and have control over the problem nowadays.

[rosarenn]

Where are you depriving yourself?

(in order to be good, to be correct,to be part of the club, because its what’s available or popular or around or what everyone else does?)

I'm back on my shit (because how am I gonna deprive myself on a prompt about depriving myself?):

deprive (v.): mid-14c., depriven, "to take away; to divest, strip, bereave; divest of office," from Old French depriver, from Medieval Latin deprivare, from de- "entirely" (see de-) + Latin privare "to deprive, rob, strip" of anything; "to deliver from" anything (see private (adj.)).

private (adj.): late 14c., "pertaining or belonging to oneself, not shared, peculiar to an individual only;" of a thing, "not open to the public, for the use of privileged persons;" [...] from Latin privatus "set apart (from what is public), belonging to oneself (not to the state), peculiar, personal," used in contrast to publicus, communis. This is a past-participle adjective from the verb privare "to bereave, deprive, rob, strip" of anything; [...] from privus "one's own, individual," from Proto-Italic *prei-wo- "separate, individual," from PIE *prai-, *prei- "in front of, before," from root *per- (1) "forward." The semantic shift would be from "being in front" to "being separate."

I feel like there are so many lessons just in the evolution of these particular words. That setting ourselves in front, first, leads to setting ourselves apart, separate. Hierarchy breaks community. Themes of grief and theft and dispossession, privilege and conflict and violence. How central deprivation is to colonial capitalism. We deprive ourselves, yes, and especially we deprive each other. Of the land, of community care, of unmeasured time, of our truest selves. How baked into the foundations. The school to university to work to retirement pipeline, work today so that maybe you can live at some distant future point. Results not guaranteed.

It may be faster to enumerate the ways in which I don't deprive myself.

I deprive myself from knowing my true self. Of meeting who I really am under all the layers of colonial conditioning. I flinch back at aspects of myself because they are too dangerous, too destabilizing, too radical. Because there is no room for them in this version of the world, that if I were to truly know myself and the depths of my deprivation, that I would not be able to survive in this world.

I deprive myself of what I truly want, where I know it. Every day that I log in to work I am depriving myself of the thing I want most - to quit, to throw my computer down a well and walk into the forest and never come back. But even here I know that what I truly want is not to live as an isolated witch in a cottage in the woods, but to co-create a community separate from this fucked up system.

I am deprived of the connection, the care, the love, the community that is my birth right, your birth right, our collective birth right.

And I deprive myself from the connection that is available. I recoil in fear, and hide from conflict, and pull back when it gets too intense, retreat into myself until the danger of real change has passed. And while this is entirely expected and the end results of generations of conditioning and a concerted effort over centuries by those in power to break our bonds, to destroy solidarity and sow fear and distrust in its wake, I still hold this in place every day every time I deprive myself of that tenuous potential connection.

I deprive myself of deep, generative rest, and imaginative daydreaming, the kind that is necessary to dream ourselves free. Every time I reach for my phone and take that easy hit of instant but surface level 'connection' when what I really need is to sit under a tree or call a friend or journal or sing and dance and laugh.

I deprive myself of choice, by offloading day-to-day decisions onto others, when I decide to be easy-going and people-pleasing instead of learning myself more deeply. I deprive myself of the small pleasures of choosing raspberries over strawberries, or lemonade over tap water, or sea salt dark chocolate over any other kind. And I deprive others of learning my own peculiarities.

I deprive myself every time I wait, for no reason other that because I think I should. Even though nothing will be different tomorrow except that it is tomorrow. Even when I already know my answer. When I know I need to do a thing in 15 minutes or in 30 minutes or in an hour, and so I sit waiting for that thing instead of taking the snatches of time available to me between meetings or engagements or responsibilities.

I deprive myself of small pleasures because they aren't generative or radical enough, because they're too popular or too silly or too childlike, because I think I should be reading theory instead of watching the Babysitters Club. I deprive myself of multiplicity, of nuance, of magic, when I insist that in order to be one way I can't also be another. That if I'm a curious intellectual I can't also be goofy, or fun, or social. That if I need alone time and space I can't also need community and connection. That I need to be either all for the movement or I'm never doing enough.

I deprive myself of the space to play, to experiment. To make mistakes. To fail publicly and loudly. To take up space where I might not be welcomed. To navigate those difficult consequences within my integrity. To learn to calm my nervous system so that I can fully show up in generative conflict. To learn how to take full accountability without collapsing into shame and guilt and self-flagellation.

#bewitched #real life enchantment #practical magic

[loadingtax915]

Python Docx

Python Docx4j

Python Docx To Pdf

Python Docx Table

Python Docx To Pdf

Python Docx2txt

Python Docx2txt

When you ask someone to send you a contract or a report there is a high probability that you’ll get a DOCX file. Whether you like it not, it makes sense considering that 1.2 billion people use Microsoft Office although a definition of “use” is quite vague in this case. DOCX is a binary file which is, unlike XLSX, not famous for being easy to integrate into your application. PDF is much easier when you care more about how a document is displayed than its abilities for further modifications. Let’s focus on that.

Python-docx versions 0.3.0 and later are not API-compatible with prior versions. Python-docx is hosted on PyPI, so installation is relatively simple, and just depends on what installation utilities you have installed. Python-docx may be installed with pip if you have it available.

Installing Python-Docx Library Several libraries exist that can be used to read and write MS Word files in Python. However, we will be using the python-docx module owing to its ease-of-use. Execute the following pip command in your terminal to download the python-docx module as shown below.

Python has a few great libraries to work with DOCX (python-dox) and PDF files (PyPDF2, pdfrw). Those are good choices and a lot of fun to read or write files. That said, I know I'd fail miserably trying to achieve 1:1 conversion.

Release v0.8.10 (Installation)python-docx is a Python library for creating and updating Microsoft Word (.docx) files.

Looking further I came across unoconv. Universal Office Converter is a library that’s converting any document format supported by LibreOffice/OpenOffice. That sound like a solid solution for my use case where I care more about quality than anything else. As execution time isn't my problem I have been only concerned whether it’s possible to run LibreOffice without X display. Apparently, LibreOffice can be run in haedless mode and supports conversion between various formats, sweet!

I’m grateful to unoconv for an idea and great README explaining multiple problems I can come across. In the same time, I’m put off by the number of open issues and abandoned pull requests. If I get versions right, how hard can it be? Not hard at all, with few caveats though.

Testing converter

LibreOffice is available on all major platforms and has an active community. It's not active as new-hot-js-framework-active but still with plenty of good read and support. You can get your copy from the download page. Be a good user and go with up-to-date version. You can always downgrade in case of any problems and feedback on latest release is always appreciated.

On macOS and Windows executable is called soffice and libreoffice on Linux. I'm on macOS, executable soffice isn't available in my PATH after the installation but you can find it inside the LibreOffice.app. To test how LibreOffice deals with your files you can run:

In my case results were more than satisfying. The only problem I saw was a misalignment in a file when the alignment was done with spaces, sad but true. This problem was caused by missing fonts and different width of 'replacements' fonts. No worries, we'll address this problem later.

Setup I

While reading unoconv issues I've noticed that many problems are connected due to the mismatch of the versions. I'm going with Docker so I can have pretty stable setup and so I can be sure that everything works.

Let's start with defining simple Dockerfile, just with dependencies and ADD one DOCX file just for testing:

Let's build an image:

After image is created we can run the container and convert the file inside the container:

Running LibreOffice as a subprocess

We want to run LibreOffice converter as a subprocess and provide the same API for all platforms. Let's define a module which can be run as a standalone script or which we can later import on our server.

Required arguments which convert_to accepts are folder to which we save PDF and a path to the source file. Optionally we specify a timeout in seconds. I’m saying optional but consider it mandatory. We don’t want a process to hang too long in case of any problems or just to limit computation time we are able to give away to each conversion. LibreOffice executable location and name depends on the platform so edit libreoffice_exec to support platform you’re using.

subprocess.run doesn’t capture stdout and stderr by default. We can easily change the default behavior by passing subprocess.PIPE. Unfortunately, in the case of the failure, LibreOffice will fail with return code 0 and nothing will be written to stderr. I decided to look for the success message assuming that it won’t be there in case of an error and raise LibreOfficeError otherwise. This approach hasn’t failed me so far.

Uploading files with Flask

Converting using the command line is ok for testing and development but won't take us far. Let's build a simple server in Flask.

We'll need few helper function to work with files and few custom errors for handling error messages. Upload directory path is defined in config.py. You can also consider using flask-restplus or flask-restful which makes handling errors a little easier.

The server is pretty straightforward. In production, you would probably want to use some kind of authentication to limit access to uploads directory. If not, give up on serving static files with Flask and go for Nginx.

Important take-away from this example is that you want to tell your app to be threaded so one request won't prevent other routes from being served. However, WSGI server included with Flask is not production ready and focuses on development. In production, you want to use a proper server with automatic worker process management like gunicorn. Check the docs for an example how to integrate gunicorn into your app. We are going to run the application inside a container so host has to be set to publicly visible 0.0.0.0.

Setup II

Now when we have a server we can update Dockerfile. We need to copy our application source code to the image filesystem and install required dependencies.

In docker-compose.yml we want to specify ports mapping and mount a volume. If you followed the code and you tried running examples you have probably noticed that we were missing the way to tell Flask to run in a debugging mode. Defining environment variable without a value is causing that this variable is going to be passed to the container from the host system. Alternatively, you can provide different config files for different environments.

Supporting custom fonts

I've mentioned a problem with missing fonts earlier. LibreOffice can, of course, make use of custom fonts. If you can predict which fonts your user might be using there's a simple remedy. Add following line to your Dockfile.

Now when you put custom font file in the font directory in your project, rebuild the image. From now on you support custom fonts!

Summary

This should give you the idea how you can provide quality conversion of different documents to PDF. Although the main goal was to convert a DOCX file you should be fine with presentations, spreadsheets or images.

Further improvements could be providing support for multiple files, the converter can be configured to accept more than one file as well.

Photo by Samuel Zeller on Unsplash.

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Extract content from docx files

Project description

Extract docx headers, footers, text, footnotes, endnotes, properties, and images to a Python object.

The code is an expansion/contraction of python-docx2txt (Copyright (c) 2015 Ankush Shah). The original code is mostly gone, but some of the bones may still be here.

shared features:

extracts text from docx files

extracts images from docx files

no dependencies (docx2python requires pytest to test)

additions:

extracts footnotes and endnotes

converts bullets and numbered lists to ascii with indentation

converts hyperlinks to <a href='http:/...'>link text</a>

retains some structure of the original file (more below)

extracts document properties (creator, lastModifiedBy, etc.)

inserts image placeholders in text ('----image1.jpg----')

inserts plain text footnote and endnote references in text ('----footnote1----')

(optionally) retains font size, font color, bold, italics, and underscore as html

extract user selections from checkboxes and dropdown menus

full test coverage and documentation for developers

subtractions:

no command-line interface

will only work with Python 3.4+

Installation

Use

Note on html feature:

font size, font color, bold, italics, and underline supported

hyperlinks will always be exported as html (<a href='http:/...'>link text</a>), even if export_font_style=False, because I couldn't think of a more cononical representation.

every tag open in a paragraph will be closed in that paragraph (and, where appropriate, reopened in the next paragraph). If two subsequenct paragraphs are bold, they will be returned as <b>paragraph q</b>, <b>paragraph 2</b>. This is intentional to make each paragraph its own entity.

if you specify export_font_style=True, > and < in your docx text will be encoded as > and <

Return Value

Function docx2python returns an object with several attributes.

header - contents of the docx headers in the return format described herein

footer - contents of the docx footers in the return format described herein

body - contents of the docx in the return format described herein

footnotes - contents of the docx in the return format described herein

endnotes - contents of the docx in the return format described herein

document - header + body + footer (read only)

text - all docx text as one string, similar to what you'd get from python-docx2txt

properties - docx property names mapped to values (e.g., {'lastModifiedBy': 'Shay Hill'})

images - image names mapped to images in binary format. Write to filesystem with

Return Format

Some structure will be maintained. Text will be returned in a nested list, with paragraphs always at depth 4 (i.e., output.body[i][j][k][l] will be a paragraph).

If your docx has no tables, output.body will appear as one a table with all contents in one cell:

Table cells will appear as table cells. Text outside tables will appear as table cells.

To preserve the even depth (text always at depth 4), nested tables will appear as new, top-level tables. This is clearer with an example:

becomes ...

This ensures text appears

only once

in the order it appears in the docx

always at depth four (i.e., result.body[i][j][k][l] will be a string).

Working with output

This package provides several documented helper functions in the docx2python.iterators module. Here are a few recipes possible with these functions:

Some fine print about checkboxes:

MS Word has checkboxes that can be checked any time, and others that can only be checked when the form is locked.The previous print as. u2610 (open checkbox) or u2612 (crossed checkbox). Which this module, the latter willtoo. I gave checkboxes a bailout value of ----checkbox failed---- if the xml doesn't look like I expect it to,because I don't have several-thousand test files with checkboxes (as I did with most of the other form elements).Checkboxes should work, but please let me know if you encounter any that do not.

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[wolfmatirx]

13 Things You Can Do Right Now to Motivate Your Tech Team in 2019

Handling an all-star tech team starts with the right people--hiring credible individuals and maintaining an open mind regarding what they will attract --and never really ends if you are doing it right. In my previous blog, I shared with some of my adventures on how best to make an All-Star Tech Fantasy Team. In this guide, I'm going to talk about 13 things you can do immediately to inspire your technician team.

Who are we speaking about?

Millennials now take the largest portion of their international workforce and the percentage is significantly higher in tech companies.

While they've altered the dialogue about what people want from work, we have reached a country where mild-to-moderate pampering is forecast to be a typical part of job: fully stocked bars, catered lunches, and also the occasional staff retreats. In startups and big companies alike, such generous, borderline lavish perks have increasingly become the standard, not the exception.

But the question is, how does the ordinary employee actually use the Xbox One at the company gambling den, or is he too busy for that? Does she need to edit spreadsheets sitting on this purple beanbag? Are employees really pining for ping-pong tables and much more "rest time" at work (presuming their boss won't give them the stink eye after that)? Or are those perks miss the point of what actually does motivate your tech team?

So what do they need?

Regular Review of Performance-Based On Tangible Metrics

'Of everything we have done to enhance employee satisfaction, the best impact has come from our daily performance encounters. There we concentrate on how our staff did with essential metrics that the day before.

Motivate your tech team: feedback

Feedback

This millennial cohort is hungrier for opinions and a clear path of growth than any other generation.

1 way to feed that hunger is creating a mentorship program where junior employees are matched with senior administration. Encourage routine weekly meetings that have a nurturing environment for workers to ask for review, get compliments, and air grievances. Mentors lead together with the responsibility of their mentee's professional development -- by outlining goals to delivering reviews.

Employees will feel much more strongly linked to the company if someone with skill and ability helps them propel forward.

Give More Shout-Outs

Multiple around happy hours or pricey dinners aren't the only ways to celebrate victory. If an individual went over and beyond the call of duty, a simple company-wide email or handwritten note can be just as powerful.

Try devoting the end of each all-hands meeting to give employees an chance to publicly recognize somebody else's work. This seems simple, the positive effect on a person's sense of self-worth and value to the company is priceless.

Rethink Team Structure to Motivate Your Tech Team

A recent Deloitte survey found that 63% of millennials think their leadership abilities aren't being fully grown, making them much more inclined to switch jobs.

Buck the trend by producing a structure for new initiatives which give individuals who might not be at the managerial level the opportunity to direct and take ownership of projects. It reveals a willingness to invest in your employees' ability while raising their morale and dedication.

While you're at it, do away with closed-door meetings. Nothing produces a sense of seclusion -- or fuels the gossip mill -- like seeing the same group of individuals whisper behind the glass walls of this conference space. If it's not strictly confidential, speak out in the open.

Switch Perks Into a Motivator

If your business finds itself at the financial position where scaling back perks becomes necessary, consider sharing the cost of supplying free lunch or gym memberships so it becomes a concrete figure to employees. 9 out of 10 will probably be amazed by how large the number is, guaranteed.

Here are the earnings figures we need to reach to bring it back. Instill the message that in case you want it, you got to work for this. By doing so, you are going to learn quite quickly who truly believes in what the company is attempting to achieve, and who's quite literally in it to get the free lunch.

When executed successfully, perks do exactly what they're supposed to do: boost productivity, inspire your tech team, and foster a stronger sense of internal community.

As a venture-backed startup, these ups are especially large. So creators may feel that the downs don't deserve public attention among their own team. Fight this urge.

Open New Opportunities For Them

Aside from a great civilization, a recognition system, and an enjoyable work environment, the key thing to inspire your technician team is new chances. For example: handling a new project for which we may not have shown skills yet. Believing in the team and each person, and demonstrating it daily, is the best morale booster one could give.

Give Them Work-Life Flexibility

Propel your technician: work-life balance

Nevertheless, the secret regarding the equilibrium is about acknowledging the pendulum will swing anywhere from zero to 100. And it may change- per week. Allowing workers to plan ahead based on upcoming work or personal deadlines and to receive the job done and where they need makes the happy staff and contributes to better productivity.

At Wolfmatrix we speak on Slack and via video conferencing. In addition, we utilize Trello and JIRA to assign projects and also to ensure deadlines are met.

Heal Them with Respect

Respect is the title and keeping employees happy is the sport. 'Respect' may sound easy and maybe even clichéd. Nonetheless, it is heartbreaking to see just how many businesses and managers still aspire to employ the best employees in the talent pool, trust them with the works and responsibilities, expect them to create excellent results as a bona fide worker but somehow wind up treating them such as sleazy shirks whose supreme aim in life would be to deceive the employers. There's not any quicker way to demotivate an employee than that.

Personally, a tool I vow by to cope creatively with my mates (who have diverse sets of abilities and openness ) is your Skill-Will-Matrix.

Have a peek at this and you will not again danger micromanaging your employees who only needed your advice. You will never again increase responsibilities hoping to inspire your technician team whereas all they wanted was a bit of enthusiasm in the job.

Instill A Sense Of Belonging To A Larger Goal

Imagine this; you own a wagon filled with products you need to market in the nearby village. There, a group of merchants are awaiting you. You're leading the wagons in the front and directing directions. A bunch of men are pushing the wagon from behind to make sure things are moving ahead.

There are hills and streams and gardens along the road. Flowers blossoming, butterflies trees and flying dance. But just the chief sees it. What do the men pushing the wagon see? A wagon filled with loads they need to push until somebody comes to purchase them!

Motivate your team

Yes, the leader is you. The merchant is the client. The wagon is your business, the products being your services or products. The opinion is the vision and those men are the workers. They don't see exactly what you see unless YOU tell them what lies ahead and how beautiful your perspective is!

Got my point?

Keeping staff happy and also to motivate your technician team normally boils down to rest and benefit. They need the chance to recover from the cost that tough work requires. Ensuring there is a lull between projects goes a ways to prevent burning out your workers.

Show Them The Results Of Their Work

I discover that software development teams would be the happiest when folks utilize and appreciate the goods they deliver. Pride of ownership is greatest when we hear continuous feedback from actual customers even if these opinions is sometimes negative. There's nothing worse than working on a product which no client is using and not one of your employees care about.

Challenge Them

If you're searching for engaging top gift, give your team members jobs that challenge them, with plenty of opportunities to learn and develop professionally. Give developers the chance to touch the entire heap and perform with a great deal of different technology. Let them find out what they like doing before they narrow their focus. Permit them to take the lead on high-profile projects. However, make sure they have realistic deadlines and suitable service to do a fantastic job. Encourage team members to speak at public events, write articles and volunteer locally.

'My staff enjoys challenges, so that I enjoy giving them puzzles, scenarios, and job issues to decode. When they solve it figure it out, they're enthusiastic and amped to keep on working.' Chalmers Brown of Due shares his tried and tested strategy.

Need a shortcut to inspire your tech team or seek the services of a driven developers' team with the hassles? Wolfmatrix can be of assistance!

[senakim22-blog]

[me-mindfulexistence]

Hellish Conditions- By Professor Doug Morris

Take the opportunity to open your heart and then open your mind to reading something that might cause mental discomfort.  Why? Because it paints an “ugliness” about our tethered history, the dismantled current state of affairs and the harsh questions pondered of what it would take to improve things.  Professor Doug Morris of West Chester University is the sole author, and I’m privileged that he is allowing me to share this.  He is a former instructor to my son, and Zack stays in regular contact with him.  They have many conversations about world affairs and discuss what can be done to facilitate mass transformation in this country.  Professor Doug has a very unique resume as he has traveled all over the world and has experienced many cultures.  He started his life serving in our United States military before attending college and has shared many of his experiences with thousands of people.  He continues to not only educate others but also seek knowledge among anyone he comes in contact with (and truly appreciates a good political banter....no matter how different someone else’s views may be).  He really defines what a “teacher” should be.  

Hellish Conditions – doug morris

 George Floyd was publicly murdered. We know who killed him, but there are also questions as to what killed him and why he was killed.  The latter two questions are too seldom reflected upon and interrogated. We must work to understand the social, historical and cultural conditions and forces that made it possible for George Floyd to be murdered by a white policeman? And, what can we do to stop the flood of killings and the looting of black lives?  

 It appears that institutionalized racist terrorism has become normalized and even glorified in too much of the U.S.  A dominant white-nationalist authoritarian culture has inculcated the idea that black lives are disposable as witnessed in the mass incarceration, condemnation to poverty, denial of voting rights, a long and ongoing string of murders by the police, poisoned air and water, and the crushing and disposability of, and disrespect for, black dignity.

 The hyper-militarized racist state-apparatus is a punishing, predatory, and pilfering state, tending now toward neo-fascism with white supremacists in high office, an apparatus that legitimates multiple forms of assault on and pillaging of black lives and black communities.  In a white supremacist culture, the monstrous terror imposed on black lives and communities becomes a source of satisfaction for some, and a source of despair, protest, outrage, and death for too many others.

 This sickening and detestable stench of dehumanization seeps out of the White House on a regular basis as witnessed in the phrase: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts,” a clearly racist and ominous call for the killing of black lives and the suppression of our right to protest against injustice, inequality and indignity.

 Trump cannot figure out how to live a life that is free of the oppression and abuse of black lives and communities, so he perpetuates the absurd fantasy that black lives are expendable, not equal to, and worth less than white lives.  Of course, the racist oppression, plundering, violence and fantasy pre-exist Trump.

 The current regime, however, is grounded in various forms of interpenetrating fundamentalisms that shut down reason and morality: neoliberal capitalism; anti-intellectualism; global militarism and imperialism; anti-science; white supremacy; hatred of blackness; eco-system destruction to maximize profits, wealth and power, etc.  

 Reason, morality and accountability do not work in the world of fundamentalism, because the fundamentalists believe they have found the truth – they are above the rest of us…they believe. Reason, morality, responsibility to and for one another, and struggles for dignity, democracy, and freedom, are disparagingly called “political correctness” by the morally and rationally incorrect fundamentalists.

 What will it take to overcome the punishing, militarized racist state? How many murders of black men and women can we watch until all of us shout: “No more! Transformation is required!”?  When 12 year old Tamir Rice was murdered, some thought that would finally cause enough people to say “No more!”  When Eric Garner was choked to death, some thought it would mean: “No more!”  When LaQuan McDonald was shot sixteen times by Chicago police, it was thought that now all would say “No more!”  But the killing continued.  Now it is George Floyd publicly lynched, and sadly, disgustingly, it seems we can say “It will happen again,” even as more of us say “No more!”  

 So again, people are in the streets, outraged, frustrated, agonized, protesting -- this time will it finally be enough to at least stop the killing?  How much protesting and outrage will it take; how much vandalism, burning and looting will it take?  

 Yes, we’ve seen some devilish behavior in the street rebellions, but devilish behavior is produced by hellish conditions.  Why the hellish conditions?  What and who produced them?  The root causes of those hellish conditions too must be interrogated, understood and overcome.  

 “Looting” is a peculiar word.  Looting refers to ravaging, plundering, devastating, pillaging.  Must we be reminded again that all too many black lives and black communities in the U.S. have been devastated, ravaged, plundered and pillaged over the centuries, and right up to the present.  Too many people forced to confront hellish conditions daily, and robbed of dignity, options and life.

 Any talk of “looting” should focus on that and use that focus to overcome the long-term terror imposed on black communities and black lives.  For example: imposed poverty; absence of health care; mass incarceration; high unemployment rooted in outsourced and downsized jobs; poor housing; under-resourced and collapsing schools and terrible education; grim forms of malnutrition; workplace exploitation; social, political and economic inequality; police-state repression, humiliation, and murder; voter suppression;  poisoning people with toxic chemicals, etc., are all forms of devastating, plundering, ravaging, and pillaging black lives and communities. The hellish conditions continue to tyrannize and inflame.  We know it is happening, but too many of us look the other way.  

 Jogging, driving, walking, sleeping, thinking, playing, breathing while black, sitting on the couch while black are now punishable by a death sentence. How can this be? Why this hell?  What about the ten times higher death rate from asthma for black kids, and the three times higher death rate from the COVID-19 pandemic for black folk?

 Can we expect the police to be in the streets or hallways of power assaulting and arresting those responsible for all of this looting of black lives; will they be harassing and arresting the hedge fund managers, the big bankers, the corporate CEOs, the executives of Big Pharma, and the political system’s sycophants who together have imposed so much structural suffering and systemic agony onto black lives and communities?  

 Why are the police not now in the streets with the people (some are) rather than against the people? Working with the people to overcome the hellish conditions.

 It is the privilege of the privileged to condemn those who violently lash out in the face of oppression, subjugation, trauma and murder.  But such condemnation is sanctimonious. The moral and rational role of the privileged must be to struggle to overcome a society based in privilege, and it must be a collective struggle in solidarity with those who experience the terrors and horrors of institutional racism, economic exploitation, and social oppression.

 The other side of morality and reason is immorality and insanity; that is dangerous, deplorable and destructive, and that is what we are facing from the dominant institutions of the society, personified in the president.  It is time to say and act: “No more! Transformation is required!” before it is too late (and time is running out for all of us, as it has run out for George Floyd).  

 The rebellion in the streets must be connected to and nourished by transformative modes of education and organizing geared toward addressing and overcoming the root causes of the systemic forms of racist oppression, economic exploitation, and the looting of life and nature by the “profits at all costs” system of capital, while also imagining and constructing commendable, sustainable and viable institutional alternatives. That is the harder, but possible and necessary, step in a country often lacking in knowledge and memories of our long history of popular struggles and victories for the people.  

 Do we feel too hopeless and powerless, have we been made too cynical and pessimistic, or can we find hope in the collective power of the people to mobilize our collective intelligence and imagination, energy and enthusiasm, anger and outrage, courage and commitment, solidarity and support to stay in the struggle for the long-haul to not only abolish the destructive racist, classist, sexist, ecology-destroying, money-loving dominant systems, ideologies and institutions, but also to construct a meaningfully free, equitable and democratic society organized for the good of each and all?  We cannot afford to lose this struggle.  

 Doug Morris, Ph.D

https://youtu.be/uGyFQ4I6evg

#blm #blacklivesmatter #george floyd

[solarpunkowl]

my ideas on a solarpunk future

Food towers in cities would be a great start; reduced ground space, cycling water and rainwater collection for water needs, aquaponics allowing for fish to be harvested as well, solar panel glass windows allowing in light for the plants while powering the complex, multiple organic crops with no chance of weeds or pests, with low to zero transportation costs to cities residents. Initial cost would be high and it would need to be maintained and harvested, but that's a set of jobs for farmers that are currently looking at the barrel end of obsoleteness or full corporate control. Or it can be a series of coop opportunities, so people can take part in the means of production while getting a discount on the eventual product.

For places that can't do solar panels, wind turbine walls or wave harnessing buoys would be the way.

The space between cities would be taken up by forests/natural environments, train rails, solar panel/wind turbine fields, and a smattering of rural communities connected to the city by a walk to the nearest train station.

in rural communities and in cities, green roofs, rainwater collection systems, and high powered or natural or a mix of the two air conditioning and heating systems will be a thing (for heat, geothermal would probably have a lot to do with it). I think that residence in very cold or very hot places should be mineralized by necessity, but I don't think it will ever stop entirely; people are stubborn like that, and many live where they live for health reasons. So there must be infrastructure to support them too. I don't have a solution for that, but I look forward to seeing solutions come up in the future.

I imagine that mining for the precious materials needed for advanced tech will be taken over by robots/unmanned drones, either on our planet in designated areas in ways to mineralize impact, or by asteroid mining if we are that far along technologically, and can come up with an alternative fuel for space vehicles.

I personally think that socialism is the way to go, with capitalist ventures still allowed but regulated within an inch of their lives, and universal healthcare and such the norm. I think people will work and learn in fewer, more productive hours, with the rest of their time spent on hobbies, community outreach, and being with their families. there are still going to be people with crappy jobs, and a certain amount of class division, that is neigh on unavoidable without resorting to full hunter and gatherer lifestyles; but the dangerous jobs we can hand over to machines, and the inequalities we can mitigate with regulation and a social framework that helps the poor.

I think there will be both an overarching government and more concentrated local governments, both of them working together to insure that peace and security are maintained for all. I think we will still have prisons, but they will be refurbished into true rehabilitation centers with the goal of fixing whatever issues led to the person landing in jail (mental issues=proper medication, dire need=get in touch with resources, no job=job finding services, etc) and release. I personally think the death penalty will still exist because serial killers and rapists will still exist, but that's one of those things that vary between visions. I think there will be fewer police who have lived in a system with more social, gender, class, sexual orientation, and racial equality with a shift in both laws and public perception so that everyone is truly equal even if they are different from each other (this may be more idealistic than the food towers, honestly).

I imagine that for the former to happen, we're going to have a much, much different schooling system. I think that teachers will have to be paid like doctors, but will also be required to both get a masters degree and perform school residencies like doctors. I think that kids will have collaboration and conflict resolution at the core of their schooling, and that their learning will be less subject based and more about connecting different subjects holistically, with particular care to teach life skills like old school home ec (money management, clothing repair, from scratch cooking, etc), multicultural appreciation (multilingual classes, world cultures, etc), and environmental studies.

in my version of a perfect world, voting would be more often, as often as once a month, so that issues were more in the hands of the people, rather than a privileged few; further, voting would be an opt out rather than opt in process, with people automatically signed up to vote when they reach adulthood or gain citizenship. This would be allowed by less hackable machines in protected places, and regular check ins on the machines to make sure they haven't been tampered with.

there would be community centers/regularly placed public facilities that like watson-solarpunk said in one post, would have things like computer labs, libraries of borrowable books and items, public gyms and spaces for people to make things, and so on. Online libraries and communities would be equally common, and allow for continued education even in relatively rural areas. I also think that museums would change and be included in this community center, and you could donate your art for others to see, and can have it circulated to other communities to allow for exchange of ideas.

For transportation, walking, biking, subways, riding the train, and taking publicly owned self driven electric cars would all be options; unless we figure out how to use different fuel for them, planes will no longer be viable.

I think that there will be a big repair over replace culture, resulting in beautiful patchwork clothing and technology. I think that afrofuturism and bohemian aesthetics are more likely than art nouveau, and that there will be a huge plant-art culture (moss graffiti and street art, anyone?), but again that's my vision.

So that's what I think of when I see a solarpunk future. What about you guys?

#solarpunk #solar punk #future #rampant idealism

[eventhorizonlarp-blog]

Gender, Sexuality, and Relationship Structures in the Galaxy

Before the Expansion Era, the six Homeworlds had developed remarkably different societies. Some, like Agerre were essentially monolithic, while others were more varied like the plethora of separate cultures of Gyr. These differences were reflected in a wide variety of genders and familial structures, as well as how cultures perceived sexuality and romance. With the cultural exchanges and clashes of the Expansion Era, it is not surprising that there are a multitude of different genders, sexualities, and relationships (GSR) in the Galaxy.

Overall, people view gender, sexuality, and relationships as being multifaceted, varied, and non-standardized. It is commonly accepted that there are numerous genders, and the most conservative cultures have three genders: male, female, and a third gender. The standard pronouns are gender neutral – they/them/theirs or ze/zem/zir*. Gender neutral pronouns are used for people whose pronouns are not known, and generally upon introduction people clarify if they use “she/her/hers” or “he/him/his”.

Sexuality is generally understood to be a spectrum of multiple preferences. Statistically, a minority of people are monosexual (attracted to only one gender). An even smaller percentage are asexual, although their distribution among the Homeworlds is notably varied.

"Feminine" and "masculine" have lost their coherency as terms since the Expansion Era, though the words still have some utility. While in some languages, equivalent words are related to the words for "female" and "male", in many Homeworlds the concepts are divorced from sex and gender. There are divergent definitions of masculine and feminine, but generally they are aesthetic qualities that can be noticed by people in a culture, if not explained. Although feminine and masculine are words used for a variety of personal traits, upon closer examination the words are most concretely applied to movements and speech patterns.**

*The spelling varies, but it is pronounced: zie/zem/zhir, not to be confused with the planet Zé.

**Out of Game Note: In the galaxy of Event Horizon, current notions of masculine and feminine are not applicable, as they are very specific to a culture and time period. However, we recognize that people will bring those concepts into game, and they can be helpful for thinking about how to play your character.

Agerre

The genders, sexualities, and relationships of Agerre are directly influenced by the need for population control, and the even distribution of limited resources. There are three main ways that Agerre has historically maintained population control. The first is contraception, which has been around in different forms for over a thousand years. The second is the Sunwalk, their coming-of-age ritual with an extremely high mortality rate. The third is the culture of sexuality among their teenagers. Teens are more likely to experiment romantically and sexually with the same sex. Although in adulthood there is a standard distribution, a minority of teens engage in heterosexual acts.

With contemporary contraception and robust sexual education, this practice is no longer necessary to control the population in Agerre’s cramped caves. However, it is a practice as old as Agerre’s first histories, and Agerrans view it as an inherent part of adolescent sexuality. Additionally, Agerre has the highest percentage of asexual (ace) and aromantic (aro) citizens.

Children are raised communally on Agerre, with various childcare and education work distributed among the adults. Agerran children consider their parents to be the adults who most directly raise them, which usually includes one biological parent. Siblings are similarly considered as the children they are raised with. When Agerrans part from their primary family, they often form sibling bonds with close comrades, whom they call "cousins."

Agerrans recognize three genders in their society--male, female, and third. The third gender is an umbrella gender that encompases Agerrans who transition socially or medically from their birth sex, as well as those with fluid gender or no gender. Statistically, the majority of Agerrans feel neutrally towards their birth sex and do not have a strong sense of gender.

Agerrans have a very straightforward, unromantic, and accepting view of GSRs, an attitude that is known to ruffle feathers. A famous anecdote is The Blackmailing of Representative Komir, in which a Baryosi Representative thought they had incriminating information of Komir's "affairs,"  which by Agerran standards was entirely unremarkably. When released, the intended scandal backfired spectacularly, to the amusement of all Agerre and (privately) half of the UAW. Numerous romance books have been written about the incident.

Baryos

Baryos has always been a culturally diverse planet. Unlike Gyr, whose small cultures squabbled for resources and had limited contact, the cultures of Baryos flourished on the rich, ecologically diverse planet. While there are a variety of GSRs across the planet, there are strong trends in the modern culture.

The Baryosi modern culture is one of planetary pride, and while it celebrates the diverse roots of the people, it looks towards the future. Many Baryosi view themselves as “post-gender” – they recognize the fluidity of biological sex, and believe there are no significant differences between “female” and “male”. The words “female” and “male” are losing popularity in exchange for chromosome markers XX, XY, XXY, etc. While they claim “post-gender” is advanced and accepting, some transgender and monosexual groups have leveled criticisms against it.

The “post-gender” mindset of course affects sexuality. As with the rest of the galaxy, most Baryosi are bisexual (“bi” meaning “same sex/gender” and “different sex/gender”). Few Baryosi label their sexuality, and monosexuals are viewed as having very strong preferences. In general, sex is a private subject discussed only among partners and friends.

The majority of Baryosi are monogamous, and families tend to have two parents, one of which is usually a biological parent.

Dor Len Sono

As a planet of Queendoms, it is perhaps not surprising that there is a higher-than-average percentage of Dor Len who are women who love women, as well as more than average transgender women. The female sex, womanhood, and femininity have historically been revered, and many religions revolve around these aspects.

What Dor Len consider to be "feminine" is wider and deeper than on other Homeworlds, in a way that many non-Dor Len find difficult to understand. On Dor Len Sono, the word generally translated as femininity carries connotations of moral and aesthetic excellence. There are numerous subtle words for types femininity in the languages, including ruthless-femininity, woven-femininity, and bright-femininity.

There is no direct word for masculinity in Dor Len language that encapsulates the same but opposite qualities as femininity. The closest equivalent word is often mistranslated as masculinity although it is closer to adjacent-femininity or balance-against-femininity. Men and nonbinary Dor Len are just as likely to have feminine qualities as women, and besides the Queens, can be leaders. People in high regard in society tend to be more feminine.

Gyr

Gyr was a planet of numerous small cultures that for a long time were isolated from each other. As such, there is not a common thread to weave between the different GSRs. One commonality is that the majority of Gyr cultures have large familial structures. The surviving population of Gyr are generations of space-farers and had contact with a multitude of cultures, so unlike their ancestors, modern Gyr have a flexible view of gender, sexuality, and relationships.

There are a few Gyr cultures of note that had quite different GSRs. One was an island of "all women" that intrigued Baryosi explorers. Another large island chain worshiped third gender individuals as deities, and when these gods danced together it was said to change currents and summon storms. Another ocean-faring culture commonly had triad relationships called the captain, the right hand, and the left hand.

Ottsalia

The home of Evos, the cultural center of the Galaxy, the garden of beautiful nightmares. Ottsalians value change and transformation, especially of oneself. Even before the first Evos, Ottsalia had a large transgender population. Although the animal gene splicing of Evos is not gender, it is worth noting as it can be a large part of a person's identity in a similar way. Although there is a huge variety of acceptable GSRs, Ottsalians are not as concerned with developing a perfect language to encompass them or labeling themselves.

Historically, adolescents experimented with gender presentation publicly. Currently they also experiment with non-permanent special effects makeup to simulate Evos. Relationship structures are varied, and it is fairly standard for Ottsalians to have multiple partners of varying levels of intensity. Relationships are often seen as just as fluid as genders and presentations, especially among young Ottsalians.

Zé

Of all the Homeworlds except perhaps Baryosi subcultures, Zé has the most hierarchal system of GSRs. For hundreds of years, minorities of gender and, even moreso, sexuality had their own caste-like roles in society. Women and men form the majority and share the same societal responsibilities on equal footing. They are thought to be the norm, and tend not to feel that their gender is a defining feature of themselves.

Among the Peakborn, there are many sub-castes defined by gender and sexuality. In the modern era, not everyone in these castes need to have the same gender or sexuality, but the echoes of that historical distinction remains a strong cultural element.

Peakborn trustwomen (women who love women) are trained to become military leaders. The training is gruelling, and often begins at the onset of adolescence. Peakborn twice-minded (trans women) are taken away from society and trained to become “oracles”. While in the past, oracles were seen as those who could predict the future, nowadays the role is of a sage counselor, tactician, and keeper of knowledge. Peakborn innermen (men who love men) are artists of movement and bodies, often becoming dancers, acrobats, martial artists, or physical therapists. Peakborn edge-minders (trans men) are trained to be Martials – individuals who have law enforcement authority outside of the police, and who are meant to be a check-and-balance. Peakborn passage-walkers (third gender) tend to be envoys between peaks, to the other castes, and to different Planets.

Among the merchant class, there are fewer sub-castes and they encompass multiple genders and sexualities. Third gender merchants, as well as trustwomen and innermen tend to be the most talented shipwrights. Transgender and gender-non-conforming trustwomen and innermen are entertainers of various kinds.

In the Sunken caste, some of the sub-castes also serve as religious roles. Third Gender Sunken become candidates for Fog Idols. Fog Idols are said to intuitively understand the fog, and protect those who go beneath it by taking some of the poison on themselves. These Sunken become Fog Idols if they survive exposure to the poisonous mists, and if they do, their skin is marked by it. This ancient practice is in modern times seen as barbaric, and when it is practiced, is done so more safely. Rarer than Fog Idols are Air Idols, who are third gender Sunken who are also deformed or disabled. Air Idols are kept as clean as possible so that, by proxy, the community will not fall to poison.

Among the Sunken, trustwomen and innermen often become healers, whether doctors, therapists, or spiritual healers.

#scifi #larp #event horizon

[newstfionline]

Thursday, June 17, 2021

Some stolen US military guns used in violent crimes (AP) Pulling a pistol from his waistband, the young man spun his human shield toward police. “Don’t do it!” a pursuing officer pleaded. The young man complied, releasing the bystander and tossing the gun, which skittered across the city street and then into the hands of police. They soon learned that the 9mm Beretta had a rap sheet. Bullet casings linked it to four shootings, all of them in Albany, New York. And there was something else. The pistol was U.S. Army property, a weapon intended for use against America’s enemies, not on its streets. The Army couldn’t say how its Beretta M9 got to New York’s capital. Until the June 2018 police foot chase, the Army didn’t even realize someone had stolen the gun. Inventory records checked by investigators said the M9 was 600 miles away—safe inside Fort Bragg, North Carolina.      In the first public accounting of its kind in decades, an Associated Press investigation has found that at least 1,900 U.S. military firearms were lost or stolen during the 2010s, with some resurfacing in violent crimes. Because some armed services have suppressed the release of basic information, AP’s total is a certain undercount. Government records covering the Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force show pistols, machine guns, shotguns and automatic assault rifles have vanished from armories, supply warehouses, Navy warships, firing ranges and other places where they were used, stored or transported. These weapons of war disappeared because of unlocked doors, sleeping troops, a surveillance system that didn’t record, break-ins and other security lapses that, until now, have not been publicly reported. While AP’s focus was firearms, military explosives also were lost or stolen, including armor-piercing grenades that ended up in an Atlanta backyard.

U.S. workers are among the most stressed in the world, new Gallup report finds (CNBC) U.S. workers are some of the most stressed employees in the world, according to Gallup’s latest State of the Global Workplace report, which captures how people are feeling about work and life in the past year. U.S. and Canadian workers, whose survey data are combined in Gallup’s research, ranked highest for daily stress levels of all groups surveyed. Some 57% of U.S. and Canadian workers reported feeling stress on a daily basis, up by eight percentage points from the year prior and compared with 43% of people who feel that way globally, according to Gallup’s 2021 report. This spike isn’t surprising to Jim Harter, Gallup’s chief workplace scientist, who tells CNBC Make It that rates of daily stress, worry, sadness and anger have been trending upward for American workers since 2009. Concerns over the virus, sickness, financial insecurity and racial trauma all contributed to added stress during the pandemic.

Jobs crisis? (WZTV Nashville) Right now, Tennessee’s Jobs4TN portal lists 257,000 jobs available in every part of the state. Still, in the week of June 5, there remained 50,054 claiming unemployment in the state, multiple times the pre-pandemic levels. Sure seems like a jobs crisis, yeah? Not so fast: as it happens, just 3 percent of the jobs posted, or around 8,500 jobs, pay more than $20,000, which is below the $22,000 poverty line for a family of three.

After enrollment dips, public schools hope for fall rebound (AP) Ashley Pearce’s daughter was set to start kindergarten last year in Maryland’s Montgomery County school system. But when it became clear that the year would begin online, Pearce found a nearby Catholic school offering in-person instruction and made the switch. Now Pearce is grappling with a big question: Should her child return to the local public school? She’s hesitant to uproot her daughter after she’s made friends, and Pearce worries that the district might go fully virtual again if there’s an uptick in coronavirus cases. “It’s going to be fine if we stay where we are, and that stability for my family is probably the way we’re going to go.” As many parents across the U.S. weigh the same concerns, school districts that lost enrollment during the pandemic are looking anxiously to the fall to see how many families stick with the education choices they made over the last year. In hopes of attracting students, many districts have launched new efforts to connect with families with young children, including blanketing communities with yard signs and enlisting bus drivers to call parents. There are early signs that enrollment may not fully rebound, and the stakes are high. If enrollment does not recover, public schools that lose students eventually could see funding cuts, though pandemic relief money is boosting budgets for now.

Biden, E.U. end 17-year Airbus-Boeing trade dispute (Washington Post) President Biden and European Union leaders reached a deal Tuesday to put to rest a 17-year-old trade dispute about subsidies for aircraft manufacturers, officials said, a significant step in calming trade relations after the fury of the Trump years. A five-year truce, which was announced at a meeting Tuesday in Brussels between Biden and the top leaders of E.U. institutions, was the latest effort in a transatlantic reconciliation tour that the new president started last week at the Group of Seven summit in Britain. Tuesday’s deal will quell fears that the E.U. and the United States could hit each other with tariffs on goods as varied as French wine and Harley-Davidson motorcycles, as they did in recent years as part of the airplane subsidy dispute, which involves Boeing and Airbus.

Vaccine passports: Why Europe loves them and the US loathes them (Christian Science Monitor) Back in 1992, Yiannis Klouvas converted an old cinema into the Blue Lagoon restaurant, which garnered a strong reputation for live music. There is no music now. The business, like so many others on the Greek island of Rhodes, is struggling due to the pandemic’s restrictions on travel. “If we see a tourist on the street these days,” he says, “we take a photo to remember them.” Mr. Klouvas is now banking on the EU Digital COVID Certificate, also known as the “green passport,” to save the summer. Starting July 1, all EU member states will accept the certificates as proof of COVID-19 vaccination, a recent negative test, or recovery from the disease. The plan got a resounding yes at the European Parliament on June 9. All EU member states, Liechtenstein, and Norway will implement the passport. But across the Atlantic, the idea faces strong head winds, whether for travel or domestic use. The Biden administration has ruled out introducing vaccination passports, and some states even ban them. Prioritizing freedom and fears of government overreach underpin the rejection of vaccine certificates in the U.S., while European societies have grappled more with issues of privacy and fairness. And so as Western countries savor a return to the old, this phase of post-pandemic mobility is being shaped by cultural attitudes. According to Anders Herlitz, a researcher at Sweden’s Institute for Futures Studies, “Here in the EU, the vaccine passports are seen as a necessary evil to get rid of other, much more extensive, limitations to people’s freedom, whereas in the U.S., they would not help getting rid of other limitations, but only cause new limitations.”

Biden, Putin aired differences at a high-stakes summit but agree on little (Washington Post) President Biden said he pressed Russian President Vladimir Putin over alleged hacking, human rights abuses and other troubling issues in a historic first summit in Geneva on Wednesday. The meetings, spanning only a few hours in the Swiss lakeside city known as the "capital of peace," were too short to allow for much more than an accounting of both sides' complaints. Biden and Putin declared the event a success, mostly for having met at all at a time when relations between the world's two greatest nuclear powers are at a post-Cold War low. Putin called the talks productive. At his post-summit news conference, he said he and Biden agreed to return their ambassadors to their respective posts in Washington and Moscow. Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov and U.S. Ambassador John Sullivan have been away from their missions for months.

Car bomb explosion at Colombia military base injures 36 (Reuters) In the Colombian border city of Cucuta, two men drove a white Toyota truck into the military base after passing themselves off as officials. According to the Defence Minister Diego Molano, the hypothesis is that the National Liberation Army guerrillas are to blame but the attack is still being investigated. Despite a 2016 peace deal with Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels, Colombia’s military continues to battle National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas, crime gangs and former FARC members who reject the accord.

Peru’s election (Foreign Policy) Pedro Castillo finally claimed victory in Peru’s presidential election on Tuesday, over a week after Peruvians casted their votes. Although electoral authorities have yet to officially announce the results, final ballot totals saw Castillo earn just over 44,000 votes more than his conservative challenger Keiko Fujimori—who has alleged fraud in the face of likely defeat. If the election is officially called in Castillo’s favor, this will be the third presidential race Fujimori has lost. As legal challenges to the vote accumulate, it could be days or possibly weeks before an official winner is announced.

China set to send first crew to new space station Thursday (AP) The three members of the first crew to be sent to China’s space station say they’re eager to get to work making their home for the next three months habitable, setting up testing and experiments and preparing for a series of spacewalks. The three met with reporters Wednesday from inside a germ-free glassed-in room, hours before they were to blast off on Thursday morning. Thursday’s launch begins the first crewed space mission in five years for an increasingly ambitious space program. China has sent 11 astronauts into space since becoming the third country to so so on its own in 2003, and has sent orbiters and rovers to the moon and Mars.

North Korea’s Kim says food situation ‘tense’ due to pandemic, typhoons (Reuters) North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has said the country’s economy improved this year but called for measures to tackle the “tense” food situation caused by the coronavirus pandemic and last year’s typhoons, state media said on Wednesday. In January, Kim said his previous five-year economic plan had failed in almost every sector, amid chronic power and food shortages exacerbated by sanctions, the pandemic and floods. North Korea has not officially confirmed any COVID-19 cases, a claim questioned by Seoul officials. But the reclusive country has imposed strict anti-virus measures including border closures and domestic travel restrictions.

Lebanon’s crisis threatens one of its few unifiers, the army (AP) Since the civil war, through wars with Israel, militant bombings and domestic turmoil, Lebanese have considered their military as an anchor for stability, one of the only institutions standing above the country’s divisions. But the military is now threatened by Lebanon’s devastating financial collapse, which the World Bank has said is likely to rank as one of the worst the world has seen in the past 150 years. The economic meltdown is putting unprecedented pressure on the U.S.-backed army’s operational abilities, wiping out soldiers’ salaries and wrecking morale. The deterioration puts at risk one of the few forces unifying Lebanon at a time when sectarian tensions and crime are on the rise amid the population’s deepening poverty. The military itself has raised the alarm, unusual for a force that is perhaps unique in the Middle East in that it largely remains outside politics. Army chief Gen. Joseph Aoun warned in a speech to officers in March that soldiers were “suffering and hungry like the rest of the people.” A senior army official confirmed to The Associated Press that the economic situation has greatly affected morale. “There is no doubt that there is great resentment among the ranks of the military,” the official said.

Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza (Washington Post) On Tuesday, hundreds of ultranationalist demonstrators bearing Israeli flags marched into Jerusalem’s Old City, with some youths chanting, “Death to Arabs!” and “May your village burn,” according to the Associated Press. Hamas responded by launching incendiary balloons that crossed into the country from Hamas-controlled territory, and Israel responded with airstrikes on Gaza. Hamas “is responsible for all events transpiring in the Gaza Strip, and will bear the consequences for its actions,” the IDF said. It said Israel was “prepared for any scenario, including a resumption of hostilities.” There were no immediate reports of casualties from the airstrike. Israeli authorities reported that the incendiary balloons had sparked 20 fires near the Gaza border. (Foreign Policy) The renewed Israeli bombings come as support for Hamas has undergone a “dramatic” shift, according to a recent poll. 53 percent of Palestinians now see Hamas as the “most deserving of representing and leading the Palestinian people,” while only 14 percent of those surveyed held Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party in the same esteem.

Saudi Embassy has helped its citizens facing criminal charges flee the United States (Washington Post) On the night of Oct. 13, 2018, Raekwon Moore was stabbed during a street fight with two strangers in the popular Uptown district of Greenville, N.C. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he died. Police quickly apprehended and questioned Abdullah Hariri and Sultan Alsuhaymi, both citizens of Saudi Arabia, whom eyewitnesses and surveillance camera footage placed at the scene of the Saturday night brawl. Initially, police thought the men may have acted in self-defense and released them from custody. After further investigation, prosecutors charged both with first-degree murder. But Hariri and Alsuhaymi will probably never stand trial, because days after their alleged crime and before they were charged, they left the country and returned to Saudi Arabia, which has no extradition treaty with the United States. The murder charges against Hariri and Alsuhaymi are the most serious known against dozens of Saudi citizens, many of them students, who are wanted in the United States; their alleged offenses include first-degree manslaughter, vehicular hit-and-run, rape and possession of child pornography. Many fled to their homeland with the assistance of Saudi officials. The FBI has concluded that Saudi government officials “almost certainly assist US-based Saudi citizens in fleeing the United States to avoid legal issues, undermining the US judicial process,” according to an intelligence bulletin issued in August 2019. At the Saudi Embassy in Washington, that assistance has been overseen by a mid-level official who has managed a network of American criminal defense lawyers and self-described “fixers” paid to keep Saudis charged with crimes out of prison, an investigation by The Post has found.

#headlines #news

[maritzaerwin]

What Does an Accountant Do: A Day in the Life of a Junior Accountant

When you think of accounting, the term “flexible” may not come to mind. Of course, the numbers need to be right and that can be pretty rigid, but the accounting industry is actually a very flexible and diverse place to work. 

There’s a wide range of accounting roles to be filled and many opportunities for advancement. With each role, the day-to-day job looks a bit different. Location, industry, and education level can all affect what accountants do each day. But there are some common accounting tasks that most accountants will be involved in on some level. Here’s what you can expect from a typical day on the job as a junior accountant.

The Monthly Rhythm of Accounting

To understand the job of accountants, you need to understand the environment. What an accountant does from day to day really depends on where they are in the month or year. That’s because accounting has a predictable rhythm that follows accounting periods.

Each month has its own accounting cycle, with a yearly cycle on top of it all. With each new month, the process begins again. Early in the period, a junior accountant may be compiling data from the previous period into a format that can be shared both internally and externally.

Throughout the middle of the month, they may be recording transactions and maintaining accurate accounts in preparation for the end of the month. As the month comes to a close, the team focuses on verifying data and completing a review process so they can close out the books for the month with confidence.

Along with changing tasks, workload and intensity can also vary. The end of the period or just before a tax deadline can be crunch time for many accountants. This also depends on whether you work in a public accounting firm or an accounting department in the industry.

Working With Technology

One of the essential skills for today’s accountants is digital intelligence. If you aren’t comfortable using technology to solve problems and streamline your job, you may have a hard time in accounting. Although some accounting processes are done manually, a junior accountant will spend most of their time working with different forms of technology.

By leveraging technology, accountants can streamline their workflow and provide added value to the companies they work for. Key tech tools allow accountants to track financial transactions more accurately, forecast future changes, analyze trends, and collaborate easily with the rest of the team, even from different locations.

At a minimum, most accountants will work with a desktop or cloud-based accounting software like QuickBooks or Xero or an ERP system like Sage or Netsuite.

In addition to that, most will use a variety of software and apps that connect to the system. This allows them to sync data without manually re-entering it and reduces the risk of error while also saving time. The ability to quickly learn and adapt to these tools is a major asset for an accountant.

Transactional Accounting

The foundation of a junior accountant’s job is transactional accounting. Just like the name says, this consists of accounting for transactions.

In the course of business, everything needs to be recorded accurately. Technology can sync many of these transactions directly from the bank, payment processors, or POS systems. In that case, the accountant’s job may be simply to verify what comes in and make sure there are no problems.

There are also many transactions that don’t go through the bank or involve any cash, like depreciation and monthly adjusting entries. Many of those transactions will be recorded by a junior accountant in the form of a journal entry.

Reconciling

As the month draws to an end, reconciliations become a major focus for junior accountants. Account reconciliation is the process of matching up accounting records with outside sources like bank statements as well as other internal systems (for instance payroll expense in the accounting system compared to the payroll software) to ensure accuracy.

Accounts are reconciled as often as possible to make sure accounting records are accurate. The more important the account, the more often it should be reconciled.

Again, reconciliation makes use of technology by importing statements and comparing them to accounting records. If the two don’t match up, it’s the job of the accountant to dig down and find out why.

Perhaps there’s a transaction missing or a transaction that was duplicated. The bank may show a fee or interest that hasn’t been entered into the accounting software or the accounting system may show a payment that hasn’t yet cleared the bank. Necessary adjustments are made to rule out errors. 

The Month-End Close

Reconciliations are one of the first steps in the monthly close process. At the end of each period, accountants complete a review process to verify as much information as possible and check for accuracy. The goal is to close out the month with reasonable confidence that there are no mistakes so no one has to go back and change something later on.

The close can be challenging because it often involves several people sharing information and coordinating to complete the process. With many tasks depending on others, the close process can be long. However, close management tools can help streamline and coordinate the team to make it go more quickly.

A close checklist is often used to coordinate the entire process. This allows the accounting team to work together more efficiently. It ensures that nothing is missed and no work is duplicated.

The monthly close is especially important for publicly traded companies because of now intense regulations. CFOs, CEOs, and directors may be required to sign off on financial statements and they want to be sure everything is accurate before they do.

In the event of an audit, it will also be very important to know who did what. This often involves team members signing off on each step of the monthly close. Technology can make this easier by tracking tasks as they are completed and keeping all sign-offs and source documents in one central place.

Financial Statements

One major goal of the monthly close (or the quarterly or yearly close for that matter) is being prepared to create sound financial statements.

Stakeholders at all levels want to know what’s going on in the company, financially. Financial statements like the Profit and Loss Statement, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow Statement, and Statement of Owner’s Equity make it possible to communicate this information.

Junior accountants may compile financial information and create financial statements. In addition to making sure the information is accurate, they need to be sure it complies with GAAP (Generally accepted accounting principles) and other standards.

Financial statements are used internally, and also shared with investors, banks, and other key stakeholders in the business. They need to be accurate and clearly represent what’s happening inside the business. This makes the accountant’s work critical. Without it, it would be nearly impossible to plan, budget, or obtain financing.

Maintaining Internal Controls

As accountants deal with financial records, they also need to keep them safe. Processes and internal controls need to be in place to ensure that data is secure and that no fraudulent activity is going on.

In some cases, these internal controls are required by law for the protection of shareholders. In private companies, they’re often put in place simply to protect the company from errors and theft.

Internal controls are processes and procedures that provide checks and balances against both accidental errors and intentional fraud. For example, requiring multiple signatures or separating duties so no one individual can defraud the company and cover their own tracks.

Accountants may be involved in establishing these controls and are always responsible for making sure their work follows the procedures that are in place.

Forecasting

Although financial statements record what’s already happened, the information contained in those statements – and the rest of the accounting records – can often be used to forecast the future.

Many accountants spend their time analyzing data, looking for trends, and using that analysis to forecast what’s coming. Companies are at a huge advantage if they can anticipate future revenue, costs, and profitability and adjust accordingly. These forecasts can be used to create budgets that ensure the company stays within its means. 

Forecasting can also be done on a larger scale. Accountants may look at the data from the entire industry or economy to make educated predictions of what the future will bring and how best to take advantage of it.

A Taxing Profession

It’s hard to talk about accountants without mentioning taxes, although not all accountants deal with tax. Some accountants on the cost and managerial side may never have to think about taxes, other than their own. Others focus on taxes and deal with them every day.

In a public accounting setting, tax planning and preparation may be a big part of the job. In these roles, accountants help clients maximize their after-tax income or handle their actual tax filings.

In private industry, many junior accountants take a more general role and may deal with taxes only as a small part of the job. This can include preparing tax returns for the company, remitting payments, and evaluating the tax implications of business decisions.

Large companies often have entire accounting departments with specialized roles. They may even have accountants whose full-time responsibility is planning and managing the company taxes.

Shaping the Company

More than ever before, accountants – even at a junior level – play a major role in shaping the future of the companies they work for. They’re able to analyze large amounts of data and model the potential outcomes of different scenarios. With this information in hand, the company’s decision-makers can be far more accurate and confident when steering the business.

As technology automates more and more manual accounting tasks, accountants are freed to take on a more strategic role. Analyzing the numbers and using them to plan and strategize for the future allows accountants to take a more involved role in where the company is going. This is true both at a junior level and all the way up to Controllers and CFOs. Across the board, accounting professionals are playing a bigger role in strategy and operations than ever before.

Communicating Clearly

Although accountants are often seen as number crunchers, communication skills are crucial too. In fact, the technical nature of accounting makes clear communication even more important. Sharing detailed financial data with non-accountants requires a great deal of skill and that information is only useful to the company if it’s understood by everyone.

Accountants spend a good deal of time preparing reports and sharing financial data in a clear, concise manner with various stakeholders. Guiding the business in the right direction depends on the ability of all involved to understand the financial data being presented, and only the accounting team can make that happen.

Looking Toward the Future

Although many accounting tasks look at the past, ambitious accountants can always look to the future. Accounting is filled with advancement opportunities and new ways to grow your career. In fact, flexibility and upward mobility are a big part of what makes accounting a great career choice. (That and a median salary over $70,000 with the potential to earn even more.)

Accountants always have opportunities to grow and better themselves through continuing education, experience, and formal schooling. Over time, a junior accountant can become a senior accountant, accounting manager, controller, and even a CFO or partner. Though that may be far down the road, it’s never too early to consider your future and how your efforts today can help you move in the right direction.

As you can see, the life of a junior accountant is full of challenges and rewards. The variety of work and the impact you can have on your organization make it a terrific career path. The upward mobility and wide range of jobs available make it easier to find the perfect fit and continue to grow throughout your career.

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