#'Above all else you really need to know about Crisis on Ultimate Earths and if you're going to do that

[star-shard]

when its DC comics so u have to read through 10 issues of a story full of call backs to other comics it assumed you know the context of and side characters with heavy lore that's not explained but you charge on through because there are 5 panels somewhere down the line of the only two characters you care about having a brief interaction :')

[opalsiren]

anyway i feel like i rag on how emma is written a lot so here go some emma Things I Appreciate:

honestly her whole dedication to swimming pre-metamorphosis is beyond impressive. the fact that girlie was so dedicated to her craft that she still swam when she had the flu? when she broke her arm?! we stan a girlboss

ultimately she is very very sweet and caring, even if sometimes she can be a tiny bit bossy she always tries to extend kindness towards people. she is unfailingly friendly to strangers and acquaintances and honestly has enviable social skills

the flip side of this is that you do not want to get on her bad side. like, at all. she is smart and incisive and will cut you so bad you won't even know you've been cut. cross emma gilbert at your peril

but no she is a socialite queen, inviting what looks like the entire female student body of her school to a sleepover party every single year. i would imagine pre-metamorphosis she was probably near the top of the social hierarchy at school just by simply being a nice, friendly, helpful, sociable person

her love for her family is very, very sweet. she loves her mum but is such a daddy's girl too. she would legit do anything for elliot and is super protective of him. she also seems close with her extended family and even knows her dad's colleagues whom she invites to his birthday party that she organised without any help like? imagine being that level headed and responsible

emma's whole relationship with ms. chatham is beyond sweet. she is so kind and conscientious towards her at every turn when rikki is being rude or cleo is acting a little silly. i'm not usually one to preach about respecting your elders however the way she cared for ms. chatham and brought her into her home when she fell homeless actually made my heart quadruple in size

noah fence to my guy wilfred but the juicenet café would have crumbled into smithereens without her. wilfred basically says as much himself, she is an asset to that place and, once again, a girlboss extraordinaire

she has a really firm sense of justice, too. at harrison bennett's luncheon to support the exacerbation of the climate crisis or whatever she was the first to pipe up and protest the mako island development. she is clever and astute enough as a teenage girl in a group of seasoned businessmen to speak up, and perhaps more importantly knew how to use the right words not to incite a huge argument or risk embarrassing her dad

she is reliable and smart and dependable. she is exactly the type of person you want to have around in a crisis and is nearly always able to keep her cool. the first thing she does whenver things turn pear-shaped is say 'let's be sensible about this' and then proceed to say something sensible while everyone else around her loses their minds

i just think it's cute that she came up with a new smoothie for the juicenet called a banana beatbox, spent ages perfecting the recipe, and even vouched for the smoothie to stay on the menu when it was on the cutting room floor

she definitely has somewhat of a hard exterior but in her heart is deeply sensitive and feels hurt very strongly (looking at you byron now apologise again for calling her an 'evil training dragon' lmao)

the thing about emma is that she believes in people. she sees their potential before they themselves are able to see it. she can hold a grudge when necessary but she is also quick to forgive, and quick to apologise too. she is supportive and encouraging of her friends above all and would go to the ends of the earth for them

one time for no apparent reason she randomly had a horticulture directory just. sitting open on her desk. did they study horticulture at school like mr. shiff i need answers

i think we as a society need to reflect on the fact that, of the three main merms, emma was the most open to the idea of charlotte and always tried to include her. cleo was usually pretty antagonistic towards her, while rikki never really gave her a chance in the first place. emma discouraged cleo and rikki from their juvenile behaviour and only took a step back from charlotte when she actually gave her a reason to

feel free to add your fav things about emma!!

[pennylogue]

Steven is a Diamond, and that’s okay.

So, Steven’s way too caught up in the fact that he’s a Diamond right now, and therefore a hideous and overpowered monster who can’t hope to be understood by normal humans or normal gems. Let’s talk about that.

For all Steven’s enthusiasm to be a Crystal Gem and to demonstrate his powers, he’s always been weirdly ashamed of how being half-Gem affects his ability to live alongside humans. I don’t think he’s ever really decided how to feel about it. It’s only after seeing Steven growing substantially and changing his hair and getting diamond eyes, now that it’s clear that his physical form is so malleable to how he thinks of himself and what he wants to be, that it really hits me how growing up with Greg and around so many humans has affected his identity. How sort of…quietly unhealthy it was, to go around with his gem covered up all of the time, and his appearance so determinedly human. I mean, think of how upset and ashamed he was when he decided his inhuman aging would screw up his friendship with Connie.

Right now, Steven is a whirlpool of self-loathing mixed into repressed issues and trauma with the Diamonds and hatred for his mother, and because he’s feeling so disconnected from and alienated and misunderstood by both other humans and other gems, because his gem powers are being triggered by his trauma, he’s connected some dots and blamed it all on being a Diamond. 

Looking back at that quiet “No,” at the end of “Fragments”, it’s easy to identify it as one of horrified realization. And you know, this is the logical conclusion of Steven’s feelings about his mother in “Mindful Education”, of “Storm in the Room”, of “Volleyball”—but it’s also the sum of a lot of other things:

Peridot: The Diamonds are the Gem matriarchs! …We live to serve them.

The culmination of Peridot flipping to the Crystal Gems is tied directly into her rejecting the Diamonds. Diamonds are introduced as the symbol of everything wrong with Homeworld.

Garnet: “How dare you fuse with a member of my court? You will be broken for this!”

…

Garnet: Pink Diamond thought for a moment, and then laughed; a wicked, empty sound. “You wish to save these life-forms at the expense of our own? Ha! Don’t be absurd. Return to your post, and I will forget your insolence.”

Diamonds are shatterers. They hate fusion. They hate Earth and organic life. They hate Garnet. They’re the evil queens in Garnet’s fairy tale. 

Garnet: The Earth belonged to Pink Diamond. Destroying her was the only way to save the planet. For Amethyst to be herself, for Pearl to be free, for me to be together. For you to exist.

Free will and the Diamonds are utterly opposed. It might be a tragedy that Pink Diamond was killed, but she was a monster, like the other Diamonds. The  ultimate enemies of the Crystal Gems.

We got almost five seasons of the Diamonds being spoken of this way. You see how terrified every Gem is of the Diamonds, whether they worship them or despise them. 

And then we found out a) Rose Quartz was one of them. And b) that Steven is one of them. 

Hey, quick question–anyone remember what Sapphire said, right in front of Steven, after the reveal?

Sapphire: Of course she was a Diamond. What a long road she took, to torture us all like this...

…Yeah, we never really got his feelings on b, did we?

I think Steven was so overwhelmed by everything else that was going on and everyone’s reactions, and later so eager to jump on the chance that being seen as one of the Diamonds gave him to fix the corrupted gems and help everyone, that we’ve never really seen him process this realization. Steven drew a very clear line in the sand. The Diamonds are the Diamonds, and Steven is Steven. The Diamonds are wrong about everything, so they’re also wrong about him being Pink, the same way everyone else in the series who’s called him another name has been wrong. He’s not Rose Quartz. He’s not Pink Diamond. 

Except…that second part isn’t true. Sure, Steven has a human body. Sure, Steven’s not the original Pink Diamond. That doesn’t mean he’s not a Pink Diamond. 

But it was easy back then, right? Because Steven was so, so different from them. A Crystal Gem. A defender of fusion. Weak. Small. Human-colored. Harmless. And as Steven says in the finale promo:

I don’t hurt people. I help people.

Yeah, there’s no way that building an incredibly black-and-white mindset with impossibly high standards for himself to create and hold on to a sense of identity was going to backfire.

So yeah, we never really saw Steven process that he was supposed to be one of these terrifying rulers. Except now he’s hurting people. In fact, it seems that all he can do is hurt people. And since he’s only able to see the bad things he can do, the amount of horrible power he has and how isolating it is and how terrifying it is–of course he blames it on what’s always seen as the source of so many horrible things. 

No wonder he’s having an identity crisis! He’s always told himself that he’s different than the Diamonds. He’s better than them. He has to be. So if he’s doing everything wrong, if he’s a freak, if he’s a shatterer, than it’s because he’s a Diamond. He’s just like them. He’s just as bad as them. He’s just as much a monster as the Diamonds are.

It’s complicated, what’s going on. Steven’s very, very wrong. But he’s also, strangely, right on target.

The thing is, this isn’t happening because he’s a Diamond, it’s because he’s human. He’s experienced trauma while growing up and is trying to react to it in a very human way. He literally has PTSD and CPTSD, and if you’ll look up the symptoms you’ll see he’s showing all of them. He’s not a monster. He’s part-human, so his symptoms are manifesting in partially inhuman ways. And that means he just happens to have the power to do a lot more damage than other humans when he lashes out in a way that is, once more, very characteristic for humans. But you know, even the best of humans can do a lot of damage, too, especially when they never really get over trauma. After all, Greg sure did a number on Steven. 

The flip-side of this is that the hilarious irony of ancient magical rocks trying to treat themselves as perfect and inhuman alien beings has always been that, that in reality, they’re every bit as fucked up and human as humans are. That’s the whole point of the Crystal Gems and the Homeworld Gems. Remember back when Garnet seemed so perfect? Peridot seemed pretty alien and unfeeling at the beginning, right? Jasper, Topaz, Aquamarine, it goes all the way up to the Diamonds. 

The whole point of the Diamonds and why the old system was broken was that the Diamonds tried to present themselves as perfect beings without flaw, when in fact they were all just as much a disaster as every other Gem. Remember back when Rose Quartz was a flawless goddess? Yellow and Blue were terrifying when we first saw them, but then we saw them comforting each other at the Zoo. They’re literally just a screwed-up family grieving and dealing with the death of one of their own–White’s first appearance painted her as this terrifying and totally inhuman being above even Yellow and Blue, but in the end, every one of the Diamonds is a normal, flawed person…just vested with the power to do a lot more damage than most.

The thing about White, was that she was so sure she had to be perfect, that she had to make everything better, but in the end, the solution was just to…let go. Accept that she was imperfect, and live with the consequences of it. Let other people help her. Stop trying to fit into being something she’s not, and just let herself be who she is. 

Does any of this sound familiar?

All four of the original Diamonds had destructive powers. All four of the original Diamonds experienced a change and made a conscious choice to control themselves and try to stop using their powers to negatively affect others. White Diamond might be stuck being White Diamond, but as “Homeworld Bound” made clear, she’s also the only one who gets to decide what that means.

So you know what?

You can call Steven half-Gem and half-human, but that doesn’t really describe what he is. He’s a human with a Gem. A Gem with a human form. None of that’s good or bad. It is what it is. And as much as it sucks to be different from everyone else, he’s also the only one who gets to decide what being different means to him. Steven Universe isn’t Rose Quartz and he’s not his mom, but just like he’s a human, he’s also Pink Diamond, and that isn’t bad. 

And I think that’s what he needs to hear from everyone. The solution at Steven’s birthday party wasn’t to react to the situation they were in and cheer him up the same way you’d cheer up a baby. He wasn’t just a baby, he was Steven stuck in a body that he didn’t know how to control. What he actually needed was to hear from Connie that she wanted to be there for him, no matter how strange he was. 

He needs the people he loves to stop telling him he’s “better than” his trauma and his diamond powers, to stop freaking out at how much damage he can do or treat it like a problem to be fixed. To not tell him that they know he’s going through, they’ve been there, too. They haven’t, and that’s not what he needs to hear. He needs to hear that none of what he is is bad. That his loved ones will be there for him and will love him unconditionally. 

And I think that’s what will allow him to accept himself; accept that if he’s a Diamond then he’s also a human, if he’s human then he’s also Pink Diamond–and, just like the previous Pink Diamond, he’s the one who gets to decide what that means.

TL; DR I actually really hope diamond eye Steven is permanent for non angsty reasons. This kid needs to stop being ashamed of his identity.

[thevindicativevordan]

I really like this blog, your analysis and ideas for Superman and his characters was great to read! I hope you don't mind, may I ask what do you think about Hank Henshaw? Do you have any ideas for him?

I think he needs to be radically changed in order to keep working, because as of right now his entire character is "hey remember Reign of the Supermen? That was cool amirite?"

Henshaw was created in an era where the editorial mandate was "the only survivor of Krypton is Clark", and that meant Superman didn't have an "evil Superman" counterpart Rogue in the Post Crisis era the way Pre Crisis did. So the writers had to come up with ways to get around that, some of the workarounds I liked such as Bizarro becoming a clone that Lex makes, and some of which were just so goddamn stupid like the Pocket Universe. But all of the Post Crisis evil Superman counterparts got killed off relatively quickly, including both Bizzaro and Zod after they were used.

Henshaw though was in one of the most popular Superman stories of all time, and he was Jurgens baby, so he got to stick around. But he was a character who was created to serve a purpose in that one specific story, and outside of that what does he have to offer? Disguising himself as Clark and setting out to ruin Superman's reputation since Doomsday robbed him of killing Clark was a great motivation, but once Clark returns and exposes him as a fraud, Henshaw just doesn't really have the character potential to justify keeping him around as is.

Henshaw wants to kill Superman. Great! That sums up the complete motivations of 90% of the rest of Superman's Rogues (which is in part why they aren't on the same level as Batman or Spider-Man's). Henshaw is really strong and tough and can hurt Superman with brute force. Again, a lot of Superman Rogues can do that too. Henshaw is an "evil Superman" design wise. Putting aside the multiple evil Supermen we get these days, most of them just variants on "real" Superman gone bad, Zod and Bizarro are better known and more popular. Henshaw can manipulate technology and rebuild himself from anything. Brainiac, Livewire, and Metallo also do that. Henshaw can't die? Well he's eclipsed in that regard by Doomsday.

He's overshadowed in the aspects that most people focus on by multiple other villains, with only his ties to Reign keeping him relevant which is why Jurgens always calls back to that storyline with him. His motivation is just generic revenge which doesn't work because if he has no goal other than killing Superman, all he can do is fail. His name "Cyborg Superman" is dumb because it only works within the context of Reign when people thought he might be the legit Superman reborn. It's just not a particular inspired name for him to keep using anymore.

If it sounds like I'm just ragging on him I totally am. He just doesn't work for me in his current role as 90s nostalgia. But I do have some ideas for how he could be reworked to be better utilized in the modern day.

What I Would Do With Hank Henshaw

So first we need to change a lot about him while still working with what came before. Right off the bat I'm having Henshaw ditch the "Cyborg Superman" name and form, and use that all too brief "data form" he had in Action Comics Rebirth.

That looks cool! Now we need to address Hank's biggest problem: what does he want exactly beyond just killing Superman? What are some goals he can feasibly achieve that make him a compelling threat? They've tried giving him a new motive a couple times, such as making him a nihilist who only wants to die in Sinestro Corps War, but ultimately he needs a reason to keep existing. If he just wants death he can track Doomsday down or throw himself into a black hole. I've got two roads to take Henshaw down, one that's pretty simple but justifies keeping him around as a threat and allows him the ability to maybe "win", the other more complex.

The simple route is that we merge Henshaw with the Metaleks. These guys were an army of xenoforming robots who were sent out by some unknown alien race to transform planets into something that's more to that race's liking.

Their creators are long dead, but the Metaleks continue the task they were built for. Henshaw catches wind of them, decides they'd make for an excellent army to do his bidding in the same way the Manhunters were, and attempts to seize control. Instead he gets absorbed into their collective hive mind, his hatred infecting them until it warps their programming, his malevolent mind guiding them and lending them his intellect. Now the Metaleks are a swarm of locusts, out to cleanse the entire galaxy of all life, with Henshaw as the Metalmind behind it all (yes that is his new name, shut up I'm not getting paid for this). With Clark going cosmic, this makes for a good way to keep the two foes fighting each other. Henshaw doesn't have enough control to make the Metaleks focus solely on killing Superman, but his upgrades and coordination means the Metaleks are a much greater threat to other planets than they were previously. Henshaw can now potentially "win" by cleansing a world of life, something that is going to hurt Clark bad given Clark's entire background, and because anywhere not named Earth gets wrecked all the time.

That's the simplistic route. Upgrades Henshaw as a threat while reducing his motives to "kill everything". The more complex route leans into Henshaw's origins as a Reed Richards expy, by basing him off that other evil Reed Richards:

Jurgens had Superman imprison Henshaw within a fake life with his family and friends who died in the accident that gave him powers. I'd have that fake life knaw at Henshaw until ultimately he realizes that his feud with Superman is a pointless waste of time, and what he really wants is his family back and his status as a respected leader restored. But he's a mass murderer and there's no redemption for him at this point, so Henshaw embarks on a quest to build his own little world for him to rule over.

First he seizes control of the Metaleks as in above, but in this route he manages to bring them under his control, christening himself their Metalmind. With an army of terraforming robots on his side, Henshaw begins terraforming his own world. He also retrieves the corpses of his family who died from their mutations and begins working on resurrecting them. At this stage you can have Henshaw in any number of schemes to acquire the resources or tech he needs to build his own kingdom, or to acquire the bodies.

At the second stage once he's got what he needs, he'll start building. First he revives his family (while ensuring that they will be loyal to him above all else). Then he starts creating his "children":

He's been around long enough to know either Superman or someone else will come after him eventually, and Hank Henshaw is prepared. He creates a race of beings who view him as both father and god, who will give him the adoration he craves and showcase his intellect. At this stage you can have stories involving Henshaw where he dispatches his "children" on missions to prove their worth and test their capabilities. Clark has to find and stop these agents while also trying to figure out where they're coming from.

The final stage is when Henshaw is confident that his forces are powerful enough to take on Superman, and then he does the unthinkable. He petitions the United Planets to join as a member. To Clark's horror they accept, and as the head of a planet Henshaw now enjoys intergalactic diplomatic immunity. His creations are now seeded inside the United Planets itself, and Henshaw can put his efforts wherever he wants. He can run twisted science experiments with his family, be the fist of the United Planets alongside Zod, helping the organization grow in ways Superman would abhor, he can try to kill Superman whenever Clark attempts to block his schemes, with his ability to still wrangle concessions from the UP as a way to keep him from just losing all the time. He can be Clark's Dr. Doom in other words, that long term opponent who is always working an angle, and has an entire nation/world behind him he rules as a god.

To me that's a much more interesting angle than him talking about that one time back in the 90s when he was cool anyway.

[buffaloborgine]

Final  Fantasy VII and its long history of Humanity versus Fate - Part 1

So we all know about FFVII Remake, with the very easy-to-understand word “Remake” in the title. 

Therefore the story of Remake is of someone trying to fix the timeline (who exactly that is still needs further discussion). But I believe now that Square Enix finally reveal the true color of the whol Final Fantasy VII franchise. 

It was, is, and will always be about Humanity fighting against Fate. 

Why? 

Let’s take a look at the installation at the end of the original timeline, Dirge of Cerberus. 

It was about Vincent and the WRO fighting against the Deepground to stop Omega from awakening and taking the Lifestream with it, which if happens, will cease all life on the Planet. 

Let’s dissect this a little bit. First of all, we all know that Omega probably is one of the WEAPON created by the Planet in order to protect itself. Omega is the last defense of the Planet, which means if it wakes up and takes off, it will be the end. So we can safely assume that Omega is the ultimate end that the Planet will some days come to (Omega is the last letter in the Greek Alphabet and has been used to signify the end/the last thing for a very long time).

Hojo then explained that his plan is to trick the Planet into thinking that it is in grave danger so it will activate Omega. 

Okay, this is where thing goes weird, why would Hojo wants to do that? He just wants to try his experiment on something that will destroy the whol Planet? Well, Hojo is one of the maniac that believes in the Promised Land, so maybe he believes that Omega will take everyone to the Promised Land? I think so. That’s why he wants to make sure the Lifestream is totally pure when Omega awakens but maybe that’s not how the Planet wants. 

Why the Planet here? Well, let’s say we have Nero fusing himself with Weiss is probably what the Planet wants. Right before Nero fuses with Weiss, Weiss said to him “Let us join him”. Okay, the question here is who is that “him” Weiss refers to? It cannot be Nero, because Nero is talking to Weiss, it cannot be Azul because Weiss doesn’t really care about Azul and Rosso that much, of course it cannot be Vincent, because why the fuck would Weiss want to join his enemy, same answer to Hojo, who has been kicked out of his body. Then, who is that? My answer, well, it’s Genesis. We know very well that the colored Tsviets are connected to Genesis because of his genes mapped on them, as in Crisis Core shown that Genesis can actually control those with his genes on them. Hojo claimed that he taught Nero about the Lifestream and Omega whatsoever through Weiss and also told Nero to go preparing for Omega’s awakening. That said, however, Nero still works under someone else’s order as when he talked to Shelke in chapter 11:

_

Shelke: Who is she?

Nero: Dr. Lucrecia Crescent.

Shelke: So I am to collect the data files-- the fragments she left within the network?

Nero: Correct. Then you are to use that data to find the Protomateria.

Nero: That is where he requires your assistance.

Shelke: He...?

_

So who is this “He” that Shelke doesn’t know about? Nero would take order from Weiss, but Shelke knows Weiss and Nero would clearly say “Weiss” if it’s Weiss. 

Again, the same question from above, who is this “He” that Nero took order from but Shelke doesn’t know about? Shelke is the only amongst the Tsviets that does not have DNA spliced with Genesis, so if there is any person that Nero took order from but she doesn’t know, it can only be Genesis. 

One other thing is that Genesis has always been featured in the box art of DoC. Just looks at the top left, it’s long-haired Genesis, standing above all the Tsviets. 

Now let’s get back to our main topic, I will talk about Genesis sometimes later. 

If we assume that Nero took order from Genesis then we all know after the event of Crisis Core, Genesis has, after all, becomes “One with the Planet”. If he orders Nero to go get the Protomateria so as to control Omega then probably that’s the Planet’s will. Also he didn’t help the Tsviets escape, because he said he will wake up to protect the planet, so why didn’t he wake up when Omega is awakened if that’s something threatening the Planet? 

To this point, we can conclude that summoning Omega was actually what the Planet wants, Hojo is just a stepping stone, as Genesis will order the Tsviets to do it anyway. 

Which means, FFVII Dirge of Cerberus was the story of humanity defying fate. 

Another detail is of the color of the Tsviets and the symbolism of it.

We have four colored Tsviets: Rosso the Crimson, Azul the Cerulean, Nero the Sable and Weiss the Immaculate, Shelke doesn’t count because she is the Transparent (colorless). The four colors are actually the color of the four element beasts in Asia culture: Vermillion Bird (Rosso’s weapon is designed to look like a bird spreading wings), Azure Dragon (Azul has the Arch Azul form, which is more like a Behemoth but we can assume that is a kind of dragon), Black Tortoise (the creature here is a tortoise with a snake for its tail, Nero has the ability to control darkness tendrils, also he has snake-like eyes) and the White Tiger (Weiss has spiked hair which makes him has a big cat synergy). So the four beasts are divine and represents the four elements, four directions and four seasons, which are things that human cannot control. Weiss carries two katana blades, one has the word “Heaven” and the other “Earth”. Heaven and Earth are the two out of three aspects of the cosmos, the last one is Mankind. Shelke, who stood with Vincent and the WRO, doesn’t have a color (and not have Genesis’ genes either), and she cuts herself off from Weiss’s control, she is then representing Mankind. 

So there you have the Mankind versus Heaven and Earth right in the details in game and the symbolisms represented. 

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. Hope you enjoy it.

[bangtansfavwriter]

📚🌱book store owner! namjoon🌱📚

- you were still trying to find your way around town as you moved there like 3 weeks ago

-you spent most of your time furnishing your flat and getting groceries as you were snacking all the damn time

-the weather was also kinda bad so you didn't really mind

- on one morning you got up and it was surprisingly sunny outside

-so you thought "why not explore the city a bit?", got ready and went out

-after an hour or so that you've spent in a stationary shop, you noticed a cute book store that was right across the street

- you almost didn't notice there was a shop in there bc of all the plants and flowers hanging down the balcony above the shop

- that's why it felt like a huge discovery to you bc this was probably the cutest book store you'd ever seen, with a very handsome guy sitting at a table in the front of the shop, between some peonies and dahlias that were planted in raised beds

- the guy was fixing something which you recognized as a ukulele when you walked past him and quickly made your way into the book shop, when you heard him grumble and say something like "broke it again..."

-you shook your head when you walked in and forgot about the angry ukulele guy when you got the first look at the superbly organized and clean shop with freaking bonsai trees literally everywhere you'd look

- there were 2 kids at the comic section, some youngsters revising something at one of the tables inside the shop and an old man reading a book next to a tabletop fountain

- as you made your way through the store you noticed something else that made the store even better than you thought, because whoever owned this shop was a salty but funny book nerd

- the book sections were titled in a rather unusual way.. to say the least. one section, for example, was called: "books you probably hate when you start reading but when you get to the end you have an existential crisis because of how good it was"

-you walked to the next section, already curious to see what was next and were surprised to see pretty much the entire bibliography of kafka right there in the "love him or hate him, you ain't him" and chuckled, because you too didn't know anyone with a neutral opinion on Kafka, people either loved him or hated him for his work

-you, however, loved him and apparently so did the person who put this section together

-you full on started laughing when you saw the section "kinda overrated, but suit yourself" and saw "romeo and juliet" displayed at the very front

- "guessing from you laughter, I'd assume you probably agree with me" you heard someone say behind you

- you turned around and zoned out for a sec, as you mustered the gorgeous man in front of you who had the sweetest dimples you'd ever seen

- "you know... I'll get shy if you stare any longer" he said with his deep voice and a slight smirk on his lips

- you snapped back into reality after he said that and quickly tried saving yourself because you already felt your cheeks burning, and you didn't want him to notice that

- "oh sorry, I suppose I was just startled. you're very tall, you know? kinda intimidating with all that... height.."

- he smiled and nodded and you mentally slapped yourself for this statement of yours

- "you're right, by the way, about romeo and juliet. absolutely overrated story about dramatic teens." you said and put the book back "did you come up with these categories?"

- "yeah, maybe it's a tad bit too personalized, but it's my humble opinion about some 'classics' the general public is trying to shove down our throats" he said

- "like 'old man and the sea'" you said and started laughing when he shot you a look of bewilderment

- "don't you dare insult hemingway in this household" he said, but started laughing himself after he said that

- "that was by far one of the most boring books I have ever read in my entire life!!"

"but it depicts the long struggle of the old man who faces his struggles and realizes how they ultimately become his-"

"boooring! and hemingway got a nobel peace prize for literature? for that writing? you should make a new category in your store - 'got prizes but at what cost (hint: my patience)'"

-he broke into laughter and you physically had to refrain yourself from poking his dimples

- your felt your blood rush into your head again when he shot you a beaming smile and said "maybe I should make a new category. 'controversial opinions from a gorgeous stranger' - how does that sound?"

- you quickly changed the subject, because his smooth answer actually made you flustered - something almost no one ever succeeded in

- "are these all your bonsai trees?" you said and walked some steps away from him, secretly hoping he'd follow and continue the conversation you were too shy to make a flirt out of

-"yes, cost me a lot of money and almost a friendship, but these are my babies."

-"this friendship... there was a rather angry looking guy sitting in front of your shop. does it have to do anything with him?" - "did he have a ukulele?" - "...yes." - "yeah that's him. jin hyung is mad at me because he helped me carry that big boy there (- he points at the biggest tree next to the check-out) and I obviously couldn't see what was around me and I accidentally kicked his ukulele. apparently it's broken now, I don't know." - you could somehow understand the flower-boy's anger but the book store guy was cute so: "he shouldn't have left around a damn ukulele then?? i mean?? "

- you giggled as he blurted out "I KNOW, RIGHT?" while wildly gesticulating in excitement about the fact that a stranger agreed with him

- you both went silent after laughing together, the tension didn't go unnoticed by neither of you. you remembered what he said to you earlier and had to suppress your smile. these couple minutes you spent with this stranger made you smile more often than you probably did this month altogether and you were aware of the fact that this is obviously something very special. but you just moved here and had to get adjusted to your new life in this city, would it really be sensible to get a new guy this quick? hell, he probably isn't even single, right? with these looks AND that height plus these dimples that you highkey wanted to kiss?

- he interrupted your train of thought by just clearing his voice, which you were incredibly thankful for, as you got very tongue-tied that moment:

"I should probably get back to work..."

-that was definitely not what you wanted to hear and you clearly couldn't hide your disappointment, bc his eyes widened all of a sudden and he started fidgeting nervously.

- "I should go, too, then..."

-that was not what he wanted to hear either... he sighed deeply and looked around quickly before softly pushing you into an aisle ("yearning 101")

- your breath hitched, his breathing became rapid too, as there were mere millimeters parting your lips from each other.. he gently ran his hands up your arms and you felt goosebumps all over your body. the only time his eyes left yours that moment was when he looked at your lips, that were more than eager to meet his at that moment. just as he was about to lean into you - "KIM NAMJOON! You owe me a new ukulele, you airhead!" was heard across the entire shop, followed by the front door slamming shut

-both of you stared at each other in shock before breaking into loud laughter

- "Oh my god, way to ruin the mood!"

You rubbed your sides that started aching from laughing so much. "You should go after your friend, you know" you said and could tell, by the look on his, that this was certainly not his priority at the moment. He scooted closer to you again. "Tell me your name, gorgeous." - "Y/N..." - He repeated your name with a hushed voice, as if he wanted to keep it a secret from the world. The mere melody of name leaving his lips affected both of you in a way, that you knew you had to explore further. "Say, Y/N... Any chance you might come along again tomorrow?" - "Most definitely" you replied with a smirk on your lips. "Oh, that's a relief. That'll bring me through the day and dealing with hyung. Maybe I'll even build a new section until you come back." You chuckled and looked at him. "Surprise me then, Namjoon~" you teased. "Maybe something like 'books to read all night because you thought of someone cute'?" - "'Books I randomly put together after I saw the cutest smile on earth" may be an option, I don't know" - "Oh, you're getting bold! 'Books I should have sorted instead of blatantly flirting with a customer'. What are you intentions, hmm?" you retorted sarcastically and slowly made your way to the door. You laughed as you saw the slightly offended look on his face. "Books I need to convince a sweetheart that I'm nothing like Joe Golberg!" - "Books how to learn to let people go and then go apologise to people!" (You two were now shouting through the store, the customers were confused but smiled at you two)

"books I will never read today because I'll see you tomorrow!" he yelled last, before you waved at each other with a smile and you left the store.

- Namjoon was growing more and more impatient the next day, as he jumped everytime he heard the door open, but each time it was some customer and not you. He ultimately starting losing hope and felt a little stupid for actually staying up late and creating a whole new section in the shop, hoping to show it to you as soon as possible. The mere thought of seeing you again made his heart race, that's why it was even more disappointing for him when it was almost time for him to close the shop and there was still no trace of you. He heard the door again and sighed very, very deeply, as an old man walked into the store who was one of the few people Namjoon actually despised, because of his overly-specific wishes. And, of course, the fact that he never actually bought a book. As his life energy was once again being sucked out by the most pointless conversation ever, he thought of you again. He wondered if something happened that made you change your mind. Was he too cocky? Did you think of him as some player who just flirted with each customer he found attractive? He sighed again. "Young man, you don't sigh in front of customers! Were you not taught any manners!". Namjoon, with his best customer service smile, tried to convince the man that it was just him, being absent-minded and that he didn't mean to offend him (even though he'd have every right to do so). In-between all the hassle, he didn't even hear that the door opened once again. It wasn't until you called out for him, that he noticed you finally were in the shop, with him. He stared at you with a blank expression on his face when you rushed towards him and immediately apologised for taking so long, which was because of the moving company being earlier than expected. Namjoon just stared at you while you rambled on, as did the old man. You apologised over and over again and then excused yourself when you finally realized that you probably interrupted Namjoon while he was talking to a customer. "Y/N!" he called after you. You turned around and looked at him with a quizzical look. "There's a new section in the back... Maybe you should check it out." You two smiled at each other, neither of you wanting to break your gaze. "Young man... I think I'm gonna take this book here. You can never go wrong with the classics" the old man said and grabbed 'The old man and the sea'. Namjoon did his very best not to laugh in his face, only did he now have a smile on his face that he absolutely could not hide at that moment. Two victories in one day. This day could only get better.

Meanwhile, you went to the very back of the shop, curious about what would expect you in the new section. A book joke again? One of the things you were talking about yesterday? You lost your train of thought when you noticed a section, that you didn't pass by yesterday. "My loneliness is killing me", with books by Dickinson and Poe at the very front, followed by "I must confess, I still believe" with romance novels all across the table, decorated with peonies he was growing in front of the shop. "The new section is in the next aisle, love" you heard Namjoon say behind you. You hesitated a bit, kind of overwhelmed with how fast you could feel everything developing. Yet, everything felt so right. "Go right ahead, I'm right here", he said reassuringly, as if he sensed your hesitation. You nodded and smiled at him. The most beautiful table in the entire shop awaited you in the next aisle. Inbetween beautiful bouquets and absolutely dashing table decorations were Shakespeare's sonnets and other love poems that were among your personal favourites as well. You looked at the section title, written on a card that was put into one bouquet.

"Books that will help me ask you out"

💕

[dailyaudiobible]

02/09/2021 DAB Transcript

Exodus 29:1-30:10, Matthew 26:14-46, Psalms 31:19-24, Proverbs 8:14-26

Today is February 9th welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I'm Brian it's great to be here with you today as we continue our journey through this week and through the territory that we are covering in the Bible right now. In the Old Testament we are in the book of Exodus. So, I want to keep us rooted to this story because it can get so tedious. We are at Mount Sinai. We are around the mountain of God and the people are in the wilderness and they're gonna be in the wilderness for a while. But right now God is weaving together a tapestry that will form a people that have only ever been slaves. It will pull them forward from slavery into becoming a nation, a nation of people, God's chosen, the Hebrew people. And, so, let’s pick up that story. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Exodus chapter 29 verse 1 through 30 verse 10.

Commentary:

Okay. Let's just start here at the Proverbs because it's like we…we entered into today's reading in…in mid thought, which is kind what happened. This is the voice of wisdom speaking here to us saying, “I possess good advice and sound wisdom. I have understanding and strength. It's by me that king's reign.” Like, it's by wisdom that things are done and that things that matter, stay. They’re not just passing. They’re a solid truth. So, wisdom tells us, “I love those who love me.” So, there it is. There it is. “And those who search for me find me.” So, you know, we’re just getting going in our year, but we’re…we’re well underway. We’re moved in now. We…we can't see the shore. Like we’re or out in the deep now and wisdom has been telling us all along that the most valuable thing we could achieve in life would be her, that we would be wise, that everything else follows wisdom. And that it’s not just us. It’s God. Like, I quote from Proverbs, “the Lord acquired me at the beginning of His creation before His works of long ago. I was formed to before ancient times from the beginning before the earth began.” Okay. So, wisdom is what God used and uses to create. And we are, in black-and-white, invited to pursue wisdom above everything else in life. And, so, let's remember that. Let’s remember that reminder.

I remind you of the Daily Audio proverb, which is, like if you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app it’s just another one channels. It's like five minutes a day and you go through the entire book of Proverbs in a month. You can go through the entire book of Proverbs 12 times in a year. Just pouring that…that wisdom into your mind and letting it seep into your heart and then, I mean, over time these things build up. And, so, we become less reactionary. We’re not just reacting to life and more being proactive and deciding in advance what life is gonna look like instead of just letting it happen all around us just being pulled in every direction by…by influences that have nothing to do with us on our walk with God. Or we can be wise. So, let’s remember this.

And then let’s just back up into the book of Matthew just for a quick second here because we are coming to some territory, that this is the first time we’re encountering it, and that is the betrayal of Jesus and, yeah, His arrest and trial and His execution and His resurrection. So, this is the first time that we’re entering into this story and it's important that…that we embrace it and not let it just be something we've heard before. We’re gonna, I mean, we’re gonna hear it in the Gospels and then we’ll move on from there, and it's important that we embrace this because it’s the centerpiece of the faith, it’s the centerpiece of the story that we’re living in. And, so, to understand how this all goes down, this envy, this jealousy, this uncertainty, that Jesus is who He says He is, but also that He is gaining power because He is speaking with authority and He is calling out the truth from the shadows and exposing the truth and in the process exposing the power structures that are dominating the people and making them confused and polarized and marginalized. Yeah, they…they ultimately decided they needed to kill Jesus to shut Him up and we need to pay attention to this as we go through it because it's the story of our salvation.

Prayer:

Jesus, we thank You for this. We thank You for the counsel again toward making wisdom the centerpiece and we thank You that we have an example as we watch Your life and ministry of what it looks like to seek the truth, to see the truth, to live wise. Come Holy Spirit we pray into these coming days, we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi DABbers my name is Hineron I'm from New Zealand. I just want to start this off by thanking everybody in the community and Brian and everyone who's behind this because, what a change to my life this has brought. I look forward so much to listening to the daily word and how it's explained by you Brian and it just…I don't know how many times I have read the 1st three books of the Bible and nothing’s ever really sunk in, but I'm really enjoying where we are at the moment in the Bible. It's just incredible. So, thank you. I just want to quickly ask for some prayer for myself and my family. My dad took his life a few days before Christmas in 2020 and I've recorded this a few times but I think what I actually need is just a covering. I know that God knows exactly what it is that I need and what I'm struggling with and what my family needs. The list is too long to try to fit in. So, just some prayer, just general prayer for a covering of God's goodness, which already has been so prevalent, was such a blessing. But this community is powerful. God…God moves through this community and I really wanted to tap into that because the situation is…is not a good one. There's a lot of heartbreak. He was only young. There's a lot of division in our family now. But thank you all. I love you. Hope you have a blessed week.

Hello this is Wonderfully Made in Albuquerque and I am calling to pray over Kingdom Seeker Daniel and your children, Daniel, Hannah and Bianca. I just listened to the prayer requests from today about just the heaviness there that's going on with each of your children. I think today is the 6th of February so prayer requests for today. So, heavenly father I lift up Daniel Hannah and Bianca. Each situation is heartbreaking, and you know the details that are going on, you know their hearts and their minds, and I just pray that you'll deliver each of these children Lord. Deliver them from the different struggles that are going on and guard their minds, guard their hearts with your peace and shine through. I pray for the mental health issues and what's going on there for the past assault and that situation, how that really…the influence there and then the identity crisis Lord. I just pray that you’ll intervene and transform these lives and that there’ll be a beautiful testimony there for each child. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Good morning this is Dennis from Los Angeles it’s February 6th I just got done listening to today's DAB and I felt inspired to call. Lately there's been a lot of prayer requests from families that are estranged from their children. I myself am suffering with that same fate. My oldest daughter has decided she doesn't want to speak to my side of the family. And I've been dealing with this on my own, but I figured why not reach out to the DAB family for prayer. I always pray alongside all of the others that are going through a similar circumstance and I would like for the family to pray for me. And as I listened to the prayer requests today, I felt so inspired to call and just share my prayer and that I'm praying for Tiffany and Tony in Ohio who lost their child and her prayer request to love her husband. Just know I'm in prayer for you. My wife and I also lost our son over six years ago, so I know what you're going through. Also, for Emily in Minnesota, your pain, I hear it in your voice. Know that I'm in prayer for you and your situation, the loss of your son and your family’s difficulties and then right behind that Kingdom Seeker Daniel came on and asked for prayer for his son,0 his mental health issues, and his daughters’ situations. Just know that we're in prayer for you, that we come together as a family and even though people might not call in, they’re in prayer with you immediately. So, just have faith and hope. Father God is gonna be doing miraculous things in our lives and we just have to have the faith of a mustard seed. So, I thank you for this podcast and I thank you for your prayers. God bless.

Hey DAB family this is Brookee545. I was just listening to the prayer request from January 6th and I just want to lift Emily up in prayer, Emily from Minnesota. As I was praying for you I was getting a vision of a pillar that was in rough weather but it was still standing firm. So, God I just thank you for Emily and her strength and her faith in you and that she called in and that she's a part of this community. Lord I lift up her…I just lift up her family to you right now, that they have the same strength and wisdom and knowledge that Emily has to run to you. Lord I pray for multiple anointed divine appointments for Emily and her family, that they listen and they accept your truth Lord and that they can work together for your glory in this time. Lord they've had a lot of attacks from the enemy. So, God I just pray that you protect them from that. And God again as I was praying for Emily proverbs 31 came to mind and how she's just a pillar for her family. And a verse from 31 that always encourages me is verse 25. She is clothed with strength and dignity. She can laugh at the days to come. She can speak with wisdom and faithful instruction is on her tongue. So, Emily I just encourage you to press into the Lord, let Him be your guide and your strength, and always be patient with your family in these times because they're hurting. And I know that you're hurting as well. So, I just pray for the Holy Spirit just to guide your family.

Hello this is just another Joe calling in on February 6th. I'm calling in response to Kingdom Seeker Daniel. I want to encourage you and pray for your…your son. At the beginning of this year on the 6th of January I also snapped and was admitted into a crisis Center for 13 days. And it's really, really disorienting, and you don't even know if…if what's happening is real sometimes. So, Father God I just want to thank you for bringing me out of that situation and I want you to show Daniel the 2nd that…that same kindness and mercy that you…that you showed me through those 13 days as you were with me the entire time. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Hello DAB family this is Greg, Greg from Bethel Washington. I just wanted to call in and thank everyone for being so transparent about your pains and your griefs and your challenges. I've been part of this community for many years, but I've had so many distractions and this is the first year I've actually really committed, daily being here with you all. I've survived a heart attack in 2014. I've talked to you about that before. I survived all these things and this last week has been a really challenging. I've seen my cardiologist. I'm having angina chest pain. They put me on a new medication for hypertension. I also have had, you know, diagnosis of bipolar. And I don't know that that's really true. You know the medical community treats our bodies, but they don't know what our spirit is about. My wife and my daughter and my grandkids are not saved. I live in this home and there's forces that are all around us impact them and I try desperately to carry it, but I can't. So, just…I just wanna give this all to you to pray for my…my wife Jane, my daughter, Robbery my granddaughter Carolina and Bradley. Please Lord Jesus protect us all. In Jesu’s name I pray. Amen.

[heypflo]

Album Review: Short Sighted People In Power: A Home Recording- My Politic

I am hungover. Not like...in the sit down in the shower way, though. I am writing this just days after watching the hopeless horror show that was our first Presidential debate of 2020, and just a few hours after watching the Vice-Presidential Debate. I am emotionally dehydrated. Thankfully, My Politic’s latest effort, “Short Sighted People In Power: A Home Recording '' is serving as my intellectual Pedialyte. This raw, unfussy collection of songs wades through the View-Master of the current American consciousness and I think it’s safe to say that most people feel concussed in two very different ways right now. The point of Kaston Guffey and Nick Pankey’s latest release is not to convince the listener of anything, but rather to put antiquated and learned ways of thinking next to facts and have them duke it out. It takes the overused rebuttal of “yA gOtTa sEe iT fRoM bOtH SidEs” to its most literal level and, well, it is as uncomfortable as it should be.

The title track puts music to all the things that bounce around in your head before you lift your head off the pillow. “Short Sighted People In Power” morosely lists the “bigger than me” bullet points of anxiety that coyly creep over one’s shoulder; all those annoying flashbulb headlines that run on a constant loop in the ticker of your brain.  No matter who you are, those weary inner voices are louder now more than ever. Earth’s environmental ticking clock, the ageless, nationwide opioid crisis, the pockets that have been stuffed because of it, and, ultimately, the devastating wake of greed are all on display here. It’s a blunt brick to the head. Am I supposed to feel hope or the lack of it from the line “It’s gonna take every one of us to get what we want”? I haven’t decided yet.

One of the most compelling things about this album is that it plays like a conversation at the dinner table. It’s Thanksgiving. There you are, surrounded by your family and all the strings that both bind and divide you. You and your cousin in the “Feel the Bern” shirt keep exchanging glances at each other as the temperature of the room rises. If the previous track was the hushed, corner mouthed conversation you had with each other before dinner, “Wrong Side” is the one shouted from across the table at a horrified Grandpa Rick and drunk Aunt Sharon. It’s a hailstorm of a chorus that cries, “Fuck the President. Fuck the GOP. Fuck the folks at Fox News spreading lies on TV. Fuck you for getting us into this and refusing to see. It ain’t no side. It’s one side. It’s your side and it’s the wrong side.” The rotating solo at the end of the track perfectly encapsulates the cyclical nature of conversations like this. It’s hard not to feel like a hamster in a wheel of our collective frustration right now. Nothing seems to ever get done, but we are worn the fuck out.

As the conversation continues, Rick and Sharon get their time, too. Told from the perspective of someone who prefers their hats red and their presidents orange, “Fantasies of a Fox News Viewer” is perhaps the rawest and most uncomfortable song on the entire album. It’s every baseless argument you’ve ever heard in all its glory, lacking all logic and overstuffed with emotion. Xenophobia, white nationalism, homophobia, blind Biblical trust, and just straight up, cold-blooded fear are Pollacked all over the dinner table and you’ve completely lost your appetite. (Whew. I really need to get out from under this Thanksgiving metaphor, folks). The thing that struck me the most about this song was my inability to stop my head from bobbing to its anthemic chorus. It proudly chugs along and would pair very nicely with a drink of choice being held high above my head. I don’t even recognize what I’m saying when I sing to myself, “Yeah, I miss America the way it used to be. When I turned on my TV all I saw was people just like me.” I stop singing for fear that my neighbor or my dog may think that I *actually* believe the words I’m saying. But, isn’t that so indicative of how the web gets spun so easily? When information gets dressed in the gown of performative politics, reality distorts. Sarcasm is lost, truth is lost, context is a bug to squish and you’ve decided how you feel about something based solely on how someone else is telling you to.

As the funhouse mirror stretches on, “Voter Suppression” welcomes us deeper into the Conservative Carnival. The whispered countdown ushering in the listener sounds as if the narrator is hatching a plot. It’s both sinister and tantalizing, two classic ingredients for manipulation pie. This song could be invited to hang out with the satirical company of South Park and Saturday Night Live (on its good nights) and more than hold its own. I can’t help but picture Trump, McConnell, Pence, and Barr in little ill-fitting barbershop quartet outfits, cigars flopping out of their mouths, singing this while bouncing around a fake saloon in the middle of Silver Dollar City. However, “Voter Suppression” doesn’t lean on cartoonish exaggerations of the truth to get its message across. One person’s satire can very easily be taken as another person’s doctrine. After all, the best and smartest comedy is rooted in life’s uncomfortable truths.

I think we can all agree that the one constant of this year has been the unveiling of a lot of those aforementioned uncomfortable truths. In “All American Way”, the narrator, in two minutes, lists over thirty examples of absurd and very real reasons why Black people have been targeted by the police. The track opens with, “Can’t go jogging. Can’t go walking. Can’t watch TV in their own fffffuckin’ apartment.” (That isn’t a typo. Listen to it and you’ll see what I mean). Each verse is more hurried and breathless than the last and you can practically smell the smoke coming from the pencil marks on the paper when it was written. As each example rolls on, a new name scrolls across your mind’s eye. “Can’t get caught with a broken tail light (Sandra Bland). “Can’t get caught selling loose cigarettes” (Eric Garner) “Can’t get caught playing with toys” (Tamir Rice). Then, we turn to the names we wish we never learned at all and ones I refuse to type here. “They can shoot up Black churches. They can shoot up the schools… White folks can shoot ‘till they’re blue in the face and you can bet they’ll walk away. It’s the All American way.” That last line is sung like a salute. Hand over heart, chin in the air, hat off the head. And most likely, someone out there doesn’t understand why that’s disturbing.

Track 6,  “The Experts Told Us”, sounds like how we all felt about a month or two into quarantine, or as the song says, “when we traded hope for darkness.” Knowing what we do now about the president’s negligent withholding of information about COVID-19 and the impact it was going to have on every aspect of American life, this song sits heavy on the mind and heavy on the chest. “The experts told us. The science showed us. But the ego of the POTUS was too big to fight off again.” The sleepy harmonica woven through the last half of it is forlorn and exhausted. It sighs in and out at the bleakness of it all like it’s sitting in the driveway with the engine off; at the house, but far from home.

The wit of Prine, the gusto of Cash, the fire of Guthrie, among others, are peppered seamlessly throughout this album.  But make no mistake; My Politic’s voice is all their own. Nowhere is that more evident than on the closing track, “Talkin’ RNC Blues.” Here, the listener is taken on an anxiety and alcohol-induced fever dream that plops the narrator right in the middle of this year’s Republican National Convention. It plays like a comic book; vivid and distorted. I wish I could hear this for the first time again so I won’t ruin anything for you, but be prepared for some well timed laughs to lift you out of the funk, even for just a moment.

Through the inexplicable fog, we forge on to another day of 2020. But we shouldn’t keep acting like this is some kind of “cursed” year that we just need to get through. To suggest that the problem is the year on the calendar and the solution is the page after December would be flippant, to say the least. Despite all of it, meaningful art and the fearless depths it dares to go will always rise above the silence and drown out the static. My Politic’s “Short Sighted People In Power: A Home Recording” is now available exclusively on Bandcamp and is set for a wide release on all streaming platforms this Friday, 10/30. Just in time for you to play it over Thanksgiving dinner….or not.

[the-desolated-quill]

BBC’s The War Of The Worlds blog - Episode 3

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)

You know, people often ask me why I get so angry when I’m reviewing BBC shows. I mean yes I give Disney and Marvel a hard time too, but they don’t get nearly as much bile and venom as I give the BBC. Well that’s because, unlike Disney and Marvel, BBC shows are funded by the British taxpayer through our TV licence fees. I’m effectively paying for them to make this crap. That’s what pisses me off more than anything.

Yes we mercifully come to the end of this... this. Episode 1 was a slow, plodding and utterly tedious affair that was about as exciting as an Amish bachelor party. Episode 2 was even worse thanks to its poor narrative structure, terrible characterisation and less than subtle allegories. Now Harness has come to hammer the final nail in the coffin with Episode 3. Is it bad?

...

You’re right, that’s a stupid question. A more apt question would be how bad is it. Very, very bad is the answer. Very, very bad indeed.

Lets start with the obvious problem. The non-linear narrative introduced in the previous episode. The stupid early reveal that the Martians ultimately lose and that Amy survives completely destroyed any and all tension and suspense thanks to Peter Harness desperately trying to outwit the audience instead of just telling a story. Now, bizarrely, he tries to reintroduce tension by having the characters umming and arghing about what killed the Martians off and whether this could help stop the Earth from terraforming. One teeny, tiny problem with this though. The audience already know! Even those that never read the original book know how it ended! And even if you didn’t, the episode drops enough hints like great fucking boulders. The prevalence of typhoid throughout the episode and its correlation with the Martians stumbling around like a drunken prom date isn’t exactly hard to miss. Harness’ writing is still as unsubtle as ever. But worse still, he completely undermines and misses the point of the ending to War Of The Worlds.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when people (mostly Americans) criticise the end of the original book for being a deus ex machina. I mean the Martians get killed off by the common cold. How stupid, right? Except it’s not because those people (mostly Americans) are looking at it the wrong way. Your main takeaway shouldn’t be that the Martians were easily killed off by bacteria. Rather that we failed to stop them. The reason humanity prevails in the end is more down to luck than anything else. The narrator even attributes this to being an act of God. But here’s the thing. We didn’t stand a chance against the Martians. We didn’t beat them. They lost because they just happened to catch a cold. Now it’s not hard to imagine a society as scientifically advanced as their’s to be able to find some kind of cure or vaccine for it. And if and when they do, what then? We’d be fucked, wouldn’t we? Should the Martians ever return to finish what they started, the human race would be well and truly doomed. It’s not a deus ex machina. It’s a dire warning of what’s to come. A brief respite before the inevitable. That’s what makes the ending so effective.

The BBC series however completely misunderstands this, changing the story so that Ogilvy (an astronomer, don’t forget) somehow manages to weaponize typhoid in order to kill the red weed, which is presented as some kind of victory, when in reality it’s quite an insulting deviation from the source material. If only the Commonwealth could shake off the remnants of British colonialism as easily as these guys dealt with the red weed. Not to mention it just makes the Martians look really stupid. So they come to Earth, drink our blood, keel over and then... what, they just give up? Are they just waiting for humanity to die by itself? What happens when Mars HQ realises the red weed hasn’t worked? What then? Are they just going to shrug it off? It doesn’t make any sense.

Which brings us to the Martians themselves. The picture above comes from the Jeff Wayne musical version and is without a doubt the most accurate depiction of the Martians from the book. Most of the other adaptations have wildly different interpretations, which isn’t a problem in and of itself provided it works within the context of that particular narrative. However the reason I bring up the original design is so I can talk about what H.G. Wells intended when he came up with them. See, while the Martians are highly intelligent, they’re also presented as being quite vestigial. They’re sluggish thanks to Earth’s heavier gravity, rendered practically deaf thanks to Earth’s dense atmosphere and apparently have no organs with which to digest their food, hence their need to inject human blood directly into themselves for sustenance. The Martians represent what humanity could become as we become more and more reliant on technology. The Industrial Revolution brought about a lot of societal fears and concerns at the time, and the Martians are those fears manifested. Heartless creatures reduced to being simple brains, unable to properly interact with the world around them.

The BBC series goes a very different route. Instead of the giant brains, we instead get giant brown crabs, which, again, isn’t necessarily a problem provided it works in context. And that’s the problem. It doesn’t. The original Wells design told us what we needed to know about their biology, their motivations and their society. What do we learn about the BBC Martians? They’re big, generic monsters that look like rejects from Stranger Things. They don’t even inject blood into themselves. They feed off of us directly, leechlike. They’re more like animals. Not the vast, cold, unsympathetic intellects they were described to be. At no point do you buy that these creatures would be capable of building the Tripods or colonising the Earth. They just exist for some cheap jump scares and horror movie cliches.

What’s worse is that by changing the Martians’ design so drastically, any subtextual allegory gets chucked in the bin. The Martians from the book are meant to represent the British Empire at the height of its power. Merciless tyrants stomping all over the lives and cultures of the so called ‘lesser races,’ changing the environment to suit them rather than adapting to the existing environment. It’s Darwinism crossed with arrogance. And yet, ironically, the oppressors (the Martians) are technically inferior to the natives (the humans) as they are incapable of surviving without the aid of technology. The BBC series is unable to make this allegory, so Harness has to resort to straight up telling the audience the allegory. In by far the clunkiest scene in the entire series, we see George argue with his brother about how the Martians are no different from the Brits in their colonial ways. Not only does this break the ‘show, don’t tell’ rule and stands as a perfect example of bad storytelling, Harness doesn’t even bother to do anything with this other than just making the comparison. It’s been previously established that Amy was born and raised in India. You’d think she’d have something to say about all this, but nope. At the end, she wistfully describes India to her son in the most patronising and insulting way possible. It’s really quite disgusting. I mean H.G. Wells was quite patronising towards the Tasmanians in the book, but in his defence, he was a privileged white man from the 1800s. What’s Peter Harness’ excuse?! Ostensibly he pays lip service to the idea that the Martians are no different from the Brits, but he doesn’t want to really explore it or get us to actually think about it. Probably because it’s all a bit too complicated to get into, but if he’s not confident about exploring such topics, why the fuck is he adapting War Of The Worlds in the first bloody place?! Write something else!

In fact I think this is the root of all the problems with this adaptation. Harness clearly isn’t capable of exploring the complex themes of the source material, so instead he either introduces irrelevant social issues that aren’t nearly as complicated (women’s rights, empires are bad and so on) as a token show of progressiveness, or he goes as far as to uncomplicate themes and ideas to an almost offensive degree. In the book, the narrator is trapped in a church with a priest who is going through a major existential crisis and risks giving away their hiding spot to the Martians, who are busy terraforming the planet. So he resorts to knocking the priest unconscious and watching as the Martians drag his body away. In the BBC series, we see the old woman and the kid get killed off for no reason other than shock value and the characters have nothing to do with their demise, so they’re morally in the clear. The priest meanwhile doesn’t even appear in the scene, instead being relegated to the shitty flash forwards where his faith remains very much intact and even protests against the idea that it’s humanity’s illness that stopped the Martians rather than an act of God (brief side note, would Ogilvy really be this open about not believing in God? At the time of the book’s publication, the scene with the priest losing faith was considered extremely controversial, so this just seems utterly wrong). Plus there’s no tension in wondering what the Martians are doing and whether they’re going to find the characters. In fact there’s no tension whatsoever because we know the Martians have fallen ill and the characters are just hanging around, waiting for the fuckers to die. I cannot stress enough how atrociously awful the writing is in this show. We know the Martians are dying and the episode is about the characters waiting for them to die.

Jesus fucking Christ!

The Artilleryman from the previous episode was the same. In the book he was a deluded crackpot who willingly bought into imperialist dogma, believing that humanity could rebuild underground and eventually rise up and defeat the Martians. In the BBC series, he was a scared, innocent little waif being forced to fight in a war he wants no part of. It’s an incredibly shallow and uninteresting reinterpretation of the source material.

But the worst, the absolute worst, is what Harness does with George.

To be clear, no I’m not upset he gets killed off. I’ve made my views on him quite clear. He cheated on his wife because she was infertile and ran off to make whoopie with some redhead. The bastard deserves everything he gets, frankly. Plus I’ve had enough of Rafe Spall’s gormless acting to last a lifetime, thank you. What I am upset by is the way he gets killed off.

One of the most interesting parts of the original book is the fact that there are no heroes in War Of The Worlds. The Artilleryman is a young, impressionable, nationalist fool, the Priest descends into a pit of nihilistic despair, and the narrator survives only by his cowardice. He even goes as far as to attempt suicide, throwing himself in front of the unbeknownst to him dead Tripod because he cannot bear the idea of living in a world like this. It’s extremely dark and very cynical. The BBC series goes a very different route. We see George slowly become delirious as a result of the typhoid infection he got by drinking the poisoned cup of water in the previous episode (so all that stuff about the Martian terraforming was a load of bollocks) before, realising that he is becoming a burden to Amy, deciding to make the supreme sacrifice and facing the lone Martian alone while she makes a run for it. Not only does this open up a major plot hole - who the fuck was Amy expecting to arrive from the North if George is dead? They try to dismiss this as memory suppression, but I’m pretty sure that doesn’t apply to losing a loved one to a fucking alien - it also completely stands at odds with the themes of the book. When facing annihilation at the hands of a higher power, the arrogant Brits, who previously lived a life of privilege on the backs of millions of subjugated, reveal themselves for who they truly are at their core. The BBC series says yeah, we were a bunch of racist tosspots with delusions of grandeur, but we weren’t all bad. The main takeaway I got from this despicable, badly written series was a three hour pity party about how all those selfish POCs don’t consider the feelings of white people and asking why can’t we all just get along.

Peter Harness’ bastardisation of War Of The Worlds is without a doubt one of the worst adaptations I’ve ever seen. In fact it’s quite possibly one of the worst TV shows I’ve ever seen, period. It’s not just the sheer disregard for the source material that upsets me. It’s also the absolute amateurish nature of the whole fucking thing. This series fails in some of the most basic ways. His writing is truly terrible, somehow getting steadily worse and worse with each episode. It’s not just upsetting to see someone get the fundamental elements of storytelling so spectacularly wrong, it honestly makes me sick to my fucking stomach. Peter Harness, please, for your own sake and my sanity, stop fucking writing. You’re clearly not good at it and I don’t want to see my money go to someone who obviously hasn’t the faintest fucking idea what they’re doing. Enough is enough.

So it would seem that Jeff Wayne’s musical version remains the best adaptation of War Of The Worlds. In fact can we just have a movie adaptation of that please?

[asymptotichigh5]

Energy, the economy, and everything else.

I’ve been meaning to address this subject somewhere for a while. For the longest time, I hesitated on what the best medium to achieve this would be : on one hand, a Facebook status needs to be short and concise, which is not necessarily my forte and of course, there is also the fact that it would quickly be washed away in the storm of social media posts that has become 2020. A YouTube video then occurred to me to be most appropriate, but it would be long, my camera sucks and I hate video editing. So, I finally turned to this blog, which I had abandoned for quite some time. Surprisingly, there was an article in my drafts I had started writing almost 5 years ago about exactly this topic titled “A physics crash-course for politicians: a recipe not to kill us all”, but it was a bit too dramatic and I might get called off for taking political stances, when in reality there will be none in this post (which is surprising, for any of those reading this who know me). Anyway, this article will be the first in a series, which I might or might not continue, depending on interest, even though I did promise a friend of mine to carry through the entire message the whole way through, hopefully I’ll be able to do this with some of you actually reading all the way through, though that might be too optimistic.

Energy is a concept which is as important (if not more) as it is misunderstood by the general public. Most people don’t consider energy to be a considerable issue in their daily lives, but hopefully by the end of this post you will understand that energy is what allows you to live your 21st century carefree lifestyle. It turns out that most of us consider energy to be a bill to pay at the end of the month, or an annoyance to pay for when we fill our cars with gasoline at the pump, but energy — before being a bill to pay, or a commodity — is a physical quantity. A quick look at Wikipedia will give you a definition of energy which appears to be rather circular. Perhaps a more appropriate definition of energy for the sake of this post is the following:

Energy [/ˈɛnədʒi/, noun] : a physical quantity quantifying the ability to change the environment, or the ability to do work.

By “change the environment” we refer to the ability to perform any kind of change at all. Letting a ball fall involves energy, heating up water to make a cup of tea involves energy, me typing on this keyboard at this very moment also involves energy, etc. The SI unit for energy is the Joule, which at the human scale represents a tiny bit of energy (roughly speaking, it is the energy required to lift a medium-sized tomato (300 grams) by 1 metre. This unit has the annoying nuisance of being too small, so for the rest of this post we will talk about energy in terms of MWh (megawatt-hours), which corresponds to 3 600 000 000 Joules, which is a hell of a lot more medium-sized tomatoes lifted, or in terms of kWh (kilowatt-hours), which corresponds to 3 600 000 Joules. It is a good exercise to try to understand the MWh in terms of human work to put everything into perspective. To this effect, the BBC actually had a great documentary which appeared in 2009 about electrical energy consumption in the UK which performed an experiment in which a tiny army of people were forced to pedal to provide electricity to an average-sized house with an average-sized family having an average-sized consumption of electricity. While the documentary has great shock value, we need not hire an army of 80 cyclist to get the right orders of magnitude. An 80 kg man carrying 10 kg of supplies with him and climbing 2000 m up a mountain spends roughly 0.5 kWh to go up the mountain. Similarly, digging up 6 m${}^3$ of dirt to make a hole 1 m deep takes roughly 0,05 kWh of energy. By comparison, 1L of oil provides 2~4 kWh of (usable) mechanical energy.

Of course, using the oil to drive up the mountain, or to fuel an excavator to dig up the holes is a no brainer. Oil, or more precisely the machines it feeds, are not constrained by fatigue, do not form unions, do not complain that the ruble is too heavy, or that their legs are tired. It is also incredibly cheap by comparison, even if the human workers going up the mountain or digging up the hole are not getting paid at all. Assuming the cost of a slave to simply be the sustainance cost of a human being (i.e. minimal clothing, food and shelter) it is still a couple of hundred times cheaper to use a machine instead of a person to perform tasks, whenever possible. The reason why slavery ended is not because all of a sudden people grew a conscience out of thin air, or because we are so much better or educated than our ancestors ; it is simply stupid to have slaves in a world where you have access to a dense source of energy, because using this energy for mechanical work is many times more efficient and cheaper than owning slaves. This heuristic argument is also what ultimately explains the correlation between the abolition of slavery and the first industrial revolution (although the latter was mostly fed by coal as opposed to oil). In other words, the huge disparity in the efficiency of dense energy sources is what explains that mankind has historically always transitioned to sources of energy which monotonically increase in energy density.

But just what makes energy so important? Well, the answer lies in the definition. Since energy is ultimately the driver for any transformation of the environment, energy is by definition the main driver of the economy, too. In fact, the availability of a large supply of energy is what has allowed the development of modern society as we know it: paid holidays, retirement benefits, social security, social programs, your trip to Thailand last year, the variety of food you find at the supermarket, the fact that you even have disposable income to spend however you wish, free time, your ability to pursue long years of study, etc. Without the access to a cheap, reliable source of energy, this would all be impossible. Without realizing it, on average, we can calculate an equivalent amount of slaves used by any human on Earth today, given our estimates on the output of energy a human being is capable of delivering above and the total energy consumption of the planet. Doing the math, we find that an average human lives as if he/she had ~200 slaves working for him/her constantly. If we look at developed nations, this number jumps to 600 to 1500 equivalent slaves. This is an outstanding standard of living compared to what any of our ancestors ever knew. And so, it’s not that our generation is 200 times more productive than previous generations of humans, what has been driving the economy for the past 220 years is not humans, so much as it is the increasing access to a park of machines which has driven GDP growth since the industrial revolution. In fact, this can also be seen in developing countries, where an increase in development is immediately accompanied by a rural exodus driven by the introduction of machines to perform the heavy work in the fields. This allows for a widening of the pool of workers, which can then be free to use more machines and increase GDP.

So what sources of energy have we been exploiting in the last 220 years? Worldwide, the mix looks a little bit like this: 

Notice that most of this mix (oil, gas and coal) are sources which are fossil fuels. In essence, what this chart is saying is that we owe all of the societal progress of the past 220 years to fossil fuels. Of course, the use of these fuels has the annoying consequence of releasing CO${}_2$ into the atmosphere which — as we know — has some rather undesirable consequences for the future of humanity. This chart also tells a story about how people have completely misrepresented and misunderstood the problem. Most people think that the energy crisis will ultimately be solved by replacing the carbonated sources of energy by “renewables”, even though the later are basically invisible in the above chart. Luckily, a world where we live only with renewable energy is entirely possible: it’s called the Middle Ages. The impossibility of replacing these carbonated sources with “renewables” is an important point to treat, and deserves an article of its own, but in the end its cause is the same as what has driven this discussion so far: energy density. We shall come back to this important point in a subsequent post. For now, let us finish driving the point home in establishing the unequivocal link between energy, specifically oil, and GDP.  Energy availability is the main driver of the economy, this is simply because the economy is nothing other but the collective transformation of stuff into other stuff by humans. This, and the fact that 50% of the world-wide oil consumption is used to transport goods or people from point A to B is what explains the following correlation between oil and GDP: 

In light of global warming, the question becomes one in which we are forced to arbitrate between real GDP growth and carbon emissions. It is literally that simple, yet it is difficult to grasp what this means. GDP growth is an abstract concept most of us don’t really understand, and most people advocating for giving up growth don’t fully grasp the consequences of what it will mean for all of us. Very really, what it means is diminishing real wages and purchasing power by a factor varying between 3 or 10 over the next 30 years (we will come back to these figures eventually in another article, too). Now, most people will point out that we can and should just take all this wealth from the oligarchs and the billionaires out there, and this is true and should definitely be done, but it will unfortunately still not be anywhere near enough to solve the problem. Orders of magnitude are a bitch and maths sucks, especially when they contradict your political opinions. In real terms, giving up growth means to take your current salary, and divide it by 10, and ask yourself whether you are really ready to live with that. The questions on left and right are at this point so irrelevant that it is stupid to even ask them. Both of these models of thinking completely rely on a pie which is ever increasing and in which the living standards of everyone eventually rise. For the right, this is obvious, but this holds true even in a leftist society, in which the social programs and everything that goes with it relies heavily on economic growth and an increase of the economic pie. This view is flawed, as in very real terms in order to protect ourselves from climate change, the only way is to considerably decrease our dependence on fossil fuels, in other words, considerably decrease global GDP.

(Un)fortunately, whether the politicians decide to take global warming seriously or not, the problem will auto-regulate eventually. You see, there is a tiny and obnoxious problem regarding our addiction to fossil fuels: we are running out of them. We should point out that not all fossil fuels are equal: this is not only true from a carbon emission perspective, but also from a transportation point of view. Indeed, only about 10% of the coal produced yearly is actually exported, because it is inconvenient to transport. Gas presents a similar problem, given its physical form, which is not sufficiently energetically dense to be easily shipped without compression (which itself involves energy). This leaves oil as the main source of energy which is actually exportable and tradable.  And so, not only is oil vital due to the fact that it is the only source of energy which can reliably be used to for transportation, it is also the only option when looking at trading energy internationally. However, oil production has been already past its peak in most countries with considerable oil reserves. From a European point of view, the problem is actually worse as the energy consumption in Europe has been stagnating and in fact decreasing since 2005, when we reached peak consumption.

Incidentally, this explains why there has been no -- and there will be no -- economic long term real growth in Europe in the future, and it this has indeed been the case ever since 2008. In fact, most of the economic growth which has happened in Europe ever since is due to the trade of goods which increase in value over time (such as housing), which gets further gets inflated as there is a surplus of liquidity which has been continuously injected into the system since the introduction of quantitative easing. We will come to this problematic in a latte post. Similarly, we observe analogous curves of decrease in variation of energy consumption in the countries of the OECD (source of data: BP Statistical Review 2017), which means that this halting of real economic growth is not to be expected anywhere else in the OECD either.

During a recent discussion with a close friend of mine, he pointed out that the decrease in consumption in energy could be explained by the fact that the economy in developed countries had essentially become an economy of services, and that thus, this correlation between GDP and energy consumption and production was flawed, but this reasoning is wrong. First, because many of these services introduced involve or depend strongly on developments in e-commerce and industries attached to the development of the Internet and computers. However, the digitalization of the economy has not led to a decrease in energy demand, but in fact quite the opposite, if anything it has considerably increased our energy dependence. Second, the data simply states otherwise across the board. For instance, the chart below depicts an evolution of the percentage of people working in services and the amount of tons of CO${}_2$ released in the environment per capita in the World (data is from the World Bank).

Of course, the fact that these are positively correlated in the world and these countries is expected. In the world, because supporting the increasing living standards of the people working in the service sector necessarily comes out of an increase of the economic pie, which can only mean that the energy consumption (thus, at first order, the tons of CO${}_2$ in the atmosphere) increased. In European countries, the CO${}_2$ per capita has been reduced, partly to a negligible population growth, but also due to the delocalization of the most polluting elements of the economy to developing countries. Nonetheless, the general worldwide trend is clear: more service sector employment correlates with higher output of CO${}_2$, which implies higher energy consumption. But of course, by the reasoning above, this is hardly surprising.

Most of the time, the decline in the rate of growth of oil production is dismissed by saying that we will always find alternative forms of petroleum which will remain exploitable and will secure us with more oil. However, these alternative sources, such as bituminous sands and are problematic to exploit, require more energy input to be exploitable and are of lesser energetic quality. Similar decreasing curves of consumption and production have been appreciated for gas as well. Coal remains an exception to this, but it is not easily tradable, which implies that only 8 countries (including the US, China and Australia) really can consider exploiting coal for long term energy consumption, but given the climate consequences this poses, this is hardly a desirable outcome.

And so ultimately, it is not even a question of deciding whether or not we want to transition out of fossil fuels or not. The decrease in fossil fuel consumption will happen whether we like it or not — and by extension, so will the inevitable shrinking of the economy. The problem is that it might not happen fast enough to avoid catastrophe, which might already be unavoidable. What this also means is that the questions we should be asking ourselves as a society are not so much whether we should adopt liberal or leftist policies, but rather how we optimize the distribution of resources in a world where the economic pie decreases year by year, but no one seems to be wanting to have this discussion seriously.

[sciencespies]

What we don't know about parasites in our changing world could be deadly

https://sciencespies.com/environment/what-we-dont-know-about-parasites-in-our-changing-world-could-be-deadly/

What we don't know about parasites in our changing world could be deadly

In the salt water marshes of southern California, a splashing killifish is easy prey for a hungry shorebird. Like a jerking marionette, the helpless creature shimmies and flashes on the surface of the water. And all the while, hiding deep in its brain, an invisible other quietly pulls the strings.

The puppeteer in question is the super-abundant parasitic flatworm known as Euhaplorchis californiensis. Throughout its life, this one parasite will infect no less than three animals, and a bird’s intestine is the final destination it wants to reach.

To get there, the parasite’s larva must penetrate a killifish, crawl to its brain and lay down a carpet of cysts, which it then uses to manipulate the host’s swimming, sending it thrashing to the surface.

As it happens, infected killifish are preyed on by birds some 10 to 30 times more, which means that parasites are essentially increasing the amount of resources available in the ecosystem: a relationship we often overlook in the natural world.

The story of the infected fish is a tantalising peak backstage, but it’s also a reminder of our sheer ignorance. As the world’s climate changes, we can’t ignore our parasites any longer.

A parasitic dark matter

Though often hidden to the human eye, parasites are, by some estimates, more than half of all known species on Earth. What’s more, they can influence virtually every other free-living animal.

Humans alone play host to nearly 300 types of parasitic worm, and around a third of us are currently infected, whether knowingly or not, with at least one.

They’re everywhere, on all sides, maybe even inside. And yet when we picture a classic food chain, how many of us remember the lions, zebras and grass, only to forget their hidden puppeteers?

Compared to free-living species, scientists have collected relatively scant information on parasites. Historically dominated by medical researchers and overlooked by ecologists and conservationists (Darwin himself viewed them as “degenerates“), these organisms are often entirely missing from modern depictions of food chains; even though, in the average ecosystem, parasite–host links actually outnumber predator–prey links.

Only in the last 30 years or so have we realised our mistake.

 (Cizauskas et al., Royal Society Open Science, 2017)

Above: Global distribution of parasite climate change research. Research on parasitic species is disproportionately oriented towards human emerging infectious diseases (EIDs), especially in countries where the majority of parasite research occurs.

When parasites like E. californiensis are included in the ecology of California’s salt marshes, the classic food web – with a few predators at the top and lots of smaller species on the bottom – is almost literally “turned on its head“.

“Essentially,” the authors of a 2008 paper explain, “a second web appears around the free-living web, and this completely changes the level of connectivity.”

Parasites are thus described as a sort of hidden “dark matter“, not only in our ecosystems but also in our models of infection. When Chelsea Wood, a parasite ecologist at the University of Washington, first started researching mass fishing nearly 15 years ago, she told ScienceAlert that we had virtually no idea how this practice might impact resident parasites.

Even now, she adds, when ecosystems are facing unprecedented changes, we have only the foggiest idea how more than half the species on Earth are coping.

Whether acknowledged or not, parasites are key indicators and shapers of healthy communities, influencing the survival and reproduction of whole host populations, causing food web cascades or even epidemics.

Some call them the “omnipresent agents of natural selection“, others the “ultimate missing links“, still others the “invisible puppeteers“.

Whatever the label, it’s about time we consider the parasite.

Shooting in the dark

If the history of medical science has taught us anything, Wood argues, it’s that the emergence of a new infectious disease can go unnoticed for a long time: the tale of HIV, jumping from primates to humans decades before we recognised it as a global epidemic, is a prime example.

Today, a similar story might be unfolding in our oceans, like a shadow, creeping up the wall behind us.

“We really are just starting to scratch the surface on whether a changing world means rising rates of infectious disease,” Wood told ScienceAlert.

In the last few years, scientists have grown ever more concerned that our planet is not only getting warmer, it’s also altering the spread and distribution of parasitic diseases.

A recent finding, not yet published by Wood’s lab, indicates that from 1978 to 2015, there was a 280-fold increase in Anisakis simplex, a cold water nematode responsible for some 20,000 cases of herring worm disease, usually contracted from eating raw or undercooked seafood.

Whether the trend is due to fishing, climate change or something else, is hard to say for now. In Arctic waters, where this nematode flourishes and climate change is at its worst, we often lack baseline and long-term data, even for the best known parasites and their diseases.

Unfortunately, this means our future projections can often fall short of the rich reality.

The domino effects of climate change on parasites and their hosts. (Cizauskas et al., Royal Society Open Science, 2017)

The latest climate-parasite models are trying to fill-in this blindspot, incorporating not only climate data, but also information on parasitic life cycles, ranges, and opportunities for new hosts.

The initial results suggest that climate change will play a much larger role in disease transfer than we once thought. But what that specifically means for bird-flu, human malaria, A. simplex or other parasitic diseases remains unresolved.

After all, wherever there’s few data, there’s plenty of doubt. Even Wood, who directly measures parasite prevalence, admits that her research may well contain a sneaking bias. Researchers, you see, tend to pay more attention to those parasites that matter to humans.

“No one cares about parasites that are diminishing into extinction, because they don’t hurt people, they don’t hurt animals, they don’t cause outbreaks, they don’t ruin your fish fillet, they don’t crawl across your plate at the sushi restaurant,” Wood explains.

But that doesn’t mean they aren’t a vital part of our ecology. While an increase or change in parasite populations will no doubt have serious repercussions for health and agriculture, the flip side may well entail ecological upheaval. Some parasites are certain to flourish, while others will likely decline and go extinct.

A 2017 study on 457 parasite species predicts that five to 10 percent are committed to this fate by 2070, solely from climate-driven habitat loss. The researchers went on to create the first “red list” for parasites.

“Accounting for host-driven coextinctions,” the authors write, “models predict that up to 30 [percent] of parasitic worms are committed to extinction, driven by a combination of direct and indirect pressures.”

Will the aforementioned E. californiensis number among these wormy losers? Will another invasive parasite take its place? What then will happen to the size, distribution and abundance of killifish? The hungry shorebird? The precious salt marshes? The humans who rely on them?

Gathering answers on the complexities of parasite-host dynamics in all the thousands of mammal and bird species is a simply impossible task, says Konstans Wells, a parasite ecologist and modeller at Swansea University.

“We need more data for certain aspects,” he told ScienceAlert, “but we certainly can’t sample everything and we also can’t wait with the modelling because there is always a need to make better forecasting or maps where diseases are being distributed.”

As the clock ticks, researchers must act like ghostbusters, hunting down invisible foes, diseases that don’t yet exist or have yet to re-emerge in some new unexpected location.

Danielle Claar, a postdoc working in Wood’s lab, is studying the effect of El Niño events in the parasite-rich Tropics, because she says these can act as windows into future warming. Others in the team are sifting through countless museum samples and old journals for evidence of the past.

“When you arrive into science you think everyone’s got everything figured out,” Wood says.

“But as you get deeper in you realise there’s so much we don’t know. It’s staggering.”

As the climate crisis takes a firm grip, squeezing some parasites out and holding on to others, what we don’t know could very will kill many. And that goes for both parasites and humans alike.

A version of this article was first published in June 2019.

#Environment

[youwillcallher]

something that’s been bothering me about this season is how little dennis’ absence has been addressed, even as a joke! we know rcg and they literally never leave any plot point unaddressed, they love bringing back even tiny things from previous seasons and showing the later consequences of them (for instance, dennis continuing to impersonate brian lefevre leading to mandy and north dakota etc etc etc) so why would they not focus on it? it feels like they’re purposefully starving us for an explanation and dragging it out much longer than literally any other show would. i remember seeing an interview where glenn said something like “dennis, the character, decided to leave the bar, and we’re going to take that decision and development seriously.” but the thing is, they haven’t! 

or at least, not yet.

(putting it under a read more because this got long)

as we all know, there’s some timeline fuckery happening this season -- the gang beats boggs 2: ladies reboot happens after the super bowl (see: guigino’s waiter). this is the first time the super bowl episode has been brought up. we see it mentioned again in time’s up for the gang. rcg is clearly laying breadcrumbs leading up to the episode, and it must have some significance. 

we all know rex is back in the episode, and i don’t think it’s unreasonable whatsoever to theorize that out gay beefcake mac and rex, someone mac has been outwardly attracted to since season three, will definitely at the very least do some intense flirting, and seeing as it is the super bowl, it also wouldn’t be unreasonable to think hmm! maybe there’s a kiss cam moment in there! maybe with rex, maybe not, but i think we’re definitely going to see some very gay mac in that episode, hopefully making out with some beefcake on live television.

if that happens, which honestly seems pretty possible (why else bring rex back if not for a symbol of mac’s gay awakening and maybe the first time we see him actually getting with a guy?), i think it’s entirely plausible that it sets off the sequence of events leading to dennis coming back to philly. 

say dennis is sitting at home in ND, watching the big game (cause even if you take the man out of philly, you can’t take philly out of the man!), and the kiss cam starts rolling. he doesn’t pay much attention at first -- watching people that aren’t him make out is one of his top pet peeves, why should he give a shit if other people kiss? it’s not like they’re fucking, and more importantly, if he’s not involved, there is literally no reason to care -- but then suddenly he sees a familiar face and freezes in place. his eyes are glued to the screen, his hand stops digging through the bowl of popcorn he’s holding, his face contorts into shock then confusion then disgust: mac is making out with a guy on live tv. mac is making out with a guy on live tv. mac is making out with a guy on live tv. mac is making out with a guy on live tv.

the very next morning, dennis’ bags are packed, and he’s back to philly. not because he finally realizes he’s in love with mac and is returning to confess his undying adoration for him and win him back, like some shitty rom com. no, it’s because dennis can deal with a lot of things, sure, but watching the one person he thought would always worship and love him, someone who’s unending admiration and devotion to him has always been as constant, expected, and without deviation as (as @rcgrights brilliantly put it) the air dennis needs to breathe -- watching that person immediately move on without a second thought, on live tv, no less? this is the ultimate humiliation and betrayal in dennis’ eyes. he has no idea what the fuck the emotions he’s currently feeling are, but he knows none of them are positive, and that he wants them to stop. reminder that this is dennis “i just want everything to go back to normal” reynolds, a man who hides his dependence and insecurities under layers and layers of superiority. but yet, in a split second, all of his carefully constructed walls had come crashing down because mac, the one person he thought would always adore and desire him, apparently no longer does. if mac’s no longer in love with him, who even is he? mac’s love for him has become so deeply intertwined in the dynamic of the gang, the only people on earth he cares about, so deeply intertwined in his life, so deeply intertwined in his own psyche, that now that it’s no longer obvious he has no idea what to do with himself. he never thought it would come to this. so something has to change.

mac is, as we all know, an extremely dependent and emotionally stunted person. he had a horrible and depressing upbringing, and now, after a lifetime of being neglected, avoided, and unloved, he is stuck in the freudian pregenital stage, which is marked by feelings of intense deprivation and loss. this is something that’s always been woven into his character, even though it became clearer and clearer as time went on. back in the season five commentary for mac and dennis break up, dr. drew pinsky (an actual psychologist and doctor from celebrity rehab that, for whatever reason, rcg brought on) says about mac’s fear of abandonment in relation to dennis: “everything threatens him because he’s in an abandonment crisis right now. he got close to being abandoned so anything now is a threat.” this is a pretty accurate explanation for almost all of mac’s interactions with dennis -- the more it seems like dennis is moving away from him, the more desperate he is to have him back, and the more outwardly affectionate he is out of fear of abandonment. however, part of being as emotionally stunted as mac is not being able to properly understand what happens when people distance themselves, be that physically, emotionally, or both. to quote dr. drew talking about mac, “one thing about little kids, like, two-year-olds, they can’t tolerate coming and going. when somebody’s out of sight, they cease to exist. very primitive way of perceiving other people” to which charlie day responds “yes, mac’s very primitive.” this knowledge makes it easy to understand mac’s apparent lack of response to dennis’ absence -- out of sight, out of mind. if he’s not there, he ceases to exist. obviously, it’s not that simple, but having dennis be gone is almost a relief for mac: he doesn’t have to worry about pleasing him and gaining his love and respect anymore, because he’s not in the picture. there’s no way mac can even screw it up because he’s just not there. this is a weird and unwelcome but surprisingly freeing feeling that mac isn’t quite sure how to deal with. 

unfortunately, he doesn’t get much opportunity to find out, because before he knows it, dennis is back.

dennis is back, refusing to explain what happened, telling them to just move past it, which is strange because no one, not even dennis, leaves their family and retcons a major life decision they felt confident in for absolutely no reason. if the reason was that he got tired of being a dad, or he didn’t like mandy, or that the north dakota life was boring and just not for him, why wouldn’t he tell the gang, even in a split second off hand manner? it’s strange that he wouldn’t mention it whatsoever. unless, of course, the only reason he came back is one that dennis can’t wrap his mind around, one that for all logical conclusions shouldn’t be a reason at all. it’s just like the part of the gang does a clip show where they ask him to name one good thing about living with mac, and he can’t. mac is annoying, doesn’t pay rent or do any work, all he does is go on the dildo bike, etc.. there is no reason why dennis should keep living with him, and dennis knows that. so why has he lived with him for twenty years, why has he not taken any of the many opportunities he’s been given to move out for good, why did he not get a new apartment after coming back from north dakota, why does he still stay with mac when there’s absolutely no logical explanation for it? these are the questions that dennis desperately tries to avoid thinking about, for fear of finding out something he doesn’t want to know about himself, about mac, about them. so, he replaces these insecurities with the only things he knows how: superiority complexes, cockiness, and being an absolute dick to mac. because that means that dennis is above mac, right? he’s still himself, he’s still awesome, he doesn’t need mac, right? if he insults mac and makes it clear he’s not interested in him, then on some level that has to be true, right? 

let’s say he’s more self aware than he seems to be, though. let’s say he has some vague idea of what’s going on, or at the very least, knows he wants mac back to normal. if he wants mac to dote on him again, then why would he treat him 10x shittier than he has any other time? well, dennis prides himself on his minoring in psychology, as we all know, and even if he kind of sucks at it, there’s no way anyone with even the tiniest background in psych wouldn’t have picked up on mac’s abandonment issues. and knowing that dennis 1) knows mac so well, and 2) most likely knows how the pre-genital stage/fear of abandonment works from his past education, it’s fitting to assume that he knows that the best way to get mac immediately back under his influence is to be completely and totally awful to him. the worse dennis is to mac, the harder mac tries. and dennis is desperate for mac to try, he’s so used to having mac’s constant approval of him that now that he feels like he’s lost it, he needs it back, and needs it stronger than ever. this may be why dennis has been so awful to mac all season, but, of course, continues living with him, continues being around him, and is even back in philly in the first place. again, why else could he possibly be back? maybe this is entirely speculation and i’m reading way too deeply into everything, but it really seems as if this is one of the only explanations for dennis’ admittedly strange behavior this season. 

let’s just say that i’m anxiously and apprehensively awaiting the gang wins the big game. 

[itsclydebitches]

Dragon Ball. Dragon Ball Z Dragon Ball Super. Which is your favorite?

Oh, anon. You poor soul. You’ve activated my current obsession. Okay. I preface this by saying that DBZ, imo, is the CLASSIC. Frieza, Cell, and Buu? Iconic. DBZ is what I think of as the core of the DB franchise and I adore it accordingly. That being said… I’m really, really loving Dragon Ball Super. 

(And I’m totally gonna tell you why because you made the mistake of starting this conversation in the first place :D)

I’m just? A sucker for lore filled with fallible gods?? This is my long-lived love of Greek mythology rearing its head. Even back in DBZ the Supreme Kai was instantly a favorite of mine. Yeah, yeah, the whole fandom rags on him for supposedly being “useless,” but that’s precisely why I love him? He starts out as this mysterious, incredibly powerful figure–powerful enough to scare the crap out of Piccolo–and then very quickly falls off that pedestal, making him relatable and humanized. Shin clearly has a shit ton of trauma from, you know, watching Buu kill and/or absorb his entire family. He’s been forced to take on a job meant for five and he definitely hasn’t been trained (or at least fully trained) for this particular position. He comes to Earth expecting to use mortals as a tool, as one would expect from a high-ranking god, and is just totally blindsided by how powerful they are. It’s an instant double-edged sword. On the one hand hell yeah defeating Buu just got a whole lot more likely. On the other hand, existential crisis much? Who am I–who are all the gods–if we’re not intrinsically more powerful, knowledgeable, or spiritually sturdier than the mortals we watch over? Goku, Vegeta, and especially Gohan upset the presumed hierarchy. It’s why we get such a good dichotomy between Shin and Kibito. Shin rolls with this new information and embraces it fully. Okay. Mortals are stronger than us in so many ways, how wonderful! We can learn from them and rely on them, forming equal partnerships to achieve our goals. Kibito is stuck in his assumptions. How dare you set foot on this world? How dare you think you can pull out the Z Sword? How dare you think yourself equal to a god? 

It’s a familiar theme for DB: humanizing the latest, all-powerful entity. And each new introduction becomes more extreme.

Kami was our original god… who got some awkward moments. Then King Kai is the top guy…who loves lame jokes and lets Goku tear up his sacred planet in the name of training. Then Shin, Supreme Kai of the whole damn universe… who is also an anxious bean Just Trying His Best. It’s a theme I love because it upholds humanity (or in this case Saiyans adopted by humanity) as beings of endless potential. DB is all about pushing past your limits, but that doesn’t just apply to physical power. It also ties into upending the status quo; showing those who think themselves arrogantly better–in this case the gods–that no, we all have worth here. When the chips fall it’s mortals who consistently manage what the gods cannot, reaching a point where, ki-wise at least, they’re indistinguishable from gods, raising the question of why they were ever above them in the first place. They’re not. We’re all on equal footing once those assumptions are acknowledged and done away with. Ancient Kais can like dirty magazines. Supreme Kais can have panic attacks. Destroyers can love pizza as much as the next, average anime watcher.

Indeed, we see in the Tournament of Power that these rules now apply to Goku in his god state. He might have reached incredible power that everyone else thought impossible… but that doesn’t make the rest of the cast “below” him. It’s only because of his friends–presumably “useless” friends like Krillin and Tien–that allow him to enter the tournament and get as far as he did. It’s his old mentors who he has far outpaced that remind him he still has much to learn and who help Goku tap into Ultra Instinct in the first place. It’s a simple android we haven’t seen in years who manages to win the whole damn thing. The story consistently applies that same message of equality and worth to everyone, including our original paragon who has now reached the status of the very beings he’s worked to outpace. Rather than turning Goku into the hypocrite, DB keeps reminding him that no amount of power is going to change his or anyone else’s worth. He’s still BFFs with Krillin. Still married to Chi-Chi. Still needs other “weak” people like Bulma to help him when things get tough. No time machine, money, or strategic smarts? Sorry, no win.

In short, Dragon Ball Super takes that fantastic message and dials it up to 11. Now suddenly we’ve got a scary Destroyer God… who is easily swayed by tasty Earth food and a good nap spot. Angels who are equally humanized in their humor and love of mortal creations. An omnipotent ruler who is recognizably child-like. It both makes Zeno lovable and downright terrifying. He’s human enough to form friendships and use his power inappropriately. Zeno has the capacity to fall in love with a simple handshake as well as destroy an entire universe with the same detachment that we might, say, walk through an ant hill. Why did I do it? Because I could and no one has taught me yet that this might be something I shouldn’t do. Everyone has the capacity for growth.

And it’s so goddamn funny? Literally this scene is everything to me because it slams godly assumptions together with simplistic, mortal friendships, then lets that contrast play out. The most powerful being ever, creator of it all, the god that makes every other god shake in their boots wants… a friend? Okay! Our equally intimidating Grand Priest cracking up at this development? Whis losing his shit in the background? Shin straight up fainting? Goku pressing his shiny new god button because who DOESN’T press a button when you’re suddenly presented with one? All of it slays me. Forget stories where you endlessly bow before your supposed betters, knowing that you will never be able to even fathom their power. I want more stories like this, where the hero introduces enough kindness and brazen communication that it upends everyones’ expectations and fun, crazy new relationships form. Goku moved from utter shock at learning the Supreme Kai even existed to hoisting him over his shoulder like a drunk friend who is still refusing to head home. I love this weird-ass family.

All of which of course introduces the opposite as well. What if we’re given Zamasu, a fallible god whose imperfections don’t result in him becoming another quirky family member, but lead him down a path that endangers the entire multiverse? Though Super hasn’t commented on it explicitly yet, we’re also starting to toy with the idea of exactly how “human” the top gods are and how much growth they are capable of. For example, I’m fascinated by the Grand Priest. The anime makes him out to be far darker than he is in the manga, and I know there’s a disconnect between the two, so I’m not currently inclined to think that he’s the end Big Bad. Rather, he seems to actually have a stronger moral sense than Zeno–he comments on how awful it is that mortals riot and kill one another after learning about the Tournament–but as Zeno’s subordinate, and being well aware of how easy it can be to displease him, he’s not in a good position to sway him. We see him introducing tiny bits of logic to the Zenos (like stopping the fight between Goku and Toppo in the anime), but that’s a far safer thing to suggest then, say, “How about we don’t erase a ton of universes at once, hmm?”

Like his angel children, the Grand Priest ultimately exists to serve his Lord… but Goku and his friends are in no such position. Not as overtly, anyway. Created through evolution and developing their own ideals, they have the freedom to challenge and ultimately teach all those high-level gods, including Zeno. He says it himself in that clip: “No one will try. You can do what no one else can do!” Goku, both as a mortal and a very straight forward one, has the capacity to charge past those expectations and hit on something grand.

However, we see with Whis that, wow… maybe angels really are so far removed from us that they don’t care in any meaningful way. Whis seems like a friend, but when push came to shove he wasn’t very upset about his entire universe–and a Destroyer he’s known for who knows how many thousands of years–getting destroyed. We can attribute this apathy to him assuming it will all turn out alright (if anyone would realize that whoever wins can just use their wish to revert everything back to normal, it’s Whis), but even if he actually doesn’t care much right now… he’s learning too. Whis went from shrugging about Beerus destroying the Earth (at least he has his leftovers!) to telling Trunks and Mai how to break more time rules–rules Whis originally thought were more important than anything else–just so they could get a happy ending. We’ve seen him form a legitimate friendship with Bulma. He does little things like waving a Universe 7 flag and having them hold hands that demonstrate care, outside of practicalities (like delivering Bulla so Vegeta can fight). He seems more invested in challenging the status quo than his brother and even his brother, notably, slips up and uses “Father” instead of “Grand Priest,” demonstrating a certain level of familial love that can sometimes override pure duty.

Vados copies Whis and sits with the Universe 7 team, shrugging off the other gods’ disgust. Whis then shows legit pride in Goku managing Ultra Instinct. It’s GREAT watching these beings move from seeing mortals as inconsequential specs in the multiverse to individuals worthy of their time, attention, and respect. We’re seeing that development with Whis most of all, slowly but surely.

And it helps that our protagonist is really worthy of that respect this arc. Beyond his innate capacity for kindness, Goku is wonderfully smart in Super. I myself have mentioned that being naive and battle obsessed to the point of endangering others is kind of his thing, but Super hits a wonderful middle ground. Goku is the one who thinks to use the future Zeno to destroy Zamasu. He figures out a good portion of Zamasu’s plan. He thought up the idea of using dead warriors in the Tournament of Power and instantly has a way of negating the danger Frieza would pose: let’s use Baba so he can only come back for 24 hours. The anime (strangely…) emphasizes how the Tournament is supposedly Goku’s fault, but Vados reminds everyone that Zeno planned to erase the universes regardless. Though he didn’t intend the outcome, Goku’s suggestion of a tournament gave all universes a fighting chance. Much more importantly, it introduced the reward that would ultimately save them all. Goku’s got a good head on his shoulders this time around and the story emphasizes that it’s his capacity to care that saves far more than his brute power. Sparing enemies leads to them turning over a new leaf. Cultivating a diverse family results in a team with the strength and strategy to win. The ability to look at anyone–even Zeno–and smile as you shake their hand results in allies who can save the day when your own strength fails. IT’S ABOUT LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP AND I’M A WEAK GOODY-GOODY.

I just… fucking love DBS. It takes all of the best underdog themes of the DB franchise–Can a low-class warrior become the best? Can a normal human woman gain the love of a prince? Can mortals ever stand side-by-side with gods?–and homes in on those questions, emphasizing them to an almost meta extent. I could give you another hundred reasons of exactly how much I’ve enjoyed these new stories… but I should stop now lol

Last note though Ultra Instinct is AWESOME

[dreamiebby]

Lost in a Dream

Genre: Mystery, action, humour 

Pairings: NCT Dream x Reader 

AU!: Dystopian, Virtual Worlds

Warnings: swearing, harm/violence, mentions of disorders and mental health issues, identity crisis (if that counts as a warning) and probably agnst. You might suffer with dramatic irony sooner or later

A/n: This series is inspired by the Danganronpa Game Series, if you've played the game, you would understand the themes that are going on. Also, I picked Dream from their We Young era (ft. Jaemin from GO) - I liked their hair very much then.

Word Count: 1.7K 

Summary: A game that means the life or death of everyone sounds extreme. But it’s real alright. When you’re placed in it, not knowing that your’re actually trapped in this virtual world or about the consequences of each action made because your memories are stolen from you… Makes the situation more confusing. 

________________________

INTRO // Chapter 1

You were trapped in a world where talent ruled over society, the few people who had a talent, where called Ultimates. You were either born an Ultimate, or not. This is how the War began. The jealousy filed by the non-talented and the brutal nature of some Ultimates, ignited the most "Catastrophic War in Human History". And where did you fall into this? You had no Idea but you don't know your name and  you have no clue about your identity. But, you did know you were in one shitty situation. 

You awoke in a cold room. The walls, floor and ceiling all being made of metal. Which you assumed was iron since the metal on the floor was rusty... but didn't look that old from what you could see, they had very defined engravements embroidered into the metal, but it being dark, you couldn't quite see what it was. The small boxed room had a thick, musty smell, like it was previously stained with something foul and distasteful. It was also dark, there were no windows in this tiny room, the only light source was a tiny candle that flickered like it was going to give out and the light that shone through the gaps of the exit of the room.  

But here you were, laying down on the floor. The strong smell of metal mixed with something foul was intoxicating. Making your head swirl in pain. You knew you needed to get out of here. You was about to call out when you heard several footsteps run towards your door from outside, you stayed quiet and still. "Yo, anyone in there!?" Called out one voice.

"Seriously Jeno? You idiot, just open the door. Every door we've opened, the person laying in there was passed out." Said a different voice. You sat up slowly, listening to these voices bickering and shuffling about and around your door. You guessed they were young boys, teenagers at least from what you could tell from their voices. You decided to call out, you were getting desperate to exit the room. "Please hurry! It stinks in here!" You yelled. The scuffling of their feet stopped.

  "... Did you hear that? I think there's a girl in there" One voice whispered, but frankly it was loud enough for you to hear.

"This is the first time you've fucking spoke and that's the first thing you say, Jisung?"

"Haechan! Watch your profanity." Said another voice, before the door in front of you clicked, then creaked open. You shielded your eyes from the intense brightness and squinted your eyes. Your room must had been really dark. You blinked a couple of times till your eyes adjusted before seeing the seven boys staring at you in confusion. One of the boys held a hand out, presumably for you to take it. 

"I'm not too sure about what's happening right now. But I know that you're the last person we're looking for and we've got to escape, now."

You hesitantly grabbed his hand, lifting you up to your feet. You dusted off the rust from the floor, that clung to your clothing.

"Where's the exit to this place?" You questioned, looking at the boy who helped you up. His features were soft and small, but his brown eyes were dark brown and beaming. His hair was black, that had an undercut with slightly short and choppy bangs that rested above his brows.

"Haha, you see... we don't know that yet. But some strange things have been happening since we've been trying to find people here..." his voice trailed off, "It's like we've been abandoned here-"

"Purposely!" said another boy. He was much shorter than the rest, he had bright lilac hair that fell just above his eyes. My eye's furrowed and the other six boys looked at him in confusion.

"How the hell could you tell that?" Another boy with bright retorted, almost offended by the remark.

"I just need a little more evidence before I can explain it to you guys." The purple haired boy answered, smiling to himself. They all turned away from him confused, before looking at the boy who offered his hand to you.

"I guess we should introduce ourselves?" He asked. Looking around if anyone was going to start first. "Well, I guess my name is Mark. The Ultimate team leader, the oldest here." He then motioned for the boy in blue hair to speak. He's hesitant before looking at you, then speaking.

"I'm Jisung, the Ultimate martial artist." And that's all he said before nudging the small purple haired boy next to him.

"Jisung is the youngest here, and I'm the second. I'm Chenle, I'm the Ultimate forensic and I hope we can be friends!" He beamed. Like he had a naturally bright and happy aura, compared to Jisung, who was more timid.

"You're so naive, Chenle. We should hurry and get this over with before something had happens. The name's Haechan, don't forget it yo." He said with such might, like his ego was through the roof. His red hair really did fit with his fiery expressions.

"Don't worry, I won't." You said starkly. "You didn't say what your ultimate was, what is it?" You questioned. He scoffed at your question. Like he was taking his time to find something to say.

"Ultimate assassin. Don't get on my nerves, okay? I've slaughtered many individuals who've pissed me off." He said with such confidence, but his face looked uncertain and contradictory. But you decided to ignore that before the next boy with light brown hair began to speak with such a welcoming voice.

"Lol hi, I'm Jaemin. Probably the most amazing person you'll meet out of everyone here. I'm also the Ultimate Gamer by the way." He turned to look at the boy next to him. Who seemed like he was in his own world. "Earth to Renjun, your turn." He said mockingly, shaking him a little.

"Oh, what?" was his response.

"Introduce yourself to her, man." Jaemin said, pointing at you. Renjun looked for a second, before answering.

"I'm Huang Renjun, the Ultimate Nurse... nice to meet you." He said, before turning away and looking at his surroundings again.

"What an actual fucktard, he said his last name too." Muttered Haechan, not realising that Renjun caught on to what he said.

"I was only being polite, you should try it sometime. Maybe then I won't treat you like dust." Renjun snapped, his ears going slightly red too. You we're certain that they haven't known each other for that long, but it seems like they already hate each other.

"Being polite is bullshit, it's like you want me to kill you in your sleep." Haechan snapped back, walking closer to Renjun. Things looked like they were going to heat up. Mark put his arm out, stopping Haechan from getting any closer to Renjun.

"We haven't got time for your bickering. So please, don't make this situation worse" Mark said controllingly. Trying to get an upper hand over the situation.

  "Well, I didn't fucking start it." Spat Haechan.

"That doesn't matter. Can't we get through a simple task without you getting angry at something stupid?" He shut him up, Haechan rolled his eyes, before taking a step back and crossing his arms in annoyance. There was only one more boy to introduce himself, who's face was a bit red, like he was holding something in. Your eyebrows furrowed before questioning him.

"You okay?" You directed your question at the boy who's name you didn't know.

  "Oh yeah, I need to stop laughing at these tense situations. Honestly, it's gonna get me killed." He blurted out, now laughing.

"Yah, Jeno, you can't be laughing in a tense atmosphere like this!" Said Jaemin.

"Oh well, my name is Jeno, and I'm the Ultimate inventor. Hope I don't need to say more." The white haired boy finished. Their attention was all on you, like they were waiting for you to speak.

"What's your name?" Chenle asked. You hesitated, remembering that you don't remember your name or talent.

"... I don't know." You replied.

"Do you remember your talent?" He asked once more.

"No... I don't. I don't remember anything." You responded. They all looked at you dumbfounded and shocked.

"You couldn't had forgotten... you're lying. I bet you just have a shitty talent... Like ultimate nurse or something dumb like that." Haechan laughed sheepishly. You couldn't believe it either, everyone else remembered their name and talent, but yet you didn't.

"It's okay if you don't remember. It may come back to you in a couple of hours or days." Mark reassured you, placing his hand on your shoulder. "But right now, we have bigger things to worry about. Like getting out of here. But we need to settle something first." He said the last part with a stern voice.

"Hmm?" You hinted him to continue.

"We need to call you something, we cant just call you 'She/Her/It' that's just rude." He stated.

"I think she looks like a y/n." Said Jaemin. Just at that moment they all narrowed their eyes, staring deeply at you. Kind of making you uncomfortable

  "For once, Jaemin is correct." Mocked Jeno. "Y/n really fits."

"How about we call you Y/n?" Mark asked, looking at you.

"I'm fine with that." You replied. Mark then discussed that they need to find some type of exit, and you were split into three groups. Group 1 being: you, Chenle and Mark. Group 2 being: Jisung, Jeno and Renjun, leaving group 3 being Jaemin and Haechan. You all settled on searching different parts of the huge 'building' you were all trapped in. And you all settled off, your group was searching the area by the grand doors, that could possibly be the entrance.

  "Guys, there's something I really want to check." Chenle blurted out, as if he was very eager. "There's something I'd like to clear up about this place." He then stated. "I want to visit the science lab." Mark nodded at his request, before leading the way to the science lab. You had so many questions on your mind. Some only you could answer. But you decided to push that to the back of your mind, focusing on the current situation. What Chenle wants to find out.

_______________________________

A/N: Heheh, this is my first time writing on Tumblr, so I'm trying to understand the mechanics about making links and stuff. Currently there is no link to Chapter 1... as I haven't written it lol. I'm doing this from the top of my head, with a little bit of planning. I really hope this is enjoyed, and I continue to write. Thank you!

Date Published: 12/06/18

[donveinot]

What Can I Do?

Photo by Christine Roy on Unsplash It’s a question that frequently comes up when faced with the looming reality of our changing world. Understandably so: Whether we’re encountering the Great Reset Agenda of the World Economic Forum, recognizing the influence of the interfaith movement, or watching the cultural great leap backwards take place before our eyes, we desire to act – what can I do? Often this question is couched in a sense of despair. It’s like witnessing an unstoppable train-wreck in slow motion, but the momentum has suddenly increased just as we’ve realized the gravity of the situation, and now we’re frozen in place by its magnitude. Something else is often in play, a strained hope that somehow, someone, somewhere will put a stop to it; to right this topsy-turvy world. Now you could – and you should – voice your concerns to elected officials. In a nation where the government is “from the people, by the people and for the people,”((Abraham Lincoln, “Gettysburg Address”)) that is part of your spiritual and civic responsibility. It is their job to hear and respond. You could – and you should – take some prudent personal measures, like shoring up one’s finances and shedding consumer debt. You should invest in personal relationships, in building up networks of trust. Other responses crop up, but in this article, we will tackle five short points, taking a slightly different approach than what’s often expected when we encounter the question, what can I do? 1) Understand your own worldview, and then take the time to understand theirs. No matter what is going on in culture in any given time period, believers in Jesus Christ must know what they believe, and why. The Apostle Paul’s letters consistently reinforced theological truths, instructing the early church in matters of doctrine while challenging them to remain in the faith. Furthermore, Paul’s instructions weren’t given in a vacuum; early believers faced mounting religious, political, and cultural pressures. His messages to those churches are as important today as ever. Like those believers, we too must understand the truths of God and how this shapes our worldview. We should also grasp the nature of competing worldviews, being willing to juxtapose those claims against the truth of scripture. Paul did, as exemplified in Acts 17:16-33. With the above in mind, it’s important to consider the ninth of the Ten Commandments: You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor (Exodus 20:16) What is a false witness? It is a person who stands up and swears before others that something untrue is true. Unfortunately, in our world of sound bites and social media, it can be hard to distinguish fact from sensationalism and fiction from well-intended messages. Nevertheless, before we throw our voices into the mix, we should exercise due diligence to ensure the accuracy of what we’re communicating – both in terms of the Christian message and what others are saying. Then, by understanding all viewpoints – yours and theirs, to the best of your ability – you position yourself with an informed opinion and an accurate context for truth. You become a truth teller, guarding against falling to slander, even unintentionally. But recognize this: before endeavoring to seriously understand a competing worldview, know your own line-in-the-sand lest you end up compromising it. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. (Colossians 2:8) 2) Inform yourself and your circle of influence, without resorting to hyperbole as the facts are sensational enough – do this with honesty and respect, so that you can become a trusted source. Quality, Christian-based resources are available to help you understand the questions and concerns of our age – Midwest Christian Outreach, Inc and Forcing Change are two examples. Then, as you study and seek knowledge, pay attention to what’s around you, carefully applying a Biblical lens while gaining an increased awareness. Soon you’ll notice how prevalent competing messages are, from what’s posted on your grocery store bulletin board to content on social media. Moreover, you’ll begin to understand how so many of our political and social changes are outgrowths of competing worldviews. For some of us, the next step is to find source material that demonstrates the intentionality of cultural changes. For example, when discussing the Great Reset of the World Economic Forum, you’ve taken the time to watch some of their videos and have read selected WEF articles. In doing this you’ve also gained insight into their language, discovering that word meanings and definitions are not always as they seem, that many social, environmental, and political concepts and nuances are either redefined or placed within a new narrative. Like anything else, there is a learning curve. Nevertheless, you’ve gleaned the overall picture, compared and contrasted worldviews and their potential outcomes, and can speak with some measure of knowledge. Not only can you “tell” but you can “show,” and this takes away the slippery slope of second-hand sensationalism. Then when you talk to others, including those who support that opposing worldview, you can use “their own words.” Thus equipped, hopefully, you’ll find yourself talking with them and not at them. In some respects, this was the approach Paul used in Acts 17; he employed their own lingo and leveraged their philosophy so as to reason with them about who the “Unknown God” is. Paul was able to discern an opportunity within an opposing culture and pursued this in a respectful manner. His approach is a good reminder: don’t let your validity be lost in your delivery. In doing the above, we have to understand who the real enemy is – “principalities and powers” – and represent ourselves as truth-tellers, ambassadors for Jesus Christ,((2 Corinthians 5:20)) as we engage in worldview conversations. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 4:12) So, who’s in your circle of influence? Anyone you are in front of, anyone you rub shoulders with. While we mainly stay within our own social circles, we ultimately influence everywhere we go. So, when out and about, consider who it is you’ll be in front of. And like Paul, look for those opportunities to speak truth. 3) Encourage your Pastor to stick with the truth of Scripture, for churches are not immune from these pressures. In fact, churches and seminaries have become vocal promoters of spiritual fads, counter-worldviews, and the political religion that we can build the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. Encourage your Pastor to stand on God’s Word, testing trends and cultural shifts – including those coming from inside denominations – against the standard that does not change. And as we’re writing this in 2021, we are acutely aware that Covid has exposed rifts within the Christian community while adding extra political challenges – from church shutdowns to others standing against lockdowns. We need to be discerning while recognizing that worldviews are in tension, and for some, this will be and has been costly. Encourage your Pastor to stand as a watchman, one who not only warns against coming dangers but calls people to be spiritually ready as we enter perilous days, the birth pangs. Likewise, you too are to be watchful. Indeed, this is a serious calling. Let us not be as those found in Isaiah 56:10, His watchmen are blind; they are all without knowledge; they are all silent dogs; they cannot bark, dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber. 4) Don't be scared of the world – concerned, yes – but don't let it drive you into fear. Don't let the fear of Man overshadow what's really important, the fear of God. Crisis creates fear, and when fear is used against us, we naturally want to protect ourselves. Hence, when a “solution” to a crisis – real or perceived – is presented as the way forward, as “salvation,” we welcome the reprieve, even if it’s something we would (or should!) rationally abhor. The Great Reset as presented by the World Economic Forum fits this bill, presenting a range of collectivist approaches in dealing with global fears. 2 Timothy 1:7 implied that if we fear, it robs us, For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. And Proverbs 29:25 reminds us that “the fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.” Let us put fear in its proper place. 5) Recognize world agendas like that presented by the WEF, or the Parliament of World’s Religions or the United Nations, for what they really are; an alternative salvation message – by uniting to save the Earth we redeem ourselves and can therefore usher an age of peace and prosperity. This is an unmistakable messianic impulse. Will doing or adopting any of the above stop the world from moving in the direction it's going? No. But that's ultimately not your job – your task is to be responsible, to be salt and living in grace, wherever you are. If your work is in the realm of high-power politics and finance, great, that’s your front line. If it’s in journalism and research, welcome to the club. If it’s as an educator or pastor or teacher… whether you’re involved in business or a trade or health care or a homemaker... the list goes on. Wherever your feet are, that’s where your mission field is, to be truth tellers – to your family, neighbors, and church – and even to your elected officials. Our world is changing. The Great Reset is just another point of evidence. If God told us this was going to happen – that people and nations would seek their own way (2 Timothy 3:13, Psalm 2) – be assured that He also has a plan: It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. (Psalm 118:8)Ω

Carl Teichrib is the author of Game of Gods: The Temple of Man in the Age of Re-Enchantment, and excerpts can be read at Game of Gods: The Temple of Man in the Age of Re-Enchantmenthis research reports and articles can be found at Game of Gods: The Temple of Man in the Age of Re-Enchantment Forcing Change Co-author Audrey Vanderkley is the administrator at Remnant Online Fellowship, which exists to connect people to relevant Christian resources on Bible prophecy and worldview issues © 2021, Midwest Christian Outreach, Inc All rights reserved. Excerpts and links may be used if full and clear credit is given with specific direction to the original content. Read the full article

[buffaloborgine]

A research on character building, character symbolism of Genesis Rhapsodos (Part 3)

Note: This part is heavily interpreted by my own perspective through linking many different writings throughout the whole Compilation of FFVII (including some details taken from Remake). Take this as a grain of salt and proceed with a clear mind.

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“Soul wrought of terra corrupt, Quelling Impurity, Purging the stream To beckon forth the ultimate fate Behold mighty Chaos, Omega's squire to the lofty heavens.”  (Omega Report #1 - FFVII Dirge of Cerberus)

“My soul, corrupted by vengeance Hath endured torment, to find the end of the journey In my own salvation And your eternal slumber” (LOVELESS Act IV - FFVII Crisis Core)

“ My fleeting memories will fall into darkness Your last smile comes into my mind, and disappears Leaving behind only warmth Right now, I can't be cured by only gentle words

I'm just going to give my everything To this battle that continues on endlessly Some day, everyone will return to the universe And no one needs to say goodbyes” (Redemption - GACKT)

If you suddenly feel like those three verses of poems/song have something in common, then congrats, you have finally found the key detail that I want to talk in this part of the theory series. 

What if I tell you that, Genesis was, for long, designed to be the rightful bearer, of Chaos, and that by the end of DoC, he has achieved the inheritance that should have been given to him at birth? 

To begin with, let’s look at what we know about Chaos in FFVII:

- Shelke called Chaos as “Herald of Anarchy”. “Anarchy” is a state of disorder due to absence or nonrecognition of authority, therefore, Chaos is the entity that, once awakened, will signal a disorder, or a “crisis”, that will result in the absence of authority. Assuming so, does this detail fit Vincent? No. He has been injected with the stagnant mako since Circa [ μ ] - εγλ 1984 (according to the Ultimania) which is like, 16 years before the event of Crisis Core happened. So, probably that Vincent has an awakened Chaos in him, and he went to sleep. Veld went to wake him up once in Before Crisis (December [ ν ] - εγλ 0006), then Cloud & Co came to pull him out of the coffin to fight Sephiroth (somewhere between  [ ν ] - εγλ 0007 and  [ ν ] - εγλ 0008), and yet, we see no marking events of “anarchy” caused by Vincent. 

- Chaos is represented by a mixture of red and black, and his essence has the magenta color (as seen falling down from the sky after Vincent’s suicidal dive into Omega). Vincent’s original color theme is black, as he worked as a Turk before Hojo shot him, even so, without being injected with the stagnant mako, Vincent will still not get that red color theme. So far, there are several characters in FFVII that has red-black or magenta color theme, the first one known is Vincent, the second is the Zirconiade, the third one is Nero the Sable (his eyes are magenta) and the last one is Genesis Rhapsodos. 

- Chaos function as the “purger of impurity” by burning the whole planet down so every souls would return to the Lifestream while filtering all the “impurity” from it, therefore triggering the departing of Omega, who takes the pure Lifestream with it, leaving Chaos behind on the lifeless planet. That surely doesn’t fit well into Vincent (no matter how hard you squint) because Vincent has no intention to burn the whole planet down or acting as the signal for Omega’s awakening. Besides, the only character we see going around to absorb “impure souls” is Nero the Sable, although Vincent’s Chaos can collect “impure souls” to increase in power, Vincent doesn’t deliberately do that.

- Chaos is created from the bad emotions and sins that was filtered out of the Lifestream, that’s why the Cetra depicted it as “Soul wrought in terra corrupt”. 

- By the end of DoC, Vincent told Lucrecia that “Chaos and Omega have returned to the planet”. That means Vincent no longer has the power of the Chaos insides him.

With all the details above, we can come to the conclusion that Vincent only bear a part of Chaos’ power insides him, he has never been the true Chaos. After he used Chaos’ power to destroy Omega, all those pieces of Chaos inside him returned to the planet. 

Which will lead us to the main problem of this talking part: if Vincent is not the real Chaos (or at least not the fully powered Chaos) since the beginning, then who is?

We will need to look for a character that has all the traits listed above: triggered events that lead to anarchy + has black/red or magenta color theme (or both) + intended to “purge all impurities” from the Lifestream by burning down the planet + harboring a huge amount of negative emotions/sins. Minus Vincent on the trait of “black/red or magenta color theme”, we would have the Zirconiade, Nero and Genesis as possible candidates.

So let’s move on with the third trait: “intended to “purge all impurities” from the Lifestream by burning down the planet”:

- Nero’s only intention is to be with his brother Weiss and he doesn’t care about the destruction of the planet or whatsoever, as long as he could be with Weiss, he will do anything. However, we do see Nero absorbing the “impure souls” into his darkness, yet, he then fused into Weiss’s body, making Omega’s body tainted with the “impurities”. So Nero obviously is disqualified. 

- The Zirconiade is a summon that can and will burn down the whole planet once fully empowered with the four materias (red, blue, green and yellow materias). Then we can give the Zirconiade a yes for this. 

- Genesis after starting to degrade, decided that if he can’t find the Jenova cells to cure the degradation, he will accept his fate, but he will take the world down with him. Before he activates the giant materia in the Banora’s Underground, he said to Zack “We will all join the Lifestream, you are no exception” (sounds so familiar, right?). Then in his boss form, Genesis Avatar, his main target is to destroy the planet’s core by stabbing the giant sword down at it (because there is no reason for Genesis Avatar to do that if he just wants to slice Zack into shreds). Genesis Avatar also can use the ability known as “Purgatorial Wave”, which, I have explained in the last part, is a “wave to purify souls that are still impure”. Therefore, Genesis gets a yes for this trait. 

We then move on to the first trait: “triggered events that lead to anarchy”: 

- No matter how you look at it, Nero can’t be the one that trigger the mess in Dirge of Cerberus. So he got a no. 

- In Before Crisis, the Zirconiade is not the one that created the mess, because it’s a summon, and it was contained in a materia. The materia then was implanted into Elfie’s hand by Hojo and later with this knowledge, Fuhito planned to use Elfie to summon the Zirconiade. Therefore, the Zirconiade itself doesn’t trigger any events that lead to anarchy, so it gets a no for this. 

- Genesis is the reason that everything went on a trainwreck in Crisis Core. And if we agree on my theory that he is also the one that caused another trainwreck in Dirge of Cerberus then well, of course he got a yes for this trait. 

Finally we will work on the last trait “harboring a huge amount of negative emotions/sins”:

- Nero is surely harboring a ton of negative emotion, along with deep hatred towards humanity. He also carries the sin of murdering lots of people, although aside from that he got nothing else. I will give him a yes for this trait. 

- The Zirconiade, being a summon, can’t be seen as harboring negative emotion or carrying sins, because it works upon being summoned and will only exert its power out. I will give it a no. 

- Genesis, well, he was deemed as the traitor by Shinra, he also killed his parents, that’s more than enough sins already. And vengeance is the main source of his negative emotion, so much to the point that he gets blinded trying to avenge himself. So he gets a yes.

With all of the deduction above, we can conclude that Genesis fits very well with being the real embodiment of Chaos that the planet called up. Other details that imply Genesis similarity to Chaos is that Chaos Vincent has yellow eyes, Genesis's eyes during his transformation into Genesis Avatar also glow yellow. The event in FFRK "Ode to a Sundered World" literally implies that Genesis brings about the "Sundering" of the world, which fits with the depiction of Chaos - the entity that fills the gap in the sundering of heaven and earth. Genesis Avatar is a weird name if you think of it, because Avatar is the manifestation of a divine being, and yet that form is already huge and monstrous, which means whatever Genesis really is, must be even greater than Genesis Avatar. The face of Vincent's Chaos has cracks on it, and Genesis Avatar'a face has lots of crack that it needs to wear binding to keep its face together.

But then you will find it weird for him to be the real embodiment of Chaos if well, Zack can just “Costly Punch” him to death, right? 

I will take the timeline into account, we can see that by the time Genesis really gets awakened is after his fateful fight with Sephiroth in the training room, at that point Vincent has taken a part of Chaos into him, and Nero takes another part. So with the power being divided into three parts, even being the true embodiment of Chaos, Genesis cannot reach his ultimate level of power. Taking the degradation caused by the Jenova cells in him, he surely gets weakened to the point that Zack can 2-hit punch him out cold. 

Then at the end of DoC, with Vincent’s Chaos particles returned to the planet and Nero’s darkness appearing below Genesis’s boots while he walks on the water surface, it sure means that Genesis has fully acquired the power of Chaos. 

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk. In the next part I will continue on with the problem laid out by this part.