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ramblinganthropologist · 3 years ago

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MER Week Day 3 - Missed Opportunities

Summary: Nothing like dark biotic lunch to let you reflect on how shitty your love life is. Alistair’s got plenty to reflect on as he broods away with his jar of sour sugar - correction, homemade pixie sticks. Unfortunately for him, he’s about to add another one to his lack-of-body count. Man just can’t catch a break...

(Setting: Pre ME1)

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02:00 Space time. It was the perfect time for stuffing your face with much needed carbs to keep the biotic system functioning.

“Don’t even think of turning that light on, my eyes are killing me.”

Alistair’s hand moved away from the switch and back to his favorite form of shoving carbs into his system – a mix of sugar, citric acid, and green food coloring that made up his version of pixie sticks. It was all the flavor, without having to deal with the stupid paper wrapper that got everywhere. Next to him, his sister was punching the buttons on the microwave. Inside, the family sized bag of dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets was waiting to get spun around and nuked to edible temperatures.

“I wasn’t going to; my head hurts too.” He massaged the back of his neck, fingers brushing against his still-warm amp. He had used it a bit too much the day before, but at least it had cooled some. Hours earlier, it had been burning hot. Maybe the headache was the result of that, or maybe it was the ship’s pressurization. Either way, no lights were fine by him.

Besides, lights might have made someone else on the Normandy realize they were there. The last thing he needed was to talk to someone other than Bo right then.

“Good. If I have to deal with Jenkins asking me to test my biotics on him again, I’m going to scream. He should just go bother Alenko for that…” Bo trailed off, one red eye meeting him across the kitchen. “Unless you’re interested in giving it a shot.”

The thought caused him to snort as he dug in the drawer for a suitable spoon. Most people liked tablespoons, but they usually had bigger mouths than him. It would take a little longer, but a teaspoon fit his smaller hands perfectly. Maybe someone in the crew would joke about that, but they were smart enough not to do it to his face. What they did behind his back, he didn’t care. He didn’t have to hear it, and that was good enough for him.

“Already tried that, actually. He doesn’t like how I do it.” A spoonful of sugar soon found its way into his mouth and the sour taste did wonders for his headache. “You should’ve heard him complain when I didn’t toss him full force. I swear, Jenkins has a death wish or something.”

Bo snorted as she watched her nuggets go for a ride in the radiation machine. “He’d get it with me, there are no safety stops on the murder machine. Maybe it’s for the best if he gets his ride from Alenko. After he breaks something, he can go to you or Chakwas to get it fixed. Maybe you should just standby, it’ll give you plenty of chances to talk to him.”

The thought made Alistair cringe as he looked down at his jar of sugar. “Yeah… about that… maybe it’s for the best if I don’t go around Kaidan for a while.”

Memories from the prior week still played in his mind whenever he got the chance to close his eyes – it was like the universe wanted to remind him how stupid it had been. He could still see the look on his fellow biotic’s face and see the change in his eyes. It had just been a simple request – to hang out on their next shore leave, maybe grab dinner.

The dinner idea had made the man ask if he was asking him out. Naturally, Alistair was shit at lying, so he’d had to come out with the truth. Yes, it had been a soft way of asking Kaidan out on a date. And… well, it hadn’t ended well. Kaidan had been nice about it, and he appreciated that, but in the end, it was a politely given no. The offer was still up to hang out as friends, but… honestly, he wasn’t sure if he could do it right then. Just looking at the man made him embarrassed now, even if he respected that no.

He should’ve been used to being turned down, but it still hurt a little. He’d probably be over it in a few weeks, maybe less if they got busy with the next location they were heading towards. Alistair just had to hang in until then.

“Oh, so I don’t have to be nice to him anymore. Great. He’s been annoying the hell out of me.” The microwave dinged and the sound of plastic tearing signified the beginning of the carnage of all breaded dinosaur kind. “Fuck him.”

Alistair chuckled softly as he went for another mouthful of sugar. “He has a right to say no, Bo.”

“And I have the right to judge his shitty taste.” A tyrannosaurus lost its head to Bo’s incisors as she took her bag to the table. At least she was sitting down this time. Since she was, he joined her with his jar of what was basically sour sugar, spoon still in hand.

Well, he couldn’t talk her out of that. He knew better. Hopefully, it would be a quick couple of weeks.

For a few moments, they ate in silence. With every spoonful of sugar, Alistair felt his headache ache a little less. It was probably just a placebo effect to bootleg pixie sticks, but he was going to take anything he could get right then. Another spoonful it was – at least his CGM would be happy for once.

Thanks to that, he could hear the sounds of the Normandy around him. They were still settling into the new ship, so he was getting used to all the noises it made. Right now, they were shooting through FTL, so the engines hummed along as they kept everything steady. It was a low rhythm he found himself sinking into as he took another spoon of his snack. He might not have been on the ship for long, but he got the feeling he’d like it.

How could he not? The Normandy was kind of sexy…

“I can hear you sexualizing the ship from here, Al.”

Bo snickered as he turned away, cheeks growing warm in the dark. Instead of saying anything, he just took another mouthful of sugar. That was a point lost to him in the endless game they played. He was behind, and probably always would be. She was just too good at getting to him. Really, she was the best example of a little sister anyone could think of. It was honestly scary sometimes.

You think being a former younger sister he’d have the same power, but apparently not. Fuck that.

“You and your ship fetish. Better get in line, I think Joker��s in first place.” The next victim was a triceratops, missing its tail due to the company’s processing blades. Oh well, it was missing other things soon enough. “Well, either him or that weird turian who’s been skulking around. What’s his name again? He’s been all over the lower decks lately, I think it’s pissing engineering off.”

Nilhus. Nilhus Kryik.

Just thinking about him made Alistair’s face feel hot. He sought comfort in his sugar, trying not to think too hard about the man. They hadn’t really talked much, but from what he saw… well, would it be too much to say he liked what he was seeing?

Probably… shit. He was no good at this crush thing.

“I think he’s just… checking things out. I don’t know, it’s weird having a Spectre onboard. I’m not even sure where he’s sleeping…” He licked his spoon thoughtfully. “I mean, the Normandy was also designed by turians, so there has to be a spot somewhere comfortable for them. I would need to check the specs…”

Bo was giving him that look again as she dug for more dinosaurs. “Trying to find a good makeout spot, huh? You’re not subtle, Al.”

No… no he wasn’t. And that’s what got him in trouble.

What also got him in trouble was sitting in the dark apparently. All too suddenly, the lights flicked on, temporarily blinding him as pain rushed to the front of his head. Alistair hissed and dropped his spoon, hearing it clatter to the floor below. Next to him, he could hear Bo doing the same thing, only she didn’t drop her nuggets. Only a direct enemy attack could cause that to happen.

“Damn it, turn the fucking light off!”

“I didn’t know anyone was in here.” The light flicked off, returning them to darkness. “I thought humans ate with the lights on.”

The smooth, translated voice made Alistair sit up a little straighter. A dull panic wormed its way into his stomach as he managed to open his eyes and look over his shoulder. There was a turian standing in the entrance to the kitchen, talons still on the light switch.

Wasn’t it just his luck that Nihlus was a night person?

“Dark biotic lunch runs by different rules.” Bo’s tone was just asking for a fight as she reached down to grab his spoon. “Doubt there’s anything in here you can eat anyway.”

Nilhus moved towards the fridge, the very picture of a man on a mission. “I stored some energy rations in here when I arrived on ship.”

He met Alistair’s gaze, then those eyes moved towards the jar on the table. “Is… that a jar of sugar?”

Well… if you wanted to get technical…

Alistair got up from the table in order to wash his spoon, avoiding Nihlus’ gaze. “It’s my recipe for pixie sticks… there’s not enough in the little tubes for me and it saves on packaging.”

“Pixie… sticks.”

Yep, that was a tone that told him to forget any sort of crush he’d had on the man – he was officially in the fucking weird category for life. All he could hope for was that it didn’t affect their working relationship, whatever the turian was doing on their ship.

What was he doing there anyway? Nobody was exactly clear about that…

“I’d say don’t knock it until you try it, but I don’t think there’s a dextro safe version.” Clean spoon in hand, Alistair returned to the table. “Er… enjoy your energy rations? Don’t exactly think that’s possible though…”

His voice trailed off as Nihlus left with his snack without another word. As soon as he was gone, his forehead found the table with a light thump. That was not going to do wonders for his headache to say the least, but he didn’t care then.

Strike three, you’re out.

“Don’t sweat it, you’re too good for him. What kind of asshole looks down his… shit, he doesn’t have a nose does he…” Bo was lost in thought for a moment as she munched on her nuggets. “Anyway, fuck him.”

Well, he wasn’t going to be doing that…

“The correct term would probably be face plates, but it doesn’t sound as good.”

“Damn aliens and their lack of anatomy we can use for insults.” His sister nudged his jar closer. “Best way to get over a shitty crush is food, so you might as well eat up.”

That it was. Alistair sighed as he sat up, taking advantage of his clean spoon in order to get another mouthful. At this rate, he was just going to be single until he died. Maybe that was for the best – it helped keep him focused on missions.

But damn, did the universe have to keep teasing him with hot guys he had no chance with?

Oh well, at least he had his jar of homemade pixie stick formula for those long nights when he was up brooding over his lack of a love life. At least that would never let him down. So, another mouthful it was, there in the dark of the kitchen with his sister.

On the bright side, at least Eden Prime should be a nice place to go… it sounded decent enough. Maybe it would take his mind off things.

#merweek2021 #ramblinganthropologist's writing #Alistair Shepard #Bo Peep Shepard #Al has zero luck with men #His lack of body count is astounding

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johannesviii · 5 years ago

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Top 10 Personal Favorite Hit Songs from 2004

15 to 16 years old. A chaotic year for sure, but with a high quality soundtrack. So here’s a top ten list in which, as usual for that decade, several painful cuts had to be made.

Disclaimers:

Keep in mind I’m using both the year-end top 100 lists from the US and from France while making these top 10 things. There’s songs in English that charted in my country way higher than they did in their home countries, or even earlier or later, so that might get surprising at times.

Of course there will be stuff in French. We suck. I know. It’s my list. Deal with it.

My musical tastes have always been terrible and I’m not a critic, just a listener and an idiot.

I have sound to color synesthesia which justifies nothing but might explain why I have trouble describing some songs in other terms than visual ones.

To provide the usual personal context, that year, being that-weirdo-in-the-back-of-the-class suddenly became great when OTHER people were also considered weirdos-in-the-back-of-the-class, and together, with a guy who kept falling asleep in class because he had insomnia, another guy who had elocution problems, and a girl who arrived directly from Cameroun in the middle of winter and was kinda depressed, we formed some sort of losers club and suddenly things weren’t so bad anymore. Unfortunately I completely lost contact with these people after highschool and that’s one of the biggest regrets of my life.

And then in September I once again ended in a completely different class in Terminale (equivalent of Senior Year in the US unless I’m mistaken) and made another great friend. So while life at home was still pretty bad, at least it was much better at school.

At this point my parents also stopped checking what kind of singles I was buying, which means that instead of this madness from 2003 where I had to hide some purchases with other ones...

...I only bought this in 2004 and the rest were actual albums.

Also, I found some old tapes and oh my goodness look at the label on this one. Late 2002/early 2003 at its finest right there. Kyo written with a typo, next to Eminem, next to Mylène Farmer. Love it.

With all of that out of the way, here’s a list of honorable mentions first. A very, very long list.

Yeah (Usher feat Lil Jon & Ludacris) - Thank goodness I thought this song was pretty cool, otherwise I’d have been miserable while listening to the radio in 2004.

Milkshake (Kelis) - Ooooooh daaaaangerously close to the So Bad It’s Good category.

Let’s Get It Started (Black Eyed Peas) - Don’t have anything to say, it’s a lot of fun.

Dragosta Din Tei (O-Zone) - This took like four more years to chart in the US but we heard it all summer here. And it wasn’t unpleasant at all to be honest?

Heaven (remix) (DJ Sammy) - Hang on, wasn’t this on the 2002 honorable mentions? Yeah but it took two years to chart here so it was elligible for 2004 as well.

Turn Me On (Kevin Lyttle) - A quality earworm that somehow isn’t annoying? Sign me up.

Call On Me (Eric Prydz) - Hey, look, another repetitive dance track in my collection of repetitive dance tracks!

What You Waiting For? (Gwen Stefani) - I think this is the only Gwen Stefani song that never made me turn the radio off after a minute. Pretty good.

It’s My Life (No Doubt) - Love the original. This version, not so much.

Parce Qu’on Vient de Loin (Corneille) - Favorite artist of my best friend that year. That song was so moving and well-written. Never got tired of it but never actively listened to it either. If I had better taste it would probably make the list.

The Reason (Hoobastank) - I thought this was ok and pretty nice if a bit bland, and didn’t deserve the success nor the hatred it got. However, thanks to the rock journal I was buying at the time which was like “hey, please listen to the album itself, it’s great!”, I followed that advice, listened to the album at the cd store and bought it instantly. If you dislike this song, please listen to the rest of the album, I swear you’ll enjoy it. Here’s the first track, Same Direction, to get a general idea!

Don’t Tell Me (Avril Lavigne) - Her second album was very good, wasn’t it? What happened to her in recent years?

Je Saigne Encore (Kyo) - This was the last cut (HA, get it? cut?? ok sorry that was terrible) from the list. While I loved it back in the day and while I’m willing to ignore how cringy some stuff I loved as a teenager can be now, I'm not willing to ignore how this is basically a song about a white boy being dumped for the first time and hurting himself because he can’t deal with the mere concept of jealousy. And I’m like “holy shit calm down dude and please drop that knife”.

And now, the actual list.

10 - Hey Ya! (Outkast)

US: #8 / FR: #41

Who’s surprised. Come on. Everyone loved it. I even bought the single! And to think I almost considered leaving it out of the top 10 to put friggin Kyo on it, of all things. The indignity. But yeah, I genuinely loved this. The only thing I can say against it is that it’s a bit too exhausting to be listened to on a loop.

9 - 100 Years (Five For Fighting)

US: #77 / FR: Not on the list

I only heard this a couple of times that year and never paid much attention.

Then I heard it again in 2018 right in the middle of a very, very bad year, after losing my grandfather, and it absolutely destroyed me.

It’s very, very good.

8 - Face à la Mer (Passy & Calogero)

US: Not on the list / FR: #11

Very overplayed that year. A delight every single time it was on the radio, though. Don’t have anything else to say about it.

7 - Modern Times (J-Five)

US: Not on the list / FR: #26

A hiphop song sampling a scene from Modern Times with Charlie Chaplin. It peaked at number 1 here! Not kidding! I bought the single after hearing it exactly once. It’s fantastic and I’m really sad time buried it like it did. If you’ve forgotten about it or simply never heard it before, please give it a listen, it needs more love.

6 - Hit My Heart (Benassi Bros)

US: Not on the list / FR: #74

Remember last time when I said I was a major sucker for Benassi Bros? Well this isn’t an exception. That is a killer drop right there. It looks great and dark and glittery all at once and, by the way, the sunny and summer-y music video completely contradicted how the song looked like in my ears, haha.

5 - My Happy Ending (Avril Lavigne)

US: #54 / FR: Not on the list

I’m not entirely sure what went wrong and when in Avril Lavigne’s career the shift happened, but a couple of years after that song her music got a lot less interesting. I may have enjoyed her first album Let Go a lot, but this song might just be her best one ever.

The sudden shift from “YOU WERE everything” to “HE WAS everything” near the end, in particular, is great writing. Love that.

4 - Left Outside Alone (Anastacia)

US: Not on the list / FR: #76

Usually, voices, good or bad, have zero impact on me except when they border on unlistenable, or when they are physically painful to hear/look at. The guy from Muse for example has a voice that looks like the equivalent of a flashlight in the dark and it hurts, and I’m like dude. Can you please tune that down a little bit. Please.

This lady’s voice right there is fascinating though. Her voice is green and dark and it’s such a strange, rare voice I’m charmed whenever I hear it, and in this song in particular. This was on SO MANY of my tapes it’s not even funny. And the chorus is fantastic and a joy to sing along with even if you don’t have a good voice yourself.

3 - Orchestra (The Servant)

US: Not on the list / FR: #97

So we were on vacation, and they were giving away free cds at one stop. And I put the one I got in my portable cd player, and wasn’t that excited by the first tracks.

And then the fifth one started. And I was instantly captivated.

You already know I absolutely adored Placebo at the time (sadly, Protect Me isn’t elligible here either), and that guy from The Servant had a similar voice and the song was roughly in the same ballpark, and the lyrics were so, so weird.

There's an orchestra in me, Playing endlessly I even hear it now They play in the devil's key, An endless symphony I even hear it now And I listen to the music, Beautiful music Yes I listen to the music, Beautiful music

And, again, I’m terrible at describing sounds but the colors are so disquieting and there’s an unpleasant vibe except the song itself isn’t unpleasant? It’s so damn weird. And that band never struck gold again after that.

I still don’t know what happened or how all of this works. It’s a mystery. A very beautiful and curious mystery. This would have had a good shot at winning the #1 spot if it hadn’t been for [shakes fist] these other guys.

2 - Breaking the Habit (Linkin Park)

US: #79 / FR: #89

Only #2? Does... does that mean Linkin Park isn’t going to top my lists three years in a row? Holy shit, dodged a bullet there.

Should I really repeat my whole speech about Meteora. Should I really. Come on. It starts with the sound of a closing door, then broken glass, and then guitars explode in your face. The first line of the album is “sometimes I need to remember just to breathe”! Somewhere I Belong is one of my favorite songs from the band! I was trying to match the flow of Faint even if my English was still extremely shaky and my accent terrible!

And then there’s Breaking the Habit, which sounds almost pleasant compared to the levels of aggression displayed by the other songs. But it’s weirdly tense and stressful for that exact reason, because this relative calm sounds like a menace.

It works even better out of the context of the album, where it sounded a tad more aggressive than the average pop song, but still tense and stressful. And the music video is fantastic. I had it on a giant poster. I know I’ve kept it folded somewhere. If I only knew where it was, I’d show it to you. Covering up the (bright pink) walls in my room back then was a lot of work.

Edit: Nevermind. Found it:

Gotta say one thing though. At least they aren’t #1 for the third year in a row. What’s left of my dignity has been saved.

1 - Enjoy the Silence 2004 (Depeche Mode, Mike Shinoda remix)

US: Not on the list / FR: #89

Waiiiit a second. This was remixed by Mike Shinoda, wasn’t it. Mike Shinoda. From Linkin Park.

I guess Linkin Park IS topping my lists three years in a row in the end sdfghjhgfdfghjkjhg end me

But yeah. So. Enjoy the Silence tops a second list of mine, then. 14 years after the first one. I’m not gonna repeat what I’ve already said about that song. It simply got a brand new coat of paint, but still, even if it’s basically street art painted over a framed painting, what a masterpiece. Was genuinely gawking the first time I heard it on the radio.

And then Depeche Mode released one of their best albums ever the very next year, and it was the album of the year for me, and I became a big fan. So yeah, thanks for introducing me to their music, Mike Shinoda.

Bonus: I noticed my trusty old radio/cd player was in the background of a pic my brother took around that time! I miss that radio. It was pearl-colored and I had added stickers of birds and insects on it. So everytime I say “on the radio” in these posts, just picture this round little thing which was at the center of my universe back then.

Next up: Not the best song of the decade but pretty close

#Johannes’ bad not good pretty terrible music lists #music #long post #eye contact tw

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distractedfanatic · 6 years ago

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Grey’s Talk + Real Talk

This delves into mental illness and it also discusses spoilers for Grey’s Anatomy 15x16.

Under cut for sensitivity and spoilers. This is also stupid (STUPID) long and I’m sorry but I needed to say it. Hopefully it finds the people who need to read it. 💗

[but seriously, it’s long]

Deluca’s Dad storyline was harder for me than I expected. And not for the reasons I thought. It was hard because I expected to be more conflicted and I felt guilty for how passionately sure I was about my reactions. I also feel that my strong (negative) opinions merit some explanation. Specifically, because my issue is not with his mental illness, but with the behaviour even (and especially) from the lens of mental illness. My possibly controversial stance is that mental illness is not an excuse. It’s a reason or perhaps an explanation, but it is not an excuse for treating people badly, for alienating people or for neglecting self-work and certainly not for abusive behaviour to people trying to help and support (and I know sometimes this is impossible. I get that.) But I do think Andrew’s Dad was manipulating him and it broke my heart to see Carina’s pain in this episode - give that woman a hug!

[Digression into some context building on my opinion....]

Mental illness is close to my life. It’s a personal struggle and journey for me and it is an active, constant, often painful commitment to remaining accountable for my actions and my relationships. It’s not easy, and it’s really not fair, BUT it’s my truth and I believe in the power of leading by example. So I don’t say it lightly that I believe mental illness is not an excuse and I believe I must out myself in order to take that stance. I cannot always control what I think or feel or even how I act. But I can control how I react to it after, how I approach damage control, how much accountability I take and how much power I give mental illness in exchange for wiping my hands of its destruction.

My easy days are what some would consider their hardest. It’s all on a spectrum. My reality allows me to see both sides clearer because I have such a stark comparison between good and bad, up and down. I refuse to give mental illness credit for the absolute beauty and gratitude I have for my life and my good days, so why would I blame it fully for my bad days. Giving an illness I did not ask for and cannot control, the power of saying it makes me who I am or it dictates my quality of connections is not worth it to me to be able to surrender to it and hide behind it and I owe it to myself and everyone else to embrace it and understand it so it does not control me. I do name it. I do speak it - but how that looks for me is not rooted in shame or manipulation, it comes from a place of honesty. Of “I’m not okay today and I can’t have this conversation”. Of “I wasn’t myself and I’m doing the very best I can”. I feel the responsibility I carry as a result of mental illness and I have deep respect for anyone who is doing their best - whatever that looks like. And I draw the line at painting myself a victim - it is a disservice to the honest to god work it takes to be a human with a mental illness in a world still not built for us. And these stories on Grey’s about parents with mental illness are tough for me because I recognize that I’m in the drivers seat and should I decide to raise kids I will need to hold myself even more accountable because the cards I’ve been dealt cannot be any child’s burden. But I also appreciate this is a deeply personal topic and I respect that other people may disagree - that is their right. This is simply my own truth.

[Back to Grey’s….]

When mental illness is depicted on TV that’s always risky. (Shout out to You’re the Worst and A Million Little Things for getting a lot of stuff right and being self-aware). My personal experience is also why I have SUCH a soft spot for Helen (or at least, the season 15 version of her). I’m so proud of her, if that makes sense. I’m happy for Alex to have this time with her as her best self, and I’m proud of her. I loved how in 15x15 they played with the audience and Alex’s perception of what mental illness looks like and what stability looks like.

It is a struggle to accurately portray these topics because it’s a struggle to actually live them, or to watch loved ones live them. On TV and in life, it’s hard to balance a fear that you or your loved one isn’t okay, but also be open that they are not defined by their illness and that it can (hopefully) be managed (by meds, therapy, alternative options, or a combination). That they are a person that is bigger than any illness. And the cruelty is that “okay” and “not okay” can look so very similar.

So in Helen’s situation the bar was set low for Alex and he’s seeing that she is doing okay, so maybe he can stop looking at her as someone to take care of and focus on building a relationship. Andrew is doing the same, in theory - even if I think his motivations are influenced by other factors. But I do think Helen and Dr. Deluca will be foils to each other here. Both struggle with mental illness, both have sons deeply impacted as a result. But are the outcomes going to be different?

But also, has Helen primed us to expect that he will be opposite. If she is stable, do we automatically expect him not to be? We do have it on good authority (Carina) that he isn’t as okay as he seems. How much are they playing with our perceptions and misconceptions about mental illness? I don’t know that. I also don’t know Dr. Deluca enough to know what his personality is. He does come across as quite intense from the get go - but I don’t want to unfairly assume this is nearing manic territory, when it could just be who he is: a passionate, excited doctor and father who may be a bit tone deaf as to the impact he’s had on his family. My gut feeling is he is not okay. Carina tells us he is not okay. Everything. EVERYTHING about her in this episode exudes pain and exhaustion and proof of how not okay he really is and how she is shouldering that burden - more so with Andrew not open to seeing her side.

Now, regarding the conversation between Deluca and his Dad - that I personally feel fueled Andrew’s desire to take his Dad’s side… As it was happening I wasn’t convinced he would go down that rabbit hole. So I’m kind of disappointed that’s what seems to have happened. But there was a very key connection that tells me this was intentional - and if that’s the case, it is a larger theme that needs to be explored between him and Mer.

In 15x12 when he’s getting frustrated with her hot and cold he says (I’m paraphrasing my ass off here) [“I thought you were so BEYOND me. But you’re not. You’re like a child”] -- say what you will about the validity or appropriateness of those comments. But he was tuning into a real feeling he was having and naming that he had felt undeserving of her, at least in part. He was giving us a window into an insecurity he may not even be fully aware of.

SO. To see his Dad echo that to the letter was very interesting:

VD - “I see you... but this woman of yours, she is beyond you.”

AD - “Wow... Thank you”

VD - “Andrea, even I have heard of Meredith Grey, all the way back home. She’s more than a beauty, she is brilliant.

AD - “Yeah, I’m aware”

VD - “So... then... we change the word together! We save the babies!”

If I’m correct in how intentional this was, then I 100% believe Deluca got hijacked by this nagging insecurity and is going full speed ahead, not only because he wants to give his Dad a chance or believes he is truly stable enough for this project (which may be true for all we know). But an additional, and perhaps more powerful motivator for Andrew is that if he can be part of medical history then he can meet Mer on the pedestal he has put her on - subconsciously or not.

My disclaimer to all this is that I do believe he is confident, and I’m aware he went after her first. But you can be confident and sure of an attraction and still insecure. You can be open to love and still be intimidated. He can feel all the things. I think the trouble will be if he is unaware that he is feeling them and therefore does not deal with them. And finally, if this is an issue that surfaces, and it’s not addressed, it could breed resentment and frustration on both ends - I do not want Mer taking this on as her own because she is not lording her power over him and in fact, she was concerned about that dynamic because she understands how hard it can be. My hope is that she recognizes it and can reassure him and he will find some solid footing in their relationship and with his Dad. If I didn’t love them so hard and love him so hard I’d probably enjoy seeing him all innocent and vulnerable, but I’m just scared he’s opening himself up to be heartbroken by his Dad. And I’m not sure I can handle that. haha. Finger crossed no matter what happens with the Deluca famjam, it only serves to bring Merluca closer. 🤞💗

I’m fascinated by where they could take all this. I’m cautiously optimistic that even if it goes sideways, they can still offer some valuable commentary on mental illness and the stigma around it.

I’m so excited to see the reactions from the rest of the fandom!

Sorry this got so real (and SO long). I just couldn’t talk about this episode without going into what is informing my thoughts. Talking about mental illness and mental health matters, and if my openness resonates with just one person, that’s enough. Everyone has light inside and it’s okay not to be okay. And for everyone else fighting this monster, and doing the very best to be your very best: I see you. You are not alone. 💗

#trigger warning #tw: mental health #grey's anatomy spoilers #grey's anatomy 15x16 #spoiler alert #okay not to be okay #you are not alone #real talk #mental illness #mental health #long post

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earthbovndmisfit · 2 years ago

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ok idk if the mer au has a canon but it's just a scenario: what if merman jonathan saved human speedwagon who was drowning but in the process has to turn him into a mer as a last resort to save his life? and it's like a one time deal with no turning back? would speedwagon be upset at having to live the rest of his life as a mer but at least he gets to be with jonathan?

This is gonna be long, but here we go:

For starters, I think he would be shocked and upset once he wakes up. Not upset or mad at Jonathan tho! I think Speebs would be upset because, as much as he's learned about merpeople and is used to them after meeting Jonathan (and possibly living with him for a while, too) and that mer stuff may not be as much of a huge surprise to him like it would be to most other people, its safe to say that it would still be a huge and drastic change for him. It's not the same to learn and even live with a merman than to one day just wake up and find out that you're no longer a human. Not to mention all the physical changes that all this implies, along with the fact that, even though Speedwagon survived and he’s still alive, his life as a human is over anyway, and that, while he can still roam around on the land and etc like Jona does, Robert will now not be able to do much there (not as much as he is used to, at least), and that, since him and Jona are both mermen now, the best they can do now is live underwater, as there is pretty much no way they can live on land on their own without someone to make a living and supporting them, unless this falls with the mer au with the aquarium? in which case they may be able to live there and Speedwagon can still retain part of his previous life in a way.

Even then, though, the shock would remain for a bit since this would be such a huge change for Speedwagon, all paired up with the trauma of just having been through a near death experience, which is basically why all this would be happening in the first place.

There would be so much going on through his mind at the time, and I’m sure Jonathan would be by his side all the time, supporting him and trying to comfort him, but also having mixed feelings himself and what he did. Like, he’s absolutely happy that he was able to help and save Robert but, after seeing the struggles and concern and shock in Robert’s face, Jona is also not sure if his decision of turning him into a merman without his consent was the right decision and etc. However, once Speebs is out of his shocked state, he would definitely thank Jonathan for saving him, all with genuine gratitude and not just some empty words to make Jona feel better with himself.

Much like their og versions, I think they would have to go through some kind of process of getting adapted to all these massive changes, and maybe some healing process for Robert since I’m sure it wouldn’t be too easy for him to lose his previous life so abruptly from one moment to another. He would also miss his friends on the land so much -namely, Tattoo and Kenpo, Hat Lad too-, thinking that he won’t be able to see them again (this in the case of merpeople having to remain hidden from humans?) but, eventually, finding a way to let them know he’s not dead or gone and staying in contact with them by visiting each other and maybe even regaining some sense of "normalcy" from his previous life in regards to his friends on the land.

All that said, I absolutely think he would adapt to his new life after some time! Og Speebs is remarkable for his adaptability even in situations that might not be the optimal for him, and I think that would also apply here. Besides, and like you pointed it out, anon, Jonathan and him get to be together and share their lives in a way that they wouldn't have been able to had he remained a human, for example. Speedwagon is also an adventurous man, so this new life would be a wonderful start, as he now has a whole new world waiting for him, and he'd be more than ready to explore it along with Jonathan, and which would also be some kind of a new start for him as well (as he too has probably never had the chance to do so before, given all the bad stuff he's been put through in his life and being pretty much alone all the time before he met Speedwagon).

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picturebookmakers · 4 years ago

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Ingrid Godon

In this post, Ingrid talks about her working process, and she shares stunning illustrations from some of her books, including the ‘Ik Wou’ trilogy with words by Toon Tellegen, and ‘Dantesken’ which features over 600 pages of autonomous drawings. She also shares wonderful fabric sculptures, ceramics and textile art.

Visit Ingrid Godon’s website

Ingrid: When I was a child, I was always watching. From a distance. Who did what, and how they did it. I drew. Not what I saw, although I did store the images in my mind. One day, they would come out. Drawn. School didn’t work out, but I kept drawing. I met Rik Van den Brande, an illustrator and teacher, at the academy. He took me under his wing and I kept drawing. I soon got assignments as an illustrator. I was working! Drawing became my work.

Educational publishers gave me assignments. This led to the creation of ‘Nellie & Cezar’ in 1995, which, via an educational detour, turned into a short book which remains popular with toddlers and teachers to this day. It became a success in many versions, animated movies were made from it, and Nellie & Cezar became great puppets. And I kept drawing, especially for children.

I made ‘Waiting for Sailor’ in 2000, and took the initiative for a story of my own for the first time. My dear colleague André Sollie wrote my story and I drew. That was the start of an international story. The book won many awards, and was published in English, French, German and Korean.

Foreign publishers were now asking me to make books for them as well. Often the German, French, Swedish or English books were never even published in Dutch. I received more awards, and in 2020 I was longlisted for the ALMA for the fourth time.

Photography has played an important role in my life for a long time now. A series of photographs could grab me, and I could go to work with it. For instance, I became enthralled by the work of Belgian photographer Norbert Ghisoland. He made portraits of ordinary people in his studio in the Borinage, an industrial region, each of them dressed to the nines, but there is a great deal of misery behind the well-groomed facade. This became the foundation for my work which was mainly aimed at adults: IK WOU (I Wish). Toon Tellegen wrote the text for the first series of portraits for this book; 33 portraits of serious people. Dressed to the nines. I drew them.

IK WOU became a trilogy, with IK DENK (I Think) and IK MOET (I Must) as parts two and three.

The trilogy has been successful, not just in Belgium and The Netherlands, but also in the French and German-language regions. It also led to beautiful exhibitions, with a large exhibit in Frankfurt being the tentative highlight. In Cologne, I displayed the works from IK WOU in combination with the children’s portraits of August Sander in 2016. I WISH, the American edition of IK WOU, was published in the spring of 2020. At the end of 2020, its portraits were supposed to be in an exhibition at C.G. Boerner in New York City, but this was cancelled due to Covid-19.

2018 was an important year for me. For the first time, I made a book without a story. Unless the viewer finds a story in there, of course. DANTESKEN: over 600 pages of drawings, an explosion of what goes on in my head. For me as an artist – because that is how I finally started seeing myself as well – this was an important step. More than ever before, I realised the importance of entrusting the paper (or canvas or wood or printing press or clay or fabric) with lines and shapes. I can do no different. I keep drawing.

Recently, I started making little sculptures out of fabric: three-dimensional drawings, like puppets stepping out of my drawings.

I’ve also been working more and more with ceramics and textile art.

My work is becoming increasingly autonomous, and diverges more and more from merely illustrating. Drawings live lives of their own, become works in their own right, sometimes with a story, sometimes starting from a story, sometimes from nothing.

I have no style; I have the Ingrid Godon style. I’m continuously looking for the right way to tell my story, rustling around in my box of materials, alternating between pencil and paint, covering it with a paint roller, cutting into wood and printing it, scribbling on photographs. I keep searching.

I mainly draw people who – like me – look in all directions and are curious about what goes on in front of them. They sometimes look away, but they are always very present. I have at times – on request – drawn landscapes. But even then, I could not resist placing a person in the landscape here and there. Looking, like I do. I search continuously, take different paths, and keep looking. Full of wonder.

In the meantime, I keep working on commissions, I take the initiative to make books, I keep searching for the right pen line or brush stroke, the images keep flowing from my head, and I keep drawing. I draw and I draw.

Illustrations © Ingrid Godon. Post translated by Gengo and edited by dPICTUS.

Buy the English edition

Ik Wou / I Wish

Ingrid Godon & Toon Tellegen

Lannoo, Belgium, 2011

‘Pairs portraits with poetry to articulate wrenching individualism, yearning, humour, desires, and pathos. This probing psychological journey makes for an exciting exploration in empathy.’ —Kirkus Reviews

‘Each face is round as the moon, with small shining eyes that sit curiously far apart... One boy wears a bellhop’s uniform; another, a red jersey and cap... By voicing the fears, angers, and secret desires of the figures, Tellegen spurs readers to embrace those of others, and their own.’ —Publishers Weekly

Dutch: Lannoo

English: Elsewhere Editions

German: Mixtvision

French: La joie de lire

Buy this book

Här är vi / Here we are

Åsa Lind & Ingrid Godon

Lilla Piratförlaget, Sweden, 2017

What happens when we become us? And how do we look at them? Belonging and not belonging is the theme of this poetic picturebook. Åsa Lind is one of Sweden’s most loved authors, and Ingrid Godon is an award-winning Belgian illustrator. Together they have created an unforgettable story about us and them.

Buy this book

Dantesken

Ingrid Godon

MER / Borgerhoff & Lambrechts, Belgium, 2018

Who are the creatures that populate Ingrid Godon’s drawings? They are people, sure. But what is there of a person who only exists as an image? In this book we travel through the works of a gifted artist, illustrator and image maker.

Who will we meet? Who, or what, will we recognise? A book with 800 images which speak for themselves.

#belgium

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wineanddinosaur · 5 years ago

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25 of the Best Sauvignon Blancs for 2020

A classic French grape, Sauvignon Blanc has been the star player in Loire Valley Sancerre and a key supporting role in white Bordeaux wines for centuries. With a variety of flavor profiles that reflect its terroir (Old World Sauvignon Blancs tend to have a prominent minerality, while versions grown in Australia, California, and New Zealand are known for their grassiness and notes of tropical fruit,) and ease of growing in sunny climates, it’s no wonder Sauvignon Blanc remains one of the most popular wines in the world.

Regardless of where it comes from, Sauvignon Blanc’s crispness and acidity make it ideal to pair with food — especially light, fresh vegetable dishes and zingy goat cheese. To help you find the perfect Sauvignon Blanc the next time you’re looking for a dry white with plenty of character (and history), we’ve pulled together a list of the best we’ve tried in the past six months. The wines on this list all scored a B+ or higher in our wine reviews, and are arranged by score and price.

Here are 25 of the best Sauvignon Blancs you can buy right now, with reviews written by VinePair tastings director Keith Beavers.

Oak Farm Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (A) ($19)

A Sauvignon blanc worth the higher price point, with notes of wet flint rock and pear. With a swirl, honeysuckle and a subtle hint of mint and nectarine emerge. The palate has a nice, peppy, medium acidity that delivers a clean and creamy mouthfeel. It’s a great wine to share with your wine friends.

Marco Felluga Russiz Superiore Sauvignon Collio 2018 (A) ($21)

A focused and angular white wine, with sharp notes of ripe Bartlett pear (the ones mom put in your lunchbox), mint, and beeswax. The wine also releases some wet rock and cut grass with a swirl. The mouthfeel is clean, with acidity calming the deep fruit notes just enough to be refreshing. For the price this is a wonderfully made Sauvignon Blanc if you’re looking to switch up your Savvy B source.

Château Rieussec R de Rieussec Blanc Sec 2018 (A) ($25)

Salty and sweet all at once with notes of wet rock and green apple along with a hint of coconut. The palate is dry and zippy, with nice sharp edges softened by vibrant acidity and good fruit integration. This is on the expensive side for a Bordeaux blanc, but wow is it worth the pennies.

Le Domaine Saget Pouilly-Fumé 2017 (A) ($32)

The nose greets you with rich pear and tarragon aromas that mingle with ripe gooseberries and jasmine. Among these aromas is a persistent flinty wet rock aroma that really brightens up the wine in tandem with the medium acidity. The palate is very balanced with the slightest grip. This a beautiful, mature, and focused wine; you can’t go wrong here.

Justin Vineyards & Winery Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (A-) ($15)

Gotta say I think this might be one of the best Savvy B deals from Cali. It is crazy balanced, smells like apricots, pineapple, and orange pith, is under screw cap, and costs under $20. The acidity is bright, the palate is refreshing, and the flavor lingers for a moment after sipping to remind you how fun it is. The success is in the fact that all elements of this wine are where they need to be, giving every aroma and texture its due time for you to enjoy. Did I mention it was under $20?

Château Sainte-Marie Vieilles Vignes Entre-Deux-Mers 2018 (A-) ($15)

This wine is a Sauvignon Blanc-dominant blend but it only plays a supporting role. The aromas we associate with Savvy B (bell pepper, gooseberries) are way in the background as the Semillon and Muscadelle take center stage, creating earthiness. What I am saying is this wine reminds me more of a Chardonnay from southern Burgundy (Macon) but with frothy, well-rounded acidity, and notes of white flowers and lemon-mint yogurt. It is such a pleasure to drink and is only $15.

Outlot Sauvignon Blanc 2016 (A-) ($19)

Salty caper brine and lemon zest with white floral vibes open the nose of this wine. There’s even some basil leaf and mineral-driven crushed concrete. The palate has a fullness to it, and a nice grip, while all the aromas fold into each other among medium acidity. This is a great food white for grilled veggies and a summer salad with goat cheese and walnuts.

Priest Ranch Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (A-) ($19)

Easy-drinking and mineral-driven, with notes of pear, the slight bitterness of gooseberries, and sweet tarragon aromas. With a swirl some white peach (sweeter than yellow peach) and flinty wet rock emerge. The palate has a leanness, with a nice medium acidity, making it an easy-drinking wine even though the alcohol is up there. A great wine for sharing with friends at the end of the day.

Gamble Family Vineyards Gamble Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (A-) ($25)

Zippy, creamy, and dry all at once. That’s what we got going on here. All the smells of tropical fruits, like kiwi and mango, and a whiff of white pepper are kept in check by extremely refreshing acidity. The palate will give you a nice drying sensation, making this a great wine for ceviche or anything that incorporates fresh goat cheese.

Rusack Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (A-) ($26)

Going against the current style in California is this dry, crisp, mineral-driven Sauvignon Blanc. The fruit is lean and smells like fresh sliced pear and mint yogurt. The mouthfeel is grippy, with very high acidity stabbing the fruit notes on the palate, keeping them in check. This is a great wine to sit and drink with good friends, and just let the wine do most of the talking.

Jean Reverdy et Fils Sancerre La Reine Blanche 2018 (A-) ($26)

Sancerre is always going to be a little expensive so finding quality is key to enjoying wines from here. This is a great example of said quality. This is a very refreshing wine with quiet aromas of bell pepper balanced by notes of mint yogurt and wet flint rock. The acidity is focused and vibrant, lifting the wine on the palate. If you see this bottle, you are guaranteed good quality for spending a few extra bucks.

Domaine Vincent Delaporte Sancerre 2018 (A-) ($27)

If you see the word “Cavignol” on the label of a Sancerre bottle, know that it will not be as sharp as you are used to. And that’s a good thing. Imagine all that flinty wet stone and lemon with the laser sharp acidity fattened up just a bit. It’s still crisp, but there is a salty roundness on the mouthfeel that soaks in and grips the palate for a moment before letting go. It’s pricey (most wine from here is) but with some goat cheese drizzled with honey and walnuts flecked with fresh cracked black pepper you might as well be in the Loire Valley.

Lismore Barrel Fermented Sauvignon Blanc 2017 (A-) ($28)

Sauvignon Blanc in wood is now happening, and this wine is a good example of how well this can be done. The nose opens with candied pineapple, peaches, and pears. There is also some vanilla from a kiss of oak. The palate is grippy and well balanced, doing away with classic bell pepper notes to make room for minty yogurt and coconut.

Aperture Cellars Sauvignon Blanc 2017 (A-) ($40)

A unique take on the grape with barrel fermentation bringing notes of vanilla and coconut. With a swirl there is a sweet, flaky pastry aroma drizzled with lime oil and a hint of basil. The acidity is calm, and the mouthfeel is slick, with the well-integrated high-alcohol slipping and sliding. It’s a hefty price, but interesting enough to justify the coin.

Mason Cellars Pomelo Sauvignon Blanc 2017 (B+) ($11)

A great go-to in a pinch with notes of lemons and pears combined with a hint of pepper. There are aromas of green apple and lime as well with a swirl. The palate is sharp and crisp with wet stone minerality. It’s under screw cap, well under $20, and under the umbrella of anytime wine.

Brancott Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (B+) ($11)

Balanced notes of gooseberries and lime form the nose, along with a hint of pear. The palate is clean and mineral-driven, with a slight note of wet flint rock. It is a very balanced wine from a region with such aggressive flavors. This is a zesty, crowd-pleasing wine that’s affordable and great for sipping at sunset and just chillin’ with friends.

Kenwood Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc 2016 (B+) ($11)

This wine is creamy and clean with nice medium acidity and notes of pear and chamomile. There is a subtle gooseberry aroma, along with some orange peel, as the wine opens. On the palate the wine is calm and creamy with a minty tinge. You can’t go wrong with this $11 Cali Savvy B and it will please any crowd.

Kono Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (B+) ($13)

Cannabis mingles with gooseberries and pear, with some hints of aloe and basil not far behind. The palate is calm, with a little bit of weight and a little bit of sweet. And that’s totally fine, because this wine is really good for the price and the bottle looks cool, too. At $13 it pairs well with beach bonfires, suburban cookouts, and rooftop blowouts.

Benziger Family Winery Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (B+) ($13)

A great quality-to-price value, with notes of wet flint rock and gooseberry along with some white pepper. With a swirl some citrus and lemongrass emerge, along with a hint of basil. The palate is soft, the acidity is almost frothy, and there is a nice weight while still being refreshing.

Nautilus Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (B+) ($15)

Prominent aromas of gooseberries and pear dominate the nose, along with subtle hints of quince. There is a hint of grapefruit and lime oil as the swirls begin. The palate is bright and it has a nice high acidity, amplifying the aromas. This is a great example of how the lower price point of this wine should taste.

Mt. Beautiful Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (B+) ($16)

This is a great, clean, and crisp wine with a good grip on the palate. It has a nose that smells like nectarines and watermelons, and a dry palate that begs for a picnic. For a bottle from New Zealand to be under $20 is a big deal, and the quality is so there.

Loveblock Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (B+) ($19)

More of a subtle example from the land of aggressive aromas, with focused notes of wet concrete, gooseberries, and lemon. Hovering over these aromas is ripe pear, which carries over to the palate. The mouthfeel is soft and creamy, with great structure.

Balletto Sauvignon Blanc 2017 (B+) ($20)

It’s always interesting when this grape sees oak, and here it works, creating a unique nose of capers and lychee. With a swirl some lemon crops up, along with some grapefruit. On the palate the oak comes around with vanilla and coconut aromas. It has a zippy acidity as well, so none of the more intense aromas overwhelm.

Reyneke Sauvignon Blanc 2017 (B+) ($23)

Peaches and cream mingle with white peach and tarragon aromas. This is a unique style for this grape, as it sees some oak bringing a nice yogurt-like mouthfeel with an added aroma of lemon curd. The acidity is calm, and a bit honied, due to the oak exposure. It’s a very balanced and interesting wine.

Patient Cottat Sancerre Anciennes Vignes 2018 (B+) ($28)

Ripe and peppery up front with heady aromas of dill and mint yogurt. This wine is made from old vines, which gives it a rich concentration on the nose. The palate, however, is steely and lean, with wonderful wet stone and white peach notes. In the higher range of the $20s for Sancerre, but it’s a great one for a wide range of palate preferences.

The article 25 of the Best Sauvignon Blancs for 2020 appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/25-best-sauvignon-blancs-2020/

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johnboothus · 5 years ago

Text

25 of the Best Sauvignon Blancs for 2020

Here are 25 of the best Sauvignon Blancs you can buy right now, with reviews written by VinePair tastings director Keith Beavers.

Oak Farm Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (A) ($19)

Marco Felluga Russiz Superiore Sauvignon Collio 2018 (A) ($21)

Château Rieussec R de Rieussec Blanc Sec 2018 (A) ($25)

Le Domaine Saget Pouilly-Fumé 2017 (A) ($32)

Justin Vineyards & Winery Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (A-) ($15)

Château Sainte-Marie Vieilles Vignes Entre-Deux-Mers 2018 (A-) ($15)

Outlot Sauvignon Blanc 2016 (A-) ($19)

Priest Ranch Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (A-) ($19)

Gamble Family Vineyards Gamble Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (A-) ($25)

Rusack Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (A-) ($26)

Jean Reverdy et Fils Sancerre La Reine Blanche 2018 (A-) ($26)

Domaine Vincent Delaporte Sancerre 2018 (A-) ($27)

Lismore Barrel Fermented Sauvignon Blanc 2017 (A-) ($28)

Aperture Cellars Sauvignon Blanc 2017 (A-) ($40)

Mason Cellars Pomelo Sauvignon Blanc 2017 (B+) ($11)

Brancott Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (B+) ($11)

Kenwood Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc 2016 (B+) ($11)

Kono Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (B+) ($13)

Benziger Family Winery Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (B+) ($13)

Nautilus Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (B+) ($15)

Mt. Beautiful Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (B+) ($16)

Loveblock Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (B+) ($19)

Balletto Sauvignon Blanc 2017 (B+) ($20)

Reyneke Sauvignon Blanc 2017 (B+) ($23)

Patient Cottat Sancerre Anciennes Vignes 2018 (B+) ($28)

The article 25 of the Best Sauvignon Blancs for 2020 appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/25-best-sauvignon-blancs-2020/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/25-of-the-best-sauvignon-blancs-for-2020

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archivesofcreation · 5 years ago

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INTELLIGENT DESIGN THEORY AND CORONAVIRUS

CORONAVIRUS IN CREATION Does The Recent Coronavirus Outbreak Support Evolution? by Robert Carter

There is a new virus sweeping the world. Most people are calling it ‘coronavirus’. It was first noticed in Wuhan, China and is already popping up in multiple countries. Many people have died. What are we supposed to think about it? Do viruses support evolution? Can we explain them in a creation context? Can this be part of the ‘very good’ creation? Hold onto your hats, for I am about to turn what you think about viruses on its head. Most Viruses Are Beneficial It comes as a shock to many people when they hear it, but most viruses are good for you. Have you heard that there are as many bacteria in and on your body as there are cells in your body? That is true. But it is also true that you have more viruses in your gut than you have bacteria! In fact, the viral population (called the ‘virome’1) plays an important role in regulating the number and types of bacteria in your body.2 Without them, we might be rapidly consumed by the hungry little bacteria that live in our intestines. Have you ever gone swimming in the ocean? Then you were swimming in a highly concentrated bacterial soup. There are lots of bacteria in ocean water, with many different species. But, as in your gut, there are more viruses than bacteria and they probably play a role in maintaining and balancing the bacterial population in oceanic waters. Could we even have fish if there were no viruses? That is an interesting question that some enterprising young scientist might be able to answer one day. Did you know that your cells produce many ofthe same things that viruses are made of? Have you ever gone swimming in a lake? Then you were swimming in a soup of bacteria and viruses. Did that lake have ducks, swans, or geese swimming about? Then you were swimming among influenza viruses. In fact, aquatic waterfowl carry all possible types of the influenza virus, including the ones that do not infect humans. These viruses get introduced to the water as the birds defecate. But the presence of the virus usually does not produce disease in these birds,3 or in you, even though you are getting them in your eyes, ears, and mouth. An evolutionist might say the reason the birds do not (usually) get sick is because the two have been at war with one another for millions of years and they have settled down to a truce, where the virus does not kill the host and the host gives the virus a place to live. From a creation perspective, the influenza virus probably has a beneficial role for the birds, but it is doubtful that anyone has looked for it yet. Some Viruses Might Have Escaped From the Genome Did you know that your cells produce many of the same things that viruses are made of? We make protein coats, we copy DNA and RNA, we have mechanisms of moving DNA to different parts of the genome, etc. Thus, some viruses might have originated in normal cellular operations.4 The parts are all there, sometimes the parts are assembled into things that almost appear virus-like. All it would take is for a few accidental changes and the assemblage could get out of hand and ‘go viral’. Some Viruses Might Have Escaped Their Initial Design Constraints Even though they are beautiful, ducks and other aquatic waterfowl carry every known type of influenza But not all viruses are genome-like. Many viruses that produce disease look like they are designed to do what they do. Where did these come from? Well, if a virus exists that is designed to infect the cells of a bacterium, or a mouse, or a person, there are probably checks and balances in that system. If one of those checks fails, the virus might be able to reproduce much faster than it was originally designed to do. This would result in disease. Thus, a ‘beneficial’ virus might be able to turn into a dangerous one. It might just take a few small mutations, like maybe a change in a cellular recognition factor that prevents the host cells from detecting, and therefore regulating, the virus. Viruses That Jump Species Are Especially Dangerous We can now discuss the coronavirus, a virus that does not belong in humans. Viruses that jump between species are called zoonotics (notice the word ‘zoo’ in that name). We have lots of evidence for zoonotic viruses, including influenza,5 the coronavirus family (this new virus, SARS, and MERS), and HIV (the virus that causes AIDS). All of these cause disease in humans. Some of them have persisted in the human population for a very long time. Happily, however, many new viruses burn themselves out. Viruses will also weaken over time. As they multiply, they pick up mutations and sometimes, those mutations will weaken them to the point where they are no longer transmitted. This is not always the case, though, and some viruses, like HIV or the human cold virus (yet another coronavirus), can continue to propagate despite picking up mutations. It depends on many different factors and no two viruses are alike. The human race has been struck with devastating epidemics throughout its history. Some of those, like the black death, are well characterized (this was caused by a bacterium spread by fleas). Others leave us scratching our heads. All we know is that multiple ancient kingdoms, civilization, and cities suffered through massive episodes of disease and death. Sometimes the records allow us to make an educated guess what caused the disease, but this is not common. The initial creation had no disease (see our Death and Suffering Q&A), yet diseases have risen over the past six thousand years. If they rose once, there is no reason to expect another viral contagion to not appear in the future. This is not a reason to fear, but it should help us to soberly assess our sometimes tenable position on this earth. We have created all sorts of safety nets to prevent the spread of infection and the world is beginning to react more swiftly to emerging threats. Quarantines, hand washing, and vaccinations are all part of that strategy, depending on the severity, the risk, and whether or not we have figured out a way to vaccinate against them. Consider the most recent Ebola outbreak in Africa. We spent many millions of dollars helping those people through that terrible time and a worldwide outbreak was prevented, again. The coronavirus outbreak currently sweeping across China is another example. Mercifully, the death toll (about 2%) is much reduced from the initial estimates (approximately 11%). But a 2% death rate would equate to many millions of people if it got out of control and became as common as, say, the common cold. But the scientific community responded very quickly. In a short time, multiple gene sequences for the virus were completed and posted to public databases and electron microscopes produced pictures of what we were dealing with. The speed of this was unprecedented. The Future of the Coronavirus Viruses are Part of God’s Created Order. If this virus outbreak follows the course of previous ones, the coronavirus might burn itself out. This is apparently what happened to the human H1N1 influenza virus that swept across the world in 1917, killing millions of people. It lasted for 40 years before disappearing. It was reintroduced from a stored laboratory sample in 1976 and lasted another 33 years before disappearing again during the 2009–2010 swine H1N1 pandemic, which was also not a particularly lethal virus. The later versions did not have the lethal nature as the earlier ones, and the fact that the human H1N1 could not persist in the human population is good evidence that it was undergoing genetic entropy. In fact, the virus was picking up over 14 mutations per year while it was active and more than 10% of its genome had mutated before it went extinct.6 This also matched previously published computer simulations.7 But the coronavirus is not the flu. We also are not certain where or how this virus originated, although it apparently came from bats, perhaps circuitously. Either way, it will have to be treated very carefully and our health care systems must treat it as a serious and immediate threat. We cannot wait decades for genetic entropy to take its toll. How should we react? Under the creation/curse model, there is no reason to expect new diseases to not emerge. Yet, when one does appear, we should soberly assess the risk and take proper precautions. We should also always be willing to help those in need, knowing that it could always have been us in that situation. Charitable giving, preferably though a Christian aid agency, is always an option. But we should also not let opportunities for sharing the gospel slip through our fingers, and very often, when a person realizes how fragile life actually is, they are more accepting of the hope offered by Jesus Christ. Conclusions Viruses are part of God’s created order. We can see that many of them play beneficial roles. Yet, we live in a sin-cursed world with much suffering, death, and disease. Some viruses have become dangerous, causing untold suffering across humanity throughout our history. These have forced us to develop innovative strategies to try and keep them in check. God has not promised us long life, nor good health. But He has promised to redeem this sin-cursed world and our disease-wracked bodies and so our hope is not here on this earth anyway. Let us look to Him for hope, for our redemption draws near. References and notes 1. This is a good summary of the virome, but from an evolutionary source so use with appropriate caution: sciencedirect.com/topics/immunology-and-microbiology/human-virome. 2. Here is a paper from a biblical Creation-Fall perspective about the important function of the mammalian virome: Francis, J.W., Ingle, M., and Wood, T.C., Bacteriophages as beneficial regulators of the mammalian Microbiome, Proc. Int. Conf. Creationism 8:152–157, 2018; creationicc.org. 3. Barber, M.R. et al., Association of RIG-I with innate immunity of ducks to influenza, PNAS 107(13):5913–5918, 2010. 4. Terborg, P., The ‘VIGE-first hypothesis–how easy it is to swap cause and effect, J. Creation 27(3):105–112, 2013. (VIGE = Variation-Inducing Genetic Element) 5. Ma, W., Kahn, R.E., and Richt, J.A., The pig as a mixing vessel for influenza viruses: human and vertinary implications, J. Mol. Genet. Med. 3(1):158–166, 2008. 6. Carter, R.W., and Sanford, J.C., A new look at an old virus: mutation accumulation in the human H1N1 influenza virus since 1918, Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling 9:42, 2012. 7. Brewer, W., Smith, F.D., and Sanford, J.C., Information loss: potential for accelerating natural genetic attenuation of RNA viruses; in: Marks II, R.J., Behe, M.J., Dembski, W.A., Gordon, B., and Sanford, J.C. (Eds.), Biological Information—New Perspectives, World Scientific, Singapore, pp. 369–384, 2013. Read the full article

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firefaerie81 · 8 years ago

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Webtoon Reclist

So I discovered a bunch of webcomics on Line Webtoon recently. I keep binging things, so here’s a list of recommendations from what I’m up to date on. Links to the comics themselves are included.

Completed

Always Human - Sunati Raval lives in a world where genetic modification is easy and hip, and she loves changing her look. Meeting Austen, a girl whose immune system rejects mods, makes Sunati see a new angle of things. She and Austen are interested in each other, but they only just met, so making this relationship float will take work from both parties.

Girls Have a Blog - Sarah and Tara had a webcomic while they were in art school, but after Webtoon found it years later and asked to feature it, they decided to make a new version on the same premise: the two of them living together and having adventures in art, writing, and adulting.

My Boo - Yuri So can see ghosts, but ever since she was young, she’s made it a point to never let anyone know, not even the ghosts. No matter what, when someone finds out it becomes a burden for her. Unfortunately, a careless mistake leads to her moving into a house inhabited by a ghost named Jun Ko. Yuri’s only able to ignore Jun for so long, and it’s time she finally confronted her personal demons.

Note: My Boo is on Webtoon’s “Daily Pass” system. The first five episodes are freely available, then every successive episode requires a Daily Pass to unlock for two weeks, of which a user will only get one a day without paying for more.

Oh! Holy - Jamie Oh has had a hard time making friends due to his ability to see ghosts. The one friend he had, Holy Joo, moved away long ago, abandoning their promise to see the world together. After that, he gave up on trying to connect with anyone but ghosts. But after Jamie crosses paths with Holy again in high school, an accident threatens her life, forcing the two to make a deal with a reaper to stay alive.

Orange Marmalade - Mari Baek is a vampire who only wants to live quietly in one place instead of being run out of town every time someone finds out what she is. Unfortunately, the most popular boy in her school takes a shine to her after her instincts get the better of her in the presence of his strong-smelling blood. She doesn’t like attention, but maybe a few friends and a boyfriend wouldn’t be so bad. Assuming, of course, that she can trust them.

Note: Orange Marmalade is on Webtoon’s “Daily Pass” system. The first seven episodes are freely available, then every successive episode requires a Daily Pass to unlock for two weeks, of which a user will only get one a day without paying for more.

Shard - Shay is a witch on the run from her coven, desperate to keep out of their control and live her own life. There’s a certain spell she wants to cast, a portal she wants to open, and the missing piece is a virgin. Her best bet is one of a group of geology nerds she manages to come across, but the trick will be getting him into the ritual before her coven can get their claws back on her.

Super Secret - As far as Emma Ji knows, she’s just very close with her next door neighbors. But the truth is that her parents signed a Rapunzel-esque contract with this family of supernatural beings after wronging them before Emma was born. The son of the family, Ryan, developed feelings for Emma over the years, but he’d rather do things on her terms than because of some contract.

unTouchable - Vampires have evolved over the centuries, moving from consuming blood to absorbing energy through touch. Sia Lee is one such vampire, and Jiho Shin – the best target she’s ever set her sights on – has extreme OCD, so she decides to help him get over it. Is Sia really going this far just for a meal, or is there actually something to her claim of feelings for Jiho?

Where Tangents Meet - Landon Takahashi was left cynical and bitter by 17 years of people pretending to like him for his money and balking at his geeky hobbies. Rachelle Fletcher is a year older, yet so sweet and flighty that she blows away all of Landon’s preconceived notions about people. They grow close quickly, and decide to navigate the foibles of their first serious relationship together.

Ongoing

#Blessed - Joanna is young and frustrated with her love life. She thinks playing around with a dating app will improve her situation, but things only get worse when a mistaken swipe locks her into a contract with a gaggle of godly beings who all want a chance at dating her. She has to choose one of them in the end, and they won’t leave her alone, but the rest is in her hands.

Aerial Magic - Wisteria Kemp is a textblind mage who dreams of doing aerial magic professionally. Her only hope of joining a guild and being officially qualified is an apprenticeship. Apprentices are a dying practice, so the only person who would take her on lives in a city far away from her town. Wisteria has to not only learn as much as she can from Cecily, but navigate interacting with Cecily’s son Lachlan and her employees Amal and Killian.

Assassin Roommate - Mags isn’t the most adept in social situations with new people, but she needs a roommate to afford her new place. She’s read all about the problems of being too close to one’s roommate, so she’s determined to be strictly professional. And as friendly and gorgeous as her new roommate Kurt is, he could never know about her job as an assassin even if they did get close.

Castle Swimmer - Many of the underwater kingdoms of merfolk have prophecies, but they all have one thing in common: they center around a golden mer called The Beacon arriving and bestowing some boon upon the kingdom. The shark kingdom is a cursed community, hoping against hope for The Beacon to arrive and fulfill their prophecy… of being killed by their prince to lift the curse. But what happens when neither prince nor beacon want any of this prophecy burden?

The Croaking - Humanoids with the wings of birds populate an island civilization. As an Osprey, Ky Cedoc is an unusual recruit at the Roost military academy. As a Crow, Scra Eldwode is even more unusual. How perfect, then, that these two misfits are placed as roommates on top of having met right before the semester started. Well, not so perfect, since Scra is hardly around, sneaking out every night, and there are whispers among the city gangs about something called The Croaking.

Crumbs - Urban fantasy meets easygoing slice of life. Every Friday, Ray makes a trip to her favorite magical bakery, where customers can buy pastries imbued with confidence, inspiration, anything you can imagine. Every week, Ray walks in and has her favorite flavor: romance. And one day, the baker’s nephew reaches out to her.

Empyrea - Soul-stealing demons known as keres plague the twelve realms, and only the Aetherborn knights have the power to combat them. Tristan, otherwise known as Hawk, is a strange knight who refuses to serve a lord. Kira is a young inventor straining against the expectations of her family. The two cross paths one night, and their lives begin to change.

Freaking Romance - Zylith is striking out on her own after being thrown out of her parents’ home at age 18. The only apartment she can afford on her savings was reported by previous tenants to be haunted, which only intrigues Zylith more because of her fondness for the paranormal. She’s excited to start seeing a boy who seems like a ghost around her apartment, until she and her friend do some digging and find out the last girl who lived there disappeared after seeing him.

I Love Yoo - Yoo Shin-Ae couldn’t care less about romance. She cares way more about food and making ends meet, and she loudly rejects any sort of advances. Through a series of shenanigans at a party, Shin-Ae’s life ends up entangled with two boys, one who takes a shine to her immediately and one who’s just as prickly about girls as she is about boys.

Ketchup - Soulmates aren’t necessarily a romantic relationship, but they do have a link that can pass glimpses of the five senses as well as emotions between the pair. Riley and Kelyn were childhood friends, but right when Riley was figuring out that they were linked, one wrong move destroyed their friendship. Years later, they’re reunited when Kelyn finally discovers their link. Kelyn wants to rekindle their old bond, but Riley still carries a grudge from their falling out.

Lackadaisy - In a version of prohibition-era St. Louis populated by anthropomorphic cats, the Lackadaisy speakeasy was once a booming beacon of night life. But with its owner dead, his widow Mitzi is left with a ragtag handful of employees and not enough booze to go around for her few customers. Mitzi will be damned before she sees the place her husband built die, and she will do whatever it takes to put Lackadaisy back on top.

Lore Olympus - This modern retelling of the Taking of Persephone sees the mythological Greek gods and heroes in a metropolitan setting. Persephone is a country mouse at her first big city party, and Aphrodite decides to play a trick on her and grim Hades. Persephone and Hades end up thoroughly embarrassed, but also oddly enchanted.

Mage & Demon Queen - The demon tower is a gauntlet where adventurers of the highest order test their mettle, but very few make it to the top, where the demon queen Velverosa dwells, and no one has ever managed to kill her. Many have died trying, respawning back in town to tell the tale. Malori is a young mage who climbs the tower countless times. She faces the demon queen over and over, in hopes of wooing her.

Melody of Orange - The Curse of Eve binds soulmates together, not by a love link but by a death link. When one dies, the other will die in the same manner, no matter the situation. While love isn’t explicitly part of the curse, soulmates are generally encouraged to be together. However, when Mikan meets a scary boy she finds to be her soulmate, she wants nothing to do with him. It’s not for the reasons you might think; it’s Mikan herself who’s carrying an intense guilt that makes her feel unworthy of happiness.

Nothing Special - Callie doesn’t think of herself as anything special, not when there are fairies, demons, and all sorts of magical creatures just beyond a doorway. A boy from her school disagrees when he’s freaked out by his sudden ability to see spirits and impressed by her knowledge of the supernatural. Together, they embark on a journey through the spirit world to save Callie’s dad, and maybe learn a little about themselves and each other along the way.

Siren’s Lament - Lyra is a bit of a wallflower, content with her ordinary life, content to run her flower shop and silently pine for her friend Shon while he dates someone else. But one night, her emotions get the better of her, and she ends up involved in a curse with a siren named Ian. Ian is the opposite of helpful, and the curse he brought with him is nothing but a burden, but he does challenge Lyra to seize the day and ask for more from her simple life.

Strawberry Seafoam - The Delphic Academy teaches magic to young mermaids who hope to one day become powerful Delphiniums. Frasei is one such mermaid, eager to follow in her mother’s footsteps, and her life does not at all go according to plan. Dark forces begin to mobilize around the academy, and Frasei finds herself the only one able to combat them with her newfound unique ability to transform her tail.

Tyran Awakening - Zoe is an average teen living in the not too distant future. When she picks a fight with some bullies, however, something unbelievable happens. She survives certain death, and she begins to feel powerful. Almost like a dragon. Ancient forces are awakened, and the only one Zoe feels she can trust with all this is her friend (or maybe more) Marthe.

unOrdinary - It’s a given in this world that just about everyone has some kind of superpower. John Doe is a rare exception, having no ability at all yet somehow going to a school with a high premium on abilities. He firmly believes that might shouldn’t make right, but it’s only due to his high-tier friend Seraphina that he hasn’t been beaten to death several times over for ignoring the hierarchy in place. (Warning for repeated use of the word “cripple” to describe John’s lack of powers)

#recommendations #fae writes #line webtoon #webcomics

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fastpacedfreefall · 8 years ago

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Where the sun is shining on us still

Fandom: Young Avengers, BillyTeddy/Wickling

AO3 version here

Mer au with Mer!Billy. Pure fluff.

Billy and Teddy have a love that rivals the depths of the ocean(and Billy should know, having plumbed those depths himself.)

AN: I’ve had this in my WIP folder for a long time, but MerMay brought out an ending. This is just a little indulgent shipping mer au piece. Title from “Sirens” by Cher Lloyd.

The warmth of Land confuses Billy as much as it entices him.

Not that Genosha is cold, nor is it hot; it simply is, and it has always been that way. Constant, dependable. An extension of his entire being, as much his family as those around him. It exists in the soft tones of his mother's singing, ever-present in the walls of the palace, weaving the old stories of their people through every corridor; in the harsh whoosh of passing water that follows his brother and uncle as they race; in the stern gaze of his grandfather that permeates out from his place on the throne, watching his family as they glide throughout their lives. Genosha is there in every breath he takes, in the space between his scales, in every droplet of water clinging to his skin when he lifts himself onto shore, like it's trying to cajole him into slipping back into its depths.

Genosha is his Land; he supposes that makes Teddy the Sun.

It makes perfect sense to Billy. Everything about the boy just seems to emit light; not just his thick golden hair that falls into his eyes, perfectly messy in the way only Land hair can be, but the sheen to his light blue eyes, real blue eyes, not the way Billy's brown will glow blue to illuminate the darker depths of the ocean. His eyes mimic the Sun and Sky gleaming down through shallower waters, and his wide smile outshines them both. Usually flashing teeth means trouble in Billy's world, an implicit threat of a brewing fight, but on Teddy it fits perfectly, like a door swinging open to show him everything this strange world has to offer, everything sitting in the palm of Teddy's outstretched hand. A hand that is never anything but tender when Teddy wraps it around his waist or slides their fingers together, something that should make him want to flee but makes him feel so cared for. Like Teddy thinks of him as something precious.

But all of that, as wonderful as it is, can't compare to the way it feels when Teddy kisses him.

The first time is an absolute shock, and a literal one; he used to shock himself on things all the time as a fingerling, but until now he'd maintained a good control. Billy's only seen half-decayed paintings of human intimacy, but it always seemed a little passive, like something that just happened and then was over in the blink of an eye. He loves his family, they love him, but overt displays of intimacy and skinship don't come naturally to merpeople; even hugs are pushing the limits of their comfort a bit. He's not prepared for the heat racing down his spine and through every one of his synapses. Not ready for his suddenly racing heart or the dizzy headiness that comes with the lack of air, or the white-hot spark at the place where their lips meet.

(He absolutely will not admit to any flailing or screeching that absolutely didn't take place. The rock was still to blame for the knot on his head; it moved just to spite him.)

(Though, it probably wasn't his best move to panic and run off afterward. He'd been too confused to go back for a few days, and by the time he finally got himself together and realized that hey, maybe this kissing thing was something he should pursue, he'd found Teddy dejectedly sitting on the far end of the pier and felt so guilty about hurting him that he had half a mind to just go and find a few sharks to throw himself to. He makes it a point to try to let Teddy explain anything that weirds him out before he lets himself lose his shit in the future.)

Teddy's hesitant to try again after that. Billy is very persuasive.

It soon becomes the best part of every visit. There are times when Billy won't even let Teddy finish what he's saying, too eager to have their lips together again. Teddy takes it with good enough humor, would probably be within rights to get annoyed, but how can he, when someone as incredible, as impossible as Billy, is interested in someone as normal as him?

Teddy thought he'd been hallucinating the first time he saw him; dealing with all of Greg's never-ending bullshit had finally made him snap. He was gonna have to go home to his mom and break the news that he was seeing fairy tale creatures on the beach, and probably needed to be on medication or something.

But the hallucination saw him, too, and then the question became not if he existed, but how.

He was so sure he'd screwed everything up when he kissed him the first time. He shouldn't have assumed; just because Billy looked more or less human from the waist up(minus the teeth and frills) didn't mean that mermen kissed the same as humans. A painful shock, a screech, and Teddy had ripped his lips away to see Billy fling himself back into the water as fast as possible, leaving Teddy alone for a week with burned lips and a broken heart. He'd come out every evening after with a flashlight, staying as long as he dared and heart sinking when he was met with empty waves, until Billy swam up to him with a mesmerizing-ly beautiful abalone shell and an apology on his lips. He watches Billy more closely after that, moving more slowly as to not scare him, and with even more wonder clenching his heart over the fact that he actually came back.

(The way Billy jumps him, though, assures him he's gotten over it.)

How does Billy exist in this world? How does someone who looks so fierce and wild and brilliant want to make regular, romantic contact with someone who can't even manage to stand up to a bullying jackass at school? How did Billy, who brings to mind every myth he'd ever heard from his mom or read in books about sirens that enchanted men with their great beauty and voices to drag them to the deep for their meal, look at him with eyes full of both want and trepidation, like Teddy will be the one to push him away or something?

It doesn't make a lick of sense to him. It probably never will.

Freezing water laps at their sun-warmed skin, and Teddy looks over to find Billy watching him with warm, soft eyes, and he pulls him into another kiss and thinks that maybe it shouldn't have to make sense.

Maybe being part of a fairytale wasn't something meant to be questioned.

#young avengers #billyteddy #mermay #freefall writes #billy kaplan #teddy altman #wickling #mer au

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newstechreviews · 5 years ago

Link

Japan’s state of emergency is set to end with new cases of the coronavirus dwindling to mere dozens. It got there despite largely ignoring the default playbook.

No restrictions were placed on residents’ movements, and businesses from restaurants to hairdressers stayed open. No high-tech apps that tracked people’s movements were deployed. The country doesn’t have a center for disease control. And even as nations were exhorted to “test, test, test,” Japan has tested just 0.2% of its population — one of the lowest rates among developed countries.

Yet the curve has been flattened, with deaths well below 1,000, by far the fewest among the Group of Seven developed nations. In Tokyo, its dense center, cases have dropped to single digits on most days. While the possibility of a more severe second wave of infection is ever-present, Japan has entered and is set to leave its emergency in just weeks, with the status lifted already for most of the country and Tokyo and the remaining four other regions set to exit Monday.

Analyzing just how Japan defied the odds and contained the virus while disregarding the playbook used by other successful countries has become a national conversation. Only one thing is agreed upon: that there was no silver bullet, no one factor that made the difference.

“Just by looking at death numbers, you can say Japan was successful,” said Mikihito Tanaka, a professor at Waseda University specializing in science communication, and a member of a public advisory group of experts on the virus. “But even experts don’t know the reason.”

One widely shared list assembled 43 possible reasons cited in media reports, ranging from a culture of mask-wearing and a famously low obesity rate to the relatively early decision to close schools. Among the more fanciful suggestions include a claim Japanese speakers emit fewer potentially virus-laden droplets when talking compared to other languages.

Contact Tracing

Experts consulted by Bloomberg News also suggested a myriad of factors that contributed to the outcome, and none could point to a singular policy package that could be replicated in other countries.

Nonetheless, these measures still offer long-term lessons for countries in the middle of pandemic that may yet last for years.

An early grassroots response to rising infections was crucial. While the central government has been criticized for its slow policy steps, experts praise the role of Japan’s contact tracers, which swung into action after the first infections were found in January. The fast response was enabled by one of Japan’s inbuilt advantages — its public health centers, which in 2018 employed more than half of 50,000 public health nurses who are experienced in infection tracing. In normal times, these nurses would be tracking down more common infections such as influenza and tuberculosis.

“It’s very analog — it’s not an app-based system like Singapore,” said Kazuto Suzuki, a professor of public policy at Hokkaido University who has written about Japan’s response. “But nevertheless, it has been very useful.”

While countries such as the U.S. and the U.K. are just beginning to hire and train contact tracers as they attempt to reopen their economies, Japan has been tracking the movement of the disease since the first handful of cases were found. These local experts focused on tackling so-called clusters, or groups of infections from a single location such as clubs or hospitals, to contain cases before they got out of control.

“Many people say we don’t have a Centers for Disease Control in Japan,” said Yoko Tsukamoto, a professor of infection control at the Health Sciences University of Hokkaido, citing a frequently held complaint about Japan’s infection management. “But the public health center is a kind of local CDC.”

Burning Car

The early response was also boosted by an unlikely happening. Japan’s battle with the virus first came to mainstream international attention with its much-criticized response to the Diamond Princess cruise ship in February that led to hundreds of infections. Still, the experience of the ship is credited with providing Japanese experts with invaluable data early in the crisis on how the virus spread, as well as catapulting it into the public consciousness.

Other countries still saw the virus as someone else’s problem, said Tanaka. But in Japan, the international scrutiny over the infections onboard and the pace at which the virus raced throughout the ship raised awareness and recognition that the same can happen across the country, he said. “For Japan, it was like having a burning car right outside your house.”

Experts are also credited with creating an easy-to-understand message of avoiding what are called the “Three C’s” — closed spaces, crowded spaces and close-contact settings — rather than keeping away from others entirely.Although political leadership was criticized as lacking, that allowed doctors and medical experts to come to the fore — typically seen as a best practice in managing public health emergencies. “You could say that Japan has had an expert-led approach, unlike other countries,” Tanaka said.

“Social distancing may work, but it doesn’t really help to continue normal social life,” said Hokkaido University’s Suzuki. “The ‘Three C’s’ are a much more pragmatic approach and very effective, while having a similar effect.”

Different Strain

Infectious disease experts also pointed to other determinants, with Shigeru Omi, the deputy head of the expert panel advising the Japanese government and a former chief of the WHO Western Pacific office, citing Japanese people’s health consciousness as possibly the most important factor.

The possibility that the virus strain spreading in Japan may have been different, and less dangerous, to that faced by other nations, has also been raised.

Researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the U.S. studied coronavirus variants in a database and found one strain of the virus spreading through Europe that had several mutations distinguishing it from the Asian version, according to a paper put in early May. Although the study has not been peer-reviewed and drawn some criticism, the findings point to a need to more thoroughly study how the virus changes.

Large questions still remain over the true extent of the pathogen’s spread. In April, a Tokyo hospital conducted tests on a handful of non-Covid patients and found that around 7% had the coronavirus, showing the danger of missing asymptomatic or mild carriers that can become the source of an outbreak. An antibody test on 500 people in the capital suggested the true outbreak could be nearly 20 times larger than figures have shown. Analog contact tracing breaks down when infection numbers are high, and reports of people unable to get tested or even medical treatment for Covid-like symptoms peppered social media during the height of the outbreak.

And the fact remains that Japan’s response was less than perfect. While the overall population is much smaller, Asian neighbors such as Taiwan had just seven confirmed deaths from the virus, while Vietnam had none.

“You can’t say the Japan response was amazing,” said Norio Sugaya, a visiting professor at Keio University’s School of Medicine in Tokyo and a member of a World Health Organization panel advising on pandemic influenza. “If you look at the other Asian countries, they all had a death rate that was about 1/100th of Western countries.”

Buying Time

While Japan may have avoided the worst of the health outcomes, the loose lockdown hasn’t protected the country from the economic impact. Its economy, already dealing with the impact of a sales tax hike in October, officially slid into recession in the first three months of the year. Economists have warned the second quarter will be the worst on record, and the specter of deflation, which haunted the economy for decades, once again looms. Tourist numbers plummeted 99.9% in April after the country shut its borders, putting the brakes on a booming industry that had promised to be a growth driver for years. As in other countries, bankruptcies have risen sharply.

Even with the the state of emergency about to end, authorities are warning that life will not return to normal. When case numbers slowed in early March, there was public optimism that the worst was over — only for cases to spike again and trigger the emergency declaration.

If a deadlier second wave does follow, the risk factor in Japan, which has the world’s oldest population, remains high. The country has speedily approved Gilead Sciences Inc.’s remdesivir and is now scrambling to allow the use of still unproven Fujifilm Holdings Corp.’s antiviral Avigan. There are calls for the country to use the time it has bought itself to shore up its testing and learn in the way its neighbors did from SARS and MERS.

Officials have begun to speak of a phase in which people “live with the virus,” with a recognition that Japan’s approach has no possibility of wiping out the pathogen.

“We have to assume that the second wave could be much worse than the first wave and prepare for it,” said Yoshihito Niki, a professor of infectious diseases at Showa University’s School of Medicine. “If the next explosion of cases is worse, the medical system will break down.”

–With assistance from Gearoid Reidy and Marika Katanuma.

#Blogger

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itsfinancethings · 5 years ago

Link

Japan’s state of emergency is set to end with new cases of the coronavirus dwindling to mere dozens. It got there despite largely ignoring the default playbook.

Contact Tracing

Experts consulted by Bloomberg News also suggested a myriad of factors that contributed to the outcome, and none could point to a singular policy package that could be replicated in other countries.

Nonetheless, these measures still offer long-term lessons for countries in the middle of pandemic that may yet last for years.

Burning Car

Different Strain

The possibility that the virus strain spreading in Japan may have been different, and less dangerous, to that faced by other nations, has also been raised.

Buying Time

Officials have begun to speak of a phase in which people “live with the virus,” with a recognition that Japan’s approach has no possibility of wiping out the pathogen.

–With assistance from Gearoid Reidy and Marika Katanuma.

#IFTTT #Blogger

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isaiahrippinus · 5 years ago

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25 of the Best Sauvignon Blancs for 2020

Here are 25 of the best Sauvignon Blancs you can buy right now, with reviews written by VinePair tastings director Keith Beavers.

Oak Farm Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (A) ($19)

Marco Felluga Russiz Superiore Sauvignon Collio 2018 (A) ($21)

Château Rieussec R de Rieussec Blanc Sec 2018 (A) ($25)

Le Domaine Saget Pouilly-Fumé 2017 (A) ($32)

Justin Vineyards & Winery Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (A-) ($15)

Château Sainte-Marie Vieilles Vignes Entre-Deux-Mers 2018 (A-) ($15)

Outlot Sauvignon Blanc 2016 (A-) ($19)

Priest Ranch Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (A-) ($19)

Gamble Family Vineyards Gamble Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (A-) ($25)

Rusack Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (A-) ($26)

Jean Reverdy et Fils Sancerre La Reine Blanche 2018 (A-) ($26)

Domaine Vincent Delaporte Sancerre 2018 (A-) ($27)

Lismore Barrel Fermented Sauvignon Blanc 2017 (A-) ($28)

Aperture Cellars Sauvignon Blanc 2017 (A-) ($40)

Mason Cellars Pomelo Sauvignon Blanc 2017 (B+) ($11)

Brancott Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (B+) ($11)

Kenwood Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc 2016 (B+) ($11)

Kono Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (B+) ($13)

Benziger Family Winery Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (B+) ($13)

Nautilus Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (B+) ($15)

Mt. Beautiful Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (B+) ($16)

Loveblock Sauvignon Blanc 2018 (B+) ($19)

Balletto Sauvignon Blanc 2017 (B+) ($20)

Reyneke Sauvignon Blanc 2017 (B+) ($23)

Patient Cottat Sancerre Anciennes Vignes 2018 (B+) ($28)

The article 25 of the Best Sauvignon Blancs for 2020 appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/25-best-sauvignon-blancs-2020/ source https://vinology1.tumblr.com/post/618739573353332736

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mideastsoccer · 5 years ago

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Potential Post-Coronavirus Geo-economic Shifts

By James M. Dorsey

A podcast version of this story is available on Soundcloud, Itunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spreaker, Pocket Casts, Tumblr, Podbean, Audecibel, Patreon and Castbox.

New York governor Andrew Cuomo has become the articulate, compassionate political face of government competence in fighting a pandemic.

That’s quite an achievement for a man who as late as early March 2020 trumpeted: “Excuse our arrogance as New Yorkers… We think we have the best healthcare system on the planet right here in New York. So, when you’re saying what happened in other countries versus what happened here, we don’t even think it’s going to be as bad as it was in other countries. We are fully coordinated; we are fully mobilized.”

New York was neither fully coordinated, nor was it fully mobilized.

In fact, it became the pandemic’s prime hotspot in the United States, accounting for the highest number of infection cases and the highest mortality rate. Its hospitals were overwhelmed, its stockpiles depleted, its frontline workers perilously exposed to risk of contagion. Many of the deaths could have been prevented had Mr. Cuomo opted to lock down the Big Apple earlier.

For now, that recent history has largely been forgotten. Mr. Cuomo thrives in his element, a rising star on America’s political ferment. His sober but empathetic, fact-based daily briefings project him as a man in command with a mission to ensure the health, safety, and wellbeing of his state.

If Mr. Cuomo, a veteran of dealing with the aftermaths of disasters like Hurricane Sandy, learnt anything from his delayed response to the coronavirus pandemic, it was that “an outbreak anywhere is an outbreak everywhere.”

Unlike other epidemics in recent years such as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome or SARS in the early 2000s, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2012 or the eruption of Ebola in West Africa in 2014, the coronavirus, dubbed COVID-19, left no corner of the globe untouched.

It is a lesson that goes to the heart of all that is wrong with global, regional, and national healthcare governance. It is a lesson that calls into question social and economic policies that have shaped the world for decades irrespective of political system.

It is also a lesson that goes to the core of the relationship between government and the people. It positions social trust as a pillar of an effective healthcare policy in a time of crisis.

In an era of defiance and dissent as a result of a breakdown in confidence in political systems and political leadership that kicked off with Occupy Wall Street and the 2011 Arab popular revolts and led to the rise of populists, mass anti-government demonstrations and in 2019 the toppling of leaders in Algeria, Sudan, Lebanon and Iraq, lack of trust complicated government efforts to counter the virus.

Distrust persuaded many Iranians to initially refuse to heed public health warnings to maintain social distancing, stay at home and install an Android app designed to help people self-diagnose and avoid rushing to hospital.

Pakistanis put their faith in religious leaders who rejected government demands for a halt to congregational prayers. So did many Russians as bans on mass gatherings split the clergy and threatened to undermine the Russian Orthodox Church’s key support for President Vladimir Putin.

Post-mortems of governments’ handling of the crisis once the coronavirus has been contained could increase the trust deficit.

Moreover, in an indication of pent-up anger and frustration that could explode, the imposition of curfews and stay-at-home orders failed to prevent incidental outbursts, including protests in mid-American states, quarantined Egyptian villages and poorer Tunisian and Moroccan hamlets.

In an echo of the Tunisian vendor who sparked the 2011 Arab revolts, 32-year-old unemployed and physically disabled Hammadi Chalbi set himself alight in a town 160 kilometres southwest of Tunis after authorities’ refused to license him as a fruit seller. In Lebanon, a taxi driver set his vehicle on fire while fruit vendors dumped their goods in the streets in expressions of mounting discontent. The protests suggest a universal corollary with the pandemic: an outbreak anywhere is an outbreak everywhere.

Protesters in 2019 went beyond demanding the fall of a leader. They sought the fall of political elites and radical overhaul of failed political systems. The pandemic called an abrupt halt to the protests. Protesters like the rest of the population went into temporary hibernation.

When they re-emerge, they are likely to put government leaders who prioritized political advantage above their health and economical well-being at a cost that surpasses that of the 1929 Great Depression on par with crimes committed against humanity during times of war.

Social, economic, ethnic, and sectarian fault lines are likely to be hardened in countries like Pakistan and Iraq where militants stepped in with healthcare and other social services to fill voids created by lack of government capacity.

The pandemic further painfully illustrated the economic cost of not only failing to confront a health crisis in a timely fashion but also the risk inherent in policies that do not ensure proper healthcare infrastructure in every corner of the globe, guarantee equal access to healthcare, make sure that people irrespective of income have proper housing and nutrition, turn a blind eye to the destruction of healthcare facilities in conflict situations like Syria, Yemen, Libya, Ukraine, Nagorno-Karabakh, Myanmar, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, tolerate millions of refugees existing in sub-standard living and hygiene conditions, and disregard environmental degradation and climate change.

The pandemic casts a spotlight on the deprivation of populations of proper healthcare as a result of politically motivated discriminatory social and economic policies.

The non-discriminatory nature of the coronavirus forced the Israeli government to ramp up testing in communities of Israeli Palestinians which had been described by public health experts as a ticking time bomb.

The experts warned that Israeli Palestinians, who figured prominently among frontline doctors and nurses treating Jews and Palestinians alike, were an at-risk group, many of whom suffer from chronic diseases, live in crowded conditions, and are socially and economically disadvantaged.

Ramping up testing to prevent the spread of COVID-19 constitutes an immediate effort to stem the tide but does little to structurally prepare Israeli and Palestinian society for the next pandemic.

Pre-dominantly Palestinian “East Jerusalem is gravely neglected in every possible way in terms of the infrastructure. Most neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem don’t have sewage systems. Just about every possible public service you can think of is underbudgeted and lacking in East Jerusalem. The only thing they get a lot of is parking fines and (punitive) housing demolition orders, said” left-wing member of the Jerusalem municipal council Laura Wharton.

A Monopoly board centred on Jerusalem given to her by Moshe Lion, the city’s mayor and a former economic advisor and director general of prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s office, illustrates the political calculus that potentially puts not only Jews and Palestinians but populations elsewhere at risk in a future pandemic.

“You have here the City of David, the Mount of Olives, the Knesset (the Israeli parliament), the Montefiore windmill, the markets, (the ultra-orthodox Jewish neighbourhood of) Mea She’arim. Al Aqsa (the third holiest Muslim site) is not here, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is not here. Basically what you have is a bunch of Jewish sites and various illusions to other things. It’s not a very balanced picture of Jerusalem,” Ms. Wharton noted pointing at various landmarks on the board.

African Americans, Hispanics and native Americans tell the story, They have fallen disproportionately victim in the United States to the coronavirus.

US surgeon general Dr. Jerome Adams, a 45-year old African American vice admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, one of America’s eight uniformed services, pulled out his inhaler at a White House press briefing in April 2020, saying he's carried it around for 40 years, "out of fear of having a fatal asthma attack."

Looking fit and trim in his dark uniform, Mr. Adams said he also had a heart condition and high blood pressure. "I represent that legacy of growing up poor and black in America. And I, and many black Americans, are at higher risk for COVID."

The surgeon general said that “its alarming but not surprising that people of colour have a greater burden of chronic health conditions. African Americans and native Americans develop high blood pressure at much younger ages… and (the virus) does greater harm to their organs. Puerto Ricans have higher rates of asthma and black boys are three times (more) likely to die of asthma than their white counterparts…. People of colour are more likely to live in densely packed areas and multi-generational housing, situations which create higher risk for the spread of a highly contagious disease like COVID-19. We tell people to wash their hands, but a study shows that 30 percent of homes of the Navajo nation don’t have running water, so how are they going to do that?”

What goes for one of the wealthiest nations on earth goes for the rest of the world too, particularly with the last two decades suggesting that pandemics occur more frequently and are likely to do so going forward.

What started in Wuhan in China in December 2019 had by April 2020 brought the world to a virtual standstill. Millions across the globe were infected, tens of thousands did not survive, economies shut down and the prospects for recovery and return to what was normal seemed a mere hope in a distant future.

Andrew Cuomo may be the exception that confirms the rule. There is little in the response of leaders from China’s Xi Jingping to Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US President Donald J. Trump that suggests that the lesson that an outbreak anywhere is an outbreak everywhere has persuaded them to think in terms of structural change.

If the first six months of the coronavirus are anything to go by, the name of the game has been jockeying for political positions, ideology trumps science, and everyone for him or herself in a race to the bottom rather than apolitical banding together globally, regionally and nationally to fight a dangerous and debilitating common enemy.

The response to the pandemic reflected the crumbling of the post-World War Two international order that is in the grips of a struggle by big and medium-sized powers to shape global governance in the 21st century.

The struggle has already crippled the United Nations and politicization of the coronavirus and healthcare threatens to undermine the World Health Organization, the one, albeit flawed, structure capable of coordinating a global response.

Complicating the response, was the rise of civilizationalists like Mr. Xi, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, Hungarian prime minister Victor Orban and Mr. Trump who think in civilizational rather than national terms.

They conceive of their nations as civilizations in which Hans, Hindus or Christians rule supreme and there is no equal place for minorities rather than nation states defined by legally recognized borders, population, and language.

Theirs is a world of neglect for international law, increased conflict, political violence, and mass migration that promises to be even less prepared for the next pandemic. It is also a world in which early warning systems are weakened by muzzling of a free press.

Former US president Barak Obama, in his opening blast against Trump in the run-up to the November presidential election, put his finger on the pulse.

“What we are fighting against is these long-term trends in which being selfish, being tribal, being divided and seeing others an enemy, that that has become a stronger impulse in American life. And by the way, you know, we are seeing that internationally as well. And it’s part of the reason why the response to this global crisis has been so anaemic and spotty… It has been an absolute chaotic disaster when that mindset of what’s in it for me and to heck with everybody else – when that mindset is operationalized in our government,” Mr. Obama told a virtual gathering of his former staffers.

The pandemic demonstrates the need for coordinated policies ranging from global, regional, and national stock piling, international cooperation in medical research and development, conflict mediation, protection of minority rights, environment, absorption of refugees and robust but diversified supply chains.

It also highlights the importance to healthcare of eradication of poverty and proper social security nets, housing, hygiene, and access to water in a world in which an outbreak anywhere is an outbreak everywhere.

The pandemic positions an approach towards healthcare that is integrated into sustainable social and economic policies as a matter of global and national security on par with regional and national defense and security policies and investments.

It also raises the question of what role major non-governmental institutions like the Clinton Initiative, George Soros and the Gates Foundation can play.

Dr. James M. Dorsey is an award-winning journalist and a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. He is also an adjunct senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute and co-director of the University of Wuerzburg’s Institute of Fan Culture in Germany

#United States #Trump #pandemic #coronavirus #coronavid19 #covid2019 #Russia #health #refugees #china #iran #pakistan #Israel #middle east

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airoasis · 7 years ago

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