#I BEE So GENETICAL SUPERIOR on Earth

[gimmick-blog-bracket]

Now for the final round!

@hellsitegenetics

I love them

I didn't know I needed to know that the weed-smoking girlfriends post was genetically a wolf, but I did, and I do. Also puts great stuff on my dash.

it’s so fun to be scrolling unhinged posts and then boom. an organism!

so many moths‼ also, unexpected comedy with some of the matches

perfect blend of silly and informative, and makes for an excellent punchline at the end of a long post. puts creatures on my dash. literally what more could you ask for

It's a really unique blog concept and a lot of times the results are pretty funny. It's great when the sequence matches the post content too!

Creatures 👍

Finds beautiful creatures out of the mess of the hellsite

Offers finality AND gives us a creechur.

I love them. English speakers talk like moths

If this blog wins, they could run the text of the winning announcement, and determine the post's genus and species!

They're also very good about tagging the type of creature depicted in the results, so as long as you mute tags of creatures you don't want to see, it's a very fun time seeing iconic legacy posts (and new submissions) being reduced down to a string of letters and assigned a random species of fish or moth or something!

uhh it’s cool

BLAST

There are so many weird bugs in the world

Yippee!!

If, as Haldane said, God has an inordinate fondness for beetles, then surely this blog proves that Tumblr has an inordinate fondness for moths.

Top tier blog as a geneticist, I love seeing obscure organisms and MOTH

Admin got rate limited after trying to blast the bee movie

the knowledge of biology to pull this off (i have taken one biology class in my life) and also the work to find all the strings honestly deserves quite a bit of praise

This gimmick blog has it all: science, pictures of animals, interaction with the text of other peoples' posts, interesting information, and a unique and fun premise. As a biologist, I'm rooting for hellsitegenetics to reach the end and take the tournament, because it is truly a standout among gimmick blogs.

If they win, perhaps this blog too shall become a cool organism :3

@hasgavlebockenburneddownyet

What's more happy holiday cheer than cheering on the destruction of a giant straw goat?

The birds may have won 2023, but I believe in humanity's capability for arson for 2024 <3

a vote for me is a vote for arson! This message was approved by hasgavlebockenburneddownyet

gavle is SUCH a public service and holiday feature

what's more tumblr than comical destruction and holidays?

sometimes you just gotta vote with your matchsticks

Bringing a cultural staple to tumblr since 2021

Arson is so much more fun

It would be really funny and ironic if it survives the tournament

you have no idea how much joy watching the chronicling of the gavlebocken brings me every year

hasgavlebockenburneddownyet provides an essential public service

always love seeing a bit of Swedish history on my dash 'Swedish bamboo season'

the goat account is peak gimmick blog

If I don't get to beat the goat then nobody does. -pointless-achievements

Never ask Tumblr to choose between lies and arson! The winner threatens by nature to rip apart the very fabric of our DNA!

goat statues made out of straw are exciting and interesting

I wanna see things burn

the goat is an essential part of tumblr culture and the goat blog is a sacred keeper of the tumblr high holidays

watching to see if the big straw goat has burned down each year is a true delight, something I never knew existed until tumblr and the blog dedicated to it

the incredibly focused nature of @/hasgavlebockenburneddownyet is what makes their gimmick superior.

Please guys bite gavlebocken

Look, I'm Danish. I was put on this earth to annoy the Swedes and vice versa, but even I voted for @/hasgavlebockenburneddownyet

gavlebocken is also such a fun name and this blog informed be about its existence, so for that I am grateful

hasgavlebockenburneddownyet is providing a vital service! Every year, people rely on their updates regarding the fate of our most beloved Yule Goat! How could they NOT deserve the win!?

sacred anti-corporate arson

a vote for g��vlebocken is a vote for anarchy!

pls vote for them they're the funniest gimmick keeping track on the funniest phenomena in recent human history, like when i look at their acc i think to myself this is what tumblr was created for

the goat is the GOAT

HASGAVLEBOCKENBURNEDDOWNYET DESERVES TO WIN, I have them on post alert for a REASON

the holiday season wouldn't be the same without them

they do important reporting. Do you look at the news and be like 'the reporters aren't doing work they're just telling you whats happening.' Have some respect for the goat news

let the weird burnt sacrificial ritual of it all appeal to you

nothing makes my December more interesting, arson should win

doesn't barge in on other peoples posts which is always a good thing in my books. not a fan when obnoxious gimmick blogs turn a decent post into a garbled mess

[harrelltut]

☥ My Metaphysical Epidermis [ME = U.S. Michael Harrell = TUT = JAH] of SIRIUS Black [B] Embryonic Ectoderm & Endoderm [BEE] Intelligences… BEE So GENETICAL SUPERIOR on Earth as I Meditatively Absorb [MA] Inner Earth’s [HADES] QUANTUM Black Altitude Earth [BAE = COSMIC] Energies that Natural Feel like Supernatural Unseen Nuclear [SUN] Radiation of Astronomical [RA] Memory intEL [MELanin] since I BEE Moor INTERGALACTICALLY [MI = MICHAEL] Intelligent [MI = MIRACULOUS] than you ☥

[ardenttheories]

Your takes on gender can be applied these ways also: 1. Their species could be transphobic solely because they might view gender as unnecessary (which isn’t true, due to so many trolls being trans with no problem, so that’s out the window,) or 2. The Condesce herself or her generation created gender roles on Alternia; it would also make sense with The Signless preaching beliefs of freedom and possibly even expression, if we were to go that route. While it doesn’t fix all, it’s better than nothin

Continuing on with Signless and the Condesce, it would have actually made more sense for Sign to be a Fuchsia if society is based on blood caste, for more than one reason (I mean the political implications of a thief of BLOOD being a tyrannical emperor and what you could do with that are pretty fucking apparent but hey who gives a shit amiright) and while life can be just as politically aligned as blood, the inherent structure of blood and the way it’s broken and set up makes Sign a better fit

The bulge-nook standard is all just a bunch of useless bullshit, but it wasn’t in the past apparently; I think it’s mentioned somewhere in the comic that they’re actually close to extinction because the mother grub method is unsustainable and was created BY the Condesce? And that they actually could procreate together but they’re slowly losing the ability? Therefore you could also say that those who are still able to reproduce via encounters could be labeled differently, but that’s still shit

Continuing once again off of the whole mother grub thing (Sorry I’m spamming your inbox I just really like your think thoughts,) the only reason I could see a troll harboring certain ‘gender’ traits (boobs for example) would be for advantages in different climates, besides possible ovaries which, if trolls are more bug than human-like, don’t even make sense anyway. It’s all just a bunch of crud BUT the argument for being trans lies solely in what could remain, OR societal reconstruction I guess

I suppose HIC could have been the generation to assign gender roles to her society, but my only issue would be this: why? I pointed this out in another anon, but there’s no actual divide into “trolls who are superior for being x gender” and “trolls who are inferior for being x gender”. She’s the empress, so you’d think she’d have a preference for women - but her closest and most valued are both men. And even then, she kills indisciminately between genders. Her only preference I’ve ever seen gender-wise is that she always views women as heiresses (or, people who are possible to take her throne), and even that doesn’t entirely make sense; it can easily be explained away as Hussie trying to build a matriarchy where one just didn’t need to exist, to parallel Alternia and Earth. 

To HIC, hemospectrum trumps gender. A male and female rustblood could be standing side by side, both accused of a crime, and neither would be considered more or less guilty on a gendered basis: they’d both be culled for being rust. Likewise, two violetbloods could kill a purpleblood, and the male wouldn’t be more likely to get caught than the female, or viseversa. They’d both get away scot free because they’re highbloods, and higher than the purple they killed - or, they’d both be revenge-slaughtered by other purplebloods.

This isn’t even getting into the fact that, although our canonical legislacerator is female (Redglare), the actual judge (His Honorable Tyranny) is male. So, again, we have a male in power. Yet there’s no explicit bias towards or against men. 

It’s this foundational issue for trying to put a gendered system - as we understand it - on a system that just doesn’t work for it. I do very firmly believe that the trolls would have a gender system, yes; but I think it would revolve around something entirely different. More like how bee genders work; if they’re all “female”, then how do you differentiate the “gender” of bees? By focusing on what actually differentiates them societally: their roles in the hive. Queen, worker, drone - these are the bee genders. How you could implement that to Alternians, I’m not totally sure; I’d have to think on that a little more.

The Signless works well as a mutantblood for the martyr status Hussie was going for; he’s a very clear allegory for Jesus as-is, and having him be a fuchsia wouldn’t have really worked in that sense (because he would have been born into an inherent place of power, without the requirement to go through the martyr journey - and he could have much more easily set about a better, more equal structure had he been an heir than he could have being a mutant). 

It’s a good way to impose on readers just how violent troll society is against those who don’t fit into the spectrum, since the hemospectrum is a class structure that was instilled by both HIC and Doc Scratch (which doesn’t exist as strictly on Beforus, except that the upper classes look after the lower). It also just allows for the equal “one troll of each caste” motif Hussie wanted to go with. So, again, this is an unfortunate instance of Hussie choosing design over lore.

That said, being a fuchsiablood - or even a mutated fuchsia, if we still want to go down the mutant route - would have been endlessly interesting. It could have completely different to see a not-so-shoddily hidden allegory. How The Signless would have attempted to go against HIC, his abilities as a Blood Player, the potentialities of him still raising a rebellion and attempting to change the entire structure of Alternia to something more Beforean - it’s definitely juicy food for thought, if nothing else.

I couldn’t find anything on the Mother Grub method being instilled by HIC, or the fact that it was unsustainable - at least, not on Alternia. Everything I’ve seen relating to Alternia and Mother Grubs very much seems to state that these are the natural ways of the world, something that wasn’t meddled with (which goes along with a theory I had with a few anons some time ago, under the “#homestuck biology” tag, wherein the Mother Grub, trolls, and Drones are actually all founded from the same ancient species, but the trolls just so happened to be the ones to evolve into intelligent life). 

(Edited note: I did find something mentioning that the threat of global extinction allowed for the implementation of the caste system to begin with - as in, the hemospectrum didn’t exist until that specific point in time. It doesn’t mention anything about the Mother Grubs before or after this event, or what caused the near-extinction of the troll race. I would assume Doc Scratch, in order to force the Hemospectrum to exist in the first place, since he takes full credit for its conception. In either case, it isn’t an inability to breed that almost killed off the entire Alternian race - otherwise, even post-Hemospectrum, they would have still died out.)

Anything regarding unsustainability might be instead referring to HIC’s attempts to reintroduce the troll population to the Alpha kids’ Earth; she tries to bring lusii into the world and tries to repopulate Earth using genetic material via the Mother Grub (including for humans), but ultimately fails to do so (partly because her attempts to do so were thwarted by a clone of her lusus, partly because, I assume, human DNA isn’t compatible with the Mother Grubs). 

So, unfortunately, it doesn’t look like trolls ever had the ability to mate with each other and reproduce in a more mammalian way. Which I still despise as a concept, if I’m completely honest; the trolls are clearly meant to be based on insects, are surrounded by insect-like evolutionary divergences, and breed in a very insect-like way. The idea that they ever, at any point, had a more mammalian lineage just makes no sense. That’s like saying that we descended from ancient bees instead of ancient apes. 

It’s, again, one of those instances were you can tell Hussie tried to make something unique and interesting, but then didn’t fully think it through and returned to what he knew most - which is a very much more human experience. 

I think the best explanation for the “gender” differences - beyond “Hussie needed a way to show male and female characters because he didn’t think to include different genders in a society that clearly needed it - probably is the climate concept. It’d be more interesting, for one, and still allow for the potential that trolls don’t have - or show - inherent sexual dimorphism. Especially because, like you said, those are very mammalian traits? Insect-based species don’t have an evolutionary need for those things. 

[secret-engima]

Yo! Are you still doing headcanons? Or answers? Whatever! What about others reactions on Starwish being Magnus/Jazz child/sparkmate?? Like, not the one you did for your side fic, but like. Seaspays thoughts when he meets her??? Am I making sense at all???

Hi!! I am still doing HCs and prompts (I’ll get to the Magnus Starwish platonic I swear I’m just- trying to make the muses SIT DOWN in the TF fandom long enough to hammer it out.

Okay so- lemme think. I think I get what you’re asking, you want to know HCs for how specific bots like Seaspray react to learning that she’s Magnus’s child and/or Jazz sparkmate? Lemme see if I do this right.

Seaspray: 

- A lot of things are going wrong when Seaspray meets (or at least sees) Starwish for the first time. Cybertron dying, Whirl going meltdown, slag is hitting the burners and he’s been in the Wreckers for a long enough time to know to brace himself for it to get worse. So when Ultra Magnus asks the Spec Ops mech that showed up out of thin air for the whereabouts of Starwish, Seaspray doesn’t think anything of it. By now, a lot of mechs have heard of Ratchet’s second apprentice, the tiny wonder femme Starwish. Whirl needs a medic, and Starwish is supposedly one of the best. It doesn’t occur to him to wonder how Ultra Magnus knew that Starwish was even in the area.

- Until a little white blur comes out of nowhere to tackle Ultra Magnus anyway. Seaspray and at least half the other Wreckers all brace to help fight off whatever had just gone after their commanding officer, but instead of flinging the attacker away, Ultra Magnus ... holds it close? Her. Holds her close. It’s a little white two-wheeler femme, fearlessly clinging to the Ultra Magnus’s armor like he’s the best thing she’s ever seen rather than a superior officer who threatens to brig people who get overcharged too often. It’s only about halfway through the short conversation that goes on between Ultra Magnus, the femme he’s cradling (cradling!) protectively against his armor, and the faintly bristly First Lieutenant Jazz that Seaspray figures out that 1. this is Starwish and 2. ... something is up. This femme knows these two mechs. Better than a medic to patient relationship allows. That maybe Ultra Magnus’s pet name of Little One is more than just a comment on her size but an endearment to his ... sparkchild?

-Primus below who would sparkmate a mech like him? Check that, since when was Ultra Magnus ever relaxed enough to sparkmate with someone? Seaspray and the rest of the Wreckers had all been of the unanimous opinion that Ultra Magnus had no social life to speak of, let alone a family unit.

-Seaspray is a little too busy trying to wrap his helm around the possibility and the fact that this little femme apparently figured out security codes in a cycle that Seaspray had been trying to hack for vorns to truly preen when she recognizes him as the Wrecker’s pilot. He’s also too busy wondering how in the world someone that tiny and friendly could be related to Ultra Magnus.

-His first clue is the overly innocent helm tilt as she confirms that she is, in fact, Ultra Magnus’s sparkchild and can’t they tell? A question delivered with perfect innocence, but with a faint glint in her optic that Seaspray knew from pranksters everywhere (including himself).

-Then Jazz casually reveals that the little femme is his sparkmate and underneath the spark attack that revelation almost causes, Seaspray goes “Ah. That explains everything.”

-Seaspray has no idea if Starwish is AllSpark forged or created from Ultra Magnus and some unknown sparkmate, but he does know that his commanding officer would be the only mech capable of surviving raising the One of the Autobot First Lieutenant. Seaspray has heard the stories, he knows that Jazz could run circles around the Wreckers if he wanted, no matter what the other Wreckers (and Seaspray) will vocally claim otherwise. Any sparkmate of his had to be at least that cunning and deadly to keep up. She just apparently hides it behind her tiny frame and innocent optics rather than jokes and music and laughter like Jazz.

-The femme trots off to go help Medix with Whirl and the rest are given orders about the ships in the dockyard, but Seaspray has time to exchange a few glances with the others and know that they’re all in agreement. Ultra Magnus had a lot more titanium in his struts than they’d given him credit for if he’d successfully survived raising that.

-And also that they were never going to frag off Ultra Magnus’s sparkchild. Never mind what she would do to them (and Seaspray is sure she could do quite a lot) but facing down the wrath of both their commanding officer and the First Lieutenant?

-Wreckers might be reckless and stupid like other Autobots claim, but none of them were outright suicidal.

Bonus - Jack Darby (Note this will probably become non-canon for AMOSC because it’s too far ahead for my notes, but hey it’s fun to imagine):

-Jack likes to believe he’s pretty adaptable by now. Because- well. Aliens. Giant robot aliens who turn into cars and trucks (and dragons!) living in hiding on Earth, waging a war over resources Jack didn’t know existed? It takes a lot to top that. Plus, for all the Autobots are friendly (most of them anyway), they’re still alien robots and so anything odd or weird about them Jack has learned to kinda just ... chalk up to “Cybertronian things”, move on with his life, and focus on not getting either grounded for life or killed by Decepticons.

-So when he first sees Ultra Magnus and Starwish interacting, Jack really doesn’t think anything of it. Starwish is a lot friendlier than Ratchet, and also a lot smaller, being only around Arcee’s size, and Ultra Magnus is huge. The first time he walks in and sees Starwish perched on Ultra Magnus’s shoulder, he blinks to get over his initial surprise and then just shrugs it off. Starwish is tiny. Ultra Magnus is tall. Ultra Magnus also seems to have a soft spot for her of some sort, so if she needed to climb up his frame to repair something or just to stay out from everyones’ feet, Jack supposes he could see Ultra Magnus accommodating her.

-Then one day he comes in and Ultra Magnus is ... sleeping. Which, okay, long night patrol. Arcee dozes off all the time in the sunshine when she can. The thing that makes him really stare is-

-Starwish is sleeping on top of him. Curled up on his chest plates like an oversized cat on their owner’s chest. Considering the only mech and femme he knows that are that ... cuddly with each other are Arcee and Hardwire and they’re sparkmates...

-Jack grabs Miko before she can screech over the scene and goes to quietly ask Arcee a few questions. Arcee smothers a laugh when Jack asks if Ultra Magnus and Starwish are a Thing (Jack personally thought she acted too young for Magnus but what does he know about alien robot aging) and then explains that Starwish is Magnus’s sparkchild. His daughter.

-Jack really, really never needed to know there was an robot alien version of the Birds and Bees, but if soul marriage is a thing for them then okay. More cybertronians have to get made somehow. Miko asks about who Starwish’s mom was and Arcee hems and haws for a bit before explaining that Ultra Magnus didn’t have a sparkmate and nobody knew who Starwish’s femme creator was. Starwish was ... adopted. Sort of. In a “my soul accepts you as my destined soul child” kind of way. Or something. English was really not up to handling the complexities of explaining an alien culture from space. But at least the adoption thing explains why Ultra Magnus is so much more massive than his adult daughter (unless of course height of the parents had no affect on the heights of the kids in cybertronian biology because they were- well- mechanical. Did they even have genetics to worry about passing on?).

-Honestly after that near-fiasco and brain melt, catching Jazz and Starwish kissing in the hall was nothing. Jazz had been a steady presence since before Starwish ever arrived on planet. Jack knows the quirky spy mech and frankly a vaguely sarcastic ninja medic is exactly the kind of femme Jack can see him going for.

-At least until Miko asks how they “married” and it comes out that Starwish bonded (married? is that really the best equivalent when it meant sharing part of your soul energy?) to Jazz on the battlefield in order to save his life after he got critically injured in the fighting. Miko and Raf think it’s the most romantic thing they’ve ever heard. Jack is a little too busy hearing the voice in his head that sounds a lot like his mom going off about “contaminants” and “danger” and “safety first” (or maybe that’s just Ratchet muttering away in his work station as the story gets told, that mech knows how to hold a grudge over his patients doing stupid things)

[spndystopiabang]

SPN Dystopia Bang 2019 masterpost all stories and art

The 2018-2019 round of the SPN Dystopia Bang has finished. We've had an amazing crop of stories and art this year and we invite you to check out the following story and art links below to see for yourself. (Find the AO3 collection here.)

Until next time. ~ hit_the_books and Enoliel

here at the end of all things

Author: chestercbennington / remy Artist: blueeyesandpie / sunny Rating: teen Length: ~40k words Pairings: gen Warnings: graphic depictions of violence, torture and its aftermath

AU from Season 12 onwards. The British Men of Letters win in the USA,  and slowly manage to establish their bases and authority over the whole   country. They also capture Sam Winchester and keep him prisoner for   eleven months, experimenting on him regularly before wiping his memories  so that he has no idea what has been done to him. Even after   Dean rescues him and they begin planning to get revenge once and for   all, the niggling doubt at the back of Sam’s head remains – what did   they do to him? Why won’t his anxiety get better? And what is it that   he’s missing?

Link to fic Link to art

Lebanon, Postilla

Author: smalltrolven Artist: kuwlshadow Rating: Explicit Length: 11,679 Pairings: Sam/Dean Warnings: None

After the Great Deluge, the Postilla, or the Afterward begins. In   2030, Sam finally has the time to write the story of the end of their   world and what came next. The Winchesters manage to find some solace in   what they’ve long denied themselves. Cas and Jack are presumed gone in   the Deluge, but then tales reach the brothers of approaching beings   killing with only their voices.

Link to fic on AO3 or LJ

Link to art on tumblr

The Melancholy Waters Lie

Author(s): anyrei & mugglerock Artist: Hitori Alouette Rating: Explicit Length: ~90k Pairing(s): Castiel/Dean Winchester; (Jessica Moore/Sam Winchester) Warnings: Minor character death, Attempted Rape/Noncon, Drowning

Merifi had always been the guardians, the angels of the sea. The balance in their world, the light to the sirens’ darkness. As with time and   industrial growth, humans became aggressive, dangerous, uncaring in   their endeavor to put all life in the sea at risk. Unable to combat it,  the merifi and many other creatures went into hiding within their   kingdoms.

That was, until the fateful period in which humans  created such mass destruction, pollution, and chaos; the earth warmed  and the sea levels rose.

Humans who survived were forced to reside  in Teloah; the City of Death, and the sea was returned to its rightful inhabitants. Despite the shift, merifi of the Kingdom of Basgim were instructed by their King to never venture to the surface. But Castiel,   the youngest of the King’s three sons, had never been good at listening.

Fascinated by humans and the things they created, Castiel too often found himself   nearing the surface in curiosity, but never drawing too close, never   interfering in the affairs of humans on ships. That was, until a fateful night during a terrible storm, when a handsome human was flung from  the  safety of his ship.

It wasn’t like saving one human could possibly change his life. Right?

Link to fic

Link to art

Under the Nothing Sky

Author: malmuses Artist: anyreiart Rating: Explicit Length: 78k Pairings: Dean Winchester/Castiel (Background Sam/Eileen and Gabriel/Kali) Warnings: Minor Character Deaths (No Winchesters or Castiel),  Homophobic   Society, Canon typical violence, Torture, Imprisonment, Angst  with a   Happy Ending, Spaceships, Big Explosions, Drinking and Dancing.

Welcome to the Glass City.

Its   citizens live perfect, orderly lives. Controlled by the barcodes upon   their arms, they are quietly assigned jobs, spouses, accommodations…  whole lives. Some families rank above others, but that is just the way   it is. The way the Council demands it to be.

Lieutenant Colonel   Castiel Novak is the shining star of the Glass City’s Academy, mere   weeks away from graduating and being titled Commander of his own ship,   his own crew.

Castiel is very good at obeying.

Until he meets a man with green eyes, a cocky smile, and no barcode.

Link to fic

Link to art

I Will Always Find You

Author: Hunter Kin Artist: amberdreams Beta: jdl71 Word Count: 31,217 Rating: Explicit Pairings: Dean/Sam Warnings: barebacking, swearing, violence, spoilers for Season 8

When Sam realizes that his brother had been blasted to Purgatory after   killing Dick Roman, he takes a back door through Hell to save Dean.   Only  his brother won’t leave without Castiel. And as each day passes,   it  becomes more and more clear that the angel just doesn’t want to be   found.

Link to fic: LJ | AO3

Link to art: LJ

Not Without You

Author: jscribbles Artist: bees-are-awesome Rating: Explicit Length: 57,000 Pairings: Dean/Castiel (a little of Castiel/Hannah, a non-con Meg/Castiel) Warnings: various non-con   situations, dub-con situations, cruel and unusual punishment, graphic   depictions of assault and violence, humans put in solitary confinement,   forced ejaculation, drugs and substance abuse, use of barbiturates,   imprisonment, mentions of forced breeding, torture, sexual situations,   eugenics, emotional and physical abuse by authority figures

There’s   a virus spreading across the globe, rendering 80% of men infertile. In  a  rush to contain the spread of the virus as a viral hotspot arises in   South Dakota, the government implements forced fertility testing for  all  men, and a mandatory breeding program. The borders close, all   communication both interstate and across borders is shut down, and a   state of national emergency is put in place. The fertile   twenty-percenters are being redistributed to breed with society’s elite   women—moguls, celebrities, geniuses, CEOs. The eight-percenters are   being sent to work on farms or sent back to their regular jobs,   distributed via lottery. Dean and Castiel are not one of the lucky ones.

Victims   to cruel medical procedures, routine sexual assault, and other   atrocities under The Facility’s authority, Dean and Castiel quickly find   comfort in each other. They—especially Dean—scheme and plot their   escape with the help of Dean’s laywer brother, Sam, who is states over   but somehow instrumental in their plan. They find strength and love in  each other, but how long will they live in a facility that executes   rebels, and how long will they last when Naomi discovers that separating   them makes them weaker?

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Link to art

Moon-kissed

Author: FogsRollingIn Artist: MidnightSilver Rating: Mature (for dark themes) Length: ~28,000 Pairings: Sam/Dean (unrelated) Warnings: Dark themes, slavery, mentions of past abuse, graphic violence

Leviathans   led a successful global assault on humanity twenty years ago. The  resistance is made up of surviving humans and Luna-borne creatures such  as weres. Dean, a Marrow Pack werewolf, runs missions to take down   leviathan strongholds and rescue those imprisoned and enslaved there. On   this particular mission, Dean is shocked to discover one of the young   slaves is a werecat, a species so rare that most weres thought them   extinct.

Link to fic

Link to art

I Dreamed A Dream

Author: MidnightSilver Beta: wendibird Artist: Angel Rating: Gen Length: ~21,000 words Pairings: none Warnings: Canon level violence, some gore, angst, despair, child death - minor characters,

Six beings stand alone as the world crumbles and gasps it dying breath  -  a world of death from sickness and starvation; a world where  monsters   walk the day without fear; where the living wait for death  only to find  Death is no comfort.

Above this world sits the  Archangel who was  its architect. Below it waits the Vessel who could  not let go - who  laughed as it burned. And somewhere unknown is a man  lost to his family.  He fights, though his strength is almost gone. The  one who was looking  for him is broken - his hope destroyed. And the  last Angel is not  enough. He was never meant to stand alone.

This world is nightmare - but when you are alone in the terror of the night who can lead the way to salvation?

Link to fic

Link to art

Between Promise and Purgatory

Author: CR Noble Artist: hit_the_books Rating: Explicit Pairing: Gen, background Ketch/Gadreel Word Count: 26K Warnings: Major   Character Death, Dystopian AU, Human trafficking, self-harm, graphic   depictions of violence, imprisonment, uneducated!sam, resistance, caste   system, torture, noncon, medical procedures, eugenics, minor character   death (multiple)

In a post-apocalyptic   world where the rich have control of everything, including the people,   and the poor don’t even own their own bodies, people with superior   genetics are sold as breeders for the Gentry to keep their immortal   bloodlines growing.

Dean has lived in Purgatory his whole   life, trying his best to protect his younger brother from the hideous   truths of their existence, especially since their parents died while   they were teenagers. So, when Sam is taken to be sold as a breeder, Dean   doesn’t have a choice.

With the help of the underground society known as the Network, Dean must face impossible odds if he is to save his brother.

The risks are great, but he’ll do anything to save Sam. No matter what it costs.

Link to Fic

Link to Art

[frankences]

“Weeds in the Garden”, oil on canvas by frankences

Talk delivered at Philosophers’ Camp, State University of New York, School of Environmental Science and Forestry, Newcomb, NY, October 6, 2019

This essay contains several Christian references. They just happened to be handy. This painting is not about religion. In fact, it is my belief that a religious version of dominion as human domination is problematic. Feel free to replace the word God with Universe or Source or Origin or whatever you wish. 

“Weeds in the Garden” is the title of this painting. It was originally inspired by the Pope’s Encyclical on the environment, titled; On Care for Our Common Home* (Laudato Si’ translated means “Praise Be to You”). Praise be to our common home! In this document the Pope clearly states that environmental justice is social justice and that allowing the globe to warm up further, endangers the world’s most vulnerable people. After reading the encyclical I was weeding in my garden and as I tossed out what I believed to be weeds I considered that we do this to people. We dismiss other humans as being ‘less than’ and toss them out. 

What is a weed? In the following definition I have replaced the word plant with the word human. The result is truly horrifying: 

weed: A human not valued for use or beauty, regarded as cumbering or hindering the growth of superior humans... An unprofitable, troublesome, or noxious growth. Human control is important on earth. Methods include hand cultivation with guns, powered cultivation with armaments, smothering economically, lethal discrimination by the media, bombing, or chemical attack with poisons. 

We label plants and humans when they don’t serve our purpose. Our inability to perceive the value in a plant or human does not mean that individual has no value. Should we toss certain people aside based on our bias and judgment? Contrast this approach to gardening with that of St. Theresa of Avila (1):

 “Beginners must realize that in order to give delight to the Lord they are starting to cultivate a garden on very barren soil, full of abominable weeds. His Majesty pulls up the weeds and plants good seed. Now let us keep in mind that all of this is already done by the time a soul is determined to practice prayer and has begun to make use of it. And with the help of God we must strive like good gardeners to get these plants to grow and take pains to water them so that they don't wither but come to bud and flower and give forth a most pleasant fragrance to provide refreshment for this Lord of ours. Then He will often come to take delight in this garden and find His joy among these virtues.” 

I think St. Theresa is referring to original sin in the beginning of this prayer but she goes on to talk about reconciliation which I will discuss later. Like weeds some people truly are trouble makers and cannot be allowed to continue to harm themselves and others. They must be separated but not tossed into the compost. 

Early last summer I decided to stop weeding; mostly because of ticks. As a result of this ‘neglect’ some interesting things happened. Surprising plants appeared like viper’s-bugloss, evening-primrose, and bee balm. Where did these things come from? I didn’t plant them. 

I took lots of photos of my garden to use as resources for this piece. One of the image files became corrupt when I loaded it onto my computer. When this image appeared on my monitor I thought it was beautiful! It has all the colors in my palette. This picture was reduced to its smallest parts in the form of pixels and serves as a perfect metaphor to describe how we all come from the same source and will return to this source. The following is a passage from Genesis:

“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”

 (Genesis 3:19, King James Bible) 

Outside of religious tradition materialists agree on the conservation of energy. Materials dissolve, they are transformed - one form dissolves into another form. Physicist Aaron Freemen expressed it this way in his essay titled “Physicist’s Eulogy” (2): 

“You want a physicist to speak at your funeral. You want the physicist to talk to your grieving family about the conservation of energy, so they will understand that your energy has not died. You want the physicist to remind your sobbing mother about the first law of thermodynamics; that no energy gets created in the universe, and none is destroyed. You want your mother to know that all your energy, every vibration, every Btu of heat, every wave of every particle that was her beloved child remains with her in this world. You want the physicist to tell your weeping father that amid energies of the cosmos, you gave as good as you got. And at one point you’d hope that the physicist would step down from the pulpit and walk to your brokenhearted spouse there in the pew and tell him that all the photons that ever bounced off your face, all the particles whose paths were interrupted by your smile, by the touch of your hair, hundreds of trillions of particles, have raced off like children, their ways forever changed by you. According to the law of the conservation of energy, not a bit of you is gone; you’re just less orderly.” 

Freeman doesn’t go far enough. Photons and neurons scatter but then what? Freeman is only describing the physical disintegration. He is describing only what we know at the present moment; what we are able to measure with our feeble instruments. That’s not the end of the story. The physicist David Bohm  (3) wrote about this in his papers about hidden variables that “depend both on the state of the measuring apparatus and the observed system.” Mr. Freeman probably thought this eulogy was comforting and there are parts of it that are beautiful, but the way he described our physical disintegration is part of a larger problem. The scientific method dominates our thinking. The way we look at the world is fragmented. We believe that everything is measurable and we often mis-measure. We don’t fully understand what happens when we genetically modify food. We don’t fully understand how some medications work. We artificially categorize people into races and classes. This is destructive. In his book, “Down to Earth, Politics in the New Climate Regime” (4), French philosopher Bruno Latour suggests that the people in power who are saying that climate change isn’t real actually know for a fact that it is real but choose to further the narrative that it is false. They understand that land masses are shrinking and are hoarding resources. They don’t care that indigenous people are especially vulnerable and are tossed aside to make way for money making opportunities. The Amazon is a perfect example of this. 

Now I will circle back to the idea of reconciliation that St. Theresa referred to. “Weeds in the Garden” is a painting about migration which will be exacerbated by climate change. In it, each plant is portrayed as an individual. They are looking toward the Omega Point, or Source or Origin or however one wants to describe ultimate reintegration. Our poem “Dust to dust’ refers not just to physical death but to reintegration. We were once integrated and now we believe we are fragmented but there is a growing movement towards reconciliation and it takes on two forms. One form of reconciliation includes philosophers who have reconciled to the idea that we are near the end as a species. The philosopher Jean Gebser for example, wrote that fragmentation taken to the extreme would bring about our eventual demise. In his book “Ever Present Origin” Gebser states: 

“If the mis-measurements are not stopped by fulfillment of the task assigned to us, they will lead to relinquishment of ourselves, and the final loss of mankind through atomization and dissolution.”

Philosophers like Sean Kelly, from the California Institute of Integral Studies (6) believes that we are at the end of the Anthropocene. Humans will become extinct. He suggests we take action as one would with a diagnosis of a terminal illness. We should use the time remaining to love and comfort one another. 

This is sad but there is good news. There are those who are making peace with creation. The Quakers in Australia are committed to having an integral relationship with indigenous people. The Quakers recognize their role, not only in Australia but globally, that has led to genocide and ecocide. They are willing to recognize their past belief in their own superiority and to embrace a new idea of interhuman relationship. They strive to understand and live by the Aboriginal law of love that they refer to as “that of God.” In her essay titled, “To Learn a New Song” (7) the Quaker environmentalist Susannah Brindle describes a mysterious experience in her own garden: 

“Some years ago we rented a suburban property which was impossibly choked with oxalis weed. With greater knowledge of this gardener's nightmare than I, (my husband) Ray took a powerful weedicide to it and, when that had no effect, I spent weeks systematically removing each little nut-like root from carefully marked areas. Our efforts netted an oxalis crop surpassing that of our neighbour's in determined virility. Only then did I remember ‘that of God’ in the oxalis. In less than six weeks not one oxalis could be found, although their acid-yellow flowers could clearly be seen on the other side of the fence. Our garden was free of them for over six months until we moved out. Then they began to creep back. We have a peace-pact, too, with the rabbits where we live. In spite of several warrens among the rocks and stories of devastation to everything planted by our neighbours, the rabbits cause no damage to our tree plantings or kitchen garden, and although we occasionally see them, their warrens seem no longer open for business. You may be wondering how an environmentalist can feel compassion for introduced pests, particularly one that has caused so much devastation to the soil of this country. When I consider the damage done by us whitefellas - invaders just like the rabbits and the oxalis - I am reluctant to get too self-righteous. As I have never heard Aboriginal peoples suggest that we vanish from their land, I feel obliged to look for less violent alternatives to eradication of other introduced pests.“

Susannah suggests that to know is to love and to begin the process of reconciliation we must get to know “that of God” about one another. In summary, humans are not weeds in the garden, nor rabbits to be exterminated. I offer no external solution. My wish is that the viewer will look within, to the inner garden, to clear blocks to receptivity. Our work is to cultivate what is beautiful. We must not struggle to pull the weeds. That is not our job. We cannot always foresee how a person will grow. It is hubris to assume we can predict what anyone will contribute. The fact that a plant or human exists is enough evidence of their worthiness.

References

* United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. (2015). On Care for Our Common Home: Laudato si: encyclical letter. Washington, DC.

(1) Teresa, Kavanaugh, K., & Rodríguez Otilio. (1987). The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila. Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications.

(2)  Aaron Freeman, born 1956, physicist, journalist, comic

(3) David Bohm (1952), Wholeness and the Implicate Order and A Suggested Interpretationn of the Quantum Theory in Terms of “Hidden” Variable. II http://physics.nmsu.edu/~bkiefer/HISTORY/BOHM_1952.pdf https://journals.aps.org/pr/abstract/10.1103/PhysRev.85.166 

(4) Latour, B., & Porter, C. (2018). Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climatic Regime. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.      

(5) Gebser, J. (1997). The Ever-present Origin. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press. Gebser on dissolution (pgs. 536 and 537 EPO): “If we surrender to the destructive deficient powers, if we ascribe to rationality a character of exclusive validity, if we continue to measure time with inappropriate measure, then we shall have indulged in mis-measurement, a … hubris, presumption which is not only inadequate but runs counter to the task.” P538, “Today, while the integral is over determining and dissolving the mental-rational consciousness, the mental capacity of thought is being mechanized by the robots of calculation - computers - and this is being emptied and quantified. Prayer wheels, the fragmentation of myth, and computers are expressions of man who remains confined in his familiar consciousness frequency while the necessary “tide=turning” new consciousness mutation begins to superimpose itself over the exhausted consciousness structure. Each excess of quantification leads to powerlessness, vacuity and helplessness. Wherever this is evident it is an indication that the inadequate consciousness structure is already surpassed. In this light, the computers are a negative omen of the new consciousness structure and its strength.” 1973

(6)  Sean Kelly (2019), Living in End Times: Beyond Hope and Despair, California Institute of Integral Studies

(7) Susannah Kay Brindle (2000), TO LEARN A NEW SONG A Quaker Contribution Towards Real Reconciliation with the Earth and its Peoples, Published by the Australia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), PO Box 108, Armidale North, Victoria 3143. Copyright 2000 by The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Australia Incorporated. 2nd impression 2001. .

[whatif-animagineblog]

Prompt: Congrats!! Can you do kirk one where your pavels twin and you come onto the enterprise to study a rock sample? Or something and kirk really takes a liking to you? Much pavel love, and bones sneaky comments? For Anon

Warnings: No......

Pairing: Kirk/Reader

A/N: I changed it to you beeing an older sister, just to make the age gap better. Also, I think this might get a part two!

Word Count: 2048

Kirk looked through the documents that needed signing. He was checking the transfer documents of new crewmen when he stumbled across yours. There you were, smiling in your cadet photo, you must not have had your mandatory service photograph taken yet. Your hair had familiar unruly curls to them. You looked so similar to Pavel Chekov, in the nose and cheek bones. That’s when his eyes scanned over your name. Y/N Chekov. No way.

“Chekov, you...do you have a sister?” The 20-year-old man whirled around, looking confused but also excited.

“Yes, she’s four years older zhan me. Ve vere alvays close, zhough, vith me being pushed up a few grades. She’s a geologist, vhy the interest?” 

“She’s been assigned to us," Kirk said, looking at your photo. 

“No way,” Pavel laughed. “Really? Y/N here?” Kirk smiled and nodded. “Vhen is she arriving?”

“Tomorrow, I was hoping you’d join me to see her.”

You tightened the grip on your bag as you felt the shuttle touch down. You stepped off and the first face you say was your brother’s. Gosh, he’s gotten tall. But, you and he were running full tilt into one another hugging tightly and just jabbering away in Russian.

Jim smiled at you two, he loved the way you two bounced, hugging, just talking. And then he got a good look at you. You were beautiful, the curls tied back into a tight ponytail. You looked up and your eyes were sparkling. That must be genetic too, Kirk mused.

“Keptain, allow me to introduce you to, Y/N Chekov my vonderful sister. Best damn geologist you could ask for!” you laughed and pushed your brother off you before taking the Captain’s hand. You both froze, looking each other’s eyes, his smile was warm and bright. The grip on you was firm, you didn’t want to let go.

“James Kirk, it’s an honor to have you aboard.” You just smiled at each other, and Pavel just watched, as the instant bond formed. Your brother could see what was happening and wasn’t sure if he liked it. “I’ll have Pavel show you to your quarters. Then bring you to the bridge. I’ll escort you to the labs, personally.”

“Okay,” you smiled at him one last time Pavel pulled you away. “So, that’s Captain Kirk. THE Captain Kirk.” 

Pavel nodded, “Yes,” Pavel grinned. “I can’t believe you are here. Vhy didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t have time. I was told I was on the Enterprise and my shuttle was leaving the next morning. I had to pack and send Mom and Dad a message. I wanted to surprise you, Pasha," you smiled as he threw an arm over your shoulder. "They miss you, you know.”

“Mom and Dad? Yeah, I try to leave out the near death experiences vhen I message zhem. Zhat Nero incident really scared zhem.” 

“Scared me too. But, leave it to my brother to come out unscathed.” You two were silent for a bit longer when Pavel spoke up again.

“Zhis is you. Deck 9, room F20, I’m on Deck 10, room C33 if you need me.” You nodded as Pavel typed in your code. “You can get me if you need me, doesn't matter vhen. Tranzitioning to ship life is hard, but once you get in the growe you are fine. I’ll send you my code.” You started putting away your clothing, and nick-nacks. Pavel was leaning against the wall smiling at you.

"Are ve going to talk about the elephant in the room?”

“What,” you asked. Pavel looked at you and gestured a little like he thought you were messing with him. “Pav, I have no idea what you are thinking.” 

“You and the Captain, making eyes at each other,” you laughed looking at him, trying to brush it off. “Oh come on! You are telling me zhat you vere not like eye-fucking.”

“Pavel! Language!” He laughed at you, and that’s when it really hit you. Your little brother wasn’t so little anymore. He had grown into a smart, brave, strong young man. “Listen, I think he is smart, brave, kind hearted and well,” You trailed.

“You zhink he’s hot. You and every other person that has the orientation.” He scoffed. "Just be careful. I don't vant you to go and getting your heart broken." You smiled back at your brother, appreciating his concern. Your eyes landed on your bed there were two boxes wrapped. One was large and the other was much smaller. "What's this?"

"Vell, I couldn't make it to your graduation. I was going to send that to you, but now you are here. The small one is the graduation present. The larger is a velcome present. " You picked up the larger one and opened it first. It was a blue uniform dress, more importantly, your first serving uniform. You looked over at Pavel with a question in your eyes. "I know you have a full closet of zhem but the first time you put it on, it's special. I vanted it to be special."

"Thank you," You opened the other one and it was a necklace with a Starfleet insignia dangling at the end. "This is beautiful, where did you get it?"

"The last Starbase, hand made." You hugged your brother tight. He always thought of you, you didn't really realize how much you had missed him until this moment.

Pavel took you up to the bridge, still chatting your year off. “Keptian,” he called, and Jim rose from his chair,  face breaking into a large grin. His eyes sparkled as he placed a hand on your brother's shoulder.

“I can take her from here, Chekov. You need to relieve Jameson.”

“Aye,” Chekov sighed hugging you. “Be good okay?” You nodded headed towards the turbo lift.  

“So, has he always been this smart”

“Pavel? Yeah, he graduated a year ahead of me. Next thing I knew I was in college and he was in Starfleet, going to space. He was always looking to the stars. I was always looking to the earth.”

“So, I wanted to ask earlier, why don’t you, uh,” Kirk stumbled over his words. “Why don’t you have the accent?”

You shrugged, “don’t really know. Accents and humans are weird like that. Everyone is different, but I’m glad his accent is still so strong. It’s comforting all the way out here. Knowing him he probably kept it out of spite.”

“Yeah, away from friends, family, boyfriends,” you laughed as Kirk eyed you carefully gauging your reaction. Trying to find out if he had a snowball’s chance in hell with you.

“Family and friends sure. Boyfriends? No. I didn’t have anyone special.” Kirk nodded as he listened to you. “How about you Captain?”

“Me? Oh, no. “ Jim was fighting hard to keep the conversation going. “I know you are here for geology, but like what are you here to do specifically?”

“I’m an expert in minerals and crystalline structures. By extension dilithium, and it’s extraction. I also took the time to learn about the minerals that are good for us. So we can extract some and hopefully integrate them into replicators to keep our officers happy and healthy.” He smiled down at you, his blue eyes crinkling. The doors swished open and he gestured for you to exist first. You walked out and Kirk followed arms clasped behind his back. 

"It's been awhile since I've been back in the labs on earth, but I promise we have state of the art facilities for you," he swore, hands clasped behind his back.

"Excuse me for this, sir, but when did you ever spend time in the labs back home," you laughed as his face turned red. 

"You got me," Kirk started laughing and his eyes danced, and you could feel yourself, despite your best efforts, falling for this overly charming man. "And here we are at the science lab wing," he lifted his hands to gesture to the sign above you. Simple silver lettering that spelled 'Science.' "We are stopping at one of our ally planets next week, I need you to work with them and some of the crew in the physics and theoretical labs to figure out how to safely extract the dilithium without harming their planet. "

"No, problem," you chimed. "I've been studying the structure of the planet. I have some ideas." You smiled as he lead you into the labs and showed you to your desk. 

"I'm glad to hear, I knew taking on another Chekov was smart." You nodded as you watched the Captain falter. "You start tomorrow, Alpha shift."

"Thank you, sir," you smiled at him, and there you two were again. Just staring at each other, getting lost in each other eyes. He placed a hand on the desk leaning in closer to you and you were suddenly aware of your proximity. Just then, just as it was getting good, the head geologist walked up and Jim sprung back trying to maintain a professional front. 

"Captain Kirk is this my new specialist," he had a kind round face as he came to you. "I'm Lieutenant Lucas. I'll be your superior down here."

You beamed and took his hand, "Y/N Chekov. It's a pleasure, I've read some of your journals."

"Oh, pleasant and has good taste. I'm excited about our next assignment, I'll give you tonight to get settled, then I'll give you a grand tour tomorrow." He gave your hand a final squeeze before heading off into the labs. 

"I should go see the CMO, I still need to get my intake exam. Will you show me, Captain?"

"How about dinner first? Bones is probably on his break right now," he spoke beginning to walk out of the labs.  

"Bones," you asked completely lost, Jim looked back at you and realized you didn't know.

"Oh, Doctor McCoy, the chief medical officer. I call him Bones, been doing it since probably week one of our friendship. Come on, dinner." You laughed at his easy-going temperament. It was so much different then the tough, I-laugh-at-the-face-of-death Kirk you were so used to reading about. 

"You know I already promised a certain brother of mine that I join him for dinner." Jim deflated, he was sure he had you in the palm of his hand. He rubbed his thighs forgetting that his uniform pants didn't have pockets. "But," you started and he looked up at you, hope to enter the etches of his face. "You can join us. If you'd like." His face faltered, but Jim wanted more time with you. Alone.

"Or," He started, getting a sly, charming grin. Your heart started beating hard, and unknown to you so was his. He strode toward you, being within kissing distance, for almost the third time that day.

"Or," you parroted back at him, craning your neck to look up at him.

"Or, you have dinner with Chekov tonight, and tomorrow," Jim trailed, finger brushing against your arm. "I show you what dinner is like in the Captain's private dining room." You froze, Pav was right, he had been eye-banging with you all day. He was interested. 

"I really like you, y/n. A lot, if you don't want this, tell me. I'll back off."

"I want this. I'd love to have dinner with you, tomorrow night, sir."

"James," he corrected. "Or Jim, or really whatever you want to call me." You laughed, and he grinned and placed a gentle kiss on your cheek.

"James it is," you let the name roll off your tongue. He winked at you and started to head out the door.

"See you tomorrow, I'll pick you up around 1700 hours." He saluted as he existed. You laughed, then realized what had happened. You had just scored a dinner with Captain James Tiberius Kirk. Pavel was going to kill you.

Tag: @outside-the-government @feelmyroarrrr @answer-the-sirens @imaginenterprise

[brittanyzaita-blog]

Week 12: Taylor’s Biocentrism & Warren’s Ecofeminism

Step 1: Taylor’s Biocentrism

Worldview: 1) The “biocentric view of nature” from evolutionary biology and ecology. 2) Humans are only one evolutionary member of Earth’s community of life. This is illustrated in a short film called The Evolution of Life on Earth in 24 hours, where the evolution of plant life and animals from mere microorganisms takes up the majority of the 24 hours, and the creation of homo sapiens as a species takes place in the last few seconds of the film. 3) All members of Earth’s community of life are interdependent and interrelational. Taylor’s view is supported by the ecological idea of communities or populations living under one ecosystem. In nature we depend on other species, and we are related to other species by a common ancestor. 4) Each member is unique, occupying its ecological “niche,” pursuing its own unique end, and engaging in symbiosis with nature while achieving this end, which shapes perspective. Taylor explains that while we are interdependent, our independent goals in a larger community are still retained. However, our independent goals are shaped by our interaction with our communities, and therefore individuals in a species can retain different perspectives on their surroundings. 5) The anthropocentric view of humans as morally superior has no scientific backing, and derives from species narcissism, or the belief that one species has a greater claim to its teleological end. Taylor’s final point is important, it brings up the central point of evolution, that other species existed way before human beings, and that these species do not need human life and will persist life on Earth even when humans are long gone.

Principles: A community of life which shares respect for all life from humans to microorganisms through virtue.

Sub-principles: 1) Every living thing has a teleological (end) goal, which consists in realizing the form of its species, maturation, and reproduction. 2) The end goal or “principle good” has inherent worth and should be respected by all species as an end in itself. 3) We must respect the inherent worth of a being, and sacrifice this respect only to a stronger duty to another organism.

Relevant Criterion of Moral Standing: Being alive

Egalitarian Moral Community: All living things, Moral Agents: Humans, Moral Patients: Humans, Non-Humans

Rules: To both understand and respect the teleological, genetic, and evolutionary perspectives of other living things.

Strong Reformist Policies: Policies that reflect the above principles in infrastructure and development, such as urban planning which incorporates nature. Taylor would say that building a library is a serious need for human beings because it facilitates learning

Stakeholder: Paul Taylor is an American philosopher who used widely accepted principles in human ethics to build a foundation for environmental ethics.

Context & Problems: Taylor’s priority principles for interspecific conflicts between humans and nonhuman animals. In these principles, Taylor takes an approach similar to VanDeVeer where he grants priority based on need. 1) Principle of Self Defense: It is ethically permissible for a moral agent to defend themselves against a dangerous organism that threatens their basic interest (life, health, food). For example, if a child gets an ear infection, it would be permissible to use antibiotics to treat that ear infection. However, a person should not just take antibiotics as a precaution for obtaining an illness, because the antibiotics would kill good bacteria that live within the gut and aide in digestion. 2) Principle of Proportionality: It is not permissible for a peripheral human interest to override the basic interest of another species. This is because the peripheral human interest often uses the species as a means to an end in the process. For example, we should not use elephants for our entertainment in circuses, because this strips the elephants of their basic right to natural life. 3) Principle of Minimum Wrong: It is ethically permissible for a nonbasic but serious human interest to override a basic nonhuman interest. However, the ethical wrong done to the nonhuman must be minimized. For example, humans could clear land for agricultural purposes, but then could let the land rest for a year. This would help to minimize the impact of damage and would probably cultivate better soil for the next agricultural yield. 4) Principle of Distributive Justice: There must be a fair distribution of environmental resources and goods. This brings in Taylor’s notion of sharing within communities. A good example of this is conservation, which seeks to preserve land from the use of humans, and therefore this land may enjoy its resources undisturbed by human interference. 5) Principle of Restitutive Justice: This is the idea that we should right our wrongs. An example of this is ecological restoration of degraded ecosystems. This principle is important because it protects the fate of the lives of many species.  

Part 2: Applying the Principles as a “Weighing Mechanism” to Ethical Conflicts in Case Studies

The effect of synthetic chemicals called neonicotinoids has been labelled in the media as one of the possible causes of widespread colony collapse disorder in bees. This is because the neonicotinoids interact with other pesticides and herbicides to create lethal chemicals which degrade the bees’ immune systems. Taylor would argue that while we are attempting to defend our food which is a basic need from pests and harmful weeds, we are doing so ineffectively as another insect population that is not a threat is being directly harmed. The loss of bees would be a devastating loss for agriculture, as bees naturally pollinate all of our major crops and plant life. A world without bees would result in a loss of about 2/3 of the products in your local grocery store. An example of a devastating loss of bees occurred in Japan where people were self-pollinating cherry blossom trees, and the self-pollinated trees gave a minimum yield of flowers, compared to the once dense and lush trees that existed. Taylor would argue that humans would have to do whatever is possible to protect the lives of these bees, including investigating the problem of colony collapse disorder, and redesigning chemicals to be safe for bees. Taylor would say that humans must accept the blame and take action restore the bees’ rights.

Part 3: Evaluation

Taylor’s biocentric ethics uses scientific biological and evolutionary evidence to support the idea that humans are one of many species who belong to the community of life on Earth. The biocentric ethics extend intrinsic moral value to all species; including nonhuman animals, plants, and microorganisms. Taylor’s ethics recognizes anthropocentrism as species narcissism, and works to overcome human biases to cultivate a more inclusive “life community.” Taylor’s ethics provide an Earth Wisdom worldview that recognizes established moral hierarchies within the biotic community, and attempts to break down the species barriers to cultivate a more natural interdependence between species. Taylor uses human ethics to apply to the community of life on Earth, which makes his argument easy to understand. He convinces the human species to alter their perspective, as well as being respectful and mindful of the unique perspectives of other species.

Step 1: Warren’s Ecofeminism

Worldview: The fact of “difference” between men and women. The fact of “difference” between human beings and the rest of nature.

Principles: Loving, caring, respect the differences among humans and between humans and nonhumans. To welcome and accept the other. This as opposed to the patriarchal “hierarchical logic of domination.”

Values: Tolerance of difference, sharing, nurturing, community.

Rules: Respect differences between human beings and between humans and nonhumans.

Strong Reformist Policies: Policies that reflect the above principles that work against “isms,” for example social justice efforts, efforts on behalf of socioeconomic equality (gender-pay gap).

Stakeholder: Karen Warren is an academic philosopher and a feminist. Warren believes that environmental policy and ethics has long been a field dominated by men, and that the voices of women should be heard in this particular field.

Problems: Any human activities that involve the “domination” and “exploitation” of the nonhuman.

Step 2: Applying the Principles as a “Weighing Mechanism” to Ethical Conflicts in Case Studies

A recent issue at the forefront of much debate is the United States’ policy on paid maternal leave. In comparison to other countries, America offers minimal support for new mothers. In countries like Bulgaria, Hungary, Lithuania, and Japan, they offer a year’s worth of paid leave for new families. However, in America working parents are offered 12 weeks of paid leave, and this leave is not fully mandated therefore some new parents may receive 0 weeks of paid leave. Warren would argue that raising a child is an important duty of both a man and a woman, and that this duty should be valued as it is in other countries. Warren would say to offer 0 weeks of paid leave to new parents would be to exploit them, and to limit their capabilities in parenthood.

Step 3: Evaluation

Warren’s ecological feminism encompasses a lot of issues under one umbrella. Warren defines that ecofeminism is about acceptance of the other, and that it cultivates a sense of community and oneness. Warren’s ecofeminism is more egalitarian than Taylor’s biocentrism, however, I think that Taylor’s biocentrism is more of a practical way to get humans to start relating to “the other.” I think that Taylor’s biocentrism could be implemented in middle school biology classes where we teach students that we are all derived from a common ancestor and we evolved to our current differences. Warren’s ecofeminism is helpful, however, in cultivating a sense of community and oneness with the natural world.

Word Count: 1582

Does Taylor’s Biocentrism give the right balance of moral egalitarianism and moral hierarchy that is necessary in our evolving world?

[harrelltut]

☥ y’all… I BEE So GENETICALLY SUPERIOR OVER ALL artificially created mortals on earth… since Adolph Hitler Scientifically + Genetically FAILED… at Genetically Engineering [G.E.] A HIGHLY Sophisticated Astronomical Black Christ [ABC = OSIRIAN] Race [CIVILIZATION] like Me [ME = U.S. Michael Harrell = TUT = JAH] & My Universally Sovereign [U.S. = UNTOUCHABLE] Black GENIUS [GOD] Familia ABOVE Earth… MU:13 Illuminati ☥

[harrelltut]

☥ I BEE So HIGHLY Evolved like A NEW… GOLDEN [DIVINE] Black Christ [B.C.] Energy who BEE So GENETICALLY SUPERIOR like Underworld SATAN from Astronomical SATURN… now JAH Witness Me [ME = U.S. Michael Harrell = TUT = JAH] since I Already Electrophysiologically [Spiritually] Know So Much about Life After [L.A.] Death on Earth ‘cause of My HIGHLY INDESTRUCTIBLE [HI = HITTITE] GENETICS of Biblically Black [Ancient] Holy Spirit Sciences from Lost America [L.A. = NEW Atlantis] ☥

[harrelltut]

♀ I BEE So Mentally Healthy [MH = MAYAN] as I Mentally Articulate [MA] My MOST HIGH [MH = JAH] INDIAN THOUGHTS from My HIGHLY Complex Cosmic Algorithmic [CA] Computation [Compton] Mental Intel about Our HIGHLY Intricate Underworld Sentient Afterlife [U.S.A. = ATLANTEAN] Genetics of Astronomical [GA = ROMAN] Wonders ‘cause I got that Universally Sought After [U.S.A.] Astronomically Black Christ [ABC = OSIRIAN] MELanin that BEE So Genetically SUPERIOR ♀

[harrelltut]

♀ I Always Let My INNER Soul Musick Play as I Mentally Rap 2 My GOLDEN [DIVINE] 90’s Hip Hop Era [HE = JAH] Lyrics that Rhythmically Compliment My NEW… Interstellar Babylonian [I.B.] Beats ‘cause I got that Universally Sought After [U.S.A.] Astronomically Black Christ [ABC = OSIRIAN] MELanin that BEE So Genetically SUPERIOR accordin’ 2 Our GOLDEN [DIVINE] Black Christ [B.C.] Atlanteans from Mama’s Ancestral [MA] Afterlife Spirit Kingdoms of Afrikkan [KA = KONGO] American Indians ♀